danzig6767

He pitched well in the AL East for a couple of years now, so i doubt that we got him for 2-3 fringe prospects. My guess is when the names come out, more people will be unhappy than relieved.

Thanks for the info, didn't know that was the case

Yea, i prefer plasma's over LCD's picture wise, but before anyone buys a plasma, they should check first how much glare/sunlight will come in the area where the TV is placed. I have a 50's plasma and the picture is absolutely fabulous, but where i have it placed, glare is pretty much no issue. My cousin though also has a 50' plasma, but he has a large window in the front room which causes quite a bit of glare during the day unless he shuts the blinds. Panasonic does make a few plasma's with anti-glare and i used to have one, it works well, but it is an added cost to a standard plasma. If glare won't be an issue, i'd get a Panasonic plasma because most people i know have an LCD and IMO, my plasma has a better picture than all of them.

Not when you're the Yankees or Red Sox, they can easily afford to have a lights out closer. Both teams are in business to win titles, not just hope to contend for a playoff berth and a great closer can be very important in that goal. As for his age, did you see his numbers last year? 1.80 ERA .83 WHIP .183 BAA The guy is amazing. He's 40 and pitching as well as he ever has. You are right. Closers are very, very important. That's why the Twins fell completely apart when Joe Nathan got hurt last year. They had no chance to make the playoffs let alone win their division. How many times will a team have to take a good reliever and make him into a serviceable closer before people stop overvaluing the position?I agree with you in a general sense for a sizable percentage of teams out there who often have tight budgets and thus an expensive closer isn't worth the amount of the budget that they eat up. Teams like the Yankees and Red Sox though are different animals from say the Brewers or Indians. The Yankees have such vast revenues that they have no reason to take chances on hoping that a cheap reliever ends up being able to be a reliable closer. If the Yanks went that route and it backfired, thus losing a few extra regular season games via more blown saves that cost them a playoff berth by a game or two or that reliever blew some saves in the playoffs/World Series, they'll look and feel stupid given their insane revenues easily allows for the luxury of a proven reliable closer. Rivera has been a highly paid closer for awhile now and certainly has earned his money for the franchise regardless if closers as a whole are overpaid. Now if the Pirates, Brewers, Indians, Rockies, Rays, or a number of other much smaller revenue teams tie up a significant chunk of their budget on a closer, that i'd agree will often end up being a poor use of funds.

Teams have wealthy owners who want to win now and thus they'll sell out the future for potential immediate results

I'd strongly consider trading Braun for Greinke if he'd sign a reasonable extension

Not when you're the Yankees or Red Sox, they can easily afford to have a lights out closer. Both teams are in business to win titles, not just hope to contend for a playoff berth and a great closer can be very important in that goal. As for his age, did you see his numbers last year? 1.80 ERA .83 WHIP .183 BAA The guy is amazing. He's 40 and pitching as well as he ever has.

Maybe the agent was was flat out lying, but in the article it said "But within hours, a deal came together, perhaps expedited because Rivera had recently received a three-year deal and more money (believed to be in the neighborhood of $17 million per year) from another team, according to the source. The source added that Rivera wanted to maintain his ties to the only team he has ever played for, and went with less money and fewer years to continue wearing pinstripes. "

I agree on all three points. The Rockies IMO are taking on way to much long term risk in comparison to any potential savings that they'd gain if Tulo continued to stay both healthy and very productive. If say Tulo only had a year or two left on his current contract, i could see the reason to be proactive and sign him long term, but that isn't the case. Colorado likely could have waited another year or two before offering a huge extension like this and odds are he'd have still taken the extension.

Yea, there is a slight risk that Dunn will regress a little to quite a bit by year three or four of that contract, but if i was an AL team that needed a big lefty power power to play 1st/DH, i'd much rather do this deal with Dunn than trade some good young arms for Fielder and then either see him leave after the one season or to resign Prince to some huge money 6-7 year contract.

I've thought the same thing for awhile now, Jeter will end up getting something like a 4yr/60-65 million dollar deal. Maybe like you said the 4th year will have a some strings attached to performance.

Plus, for a number 4/5 type of starter on a pretty good team, Garland has a good history health wise, he eats up 200 innings a year, and is fairly consistent with his average production. A lot of people seem to hate Garland, but so long as he's not given bad long term contract or expected to be a frontline starter, he's a worthwhile asset to have as a back of the rotation starter.

My biggest issue with people on Craiglist is as much the buyers as the sellers, they often want to get stuff for a ridiculous bargain. I had intended to sell my 42' plasma a few months earlier and put an add on Craigslist for 300 i believe, but my dog broke his leg a few days later. People though were still responding to the add and offering crap like 150 dollars, it was ridiculous. So when i tried selling it again after i paid for my dog's surgery, i put specifically in the add that the plasma was for sale for 300 dollars and i wouldn't negotiate. That if they thought the price was to high, then tough [expletive deleted], find a TV elsewhere. This lessened the number of replies from the first add, only a few asked if i'd take less and i deleted those replies instantly. I was kinda in a hurry though before the 650 dollar sale on the 50' plasma ended and when a guy came to buy my TV for 300 and he had a van to fit a big TV in, i said take me to pick up my 50' and i'll knock off 25 bucks. So in the future if i ever sell anything again on Craigslist, i'll do the same thing. State right in the add, don't waste your time trying to get the item for much less because it ain't happening. (edit: language... please see language etiquette --1992)

No kidding Man do i despise winter and today was the start of months of freezing hell. My stepsister called from Florida and said she was sitting outside in some shorts, i was so envious.

I had a 42' Panasonic plasma for about two year before selling it in July on Craigslist so i could upgrade to a 50' Panasonic plasma now that prices are so cheap. I got it for only 650 dollars. The picture on both was/is fabulous, especially my new 50' Panasonic. I know multiple people who instead have an LCD and in many cases, a more expensive TV than mine, but none of them has a better picture IMO and mine is only a 720p. If anyone does get a Panasonic plasma though or even an LCD, make sure you take the time to adjust the picture settings as to how exactly you want them. I must have spent at least an hour on both plasmas even though the picture was pretty good right out of the box. After adjusting the settings, the picture went from good to stunningly crisp. My mom has an LCD that my step-dad bought for her. It bugged me when visiting many times how her picture looked, so one day i played with the settings and there was a big improvement. BTW, anyone low on cash that needs a TV, check out Craigslist. I sold my 42' which was only two years old and with a fantastic picture for only 275 dollars on Craigslist and my buddy got a great deal on a one year old LCD on Craigslist.

No question. Jeter isn't even worth that 3yr/45 million dollar offer, i doubt that he could get more than a 3yr/30 million dollar deal on the free market. That said, i can understand why the Yankees still are offering a 3yr/45 million contract as a special case thank you for a Yankees legend. They have the financial resources to do something like that. Jeter though acting offended to a generous offer even after collecting 190 million over the previous 10 years has been a big PR mistake. Most baseball fans, including Yankee fans are put off by Jeter sticking his nose up to that contract offer given his age and previous contract. A few years ago I thought Hardy would be a FA and the SS of the future for the Yankees. I gotta admit, i was very wrong about Hardy. I thought that he'd be a top 10 SS in all of baseball right now, instead he's facing being non-tendered and thus may have to fight for an everyday SS job in a spring training next year.

Epstein isn't the only GM who understands that players generally decline with age once they cross a certain point, but if he was running the Yankees or any other GM was, they wouldn't treat Jeter like he was just any random aging player up for a new contract, especially with the way NY prints money. In select cases with HOF caliber players who have been with a franchise for a long time, teams almost always will include past performance into contract negotiations. There reaches a point though where demands not only become excessive, they become grossly excessive and a team has to draw a line in the sand.

I see this ending up something in the 4yr/65 million range, way more than Jeter is worth as a player, but the Yankees can afford to waste cash like no other franchise and still win. By the 3rd/4th year of that deal, Jeter playing SS will have the range Casey McGehee

The MDU goal in OT was ridiculous. There was a blatant blatant tripping by a Duluth player right in front of a ref who was staring directly at this trip and he just swallowed his whistle. The puck then goes right to a Duluth player who then passes to a teammate standing in front of Bennett for a game winning goal with about 10 seconds left in OT. Then ref then goes and spends a few minutes reviewing the goal which had no reason to be reviewed, i think the guy was just looking for any possible reason to wave off the goal because he clearly knew that his not calling the blatant tripping penalty was the sole reason the Badgers were going to lose the game. Unbelievably terrible job by the ref. In general, i avoid blaming refs in any sports for a loss compared to many other sports fans, but in that situation, the ref tonight was completely responsible for the Badgers loss. I understand that hockey refs try to avoid calling more ticky tack type of penalties in OT, but a ref still has to do his job or players will have no fear of getting called. For that ref to swallow his whistle as a Duluth player blatantly trips a Badger who has the puck in our zone which lead to a turnover and easy game winning goal was ridiculous and he should be suspended for a few games.

That sounds about right to me also if the team plays well

Are you being sarcastic there Al? Milwaukee certainly has a stronger base of basketball fans than some other NBA franchises, but the Bucks wouldn't average 18K even if they won 55-60 games this year. There is just to much overall apathy towards the NBA among casual sports fans in Milwaukee for the Bucks to draw nearly a full house on a nightly basis, regardless of nice ticket deals and a much improved team compared to the last 8-10 years. The Brewers were able to draw big attendance numbers once the team improved and because of Miller Park, but they have two huge X factors among casual sports fans in Milwaukee that the Bucks can't draw from and those are summer and tailgaiting. I know quite a few people that are casual sports fans to even non-sports fans that go to 1-5 Brewers games a year mainly to enjoy a nice summer day/evening and often to also spend time with a group of friends/family tailgaiting. That interaction with friends/family on a nice summer day or evening being as big a part of going as seeing the game itself. Hell, i'm a big Brewers fan and even for me, i usually enjoy tailgaiting with friends as much as the game itself and thus that factor draws me to going more often on nice weather days/evenings. The Bucks though play downtown which some scared white folks from the suburbs prefer avoiding and they often enough play home games on nights where the weather flat out sucks ranging from bitter cold to lots of snow, that can keep people from attending. For myself, i'm a big Bucks fan also, but i'm not heading out in crappy weather to the BC, i'll instead sit in front of my 50' plasma and stay warm while watching the game for free.

I generally believe that the importance of managers in baseball is quite overrated given the largely one on one nature of the game so i don't pay much attention to managers throughout MLB, but i am a big fan of Joe Maddon from what i've seen of him. He strikes me as a manager that i'd love to play for if i was in baseball, but yet has the respect of his players and he is bright in regards to the game.

Plus, if Sveum had turned down the hitting coach job, there is no guarantee at all that a different new manager would have hired Dale on to his staff. Sveum easily could have ended up out of work this year if he had turned down the hitting coach offer here in Milwaukee. I don't know what the Brewers are paying Dale as the hitting coach, but it's gotta be better than making nothing if he had said no and nobody else offered him a job on their staff. Besides all of that, Sveum doesn't have to move himself and his family to a new city for any other potential job that wouldn't have been an upgrade professionally and pay scale like being a manager brings.

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Pittsburgh Toronto Baltimore Kansas City Cubs I've always been very competitive and the first four teams seem like hopeless causes to be in the playoffs anytime soon. Cubs are the only baseball team i hate and don't want to ever see them win it all, just like the Vikings in football.