sbrylski

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=c&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=500&type=8&season=2013&month=0&season1=2012&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0 That's catcher WAR ranking since the start of 2012. Lucroy is fourth, but a relatively distant fourth. Definitely leads the "tier of the very good."

http://forum.lambeauleap.net/index.php

According to this it says major league service time. It does not differentiate between THE major leagues or A major league. Seems to me the Japanese league is A major league and he had at least 6 years there. I realize that is semantics but when it come to legalese semantics count. Since "Major League" is capitalized, I would be shocked if that wasn't previously defined in the rules/language as referring specifically to MLB. MLB has no real jurisdiction over other pro leagues, and a player isn't a member of the MLBPA prior to playing in MLB -- meaning primarily that he's not represented by the MLBPA in collective bargaining negotiations that would determine, among other things, FA statuses/definitions. Exactly. Article XXI, Part A defines it as being on a club that is participating in an MLB season. http://bizofbaseball.com/docs/2012-16CBA.pdf

What are you talking about, I've posted three times in 2013! Haha.

Is that clause in his contract even enforceable? It seems weird to me that a team can waive their six-year rights to a player granted to them by the CBA. Why don't more players start demanding it then? Particularly high-demand foreign free agents like Chapman, but even guys who went though the draft could try to negotiate smaller guaranteed deals in exchange for hitting free agency earlier. EDIT: Yeah, I don't care what his contract says, the CBA states: Other teams shouldn't be allowed to sign him, because he's not a free agent as far as they are concerned. Look at this another way, for example, can a team sign a player for less than the minimum salary as specified in the CBA? No! ...regardless of whether the player wants to agree to it or not. Maybe the actual clause of Aoki's contract says something creative, but I'm skeptical that this report about him hitting free agency in 2015 is correct. EDIT 2: McCalvy's response...

I just finished yesterday as well. I agree that it took a little while for the show to pick up steam again, but they had to set up the new jokes before they could knock them down. I think Season 2 is still my favorite, but Season 4 doesn't stand out as worse than 1 or 3, just a little different. I enjoyed it.

So, did you end up with CS degree?? http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/26433574.jpg

If 7-9 turn out, then once Lucas dies, they should go back and remake 1-3 with a completely different storyline (I mean, with an actual and coherent storyline). I still pretend that those three pretty much never happened.

I like it. I think stylistically it meshes well with the Rangers logo, in time for their newly enhanced intra-Texas rivalry.

Dubstep is what it is... can be used as dance music, party music, pump-up music, drug music, whatever. And it's pretty good for that. Not for everyone, of course, but no genre is. Comparing it to Led Zeppelin and Queen is just silly, that would be like comparing Popcorn by Hot Butter to Vivaldi. (Well, maybe not that bad, but still.) And to categorically throw all new, popular music in the trash bin is just an ignorant/old man on a stoop thing to do. If you think it's all been reduced to house music, dubstep, and autotune, you're just not paying attention. Not that you have to, I'm a huge classic rock fan, but don't knock new stuff if you haven't given it a chance and looked around a little. I happen to think that after a considerable lull from the 90's to early-2000's, the music industry has returned pretty strong.

Can someone cite something so we all know for sure?

Why wouldn't the Mariners just buy the Bucks and move them?

Nick Burns, your company's computer guy!

Henderson has sure paid his dues. From his minor league stats, when he's got his command with him, he puts up decent numbers too. Happy for him.

I have no opinion on the linen suit, sorry. However, I just purchased a custom, made-from-scratch suit from the Silk Market in Beijing (I'm here for the next two months studying). Should be interesting to see how this works out, I pick it up Thursday. Dirt cheap for some pretty nice fabric.