RuledByNone

They were in contention last season until the final game despite having just as many obvious flaws as this team has, if not more. Nava/Gentry over Joyce. Nothing flashy but on base skills combined with defense and base running is a lot better than a one dimensional K machine who, if he's not hitting (and he didn't) is an absolute zero. Pennington over Featherbat. That dude can't hit at all. He hit .100 in spring and is back in the minors. Simmons over Aybar. Erick wasn't good last year. OPS+ of 81 with declining D. Those are all obvious upgrades. Escobar/Freese. I don't call that an upgrade until I see more of Escobar's D. It looks bad so far but will have to be very bad indeed to offset his much better OBP. Freese was not a good defensive player. Rotation and pen look similar to last season. Not very good. We didn't get much from Weav/Wilson/Shoe last year either though I guess it's possible they could be worse. So, a contender with obvious flaws made possible only because of multiple wild-cards. If they had higher goals then the pen, at the least, should have been improved.

He finally pitched well his final 16 starts last season (~3.5 ERA) but can a team that means to contend wait long for him to get it together? Shorter leash this year Shoe. Figure it out.

Sucks but I'm sure they're still favorites. A new surgery for ACL repair that doesn't require tendon graft: https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2016/03/23/new-surgery-could-revolutionize-knee-repairs/BJISuh60AYKYTKWPwaYFWP/story.html

Rip Nick. I was never much of a drinker but haven't had so much as a sip since this happened. No stomach for it. Three lives stolen so some dumb animal can escape his pathetic life for a few hours. Enjoy your time asshole.

"build me up, buttercup, just to let me down"

Joey Votto has 15 infield popups in a career of almost 1300 games. Choi has 3 tonight. Not a great start, kid.

YES!!! Angels are now ahead of Tex.

LMAO! swinging bunt

That was awesome.

No way. He's not getting hit hard at all.

A lead! Gentry making his old team pay.

I wouldn't have guessed Escobar.

There's the "wasting mike trout" comment.

This team has a turd crosswise.

Rasmus, another GD arsonist.

69 pitches thru 6. Not even making him work.

Salas is a homerun pitcher.

The latest Mota-ism: "The one name that he brought up was Pedro Martinez and Jered Weaver"

Insane is right. When it was just 3 or 4 markets with the billion dollar tv deals there was more modest salary growth. Now even the midmarkets are getting them. If there wasn't reason enough before to invest in academies, scouting and player development then there sure is now.

That's true. US has a murder rate of 3.8 per 100,000. That's on par with or higher than almost all countries in Europe or Asia. Here's the list: (sort by rate) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate The list is dominated by south/central america and africa but some of those nice vacation spots are high on the list too. I scuba'd in Belize back in the 90's and it was incredibly nice. I wonder if the place went downhill or I just didn't notice at the time. Oh, and welcome to ignore CF8. You bring an odd combination of arrogant belligerence and stupidity to the board. I understand a little better now the interactions you've had with MP and Insidepitch and many others. I don't even have time to read all the quality posts from people who know how to act like adults on this site so I sure don't have time for your trash.

Switzerland was used to refute the often implied correlation of higher gun ownership automatically leading to high homicide rate. Why would the affluence of the country or the manner the weapons were acquired disqualify it from disproving a correlation? Of course there are more relevant factors specific to each country that deserve consideration before the obviously flawed high gun ownership/ high homicide rate correlation. That was the point. Low gun ownership- low homicide rate (eg. Japan) Low gun ownership- high homicide rate (eg. Mexico) High gun ownership- low homicide rate ( eg. Switzerland) High gun ownership- high homicide rate (eg. USA*) Not a reliable correlation. Just because I mentioned prohibition of drugs and the high crime rate that goes with it does not imply that it is the only or even most important factor leading to homicide rate. Countries like Japan and South Korea (often labelled "shame societies" by cultural anthropologists) are very different culturally than most other places in the world. Crime that is much more tolerated elsewhere is shunned in those countries and the perpetrator is made to feel shame and dishonor. On the downside, they also have a much higher suicide rate. I mentioned the repeal of drug prohibition because it would be a lot easier to implement than trying to change the culture among the most violent offenders. The "war on drugs" didn't work (or perhaps worked exactly as intended).

Better to use real stats (fbi etc). "Mass Shooting Tracker included in its list of 2013 mass shootings a relatively harmless incident involving no serious injuries in which two boys aged 11 and 12 allegedly shot four people with BB guns." http://truthinmedia.com/fact-check-355-mass-shootings-far-2015/ Washington Post and the other MSM that used that stat whiffed pretty badly.

The myth outpaces reality with regards to the AK. General issue weapons from a bunch of countries are far more powerful. HK G3 and FN FAL. WW2 issue M1 Garand was also. The only thing special about the AK was reliability.

Consumption had been falling for years before prohibition. It initially fell with 18a then went right back up. I remember my grandfather saying that you could buy it by the pail. It was available to anyone that wanted it.

Internet firearm purchases require that the firearm be shipped to a FFL (Federal Firearms License) holder who can process the background check. You fill out an ATF form and the NICS background check goes to the FBI. You also have to pass a Firearms Safety Certificate test and sign an affidavit stating that you own a gun safe and provide make/model. FFLs charge a significant fee and are required to collect local state tax so it usually wouldn't make sense to buy on the internet. There is a 10 day waiting period on all firearms and handgun sales require you to be 21 and show ID in addition to proof of residency (utility bill etc). Person to person transactions require an FFL and background check. Gun show transactions require an FFL and background check. Weapons must be added to the roster by Ca DOJ or they can't be purchased at all. You can't purchase any glock gen 4 in Ca for example. Newer models from many manufacturers are not on roster. From the latest CDC numbers: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf Accidental deaths from firearms: 505 Accidental deaths from falls: 30,208 Accidental deaths from poisoning: 38,851 310 million guns (2009 estimate) and 100 million gun owners and just 505 accidental deaths. Which of these types of deaths make headlines? It's easier to demonize guns than trees, cliffs and rooftops. Also from the CDC docs: Suicide accounts for 65.4% of gun violence deaths. Among white males suicide is 89.1% of gun violence deaths. Of the remaining deaths (actual homicides), what percentage of them were gang/drug or organized crime related? CDC doesn't keep that data point but locally LAPD classified 55% of homicides as gang related (2014) and the Sheriff Dept. as 60%. In Chicago that number is 80% (2012 estimate). Among the actual homicides, including gang/drug related homicides, what percentage used rifles? About 2.3% From fbi.gov data, that number was just 285 (2013 stats). Of that 285 rifles used in homicides, how many were of the "assault weapon" variety and how many had extended magazines? Why is it that the countries that have the highest homicide rate often have among the lowest gun ownership percentage? Mexico, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia all have gun ownership levels below 10% but have terrible gun homicide statistics. Switzerland has gun ownership rates of about 50% but has very low gun crime. Could there instead be a correlation between homicide rate and a government created black market with extremely high profit motive (prohibition)? Prohibition of alcohol resulted in a huge expansion of organized crime throughout the country with a very small (few percent) reduction in alcohol consumption. Removing the prohibition also removed the profit motive and the accompanying crime. Prohibition doesn't work. If you are truly honest about reducing crime then removing a prohibition (drugs) would be more effective than increasing another.