HaloFan85

How about Trout hitting behind Pujols?

Giavotella

Calhoun

Pujols

Trout

Navarro

Freese

Kubitza

Perez

Aybar

that sort of assumes that anybody gives a shit about the all-star game in the first place.

As long as home field advantage continues to go to the winner, players and many fans will continue to care, so they're going to have to do something to get the best players on the field for this lame ass game.

I mentioned making the ballot the top 10 WAR totals at each position, but that would still be about 14-15 players for each position on the ballot.  It'd probably have to be somewhere between the top 6-8 WAR totals to not overcrowd the ballot, and possibly include some minimum requirements for number of plate appearances and/or games started.

I really do wish they'd get rid of the HFA rule so people could just go back to not caring.

It sounds like several people, including players and executives, are already trying to come up with ideas for a tweaked or completely overhauled system that still uses fan voting.  The most realistic was for the coaching staff of the game to pick a 'pool' of deserving players and then letting the fans pick the starters from that pool only, including the starting pitcher and possibly even the closer.

However, instead of the coaches picking a 'pool' of players, what about making the ballot only consist of players with the top 10 WAR at each position, including DH, and just let the coaches continue to choose all the pitchers and reserves?  That would ensure that the most productive players are voted on by the fans, including some of those average hitters that have a ridiculous dWAR getting a shot.

http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/13131162/how-fix-major-league-baseball-all-star-game-vote

I stumbled onto these guys just recently but they've apparently been around for about 10 years or so.

Thee Oh Sees

NSFW with an unexpected ending.  lol

Damaged Bug which is a side project of the lead singer from Thee Oh Sees and is supposed to be more 'synth' than his main band.

Real color preview of Pluto and orbital moon.  This time next month should be crystal clear

This is just f**king nuts!  Seemed like an all around good guy who wouldn't have an enemy in the world.  Dumb ass crazy broad to do something like this.

I haven't seen the replays but when I was watching it live it looked like he leaned down by at least a foot.

It looked to me more like he 'dropped' his elbow rather than leaning into it.  Regardless, that was the second time Scherzer pitched him inside in that AB, so I really have no problem with what Tabata did there.

Dont tell that to the posters in this thread.  Apparently when a guy has a perfect game going and he decides to throw the ball inside, you have to get out of the way otherwise its bush league.  

Scherzer had already almost hit him during a previous pitch and then decides to go inside again.  Tabata was probably like "f**k that shit!" and decided to take one on the elbow.

Tabata never had to lean 'into' the pitch with the pitch already being inside by like 8-10 inches.  All he did is lean his elbow downward, and not by much.

I think that was the second pitch he threw inside to Tabata.  I doubt he liked being thrown to inside like that being down to his last strike and down by 6 runs.

Scherzer can only blame himself.

I don't think Tabata leaned into it as much as he just didn't get out of the way.  Here's an idea, how about not throwing 6-8 inches inside on a hitter with one strike to go for a perfect game?

Kole overreacted for sure, but this is just another example of Giavotella being clueless.  

 

Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad baseball player, but now I can see why he got limited opportunity with KC.  

 

Anyone ever been hit on the head while wearing a helmet?  

 

Getting your bell rung 10 seconds before you are to bat with the bases loaded isn't something I'd like to have happen.  

 

I think his new nickname gets to be Johnny Jagaloon.  

I doubt anyone is blaming him for being upset if that's what it was all about, but keep it in the locker room, Kole.  Don't make a scene for the whole world to see.

It's almost like Kole was trying to make the highlight reel for an 'that was awkward' moment on MLB Network's Intentional Talk.

I think this happens next month.

We're finally going to get to see more than just a fuzzy dot..  This will be very exciting.

Never knew a professional gaming league existed. Huh.

http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/

With today's abilities to monitor everyone on the internet, why not just make it 10 votes per ip adress?  It gives you and anyone in your household plenty of votes to cast, and makes it difficult for someone to create a 100 different email addresses to stuff the eballot box.

When ever my German father said the name, it sounded more like poor-shé instead of a poor-sha.

You act as if the U.S. is the only amoral country around. 

 

I'm not going to ascribe any goodness or innocence to countries with the history of Russia or China.

And you act as if the US deserves no scrutiny, even though we (Obama) has proclaimed the US to be the sole exceptional and indispensable nation in the world, not to mention we take it upon ourselves to act as moral authority of the world even though we show blatant disregard for international laws and basic human rights.

You may also ask why would the US care about the renminbi or yuan as a world reserve currency.

This might help you realize why the US is calling for the IMF to punish China in this way.

The headline pretty much says it all.

"The PetroYuan is born: Gazprom now settling all crude sales to China in Renminbi"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-09/petroyuan-born-gazprom-now-settling-all-crude-sales-china-renminbi

The problem with your conspiracy theory is that if the government really did believe China did the hacking then sanctions would be inevitable. If China did the hacking then sanctions don't prove some ulterior motive of our government. It would be an appropriate and measured response.

Of course sanctions would be inevitable.  That's the point of the hack.  I thought people would get I was impying a false flag here.

Anyway, now we may know the reason for a possible false flag against China.

"Until China curtails their hacking operations, the IMF shouldn’t designate the [renminbi] as a reserve currency. We need to punish China’s bad behaviour, not reward it.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6fecb9d8-0ebc-11e5-848e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3cbAx1Byw

Edit: I'm only posting the full article because it doesn't require a subscription if you click on a direct link in a Google search.  For whatever reason, the above link is not working right.  The article is free to read if googled, so I figure no harm no foul in cut & pasting.

In a letter on Tuesday to Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham said an attack on the records of 4m US government employees that had been blamed on China deserved to be punished.

“This recent cyber attack is one of China’s most brazen yet,” Mr Schumer said. “It is long past time for the international community to rally together and make crystal clear to the Chinese government that if they want to be treated as a leading nation on the global stage, then they need to start acting like it.

“Until China curtails their hacking operations, the IMF shouldn’t designate the [renminbi] as a reserve currency. We need to punish China’s bad behaviour, not reward it.”

The IMF is due to decide this year whether to include China’s currency in the basket used to determine its own quasi-currency, Special Drawing Rights.

Beijing has been pushing for the renminbi to be included as part of long-term efforts to spread its use and have the renminbi challenge the dollar as a global reserve currency.

The IMF’s board is set to meet next month to review the technical case for including the currency, and again this year to make a formal decision on inclusion.

Last month, in a move that many observers interpreted as a sign of the IMF’s desire to accommodate China’s wishes, the fund went against the US and declared for the first time in almost two decades that it believed the renminbi was “no longer undervalued”.

The US Treasury continues to insist that the renminbi is significantly undervalued and that Chinese exporters have a big competitive advantage as a result.

Tuesday’s letter highlights the volatile politics in Washington with regards to China’s currency.

Mr Schumer has been one of the leading advocates of tougher provisions that would allow the US to use punitive duties and other trade sanctions to retaliate against countries found guilty of manipulating their currencies.

But the move to link currency politics and the IMF’s deliberations with recent cyber attacks marks a fresh approach for congressional critics of China.

In their letter the senators cited a recent hacking attack as an example of “China’s rapacious actions that are aimed at disrupting the global economy and undermining the stability of international market participants”.

The two senators said they believed that the renminbi remained significantly undervalued and that China’s economic reforms and efforts to liberalise currency and capital flows had yet to go far enough for it to be eligible to be included in the IMF basket.

“The IMF has a responsibility to only assign currencies to its SDR basket if the currency is deemed to be ‘freely usable’ in international markets,” the senators wrote. “This requires that the currency is convertible, and it is clear that the [renminbi] is not.”

You start trading for prospects and that means your in rebuild mode.  That's just not going to happen for 'at least' another 2-3 years.  This team, especially the offense, just has to play better.

Let's see, after they accused NK of hacking Sony, they imposed sanctions on them, even though many international cyber experts, including some in this very country, said all evidence pointed to an 'inside' job.  Now they accuse China of a major hack on 4 million federal employees even though this information wouldn't benefit China in any way, shape, or form.  I guess we'll know more if we impose sanctions on China, or try to push for more control/regulation of the internet.  If I'm right, it'll one or the other, if not both.

The one thing I noticed about Trout this season, and as far back as probably two seasons ago, is that he's been swinging for the fences every AB.  I mean I could be wrong, but didn't he say during his first full season in 2012 that he never went to the plate looking to hit a home run and that he only looked to drive the ball?  Now it seems that all he's looking for is to hit a HR.

On a side note, so far this season on the renewed Trout/Harper comparisons, Harper only has 3 more runs scored and two more base hits than Trout in spite of hitting 50 points higher and having an OBP 100 points higher.

Anderson Cooper made the organizer of look like a fool on live television during an interview.

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/05/biker-organizing-todays-anti-islam-protest

I'm not trying to tell anyone what to value. Just pointing out that there must be something more to our current foreign policy than coming to the aid of innocents in peril.

It's called preservation of the petrodollar as the global currency for all oil trade.

Saddam starting trading oil in Euros in 2001.  We invaded in 2003

Gaddafi announced he was going to trade oil in the gold dinar and was about to convince all African nations to do the same.  He was killed despite Libya having the highest standard of living among all African nations.  They had free healthcare, free education, free electricty, and even interest-free lolans.

What other countries wish to move away from the petrodollar?  Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and now Russia.  What's their crime?  That they refuse to 'privatize' their oil and gas industries.  Privatizing your resources is basically giving up your soverignty as a nation.  Why does the US want to privatize everyone's oil and gas?  To ensure all oil and gas is traded in the petrodollar.

You've been listening to Dr. Oz too much. 

Never watched him once.

I had remembered what a friend had mentioned a while ago.  She was complaining about having severe migraines for almost two weeks when someone told her to try cutting gluten out of her diet.  She then claimed her migraines went away shortly after switching to eating gluten-free.  Maybe it was just conincidence, maybe it wasn't, I dont know.  That's the reason I asked.

Doesn't going gluten-free supposed to help with migraines?