mulwin444

You cannot be serious

Okay, who can argue with FIPS, I guess...I just know he had two of his best seasons in 2011 and 2012 when he is supposedly declining.  To me, he pitches to contact, relies on his defense and is developing into more of a pitcher.  I could be wrong but I'll let him get back into a groove before declaring judgement.

Hmm...What did he do since signing his extension?  Ah, that's right, he went 20-5 2.81 ERA 1.02 WHIP .214 BAA...
 
All while barely touching 90 in most of his starts...because he pitches instead of throws

Yep...Waaayyy down
 
Or maybe it's about mechanics and location considering both pitches that were hit out were mistakes up in the zone.  I'll look at a few more starts before declaring him "stick-a-fork-in-him" done

I'm sorry but I see these threads all the time on this board.  A player struggles to find some consistency after being out for 2 months and suddenly he's done...and Mike Trout is fat and can't hit because he's playing LF instead of CF....and Frieri is done as a closer....and Howie is a unclutch loser...and Bourjos is mediocre...

He routinely sat at 88 last season...I'll let him pitch a few more games before writing him off.

Hmm...What did he do since signing his extension?  Ah, that's right, he went 20-5 2.81 ERA 1.02 WHIP .214 BAA...
 
All while barely touching 90 in most of his starts...because he pitches instead of throws

I guess Mike likes the sample size of Aybar vs King Felix...
 
I prefer the huge sample size of Aybar being a terrible lead-off hitter his entire career.

A's record between playoff appearances:
 
2007: 76 - 86
2008: 75 - 86
2009: 75 - 87
2010: 81 - 81
2011: 74 - 88
 
Anyone else want to suck for 5 seasons while you collect draft picks, gamble on questionable characters like Milton Bradley, over-the-hill Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, trade young players like Carlos Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez, and Trevor Cahill and, generally, going year-to-year mixing and matching other team's failed pospects, aging vets seraching for another shot, mid-level MLB talent on a 1-2 year deal, young prospects traded for even younger prospects and high-priced gamble thrown in here or there. 
 
The A's do it out of necessity...is this really what you want?

And just so everyone knows. I have played over 40 games of baseball in a season so this post is highly credible

Awesome...Do you have a Connie Mack poster right next to the pennant celebrating the first WS championship back in 1910?
 
Never mind the fact that both the A's and Angels have the same amount of WS victories in the last 39 years...

Blanton was only obvious misstep that I saw by Dipto...I haven't agreed with every move but there is a logic behind them.
 
Sean Burnett:  averaged 70 games the last four seasons with a low WHIP...has a strained left forearm and has only pitched 13 games
 
Tommy Hanson:  Step-brother dies leading to a loss of significant time
 
Josh Hamilton: Lifetime .900 OPS coming off one of his best offensive seasons.  For me, the biggest concern was the DL time he incurred over the past 4 seasons as opposed to an offensive slump.  I don't know how you can predict a sub-.700 OPS?
 
Albert Pujols:  Greatest right-handed hitter of his generation who had one DL visit in his career still in his early 30's playing at a low-physical impact position in 1B. 
 
CJ Wilson:  A left-handed SP who averaged 200 innings since he became a starter coming off his best season (223.1 IP, 2.94 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, .232 BAA, 206 K) pitching half his games in one of the best hitting parks in the league. 
 
Trading Jean Segura for 3 months of Greinke:  They were still in it at the time and needed a solid starter to solidify the staff.  Fact is, with extensions for Aybar and Kendrick already inked, Segura was without a position.  You could argue that Segura could have moved to 3B but Jimenez was already entrenched there at SLC. 
 
Chris Ianetta:  Say what you want to about his average but the guy has value in terms of OBP and SLG.  Mathis wishes he could sniff Ianetta's offensive figures.
 
Just trying to put some perspective out there that, while I don't agree with every move Dipoto has done, his isn't pulling these moves out of his ass.

Blanton was only obvious misstep that I saw by Dipto...I haven't agreed with every move but there is a logic behind them.
 
Sean Burnett:  averaged 70 games the last four seasons with a low WHIP...has a strained left forearm and has only pitched 13 games
 
Tommy Hanson:  Step-brother dies leading to a loss of significant time
 
Josh Hamilton: Lifetime .900 OPS coming off one of his best offensive seasons.  For me, the biggest concern was the DL time he incurred over the past 4 seasons as opposed to an offensive slump.  I don't know how you can predict a sub-.700 OPS?
 
Albert Pujols:  Greatest right-handed hitter of his generation who had one DL visit in his career still in his early 30's playing at a low-physical impact position in 1B. 
 
CJ Wilson:  A left-handed SP who averaged 200 innings since he became a starter coming off his best season (223.1 IP, 2.94 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, .232 BAA, 206 K) pitching half his games in one of the best hitting parks in the league. 
 
Trading Jean Segura for 3 months of Greinke:  They were still in it at the time and needed a solid starter to solidify the staff.  Fact is, with extensions for Aybar and Kendrick already inked, Segura was without a position.  You could argue that Segura could have moved to 3B but Jimenez was already entrenched there at SLC. 
 
Chris Ianetta:  Say what you want to about his average but the guy has value in terms of OBP and SLG.  Mathis wishes he could sniff Ianetta's offensive figures.
 
Just trying to put some perspective out there that, while I don't agree with every move Dipoto has done, his isn't pulling these moves out of his ass.

No one could argue that the way the SP was constructed would strike fear in opposing teams.  Fielding a rotation with a top four being all-star caliber was totally unrealistic considering the starting point.  Again, you can't blame JD for injuries or a lack of SP depth.  Getting Hanson and Vargas were nice additions and Weaver and Hanson losing starts for guys like Enright et al was out of his control.  As noted, his major misstep was Blanton, but a fully healthy rotation of Weaver, Wilson, Vargas, Hanson, Blanton would have been good enough to complement a supposed high powered offense.  A middle of the pack rotation that started with Weaver and Wilson and ZERO minor league possibilities is about all you could expect.  If not for injury, they'd be there even with Blanton sucking.  If he get's a legit #4 instead of Blanton, then I would be fairly pleased. 
 
Are the Hamilton and Pujols contracts good ones?  No. 
Were those players capable keeping the team in contention in the short term ie at least the first three years of those deals?  Absolutely, and that was the goal. 
Four to five years from the beginning of the Pujols contract?  They were expecting to have reloaded the farm by then. 
 
If the farm system still sucks in 2016/2017 and the supposed albatross portion of the Pujols and Hamilton contracts kick in, then I would say JD didn't properly move the team in the right direction.  This early in those contracts?  That is on the players.  Especially Hamilton. 

A's record between playoff appearances:
 
2007: 76 - 86
2008: 75 - 86
2009: 75 - 87
2010: 81 - 81
2011: 74 - 88
 
Anyone else want to suck for 5 seasons while you collect draft picks, gamble on questionable characters like Milton Bradley, over-the-hill Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, trade young players like Carlos Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez, and Trevor Cahill and, generally, going year-to-year mixing and matching other team's failed pospects, aging vets seraching for another shot, mid-level MLB talent on a 1-2 year deal, young prospects traded for even younger prospects and high-priced gamble thrown in here or there. 
 
The A's do it out of necessity...is this really what you want?

A's record between playoff appearances:
 
2007: 76 - 86
2008: 75 - 86
2009: 75 - 87
2010: 81 - 81
2011: 74 - 88
 
Anyone else want to suck for 5 seasons while you collect draft picks, gamble on questionable characters like Milton Bradley, over-the-hill Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, trade young players like Carlos Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez, and Trevor Cahill and, generally, going year-to-year mixing and matching other team's failed pospects, aging vets seraching for another shot, mid-level MLB talent on a 1-2 year deal, young prospects traded for even younger prospects and high-priced gamble thrown in here or there. 
 
The A's do it out of necessity...is this really what you want?

A's record between playoff appearances:
 
2007: 76 - 86
2008: 75 - 86
2009: 75 - 87
2010: 81 - 81
2011: 74 - 88
 
Anyone else want to suck for 5 seasons while you collect draft picks, gamble on questionable characters like Milton Bradley, over-the-hill Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, trade young players like Carlos Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez, and Trevor Cahill and, generally, going year-to-year mixing and matching other team's failed pospects, aging vets seraching for another shot, mid-level MLB talent on a 1-2 year deal, young prospects traded for even younger prospects and high-priced gamble thrown in here or there. 
 
The A's do it out of necessity...is this really what you want?

A's record between playoff appearances:
 
2007: 76 - 86
2008: 75 - 86
2009: 75 - 87
2010: 81 - 81
2011: 74 - 88
 
Anyone else want to suck for 5 seasons while you collect draft picks, gamble on questionable characters like Milton Bradley, over-the-hill Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, trade young players like Carlos Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez, and Trevor Cahill and, generally, going year-to-year mixing and matching other team's failed pospects, aging vets seraching for another shot, mid-level MLB talent on a 1-2 year deal, young prospects traded for even younger prospects and high-priced gamble thrown in here or there. 
 
The A's do it out of necessity...is this really what you want?

If my choice is $13 mil for one season of Santana or $15 mil for two seasons of Blanton...I'd still go with Santana

A's record between playoff appearances:
 
2007: 76 - 86
2008: 75 - 86
2009: 75 - 87
2010: 81 - 81
2011: 74 - 88
 
Anyone else want to suck for 5 seasons while you collect draft picks, gamble on questionable characters like Milton Bradley, over-the-hill Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, trade young players like Carlos Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez, and Trevor Cahill and, generally, going year-to-year mixing and matching other team's failed pospects, aging vets seraching for another shot, mid-level MLB talent on a 1-2 year deal, young prospects traded for even younger prospects and high-priced gamble thrown in here or there. 
 
The A's do it out of necessity...is this really what you want?

A's record between playoff appearances:
 
2007: 76 - 86
2008: 75 - 86
2009: 75 - 87
2010: 81 - 81
2011: 74 - 88
 
Anyone else want to suck for 5 seasons while you collect draft picks, gamble on questionable characters like Milton Bradley, over-the-hill Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, trade young players like Carlos Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez, and Trevor Cahill and, generally, going year-to-year mixing and matching other team's failed pospects, aging vets seraching for another shot, mid-level MLB talent on a 1-2 year deal, young prospects traded for even younger prospects and high-priced gamble thrown in here or there. 
 
The A's do it out of necessity...is this really what you want?

Yeah, but is that saying much?

Here's a nice comparison of both consoles I came across today.
 
 
A Complete Comparison of XBOX One and Playstation 4

# Development:
XBO: Developed by Microsoft, Development started in 2010.
PS4: Developed by Sony, Development started in 2008.

# Specifications:
XBO: 8 Core AMD x86 CPU, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, Blu-Ray Drive
PS4: 8 Core AMD x86-64 CPU, 8GB GDDR5 RAM, 500GB HDD, Blu-Ray Drive

# Power Differences:
- The CPU in both systems are nearly identical.
- The GPU in the PS4 is 50% more powerful than the XBO.
- The PS4 has 158% more memory bandwidth. (XBO's 68GB/s vs PS4's 176GB/s).
- The PS4 will allow 40% more RAM for games (XBO's 5GB vs PS4's 7GB)

Both consoles will feature a similar architecture making game creation similar on both consoles. In contrast to previous generations were the architecture of the PS3 made it vastly most difficult to create games. The developers will decide how much of an effect the increase power of one console over another will have as they program and utilize power accordingly.

# Playing a Game:
XBO: Install Game, Register Game Online, Game Now Locked to XBOX Live Profile. Play Game.
XBO: If your connection is down when first playing, you'll need to wait until its back up.
PS4: Install Game, Play Game.

# Authentication:
XBO: Your home console will authenticate every 24 hours.
XBO: If you use a console other than your own it will authenticate every 1 hour.
XBO: If it cannot authenticate it will lock all games.
PS4: No authentication at all.

# Trade-in a Game at retail:
XBO: Can only be traded to Microsoft authorised retailers.
PS4: Trade to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

# Trade-in a Game with a friend:
XBO: Trade to Friends once that have been on XBOX LIve Friends List for 30 Days.
PS4: Trade to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

# Sell a game on Ebay:
XBO: You can't sell any XBO games on Ebay, they are locked to your account.
PS4: You can see to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

# Renting Games from companies like Blockbuster or GameFly:
XBO: Not avaliable a launch but Microsoft are still in discussion with partners.
PS4: You can rent games from any company you choose.

# Game Ownership:
XBO: You own a license to play the game.
PS4: You own the game, just don't have the right to sell copies of it.

# Playing at a Friends on their console:
XBO: You must log into XBOX Live then either download or install the game from disc.
XBO: The console must authenticate once every hour or the console will lock all games.
XBO: Internet connection required.
PS4: Insert the disc, start playing.

# Loaning a Game to a Friend:
XBO: You can add 10 friends that are allowed to use your games library.
XBO: Only one person at a time can play a game.
XBO: The console must authenticate once every hour or the console will lock all games.
XBO: The people you share your game library with must be on your friends list for 30 days.
XBO: The people on the friends list must be in the same region as you to play.
PS4: Give friend the disc, let him play.

On the XBO it could mean that if you have 10 friends, that are all friends of eachother then you could share a single player game between the 10 of you, only buying it once. You'd need to take turns each playing the game when the other wasn't but you would be sharing a single game between you. Whereas for multiplayer to all play at the same time you would need to all own the game.

# Using my Game Library at another location with a connection:
XBO: Log in to XBOX Live, Download Any Game or Install from Disc, Play.
XBO: Online Authentication required every hour or the console will lock all games.
PS4: You can play disc-based games you have brought with you.
PS4: You can log-in to Playstation Network to download store purchases.

# Using my Game Library at another location with no connection:
XBO: You can't play any games at all, no connection means no authentication.
PS4: You can only play the on-disc games you brought with you.

# Playing Games from another Region:
XBO: Region Locked. You can only play UK games on a UK Console.
PS4: Region Free. You can play JP/US games on a UK Console.

# Access my Online Identity outside the Home:
XBO: Log into XBOX Live.
PS4: Log into Playstation Network.

# Kinect vs Playstation Eye:
XBO: Mandatory but can be switched off. Included with Console.
PS4: Not Mandatory. Not Included with Console.

# External Power Brick:
XBO: Will feature an external power brick.
PS4: No external power brick.

# Hard-Drive Upgrades:
XBO: Non-Ungradable. Accepts External Hard-Drives.
PS4: Can be upgraded. Accepts External Hard-Drives.

# Size Difference:
XBO: Width: 34.3cm, Length: 26.3cm, Height: 8cm
PS4: Width: 27.5cm, Length: 30.5cm, Height: 5.3cm
The PS4 is 40% smaller than the XBO in total volume.

# Price Difference:
XBO: £429
PS4: £349

# Publishing for Indie titles such as Minecraft, Journey etc..
XBO: Same method as a normal game.
PS4: Free Self-Publishing on Playstation Network with specific Indie Section.

# Capturing Gameplay:
XBO: Will allow you to capture gameplay and upload and share via Twitch TV.
PS4: Will allow you to capture gameplay and upload and share via UPlay.

# Online Gaming Fees:
XBO: Requires XBOX Live Subscription to play online.
PS4: Requires Playstation Plus Subscription to play online.

# Backwards Compatibility:
XBO: No Backwards Compatibility.
PS4: Upcoming Backwards Compatibility via Gaikai for PS1, PS2 and PS3 games.

# Release Date:
XBO: Due out in November. (Confirmed November Release)
PS4: Due out in November. (Confirmed Christmas Holiday Release)

# What If I Don't Have An Internet Connection:
XBO: The console will not work, it requires an internet connection to authenticate.
PS4: The console will work, but updates and DLC require an internet connection.

# Whats Included in the Box:
XBO: XBOX One Console, A Controller, Kinect 2.0, Power Brick.
PS4: Playstation 4 Console, A Controller, Headset, Power Cable, HDMI Cable

Yes...love this album.   "Bible Black", Eating the Cannibals" and "Breaking Into Heaven" are some of my favorites off that one.  He did a solo album, "Iommi", that had some solid work on it as well, along with some work with Glenn Hughes.
 
Apart from the Dio led "Dehumanizer", this is the most "Sabbath" sounding album since "The Mob Rules".  There have been some good albums with Tony Martin ("Headless Cross", "Cross Purposes") but they all ended up sounding like side projects compared to the Ozzy/Dio albums. 

Now the idiots who have already been using them (without cross-posting from twitter, instagram, or vine) won't look as stupid anymore.