John_Havok

Ugly start. Brick after brick after brick. Can't play a slow half court game against GS or you're done. 3 for 21 shooting to start the game for the Raptors, 14 for 19 for GS Playing like statues

The politics of hockey USA doesn't take kindly to kids who go to major junior rather than the NCAA

To force them yes. If you ask politely and they agree, no problem

Relievers fall of a cliff pretty much without warning, so the fact that he's had tye arm problem, coupled with a poor showcase in November where he didn't hit anything higher than the low 90's, and sat in the high 80s....means he's not likely going to see anything past 1 year, and probably incentive laden type of deal.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Pretty sure he would but it just may not be a 1st rounder. A Former Club of a Free Agent subject to draft pick compensation will receive the following: A non-market disqualified Revenue Sharing Payee Club shall receive a selection immediately following the first round of the draft if the player signs a contract with a total guarantee of $50 million or more. Clubs that break the Luxury Tax threshold shall receive a draft selection immediately following the fourth round of the next Rule 4 Draft. All other former clubs shall receive a selection immediately following the Competitive Balance Round B of the next Rule 4 Draft (which follows the second round).

That is not correct, it's just changing.

AJ jiminez looks like the backup by default right now

Better than having a core of a bunch of 33-40 year olds in 2 years

Brooklyn was up on golden state by 16 at halftime, the proceeded to lose the game... by 16. Awful second half

Have no idea why they settled on Morales. I was only pointing out that you can't leave an open offer on the table for long periods of time, especially after it was rejected

While it sucks to lose a hitter of EEs caliber from this lineup, at some point you just have to move on. He rejected the jays offer, and they understandably couldn't just sit there for weeks with that offer on the table and not look at other options.

So at this point, if that other threads report was accurate and the budget for this year is 165 million, The Jays still have 30ish million left to spend to fill a starting of role, and 2 pen arms. That's a lot of flexibility to add during the season as well

Nah, 7.5 tops if ya get my meaning. If its a dominican player.... maybe 6 at best

Game used cards have memorabilia attached to them that was worn in a game. In hockey cards they have cards with pieces of jersey, logo patches, small pieces of skates, gloves, sticks, fight straps.....Even netting from the goal. To be sure you are getting game used memorabilia though, you have to deck the back of the card as it will specifically say whether it's game used, or a piece of manufactured memorabilia that was not game used.

Same here. Loved it as a kid and still love it today. Drives the wife crazy which is a nice bonus

It's a bit of a misnomer to say that before the internet that cards were rare. The card's rarity hasn't really changed, just the availability and ease of access to the market for the cards. Also, people really didn't know how many thousands and thousands of those cards actually existed back then and the demand, while seemingly high, never came close to outpacing the supply. Once that whole supply/demand thing was known, the value of all those old cards plummeted significantly, with a few exceptions of course.... which is also why condition of the old cards is everything

When you're discussing Topps vs OPC, there's a difference in hockey and baseball cards. Topps is the more desirable card for baseball, and OPC for hockey when they have both versions available. Has to do with print runs back when they were the only the only 2 kinds of cards. As for some other stuff that's been mentioned about garded cards being the only ones of value ... yes that very true about the older cards (since anything of decent grade is rare as f*** - kids actually used to play with cards!) And there were sooooo many produced that even a 7/10 card probably still has thousands of copies out there. For grading itself, there's really only 2 companies that the industry takes seriously... Beckett and PSA. PSA grades on 1 -10 scale using whole numbers on the overall card, whereas Beckett grades 1-10 using a .5 scale on 4 different aspects of the card - corners, edges, centering and the card face. So while you might see a PSA card graded as a 9, that same card might be graded by Becket as an overall 9.5, - with subgrades listed as 9.5 corners, 9 edges, 9.5 face, 9.5 centering. Their system is much more detailed. Both companies will also authenticate signatures. Other companies like KSA and GMA aren't really taken too seriously by collectors. Theres a couple other companies like ISA and SGC, but again, they're so small compared to the others that even seeing cards graded hy them is rare, with the exception of older cards. Nearly all new cards people have graded are sent to Beckett and PSA. Thing is, cards these days are all being kept in such good shape by buyers and the cardboard stock is so much better quality than it used to be that even 9.5 is a relatively common grade. The 10 grade from Beckett is really really hard to get so any card rated 10 on all 4 aspects is given a special Black Label that sets it apart from even the other cards that are an overall 10, but only have 3/4 10s and 1 9.5. A black label 10 beckett card will sell for many many times the book value of a card - book value generally being what a card rated as a 9 would be. That being said, book value is still highly variable depending on sport, geography, and the player.

Bright side, maybe this will be the game that slaps the Raps into actually playing defense in the future

JV was too. Just no answer for him tonight at all. Doesn't help ATL is shooting like 50% from 3

I think they'll win, but they really need to stop digging these holes in the first half. Edit. I'll qualify my above statement by saying they'll win, but only if the refs stop letting Howard body check everyone in the paint indriscriminently

Wonder if JV is still having lingering ankle issues, he looks like he's moving with cement feet so far tonight

It's only crazy if you aren't high on the won curve. The would be 0 point in the Braves spending that kind of cash on the pen, but it makes sense for the Red Sox

His injuries and age have killed his value, the QO is more like a nail in his value coffin. Thing is, Bautista has had the unfortunate timing of being a late breakout star. As a result he never had his prime years when he was 22-28 and command that massive FA payday that players crave. Instead, he broke out late out of nowhere and signed what turned out to be a very team friendly contract that took well into what is normally a players decline of their career.

Hang on, let me check the other 17 threads that discuss this and I'll get back to you.