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"I remember listening to Janis Joplin's Cheap Thrills album, and listening to [her cover of] 'Summertime' over and over and over again — it just rocked my head," Randy Johnson says.
He was 5 at the time.
Randy Johnson: "One Night with Janis Joplin" at Areana Stage
(Photo by Todd Franson)
All these decades later, when the Joplin family asked him to create a show in tribute, Johnson jumped at the chance to relive those days.
The result is One Night with Janis Joplin, now at Arena Stage. It's essentially the "electrifying" Joplin dream concert Johnson – and the majority of her fans – never got to see, since Joplin died of a heroin overdose in 1970 at the age of 27.
"[It's] as if Janis had returned to earth and was going back out on tour," Johnson says, explaining the show's concept. "And it's one night with Janis Joplin, where she had the chance to tell her story, tell her influences, her philosophy, share her art." Ultimately, it's not that different from many of Joplin's still-living peers on nostalgia-steeped tours today – except that Joplin isn't played as the aging baby boomer she would have been, but as a woman still very much in her prime.
Mary Bridget Davies portrays the legend. "[When] she opened her mouth to sing, the entire table fell off their chairs," Johnson says. A blues singer in her own right, Davies was born in the decade after Joplin died and has performed as Joplin for years now. She was in the show Love, Janis and has repeatedly toured the world with Joplin's band Big Brother and the Holding Company, whom Davies lovingly refers to as her "rock and roll uncles."
"There's something for everyone in the show," Davies says. "Even if you don't particularly care for [Joplin's] singing voice, the story is funny. She had a very wry sense of humor."
Davies isn't the only powerhouse vocalist onstage. "I had the idea of this 'Blues Singer' [who] would embody all of Janis's influences," says Johnson, laughing, "It really became her alter ego. Her inner black woman, so to speak." Throughout the show, opera singer Sabrina Elayne Carten embodies everyone from Bessie Smith to Nina Simone to Aretha Franklin – not to mention Leontyne Price.
The Joplin estate hired Johnson because of his successful pedigree in creating concert-style tributes. He's written or produced shows about Patsy Cline, Conway Twitty and Elvis Presley. He's also worked directing or producing concerts and plays with everyone from Barbra Streisand to Audrey Hepburn, Liza Minnelli to Pope Benedict XVI.
"[Johnson's] just that type of director where you know that he is larger than life, with all the accomplishments he's had. But he's still accessible on a personal – and a human – level," says Davies. "He's given me a lot of freedom in this role because he wants to show that Janis's main mantra was, 'Be true to yourself and don't compromise yourself."'

subset: commoncrawl


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IACP de 2017 : qui participera de chez Axon
L'IACP approche à grands pas et nous avons hâte de vous y voir. In addition to our booth experience, you'll have the opportunity to mingle with some of the brains that come together to make Axon solutions a reality. We'll be sending product evangelists, product managers, sales reps and engineers, and more to IACP, so you can make the most of your time at our booth. When you're not checking out our exhibit or mingling with fellow law enforcement officials, take time to meet some of our Axon employees:
Field Sales
Field Sales reps are at IACP to help make the most of your experience. They can introduce you to members of the team, from executive leadership to engineers, to discuss any priorities your agency has or to talk to Product Managers and Evangelists about a specific product question. Field Sales reps can discuss individual customer situations and help orchestrate a successful product rollout, so if that's been on your mind, let them know.
Questions to ask: How can I ensure a successful deployment? My agency needs a special contract or atypical requirements, can Axon help meet our needs? Who can I talk to about how X product works or when it's coming out?
Product Managers
Our Product Managers (PMs) have a comprehensive, multi-level grasp of their products. If you've been wondering about the functionality or history of a certain product, talk to a PM. This is also a great time to provide key feedback about Axon products - the good, the bad, the places for improvement. Though our PMs don't have law enforcement experience, they need to understand the challenges that police officers face every day in order to deliver a successful product, and always welcome customer stories and feedback.
Questions to ask: What direction is the product going in? What are some considerations that you take when you plan for future product development? Will you be adding X function to Y product?
Sales Engineers
Sales Engineers are full of technical know-how, and can help you through the more technical aspects of our products and processes. As they are familiar with many different agency pain points and can answer non-technical questions as well, Sales Engineers can help match specific requirements to solutions. They also help maintain customer satisfaction, which can mean ensuring a smooth transition into the sales process, connecting an agency with dedicated customer service professionals, and following up with agencies before, during, and after a deployment.
Questions to ask: What makes Axon solutions stand out? My department faces X kinds of issues — what solutions would help alleviate our burden?
Product Evangelists
Axon's Product Evangelists will be giving product demos at our booths while you wait in line for our booth experience. Product Evangelists are a treasure trove of information on Axon's products, history, and future. They have a full understanding of our product lineup, our connected network of solutions, and our vision, so feel free to chat with them about anything — they welcome any questions or comments!
Questions to ask: I have X Axon product - what other Axon solutions can I integrate into my policing? What future Axon products should I expect?
Whether you're a police chief or a park ranger, we'll be glad to see you at IACP. Let us know through social media if you're headed to Philly - get in touch on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and we'll keep you up-to-date via live posts at IACP.
Going to IACP?


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Killing Algae – Liquid v.s. Granular
Those of you with at least a couple years of ponding under your belt know that beautiful summer sunshine comes as a package deal with algae and green water. While it can be painful to look at for even a couple days, when your pond is being properly maintained it can be a quick and simple process to whip your pond back into shape.
Before you select which type of algaecide you want to use you will want to identify what type of algae you have. Algae typically come in 3 great flavors, Planktonic (green water), Filamentous (floating mats or string algae), and Chara (a smelly bottom growing plant-like algae). If you are not too sure on which type you have or you think you may have a submerged weed instead, take a look at our Weed ID Guide.
It is important to know what type of algae you are dealing with because it will help you select the proper algaecide for the job. Liquid algaecides like Algae Defense® are best used to contact spray floating algae mats, planktonic algae outbreaks, or to treat algae submerged in relatively shallow water usually 3 feet deep or shallower. Liquid algaecides are mixed with water and a Surfactant which is then applied using a Pond Sprayer. When dealing with bottom growing algae in greater depths you will want to use a granular algaecide like Cutrine®-Plus Granular or Hydrolthol 191 Granular . Granular applications are great for getting rid of Chara and, by using a Hand Spreader, are very easy to apply. If you have Koi, Trout, or Goldfish in your pond or lake you will want to use Clipper™ as it is not copper based. You can also benefit from the fact that Clipper™ works not only on weeds by on a variety of submerged weeds as well.
While both liquid and granular algaecides are great for killing existing algae, they will not prevent future growth. Properly maintaining your pond using Dye, Beneficial Bacteria, or Subsurface Aeration will help keep your pond healthy and reduce the chances of algae in the first place. Remember to always read product labels before doing any treatment.
Pond Talk: How successful has your fight with algae been?
Filed under: Aeration, Algae Control, Algae Defense, Chara (Algae), Pond & Lake, Pond Dye, Water Clarity, Water Quality | Tagged: Aeration, algae, Algae Control, algae defense, beneficial bacteria, chara, pond dye |


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Farmers and ranchers, here's to you
Lawmakers today paid tribute to Colorado's second largest industry, agriculture.
"You have to love this profession to do it," said Rep. Randy Baumgarnder, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, talking about bringing newborn calves into the laundry room to help them survive.
A resolution declaring today National Agriculture Day was introduced in the House by Republican Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling and in the Senate by Democrat Gail Schwartz of Snowmass Village. Both chair the ag committees in their chamber.
The resolution read, in part:
WHEREAS, Colorado's agriculture industry helps feed the nation;
drives the state economy; restores wetlands; participates in conservation programs that prevent soil erosion, improve air and water quality, and enhance wildlife habitat; and plays a major role in providing feedstock for the production of renewable fuels.


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Where EA Went Wrong
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YES! Thank good! I really hope that more companies start listening to this. Innovation and trying new things is actually better for customers than the same crap over and over: if you innovate a game, it might fail, that's true. If you pump out crap that's been done before and better, there is a 100% chance that it will fail. We might yet see a little more innovation in this dying husk of the gaming industry.
Excellent points as always, Shamus.
EA is trying to make every game FIFA.
Suddenly, everything makes sense. I'm actually kinda disappointed in myself for not making the connection earlier. :/
You know, it's funny to think that I used to know of Shamus for his light-hearted comics and his goofy MMO Let's Plays. Now I pretty much exclusively look to him for commentary on story structure and the state of the gaming industry as a whole. Oh how things change in three years.
I honestly don't have an issue with EA.
Origin is not a bad client in design. It has two flaws and they are:
1. Not enough games
Besides The Sims, Sim City, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Battlefield, Plants vs Zombies etc. what exactly is on Origin? Nothing. Browsering their catalogue can be done in under five minutes. Seriously, looking for an episode of the X-Files to watch is more time consuming. There's not enough there to make you want to buy from it. You can get anything on Steam (minus EA games xD) which makes it appeal to more people.
2. Price
Origin discount sales are still very expensive!
I always thought EA was more or less doing the corporation sized version of 'living paycheck to paycheck'. It's not that they think that all games can be pumped out yearly, it's that they realize that pumping out an unfinished or shoddy product and cashing in, is faster and quicker money than putting more time and effort into a release. With their stock value in the toilet, all they can do is keep releasing games faster and faster trying to stay above water. I'm not even sure if they could spare the time to put more effort into their releases.
You mean the guys who are kept honest by releasing material vs the guys we have no actual information on?
Yeah, that was kind of my point in the first place, but I don't mind repeating it.
EA is successful or not based on numbers that are reported regularly because they are a public company held accountable by law in their filings.
Valve is successful or not based on Gabe's word alone, and people believe him because...Well, because ponies.
I was pretty impressed with your article last week because the usual commentary about EA runs along the lines of how it needs to die in order to bring about an age where games will finally be good. It's refreshing to see that absent in your writings. Not that I'm a huge fan of EA, but it's nice to see stuff that isn't hyperbole.
Nice read Shamus, good to have you back in action. I have to say that EA's greatest problem, in my opinion, is its inability to grasp the fact that multiplayer isn't what everyone wants...
Imagine if Mass Effect 3 had been in development for just one more year, probably could've avoided the shit storm.
I pity EA. They keep trying, and it keeps blowing up in their faces because they don't learn the right lessons from their (and other companies') mistakes. I've never hated them, but just feel so sorry for them. I still buy their games, when they're ones that I like, but yeah, everything in this article seems spot-on to me.
This has been EA's modus operandi, and chief Cardinal Sin since the late 90s.
For years, I could not figure out why every EA game I play felt "shoddy", especially more the deeper into most franchises; starting with the Command & Conquer series. It was after playing Hellgate: London, and hearing about the class action lawsuit levied against EA by their own employees for labor violations. That's when it became more clear what was going on.
And everything I have learned and seen since only reinforces this.
It's the exploitation of franchises. Blunt force, rushed, ham-fisted exploitation, and this model works fine for iterative sports games whose assets and gameplay don't really change so content development is, but it does not work for everything. Small wonder they're trying to ape Call of Duty; Activision is doing exactly that.
I wish the EA board of directors would read this stuff, heck even watch some of MR Sterling's vids. But alas, i fear we are going to continue to see all out beloved titled turned into gritty, dark shooters.
COMING NEXT FALL - Simcity: Black ops! Control your own sim in a brand new FIRST PERSON view. Defeat your enemies, upgrade your weapons and play with your friends online! GLORY FOR NOD!
...Though, with the mess they already made with simcity it might be an improvement o_O
GM made a lot of other cars too. I own one of them, a Saturn SL. It has been a pretty good car, no major work so far.
In any case I don't even deal with EA anymore, I don't purchase their games. Too many good games already out that I don't have time to play to bother with a company like EA and their products.
EA's problem is that it's run by businessmen whose only concern is finding a profitable low-risk high-return option to invest in. They look at the market and their competitors, see what's selling and try to ape it. So EA saw the success of shooters like COD and Gears of War and immediately thought,"Heck shooters sell good, lets make some shooters." So EA rebooted some franchises (disastrously in the case of Syndicate and MOH:Warfighter) and even tried shooterizing a current IP with DEADSPACE-i-need-to-sell-5-million-THREE. Long story short, they all bombed. See EA does not and will not understand the games the make cause they want to maximize profit and reduce cost/risk. Problem is that creativity requires taking risks, something that runs counter to the businessmen mindset of EA's board. Yes I am aware that people make games to sell and make a profit. But if you don't take risks and keep trying to play safe in a market already saturated and dominated by your competitors, your 'safe' bets aren't going to win.
With all the DLC that took a couple of years to release maybe.
OT: Yep, agree with pretty much everything you've said. EA does still create some of the niche titles [See Sim City], but it does stupid things with them like Always Online DRM, and it doesn't make enough of them to support its other games. Hopefully EA get their act together as I remember the day I liked EA as a company and enjoyed their games. These days... I'm not sure what to get out of the 8 free games they're offering me 'cause they all seem kinda shit =/
Exactly, Assassin's Creed doesn't try to emulate an existing trend. Assassin's Creed doesn't fuck around with crappy micro transactions, and it's multiplayer mode is actually fairly innovative and fits the franchise. Oh, and the fact that it's not getting turned into an amorphous shooter helps.
Going back on-topic, I know a little of EA's workplace policy from a friend who used to work as a beta-tester (and yes, he worked for EA, not some 3rd party company). They would routinely fire low-level employees just before they completed 1 year with the company (because after the 1st year they would have to give some extra benefits, more money, etc) and then offer to hire them back about a month later. This is standard policy for that office, taking advantage of young, inexperienced employees that more often than not will take the job again because they would be hard pressed to find something similar.
This basically means that despite working for the company for several years, people get no official work experience, no benefits and no bonuses that would normally (and legally) come with seniority.
Whelp, that does it. The content of this article has killed about 90 percent of the EA threads. Post this in the thread and the discussion is over, because everything that needs to be said by Shamus.
Well done, sir! Looking forward to your next one.
But... He didnt even address EAs habit of blatantly lying to consumers.
That is one of the most important things and he didnt even touch on it.
When i try to think of the game with the cheapest, most blatant padding i have ever played ME1 comes to mind. After i got sick of clearing out the same bases filled with the same enemies over and over, on the same world just painted a different color i decided to do a few playthroughs of ME1 wihout doing sidequests.
ME1 With sidequests took me on average about 20 hours. ME1 without sidequests takes me 5.
ME2 generally takes me over 40 hours (and i have finished an Insanity NG+ with every class more then once, so the gameplay doesn't slow me down). I am not going to try to distinguish what is and isn't a sidequest in ME2, since they blurred the lines on that.
Everyone I know, including myself, is fucking sick of it. Assassin's Creed 3 sold incredibly well (although didn't exactly get a stellar reception from what I've seen), but Revelations did not at all from what I remember (relative to the rest of the series and what you'd expect from a 'AAA' game). And I assume that's because people were getting bored of it too and have just decided to stick to numbered releases, or because it finally promised to end Desmond's bidniz.
Eh, it takes me about the same amount of time for both, and both have a fair amount of padding. ME1's tends to get picked on a little more because... I don't know to be honest.
Going into the more technical side of things, both ME1 and ME2 have about the same install size. ME2 obviously has the higher resolution textures, which take up more of its install size and thus make up a larger portion of its content. On the flipside, however, a large portion of that extra space likely would have come from the planets you could explore, many of which were largely just empty space [Though every planet had a minimum of 6 things to find on it in total if memory serves, and a number of easter eggs on many planets too].
Really, they're both about equal in how much content they have, IMO ME1 felt like it had more whilst ME2 relied too much on its slow ass combat, planet scanning and system "Exploration" and such for length, as opposed to non-linear or longer levels.
Jeez, we need some gamers running the industry. I'm sure the CEOs and the board of directors and whatnot are talented and educated people, but sometimes you need a different perspective to not run an industry into the ground.
I don't know, you just spent a lot of words describing how EA doesn't understand the market and then arrive to the conclusion that their leadership is not stupid?
Does make me more interested in next week's article.
? Huh? Valve is successful because they release wildly popular games (we can know they're popular from other sources like Metacritic and we don't require exact figures to know they made a mint) and a customer centered services that is so good that DRM opponents actually make an exception for it. Do you honestly believe that reporting the exact degree of success or failure impacts said successes or failures? That would be parodoxical at best.
Do you have any specific example of anything that would make this point valid? Is there something they've done that we all think was a success that you believe was secretly a failure?
Like, "Gabe said portal 2 sold well, but who knows" or what? Because we know it did well from other data sources. Amazon and the NDP Group data numerically proved it was successful as one of the biggest sellers at the time and that was entirely without Steam data. We're not dumb, we know if something is a flop even if the developer doesn't give us figures. It seems pretty obvious that the opinion of the two companies is pretty drastically different and for reasons that can be pointed to. Valve doesn't really have failures that we can point at and say, "Yeah, that was a huge mistake" but EA has them every week it seems. Hence their CEO finally stepping down for what I assume will be another failure waiting to happen (ball is in his court, though). It isn't even a matter of public reporting. SimCity 5 did not work for a long time and it was public knowledge. EA saying it wasn't working didn't change that fact. So I'm not sure what point you're getting at here.
Been saying this for a while now:
CEO's are good at making money, not games, & they're trying to make money with games. Publicly traded companies like fast answers & big promises, so they put CEO's that reflect that in charge. This could be a good idea for a typical company, but not for a game publisher. The people at the helm aren't gamers, they don't know what makes a good game, nor do they understand gamers as a group/culture; this is problematic in that this is your product & these are your customers
This is the perfect point. Management in large corporations aren't really about the product they're selling. So you can easily get into a situation where the CEO currently employed knows nothing about the product.
Let's look at John Riccitiello for example, these are the companies he has worked for that aren't EA:
The Clorox Company
Only after those did he go to EA as a COO and then left to found Elevation Partners only to be rehired by EA two years later as the CEO in 2007. What do ANY of the companies before EA have to do with games? At least Elevation Partners was about Intellectual Properties and did touch the gaming industry here and there. But this is an investment firm, not a firm that actually manages the product. These are companies that puts best practices into place to make companies more streamlined and then resell them or to just invest in companies they feel have a strong future (they sold BioWare and Pandemic Studios to EA the same year EA hired John as CEO... shady?).
Anyways, there can be significant problems when managers who know nothing of the product they're making are put in charge of making decisions for that product. When someone higher up pokes their nose where it doesn't belong there's nothing you can say or do about it because they're your boss. "You want me to make a game about portals and cake being a lie? Yes sir, anything you say boss, just please don't hit me or fire me..."
And he's about to not be a CEO either: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/03/18/electronic-arts-ceo-john-riccitiello-to-step-down/
Thank you for writing this article. So much stuff I've been thinking about for a while now, put into coherent form. Especially point #3 seems such a no-brainer.
When you have all these resources at your disposal, why wouldn't you also use part of them to finance a wide range of low-budget niche products, instead of putting all your money-eggs into one blockbuster-basket? I don't get it.
I don't disagree with anything you've said, Shamus....But I have 5 tabs of your linked articles open & I was supposed to be in bed half an hour ago.
On the Xbox, Mass Effect comes on one disc. Mass Effect 2 comes on two. Better textures can't account for enough of a difference that the game needed to be halved and put on separate discs. Mass Effect 2 simply has much more content. ME1's padding was picked on more for a very good reason. It was mostly "exploring" planets that had next to nothing to find and the same feel and geography. I love exploring in games. I have about 900 hours in Skyrim, from just wandering from place to place and looking in every nook and cranny. Same for Morrowind and Oblivion. But in Mass Effect? Identical locations, identical enemies, almost nothing to discover, what little there is to discover is usually fairly identical as well.
Areas in ME1 had atmosphere in one way, from the direct narrative, while areas in ME2 had atmosphere drawing from both narrative and area design.
If you think gameplay in ME2 is ridiculously easy, you need to do an Adept Insanity NG+ playthrough. Planet scanning was a massive and obnoxious pain in the ass, but didn't actually take that long. It is about three hours per playthrough.
You would be surprised. Textures and models take up the majority of a lot of games' space. Case in point, my Skyrim folder:
I heartily disagree. They have the same number of quests in total. The quests in ME2 are shorter [IMO], and just contain prettier environments. Also find it amusing that you don't think Skyrim is filled with the same terrain, same dungeons, same enemies over and over. Its one of the things I hated about the game. ME1 at least had good writing for a lot of them that made them interesting despite being the same thing over and over, Skyrim rarely ever had context to a dungeon other than "Its here, loot it", and after 50 Nord ruins, 50 Dwemer Ruins, 50 caves, 10 castles - ect. - I had seen everything repeated over and over so many times it wasn't funny. Just got mind numbingly dull after a while.
Places like Feros, Noveria, Virmire and the Citadel also had the area design atmosphere. The areas they didn't have the time and funding to put effort into I'll agree had little beyond the quality of writing for them, but funny thing that I prefer the quality of writing to a more visibly diverse level. The heavier action focus in ME2, and the often less interesting context to places, left me feeling not as interested in its levels. The ones where you get new Squadmates are good, but otherwise... Nothing. The collectors were too much of a joke to take seriously, and most of the N7 missions consisted of "There are enemies of Cerberus here, kill them" - and that was the end of your context. Sure an agent, or a supply cache might have been thrown in there sometimes, but rarely. Probably the most atmospheric side mission in ME2 was the one with the destroyed station that had a rogue AI, the others were all rather lacklustre.
Still ridiculously easy. Only time its a challenge is when I get bored and decide to do something stupid to make it interesting. It doesn't make the game harder, it just slows it down a lot - and then once you get singularity it can actually speed up a bit 'cause you can pick enemies up [If their shields/barriers/armour is down] and not have to worry about ducking to cover every few shots.
I assume you're referring to the ending? There was nothing really wrong with the ending. Most people who misunderstood the ending or thought it may have been rushed or full of plot holes were taking it at face value. During the ending sequence there is a bunch of clues littered throughout the final 20 minutes of the game and if people pick up on it, the ending makes perfect sense and is actually quite brilliant.
It does require a bit of thought as well as digging through codex entries as well as possibly looking back into previous games, because there are clues there as well.
Here is an article that may help to explain some things.
I don't know, I just think with Mass Effect 3, people may have set their hopes too high, with it being the end of the trilogy, and when the game didn't meet some people's expectations, they were disappointed.
I was going to point out Mass Effect 1 actually started development in 2005, according to the Final Hours App.
Except that doesn't speak o the success of Valve overall, and Amazon and NDP are poor sources of information here.
It's like you're deliberately trying to miss my point by arguing something very, very different.
But, going by your logic, " Mass Effect 3 sold really really well, so we can safely assume that EA is doing well, too!"
It breaks down when applied by basically anyone to anything logical. Sorry.
Except that's not what he's arguing at all.
That's what he's trying to get at, and you deliberately chopping up his arguments into tiny pieces and hope no one notices is just silly. Actually respond to his arguments or no one will take you seriously.
Don't be like that, man. Offer a response t his actual argument, don't nitpick his post and make it about something else.
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There's a bun in the oven for Snow White and Prince Charming!
Actress Ginnifer Goodwin, 35, and her costar Josh Dallas, 31, who play the parts of Snow White and Prince Charming on the storybook show Once Upon a Time, recently announced their pregnancy.
Rumors of Goodwin's pregnancy have been circulating since she was photographed on the set of the ABC show wearing a gray swing coat that appeared to be hiding her stomach (Us Weekly).
A rep for the Big Love actress first confirmed the news with People and the happy couple later shared their excitement with the twitterverse:
It's true! There's a bun n my oven! Thank u all, frm the bottom of my heart&bump, 4 ur loving support. #JoshDallasIsMyBabyDaddy #OverTheMoon
— Ginnifer Goodwin (@ginnygoodwin) November 20, 2013
It's true! The bun is baking away! Thanks for the outpouring of love & congrats! #GGismyBaker #PopDallas #littlecharmer @ginnygoodwin
— Josh Dallas (@joshdallas) November 20, 2013
The best part about their tweets? The adorable hashtags the couple used.
Papa-to-be Dallas agrees:
My favorite hashtag from @ginnygoodwin #JoshDallasIsMyBabyDaddy
— Josh Dallas (@joshdallas) November 20, 2013
Dallas has been smitten with Goodwin from the start. "I think falling in love is always a surprise, right?" He told People "It hit me like a blinding light. I thought, 'I'm in trouble now.' "
The engaged couple first met on the set of their hit show and went public with their relationship in April 2012. They announced their engagement in October.
Details of Goodwin's pregnancy, such as her due date and child's gender, have yet to be released.
More celebrity baby news
Celebrity baby weight: Who dropped it fast, who took their time
Baby on the way for Olivia Wilde, Jason Sudeikis
Reasons to be happy you're not a pregnant celebrity


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Looking back to 91 days ago, PDC Energy Inc (PDCE - Get Report) priced a 4,500,000 share secondary stock offering at $54 per share. Buyers in that offering made a considerable investment into the company, expecting that their investment would go up over the course of time and based on early trading on Tuesday, the stock is now 14.9% above the offering price.Investors who did not participate in the offering but would be a buyer of PDCE at a cheaper price, might benefit from considering selling puts among the alternative strategies at their disposal. One interesting put contract in particular, is the April 2014 put at the $50 strike, which has a bid at the time of this writing of $2.15. That would result in a cost basis of $47.85 per share before broker commissions in the scenario where the contract is exercised. If the contract is never exercised, the put seller would still keep the premium, which represents a 4.3% return against the $50.00 purchase commitment, or a 9.5% annualized rate of return (at Stock Options Channel we call this the YieldBoost).
Top YieldBoost Puts of of Stocks with Recent Secondaries »
Looking at the chart above, PDCE's low point in its 52 week range is $25.76 per share, with $73.93 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $62.35. According to the ETF Finder at ETF Channel, PDCE makes up 4.99% of the S&P SmallCap Energy Portfolio ETF ( PSCE) which is trading lower by about 2.1% on the day Tuesday.


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Jason Witten says Cowboys face 'tremendous urgency'
It was one day after Jason Witten had grabbed 18 passes for the Dallas Cowboys in a loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, an all-time record for an NFL tight end in a single game, when coach Jason Garrett was asked to put that performance in perspective.
For Garrett, it was the second-most remarkable performance of the season for Witten, right behind a two-catch, 10-yard game in Week 1 that was about much more than his stat line.
WEEK 9 LOWDOWN:Can Cowboys beat Falcons?
"I tell whoever's going to make the speech to induct him into whatever he's going to get inducted into, start with that Giants game on opening night," Garrett said, referring to Witten's battling back from a spleen injury in the preseason to play that night in an upset of the Super Bowl champs.
"Don't talk about 18-catch games, don't talk about the records he's going to break as a receiving tight end and all of that. Talk about that Giants game because it was really one of the more remarkable performances I've ever seen as a player or coach in this league.
"A guy who was so determined to play that he was going to play without practicing for the last month and with a slightly lacerated spleen," he added. "So that's where it starts."
Witten earned plenty of kudos for his toughness after that game, but in the weeks that followed, the curve on which the critics were grading flattened out. Outside of a 13-catch game against the Chicago Bears, many were calling it the downfall of a 10-year career destined to end in Canton and the induction to which Garrett was referring.
COWBOY CALLS 911:Says family is harassing him
Witten shut them all up with his game this past Sunday, albeit in a losing effort after Tony Romo couldn't get the ball to a bracketed Witten on a key fourth-and-1.
" A lot of people were saying, 'Boy, he's a different player now.' I had a pretty good perspective on what he was going through and what he was going through and how determine he was to play for our football team. And that's what he's all about," Garrett said, adding: "He's a special player, he's a special guy, he's a great leader, he's one of the best players in the National Football League."
That "special" player, who will pass Michael Irvin as the Cowboys' all-time leading receiver with four more catches, spent some time with USA TODAY Sports for this week's NFL Q&A to discuss a wide range of topics, including the compliment he received from a Giants player after Sunday's game, the "urgency" he perceives from Jerry Jones to win another Super Bowl soon and whether he agrees with Garrett's assessment the highlight of his resume is his Week 1 game:
Was that the most uncovered you've ever been in your life?
Well, I think it was just the best job we were able to do of executing. You're just feeling good. Obviously, we were behind the 8-ball (with an early 23-0 deficit), so we were throwing a lot. Just went out there and tried to execute the best you can. You always feel like you can win and I was able to take advantage of some matchups.
I heard you got a nice compliment from Giants linebacker Michael Boley.
Yeah, he was good. (Laughs) He just said, 'Hey, man, you ran me pretty tough today.' Obviously I've got a lot of respect for him and how he plays the game. It was just one of those deals where it was able to go my way and take advantage of that. It was pretty intense there.
Jason Garrett was asked about Sunday's game and he said when they induct you into the Hall of Fame, they should talk about your Week 1 game when you played through the spleen injury, not this game. Agree?
That means a lot. I think Jason's a great coach. So much is made of catches and doing all of that. But inside a team, the things you remember are the moments when nobody thinks you can do it and you try to rally your team and try to add some inspiration for them. That was a special moment, to battle through it even though statistically it's not a game you'll remember.
How tough was it to play through that?
It's an internal organ. It's not a rolled ankle or a sprained thumb. It was one of those deals where you felt it every time you moved. It controls your bleeding there, so you don't want to take a hit and have more of it. It was just, I was determined after the way the season ended last year (with a loss to the Giants in Week 17) that you want to be able to come in and help your team get the season started better. That was where my approach was. I was just glad to be a part of it.
Every time you moved you felt it?
Not every time, but I definitely felt it for sure. I was in bed there for a week or 10 days in California. But we have a great medical staff and help. I started feeling better and better and got an opportunity. I was probably rusty and sore (in Week 1), but nothing that would get too much to take away from it.
Did you ever think, 'This is something really, really bad?'
No, you know, when it happened I kind of felt like I had the wind knocked out of me. And then it continued to get worse and worse and worse. Of course, I found out the next day how serious it was. The doc said, 'I think we're going to have to get a scan here.' I was like, 'Oh, man, that's not the wind knocked out of me, huh? This might be a little bit more.'
So where does the determination to play through it come from?
That's just the mentality I have. Honestly, it's just a love for football. Look at that sign right there (that reads, 'It is a privilege, not a right, to play and to coach for The Dallas Cowboys'), it's a privilege. You can't take it for granted. Every time you go out, you want to help your team, play your best and don't let any opportunities slide by.
You're the longest-tenured Cowboy. What have you seen from Jerry Jones being able to handle the near-misses of the last decade?
I have so much respect for him and how he handles himself. I'm amazed by him every time I'm around him in every phase of the organization. I have a great relationship with him. I truly respect him and his family very much. He takes a lot of unwanted heat, but expectations are high here to compete for Super Bowls. He understands that. We all do.
Do you sense his patience is wearing thin?
There's no question there's a tremendous amount of urgency. But that's good when you have that type of urgency. It flows downhill and guys need that.
You're facing Tony Gonzalez and the Atlanta Falcons Sunday. What other tight ends do you like watching?
There are so many good ones. The game has changed so much in the last few years. But (Rob) Gronkowski's a great one. (Antonio) Gates did it a long time. There are a lot of good tight ends.
When you say the game's changing, I assume you mean how they use tight ends. What are your thoughts on how they're used now?
I think it's great. People are realizing those are big matchups that you can take advantage of and you can have an opportunity to go after somebody. Anytime you get a chance to do that, you see how these guys are really special. They can go outside, they can play inside, they can do all those things.
Did you hear from any of those tight ends after your performance Sunday?
Yeah, I did. I don't want to mention anybody in particular, good buddies of mine complimenting me and saying they were happy for me and all that good stuff.
You'll be on the field with Gonzalez and you'll have a chance to break Michael Irvin's record. What goes through your head when you think about that?
You try not to think about it too much before it happens. Your focus is on winning a game, not about breaking a record. But it's definitely special and to do it going against the greatest out there is unique.
And breaking Irvin's record?
He had a lot of great people around him, but it'll be special to pass him. He was the staple of what this is all about. To see how he played the game, how he approached it, he was one of the greatest, not just for this organization but really for the entire league. It'll be special to have that opportunity to pass him.


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On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, at 7:00 p.m., the Bridgewater Township Planning Board will continue with its series of public meetings consisting of presentations, testimony from experts, and comments from the public about the now-controversial plan to develop land on the side of the First Watchung Mountain Range north of Foothill Road in Bridgewater Township.
What appeared at first to be a slam-dunk proposal to significantly alter the topography of a 37-acre parcel of land bounded by Foothill Road to the south, Twin Oaks Road to the west, and Steele Gap Road to the east, has met with organized citizens' opposition represented by legal counsel, Jeffrey J. Brookner, Esq., and Thonet Associates Inc., an environmental planning and engineering design consultant firm.
Both have been retained by Stop-18-Homes, a group of residents living either nearby or contiguous to the planned development site.
An extensive 50-page report released this week by Thonet Associates of Pittstown, NJ, presents a detailed assessment of the alleged inability of this 37-acre mountain-side property to absorb and to survive the impact of what the report claims would be significant environmental damage that would occur should the site be developed as proposed by the applicant.
Thonet's report consistently makes a case for the alleged insufficiency of the applicant's site design plan to adequately consider the full impact of downhill water flows to the site, to adjacent and non-contiguous area, as well as to the wetlands contained within the site.
The report asserts that the wetlands would be adversely impacted by a proposed water drainage system that would prevent storm flows and groundwater from sufficiently refreshing and recharging the wetlands area.
Thonet challenges and refutes part of the applicant's methodology, writing that "All of the project's storm water management calculations are wrong . . . [that] those calculations provide no valid basis for concluding that the subject project will not increase peak-[level] flows from the [37-acre] site."
Thonet continues with an admonition that, "The applicant should revise the project's storm water management calculations to correct for the errors and deficiencies contained in those calculations . . ."
This 50-page document is highly detailed and technical in nature, but the issues and recommendations contained within it are quite understandable to a serious and patient reader.
It is a point-by-point analysis which, not infrequently, serves as a rebuttal to the sufficiency of the applicant's proposal as it currently sits before the Bridgewater Township Planning Board.
Its findings address the 37-acre proposed development site's topography, soils and geology, drainage patterns and surface hydrology, swales, berms, ground water hydrology, surface and ground water quality, evidence of a former farm dump area on the site, overall site disturbance, the nature and adequacy of proposed retention basins (the report declassified them as "dams"), and the impact of construction activity to the site.
Other findings question the wisdom of a diversionary storm water intake structure, alleged problems with the applicant's overall proposed storm water management plan, and alleges insufficient consideration of "contributing drainage areas to the site [that] far exceed the drainage area limits assumed by the applicant's engineer,"
In one section of the report, Mr. Thonet alleges that "Simply put, all of the applicant's storm water management calculations are wrong." Pretty strong stuff!
In his closing comments, this environmental planning and engineering design consultant hired by Stop-18-Homes offers two alternatives to the plan now before the Bridgewater Planning Board:
"Acquisition of the property for open space," citing as authority provisions of the Bridgewater Township Open Space and Recreation Plan; or "Development of fewer lots" on the periphery of the site, thus not disturbing its interior.
The subsequent nine conclusions and recommendations with which Mr. Thonet ends his report are wholly consistent with what has already been discussed in this post.
I hope that you have not found this writing too long or boring; but, of its very nature, a subject like this can get very "wonky."
Sometimes, "wonky" is what's necessary to clear the air, calm the emotions, and bring some common sense into a situation that may not be getting the consideration that the Bridgewater Township Master Plan calls for.
(Click on any image for an enhanced view.)


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Wells, Jays near $126 million deal
It appears as though the Vernon Wells saga is nearing its end — and it's a happy ending for both sides. A source with direct knowledge of the negotiations told me today that Wells and the Jays were indeed close to a seven-year deal worth $126 million — or an average of $18 million annually. The extension, which would take effect in 2008, also would include a full trade protection and an opt-out clause after the fourth season.
According to the source, Wells' representatives approached the Jays with this deal about four months ago. The Jays balked, offering $14 million for only four to five years. Wells stuck by the asking price, even though his reps believed he could get more as a free agent after 2007. Eventually — this brings us to this past week — Toronto matched the original asking price put forward by Wells' camp. Now, it appears that the sides are just waiting on approval from ownership plus the routine physical — perhaps some more detailed accounting work, too.
I think this is a good move for the Jays. There was talk that Toronto would consider trading Wells this offseason if he didn't agree to an extension, but if the Jays are serious about making a run at the division, I think Wells has to be a part of the picture. Another positive is the fact that Wells is likely taking less money than he'd get next winter. That shows a commitment to the Jays on his part.
Maybe Wells wouldn't get more next winter, though. There's two ways to look at it. There are a number of top-tier center fielders who are eligible to become free agents next winter (Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, Ichiro, etc;). A big class like that could either push prices up — i.e. one CF signs for X money and now another CF can ask for at least that much. OR a big class of center fielders could pull the price down — for example, CF #1 wants X amount of dollars, but teams say no and instead sign CF #2 for less. In the current market, though, where teams are spending at will, the first scenario seems more likely. That's one reason why this is a good deal for Toronto. If Wells becomes a free agent, the Jays probably wouldn't be able to afford him.
So now we wait for the official word. Toronto could hold a press conference to announce the deal as early as Monday, but now that Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi is back home in Worcester, Mass., maybe it won't be until mid-week or later in the week. Maybe approval from ownership will take some time, too. We've seen how long it's taken to get the payroll approved.
Even though Wells appears to be off the block now, Toronto is still exploring trades for a starter to replace Ted Lilly. Outfielders Reed Johnson and Alex Rios could potentially be moved, along with some pitching prospects. Time will tell.
Stay tuned for more…
43 Comments
This deal makes no sense from either a financial or baseball perspective. It has all the hall marks of P.Godfrey not JP. Say goodbye to Lind, McGowan, and any other prospects the Jays might have in their barren minor-league system. Also, say good bye to JP who was likely forced into this ridiculous deal. Say good bye to the future of the franchise. Say good bye to any hope of winning. Say goodbye to the average fan who cannot afford to go to the game. And finally, say goodbye to me!
Hmm… Rios? Johnson? Lind? I don't like the idea of trading any of them.
As much as Johnson is my personal favorite of the three, I'd have to trade him if given the choice.
Let's put it like this. What if all three Blue Jays played for the team in 2007, and all got injured? I know that is the worst case scenario but there it is. And we wanted to trade one of them. Who would have the most value in the deal?
Rios and Lind, because they are young, talented prospects.
You wouldn't get much for Johnson.
What I'm saying is, trading Johnson is less of a risk now than next year, because he hasn't got the same tools that awe other scouts and general managers.
Yes we got wells. This is a great deal in many ways so i don't know what you are talking about burt. How can we say goodbye to hope of winning when we got one of the best defensive and offenseive center feilder in the game.
About the pitching situation. I don't want to trade johnson or lind or rios, but one of them probably has to go. I would say rios, no doubt he is great but he has only had 1 good season. Also he hasn't quite gotten back from his injury and we can't trade johnson who is like the only eligible lead-off hitter we have got. Johnson is also great defensively. Lind is like rios but is left-handed and cheaper. Also with rios we could give up one of the pitching prospects and expect to get a mediocre outfeilder and a 3rd or 4th pitcher in return atleast.
THis would mean
Marcum/Towers (i prefer marcum unless towers get's back to his old form)
Sounds like a good deal with Wells. Everybody should be happy. (And now we hold our breath until the signature is on the contract.)
We need a pitcher and there are some expendable bats now. Nobody wants to see anyone go but if it was Rios (who JP refused to let go last year) or Johnson (who adds a lot to the team and is comparatively cheap) that would mean Lind would have to be ready. Is he? McGowan and the pitching prospects would probably be more attractive to a sub-.500 team and leave less questions unanswered at the Rogers Centre.
Goodbye burt. And I think your wrong.
Burt: Considering it was Godfrey who hired JP, there's no way JP would be fired over Wells' signing if it was Godfrey who wanted it. (Unless you think he would quit.)
Having Wells is awesome. Im stoked. Just a Question though: Since we have Thomas, and are not going to trade Wells now, can we trade another right handed power bat ? Could we trade someone like Glaus to a team like the Angels, who are dieing for a power bat cornerman and get some young Wicked pitcher from them ? ie. Santana ? I mean, at least we could keep Burt in Bluejayland by keeping his favourites. But honestly why not trade Glaus ?
Glaus had a no-trade clause in Arizona. He waived it to be traded to Toronto, but Toronto may now be subject to it.
Glaus got full no-trade when he got traded to Toronto. He might want to go back to the Angels, but do Angels want him back?
instead of doing something stupid and trading glaus, we could have the best lineup in baseball and one of the best in baseball history.
trade johnson, rios, or lind for pitching. it would be better to keep johnson because he is stellar in the field and a good leadoff gouy. but they wont be needed in a few years anyway with snider looking so promising.
keep up the good work jordan
Hey, thanks for the info on Glaus. I just thought since the angels are so bent on trading for LaRoche anyways, who has almost exact states as Glaus, but only a first basemen. First base, the one position the angels have plenty of good young talent for, but not third. I just thought the Glaus question was interesting. I didn't want to upset Glaus's fan club. Just the idea that Aubrey Huff–Left handed; young; better on base average; good slugger and cheaper, woulda been an interesting option since he's still on the market. I just don't see teams giving decent pitching for our outfielders. With Wells resigned, next season is gonna be good.
I agree with Ukgo. I really like the idea of having one of the best lineups in baseball history. But, if the Jays can't field better 4th and 5th pitchers then Towers and McGowan, i just don't see how the Jays are going to stand up to the Yankees and BoSox's amazing pitching rosters.
Riccardi still overpaid, when there was no competition. He wouldn't spend it if it was his money. All season ticket holders should revolt since you will never see World Series till 2111
Don Turner
I don't think that glaus should be traded and trust me i'm not in his fan-club. It has to be one of the outfeilders since we got good cheap outfeilders such as power hitter john-ford griffin .254/30hr/103rbi in 512 at-bats also 62bb 80runs and .335OBP
Lind-we all know what he can do
Travis Snider in 194 atbats .325 average/11hr/41rbi/.567Slug/.412OBP
SO in the future years we going to have plenty of outfeilders there are still tony miller, david smith and many others. So it would probably be best to trade away one of the young guys but they wouldn't bring much in return but trading away rios would bring alot since he is still young. THen we bring in lind and next year or couple of years bye,,bye johnson and bring in powerhitter Griffin or Snider. If we are only going to bring one of them then trade the other. I think griffin would fetch a good pricce in the future.
Any ways we have one of the best line-ups now we need one of the best pitchers because without them there is no way we will get into the play-offs. We need atleast 1 medoioce pitcher. And i think they should be gotten through trading
I'm on board with trading Rios and whichever of Marcum, McGowan and Towers gets the trade done, to Dogers for Brad Penny and Andre Either.
im not in glaus's fan club either. dont get me wrong. but how many times do you get to have a guy who hit 36 hr battting fifth?
riccardi in no way overpaid. wells probably would have gotten double that kind of money on the open market next year.
See i don't know why the Dodgers would trade Either for a guy who has preety similar stats, and then trade their number two starter Penny, for the guys the jays won't start. The Dodgers are looking for a power bat, and their only weak position player is Betemit on third.
I think this is a great move for the Jays. After years of watching young stars go elsewhere, the Jays send a bulletin to the fans saying we can have our superstars too. Vernon Wells can bring people to a ball park, and I'm thrilled he's part of the equation for 8 years.
The Jays haven't sworn themselves to a trade as of yet – free agent options are still available in such arms as Armas, Suppan, etc that can fill roles. The Jays have two aces at the top of the rotation already and just need 1-2 guys to fill out the rotation. Let's not forget that Towers led the team in wins just two seasons ago, so hoping for a return to form isn't totally out of question, and the organization will have a better idea of where he is than us.
If the Jays were to trade for pitching, I find it highly unlikely that they would trade Johnson – he is one of those guys they need to be on base for the power core, and is a fan favorite.
Toronto has two options right now, they can A)Trade some prospects for a quality pitcher that will fill our #3 spot.
B)Stick to their guns and try to see if they can fill the holes internaly. McGowan, Marcum, Towers could all fill the holes. Best case scenario both McGowan and Towers step up and take the 4/5 spots. Then we use Marcum as long releive/spot start. Worst case neither Towers or McGowan can handle the job. Then the Jays would have to find a trade before they fell too far behind. But with Halladay Burnett and their offence I think they could at least afford to try this. Option B is a little more risk/reward because they wouldnt have to trade any prospects and still could have their guys. Plus the Jays went alot of last year without a solid rotation and still managed to finish second. But option A is a guarentee and if they want to win this year then that is the probable route.
Now all we have to look at are pitchers. Trade does seem to be the best but from the free agent market these four i think are our best chance
Jeff Suppan-my best pick, he would be cheaper than mulder but can probably do the same thing. he had good 2004, 2005 years if he can go back to that he will make a great #3 starter.
Mark Mulder-injury problems but probably aside from zito the best pitcher out there. he has done a good job all years aside from last year. IF once again he can go to his potential then he might be a good pickup but he will be costly
Joel Pinerio- He had an excellent season in 2003 with seattle, if he can go back to that season then we have a great 3 starter. 2003= 16-11/3.78era and 211.2 innings pitched. But last 3 seasons he hasn't done so good, he will be cheap too.
Mark Redman-I don't really like him that much but he might come as a cheap 5th starter (not that we need any)
Basically all pitchers had a bad last year but have the potential to become good #3 starters. The only thing is can they go back to their good seasons and will they come cheap.
THe answer is probably not that's why we should make a trade but if we can't get a good trade, sign one of them it a risk but might be rewarding
The issue with trading for pitching for the Jays is that any trade from the roster is going to create a hole in the lineup. The top three outfielders seem to people's favorite bait, but Matt Stairs, as much as he will foll his role well, was not brought in as a starter. Same goes for John MacDonald in the infield. Adam Lind's bat may be ready to take a spot on the Major League roster, but the Jays are (smartly) protecting him and letting him develop before he is on the big team and I don't think he would be someone they are willing to part with. The young arms (Mcgowan, Marcum)may get shopped around, but I don't think the Jays want to do anything that will just aggravate future pitching problems. By the time these facts are taken into account, it becomes apparent that what the jays would (seemingly) be willing to offer won't get any pitching better than that which they already have. With the lineup shaping up as it is, the Jays don't need any stellar pitchers to fill in the holes. This is a lineup that will make pitchers successful (Look at Chacin's record/ERA). Guys like Suppan would do well with the run support.
Right now I don't think it makes sense to trade a proven commodity to get a 4rd or 5th starter. Johnson is a good leadoff hitter and Rios is just scratching the surface of his potential. I hope the Jays go out there and grab another pitcher like Suppan in freeagency but if they don't the only way they will truly compete for a spot in the post season is to add pitching through trade. McGowan and Marcum have alot of potential but are not quite ready. I would suspect one of them will be dealt prior to spring training in order to get that 3rd starter. The other will probably fill in in the 5th spot. I
Hey, just saw that Oakland is dangling Dan Haren as trade bait. Just wondering what people think of trading Rios for Haren ? Guy pitched two years of 200+ inning with over 150K's in each year. Not bad. Thoughts ?
I really like what Alex Rios showed last season. I think he will be one of the best players in the future. We should try to sign Redman or Suppan and not trade Rios for the future of the blue jays.
Sorry to tell you people but Redman and Suppan are not the greatest of options. I very much would like to see everyone we have stay a Jay, but sometimes its just not possible. Redman is definatly not an option, this guy had a 5.71 ERA and hitters were batting .307 against him last year, please dont tell me we cant find someone who can do better than that. Suppan could be an option, but there must not be interest from him, because if there was a chance to sign a quality pitcher in free agency I think that would be Riccardi's first option. Suppan isnt anything spectacular either, he has a career 4.60 ERA and hitters have a .278 average against him.(in the NL not the AL East) I really think Marcum could do just as Well as either of them. Why not get a ligitmate #3 guy? Saying Riccardi can deal one outfeilder and maybe a pitching prospect for a good quality pitcher. If he deals Lind, we have Johnson,Wells,Rios
If he deals Johnson, its
if he deals Rios its
All those options seem pretty good to me. All those guys are .300 hitters, not many teams can say they have that much offence from their outfeild.
Well well Wells, a great player to say the least, but in my opinion will cost us a trip to the big show this year (2007). The way I see it though, if JP keeps the team as is, and goes with what we have, just think what they can accomplish in 2008 with Hill, Rios, Markum, League, Lind & Downs with another year under their belts.
Seeing how Wells' contract is structured, it may be possible we can land another potential 20 game winner next winter, and that will be all we will need (barring injuries of course)to give NY a real shot as top dog in the AL. As for this year, in my opinion, slugging our way into 3rd position (as Boston did last year) is about all we can expect the way our pitching is right now. Unfortunarely we dont know what the Jays are thinking, but building towards a great team in 2008 looks to be very promising.
Pros and cons of trading these 4 players:
1)Dustin McGowan
Pros: McGowan has disappointed as a prospect with the Blue Jays and many fans are tiring of seeing him under-perform year after year. He carries great value on the trading market. We have many young pitchers in our system and we don't need McGowan.
Cons: McGowan is an outstanding prospect, and is almost ready to have the season that we have been promised for so long (if it will ever come). Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter both got off to slow starts to their careers with the Blue Jays and developed into great pitchers.
Overall: Keep him because I think that he has the chance to be the best of all our young pitchers.
2) Alex Rios
Pros: Trading Rios would likely net us a top-line young pitcher. Pitching is hard to come by, and Rios may be the current asking price for a Dan Haren type (in other words, Lind might not fetch Haren in a trade). Besides, Rios really cooled down after a hot start. Rios is not a bone-fide slugger for certain.
Cons: Rios is a 5-tool player, and has scary potential. Prospects like Rios come once in a blue moon.
Overall: Keep him. Rios is one of the faces of the future (and he is on the Blue Jays' 2007 commercial).
3) Reed Johnson
Pros: Last year was somewhat of a fluke for Johnson who came out of the gate hitting near .400. Although he is a hustler and a hard-worker, he does not have the potential of Rios or Lind. Last year, he benefited from having Catalanotto share time with him in left field. He has no longer Catalanotto, and will have to face righties. He is not irreplaceable.
Cons: Johnson is likable, and a fan-favourite. He is a hard-worker and a hustler. He is also the Jays' lead-off man.
Overall: Trade him while his value is high. He is exactly the player Ken Williams and Billy Beane like for their teams.
Adam Lind
Pros: Lind is just a prospect, not a proven player. He might turn out to be a flop. He is poor defensively, and could still fetch something in a trade.
Cons: He does not have as much value in a trade as the others, and he looks like he will become a true slugger. Very few people have seasons in the Minor Leagues like Linds'.
Overall: Keep him because he will improve his defense and will become a good hitter.
I think the Jays should decide if they want to win this year or not. If they want to look to 08, then they should really keep Rios/Marcum/Lind, they just have so much potential. Trading these guys for anything less then a Garland/Vasquez or a Haren is really a huge waste of time. I think we could benefit by trading Johnson to get some prospects from the Met's like Heilman, but other then that lets wait till 08; Rios deserves more respect than what espn is reporting as the trade offers him.
respond to Dave,
i believe we dont need to trade for anymore prospects. We have plenty of prospect, we need proven players. I heard rumors about Penny, maybe Rios + someone for Brad Penny?
And about Redman, you gotta consider the fact he played for KC last year. They were the worst team in every stats. Redman wouldnt have the same amount of confidence or motivation to prove anything on that team. Well i believe he would make a good 4th or 5th starter, and hes alot better then Towers. And yes he did have 5.71 ERA last year. But if he was in toronto, he would had the 2nd best ERA(in which who qualifies), only behind Roy Halladay.
Hey good point about Redman and about prospects.
Is Penny worth it ? I admit i haven't seen him pitch, and his stats last year sound good,but, he's got potentially three years with a larger salary, questions about health and the translation of skills to the AL to wonder about. I like J.P's comments about not wanting to get stuck with mediocre guys for high priced years. I just think/wish for a trade that would bring a Garland/Vasquez/Haren, and even sign a Redman –now that youve pointed out his strengths, and with our hitters, WOW.
i havent seen penny much since he has been in LA. but what I saw from him in the all star game, it would be a bargain to trade rios + prospect to get him. i dont really know how he was cumulatively in LA last year, but he was good enough to start the all star game. the way he was blowing heat past great hitters like derek jeter was amazing. we would be lucky to get him, and I hope we do.
Backman: Johnson hit .316 against righties. Catalanotto only hit .306.
Penny, yes Redman no!!
Do we want the #1 starter of the allstar game or the 5th starter scraps off the worst team in the league. Serioulsy people, take a look at Redmans stats, even if you havnt seen him pitch they will tell you he is not going to make us better. As for the point of him having the 2nd best ERA on our team behind Halladay I really dont know how many innings it takes to qualify, i certainly dont care, because that has no bearing on if he is a good pitcher or not. ERA of 5.71 is not good enough for this team if we want to get better.
Lilly's SO/BB ratio was better than Redman's, but Redman's BB/IP, HR/IP, and IP/GS ratios were better. Maybe Redman's ERA would have been lower on a team that was better defensively than the Royals.
In response to Torgen,
Johnson had an outstanding year in 2006. However, if it's a matter of keeping Johnson or Rios, Johnson's year is still not good enough to warrant us keeping him over Rios.
backmann, i agree with you. Johnson had a great year, and hes one of my favourite players, but rios is the future. Rios will eventually find his power stroke and jack 25-30, maybe not in 07, but he will still have enough pop. i say gibby should put rios in between johnson and wells at the top, this way we have 3 fairly good runners in front of glaus and thomas, but we also have a good chunk of power. also, rios hits for a high enough avg that he will be on base plenty of the time for wells thomas glaus and overbay to knock him in many times. Great blog Jordan, keep it up!
Great to see Wells here for the long haul!Great guy with great production and the team leader.Jays can't expect to contend in the east without him.I was happy to see the jays losing on Meche and Lilly.Way to much money for .500 pitchers.I think trading Rios or Lind for a #4 or #5 starter is not the way to go as far as Iam concerned.Alex Rios only worth a back of the rotation pitcher? I think not.Jansen and Marcum with a year under their belt could be the answer.Even Towers,although I think the pen is the place for him until he gets confidence back.For insurance and depth,why not try to sign Redman or even Ramon Ortiz. Ortiz is interesting because like Lilly and Meche, Ortiz is also a .500 pitcher with a great attitude.(unlike Lilly)He Could also be signed for alot less than 10million/4yrs.I believe he was 11-15/around 5.00era/190 innings last year with the Nationals,however those numbers could have been similar to Lilly's with the Jays offence and defence behind him.
Here are a few things to think about.
1) No matter what else the Jays do this off-season, it is extremely unlikely that they will finish ahead of Boston or New York. I hate to say it, but this is the reality.
2)JP's philosophy on putting a contender together is analogous to a one-night stand versus a marriage. JP is not trying to build a competitive team year in and year out, much like Atlanta, NY, Detroit etc. Rather, he is trying to get his team to the post-season at all costs. If this means mortgaging the future, so be it. Ever hear of a guy named Chris Carpenter? Ever hear of a guy named Michael Young? These people were either given away or traded away for what amounts to nothing. Why? JP is more interested in trying to build his reputation as an unproven general manager by getting to the post-season. He will trade all of our precious few young prospects to achieve his ambition. Yet, look at "DUMBrowski" with the Tigers. He has already achieved what JP has not by building around talented, young players. Detroit will be competitive for a long time, and will have less of a payroll that Toronto. Meanwhile, Toronto will be stuck in 3rd place with little, of any hope for the future.
3)Consider Oakland. Here is a team that annually finishes ahead of the blue jays, and that, with less payroll. How do they do it? Their general manager stock piles young talent. He would have taken a guy like Wells, and turned him into a stud pitching prospect and a stud out-fielder. Yes, he may have had to wait a year for them to mature at the major league level, but chances are, they would likely be in the race for the rookie of the year, like so many of Oakland's talented young players.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I feel that the Jays philosophy for building a winner is all to similar to that of the Leafs. Both organizations refuse to build around young talent, either because they cannot draft it or because when they draft it, they are too willing to trade it away for a tier III veteran who "may" make them a little bit better in the near future.
I agree that building a winner from young talent is the way to go.Signing Vernon to a long term deal was a step in that direction.Trading away Rios,Johnson,Lind,McGowan for short term help would be like taking a step back.This club already has a good nucleus of young talent lets keep it.I still say it's time for some of the young pitchers to step up or they may as well be gone.#4 @ #5 starting positions have been open since last spring and no one really has jumped up and taken advantage of this.This spring may be Ryan Houston's time to shine.It would still be nice to see another veteran arm in the rotation but not at the expense of the future.This team can compete with the Yankees and Red Sox.There are holes on those clubs as well.There are also alot of big egos and aging pitchers who are at the end of their careers.As for the Tigers, they realized that they needed more of a veteran presence in the clubhouse to complement the young talent.(added Sheffield).
Oh by the way, the Jays play in a lot tougher division than Oakland.The A's have done an excellent job and have a good club.However don't look for them to get past the ALCS anytime soon.
While you make a decent point tk you have to take into account where Toronto's prospects are at in terms of development. We have alot of players ready to take on a full time job within the next season or two. Shaun MArcum, Dustin McGowan, Casey Janssen, Ty Taubenheim, Adam Lind, Josh Banks, Sergio Santos etc, ect. are all going to be pushing for playing time in the near future. There is no possible way the Jays can keep all of these players. Why not trade one or two of them for a player that can push you over the top? If Riccardi moves one or two starters and one outfielder there are still a handfull of guys in the system that can step in if needed. I think right now trying to get a #3 starter is much more important than sitting on a couple of prospect who might be good. Due to the signing of Thomas and Stairs I think it is only reasonable to assume that riccardi and the Jays want to win now. Its finally nice to see the Jays trying to win instead of trying not to lose. Lets get another topline starter in here so we can finally push our way backinto the playoff picture.
In my opinion, the Jays should leave their roster the way it is now. We may not have a complete line of starters to get things going for us, but we have one of the best lineups is baseball….FINALLY. With our pitching situation that way it is, I like the look of Halladay/Burnett/Chacin, and then giving the opportunities to Towers/McGowan/Marcum. I think Towers and Marcum especially have a good shot at becoming quality starters. Towers may have struggled a bit last year, but I think he will rise to the occasion if given the chance again in 2007. Marcum is coming off from a good rookie year and I think he has great potential. Plus, the lineup we have is only going to benefit pitchers that have this to back them up. The bullpen looks fair and we obviously have one of the best closers in Ryan.
Why mess up what could turn out great. I say take some chances and give the Blue Jays that we have now a chance to show why they were brought here in the first place.
Do people think it's a problem going into next season with only three quality starters, and only one of them pitched more then 200 innings last year, and all three got hurt (Haliday not as seriously, but shows it can happen). It's just that if we are going with such a young bullpen, isn't that taking a big risk ?


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There are total 7 letters in Adultly, Starting with A and ending with Y.
Adultly is a scrabble word? Yes (11 Points) Adultly has worth 11 Scrabble points.
An Anagram is collection of word or phrase made out by rearranging the letters of the word. All Anagram words must be valid and actual words.
Browse more words to see how anagram are made out of given word.
In Adultly A is 1st, D is 4th, U is 21st, L is 12th, T is 20th, Y is 25th letters in Alphabet Series.


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Listings in Taxonomy and Metadata, Analytics Services and Consulting Services in Massachusetts
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Conquering Chronic Pain
For years, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi was bedridden for a week every month and didn't know why. At last, she got the right diagnosis and reclaimed her life.
Top Chef host and judge Padma Lakshmi has built an impressive career as a cookbook author, reality star and epicurean entrepreneur. Amazingly, she's done all this while spending much of her life in crippling pain. Padma suffers from endometriosis, a condition in which the lining of a woman's uterus grows on the ovaries, bowel, bladder or other areas of the pelvis, causing scarring and pain. "I was bedridden for a week every month," recalls Padma, 42. "I had heavy flow, cramping and pelvic aches."
Monthly misery
When Padma was in college, she blamed herself for not being able to tough out her monthly pain like the other girls. "When your roommate gets her period and just pops two ibuprofen…then skips off to hockey practice, you wonder, What's wrong with me? Am I a sissy? Am I complaining too much?" says Padma, who hid her pain from others. Later, the condition took a toll on her modeling career. "I can't tell you how many jobs I had to cancel," she recalls.
Padma didn't know what was causing her symptoms. Her mother, who suffered the same way, simply told her, "There's nothing you can do about it; it's just our lot in life."
Then, in October 2006, Padma suddenly started bleeding heavily in the midst of a photo shoot for her cookbook, Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day (Weinstein Books, 2007). She was terrified. Her internist sent her to Tamer Seckin, MD, a New York laparoscopic surgeon. After a thorough examination, he diagnosed her with endometriosis and said, "I think you've been in pain for so many years you think it's normal."
"I'll never forget the tears rolling down my face because somebody had finally described to me what was happening," recalls Padma. "It turns out that I wasn't a drama queen [after all]." Padma's relief was tempered with anger that her condition hadn't been diagnosed sooner. "Think of all the dates I could have gone on, all the jobs I wouldn't have missed, all the family moments I could have been present for," she says. It took three intensive surgeries to extricate the tissue that had rooted itself in Padma's body.
Spreading the word
Determined to spare other women the misery she endured, Padma teamed up with Dr. Seckin in 2009 to create the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EFA). The foundation raises awareness of the condition and funds research. It helped launch the nation's first endometriosis research center—the MIT Center for Gynepathology Research in Boston. Padma is especially proud of the poster EFA created to educate men and women about the condition. "We want to see it in every gym, in every girl's locker room, in women's bathrooms," she says.
A few months after she started the EFA, Padma got pregnant with her daughter, Krishna, now 2. "I believe it was my good karma for starting the foundation," she says. And now that she's pain-free, she's enjoying her life more fully. The 10th season of the Emmy Award-winning Top Chef has wrapped up, and she's determined to teach her daughter and other girls and young women how to advocate for themselves. "Pain is your body's way of telling you something is not right," she says. "[If you're in pain], tell somebody so you can be comfortable."


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Red Dot Design Award
Antique stringed instruments showcased in a modern, avant-garde design — our daring new corporate identity departs from the prevailing stereotypes of our trade. In addition to many favourable responses from our customers and business partners, we received a very special honour in December 2010: two of the internationally renowned Red Dot Design awards. The jury of this highly prestigious contest, whose awards are considered a seal of quality for premium design, awarded one prize for our corporate design and another prize for two related postcard motifs from a series of stylish greeting cards that can be sent for free from our website at: E-Card.
MfG Award Shortlist
Our instruments are delivered in packaging and with business letters in the Corilon style, for which we received yet another honour in 2010 in addition to the Red Dot awards for our corporate design and two postcard motifs. The Bundesverband Druck und Medien (bvdm), the German Printing and Media Industries Federation, nominated our new look for the 2010 MfG Award. The high-powered jury named Corilon's office stationery as one of the 17 best-designed in Germany.
MBPW Nomination - Development Stage
Our enthusiasm for historic stringed instruments and the appreciation we express in the way we select, restore and present them form the core of the business idea for which Corilon violins was honoured in the MBPW. The MBPW was founded by a coalition of businesses, universities and research institutions to support innovative companies during their start-up phase.