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MLB 2012 Regular Season In Review
As hard as it is to believe, this week marks the conclusion of the 2012 MLB regular season. Without question, it has been one of the craziest seasons in recent memory, with the likes of multiple perfect games, historic rookie impacts, colossal trades, spectacular individual accomplishments and unexpected team performances.
Writers Greg Kaplan, Joe Binckes and Vinny Ginardi have come together to hand out some hardware and identify the best and the worst of the 2012 season.
Biggest Surprise of 2012
Joe Binckes- If there's a bigger surprise than the season being put together by the Baltimore Orioles, I can't think of it. I'd have been a skeptic if you told me in the preseason that they were going to finish ahead of the Blue Jays for fourth place in the American League East. Instead, they finished the year with 93 wins en route to clinching their first playoff berth since 1997, and it took until the last day of the season to be sure they wouldn't win the division over the New York Yankees. It's unbelievable. In particular, this pitching staff has exceeded expectations at every turn. There's something inexplicable at work with this team, and although their roster doesn't seem all that formidable, I'd still be afraid to see them come playoff time.
Who knew that flipping Jeremy Guthrie for Jason Hammel would be one of the best acquisitions last offseason? Between the Angels, Tigers, and Marlins throwing around money like it was going out of style, this almost got lost in the fray. Adam Jones has continued taking steps towards becoming a bona-fide superstar. Top shortstop prospect Manny Machado came up to the majors at age 19 and has done nothing but impress, filling in the void that Baltimore had at third base in a seamless transition from one position to another. Closer Jim Johnson has set a club record with 51 saves, and there are still three games to play at the time of this writing.
Now, you may be thinking "Oh, this all seems pretty plausible. Sure, they looked mediocre-to-bad according to preseason expectations, but they've had guys play up to their potential and they're winning games. What a story!" No. There's something strange going on here. The 2012 Baltimore Orioles are 16-2 in extra inning games, including victories in each of their last 16. They are 29-9 in one-run games. With three games to play, they shared the lead in the American League East with the Yankees, with less than half of the payroll (and, as far as we believed before the season, talent). I don't even know what to make of it, will be watching intently come playoff time to see if this team can prove themselves when it matters most.
Vinny Ginardi: I completely with everything that Joe said, but I think we also need to give the Oakland Athletics some love here too. While we didn't expect much from Baltimore this season, we knew they had some players who could swing the bat (Adam Jones, Mark Reynolds, etc.). The A's? They only have one player who has higher than a 2.7 offensive Win Above Replacement (Yoenis Cespedes) and rank 15th or worse in runs, batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. But the pitching has been dominant. The A's have the second best earned run average in the American League. The names may not be as big but Oakland reminds me a little bit of the San Francisco Giants team that won it all two years ago.
JB: Great call Vinny, the A's were definitely near the top of my list too. One of the most amazing things about how strong they finished out the season is the fact that they've done it with a starting rotation comprised entirely of rookies! After Brandon McCarthy's terrifying head injury and a muscle strain sidelined the resurgent Brett Anderson, Jarrod Parker was left to anchor a staff that was mostly unknown quantities before the start of the season.
Greg Kaplan: Clearly, I'm in fully agreement with both Binckes and Vinny. However, I'm going to take a very different approach to determining who is the biggest surprise in baseball this year. I'm going to individualize it. I have a feeling I'm not going to be the first person to mention this guy, but I'm positive I'll be the only one to do it in the surprise section.
Regardless of how talented we all knew he was in the Minors, or how high he was ranked on prospect rankings, nobody, and I mean nobody, could have told me back in February Mike Trout was about to do everything he accomplished this season. There's just no way. He is the first rookie in Major League Baseball history to hit 30+ home runs, steal 45+ bases and score 125+ runs. Not to mention, he's also hitting a svelt .325/.398/.564, maintains a WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of 10.9, has robbed at least two home runs that I know of and just celebrated his 21st birthday in August.
In an off-season during which the Angels made huge moves by bringing in Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, it's Trout that is the clear cut team MVP. He resurrected this team after their slow start out of the gates and, while they still failed to meet pre-season expectations, few people are classifying the year as a failure. If Trout doesn't win MVP, he'll finish no lower than second. Yeah, I'd call Trout my biggest surprise of 2012.
Biggest Disappointment of 2012
JB- Disclaimer: I'm a Yankees fan, and I've loved every minute of this season. Because for every time the Yanks went into a mini-skid, or even when it looked like there was a real chance they might not make the playoffs, the Boston Red Sox were always down near the bottom of the standings.
Trying to put my bias aside, it's baffling what the Red Sox have turned into this year. Before the year started, this team was thought to be in the upper echelon of contending teams. Things were looking up! Veteran manager Bobby Valentine would keep things in check in the clubhouse, Carl Crawford was due for a bounce-back year, Jacoby Ellsbury would strike fear into opposing pitchers from the leadoff spot every night, only to be driven in by Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez, Jon Lester and Josh Beckett would anchor a staff that could hand the ball off to newly acquired late-inning relievers Marc Melancon and Andrew Bailey, and all would be right in Boston again.
Except none of that happened. Valentine wasn't leading the team, and in the face of adversity it looked like dissension rose in the clubhouse. Crawford never got back from injury, instead tacking on another injury and eventually Tommy John surgery. Ellsbury lost half his season to a shoulder injury, and hasn't been even close to the MVP-calibur player we saw in 2011 since his return. Gonzalez slumped for half the year, and even Pedroia hasn't played up to the level we expect from him. The pitching staff has been pretty horrendous from top to bottom, whether it was Beckett and Lester underperforming or the above mentioned bullpen arms going missing (Bailey to injury, Melancon to the minors due to ineffectiveness). The terrible season was capped off with the Los Angeles Dodgers taking on the huge contracts of CrawfO.D. Gonzalez, and Beckett and leaving the Red Sox roster we expected to see come October decimated, a shell of its former self. There was huge potential here, and the table seemed set for redemption after last year's epic collapse. Instead, we find the Red Sox in the cellar of the AL East, with the third worst record in the AL, and once again left on the outside looking in at playoff baseball.
Greg's pick of Mike Trout as his biggest surprise also got me thinking about how disappointing Matt Kemp's season has been. I was really looking forward to watching him try to live up to his vow to achieve a 50/50 season, and while I didn't think it would happen there was definitely a part of me that believe he could pull it off.
VG: A lot of potential suitors here, but I am going with the Los Angeles Angels, even though they had a decent record and with the offense ranking in the top five in several offensive categories. The pitching though, isn't as good as advertised. Outside of Jered Weaver (2.73 ERA) the starting pitching has been a disappointment. On paper, the Angels were a World Series talent, but they didn't even make the postseason.
GK: I'll admit, I suppose there is a certain level of bias in my selection. To me, the obvious selection outside of the Boston Red Sox this year had to be the Miami Marlins. Think of all the factors the team had going into this year that they felt made them not only contenders in the East, but World Series contenders:
They opened up a brand new, state-of-the-Art Ballpark in Miami. They hired Ozzie Guillen to be their new manager. They signed the likes of Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle and Heath Bell to push their payroll to over $100 million. They even changed their team name from "Florida" to "Miami" to try and reinforce their "new look" approach. Not to mention, they already had the likes of Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Johnson and Hanley Ramirez in house to make this team star-loaded.
Now, consider everything that happened to them this year. Everything seemed to spiral once Guillen made his now-notorious pro-Fidel Castro comments in what is probably the largest anti-Castro city in America. Heath Bell first couldn't finish off any game he entered, then proceeded to throw everyone in the organization under the team's bus. After spending millions and saying this team's direction was much different than in years past, even trading for Carlos Lee before the deadline, the team turned heel and quickly started shedding payroll when things seemed to be at their darkest. They traded Ramirez, Omar Infante, Anibal Sanchez, Gaby Sanchez and basically begged people to take Lee off their hands, too. Oh, and they've finished in dead last in the National League East. And have I mentioned that the new stadium, believed to be the key to bringing more people to the games in South Florida, didn't draw much more than in previous years?
All we've learned about the Marlins this year and moving forward is that regardless of what they want us to believe, they'll always be the same exact team. And that, more than anything else that has happened this year, is both sad and disappointing.
NL Most Valuable Player
JB: Ryan Braun is essentially repeating his 2011 MVP season, with a triple slash of .320/.392/.598, 41 homeruns, 30 steals, 118 RBIs and 107 runs scored. The biggest differences come in a lower batting average (.320 to .333) and a noticeable uptick in the power department (last year's 30 homers have jumped to 41). I don't believe that Braun will win the award, mostly because of the offseason controversy he had due to his suspension-but-not-really and somewhat because the Brewers have missed the postseason. Setting that aside, Braun is having an incredible offensive year in all facets. I'd be perfectly fine with several other candidates, but if I had to pick one I'd go for Braun.
VG: I agree with you Binckes. I think Braun is most deserving of the award as he has had the best season of any MVP candidate, but his link to steroids is fresh in the minds of voters and will play a significant role in how he is viewed.
Because of that, Buster Posey will win the 2012 MVP award. He finished with a batting average of .336, the highest in MLB, and tied Braun for the National League lead with a WAR of 8.0. He also hit 24 home runs and drove in 103 while excelling at the most difficult position in baseball to play. While I'm not as big on a player's team success as an indicator of how valuable a player actually is (one player can only have so much of an impact on the team in baseball), I'm sure it doesn't hurt Posey's case that the San Francisco Giants won the NL West while the Milwaukee Brewers failed to make the playoffs.
GK: The debate for MVP always comes down to which player do you deem more valuable, or which player do you think had a better season. This is why I'm going to stray away from Ryan Braun and pick Buster Posey as my MVP.
First, let's take a peek at the numbers Posey has thrown up this season all while playing the most demanding position defensively. For starters, Posey (kind of) won the National League batting title with his .336 average, and backed that up with a .408 on-base (second to Joey Votto's injury-shortened .474), .549 slugging percentage (fourth) and a National League-best 7.2 WAR. He's also the anchor of the Giants pitching staff. After Matt Cain's perfect game, Cain was very quick to give tons of credit to Posey and his game calling ability.
Another reason why Posey should be MVP over Braun specifically comes down to the age-old debate regarding whether someone should win MVP if his team doesn't make the playoffs. The argument tends to be "How can a player be deemed so valuable if his team as a whole isn't valuable?" Is it a fair argument? Can we go on for hours debating what is more important, individual stats or team performance? Absolutely on both counts. And you would find me on the side of the debate that says team performance is a huge determining factor in deciding who should win MVP.
Buster Posey arguably had a better season than Braun, while playing a more demanding defensive position and playing it well. He didn't hit as many home runs or drive in as many runs, but Posey's play was more valuable and important to a division-winning Giants attack. Take Posey off the Giants, and they don't make the playoffs. Take Braun off the Brewers, and they still don't make the playoffs. Would the Brewers be worse off without Braun? Yes, no question. But, they weren't a playoff caliber team with Braun. The Giants aren't likely a playoff team without Posey. With Posey, they are. That's most valuable.
NL Cy Young
GK: Its R.A. Dickey. And it bothers me that there is such a debate about this. The numbers indicate it should be Dickey. He led the National League in starts (33), complete games (5), shutouts (3), innings pitched (233.2), and strikeouts (230). He won 20 games (second in the league) and finished with a 2.73 ERA (second) and 1.05 WHIP. More impressively, while the strikeout numbers are nice, Dickey also posted a remarkable 2.1 BB/9 while throwing his knuckleball around 80% of the time.
Which brings us to the most impressive characteristic about Dickey's unbelievable 2012 performance. He made the most unpredictable pitch in baseball history predictably unhittable. We've seen knuckleball pitchers have significant success in baseball before. After all, Phil Neikro and Hoyt Wilhelm find themselves in Cooperstown. However, nobody has dominated the pitch in the same way Dickey did this season. He kept hitters off balance not by throwing it, but throwing it for strikes and throwing a staggering three variations of the same pitch. Dickey flashed a traditional, 75-78MPH knuckler, a "hard" knuckler that topped out at 83MPH and the super slo-mo that dipped down into the low 60s. Oh, you know a knuckler is coming? That's nice. Good luck figuring out A) where it's going and B) how fast it's coming.
The numbers reflect Dickey's dominance, but it's also important to remember that there was a stretch to Dickey's season where he was flat out untouchable. The Dickey had a stretch in the beginning of the summer where he didn't give up a run for 30+ innings, struck out more than 10 batters in each of his starts during the stretch, walked fewer than 5 batters and even had a 12-inning hitless stretch that spanned from the first inning of a game in Tampa Bay through his next appearance. He was a slow B.J. Upton bleeder and clean bare-hand David Wright pick at third from a perfect game.
Also, unlike with the MVP awards, Cy Youngs are individual and don't involve team success at all. In fact, isn't it more impressive that Dickey won 20 games with the Mets, a team that only won 74 as a whole? Isn't that more impressive than the 21 Gio Gonzalez won when his team finished with the best record in baseball? Isn't that a clear point in Dickey's favor that he prospered without the help of his team behind him? I'd say so.
Call it me being a homer for a New York Met. Call it a biased opinion. It shouldn't matter. There wasn't a better story or a better pitcher in 2012. It's R.A. Dickey's award. The media should rightfully give it to him. Plain and simple.
JB: I do think this award should go to R.A. Dickey, but doing that write-up and robbing Greg of a chance to gush would've been wrong so I'll defer and take a look at Clayton Kershaw's candidacy. Kershaw is everything you want in a Cy Young candidate. He's made 32 starts (only missing one due to a hip issue), has thrown 219.2 innings and struck out 221 batters while walking only 60. His ERA sits at a National League-leading 2.53, and his WHIP at a 1.02. The stuff is absolutely nasty, and there's the feeling that any night he takes the mound he could blank whatever team has the misfortune to stand against him. His 14-9 record may hold him back (before you cite Felix in 2010, realize that his ratios and innings count were noticeably better than the runners up, and he threw six complete games that year), and I feel like the narrative behind Dickey will really just push him over the top.
I do want to take a moment to mention that Craig Kimbrel is a MADMAN. I can't see giving him the award over these big time starters, but his stat line needs to get noticed. 1.02 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, and 113 strikeouts in 61.2 innings pitched. That's a rate of roughly 16.7 strikeouts per nine innings, the highest ever among pitchers who have thrown at least 50 innings in a given season. To break down the ratios a bit more, he allowed seven runs and 27 hits in to the 231 batters he faced this season. Yes, that does mean he struck out more than half of the guys who came up to the plate against him. Incredible.
VG: While I think that Dickey will win the award because his dominance was a story for much of the summer, I actually think he ranks behind Kershaw, Gio Gonzalez and Kimbrel (in that order). As Binckes mentioned, Kershaw led the league in ERA, and also beat out Dickey in K/9, WHIP, FIP, and BAA. Gonzalez actually leads Kershaw in a few of these categories, and has a much better record (21-8), but I think his ERA is a little too high to make up the difference (2.89)
NL Rookie of the Year
JB: This is the most interesting of the awards for me, because I honestly am not sure how it's going to go. I'll choose Bryce Harper here, and I think he will take home the prize not only because the year he's having merits strong consideration but also because he's on the team with the best record in baseball and we've been reading about what a monster he would become practically since he startEd High school.
Harper, age 19 (!!) got his first taste of the majors this year, and has had some ups and downs throughout the season. Joining the team in late April, Harper started off strong before hitting an extended slump for a few months, though he accumulated some decent counting stats across the board all year. However, Harper's .330 average since the start of September that helped his team clinch their first playoff berth since moving from Montreal to Washington, and heralding in a new era of Nationals baseball. On the year, he's managed to maintain a respectable .270/.340/.477 line, with 22 home runs and 18 steals, and finishing just short of 100 runs scored. He's had his share of gaffs in the outfield, but growing pains are allowed for a 19 year old who is walking into a pre-revved hype machine on a surprising division winner.
Whether Harper's stats are better than the other top candidates for this award is surely debatable, but when all is said and done, Harper will be the one that defines the 2012 rookie class in the National League. To me, his solid performance combined with that fact make him the top candidate to take home the prize.
VG: How can it not be Wade Miley? I know Harper has the name recognition, but Miley ranked 10th overall in pitching WAR (4.8), finished with a 16-11 record and an ERA of 3.33 (10th best in the NL). Harper doesn't rank in the top 10 in any important category. Hey, maybe Bryce Harper ends up being one of the best players in league history, but this award isn't given out based on potential.
GK: I'm with Vinny. I don't want to underscore how amazing a year Bryce Harper has had as a teenager. The headlines he has gotten throughout the season are justifiable. But, Wade Miley has simply been the better rookie. The Diamondbacks under-performed all season long, and for a long time Miley was the only bright spot. He was dominant in the first half, even throwing his name into the conversation to receive All-Star Game starting consideration.
With that said, you could even make a solid argument that Harper isn't the only rookie enjoying a breakout season. A lot of people don't even consider Todd Frazier from Cincinnati when talking about this award. But, let's take a peak at the two offensive lines of Harper and Frazier.
Harper: 139 games, 144 hits, .270/.340/.477, 22 HR, 59 RBI, 18 SB, 98 runs, 119 OPS+
Frazier: 128 games, 115 hits, .273/.331/.498, 19 HR, 67 RBI, 3 SB, 55 runs, 115 OPS+
You probably give the edge to Harper at the end of the day, but the numbers are strikingly similar. More similar than casual baseball fans would've realized. Nevertheless, the point becomes moot when you consider Miley. It should be his award, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Harper walk away with the honors.
AL Most Valuable Player
JB: Ah, the highly contentious topic of AL MVP. It's clearly a two man race at this point, with the ever-consistent Miguel Cabrera putting up a career year in offensive statistics en route to the Triple Crown since 1967 as one candidate and wunderkind Mike Trout presenting an indisputably brilliant season of his own. Both are incredible talents having incredible years, but I truly believe Mike Trout should take home the award this year. Greg detailed his absolutely baffling stat line in the Biggest Surprise section, so I won't rehash the numbers down here (though I do urge you to read it again and just revel in amazement). The Angels' final game of the season is going on as I write this, and with one steal tonight Trout will have capped off a 30 homerun, 50 steal season. On top of all that, Trout plays a Gold Glove-calibur center field, an extremely premium position.
Let's even set aside Trout's age, because although it adds to the unbelievable nature of the season, he shouldn't get a boost for being young. This is a matter of who was the most valuable player, after all, not the "Most Impresive Player (All Things Considered)" award. His rookie status does have some impact, however- one thing Greg failed to mention is that Trout has logged these absolutely tremendous offensive statistics while spending the first 20 games of the year in the minor leagues. At that point, the Angels were 7-13. Though they still fell short of the playoffs, since that point the Angels have gone 82-61.
It seems to me that Mike Trout has done everything you could possibly want a player to do in order to improve his team's chances of winning, and that's what I consider to be the spirit of the award. Miguel Cabrera will go down in history as a Triple Crown winner, but I believe the MVP is its own distinct award. Should the voters believe that Cabrera's edge in the offensive categories makes up for Trout's impact on the basepaths and undoubtably superior impact on defense, I will understand but will not agree.
VG: I'm actually going to agree with Binckes here. I fully expect Cabrera to win the MVP award, and while his triple crown achievement is remarkable, I still think Trout had the better season.
I'm not one to always take someone's WAR to mean they are more valuable, but it has to be noted that Trout's is more than three wins higher (10.4 to 7.2). The difference, as Binckes pointed out, is that even though Cabrera had one of the best offensive seasons we've ever seen, he's a below average fielder and below average base runner, while Trout finished as a top-level guy in each. Cabrera advocates can point to the fact that the Tigers made the playoffs and the Angels didn't, but Los Angeles actually finished with a better record of the two teams.
Cabrera will win the award because we haven't had a triple crown winner since 1967, but really, is he that much more valuable because he finished with one more home run that Josh Hamilton than one less? I don't think so. Both players had outstanding seasons, but if I had to choose, I'd go Trout (sorry, Dad).
GK: Mike Trout not only had a remarkable season. He had a season we have never seen before, from a player so young, in his first full season in the Major Leagues. We've seen Triple Crowns before. In fact, did you know that four of the last nine players that finished the season as Triple Crown winners didn't win their respective league MVPs? I bet you didn't. There, you learned something new today.
Even with all that said, again, it goes back to MVP not being an award given to the player who had the best season. It goes to the guy that was most valuable to his team while having a superior season. Miguel Cabrera stepped up when the Detroit Tigers were at their lowest point in the season and put the team on his back. Does it help that he had players like Justin Verlander, last year's Cy Young and MVP, and Prince Fielder? Absolutely. But, Mike Trout played with what should've been the best pitching staff in baseball and arguably the best player the game has ever seen in Albert Pujols.
Miguel Cabrera became the first player in Major League baseball history to win the Triple Crown while playing in 160+ games. One of the most compelling arguments I've heard for why Cabrera's Triple Crown is truly special is because Cabrera simply had to play in more games than players from previous generations. Anything could've happened to derail Miggy's incredible season, including injuries, more 0-fers, you name it. He surged through, led his team to the top of the American League Central and did so at a pace we haven't seen in 45 years.
Trout had the best year, but Miguel Cabrera was the MVP. That sounds and looks weird, but it's the hard truth.
AL Cy Young
JB: This is a tough decision, and I think it comes down to the Tigers' Justin Verlander and the Rays' David Price. Both are having absolutely impeccable years, but I'm going to lean Verlander for this one. While Price has the edge in earned run average and win-loss record, Verlander's WHIP and strikeout numbers tip the scale in his direction. Verlander has a fairly substantial lead in innings pitched, and on top of giving his team a great chance to win every time he takes the mound, he's an absolute workhorse. He's only failed to complete six innings twice this year, and one of those occasions was due to a rainout after the fifth. I could talk myself into choosing either of them, but when push comes to shove I'll take Verlander.
Similar to how I mentioned Kimbrel above as a guy who shouldn't win the award but merits some lauding, Fernando Rodney is the AL equivalent. He managed to finish the year with a 0.60 ERA. Fernando Rodney?! Really?! He doesn't have Kimbrel's staggering strikeout totals, and his WHIP is slightly worse, but it feels wrong not to at least mention him.
It's funny how Verlander was all anybody talked about last year, but sort of disappeared from the media's spotlight this season despite putting up similar numbers:
Yes, 2011 Verlander was a little bit better, but he wasn't that much better. At this point, it's basically down to Verlander and David Price, and Verlander has Price topped in virtually every category outside of record (Price is 20-5), which is the one category the pitcher has least control over.
GK: Hard-hitting analysis alert: Justin Verlander is really, really good. See all the reasons above and know that I agree with all of them.
Also, he's apparently dating Kate Upton. That clinches it.
AL Rookie of the Year
JB: It almost seems silly to even have this discussion here. It's Mike Trout, and it's not close. I'm not going to bother putting the stats here to back it up, because it's ridiculous to even question it. If not for Trout, I'd probably give the nod to the Athletics' Yoenis Cespedes, who is the offensive leader on an ever-surprising Oakland team that has somehow managed to wrestle the AL West title from the Texas Rangers with his .290/.352/.506 triple slashes, 23 homeruns and 83 runs batted in.
VG: I already picked him for MVP…
GK: Yu Darvish. I'm kidding.
Check out other great articles at The Waiver Wire.
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I have pre jowls and a weak chin (medium size chin implant suggested at 3 consults with facial plastic surgeons). The pre jowl implant was suggested to me by one surgeon, and I liked the idea, but another Dr. said the pre jowl implant ONLY helps the jowls and it doesn't add projection for a weak chin. I'm confused. I'd like something that does both if possible.
Does a Pre-jowl Chin Implant Also Help Project Forward a Weak Chin? (photo)
Doctor Answers (14)
While a classic prejowl implant will in fact augment only the prejowl sulcus - it has only a thin strip in the anterior portion of chin making it designed specifically to augment only the prejowl sulcus - a pre jowl chin implant will augment both. Another name for this style of implant is an extended anatomical implant. My own personal favorite for these situations is the Mittelman prejowl chin implant by Implantech. It comes in different sizes, and it has portions to augment the prejowl sulci as well as a chin segment to augment the chin. If you want a more square chin contour, that can be achieved with one of the two Terino chin implants which are extended anatomical implants. A surgeon familiar with placing these implants can show you samples and help you decide which is best for you.
A traditional prejowl implants only adds about 2mms of increased horizontal chin projection. You will need to get an extended chin implant that adds sufficient projection but wraps around to the prejowl area. You can also put the two implants together to create a combined chin-prejowl implant.
Web reference: http://www.eppleyplasticsurgery.com
Unfortunately the names of the different implants can be confusing. You want an implant that will increase chin projection an augment the pre-jowl depression. Ask your surgeon to show you an implant and explain the goals of your procedure.
You might also like...
Let's fix your confusion!
- You are a great candidate for a chin implant! Your chin is average to a little below average in relation to your upper face. A chin implant will give you great results and make your face look great.
- There are many types of chin implants with different shapes and sizes, the key thing for you to do is find a surgeon with great before and after results so you can trust his judgement and technical skills.
- Implantech makes an implant called Mittelman Pre Jowl-Chin. It's call this because unlike very old "chin" implants that only augmented the very front of the chin, the "prejowl" extension helps it augment the mandible all the way the the prejowl area. This is different from a Pre-Jowl implant which only fills in the area in front of the jowls without chin augmentation.
I personally like the Mittelman Pre Jowl-Chin for men and the Extended Anatomical chin for women but preferences vary surgeon to surgeon. Look at the before and after gallery when possible, this will help you find a great surgeon! Good luck!
Web reference: http://www.yourfaceinourhands.com/plastic-surgery/chin.cfm
A pre jowl chin implant augments both the chin and the pre jowl sulcus . These work great as they not only enhance the chin but also soften the jowl. In my practice they are the most common shape of chin implant I use. A pre jowl implant alone without the chin component only augments the pre jowl and is quite ucommon and only used in very rare situations
Web reference: http://www.8west.ca/facelift/facial-implants/
A pre- jowl implant only adds width to the chin and not any projection for a weak chin. A pre-jowl chin implant addresses augmenting the pre-jowl sulcus(width) as well as giving projection for a week chin profile. The implant is inserted under local anesthesia through a small sub-mental incision. Please see the link below for examples of what a chin implant can accomplish
Web reference: http://chincheekimplantsseattle.com
You need exact clarification to the exact type implant, whether only pre jowl vs combination of pre jowl/chin, or chin alone.
The surgeon was probably suggesting a pre-jowlchin implant rather than a pre-jowl implant. You want both augmentation of the chin and lessening of the prejowl sulcus.
Depending upon the profile, pre-jowl implants are available that either do or do not add projection to the chin. In your case, adding projection to your chin would add more balance to your profile. It is definitely possible to achieve both goals with a single implant. I hope this information is helpful.
Stephen Weber MD, FACS
Weber Facial Plastic Surgery
Web reference: http://weberfacialplasticsurgery.com/facial-implants/
Thank you for providing a photograph with your question. It helps make for a more realistic discussion.
Prejowl implants have two basic shapes: 1) prejowl augmentation without projection of the chin, 2) prejowl augmentation with projection of the chin. You would benefit from the latter.
That being said, I believe you would be better served with one of the extended anatomical chin implants. You would be helped by a large amount of projection to your chin. The extended anatomical chin implant offer more projection then the largest prejowl implant.
A good way to assist the surgeon in choosing the appropriate style of implant is to view examples the implants. Ask your surgeon to show you the sizers of the different styles and shapes. You can get a pretty good idea of the shapes, where they augment and where they don't.
Hope this helps.
These answers are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute or initiate a patient/doctor relationship.

subset: commoncrawl


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Serendipity Mommy is a chronicle of my journey to becoming a chef while still being a full time mom as well. My niche is cooking and college (tech), I can be contacted about occasional reviews that don't fit that niche around the holidays . My home consists of myself, my husband who is an audio/video tech, my teenager who is a typical boy teenager, my daughter who is 10 and into all things animals and girly, and finally our youngest, a 5 year old boy who would rather invent games than play with trucks these days.
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text: TOP 10 Top 10 Entertainment Top 10: Most Embarrassing Moments In Television History Back to Top ▲ Top 10: Most Embarrassing Moments In Television History 6 Californication Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 0 Shares On a show about one of the most suave dudes in television history, I suppose we inevitably need a fall guy. And few fall harder than Californication's Charlie Runkle. It's one thing to masturbate at work. It's another thing entirely to get caught. But the Armageddon of embarrassment happens in this scene, which could only happen to Charlie Runkle. Next Page TOP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Comments Show Comments More Like This Promoted Around the Web Special Features


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The Relaunched Forge in Pictures
Categories: First Impressions
We've already covered the relaunch of the Forge in great detail. Here are some pictures of the new eatery, from the sophisticated wine-by-the-glass system to the Forge chopped salad. (By the way, last night we spotted Michelle Bernstein, ShamWow guy Vince Shlomi, and Shareef Malnik all dining at the Forge on a Monday.)
The Forge
432 Arthur Godfrey Rd., Miami Beach
All Photos by Jacquelynn D. Powers |
The Forge's state-of-the-art wine system. |
Guests can pick up glasses before selecting which wine they would like to sample. There are more than 70 to choose from. |
The "bubble" wall. |
Original stained glass in the library. |
One of the many chandeliers. |
The Forge's gourmet burger is topped with boneless short ribs and lobster marmalade. It is served with truffled fries. |
Bell & Evans chicken with Homestead tomato salad and roasted potatoes. |
The famous Forge salad. |
432 Arthur Godfrey Rd., Miami Beach
Location Info
Sponsor Content


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From teachingmaterials
Contents |
Searching the GenBank database
ABBREVIATED VERSION - link to full version: ExGenbank
Exercise written by: Rasmus Wernersson
This exercise has two main goals:
1) Introduction to the types of DNA data contained in the GenBank database (data format, visualization, cross-database links, how biological "features" such as genes are annotated and described as coordinates in the DNA sequence).
2) Practice searching the online version of GenBank hosted at the NCBI. Since the number of sequences in GenBank is HUGE it's critically important to be able to search and filter the information. Especially filtering the unwanted sequences can be a challenge, as we shall see.
Where to find GenBank
The GenBank database is hosted at NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information, USA) (Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). Besides the main GenBank database, NCBI also hosts a number of other biological databases (for example whole-genome databases for human, mouse, chimp etc.). In this particular exercise we will concentrate on the classical "GenBank" database - the main search interface is located here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/index.html
Using the "Entrez" database browser
ALL the NCBI databases can be queried through a common search interface named Entrez. On next to all NCBI webpages a search box can be found in the upper part of the page, allowing an easy access for searching the individual databases (or searching across all databases). Click on the following link to open up a new browser window with Entrez, where the focus is pre-set to search in the GenBank database:
(It's NOT necessary to remember this particular convoluted URL - in the future you can just go to the main NCBI webpage and chose "Nucleotide" as the database).
Part 1: Concerning the DATA in GenBank
This part of the exercise is about the types of data hosted in GenBank.
Searching for a specific ID
The typical case for searching for a specific ID in GenBank, will be looking up information from the literature (e.g. a gene found in a study), following up on information from other databases, investigation of lists of interesting genes etc. In this part of the exercise we will be working with a set of alpha-globin genes.
- Query information about "AB001981" - after the search, follow the sequence link to inspect the result.
By default the result is shown in the GenBank format.QUESTION 1.1:
Please notice that the publication from which the DNA sequence originates is cited (and linked via a PubMED ID) within the header. Sometimes multiple publications related to the same gene is listed. This is of great importance since it makes it possible trace the source(s) of the DNA sequence and investigate if the experiments carried out is to be trusted.
a) How many genes are contained in this entry?
b) From which organism does the DNA originate?
c) What kind of information is contained within the HEADER and within the FEATURE block?
This can be of real importance if something seems "wrong" with the sequence (for example if this particular gene exhibits a really strange intron/exon structure compared to other closely related genes, or if it simply doesn't match ANY other known genes of the same family). By investigation of the original publication it's possible to double-check the experimental procedure. It may be that the article correctly states the gene to be of type XXX but when that data submitted it was accidentally annotated as YYY (it is the original researchers' responsibility to double-check this). There can also be more serious problems with the experiments ranging from bad/wrong PCR primers, to contamination with DNA from a different species during a cloning step.
NEVER FORGET: biological data CAN be wrong.
- Investigate the PubMed link(s):
- Follow the PubMED link from the sequence entry.
- Observe that's is always possible to read the ABSTRACT of the publication in PubMED, even if access to the publication requires subscription. For most (new) publications there will also be a direct link to the publication itself.
- Return to the sequence entry once again (or perform the search again if you closed the window).
- View the sequence entry in FASTA format (Simply click on "FASTA" in the top of the page, below the entry title)
Now the entire GenBank entry is shown in FASTA format.QUESTION 1.2:
Observe that the name of the sequence is based on the name of the GenBank entry.
a) What happened to the alpha-globin genes? Can they still be found?
b) Which part of the GenBank entry has been converted?
Exploring the genes defined in a GenBank entry
- Go back to GenBank entry in your browser. Click the first "CDS" element (Alpha-D)
CDS = CoDing Sequences: The PROTEIN CODING part of a gene. Basically: the sequence you get when the CODING exons are concatenated (UTR regions are ignored). A CDS always starts with a START codon and ends with a STOP codon.
Observe the following:- What happened to the DNA sequence?
- Which interval is listed?
- Which three nucleotides does the sequence now start and end with? Does this make sense?
- Are there any introns present?
When looking at the FEATURE table, the first line of text in the definition of each CDS is as follows:join(1104..1192,1306..1510,1614..1742)
join(4915..5009,5165..5369,5474..5602)QUESTION 1.4: Based on your observations: What do these numbers mean? How many coding Exons does each gene contain?
- View the first CDS (Alpha-D) in FASTA format
: What do the numbers in the sequence title represent?
(Click to open search in a new window)
Part 2: Searching the GenBank
The key issue to keep in mind when searching GenBank is to avoid drowning in huge amounts of irrelevant data. It is therefore of great importance to filter out unwanted information, WITHOUT losing the relevant entries.
Today we will work with searching the TEXTUAL annotation of GenBank entries (keywords, free text etc). We will later get back to sequence based searches (BLAST).
Simple search
In the first part of the exercise the aim is to locate the human gene for Insulin
- Search for GenBank entries containing the term "insulin"
Simply enter "insulin" in the search box and hit "Go".
Observe the following:- A large number of entries are found.
- Go through a few pages of results and notice that we are offered data from a diverse set of sources: Experimental work, Patent applications, predicted genes, partial genes etc.
QUESTION 2.1: How many search results were returned?
- Confining the search to specific parts of the annotation:
By default the search term is matched against ALL POSSIBLE fields in the GenBank entries - including almost all text in the HEADER and FEATURE table. It's even possible to pick up entries where the match is to one of the authors names and not a gene name! (Perhaps not an issue for insulin). Luckily it is possible to restrict the search to specific pre-indexed fields in the HEADER and FEATURE table ("Search fields"), which makes it possible to make the search much more focused.
Spend a few moments to investigate the HEADER section of the GenBank entry you have all received as a hand-out (X01831) to get an idea of how the data is related to specific sections (e.g. KEYWORDS and ORGANISM which we will use in a moment).
A schematic overview of the search fields can be found on the NCBI homepage: Search Fields and Qualifiers (you can also find this page by following the "HELP" link in the menu bar, and look for "Search fields").
(Click to open the entire list in a new window) - Narrow the search to human insulin:
Query: "human[organism] insulin"
Observe that we now only get entries from Human - Homo sapiens (TaxID: 9606). For all major model organisms the English name (rat, mouse, pig) can be used instead of the full binominal Latin name (Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, Sus scrofa).QUESTION 2.2: How many hits do we have now? Do they all appear to be insulin genes?
Try inspecting a few of the obvious non-insulin genes, and see if you can find out WHERE the term "insulin" was used. The main issue here is that we find entries where "insulin" is mentioned anywhere in the entry, and sometimes it's unrelated genes like "Insulin-receptor", "Insulin inhibitor" etc.
A good example of a really surprising match is the entry NM_053056. The description of this entry states it to be "Homo sapiens cyclin D1 (CCND1), mRNA". But why does such an entry come up in our search? The culprit in this case turns out to be a reference to a publication with the title "Insulin-like growth factor I triggers nuclear accumulation of cyclin D1 in MCF-7S breast cancer cells" (!).
- The next step is to search for entries where insulin is specifically annotated as a KEYWORD:
Query: "human[organism] insulin[keyword]- Observe that we have now reduced the number of sequences to a level, where it's actually practically possible to inspect them all (even if there's still a fair bit of junk).
- Find the most likely candidate for the full-length insulin gene by browsing the list of search hits and inspecting promising entries.
QUESTION 2.3: How many search results were found? Which entry is the correct Human Insulin gene?
Combining search terms using boolean operators: NOT, AND and OR
Our next task will be to find full length insulin genes from as many different organisms as possible.
- Let's start out with a new clean search for Insulin
Query: "insulin[keyword]"
The number of hits is not that high (< 100, december 2008) and in principle they could all be inspected by hand. However, another possibility is to add search terms to AVOID in order to bring down the false positive rate.
- By a brief inspection of some of the search hits, it turns out some of them are "Insulin-like" rather than being a actual insulin gene. We can exclude these by using the NOT keyword:
Query: "Insulin[keyword] NOT insulin-like"
Observe that the number of hits goes down - but we still have some unwanted entries.
- Let's get rid of the partial genes:
Query: "Insulin[keyword] NOT (insulin-like OR part OR partial)
Notice the use of parentheses.
Conceptually what we are doing here is to conduct a number of searches that are either COMBINED or SUBTRACTED from each other. The "(insulin-like OR part OR partial)" search term finds all entries where any of the three terms are found. This list is then excluded from the "Insulin[keyword]" by using the NOT operator.
The use of boolean operators can be visualized graphically using Venn diagrams: Venn Diagrams for Boolean Logic.A good strategy for narrowing down a GenBank search is to build a list of "kill words"/"filter words" (terms to avoid). More terms can be added to the list as search results are inspected, and it's found out why strange entries appear on the result list.
A word of caution: Be careful of not throwing the baby out with the bath water - don't add kill-words that are so broad that they will actually exclude the gene(s) we are looking for.
About the use of AND: The AND keyword is implicitly used when ever you enter more than one search term: "human globin" will be interpreted as "human AND globin" and only results where BOTH terms are found will be reported.
- The final part of the exercise to continue to find terms to exclude on your own hand. The point is to bring down the number of search results to a level where it's easy to pick the correct ones.
Notice: There are several possible answers to this question, as it will be a balance between filtering out False Positives (things that are NOT insulin) without filtering out (too many) True Positives (things that are actually insulin).
a) Which search term did you end up using?
b) How many search results do you get now?
"Free exercise"
Now it's time to perform a number of GenBank searches on your own. It's important to think about the search strategy - discuss this within the group.QUESTION 3: Do at least three of the below and report your findings.
- Find the Rat and Mouse Insulin gene
- Find the alcohol-dehydrogenase gene from as many organisms as possible.
- Find the alpha-globin gene from Capra hircus - (Remember: Alpha-globin is part of hemoglobin).
- Find the alpha-globin gene from all ruminants - (hint: inspect the ORGANISM fields in a GenBank entry from an animal you know to be a ruminant, in order to pick up a good search term). If you want to go deeper into the taxonomy, the Tree of Life project have an entry on placental mammals here:http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Eutheria&contgroup=Mammalia.
- Find the actin gene from as many organisms as possible.
Avoid mRNA and entries that are part of whole chromosomes, cosmids etc- Find the NORMAL p53 gene from human (Somewhat tricky)
p53 is involved in cancer and therefore a large number of mutated versions of the gene have been investigated. The problem is here that these mutant versions "pollute" the GenBank database, when we want to search for the "vanilla" version of the gene.
For starters try to have a look at one of the mutated versions: S66666. Notice where the term "p53" is present and use this to devise your search strategy. (Sometimes this gene also goes by the name "TP53").
The tricky part of this assignment is to find the best search fields (and terms) to use, and to avoid eliminating the real (unmutated) version of the gene when you put together your "kill-word" list.
Can you find the mRNA version? The full length gene complete with intron/exon structure?


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It's 70 bloody degrees in Boston right now! That's madness. Unnerving even. I mean, how are we supposed to be hard men and women if we're wiling away our winters basking in the sunshine and warmth? It's not right, I tell you… not right at all.
Fortunately for us our annual trip to the west coast has ensured that we'll retain our hardness credentials for at least another month. For while the northeast has been basking in glorious, glorious sunshine, the Bay Area of California has seen more rain in a week than they typically see in a month, followed by howling winds and brisk temperatures as well. We've had our fair share of sunshine, but nothing so grand as our New England home. And when we return to parts northeasterly in a couple weeks, we'll undoubtedly experience a resurgence of winter – that's just the way it works, no?
Undeterred we press on. Ride through the rain, inhabit coffee shops where we leave puddles on the floor as our shoes and chamois drain themselves. Hot coffee and quiche and occasional baked good the size of one's head are the go-to sustenance on our many pit stops, while oatmeal cream pies, that contain neither oatmeal nor real cream go down easily on the bike and provide a much-needed sugar boost.
Oh, and apparently there are a ton of oysters here too. That's a delicious yet dangerous mid-ride snack. It's a delicate and fine line between enough and too many.
And then, the sun breaks through, the clouds go from being above and below us, to just sparsely above us, where they ought to be. Rain and wind aside, Marin County is one of my favorite places to ride, ever. Scenery, food, the quality and character of the roads and the variability of the terrain make this one of my go-to spots. More on this so-called "winter" training in a bit.
Photos by Peter Bowring.


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Maryland Bank Robber Sentenced to 56 Plus Years in Prison
An article published in the Northern Virginia Daily recently discusses the case of a Winchester man convicted of robbing a Maryland bank with his grandson. The 54-year-old must serve more than 56 years in prison for robbing one bank in 2007 and attempting to rob another lending institution a month later. The official sentence handed down by Judge Catherine C. Blake sentences the man to 56 years and eight months according to information provided in a press release issued by the office of U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
When the sentence was announced in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, the accused made no statement. A federal jury found the man guilty of various firearms violations and armed bank robbery in March 2009 stemming from a robbery that occurred on October 22, 2007. According to the press release, the man robbed the M&T Bank in Hagerstown of $33,888. In the course of committing the robbery and fleeing the scene, the man fired a shotgun at a police vehicle, stole a handgun, and held a mother and daughter hostage at gunpoint for several hours while he eluded law enforcement officials.
Continue reading " Maryland Bank Robber Sentenced to 56 Plus Years in Prison " »


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Occasionally I get asked questions about a new fat-burning or metabolic enhancement product that a client has seen advertised on television. Of course, everybody wants to know: Does it really work? A more instructive question would be: Is it worth the money?
Lipozene® is one of those products. Marketed as a weight loss supplement that is "clinically proven to reduce body fat," this product is a perfect example of how truth can be easily manipulated in order to fool the public.
The active ingredient in Lipozene® is glucomannan which is nothing more than a form of soluble fiber that comes from the plant known as Amorphophalus konjac, or simply Konjac.
A 1999 study performed in collaboration between St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto found that Type II diabetics fed biscuits enriched with glucomannan experienced a greater reduction in blood fructosamine, improved cholesterol levels, and lower blood pressure that those fed biscuits without glucomannan. It is important to note that both groups were on a high fiber diet of about 40 grams a day. The study was published in the American Diabetes Association journal, Diabetes Care.
A 2001 study published in Medical Hypotheses by Mark F. McCarty, consultant to Pantox Laboratories in San Diego, reported that "administration of 4–5 g of GM (glucomannan) with meals, blended into fluid or mixed with food, can slow carbohydrate absorption and dampen the postprandial insulin response by up to 50%." This translates into better glycemic control which can result in lower body fat when combined with other factors. Pantox Laboratories is a licensed clinical reference laboratory that analyzes and interprets the biochemical defense system that prevents aging and degenerative diseases.
Other studies using a combination of glucomannan and chitosan, a polysaccharide produced from the shells of crustaceans, found similar effects.
A 30-capsule bottle of Lipozene® is sold for $29.95, and each capsule contains 1.5 grams of glucomannan. In other words, at the dosage cited in the study, a bottle of this product provides about a 3-day supply.
While any form of soluble fiber will help to reduce cholesterol, regulate blood sugar, and reduce weight, glucomannan is special due to the fact that it has an extraordinarily high viscosity as compared to other forms of soluble fiber. A high viscosity confers the ability to easily form gels when mixed with fluids in the intestine.
Another high-viscosity soluble fiber is pectin, and is found in citrus fruits, peach, apples, currants, and plums. Pectins are also found in root crops such as carrots and beetroot, as well as in tubers, such as potatoes. A diet incorporating the recommended 7-10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day provides more than enough soluble fiber to confer the health benefits cited in scientific studies.
Nevertheless, for those eager to get the added benefit of glucomannan, there are many other, more reasonable, sources of this product. One such company, Konjac Foods, offers a half-kilogram package of glucomannan powder for $19, as compared to the $30 charged for a 45-gram bottle of Lipozene®. That's an almost twenty-fold difference in price. Of course, Konjac Foods doesn't advertise on major television networks.
In June 2005, claims filed in a federal district court against Lipozene® manufacturer Obesity Research Institute, LLC by the Federal Trade Commission, were settled for $1.5 million. In a news release, the FTC states that "the defendants used a television infomercial, short TV spots, and Web sites to market FiberThin and Propolene, two fiber-based dietary supplements they claimed would cause rapid, substantial weight loss without any need to diet or exercise. . . [the supplements] purportedly contain glucomannan." The supplements were sold for $90 and $100, respectively, for a 60-day supply.
The Obesity Research Institute was also "barred from making false claims about any dietary product in the future." As a result, this latest incarnation of glucomannan supplement from the Institute is marketed as "clinically proven." While that may sound quite authoritative, simply stating that something is "clinically proven" to work does not give any additional information as to what dosage and frequency is appropriate, how effective it really is, or in whom it was shown to be effective in the first place.
In the case of this particular product, a closer look reveals that using it will result in more harm to your pocketbook than anything else.
21 February 2008
Product Review: Lipozene®
Posted by Yellow Doc at 2:07 PM
Labels: cholesterol, false claims, fiber, glucomannan, konjac, Lipozene®, pectin, weight loss
1 comment:
- Anonymous said...
I really enjoyed reading this. It was clear, concise, to-the-point. It answered everything I wanted to know and was generally well written. I thought it was worth saying so.
- April 29, 2008 at 1:00 AM
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Are you trying to find a great resource for a project or manage far flung contractors? If you are and haven't heard of oDesk, then you need to check that site out and come back here because there is a tool that oDesk released that makes life very easy for you. According to Techcruch, "oDesk has been around for a while, offering a "marketplace for talent" that makes it easy to hire workers remotely. The company currently has over 340,000 providers, with 12,200+ jobs that are open. oDesk has also launched an API Center to encourage developers to create custom workspaces around oDesk tools. The API allows for users to log-in from outside of oDesk's applications, the ability to search oDesk's provider data and profiles, and lets users retrieve snapshots of worker activities."
In today's mobile application development wave, companies are building apps for everything giving many away so that it can extend its business
model and oDesk is doing just that. It took its API and created the oDesk iPhone Application that allows users to manage their online workteams in real-time, with greater control and flexibility, from anywhere in the world.
The oDesk iPhone App is available for free in the Apple App Store, and allows registered oDesk users to view their team rooms and work diaries.Accessible from the iPhone and iPod Touch (when connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi), and designed for both buyers and providers, the oDesk iPhone App gives users literal visibility of their online workteam no matter where they are.
The oDesk iPhone App allows users to:
* See all providers in their team rooms, grouped by current work status — Working Now, Worked in the Last 24 Hours, Other
* View each team member's latest work memo, local time, 24-hour work sparkline, and latest snapshot
* Check complete work diaries including memos, full-size snapshots, activity indicator, billing status, timestamp, and active window for any date
This is pretty effective especially with far-flung virtual teams so you can focus on productivity and not hover over people going into micro-management mode.
Google+Brought to you by Network Solutions®, a Web.com® service.


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*** Official 2012 Boston Red Sox ***
what to do? who to get? trades? so many things.
#722 rominer
Posted 28 February 2012 - 03:55 PM
Cudahy, on 28 February 2012 - 03:12 PM, said:
"First" as in the first guys in that mix to make a spring start.
Silva is pretty far down the list otherwise. He doesn't just have to win a job, someone else will have to lose one and a roster move will have to be made.
#723 Manny's PS2
Posted 28 February 2012 - 04:29 PM
rominer, on 28 February 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:
EDIT: Have I made this same post like 800 times? Probably. Do I still resent that play? Yes. Should we get into that play where Jeter caught the foul ball that he got a bad jump on, then took 2 more steps and dove into the stands? F**k you.
He was given wings by God and flew 27 feet into the stands. making the catch, busting his lip - but saving a 4 year old girl who will some day cure cancer AND be the first Mrs. Derek Jeter.
#724 rominer
Posted 28 February 2012 - 04:30 PM
Manny, on 28 February 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:
Did he give the girl a care package, or does that come later?
#725 Manny's PS2
Posted 28 February 2012 - 04:36 PM
#727 Mike LansWho
Posted 29 February 2012 - 09:04 AM
rominer, on 28 February 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:
A couple things. First of all, the throw did appear to be off line. Posada would have had to reach back for it. Ramon Hernandez who was on-deck and right there signaling Giambi to slide said he thought the ball was going to hit him. Secondly, if Giambi had slid he would definitely been out. Posada put the tag down after receiving the backhand from Jeter. Giambi slides right into the tag if that's the case. Multiple angles show that he was probably safe by running through. The only contact Posada seems to make is on the knee of the left leg after the right foot already touched home plate. I agree, he was probably safe, but he definitely would have been out if he slid. Third, Jeter was not out of position. He was hovering near the pitcher's mound for any relay to third and backing up anything meant for home. Typically that play is designed with the first-baseman in mind since it's an extra base scenario and no plays will take place at 1B. Apparently the Yankees practiced this with Jeter in mind since he could get to those spots faster than Tino Martinez. Bottom line though is that Giambi still appeared to be safe. If he had crashed Posada the ball probably would have come loose and there would be no question.
As for the dive into the stands, that was just showmanship. He caught the ball in fair territory and could have easily peeled off towards the outfield. The dive was completely for show. If I remember correctly, Pokey Reese made an even tougher play that same game with an over the should catch on the outfield grass. Nobody talks about that play because Reese made it look routine and didn't do back flips or shoot off fireworks.
#729 Manny's PS2
Posted 29 February 2012 - 09:23 AM
Mike LansWho, on 29 February 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:
You are overlooking the fact that Posada was famous for his reach arounds in the Yankee clubhouse.
JMDurron, on 29 February 2012 - 09:09 AM, said:
Or is that not what you meant?
girls come?
#730 Cudahy
Posted 01 March 2012 - 03:24 PM
Lavarnway hits a homerun in his first atbat.
Strange that the only coverage is on the Globe site.
#732 RedSoxAnni
Posted 02 March 2012 - 08:22 PM
Cudahy, on 02 March 2012 - 04:22 PM, said:
Hope we can get Gameday video for the opening game Tomorrow.
Three was a server problem last night; everything was "back" in the morning.
We'll have a couple of game threads ready to go tomorrow. Baseball is back~!
#734 Mike LansWho
Posted 06 March 2012 - 11:42 AM
Mike LansWho, on 01 February 2012 - 10:04 AM, said:
Yeah, so Carlos Silva has been shut down indefinitely with shoulder inflammation before even throwing in a single ST game. My crystal ball must not have been so crystal clear. Today I predict that the Rays will win the World Series.
#735 RedSoxAnni
Posted 06 March 2012 - 12:15 PM
Cudahy, on 05 March 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:
Is this page dead till spring training's over?
I just checked the settings and everything seemed "okay". I reset it just in case there was a glitch somewhere. Let me know if you still have a problem reading or replying to the ST threads.
#736 rominer
Posted 06 March 2012 - 05:47 PM
RedSoxAnni, on 06 March 2012 - 12:15 PM, said:
I would think access to spring training threads might not be the biggest concern for Cudahy right now.
But who am I to judge people's priorities?
#738 rominer
Posted 07 March 2012 - 05:13 PM
Cudahy, on 07 March 2012 - 04:40 PM, said:
Well, it's about time. I've lived in L.A. for most of what should have been the best years of my life, and this is the first time I've ever heard of Cudahy being a place.
You're right next to my favorite place, the Retard Colony of Downey.


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"AGAIN and AGAIN, is a destination spot for me, over 300 miles from my home in NY. My very good friend gave me one of her bags as a present four years ago. I own 6 now, have given 5 others as gifts, and am having them design one right now for me using part of a sail from my father's old sailboat.
I carry one every day-- it holds my laptop, paper, folders, lunch. These bags are unbeliveably durable, lightweight, and great for travel because they fold up small in a suitcase and are ready to stuff with all the treasures I buy when I am on a trip. And I always have more to take home than I left with.
But perhaps I like them best because they are truly unique. I am literally stopped on the street by people who ask me where I got my bag. Each bag is one-of-a-kind, and has a personality of its own. I like to own things that make a design statement. Frieda's bags are at once whimsical, artisitic, and a great value. She's my best kept secret that I love to pass along. Thank god for friends who give you gifts." Janet Stetson
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"I Have been a customer of AGAIN and AGAIN since Frieda first began making bags. My first bag was a messenger-style over-the-shoulder bag, which I needed to be water resistant inside for carrying toddler stuff. Frieda lined it with her old raincoat! I have since purchased beach totes, bags for the market, bags to hold my recycling papers, and laundry, not to mention gifts- all wonderful and unique." Niki Bogen
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" Frieda's bags are unique. I own several sizes of different designs and love every single one of them. Each bag reflects specific summer memories and images, reminding me of those days of the year we all love so dearly. They make wonderful presents too: I have given them to friends and family in Germany and the bags are now visiting beaches in southern Spain, the Mediterranean and the North Sea." Jessica, Wiesbaden
"Unique and earth friendly, refreshing, lightweight and I have one for every occasion...overnight bag, the beach, grocery shopping and great gifts!" Memory Layne Creative.


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I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY Superintendent Mila Kofman delegated all legal authority to Bureau of Insurance attorney Benjamin Yardley to act in the Superintendent's name as the hearing officer in this proceeding. The parties to the proceeding are Jenkins, Inc. (the "Petitioner") and Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company ("MEMIC"). The Petitioner contests MEMIC's attempted cancellation for not cooperating with a premium audit. The Petitioner also contests MEMIC's attempt to charge premium based in part on payments to workers whom the Petitioners considered to be independent contractors. The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether MEMIC may cancel the policy and charge premium for those workers. In a December 30, 2008 Notice of Hearing, the Hearing Officer set the hearing for January 8, 2009, with an intervention deadline of 5:00 p.m. January 7, 2009. The Hearing Officer did not receive any applications for intervention. The hearing took place as scheduled at the Bureau's Gardiner, Maine office. Present at the hearing were the Hearing Officer, Cathy Jenkins for the Petitioner; and Craig Reynolds and Daniel Montembeau for MEMIC. The hearing was recorded and in public session. The Hearing Officer conducted the proceeding in accordance with the provisions of the Maine Administrative Procedure Act, 5 M.R.S.A. chapter 375, subchapter IV; 24-A M.R.S.A. §§ 229 to 236; Bureau of Insurance Rule Chapter 350; and the Notice of Hearing. All parties had the rights to present evidence, and to examine or cross-examine witnesses, and exercised those rights. Mrs. Jenkins testified for the Petitioner. Mr. Reynolds testified for MEMIC. Petitioner's Exhibit 1 was offered and admitted into evidence. The parties also had the right to be represented by counsel, but no attorneys appeared on behalf of either party.1 The Hearing Officer continued the hearing with the parties' consent to give them an opportunity to ask the Maine Workers' Compensation Board for approved predeterminations as to the workers whose employment status is in question. On February 25, 2009, the Hearing Officer held a telephone conference to discuss the status of the case. As a result of this discussion, the Hearing Officer issued a Procedural Order on March 3, 2009 resetting the hearing for May 4, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. That Order also addressed three discovery items:
On Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 2:45 p.m., the Bureau received an e-mail from Mrs. Jenkins as follows: On the morning of May 4, 2009, the Hearing Officer's secretary tried to contact Mrs. Jenkins at work in order to find out whether or not the Petitioner was asking to continue the hearing. She spoke to someone at the Petitioner's answering service, who said that he would try to reach Mrs. Jenkins. The Bureau did not hear from anyone at the Petitioner. Therefore, the May 4, 2009 hearing went forward as scheduled, starting at approximately 1:40 p.m. After reviewing the status of the case and reading the May 3rd e-mail into the record, the Hearing Officer went off the record to ask his secretary if anyone from the Petitioner had contacted the Bureau. No one had done so, and the hearing resumed at 2:00 p.m. Present were the Hearing Officer, and Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Montembeau for MEMIC. Mr. Reynolds, and to a lesser extent Mr. Montembeau, testified under oath for MEMIC. MEMIC Exhibits 1 through 7 were offered and admitted into evidence. This hearing was also recorded and conducted in public session in compliance with relevant law. II. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES The Petitioner argues that its process for establishing independent contractor status is more effective than the Maine Workers' Compensation Board's provisional determinations under 39-A M.R.S.A. § 105 and that it therefore does not need to give MEMIC access to its remuneration information for premium audit purposes. MEMIC argues that its insurance contract gives it the right to cancel for not cooperating with a premium audit request and that MEMIC may therefore cancel the policy effective November 6, 2008. MEMIC also argues that, because the Petitioner has not given it access to remuneration records, it is unable to determine whether or not the workers at issue meet the test set forth in 39-A M.R.S.A. § 102(13). III. FINDINGS OF FACT After considering the hearing testimony and exhibits and the parties' respective arguments, I find that:
IV. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW This case raises an important issue concerning an insurer's right to remuneration information during a premium audit and an insured's duty to cooperate with such an audit. A second issue is whether or not the tasks of various workers, whom the Petitioner considers to be independent contractors, exposed MEMIC during the policy period to potential liability under the Maine Workers' Compensation Act (the "Act") had any of them claimed a work-related injury. If so, then MEMIC would be justified in deciding as an underwriting matter that it should collect premium from the Petitioner based on the remuneration that it paid to them. A final issue is the Petitioner's failure to comply fully with the Hearing Officer's discovery order. A. Audit and Duty to Cooperate. The basis for workers' Compensation premiums is remuneration paid to employees during the policy year. Because the total amount of remuneration is not known at the policy's inception, the insurer estimates it. The insured gives the insurer the right, after the policy expires, to audit its relevant records to establish the final premium. MEMIC's policy spells out the final premium process at Part Five (E): The policy also spells out the policyholder's obligations concerning remuneration records at Part Five (F): Last, the policy spells out the audit process at Part Five (G): One purpose of the retrospective audit is to learn how much remuneration the insured paid to its employees. This is because the employer's premium is based in part on its payroll. Another purpose is to sort out the employees from the independent contractors. This information is necessary because the Act only protects employees against economic loss resulting from work-related injuries. 39-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1). The Act does not protect independent contractors because, by definition, they are not employees. MEMIC's policy addresses premium calculation and independent contractors, at Part Five (C):
Section (C)(2) is a catch-all because a person's independent contractor status for workers' compensation purposes depends on a variety of factors.2 While the factors are a guide, the outcome in each case depends on its peculiar circumstances. The Act recognizes this uncertainty by allowing a worker's status to be predetermined voluntarily. 39-A M.R.S.A. § 105. The predetermination creates a rebuttable presumption in a later claim for benefits. A worker's independent contractor status is not resolved as a legal matter unless he or she has a workplace injury and the parties litigate this status in a proceeding before the Board. Mrs. Jenkins testified that the Petitioner has a process for identifying its workers who are independent contractors. The Petitioner has each such worker sign a document entitled "Independent Contractors [sic] Statement." The statement is addressed to the Petitioner and says that the worker provides "miscellaneous construction work on various projects" for the Petitioner, is an independent contractor "in business for myself," has no employees, works for others, and declines workers' compensation insurance. The statement also includes a waiver of such coverage and hold harmless agreement in the Petitioner's favor. Mrs. Jenkins testified that the Petitioner also has either a purchase order or subcontract with the worker and that the worker must have an "established business" and general liability insurance. She did not describe what factors determine whether or not the worker has established a business. She argued that, because the Petitioner brings workers in at the last minute and cannot wait the two weeks that the Act gives the Board to act on predeterminations, she cannot obtain them from the Board.3 The Petitioner's position ignores not only the policy provisions quoted above but also the fact that the Act allows only one process for obtaining predeterminations. Neither the Act nor the Workers' Compensation Board has sanctioned the Petitioner's process. The Petitioner's position also puts MEMIC in the difficult, and commercially unreasonable, position of having to accept the Petitioner's word that these workers are actually independent and not employees. Although a Board hearing officer might find that a particular worker meets the section 102(13) eight-point test, the Petitioner's position deprives MEMIC of the ability to make underwriting judgments and charge appropriate premium for the risk that it chooses to accept. This certainly prejudices MEMIC's ability to function as an insurer. See, Marquis v. Farm Family Mut. Ins. Co., 628 A.2d 644, 649 (Me. 1993). Last, the Petitioner's position ignores how workers' compensation functions. As the Bureau has observed in another decision, Project Staffing, Inc., et al. v. MEMIC, INS-05-101, workers' compensation in Maine is meant to be a self-contained system, at both the claims and the policy levels. The Act is generally the sole remedy for an employee injured on the job. Workers' compensation premiums are based on a uniform classification system and uniform experience rating plan, 24-A M.R.S.A. § 2382-B(1), as well as each insured's safety record and resulting experience rating. Implicit in this system is the expectation that an insurer may evaluate the entire workers' compensation risk that an employer presents, so that each insured pays premium that matches its exposure and so that other policyholders do not wind up subsidizing that insured beyond the normal expectations of pooled risk inherent to any insurance program. Mrs. Jenkins testified that a MEMIC employee, David Lantagne, discussed the Petitioner's process for identifying independent contractors with her and a World Wide Personnel employee. She believed that Mr. Lantagne accepted this process. She argued that MEMIC therefore waived its right to conduct the premium audit. There is no evidence other than her testimony, which I do not find credible on this point, to support this claim. In view of the foregoing, I find that the Petitioner has not cooperated with MEMIC and therefore that the cancellation may remain in effect. B. Independent Contractors. In 2006, MEMIC notified its policyholders with employees in the classification code related to drywall, among other activities, that it would require those policyholders to provide it with either evidence of workers' compensation insurance or an approved Workers' Compensation Board predetermination form as to any worker who might be an independent contractor. The Petitioner received a copy of this notice. MEMIC Ex. 3. Mr. Reynolds testified that there is no indication in MEMIC's file for Jenkins, Inc. that anyone from the Petitioner asked any questions about the notice or what effect failing to give MEMIC this evidence would have on its premium. The Petitioner did give MEMIC some certificates of workers' compensation insurance for these workers, albeit not for the entire coverage period at issue. However, the Petitioner did not give MEMIC any predeterminations. MEMIC Ex 1. Ms Jenkins' own testimony shows that she did not misunderstand the point of the predeterminations. To the contrary, her testimony implies that she considered them unnecessary.4 I therefore find that MEMIC may charge and collect premium for any worker as to whom the Petitioner did not give MEMIC either evidence of workers' compensation insurance in effect between February 1, 2007 and November 6, 2008 or an approved Board predetermination form. C. Discovery Order By requesting and participating in a hearing before the Superintendent of Insurance, the Petitioner has submitted to the Superintendent's jurisdiction and the applicable provisions of Title 24-A of the Maine statutes, the Insurance Code. This includes agreeing to comply with the Superintendent's orders. During the February 25, 2009 status conference, the Petitioner agreed to send MEMIC (a) the name of each worker whom the Petitioner considered to be an independent contractor at any time during the policy period at issue in this case, and (b) legible copies of IRS Forms 1099 for each such worker. As noted in the Procedural History above, at the May 4, 2009 hearing, Mr. Reynolds represented that MEMIC had received nothing from the Petitioner in response to this discovery order. I therefore find that the Petitioner must either comply with the order or explain why it has not. V. ORDER IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that:
VI. NOTICE OF APPEAL RIGHTS This Decision and Order is final agency action of the Superintendent of Insurance within the meaning of the Maine Administrative Procedure Act. Any party may appeal this Decision and Order to the Superior Court as provided by 24-A M.R.S.A. § 236, 5 M.R.S.A. § 11001, et seq. and M.R.Civ.P. 80C. Any such party must initiate an appeal within thirty days after receiving this notice. Any aggrieved non-party whose interests are substantially and directly affected by this Decision and Order may initiate an appeal within forty days after the issuance of this Decision and Order. There is no automatic stay pending appeal; applications for stay may be made as provided in 5 M.R.S.A. § 11004. 1 Mrs. Jenkins testified at the hearing that she is "very hands on in all legal matters; I like to oversee those items myself in particular." Later, she characterized herself as not having "the benefit of legal representation." 2 The Act defines an independent contractor as "a person who performs services for another under contract, but who is not under the essential control or superintendence of the other person while performing those services." 39-A M.R.S.A. § 102(13). The Act also lists eight factors for the Workers' Compensation Board, which has exclusive jurisdiction over a person's employee or independent contractor status, to consider in deciding if a person meets the definition. The factors are: whether a contract exists for the person to perform a certain piece or kind of work at a fixed price; whether the person uses assistants with the right to supervise their activities; whether the person must furnish any necessary tools, supplies and materials; whether the person controls the progress of the work, except as to final results; whether the person's work is part of the employer's regular business; whether the person's business or occupation is typically of an independent nature; how much time the person is employed; and whether the person is paid by time or by the job. The Board "may not give any particular factor a greater weight than any other factor, nor may the existence or absence of any one factor be decisive … [but] shall consider the totality of the relationship" when it makes the determination of control. 39-A M.R.S.A. § 102(13). 3 She also said that the predetermination must be done annually and characterized this as a "ridiculous" requirement. Section 105 of the Act does not mention an annual requirement; the Workers' Compensation Board has not imposed it by rule. Board decisions on appeals of predeterminations generally say that predeterminations are valid for one year from the date of the decision. MEMIC Ex. 6. The authority for this result is unclear. 4 Access to the Petitioner's remuneration records appears to have been an ongoing issue for MEMIC. Its auditor noted that the audit for the 2007-2008 policy presented the "[s]ame issue as last year." Mr. Reynolds explained that this referred to the Petitioner's refusal to discuss its operations and subcontractor exposure with MEMIC. PER ORDER OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF INSURANCE
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