lostfan

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 02:43 PM) Sorry, but I can't tolerate that batting average at all from anyone at the big league level. If Ramirez plays or if it's Uribe and they stay at 2B they need to produce. Once I remember Ozzie and Kenny saying that the bigs weren't the place to learen but to produce. Now, I can take a .220 average as long as you can play good defense. This would be great if we actually had an option that wasn't going to produce that kind of batting average (I love Ozuna as a player in the role he's in but he isn't the answer). If I had to choose, and I do, I'd rather see the one that potentially goes up rather than the one that's going to stay the same indefinitely. The same applies to Richar.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 02:04 PM) now if they can only try fields at 2b in AAA Ugh. I just threw up in my mouth a little. No. Josh Fields is a 3B, the only other place I'd want to see him play is 1B. Or DH, even. But not arbitrarily shuffled around defensive positions because we think his bat is just that valuable.

I was implying that I think MacDougal is worthless. However, given that he's been a much better pitcher at other times in his career, it's totally in his hands whether he can turn it around, and this is his shot. If he can't do that, he brings nothing and we have better options (Wasserman).

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 11:41 AM) Maybe but what happens in a close game tonight? One that is not a three run cushion. Jenks and Linebrink should not have been used Tuesday moreso than last night. I think with a 3 or 4 run lead at home you can use the second tier guys more. Ozzie is going to these guys way to often already. This is really good hindsite I know. If Masset and McDougal are only going to be used in losing game they are worthless. Also Thorton needs more work. He should be above Dotel right now in my mind. I agree... Masset isn't worthless though.

Ozuna isn't really that good. He doesn't have full hitting tools, and he does fine as a supersub. But he isn't an everday MLB player, if you see him getting everyday ABs it's exposed. Ramirez will get better, eventually.

I can tolerate a .146 average from Ramirez at 2B for a little while since I know he still has to develop at the MLB level, he won't hit .146 forever, and that the alternative is never going to do any better since Richar is not here.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 10:52 AM) Yeah, I wouldn't have liked Mac in that situation and I don't like second guessing the bullpen decisions so much. I do however think Thorton can handle more than just leftys....I wouldn't use him in such a limited capacity. I had gotten up to use the bathroom and I came back to my seat to see Ozzie coming out to get Thornton and Linebrink coming in from the pen. I was a little bewildered by that, I thought he could've handled that inning fine.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 09:56 AM) The fact that Linebrink and Jenks had pitched three days in row this early in the season was the reason they were not sharp. If McDougal, Thorton and Masset are only going to pitch in blow outs, it is going ot be along season for the end of that pen. If we saw MacDougal come in during a 1-run ballgame Soxtalk would explode, even knowing we're overusing Linebrink/Dotel/Jenks.

It's really hard for a lefty to hit to that gap in Camden Yards now thanks to Markakis and Jones. There really isn't much of a gap, your liner has to fall really quick.

Floyd pitched a really nice game yesterday (until the Markakis home run, but hey, Markakis is a beast and he was cruising until then). Cold weather wasn't a factor this time either, it was probably close to 80 degrees here yesterday. Oh, I pointed out to the guys next to me that Floyd was from here and the guy next to me says "yeah, I played baseball with him in high school." Heh... turns out I was sitting in a section full of the Gavin Floyd local fan club.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 04:25 PM) 3) Universal health care cost. What is the exact cost of their plans, how do they plan on paying for it? How do they plan on lower costs in general? 6) Education. How they plan on fixing this complete disaster which is our public education system. We spend the most and get horrible results. Students will not be ready for the future job market and economy. These 2 stick out to me... especially controlling the costs of healtchare and all the inefficiencies in it which is the root cause of the problem. I'm all about getting everybody coverage... IF the costs are controlled, otherwise we've accomplished nothing except fixing a problem by creating another.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 02:22 PM) Ok how about I just say that when people are thought of like that it can lead to awful things. No matter how you put it, it's not good. I'm not really invalidating your point or anything, I just think it's funny whenever I see a reference to Hitler or Nazis so soon in a thread.

QUOTE (Nokona @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 03:12 PM) Why Joe Crede for Howie Kendric and Ervin Santana would so definitely happen then Konerko for the top half of the Angels farm system?

If I could photoshop well I would make a picture of a Xbox Live achievement that says "Achievement Unlocked: Godwin's Law Invoked in First Three Pages"

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 03:02 PM) If we all band together, we might be able to put a down payment of say... $100,000 for them. Let's go for it! Haha... I'm not so sure I want Soxtalk running the Sox.

Where does that rank among the other teams?

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 01:38 PM) I don't know...I was under the impression these power rankings are based on the current play. Not how they played last year, not how they might play in the future, but how they are currently playing. I don't mind the ranking...I like the underdog role.... Personally I think you'd have to take the past into account as a baseline or you will have the Orioles in the top 3-5, or for a more extreme example, a first place team goes on a 5-game losing streak and they drop down to the bottom 3rd for that week. IMO it should take a few weeks to climb from the bottom to the top of the power rankings.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 02:31 PM) Ask either. That whole area is very territorial. If it is any arab vs a jew or the US, of course they side with the arab. But there is a pecking order among the countries in the region, and the Palestinians are at the bottom of the s***heap. Oh there is no doubt about that. Palestinians are known to be troublemakers. But like you said any time there is an Arab (i.e. Muslim) vs. an outsider they go with the Arab almost all the time. So even if there's some degree of hypocrisy, it's still a big deal to them.

Anybody else live out this way? There's always a few other Sox fans whenever I go.

Are you asking the people or the government?

QUOTE (max power @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 12:57 PM) This team won 90 games in 06 and was ranked far too highly at the start of 07. Basing things off of last year doesn't make much sense when so much changes. The first 2 weeks of the season carry more weight? I mean, I'm as optimistic as the next guy, but I'd like to think not. Offseason moves carry some weight but questions have to be answered, like do we think this offense is going to maintain this pace? Is Floyd going to hold up? Will Contreras collapse again? Is the bullpen for real? It takes a few more weeks to prove that.

I don't want to get too far off topic, but those are just random numbers that don't do anything by themselves. Now, if they were linked to something to make it proportional, like the GDP of the US, the EU, and the Arab League together (and without bothering to do research my gut feeling says the size of the first 2 dwarfs the size of the 3rd) then they'd be more meaningful. And, what I actually get out of those numbers is that you're saying they provided $124 million of aid in spite of the fact that they don't care one bit. We haven't started talking about charities either. Like I said before... I wouldn't go that far. Sure, those countries might hesitate to take refugees. But the support is there. For s***s and giggles see what happens if you ask 100 random Arabs from different countries who they support or have more positive feelings for... the Palestinians against the Israelis, or us in the war on terror.

I don't think Alpha said anything about them not having the right to do things like this though. But, yeah, there are people that want to suppress rights which is the wrong way to go. However, if you want to scorn, ridicule, or be disgusted by something, that's perfectly acceptable too. I notice whenever somebody says something controversial and faces a backlash they try to hide behind the 1st amendment (or somebody tries to hide them for them).

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 01:10 PM) Well, that's part of the problem for Obama, or perhaps Clinton, is that Obama doesn't go on the attack with nonsense like this, he only uses it when he absolutely must fight back against her. And so he comes off as being a bit squeamish when this kind of stuff comes up in the debate. It's a catch-22 for him. Do you refuse to fight back, risking damage to your image and looking squeamish, like you don't have the balls to stand up for yourself? Or do you counterattack, go on the offensive, do something about it, risking the prospect of going too far and violating what you've been preaching about in your whole campaign? He started seriously having to consider getting more aggressive after Texas and Ohio.

I'm not interested in entertaining the tax debate until people start seriously addressing controlling spending. To his credit, McCain does.