Chisoxfn

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 05:33 PM) Liriano, Baker, Bonser, and Garza say hi. They did not start the season with all of them in the rotation. Nor do we have any pitching prospect that is up there with them. How often does a rookie come in and dominate like Liriano did. I know both him and Weaver came in and kicked butt this year but its insanely rare for rookies to come in and absolutely dominante (or in Liriano's case be a frontrunner for Cy Young). Garza was only in the rotation the very latter half of the year and the same goes for Bonser.

If a lot of cash is coming the Sox way I'd probably make that deal. Arod gives you some serious star power to help continue the the Sox growth in popularity. I think there may be a few moves that could be made that would be better for the team, but that may not be better for helping the team continue to build market share.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 09:00 AM) Why? The guy has been wildly successful. Improved one of the poorest states in the union in education and income, and did it without going into major debt like other states. He's socially moderate, and a keen business guy. He's got foreign policy background, and, he was Clinton's energy secretary. He's also brokered a lot of good deals regarding land use in NM, a big issue in the west. And brought a lot of new business to the state. I realize you wouldn't like any Dem, but, I'd think you'd prefer a fiscal conservative, business-minded guy over the alternatives. I'd actually consider voting for Lieberman. And your right he may be better than the alternatives (Clinton or Kerry especially) and quite frankly Obama has really had to do nothing so I can't speak enough about him cause his history as a politician doesn't tell me much aside from the fact he's well liked.

QUOTE(Reddy @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 08:59 AM) people always talk about that but believe me it will NEVER happen... McCain is still a republican. Yes he's a more moderate republican but the guy will not leave the party. Thats like saying Lieberman will team up and vote republican when the republicans need him.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 05:50 PM) Yeah, too bad Bush couldn't overcome "crooked ass, idiotic politicians of Louisiana" and lead. If the President of the United States gets sidetracked by "crooked ass, idiotic politicians of Louisiana" then he isn't much of a leader. Do you seriously believe that Reagan would have allowed "crooked ass, idiotic politicians of Louisiana" to stop him? But, taking your position then, you must give credit to the honest, intelligent politicians of New York instead of Bush for the response to 9/11. And that makes sense. I always wondered how he could have been so great at one, and sucked so bad at the other. Your damn right, Bush wouldn't have been able to do it by himself. He had another great man there (potential president) right with him to help lead. Its one thing when you are handcuffed by others and its another when you are helped by others. Even the strongest and greatest leaders can't carry an entire nation on there backs. They need help from time to time (everyone does).

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 08:45 AM) I'm rooting for Richardson on that note. From New Mexico??? I'd throw up at the idea of him in office.

Or adjust the subsidies and provide subsidies to the oil companies that go out of there way to invest in finding alternative energy sources. That way you encourage it, while still keeping oil costs down. I understand where you are coming Northside...in that sake that if we let the prices get out of hand, people will stop buying, demand will lessen and naturally we'll basically force the issue for American's to use less energy as well as force people into developing new energy. I just don't think its that simple because the rich would be able to afford to fill up their Escalades (sure some would be hurting) but the poor and lower middle class may not be able to afford to fill there car up to get to work or anything along those lines (I know in cities thats less of an issue due to public transportation). Plus that plan could force major companies that rely on oil/energy to produce things to either increase the costs on there products or to cut costs somewhere (meaning layoffs). Overall I think messing too much with the oil prices could have a major effect on the economy. In this case the best thing to do is find ways to help encourage the development of a 3rd party source while still fighting to keep oil prices down.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 08:18 AM) My question is "how"? The minimum wage thing, I agree with. I don't like it, because it hurts a lot of businesses, but it's time to do something with that. The 9/11 commission report stuff is fluff. It really is. The health care thing... that's complete horsedookey. There's problems with the system, I agree, but ANY attempt to socialize our system needs to be looked at VERY closely. Ask Canadians why they come here for medical purposes. Ask Britians who travel to India why they do. The student loan thing. WOOT! I LOVE IT! Seriously, it effects me directly right now, but be careful what you ask for here. Oh, the big bad oil companies again. What are these "subsidies" used for? Find out first. I have mixed thoughts about "privatizing" social security, but how will you keep it, Ms. Pelosi? Oh, that's right, by raising taxes on EVERYONE, not just the "rich", because it's the only way. I wonder what happens if we remove subsidies. Will the price everyone pay at the pump go up exponentially???

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 05:17 PM) OK, does your way involve any additional effort on your part? Meditation? Prayer? Bible? Volunteering? I agree with you that Heaven is not just for those that have been saved by organized religions. But, it seems that if someone professes some faith, their should be some actions to support that faith, and an hour a week for our creator seems easy enough. Nope, unless treating people right and going out of the way to help people is considered additional effort. However, I don't consider it additional effort because its who I am. And yes I have volunteered numerous times in the past and will do so in the future I'm sure.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 05:08 PM) Don't you think as a Christian, God is worth an hour a week? With so many flavors of Christianity, you can certainly find one that nurtures your soul? Nope, you will not catch me in a church. I've had too many dealings with hypocrites involved with organized religion so I do things my way. Although I will go to my aunt's church (she's a minister) to support her.

Technically speaking, yes we thumped homers in 05, but the team was very good at executing and could score one run when it really needed to. Its part of the reason we kicked butt offensively in the playoffs (when pitching is key, our pitching rocked, but our offense was able to scrape together runs). We need some speed (I'm a huge speed backer) and obviously we need better pitching. I think we all know this years offense was superior to the prior years, that said the prior year had a more balanced offense (in the sake of 1-9) although this year had a few more superstars. Obviously you give this years offense last years pitching and we are golden but defensively the team wasn't as good last year and we still did a lot of things afwul fundementally (The 05 team was superb when it came to fundementals). Fix the pitching, improve the defense, add a legit speed thread (Pods is crap). And fixing the pitching could even consist of standing pat if no team makes a good offer. I'm not about to just throw Garcia out there and get nothing in return. At one point or another someone will want these guys and give us something of value and I woulnd't just make a trade to make a trade (if we can't get anything now for em, why not stick with em and let them eventually walk at the end of the season...why not if there is no legit value, you might as well enjoy having them in your rotation).

From what I've read ISU's candidates are gonna be a signficant downgrade. They don't have the history Iowa does and thats the only reason we were able to get a guy like Ferentz. Hell, we could probably land Stoops if we wanted to since his family absolutely loves Iowa City (in fact Stoops would have been our coach if it weren't for our old AD). I'll take Ferentz though. Iowa landed a nice recruit this week as well and if they could somehow beat Wiscy they would have a shot at impressing two pretty solid recruits that are choosing between Iowa and Wiscy. That said I'd be absolutely shocked. We pretty much blow, you lose to IU and NU....pathetic.

QUOTE(R.Sweeney @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 04:31 PM) Makes you wonder how Ozzie feels about players not going back Venezuela .Too bad well never know . I'd hope he'd stick up for the organization. I really don't think Ozzie cares. You can tell KW has no problem considering the hand was essentially forced and Kenny's right there are plenty of other leagues that may even be safer to play in. I know I for one wouldn't want to have to go to Venezuela for a month to play baseball if I was coming off a long minor league season already (in fact if I were a top prospect I wouldn't, now if I were fringe I may just suck it up).

I have no problems with any religion. I leave people free to practice any religion and I don't think any less of a person who practices another religion (such as just because they practice that religion, they won't go to heaven). Instead, while I believe in god, I don't go to church although in general my beliefs are Christian. However I adopt the theory that if people do good they'll go to heaven. I figure if heaven is such a great place and feel the point of religion (while its great to believe in another power) is to treat other people properly and with respect (essentially be a good person) and if you do that I feel you'll be rewarded in your afterlife (regardless of your religion). People can rip that up all they want, but its the way I live my life And grammatically that post sucked.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 01:25 PM) That is all well and good, but imagine all the good we could have done with a few billion dollars and without spending it on bombs and bullets? There are a lot of countries that could have used our help and we could have said the exact same thing. btw, I think you meant flee But I don't think anything would have done that country good without getting rid of Saddam. That said had I been told they had no weapons of mass destruction I don't think I would have went into Iraq. But we did and now it would be absolutely irrisponsible to cut and run. I still think Saddam had to go though, but if they had no WOMD there probably would have been other ways to do it without going to war. How were we supposed to know our intelligence was bloody awful? We went in and at that point were comitted, imo. We run and we make a big failure bigger. I'd say differently if I thought the vast majority of the people were against what we've done in Iraq but the vast majority (imo) is glad we are there to help and that country is going in the right direction.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 01:21 PM) Cuz he pitched well, maybe? I don't get why everyone sh**s all over him. The guy throws a knuckler that clearly can dance, plus a mid-80s fastball that he doesn't telegraph. If he can keep the knuckler down, like he did this year, he gives you a league average or slightly better pitcher for peanuts. God forbid. A bunch of people are willing to trade 2 starters and live with him in our rotation as a 5th starter. I'm sorry but thats unacceptable to me. We want to win, I can live with breaking in Bmac but breaking in Bmac and Haeger well thats just not a way to win (unless you get lucky). I have no major problem with using him as our LAST guy out of the pen.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 07:07 AM) Maybe, but I am not sure he would have much trade value to be honest. Unless the guy has really sharpened up his deep game, there isn't anything about Chris that is that special in the grand scheme of things. He is a good ball player, but 6 foot PGs who can handle and play defense are a dime a dozen. I'd find a way to acquire Channing Frye. He doesn't seem to be getting a ton of minutes and he could be the final piece to the puzzle, imo. Curry is playing pretty darn well in Isiah's system.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 12:48 PM) I never heard that Wood was part of that Angels trade too... God, are the Orioles stupid... He wasn't. It was Santana/Aybar that was turned down. Which was still an awful move. Wood was absolutely never a part of the Tejada talk.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 12:03 PM) I've already voiced my distain for having a knuckler in a relief role. I dont like walks with men on, and I HATE giving up free stolen bases. Unless Stewart is catching, the runners will all have free bases. And Stewart pretty much never caught for Haeger down in AAA. I don't get why Haeger gets all this love. I think he's real over-rated on this board. I don't mind having him as a plan C if a starter goes down, but I sure as heck don't really think he's be that good in any sort of pivotal roll on this team.

Awesome news, hopefully we can continue to grow and nothing could help out more than by making it back to the playoffs and seeing what happens from there.

Thats what I get by falling asleep and not reading the paper this morning. When I last saw he was winning (of course it wasn't projected) and I made the wrong assumption he won. What a crock...I guess Arnold will still have to do with a mainly democratic sacremento, although he did get a little more help. I can't think of a better candidate for Lt governor than Mcclintock either. Way to reign on my parade Balta, LOL.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 12:33 PM) I like Bush the man, I believe he has made some great picks on the people around him, and think he is a terrible leader. What leadership has he really shown besides the distortions used to justify our invasion of Iraq? What cause has he championed? 9/11 showed what he could be, he was inspirational, comforting, amazing on a pile of rubble with a bullhorn. After that he just hasn't had the fire in his belly. Katrina should have been a turning point that propelled him, and the REP party, all the way to 2008. His efforts sucked. It seems he has let his party drift in the past couple years when they had everything politicians could want, the White House, both houses, a discredited judicial branch, and no one believing the press. What does Bush have to show for it? What does the country have to show for it? To this day I blame the Katrina disaster on the crooked ass, idiocit politicians of Louisiana. Bush could have done a better job but he was the man who got blamed for the local/state politicians being dumb as stone. And in some instances Bush was ready to do things and the local/state people were not ready to make immediate decisions and stalled (which again led to delays in the relief effort). The whole thing was one big fiasco, but than again I say rebuilding an area that can be absolutely destroyed again (especially with the area being so vulnerable with broken levy's everywhere) is stupid as hell. Of course we needed to do something and my idea would have been scoffed at by everyone in New Orleans.

I have quite a few good friends that served in Iraq (a couple being West Point Grads) and than a couple being Army guys (out of high school) and the stories I've heard are all resoundingly positive of how much the people appreciate our army and us. I'm sorry but I refuse to let a vast majority ruin my perception of helping out a country. Albeit its still got a long ways to go and we need to find a way to get Iraq far more involved in there own mess, but stuff doesn't happen over night. We also have some family friends that are from Iraq (they had to flea and lost everything at one point during Saddam's reign) and obviously they are biased but they still have some family over there and they've been back to visit and talk about how much better the country is and how so many people are happy.

I hate Chris Matthews. I like Scarborough but Matthews pretty much has me ignoring all things political on MSNBC since he's always so involved. And I refuse to watch CNN because of Wolf Blitzer and Larry King, so ya its pretty much FoxNews for me. That said when there are good interviews on either of those two channels (or a good panel) I'm more than willing to watch/listen.

QUOTE(juddling @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 12:21 PM) I think quite a few Dems won more on the platform that "they weren't Bush" than any actual issues. (Before anyone jumps on that...it's my OPINION!! I'm entitled to it so be quiet) In the end though, it wasn't even Bush. Had it not been for the Foley fiasco mixed with the Jack Arbenoff (excuse my spelling) fiasco the Repub's may have lost a bit but they would have held the senate for sure and probably the house. That said the democrats (vast majority) that were running had absolutely no platform, but obviously the majority of America was that fed up with what was currently going on that it decided no idea is better than the current one (since the democrats all seem to agree that what we are doing now sucks). Even though I think Bush has done a tremendous job with the economy (especially given the circumstances) and he's also a tremendous leader (but I think most everyone here long knows that I really really like Bush the person).