Chisoxfn

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 15, 2008 -> 08:05 PM) David Eckstein also wins rings. Because he's not the only one that always sucks in the playoffs for the Yankees? I understand the whole "he's making 5 billion dollars a year so he should produce" argument, but when you get little to no help from your teammates, it tends to be hard. Anyways, Alex Rodriguez plays 3B, doesn't need to be traded to be motivated, and he annually puts up better regular season numbers than Manny Ramirez. Alex Rodriguez is easily more valuable than Manny Ramirez. Rodriguez is more valuabe because of his all around abilities but Manny is the greatest run producer of all time. Bonds had his run with the most dominant years in baseball history but what Manny does is downright amazing. He's also easily one of my all time favorite ball players.

Terrible Tampa...Terrible. I hope you respond well.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 17, 2008 -> 08:40 AM) I heard on the news last night that NHL sources expect Tallon to lose his job anytime now. Bout damn time. He's had some solid moves and decent drafts but he's been piss poor with the finances of the club.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Oct 17, 2008 -> 01:57 AM) Lisa needs braces. Dental Plan

Pretty much everyone of my friends refers to me as Gage or Ten Gage. Ten Gage has a perveted meaning where as Gage is simply my last name but it rolls off the tongue very smoothly.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 16, 2008 -> 04:54 AM) Next time, I'll add my scale of how to rank players in the NFL. /green I go from awful, to medicore, to solid, to good, to great. To me, Williams isn't even good. You can say "He will be now that he's leaving Detroit", but how do you know? He's suddenly going to limit his drops? How much better is Johnson then Kitna/Orlovsky? Are you kidding me. Williams is a borderline elite receiver. He has amazing physical abilities and has put up great numbers when healthy in the NFL. And he's done it while on the freaking Lions. If he's not even good than I don't even want to know your definition of good. He'd be the best WR the Bears ever had (EVER).

QUOTE (Gage Loves Me @ Oct 10, 2008 -> 06:08 PM) Wooooooooooooooo Dubinsky is a beast. Danny Boy!!!

He's getting lose. We'll see him use more secondary pitches once his arm is armed up. I'm glad to see that the reports are that his fastball has really good life. We could be talking about a left handed Kevin Brown. You don't see too many POWER sinkers.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Oct 13, 2008 -> 06:48 PM) Same here, usually at bars i've had girls hit on me...I find it easier to make moves at parties. I have horrendous game at bars, but parties always seem easier. YOu tend to know mutual people and it makes things easier. However, I will agree that girls do hit on guys. It may not happen a ton but I know i've had it happen to me on multiple ocassions. It makes things easier but in general I have no advice when it comes to picking up girls from bars (never really done it). I will say this, be friendly and start up a conversation. At the end of the day thats all it takes. Oh and try to be funny if you can. Not over the top funny but it helps prevent you from coming off as a creep.

I actually just got back from Atlanta on Monday. I went up to Helen Georgia over the weekend for an Octoberfest and that was a ton of fun. It's about an hour and 20 minute drive and is a german town. There is an awesome fried chicken place in Roswold called Greenwood's (my friends from Atlanta say its the best fried chicken around and it was pretty delicious). Went out to the bars two nights and we went to this one area but I don't remember what the hell it was called (it was in downtown). Buckhead also has a solid set of bars but I didn't go there this time (I was in Atlanta one other time for a wedding and we went there and it was pretty badass). Note: I won't speak of the Bears f***up I saw in person.

Red Airheads = DAs***

I opted for 4. But there's definitely the potential for a 5. I'm a very lucky man.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 12:36 PM) there's a reason I called it drastic. The real point of this thread, not made clear by my (my fault), is to talk about solutions. Honestly, its scary, but let the market handle things. It'll all settle out, you just hope the government/fed can smooth things to an extent. They cna't fix it, there was a bubble in real estate and in the market and this was inevitable. You just have to make sure enough players survive the bubble burst so that things can continue and build again when the dust settles.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 12:33 PM) Decreased demand. That's not a good sign in this case. Also the speculators have just not been as involved. Things got pushed up to a point and there were obviously other factors, specifically the media causing phony runs on the pricing but right now oil is sitting at a pretty good price structure compared with the supply/demand curves. I think you'll see a 20 buck flux either way but nothing too significant in the near future. Gold has done as well as I'd expect given this is a time where I could see a lot of investors pulling a s***load of cash and sticking it into checking accounts. Oh if people want a little stock recommendation...IDC. Its an independent pricing company that should see a huge boom. I've been preaching it to buddies the past couple months and they should be pretty much recession proof because the recession actually will give them more business as there is a lot more high $ value investments with no readily ascertainable market value so IDC will come in and do its independent pricing.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 12:26 PM) DOW to 8579.19 at today's close. Might it be time to shut down the markets for a little while? Shutting down the market would be a disaster. A s***load of big companies have went under or are teetering on going under. Even after the bailout many companies will be adjusting the way they do business in the future and it will have an impact on the types of margins they'll make. The reality is the market is adjusting to a more realistic pricing scheme (which is what the market is for). It's going to be a rough period but things are starting to straighten out and we'll see new companies excel in the future and many old companies reorganize and take back off again. However, it'll be a bit, but we'll also see the market priced at a more accurate PE ratio (especially once Q3 earnings get released cause those are going to be some ugly earnings given the OTTI companies will be taking). 12/31 will have some bad reports as well, but I believe that will be the end of the truly disasterous numbers for the financials. Doesn't mean the financials will sore any time soon but at that point we'll see a shift and the bad annuals will be the consumer business companies that will suffer from poor consumer confidence/holiday sales. After that you'll finally see everything revalued at an accurate point throughout the industry (tech is already priced right, imo) and the market will be back in the right spot. I'm guessing we are talking about a bottom around 7000.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 01:49 PM) real estate prices will continue to drop if banks are not giving out loans. but it will be a cash buyers bonanza. huge profits could be made Real Estate still has room to drop. Financing is very tight and there is still too much bank owned stuff out there (REO's). We'll see another round of bank owned stuff and than the market will finally stabilize. Obviously certian markets vary but as a whole thats what people should expect, especially with it still so tough to get loans.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 01:40 PM) There are only two premises, which are tenable as to the future. Either we are going to have chaos or else recovery. The former theory is foolish. If chaos ensues nothing will maintain value, neither bonds nor stocks nor bank deposits nor gold will remain valuable. Real estate will be a worthless asset because titles will be insecure. No policy can be based upon this impossible contingency. Policy must therefore be predicated upon the theory of recovery. The present is not the first depression; it may be the worst, but just as surely as conditions have righted themselves in the past and have gradually been readjusted to normal so this will again occur. The only uncertainty is when it will occur. Dean Witter, May 6, 1932 I've seen some interesting independent pricing reports on Real Estate and they are talking about people who bought at the peak not making money for 20 years. They are also indicating another 20% drop in real estate (thats in the SoCal market). Pretty interesting stuff given a lot of people around here that are pretty intelligent seem to be thinking the real estate market is close to bottoming out (plenty of stuff has dropped 40-50%). But 80% of subprime loans are still getting paid and that number is bound to drop as more people get laid off and as home prices continue to fall. That will push another big round of foreclosures which will shoot things down again.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 01:27 PM) the lower the market gets, the more people will panic and pull their money out. the public has lost faith in the stock market to an extent. not a good sign. Jim Cramer actually told investors to pull out enough money so that they could live for the next 5 years. Now obviously most people don't have that type of money laying around but there is a good chunk of investors that do and thats a pretty scary statement coming from a guy like Cramer.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 12:48 PM) The DOW has lost almost 25% of its value from September 9th. It might just get worse when people see the Q3 earnings announcements. People are talking about the PE ratios that are so low, but once those Q3 earnings come out those PE ratios won't look quite out of whack. I guarantee you there are s***loads of public companies s***ting there pants at what type of OTTI they will be taking at 9/30. Even with FASB making some changes to FAS 157 I don't see any real drastic measures which will help the market. Companies still have that alt a s*** priced way too high.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 7, 2008 -> 12:59 PM) anyone want to predict the low point the Dow will hit during this crash? 8,000? 7,000? 7000-7500 will be the bottom.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Oct 2, 2008 -> 07:43 AM) For the past 9-12 months I have been harping on how bad the credit market is and I believe the elasticity of debt has finally snapped. The bailout proposition will not work. Next up, INSURANCE COs. Just look at AIG's insurance practice, they are a completely legit solid business. The Insurance Industry isn't even close to being a disaster. And let me just state that I say that based upon a s***load of knowledge of the insurance industry and the standards they have to abide by. Sure they insurance companies have taken part is some credit swaps and have plenty of Alt A investments. But they also have a s***load of regulations to ensure that the company has matched its funds to ensure that the assets pay out in a period where they'll be able to pay out the expected liabilities and on insurance type contracts those liabilities are pretty well set (you don't expect some massive fluctuation unless there is just a complete and utter run on "deaths"). Obviously Insurance companies do more than just Life insurance but the reality is all of there policies are based on a s***load of historical trends and than those payouts get matched with the assets on very conservative set-ups and this ensures you won't ever have another insurance collapse. Plus there are a lot of things which limit the types/risk of investments the company can have. If its a certain type of investment they may only be able to go up to a certain percentage of assets, etc. Trust me knolls, Insurance Companies aren't the next to blow up. I could see picking on people that did some shady stuff related to credit swaps but a typical insurance business is about as safe as it gets right now, although they obviously will have profitability issues in the short-term due to some of the investments they are in, but as those investments flux one way they'll likely see gains on there FAS 133 riders.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 08:28 PM) I didn't think it was terrible. I won't remember it in 2 weeks, but I laughed a few times. I think that sums it up pretty well Tony. It was decent...entertaining, but nothing special.

So Weeds is the next Showtime show in my BBOnline queue. I've heard good things. Can't wait till the next season of Californication hits DVD.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 02:32 PM) Brian Roberts? I don't know if the Sox have the prospects to land him. A package centered around Fields/Broadway and someone else just isn't as enticing as it would have been a year ago.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 03:25 PM) The problem with DeJesus is that he's just a so-so CFer (arm strength again)...he's essentially a corner outfielder playing CF. Traditionally, you need to have more pop from the corner/s, which is where they have Guillen and Teahen (who also lacks pop for RF/3B on a good team) playing the majority of time. He's a nice little player, but I don't think he's the answer either. And I highly doubt that Dayton Moore would make that move...certainly not for Anderson, they have a player with more potential (Gathright) but many of the same offensive woes, as well as nagging injury problems. DeJesus is the kind of player who will be quietly making about $8 million soon, and I'm not sure he's THAT good...I mean, I would rather keep Anderson and not pay DeJesus that much of a difference (like the discussion about Getz at minimum versus Hudson at $12 million). All things being equal, I would rather put $8 million in the starting rotation than David DeJesus over BA. I don't see why we have to anticipate a Vazquez trade, unless the Great Depression really is upon us, in which case the entire payroll would have to come down 25-30% to offset a loss of season ticket sales...it will be interesting if the Dow falls another 1-2,000 points, how that drop starts affecting revenues, payrolls, company promotions and season ticket sales, and which markets will be hardest hit. The irony is the economy going south really helps the Sox, because the Chicago area is more resilient I think than Detroit and Cleveland. I don't know if KW is having this thought, and maybe I'm reading too much into the downturn, but I think this will be an interesting area to monitor...cutbacks in sports promotion and advertising in general during times of austerity. Well, as Darth Vader/James Earl Jones said famously, "people will come." The Sox will trade Javy because he's a pussy. And they can be cheap all they want but they don't have s*** out there that can play CF and produce offensively and I'm sick and tired of seeing absolute s*** production in CF. They need to get an average hitter, yes, an actual guy that can hit for an average (novel concept I know) and they don't have anyone in house who can do that with the exception of Ramirez. Thats why DeJesus makes a ton of sense. I'd give up Poreda for DeJesus. He's perfectly fine in CF too, imo.