chunk23

RAJ is Mr. Magoo if the Astros take that bad package and send over a significant chunk of money.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 06:33 PM) No, he's really not. He's made some questionable signings (Ibanez, Polanco, and the Howard extension), but I don't know that he's ever made a questionable trade similar to that. I don't think I would have traded Lee away, but he was smart and kept Dominic Brown and he sorta reloaded his minor league system with the Lee trade. The prospects from the Lee deal have not been performing at all. The reasoning for trading him was because they couldn't afford him, yet they are now trying to swing a trade for a more expensive Oswalt. the money they could be paying Lee went to what, a backup catcher and Danys Baez? This site can explain it a lot better than I http://firerubenamaro.net/

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 06:21 AM) Now say that again when you're sober. It won't make as much sense. Trust me. Just remember that Amaro is a grade A moron and that package might actually be pretty attractive

QUOTE (AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 12:11 AM) Even though Ozzie did win a World Series? What does that team have to do with this team?

QUOTE (AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Jul 26, 2010 -> 01:23 AM) When Hudson wins 17 games in a season, we'll talk. Wins are not an effective measure of a pitcher. That said this trade pretty much starts off Dipoti or howeveer you spell it as the worst gm out there. What an awful package for such a valuable player.

Pierre hasnt hit well enough to win one.

QUOTE (beckham15 @ Jul 9, 2010 -> 01:57 AM) lebron wearing a red and white checkered shirt...hmmm miami? Too obvious. I hope

QUOTE (Real @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 02:21 PM) one of the news writers this morning posted on their twitter that they're hearing from a lot of league execs that this could be a diversion tactic, so you could be right here's one of them, i can't find the other one Considering all the manufactured drama, the way this is playing out like a movie, I truly do think it's a smokescreen. They need a good twist.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but apparently the Knicks are planning on offering Joe Johnson a max contract, seems like a lot can be read into that.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 11, 2010 -> 04:01 AM) I'm looking at their top 10 prospects right now...looks like they have a lot of nice LHP. I would think if we paid the $4 million remainnig on AJ's contract when he's traded that we would be entitled to a pretty decent prospect or 2. Fangraphs AJ is projected to be a type A free agent, so if KW doesn't get a fair offer, at least equivalent to those two draft picks, he might as well wait.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 10:31 PM) All of that falls under "what war is actually like," as Greenwald even said in that article, and still needs to be seen in its proper context. With a few obvious exceptions, none of this is as cut and dry as it's made out to be by a lot of people, not necessarily by Greenwald because he is actually saying the same thing I'm saying (that war is an ugly business), but by the commenters and other amateur bloggers. The ones who run with the "OMG MURDER" angle are just as misled/uninformed/delusional as the ones who run with the "OMG DISRESPECT TO TROOPS" angle. The purpose of the military is to kill people quickly and efficiently, that's not always directly acknowledged, but that's what it does, and it really doesn't serve any other purpose particularly well. It's tricky enough telling friend from foe in a regular war, but in places like Iraq and Afghanistan it's really, really hard to tell legit targets from unarmed civilians. It sounds easy, but it's not. There's rules you have to follow, and procedures in place to make those rules easier to follow, and there is punitive action when people get caught breaking the rules, but that only mitigates, it doesn't prevent everything. I just want to know why people act all surprised when they find out something bad happened in a combat zone. This type of s*** happens every day. Off the top of my head, I can recall certain particular events that still stick out 6 years later: This is just stuff I saw or was involved with personally and is by no means an exhaustive list, I could probably come up with 10 more, but you get the idea. There has been a concerted effort to make sure videos and images like this one do not make it to the public. As far as the general public is concerned with the occupation, out of sight is out of mind. So now that reality has surfaced, it's obviously going to be surprising to a lot of people. it is the fact that this does happen everyday that makes is so disgusting. Simply saying "war is hell, stuff like this happens" serves to normalize terrible acts like this one, making it more and more likely it will happen again. The gunner certainly didn't seem to care that he had just injured children and killed unarmed men. That's because he's been trained to think that bad things happen to innocent people and that it's inevitable, so it's okay if he's the one to do it. Obviously terrible things happen in war, that's what war is, but there appears to be no effort whatsoever to minimize these losses. In other words, the US is saying "war sucks, but we love it and don't care what happens to innocent people". What rules did the military follow in the video? The ones that say it's okay to shoot unarmed individuals trying to rescue people? What chaos was going on prior to the killings? The men were walking casually in the street and there wasn't an ounce of fear or stress in the voices on the recording. It was more like hunting than combat. This isn't even going into the coverup aspect of it. QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 10:34 PM) btw, the prisoner I was talking about earlier, we didn't abuse him. I felt the temptation and I'm sure others did too, but I wouldn't do it. I knew he was personally responsible for the deaths of 6 Iraqis that next morning when his IED blew up (he wouldn't tell us where it was) - it could've been Americans, but at that point did it matter? I never thought about arbitrarily killing someone, not counting combat situations, but the thought actually got extended play that night. Why would it matter in the first place?

All of MLB and MLB fans after hearing about this injury.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 02:09 AM) Yea, those blogs tell you how much of a great idea a civilian trial is, so that has to be the truth, even though our president already convicted our murder before he got convicted, oh wait a minute... Which set of Democrat double standards do you want to honor? What?

Anyone else finding the Just Cause 2 demo as fun as I am? It's like every over the top 80s action movie in one awesome package. You can hop on a gas tank, shoot it, and ride it, jumping off just before it blows up, floating away with your parachute. Vehicles blow up the moment they hit a speed bump if you bailed out. Jump out of a plane, hijack a helicopter on the way down, and then fly the helicopter into a building. Crazy good fun.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Mar 6, 2010 -> 12:13 AM) I think Martz is honestly pretty happy with the WRs they have on the roster already. He is that arrogant. Knox, Bennett and Aromashodu all improved quite a bit over the season, not that I don't want to upgrade there, but the OL really needs to be improved first. I think Olsen gets traded and a WR is brought on board.

Bears are also bringing in Manumaleuna, so it's only a matter of time before Olsen is traded.

Sounds like the Bears are close on Peppers and Chester Taylor.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 4, 2010 -> 07:17 PM) Exclusive: RNC document mocks donors, plays on 'fear' Fear is an extremely powerful influence, you can pretty much get people to do anything you want if you can scare them. Terror management theory (a hot topic and will be a growing research trend) shows that by making individuals aware of their own mortality they become more conservative, more isolated, more bigoted/sexist, and more aggressive. Recent research shows that liberals and conservatives have not only different sets of moral foundations (what they consider when making a moral decision), but actually group the same ones in different ways as well. The big five are Harm/Care, Fairness, Purity, Loyalty and Authority. Liberals put Harm and Fairness in the top tier with the other three below, whereas conservatives put them all in the same cluster, but in fact place Harm and Fairness below the others, with authority on the top. A particular subset, the right wing authoritarian, is a growing faction. They are particularly susceptible to mortality threats and threats to the status quo. Essentially they have the social mindset of a scared child. That's why wedge issues like gay marriage work so well, and that the 2004 election was all about protecting America from those who sought to destroy it (gay people and foreigners). In fact, one researcher, George Lakoff (genius btw), has shown that it's not even just a matter of political preference. Liberals and conservatives have different brain patterns when processing this sort of stuff. So the differences are both neurological and cognitive. He also shows that facts simply do not matter in the public debate. Framing and emotional appeal are what get the support of the average voter. Essentially, use talking points and keep the facts in the background for the ones who are gonna bother looking it up. One of the reasons why Gore and Kerry were perceived to have done so poorly in debates, and why the "cooler" candidate pretty much always wins. So yeah, Fear is gonna work.

These are the kind of rankings I like. As valuable as farm rankings are, it doesn't matter what happens until they get to the show. Graduating a player like Beckham would understandably drop the farm ranking quite a bit, but that wouldn't show the whole picture. edit: Interesting to see the As so low considering some of the monstrous talent they have waiting in the wings, and it's not like they were bad last year.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Feb 25, 2010 -> 04:24 AM) I'm not sure what "tangent" you're referring to as I was speaking directly to the topic at hand. Dewayne Wise hit leadoff, and was dismissed before he was even given a chance to play last year (see opneing day booing). And before he was injured, did actually begin to start playing better. Now, my issue is with those that have completely written off the offense based on the DH alone. The idea that since the Sox do not have a legit DH (at least that we know of) they will have a poor offense. My opinion is that while a DH would help the cause, it will not be the difference between a good offense and a poor one. However, the difference will reside in the heart of the order. You can come back to me in July and declare your victory if I'm wrong, but as Quentin and Rios go, so will go the Sox offense. If they're bad, then the Sox offense will be bad. But if they're good and the DH isn't all that great, the Sox will still probably be a "good enough" offense. The DH spot was the last chance to improve the meager offense. The other chances, OF and 3b, were filled with below average offensive players. That is why people are writing off the offense. Not just because of the DH. When Pierre was picked up people said, don't worry, KW will get a slugger for DH. He didn't. And now the Sox are slated to go into the season with a bad offense.

That would've been one special rotation. I wonder how serious his pursuit actually was.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 04:31 AM) I am not denying we are a faster team, but that does not mean we have speed threats. Instead of having lumbering "base cloggers", we have a much higher average speed. However, outside of Pierre, we don't have any guys who are going to late game pinch runners to steal a base, this is why having De Aza might help add his weapon to this team. Speed doesn't matter if you don't get on base. This team is not built to get on base.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 01:24 AM) I don't think following normalized career trajectories for people like Rios, Alexei, Beckham and Quentin who should all be on the uptick is "counting on lucky breaks". They're not a toss of the coin, the odds are weighted towards success this year, even if there is a risk of them failing. Rios has been on the decline the past few years, and Quentin has been hurt every year. I would call hoping for both of those to reverse as counting on lucky breaks.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 11:34 PM) Actually, we've replaced Dye with Pierre and Fields/Nix/Getz with Teahen. The drop-off from Thome to Jones is significant, but that's the major drop-off. If Rios is halfway decent and Quentin is healthy, this offense will be at least a little better. Agreed. That said, Thome and Branyan have already signed for cheap. If Kenny overlooks Blalock as well, he'dd better have something big in store down the road. Replacing Dye with Pierre is a massive offensive downgrade. Teahen isn't good. Better than Fields/Nix/Getz, but still below average. There is no guarantee whatsover that Rios will bounce back or Quentin will be healthy. KW is counting on way too many lucky breaks.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 07:55 PM) If you feel that I've insulted you, that post of sarcastic pseudo-art has more than evened the score. It's time to drop it. I don't believe that this offense is going to be as bad as you do. The Sox were one of the worst offenses in the AL in two of the past three years, and it wasn't because they lacked the raw talent. An average MLB position player is an improvement over much of Dye's past three seasons. A healthy Quentin is obviously a big step up over the last year and a half or so of injured Quentin. Rios is a massive upgrade over Wise/Pods. Beckham isn't going to get worse after seeing 2/3 of a season's worth of AL pitching. They're not going to kick ass or anything, but they should be good enough to win a "meh" division when combined with an excellent pitching staff and much better-than-recent defense. I still think that Kenny is going to land a FA DH (the fact that he seriously negotiated for Damon shows that he's actively looking). It's not going to be a big-money guy like Damon or Matsui. It'll probably end up being somebody like Blalock or Branyan. Not great, but more reliable than Jones. If Kenny DOESN'T land a relatively inexpensive guy like that, then the oft-made criticism of him not re-signing Thome on the cheap will be validated. Besides his terrible 2nd half last year, Dye was certainly one of the better Sox hitters. And who is this average position player he's being replaced with? Rios might be an upgrade, but who knows if he'll bounce back? VV a few days ago. He signed pretty cheap too.