Balta1701

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 03:14 PM) Why is the defense so slow and bad? Rajai Davis hitting a ground ball for an infield single is one of those things that happens. For anyone.

Petricka in trouble, 2 on 0 outs, could use that DP grounder.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 03:12 PM) He should have, but Houston was going to sign Aiken significantly under slot. They may have gotten Rodon under slot slightly but probably not as much. I think they were going with the spread it around mentality, and it did cost them. I don't know what the Marlins were thinking. I would think if everything broke correctly Kolek would be a right handed Rodon in a few years. Maybe Boras scared them as well. Whatever it was, it was a huge break for the White Sox. "102 is fast!"

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 02:57 PM) Trying to be too perfect there. That doesn't sound like that pitch to me, it was a hanging slider?

5-4 Sox HR Martinez.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 02:52 PM) If anything, Gillaspie should be on a National League bench. Pinch hit, play once a week, play in AL parks during interleague. That's who he is. It's much more helpful for a guy like him if he can play more than 1 position or if there's a team with an obvious platoon partner for him.

Miguel Cabrera is not enjoying Carlos Rodon's slider.

Davis coulda had that, so thanks.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:55 PM) I said special offensive player, so why are you bringing in defense here? Dude has incredible speed, good plate discipline, and more natural power than most people think. In this offensive environment, he can be a pretty special hitter if he puts it all together for a middle infielder. Not saying he will be a superstar, but he can definitely be a high-end lead off hitter if all goes well. Give me some numbers then on what a "special player" is?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 02:08 PM) Is that number reflective of what the consumer is paying vs. costs from provider. Relevant data point but difference between what impacts the everyday people (albeit interrelated since the insurance companies aren't in the business of eating costs) and what impacts potential bottom line of insurance companies. That was one thing this bill was not supposed to deal with - the ability of companies to increase out of pocket costs to their employees - outside of reduced cost growth overall. The only way to really do that in this bill would have been to sever the relationship between employers and health insurance entirely because employers will always have some right to negotiate different health care insurance contracts as long as employers are in the game. What that is...remember...is a pay cut. It's a pay cut that is possible because wages don't drop easily in response to an economic disaster but health care spending cuts are a way that wage cuts can be passed along. The 2 ways to fix that problem would be to remove the employer-health care relationship entirely or to stop destroying the economy. I'm ok with either of those, but I will not pretend this bill had the ability to do either of them.

Can't even tell who's making the mistakes now. Come on Carlos, you can get that 5th out.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 02:18 PM) More stellar defense. Hahn needs to add RF to the shopping list now. Cespedes, Heyward, Alex Gordon...hopefully not aging Ben Zobrist. Ha, we have no money for that. We've got to develop guys like the ones we have.

How many times this year have I flipped browser windows/tabs and heard in the background "and the ball gets away"

Martinez in scoring position for, well, Martinez at the plate.

Ouch, great slider on Miggy.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:51 PM) Abreu looks lost today. Simon's got that low and away pitch working to him and Abreu has had a lot of trouble with that lately.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:44 PM) I think if it were "clear" there wouldn't be lawsuits over it. It's anything but. That's the problem - the text disagrees with itself. To argue that this one line should be the focus is tantamount to arguing that the other ones should be not enforced and that the executive branch has no authority to interpret contradictory clauses which they have a long record of doing. To challenge that decision in court is fair, although it shouldn't have been necessary for it to reach the Supreme Court.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:41 PM) I am to lazy and really don't care all that much but didn't he give up three or four runs early in his last outing vs our White Sox only to settle down and breeze through 7 innings? Simon has not looked good at all so far.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:43 PM) My point exactly. The Sox have bad catchers, other teams have bad catchers. However, the Sox have bad everything else as well, while other teams don't. That's the gap that's making the team so bad. Of course, right now the Sox have catchers that are also worse than everyone else (which is the case for 7 of their lineup slots), so just getting up to a bad catcher is still an improvement.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:36 PM) Not really. The basis of his decision is "Congress used these words on purpose. There is no ambiguity, no matter how much you want to claim there is." He's not saying rely on common sense, he says read the damn words in the text. And his position is true: the court shouldn't be plugging the holes of a bill. That's not their job. SCOTUS has done that 3 times now. Link

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:36 PM) Not really. The basis of his decision is "Congress used these words on purpose. There is no ambiguity, no matter how much you want to claim there is." He's not saying rely on common sense, he says read the damn words in the text. And his position is true: the court shouldn't be plugging the holes of a bill. That's not their job. SCOTUS has done that 3 times now. Of course the problem is that the rest of the bill clearly says and implies the opposite so "Read the d*** words in the text" applies throughout.

I haven't seen a good drop of the shoulders on a popup in a while, well done Gordon.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:32 PM) Sox challenging apparently? Either way, nice inning. Simon forgot to carb load this morning. Sanchez beat it and overturned quickly.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:10 PM) However, the real comparison would be on how the costs were increasing pre Obama Care vs. Post Obamacare and you have to look at it from multiple perspectives...not just premium costs but total out of pocket costs (as those would be reflective of potential lower benefits that you are receiving). I am sure the data is out there but as a stat / analytic guy (I live in that world pretty much all day), the data I've typically seen around just has a lot of holes in the assumptions, etc, that I question the overall validity. The easiest way to look at this is "Total U.S. Healthcare spending" because that is a readily-tracked value and it reflects both contributions. The results as of last year continue to say "health care costs growing at a much slower rate than they were prior to passage of the PPACA. Supporting link. Forbes has a writer who has argued there are additional costs in the system here but those costs in the numbers given actually have not gone up at all over the time period he writes, which would lower that growth rate even more. Basically, whatever portions you count...year over year cost growth is at the lowest level in decades.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:15 PM) And apparently turn him into MLBs worst SS defensively? Better than we got out of him.