Balta1701

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 23, 2015 -> 02:23 PM) So are you suggesting that we occasionally skip their turns in the rotation and give someone like Scott Carroll a spot start? If Rodon is up they'll almost certainly have to skip his turn in the rotation every 3-4 weeks.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jan 23, 2015 -> 10:51 AM) What I would like to see is one big event in July. Thursday night - Draft first night Friday - Draft mid rounds; celebrity softball Friday night - HR derby Saturday - Draft conclusion Saturday night - All Star Game Sunday - Futures game I like the idea of moving the draft back to allow kids in the CWS to focus more on that experience than worry about negotiating their contracts. You can push SS ball back to start mid to late July and run the season a little later than it currently runs. Aren't Friday and Saturday the lowest TV Viewership nights of any week?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 23, 2015 -> 01:04 PM) It's funny anyone would complain he was rushed. People here wanted to see him in the 8th and 9th inning and called Ventura a fool for not using him there. IIRC I was not one of those people.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 23, 2015 -> 10:50 AM) That offensive set was fantastic and Maryland had no answer and apparently have no zone sets. The commentary was a little over the top, but I've got to admit to being really impressed with what Crean has done to get this team in shape and performing like this in January.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 23, 2015 -> 11:29 AM) I'd like to point out that Webb's mother passed away during last year's ST. No imagining how that can affect a young man. I believe that Lexi's bad '13 was not unrelated to personal issues either, and he was an established big-leaguer already. I think he has plenty of talent - time for him to step up. They also did their usual thing of "slamming a guy into the big leagues". Was a starter in the minors at A-ball, switched to the bullpen, in 2013 got 20 innings in AA, 27 innings in AAA, and that was it for him above A-ball before being in the bigs.

A couple slices of cake, this game, and a tie with Wisconsin in the standings. I am content with tonight.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 06:56 PM) Does that change anything or will women still be banned from driving among other things? Beats me. IIRC his sons are very different in their politics towards those things and they've been sort of running the country for a while due to his illness but his presence was always a stabilizing agent.

Saudi King Abdullah has died at age 90.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 06:01 PM) Scientists and advocates and political leaders get together in summits/conferences etc for the same reason that businesses still spend a lot of money to fly people to meetings/conferences etc.--face-to-face interaction is still something different than video conferencing. Al Gore having a big house or flying in a jet has zero impact on the validity of AGW science and its impact on mankind. I don't know why anyone thinks that's any sort of argument at all. And I still get packed in with lots of them in coach. You should see what the flights are like to AGU, half the people on flights will be carrying poster tubes. It's remarkable.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 05:51 PM) Once again, the people screaming the loudest about global warming have no problems spewing out millions of tons of pollutants to fly private jets to an exotic destination to feel important. Why are they not online conferencing? I don't even know what this is aimed at, but I do want to meet the scientists who get to take private jets.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 05:45 PM) Reddy, Obama at best is an average president. He talked a the good talk but hardly backed it up. Nothing wrong with being an average president. This is one where I'm going to say you literally can't tell. Right above this is a post where it says that Bill Clinton left things markedly better when he left. But if you really stop and look at that...he also left a cancer named "Al Qaeda" growing in the middle east, an overinflated stock market bubble, a financial industry with constraints on it completely dismantled (setting up a complete implosion), and nearly 20 more ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. In 10 years, we may really regret the decision to bomb Libya and then ignore it, or we may regret signing the budget just passed that removed some of Dodd-Frank's rules regarding the government insuring financial instruments at big banks, or we may really regret the ending of the Nunn-Lugar program controlling russian nuclear materials, we stand a good chance of regretting the fact that we still haven't done anything about increasing CO2, or who knows. We may be thrilled because health care will turn out to be 95% fixed by the PPACA and that'll be the greatest legacy of any president this half century.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 05:41 PM) Which side controlled the Senate until recently? How many votes for everything did he NOT bring to the floor? I hope we get this exact same reaction when we decide to shut the entire senate down for months at a time for no good reason, because the minority in the senate has the ability to do that. If the majority's going to get blamed for the minority using their ability to clog up the senate, then we should use that ability to the full extent. It'll be McConnell's fault that passing a single bill requires months of debate.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 05:33 PM) It requires two parties to reach an impasse. Obama is as much to blame as the Repubs. If you want to pass something, give up something. It's call compromise. It's been rare that's he's been willing to do it, just like the Repubs. No it doesn't. If one side says no to anything that's not their 100% ideal, that creates an impasse even if they're given 99% of what they want.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 04:01 PM) I'm sick of the pissing contest...well we could do it if the other side would...we would do it if the other side would. At some point, cut the s*** and lets at least enact the stuff the general public wants that makes sense. Obama has failed miserably at working with the other party and yes the Repubs have failed too in this regard. They both get fat F's for this but I put more onus on the president as he is one person vs. say congress. Which is exactly the point. Next time there's a Republican President and a Democratic congress, the Democrats just have to refuse to do anything at all, barely keep the lights on, and people will blame the President for not reaching out to them or being nice enough. They literally spelled out that exact strategy and documented it in 2009. It works perfectly.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 04:52 PM) here is a simple player to get, Ryan Vogelsong sp threw 180 + innings. and he will take a 1 yr contract. 2 world series rings. He barely outperformed Danks/Noesi last year, in no small part because Noesi didn't start the year with us, and in 2013 he put up a 5.73 ERA while pitching for the Giants in one of the best pitchers parks in the league. I don't see why you'd spend money on him and think you're in any better of a position than you are with Danks/Noesi.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 02:16 PM) I didn't mean big offseason in terms of spending but rather in terms of moving towards division favorite/of the AL's best. I don't expect them to add 50 million in payroll, but I do think we'll see the biggest payroll Ever in 2016. Barring this team doing another 2013 collapse, I think that's almost inevitable. They'd be committed to that already if they signed Samardzija.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 01:43 PM) I understand that but the point was made - the Sox didn't have a lot of money to spend. I don't see them busting their whole load this offseason when next year is the big year/offseason for the team. I don't see how next year is "the big offseason" for them. Even without Samardzija they've got $97 million committed assuming Alexei is picked up. Add in maybe an option on Bonifacio and a decent selection of arbitration guys and they're at >$110 million, almost their entire 2015 payroll, without adding a single player. Add in an extension for Samardzija and they'd be talking about $130 million in commitments without adding a single thing and with letting guys like Viciedo walk.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 01:45 PM) Sure is scarier when you report it as 118k gallons instead of 3200 barrels.... Tell you what, you drink the water and we'll use the barrels term?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 01:33 PM) edit2: also, the EPA's actions on climate change are pretty important And still quite inadequate.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 11:56 AM) If Shields was willing to go short term, I'd be all over it. Than you see if Shark is willing to go long and let the other one walk. At his age, James Shields would be insane to take a short term deal unless it was like $35 million next year. He needs to take the longest deal he can get. If that's only 4/$70 then someone might get a decent bargain out of him. Taking a 1 year deal would be crazy.

Should heads stay or should he go...

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 10:07 PM) I'd be surprised, to be honest. Now if you're talking 2002, that I could get behind. Here's 2006 with a 77% positive score. The summer before that a city drowned.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 09:04 PM) Right... Come on, there's an easy way to reply to that. Go find Bush having like 75% approval responses for one of his 2005-2007 vintage SOTU speeches. I'm sure those exist somewhere.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 09:44 PM) If you want to say "technically" he didn't have a year and a half year worth of plate appearances, sure. But point is Viciedo never put together a stretch like Avi did in the minors. That's without getting into the Viciedo's poor instincts and stubbornness as a hitter. But Garcia also never had to deal with losing a substantial part of an important developmental season...until last year. So let's see how that goes.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 08:35 PM) Viciedo never dominated the minors the way Avi did the last year and a half. For every DV there's also a C. Lee. I am betting on a .290-20-80 2 WAR season. Year and a half? The 2nd half of 2012 he put up a .810 OPS in AA. He tore up AAA in 2013 as a 22 year old with a .991 OPS over ~1/2 a season. As a 22 year old Viciedo put up an .850 OPS in AAA, but he also had a broken hand in spring training and lost some time that year/had impacts from that as well.