Balta1701

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 21, 2013 -> 11:01 AM) Which is why I said 2016 should be for when the Sox are aiming to peak, IMO. To me, if the Tigers got Cano, there would be too much of a talent gap to overcome the next few years until their superstars are no longer superstars. Let me say it this way then...I think that exact same thing could have been said about the Athletics and Angels over the last 2 seasons.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 21, 2013 -> 10:57 AM) Outside of Prince and Verlander, who else is showing signs? For as much as Verlander has declined, Sanchez has improved. Cabrera also. Like I just said, his body is falling apart at 3b and in September it finally caught up to him with the bat. He should have gone on the 15 day DL a couple weeks ago but hey, gotta try to win those stat titles. On top of that, VMart and Cabrera are free agents at the end of next year, everyone can see Torii Hunter's age, and Austin Jackson is way down from last year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 21, 2013 -> 10:43 AM) If the Tigers get Cano, there's no reason in my opinion for the Sox to even try to compete the next two years (by that, I mean considering someone like McCann). However, you plan to try and be maturing as a team in 2016 or so when they would be getting old. If you've paid attention to Detroit's stats this year, they're already showing hints of getting old. They're going to have to keep throwing money at that team every year to keep this level of performance up.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 11:38 PM) No, I was going to email the writer to ask why he lost his coverage. I would think he could be on his parents' plan. I thought it said he might have been dropped. Can they just drop you? My guess is yes. A lot would depend on what his parents plan was. If his parents were part of a large employer it would be very difficult for the insurance company to find a way to drop him. However, if his parents were self-employed or worked for a small business, the business might have had to drop him or his parents might have had to buy insurance on their own. Under the previous health system setup, it would have been literally impossible for his parents to buy an individual plan that would cover him unless they were millionaires and many small business plans might have had trouble also because insurers could set the price of insuring their family at enormous levels due to his pre-existing condition. If his parents had to change jobs or lost a job, he could have been in a lot of trouble for that reason; he would be basically uninsurable if his parents were not employed by a large employer with good insurance (a union would have helped a ton). In addition, he might well have also hit the "lifetime cap" on spending from an insurer already (they used to have $1-2 million lifetime caps on many plans; go beyond that and you're SOL). However, most of these things should have changed thanks to this law. Lifetime caps are banned and charging different costs based on pre-existing conditions are also banned. He's not very lucky to be in Kansas since they're not helping, but by January 1 he'll be able to buy some sort of insurance at a reasonable rate on the Obamacare health insurance exchanges.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 21, 2013 -> 09:54 AM) Hopefully the Tigers don't sign Cano this offseason. Let them. They'd rapidly be in luxury tax territory, they'd literally destroy the Yankees for a couple years until they could pull off what the Dodgers did this year with salary dumps, and they'd be begging to clear contracts out by 2015.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 21, 2013 -> 12:08 AM) Are any of those 3 projected to start sucking? Seems to me they are still in their primes. We can hope they start to stink but I wouldn't bank on it for a while. Also not to cheap shot Robin, but they have a pretty darn good, LaRussa-type manager. Miguel Cabrera is banged up badly right now and having a September worthy of te white sox, hitting .224 and a sub .700 Ops. He should have hit the DL a couple weeks ago. His body is reaching the point where he can't play 3b for a full season already.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 08:02 PM) But its impossible to legally buy guns in Indiana if you're from Illinois. I tried. So these guys in Chicago are probably getting them illegally. Now do you think illegal arms dealers are going to obey a new gun law? And even if you do pass it, how the hell are you going to be able to enforce when you cannot enforce the current laws worth a damn? When laws are not working, the solution is not more laws. I know you're answer. A big dump truck of money, if not from the Feds then from Indiana taxpayers because you know Illinois is way too ingrained with the liberal entitlement mentality (also IL is broke) to pay for anything. How about we just stop manufacturing them?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 06:25 PM) I wish people understood what a f***ing "rate" was when they said "murder rate" Is this directed at me?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 05:14 PM) Good post, especially since it is the only Greg haiku format. I used to post in this visual manner, but have stopped the last 2 years. Even though I despise Dunn, it is funny to look at this team on paper w/out him. Will we even have a guy hit more than 10 bombs next year? Crazy. We have 7 guys with more than 10 HR this year. And Avisail Garcia is not one of them.

Oh, by the way, 7.62 mm NATO Round assault style rifle used in this shooting. Not legal in Chicago but legal right across the state lines.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 05:21 PM) I have a feeling many cities, including Chicago, will soon be war zones with so many random killings. Life is not valued anymore. People will just bring machine guns to places or shot guns and just start firing. This incident is AWFUL. I'm sick of this s***. Why would anybody going to the high school game at Gately Stadium tonight feel confident they'll make it home alive?? I'm so sick of f***ing violence and can anybody dispute my prediction of the warzones in major cities in the future? It's going to keep GETTING WORSE. The murder rate in Chicago is down 50% over the last 2 decades.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 01:41 PM) 14.7 And that's like what, half of Sanders's load?

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 01:38 PM) Why do we need Konerko again? So that we can lose 90+ games next year and Marty can be happy.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 09:57 AM) During Barry Sanders’ 10-year career, he averaged 4.98 yards per carry, scored a rushing touchdown every 0.64 games and averaged 2.30 receptions per game. Through LeSean McCoy’s four-plus seasons, he’s averaged 4.75 yards per carry, scored a rushing touchdown every 0.52 games and averaged 3.70 receptions per game. How many carries has McCoy gotten per game?

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 11:48 AM) Maybe we use it to sign him for 2014? I think it's only like $25k IIRC.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 09:41 AM) If the Sox are going to attempt to compete next year - and they most certainly will - then you need Dunn on the roster. Even if he only adds 1-2 WAR, you simply aren't going to be able to reproduce what he does and what he means for the lineup. Personally, I'd prefer he hit 6th. He also needs to never, or at least almost never, play 1b.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 19, 2013 -> 05:34 PM) Who pays for those roads? Socialism.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 19, 2013 -> 03:34 PM) You accept that guilty people may go free so as to have the system best equipped to keep innocent people from jail. You accept porous borders to not have razor wire and dogs patrolling every inch of border. You accept alcohol related deaths so as not to ban a substance that doesn't cause most people to die or kill someone. So yes, you accept that occasionally a crazy-ass person will get a gun to not infringe on the rights of the millions more that don't go crazy. They also get knives, bats bombs and poison as well. Wait, since when do you oppose razor wire and dogs patrolling every inch of the border?

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 19, 2013 -> 01:27 PM) Deal with what? One line of my post? And then, instead of agreeing that maybe manufacturer requirements don't work you turn into a raving maniac for UK idiocy. You said cars are made safer because if they weren't hordes of people would die, but elsewhere they don't have those laws and everything is fine. The UK also has speed cameras, want to copy that one? A nice $75 fine for going 5 over? Car insurance is also ludicrous over there, more than a car payment. And you can't honestly be advocating a VAT tax, you're warped and brainwashed but you aren't stupid enough to think that's a good idea. The USA is also made up of 50 states, many of which are much larger than Great Britain. So making cars insanely expensive to own is going to do some serious damage to the economy. But, as usual, were supposed to put up with it because SAVING LIVES IS GUD CHANGE HAS COME 2 AMERICA You're the one who cited the UK as a bastion of freedom and said how it doesn't have all these government regulations that would make life terrible to live. Then you go and cite all sorts of government regulations that would make life terrible to live. Pick one.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 19, 2013 -> 01:26 PM) I think you are missing the "big" picture here. The US is huge in terms of size. Britain isn't. There are more cars in the US because it is bigger, and there is more empty space that can't be/isn't covered by mass transit. It also means less demand for cars, less cars on the road, there etc. The U.K. has a similar population density to Ohio or Illinois and substantially less than california or anything in New England. However, those states have 50% greater automobile ownership per capita than the UK.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 19, 2013 -> 05:09 PM) Thanks for the update. I was wondering what was up with Crain. If the Rays get a final week out of him what do we get in return I wonder? Plus if they take a wild card spot does Jesse get to play ? At this point, I think we get the cash.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 09:27 PM) I'd like to see you be a running back for the Browns in that offense. QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 09:42 PM) Its kind of an odd deal. RB values have been going down in drafts so a 1st rounder is a high price. I guess maybe the Colts see Richardson as a Edge type player, not going to blow your mind skills, but solid and gets the job done. Serious Q: how good do people think Richardson is? Between him being banged up last year and the fact that he's on the Browns I didn't see or hear much about him. Obviously the Colts saw something they liked about him but does anyone have an impression of what the Colts just got and how impactful it will be?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Sep 19, 2013 -> 12:43 PM) Yeah that kid is going to be so filthy rich if he stays healthy. If you were him, would you be trying to lock up a 6 year, 9 figure deal this offseason or would you try to push your luck to stay healthy the whole way?

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 06:00 PM) Police happen to be one of the handful of functions you need the government to perform. And the legislation and regulation that has set automakers back further and further has saved how many lives? Please, go pull out you crash statistics and tell me what ounce of good those BS laws have done other than force larger, heavier and less efficient cars onto the market. The UK, oddly has about 1/4 the regulations regarding car safety features but they have many fewer accidents and fatalities. Also, they basically hand out Class D licenses to anyone here, I spend 11 hours a day driving and I'll tell you the reason people get killed out there isn't because their car isn't safe. By the way you kinda slipped saying that people won't buy deathtraps and companies making them will go under. So why regulate them? I mean other than forcing companies who make safe machines to add some gizmo doesn't solve anything the market already takes care of. Still, after all this time you've never said at what point enough will be enough. An earlier post insinuated you think there will never be an end to this stomping on our rights in the name of safety. I think I know the answer as to why. You know there will always be human suffering. Something bad is always going to happen to someone and there's little reason to it. You've been sufficiently brainwashed by academia and the government to think this mechanism of human existence is preventable or at least mitigatable. So as long as there's suffering (and there always will be) there will be you, the loyal servant to the state who agrees that "Yes! Feeding the government massive sums of money will fix it!" And the problems will go unfixed, and we'll lose more of our freedoms, and they'll ask for more money because the first batch wasn't quite enough, and they'll get that money and eventually youll be mired in an existence of wage slavery--because you're much more useful to the state as a compliant serf than a free individual. And all the people that could stand up to it? Well you took their guns away. You could say this reality is all but upon us right now. So now I actually have a moment to deal with this. Let's actually take a look at how the UK gets a much lower fatality rate on their roads. First of all they're stricter on who actually gets a license. The entire country has 2 year mandatory provisional licences. In Northern Ireland, people on provisional licences are actually limited to 45 mph. Substantially more strict than here in the US, although some areas are starting to move that way through government regulation because it works. The UK also has much lower rates of car ownership than the U.S., about 40% lower per capita. That translates to fewer people on the roads and presumably more people taking public transportation, thus lowering the rates of fatalities. To make sure this happens, there is a nationwide vehicle ownership tax, which is scaled to the carbon emissions of the vehicle. This tax costs ~$250-500 a year depending on the vehicle size, and SUV's are clearly disadvantaged, which of course makes the roads safer by getting the larger vehicles off of them. The average US Driver also drives about 25% more miles per year. This is likely also a consequence of government regulations as the tax on petrol in the UK makes vehicle fuel cost 2 to 3 times as much as it costs in the U.S. Thus, people have a government-driven economic incentive to be more limited in their use of the roads and to avoid choosing excessively large vehicles. The main reason why the fatality rate per mile winds up being lower in the UK according to a 2003 US Highway Transportation Study is that the U.K. has significantly lower numbers of large SUV's on the road which translates to increased safety on the roads, as a direct consequence of successful government policies. They also institute smart policies to prevent the creation of hazardous conditions, like the congestion pricing in London which causes an uproar every time someone suggests it in the U.S. So yeah, lots of successful government interventions saving lives. and of course, that's on top of having a vastly better and more affordable health care system, run by the government entirely. And of course, we should all be stunned at these results, because based on your comments I just figured most of the people in the UK would be ramming their cars into brick walls as life isn't worth living there because they've had the most important freedom imaginable taken away from them. It is extremely difficult to own a gun. Handguns are effectively banned. Assault rifles are banned. Locked storage of several types of guns is required. Obviously therefore life isn't worth living in the UK because they've given up the most important freedom of all.

And you will continue to look away from the pile of corpses and tell yourself there is nothing that can be done because you know in your heart how important that feeling of power is when you feel that cold steel in your hands. And that feeling is more important to you than any pile of dead kids ever could be.