Balta1701

Healthcare post, not on the subject of this law. The federal government this morning released some of the data that regular proles like us don't get to see; their massive database of the list prices hospitals use as their starting point for treatment of various procedures. If you have insurance these rates get negotiated down, but if you're uninsured and show up for this treatment, this is what shows up as the starting point on your bill until you file bankruptcy and the court sorts things out. Huffpo put together a nice little graphic, selecting out treatment for 1 particular procedure and plotting up what the hospital charge for that procedure across the NY Metro area.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 8, 2013 -> 10:40 AM) Can't be done sufficiently, imo. Why? If Danks comes back, we're already sitting on 6 major league caliber starters, and that's without even considering that there seems to be more on the way in the minors.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 8, 2013 -> 09:59 AM) Unless the assumption is the Sox would have cut another $25 million in payroll after last years fall in attendance. That ought to be expressed in this year's payroll though, right?

QUOTE (Boogua @ May 8, 2013 -> 09:44 AM) Who were the borderline all stars on that Mavs team? And I agree with your point. Durant doesn't have the pieces on that team. I was just disagreeing with J4L's one star comment and then saying it's not 1994 when the Mavs won it all with one star two years ago. Tyson Chandler certainly qualifies.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 8, 2013 -> 09:40 AM) Don't forget the extra $25 million each team will get. Some have already spent the money. The Sox haven't. Player prices are going to rise, but the Sox will have some money to throw at some hitters if they so choose. The problem is the high priced free agents lately, haven't played up to their contracts. That's the real issue with free agent purchases. I don't think any out of Cano, McCann, etc., will actually play up to their contract, particularly over the long run. That's just the reality of how free agency works now that the steroid era is over. They'll get 5-7 year contracts and you hope that they're seriously productive for the first 3. But its painfully obvious that the fans of this team have no interest in putting up with "Giving young players on the field time to develop". They strike out too much and get called boring.

QUOTE (Boogua @ May 8, 2013 -> 08:09 AM) Yes, because the 2011 Dallas mavericks never existed. And I'm the one with the agenda..... One star can work if you have a very deep and effective team around him, with multiple guys who are borderline all-stars. Put a star player on the Bulls right now and they might be a legitimate threat. That just doesn't sound like the guys around Durant...they're mostly role players.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 8, 2013 -> 08:11 AM) We aren't trading/dumping a bunch of pieces only to go out into free agency and sign big named players. If we dump, we are done. The one guy I could possibly see the Sox deciding to move is Peavy (unless someone is willing to take Dunn's deal on), considering that if Danks comes back they're sitting at 6 effective starting pitchers even without floyd. Move Peavy and the Sox could legitimately have $40 million or more to spend next offseason to get back to the salary they have today. And if they want to rapidly upgrade their offense...that's Cano money, and as far as I'm concerned the Sox have a hole at 2b right now.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 7, 2013 -> 09:04 PM) The current Sox team is a collection of misfit toys and they are going nowhere this season. Manto needs to be looked at after this season. I think there's a good chance that they clean the staff out again this offseason a-la 2011.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 7, 2013 -> 05:36 PM) I think the SOX would have been Defcon 5 if they lost that game. I'm glad they were scrappy enough to win it. Ugly baseball by both sides. I agree with this, I think the Sox would have just yawned and thought it was any other loss if they lost that game. They tried to give it away so hard anyway one wouldn't think they'd mind.

This is officially the best part of my day.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ May 7, 2013 -> 04:07 PM) wow, really? I was under the impression it drops off pretty quickly outside of the suburbs at night. I know it gets very staticy for me some nights and I'm in Hoffman Estates! Is WMVP = AM 1000? I've gotten a Bulls game to come in as far away as Eastern Tennessee on that station.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 7, 2013 -> 03:39 PM) You can take a break if you want, I'll give one to you. However you are wrong, we offered him dogs*** on purpose. We didn't make him an offer. We let him go out and see what market value was for him, and he found a team willing to vastly overpay for him if he gave up his NTC. He was willing to make that sacrifice.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 7, 2013 -> 02:22 PM) Wellp, I'm preparing for an LBJ 40pt first half. If we are within 10 after 3 I'll start feeling confident. 40 might be a bit much, but a big first half for Lebron is also a reasonable result (particularly if Deng is still out or is clearly sub-100%).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 7, 2013 -> 01:04 PM) Unlike with AJP the Sox didnt really give him a halfway decent offer. He had to take the cash and go. It turned out to be a horrible decision. GMAB man, if he was willing to sign for a "Halfway decent offer" the team would quite readily have popped 3/$36 for him. He wanted to hit the FA market and see what was out there, and a team offered him basically $22 million for waiving his no trade clause.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 7, 2013 -> 02:01 PM) I wonder how tomorrow night's game will go. If it's close, is there any chance that the Heat just fail to score down the stretch again? Combine any chances of the heat tensing up with the fact that the Bulls can crank down their defense in the last few minutes if its close...and yes.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 7, 2013 -> 01:34 PM) It's really difficult for me to accept the notion that the system is racist when the people that run the system are shown to be not racist. That's why I liken it to the NFL or NBA. Why aren't we calling NFL execs racist or the NFL scouting system racist for not looking at more white athletes? Because at the end of the day their decisions are race-neutral even though the results are clearly not. Frankly I think NFL execs get called racist all the time. Look at the coach hiring process last year.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 7, 2013 -> 10:44 AM) You know the Heat and LeBron's strategy was for him to get his teammate's involved, and then take over the 4th quarter while they dialed up their defense and shut us down. Thing is, while LeBron has shifted to Rose in the 4th quarters and shut him down, they had no real answer for Nate. I expect LeBron to be a bit more aggressive in the next game instead of waiting til the 4th quarter. If the Bulls can actually get Deng back in the next game, so that they can have an extra body to throw at Lebron, they can make this even tougher on him.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 7, 2013 -> 10:49 AM) I dunno...they have made quite a bit of capital investment already and failed. They have been trying to rebrand for a long time with little success. I think a large part of that is my generation always viewed JCPenny as cheap and lame, so we don't shop there as adults unless we are forced to. But for whatever reason, Kohl's manages to run a pretty similar business without that same stigma attached. I think the stores selling the cheaper, lower quality goods tend to do better when they just sort of admit who they are rather than try to dress up their product as something that it is simply not. The problem we had with the last year at Penney's was that we felt there was a severe cut in the quality of the products they carry on top of everything else. Used to get a good fraction of my clothes there, but over the last year everything me & my wife used to buy there has vanished and was replaced with even cheaper stuff or nothing at all.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 7, 2013 -> 10:45 AM) Maybe he wasn't trying to miss bats? For Danks, he usually only gets swings and misses on 20% of swing against him when he's having a good year.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ May 6, 2013 -> 09:55 PM) Umm what? Pretty much my response too.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 6, 2013 -> 09:48 PM) TWTW s off of the charts for this group. "That's some serious T W T W right there" - Hawk talking about the Bulls Saturday night.

WHAHAHAHAHAHAHA KEEP IT UP

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 6, 2013 -> 06:03 PM) So minorities would commit more crimes if only they had the opportunity? Well, considering that virtually everything that happens in today's financial industry either is or should be classified as a crime, yes, allowing more african americans into that industry would cause them to commit more crimes .

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 6, 2013 -> 05:50 PM) To further the point, I am sure if I took insider trading convictions, it would reflect a much higher percentage for white males than anything else. I see, so you also agree that the failure of firms to hire qualified african american applicants is a major problem as well.