Balta1701

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 02:09 PM) Why do you feel domestic terrorists deserve the same rights as regular U.S. citizens? More importantly, why should we take the moral high road with known terrorists? This kid brutally murdered and mutilated dozens of people, destroying numerous people's lives in the process. He did so with the intent to create as much pain and suffering as possible for these innocent people. Why does he get your sympathy when he took none on his victims? How would you feel if you were left a cripple or lost a loved one? I'm guessing you'd be singing a different tune. The moral high ground is always easy from an outside perspective. I'm not for prison rape or torture or anything else you may refer to barbaric, but unfortunately prison is a dangerous place and bad things happen to inmates all the time. If something bad happens to poor little Dzohkar, I will feel no sympathy for him whatsoever. Pure evil doesn't deserve our sympathy. Nothing bad will ever happen to him in prison. We don't let that kind of crap go on at Supermax sites. We reserve these kind of disgusting fantasies for the general population.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 01:34 PM) Yes, Keppinger and DeAza SHOULD get better. But, there are just a ton of question marks right now. Alexei is Alexei...you know what you're getting with him. I just wish we'd see more walks/patience at the top of the order. Part of it is simply "bad luck" with Keppinger, but everyone expected him NOT to be the same hitter he was in 2012 if he was exposed to playing every day, against all types of pitching. It's just like buying a mutual fund that returned 72% last year and expecting the same result again this year when last year was likely to be the outlier or anomaly. Jeff Keppinger has a sub.200 BABIP over the first 3 weeks of the season. He's making decent contact but it's constantly right at someone. It really isn't smart to project his season when that's the case.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 01:33 PM) The treatment of Cutler compared to Rose is infuriating. Cutler tries to play on a torn knee and gets labeled soft. Rose says it's mental to play on a healthy knee, labeled smart. Is anyone here calling Rose smart?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 10:22 AM) You could probably have an entire thread for celebrity/athlete DUIs. Reese Witherspoon's police report from the same night was kinda funny, but I'm more disappointed to find that out about someone like Al.

NO idea where else to put this, but Al Michaels picked up a DUI Friday night.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 10:13 AM) Nobody is a good game manager when his players have a .271 OBP. I gave Ventura credit for how well prepared his players appeared in every aspect of the game coming out of ST last year, so I feel no qualms about saying that part of this number relates to how prepared his players were coming out of ST this year.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 10:06 AM) Yet. The team looks really bad right now, especially the offense. I agree that they will play better. But when and who? I'm very concerned about Adam Dunn right now. He's batting below .100, and he's still in the 4 or 5 hole. He's on pace to have a year as bad or worse than 2011. Detroit is a better team, and unless the Sox turn it around quickly, they will be 10 games out soon. Keppinger will be a lot better before it's all said and done. He's making good contact and putting together a .180 BABIP. That's one of those things that happens to people during a baseball season.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 10:05 AM) Is it also odd to wish someone to be executed? My response to this is that society has long deemed this to be an acceptable punishment. Whether or not one agrees with it, this type of punishment could meet a reasonable standard of decency, it has been judged to meet the standard of the 8th amendment. I for one am bothered a lot more by the culture of prison rape in this country than I am by the death penalty, to be perfectly honest.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 09:55 AM) People who are in prison have been deemed unsafe / ineligible to be part of society. Prison rape happens all the time because these people are disturbed, f***ed up individuals who don't play by the rules (mostly). Trying to explain it is impossible. That said, it's part of the culture and one of the many reasons I don't go setting off explosions at marathons. It also happens because society is willing to tolerate it and in many cases encourage it. People laughing at how hilarious it is are part of the problem. If society didn't think it was a great and hilarious punishment, then much of it would go away. Also, based on the NY Post's work for the last week, you shouldn't just "not be setting off bombs at marathons", you should never get photographed doing anything, just to be safe.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 09:41 AM) Eh, so is blowing up an 8 year old. That said, I don't care what happens to this kid as long as he never sees freedom. I totally agree with the former. I care about the latter in the sense that I care about society having some basic amount of dignity, I just put prison rape well outside of those bounds.

QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 09:29 AM) I know we've talked about this in the 'Buster before, but there's something very odd about wishing someone to be prison raped. It's disgusting.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 02:49 AM) Jeremy Reed and Beckham are the only position players I can recall that were consensus first-team/All-America type that we've drafted fairly high. Seems that we need a more refined hitter, higher contact/BB rate, maybe a bit lower ceiling, but one who will definitely make it to the majors and contribute. A speedier, more athletic/dynamic version of the player Keppinger was supposed to be in the 2 hole, kind of along the lines of Almora with the Cubs. Of course, there's a downside to those NCAA All-America type players like a Beckham or Alex Gordon. If you'll recall that Garcia trade, the players that eventually had the greatest MLB impact were Olivo and, of course, Michael Morse. At the time of the trade, Reed was the biggest name involved from a prospect standpoint (although Olivo had enjoyed some MLB success and also showed off that arm every opportunity he had). But it took Morse a long time to come around...he didn't ever produce for SEA, and, at that time, he was transitioning from SS to 3B and eventually LF, so he was more of a utility player because of his height (making SS impossible) and lack of power. And once the Sox draft guys who don't have incredibly high ceilings, the 4 paragraph post will be about how the sox aren't aggressive enough in drafting guys who could become stars.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 08:59 AM) Not true at all. They would need to get to Astros range to make the big bucks. Except having 1200 people tuning in for a game would destroy them the next time the TV deal came up for renewal.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 07:10 PM) Competitive for what? The AL Central? The Sox have a BABIP of .268 right now. They're actually due for a positive correction.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 06:54 PM) So do you keep Peavy and Rios? If they keep playing well enough that people will want them, we'll be competitive this year at some point.

Supposedly everyone is now accounted for and the final death toll is 14. Investigators have stated they have identified the source of the explosion but have not released public information on it yet, nor do they knwo what started the fire.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 06:22 PM) How would they have avoided moving or folding? They wouldn't have. But in that case, that's failure after failure. That's not deliberate destruction, that's a terrible job by the franchise. Here's a comparison. 5 or 6 consecutive years of losing despite trying to compete is like playing Russian roulette and loading 1 round into a revolver. If everything goes wrong, well, you know how that ends. Trying the Astros route, deliberately losing for half a decade and then hoping that you have prospects develop faster than the Royals/Pirates/whoever else has gone that route...for this franchise, that's like playing Russian roulette and loading 6 shots into the revolver. Even if everything goes 100% to plan, the franchise has still shot itself in the head.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 06:18 PM) The White Sox will not lose money with a $70-80M payroll. Nobody went to the games last year and they made $20M on a $100M+ payroll. How will you avoid further erosion of their ticket and advertising base? 1.96 million isn't nothing. "The Kids can Play" year was 1.34 million in attendance.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 06:15 PM) What if they don't rebuild and still go through a period of 5-8 years of losing? Then they'll be on their 3rd GM and 4th coach, if nothing else.

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 06:03 PM) 6 years, 96 million. Zero guaranteed. Interesting Remarkable, so there's no spreading of any cap hit, but he has to play for all of it.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 06:06 PM) Blaming the fans is silly. The fans didn't hire a minor league director who was actively looking for players who wouldn't make it to the big leagues so that he could embezzle from the organization. Besides a rebuild means a lower payroll which means larger profit. If you want to make the case they aren't going to rebuild because Chairman Reinsdorf is getting along in years and wants to wuin another World Series I wouldn't argue with you. Not if revenue decreases more. There are substantial costs associated with running the team other than payroll. If you slash payroll by 50%, you don't slash "Total expenses" by 50%.

My response to anyone calling the Astros a positive example is going to be pretty simple. They had a game last year where 1100 people watched. On TV. The 4th biggest city in the country, with no competition, drew 1100 viewers on TV for a game last year. On a weekend. The Astros have 2 winning records since 2006, They have an 82 win season and an 86 win season. They've been under .500 for the last 4 years, they've sold off whatever talent they had, and they still are facing several more years of being the laughingstock of baseball and having no interest whatsoever before they'd be able to rebuild through the draft. The White Sox have legit competition in their area, even if that team is also terrible. The end result of a period of 5-8 years losing by the White Sox right now is going to be the end of the White Sox. They would either be moving or close to folding. The Chicago market will not be that forgiving. Oh, and welcome to the site .

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 05:57 PM) I get the distinct impression that people tired of the 78-85 win teams last year. They'd rather see a 70-win team that has promise than whatever is out there now. "They" = "Marty".

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 05:59 PM) What else happened on August 9th? That absolutely played into the japanese ability to surrender as well. Suddenly they had another army facing their army. In about 3 days, 2 of their cities vaporized and they had to face the Soviet army. And still, there was a coup attempt by the hawks to try to prevent the Emperor from taking control and offering a surrender, despite all of that. The Soviet invasion might have taken longer or even never happened had the U.S. not dropped the bomb, they had every reason to make excuses to drag their feet, but once the U.S. did that, the Russians made their move, and that was enough to give the Japanese reason to strike peace.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Apr 21, 2013 -> 05:51 PM) Eh, this is where I'm straying to opinion but I'm not sure it would've been much worse than the atomic bombs. I think we knew that too. Patton blazed across France against an opponent that still had some fight left in them. Japan has some rougher terrain and they were a little nuts (the lengths of their craziness is a bit overblown), but they also were woefully incapable of fighting a modern war at the time. Either way, we dropped the bombs, the war ended, the Soviets eventually got one too and the whole point of cooking those two cities was rendered moot. Maybe the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made it more difficult to anyone to work up the nerve to unleash nuclear weapoons in the Cold War, but nobody really knows. I don't think it was a war crime. I think a precedent of total war had long been set and while awful Hiroshima doesn't even compare to firebombings in Dresden and Tokyo or the shelling of Berlin. I don't know what conclusion to draw from it, but one of those little anecdotes that always struck me was that the Nuremburg trials were setting up to include Donitz in the group of people sentenced to life in prison or death for leading the war in the Atlantic and targeting civilian traffic, but then the defense pointed out that Nimitz had run the exact same war in the Pacific against Japan. Because of that, Donitz only wound up with 10 years, and IIRC didn't serve all of it.