Balta1701

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 2, 2011 -> 06:06 AM) For all four to perform at what level? All-Star? Career averages? For 3 of those guys, "Career average" is nearly all-star level.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 10:12 PM) When Frank Thomas was in his heyday, there were several articles that called for him to walk less and swing at close pitches more often. The White Sox didn't mess with him, which I think was the correct thing to do. No sense messing up a good thing. He starts swinging at pitches 2 inches off the plate, he may start swinging at pitches 6 inches off the plate. Plus there was the "This guy is really big and mean, we're scared of him" factor.

Mark won this GG on day 1 of the 2010 season.

Again, you still haven't given a reason why that won't happen anyway, or any way by which the every 3 month new bailout scheme has a way out.

We have to stop this

One of the women involved in Cain's harassment settlements wants to come forward, and her lawyer is now trying to see if Cain's public statements denying the harassment means that he has vacated the confidentiality part of the agreement and thus would allow her to do the same.

Ugh.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 05:04 PM) The end game is a lot of people lose a lot of money, and when they go down, the credit market dries up for any country in any similar look/style/situation. They can leave the EZ all they want, and have cheap money, but nobody will lend them more, and other countries get to fall with them, and nobody will want to lend them anything either. And that = bad. Now you can write this...and emotionally that's going to be the visceral reaction...but if doing business in Greece becomes a better deal because the labor there is cheap and the workforce is well trained...will people make decisions that cost their firms money in a global economy because of spite. You'd be correct that lending them money would be nuts if there weren't systematic reforms to prevent the goldman-sachs enabled debt hiding shenanigoats that went on for the last decade. If those reforms happened and they stayed in the Euro, they'd still be facing a decade+ of no growth and depression level unemployment. If those reforms happened and they left the Euro, they might have a fighting chance. What they're facing if they keep accepting these bailouts also = bad.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 04:56 PM) The general doom and gloom about 2012 already just baffles me. Let's wait until the season starts and see what these guys can do. I'm pretty damn confident they'll do a better job than the previous crew. I understand the general doom and gloom entirely. The Sox's season next year will be a successful one if Adam Dunn, Jake Peavy, Alex Rios, and Gordon Beckham perform. After watching 0 of those guys perform last year, and all of them struggle or be injured for more than 1 of the previous 2 seasons, having success from all those guys seems like a long shot.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 04:49 PM) Well what do you expect? People aren't exactly thrilled to have to support Greece, especially when they are basically flipping the bird to the people keeping them afloat. So what is the end game? Aside from default and/or dropping the Euro, what is the end game? Another round of austerity measures in 6 months in exchange for another debtor haircut will lead to...another round of austerity measures in 6 months in exchange for a debtor haircut, which will lead to...another round of austerity measures in 6 months in exchange for a debtor haircut... You said "Not really" when I said that the only plausible endgame was defaulting and/or leaving the Euro. Outline another option.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 04:45 PM) Which is exactly why they haven't defaulted. Because the rest of Europe keeps telling them "make more people unemployed and we'll find a way to pretend that what we're doing isn't called a default". Except that it keeps getting harder every time. And there's no end or solution in sight.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 04:39 PM) Not really, but that's OK. Then can you outline a path where Greece accepts this deal and then isn't right back here in 6 months being asked to take a new one?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 04:31 PM) Not taking the deal makes them do both. As does taking it. That's the point.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 04:26 PM) The German contingents reaction was great. If they vote against it, they get drummed from the Euro-Zone and become the Euro equivalent of Detroit. Except once they're out of the Eurozone, they will suddenly be a cheap place to do business if you want to sell stuff to the rest of the world.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 04:22 PM) And if they don't take this deal, where do you think that leaves them? They can no longer service their debt load. They will end up defaulting left and right, the government will break down, and things will be much, much worse. I think taking this deal leaves them right where you think refusing this deal leaves them...either defaulting on their debts or leaving the Euro. Taking this deal simply doesn't fix the problem. Left out all your stuff about them needing a kick in the tail, because you're right, that's a country with a bunch of severe problems, most notably a large segment of the population who skips out on taxes because the country has a weak tax collection system. But that's not the point...austerity measures aren't a "Kick in the tail", they are measures taken that will weaken an economy with no prospects for growth in the near term future and a high probability of defaulting anyway.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 04:15 PM) Also, this latest Greece episode is laughable. The Euro zone decides to give Greece a whole bunch of money, and cut their debt in half, in exchange for further austerity and tax measures. Greek leadership says OK. Then Greek President goes on TV and says he wants to put it to a vote with his people. Oops. Greece may decide to vote itself into financial oblivion. The people are already rioting from previous austerity measures and previous austerity measures have pushed unemployment in Greece to 17% while failing to do anything about the status of its debt. There's ample reason to believe that these further austerity measures will simply increase unemployment further, which will then make the part of the debt not written off even more onerous. Thus, requiring another bailout step and another series of austerity measures to put more people out of work next year. And so on. Ridicule Greece if you want...this bailout deal doesn't solve the problem unless the world's economy magically decides to start growing everywhere. It kicks the can down the road again, and the people have figured that out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 02:46 PM) Man admitted they didn't segregate funds, and used customer funds to cover firm losses. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/20...mer_cash_rules/ I'm also reading that the debt to equity, the leverage ratio, for Corzine's mess was something like 40 to 1.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 03:15 PM) Yeah, I know, but that wasnt an issue. Ricky backed out of the deal, the Twolves were ready to pay it. Were the TWolves even allowed to do that though? I thought Ricky actually had to pay the "Posting fee" out of the salary the TWolves would have paid him, basically eating up his entire rookie salary for a couple years.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 03:04 PM) FWIW my "gas guzzling" SUV gets 23 MPG, not bad with a Hemi V8. I've been driving a rental Durango for 1.5 weeks and already paid more in gas than I usually spend in my civic in a month.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 02:53 PM) He did. But he refused the initial buyout and went back to Spain for a year. And it wasnt a hard slotting issue, it was Rubio feeling he wasnt ready The Spanish team he was playing for also would have required several million dollars to let him out of his contract (Effectively a "Posting fee").

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 02:19 PM) Exactly. There is little to no upside to refuse to sign unless one thinks he can improve his position in future drafts, which is no different than it is now. Except now a person can refuse to sign and hold the Yankees/Red Sox/Tigers/Angels over the head of the team negotiating with that player.

1. If a player is drafted #1 overall and does not want to sign for the hard slot money...then that player will never enter the league. There is no price at which that player would be willing to enter the league if he did not want to sign for hard slot money. So long kid. Keep the rule where a player not signing means that a team keeps their pick the next year if it happens in the first 2 rounds. 2. Enter the draft as many times as you want. Who cares if a player enters several times and then goes back to school trying to earn a higher draft pick and a college degree?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 01:26 PM) I'm sure I can find more, but here is one that immediately popped in my head. 2004, Padres take Matt Bush first overall in no small part because of signability concerns, Justin Verlander goes 2nd to the Tigers, Jared Weaver falls to 12th because of signability concerns, Boras negoatiates for a full year before getting a deal done. Add Jared Weaver to the 2007 Padres.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 11:08 AM) Those smart cars freak me out when I am driving next to them. They look like golf carts in the road that could swerve in front of me at any time. I saw one on 90 on the way to my softball game and moved two lanes over because I didnt want to be anywhere near it. I move lanes to avoid other cars also. Usually SUV's.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 1, 2011 -> 12:37 PM) Honestly in my view, a hard slot with a world wide draft is the biggest thing that could bring some semblance of parody back to baseball.