Balta1701

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 03:18 PM) I said if healthy. That's the only roadblock. Normally, I'd disagree and have a comeback about how even with great stuff guys still need to learn how to pitch, look how Verlander took time to adapt, etc. Except in this case, I think my comeback is wrong. If he were to somehow be the guy he was last year non-stop, I don't think he'd ever be regularly hittable. He'd have cy young challenges from guys who had great years, and that's it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 03:14 PM) That has gone 180 in the last couple of seasons. And with Cuddyer and Kubel departing, and their bullpen a shambles...they're not looking good in the nearterm unless the M&M's can produce.

QUOTE (knightni @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 03:07 PM) Rios had a very good 2010. Where was the warning? Frankly, the whole 2008-2009 seasons were sorta warnings for him.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 03:00 PM) Maybe this should have been its own thread - What Would You Cut? I'm pretty sure we've done that before, actually.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 02:44 PM) Do you know how bad KC's starting pitching is? Do you know how bad KC is? Do you know how hard it is to take 3 of 4 from any team? Just assuming Detroit will take 3 of 4 is silliness. They might well do so, but seriously, GMAFB.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 02:36 PM) Who thought he was worth acquiring again? A good fraction of this site, for one.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 02:35 PM) Hard to win more than one of the four-game series in Detroit. GMAFB.

So what should the usual gag be here? Should we allege that Rios has compromising pictures of someone or that Lillibridge is getting punished?

Didn't Rios have someone on base and fail every time he came up yesterday?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 01:57 PM) It's not just 3-0, either. It's 0-0. Our hitters consistently take first-pitch fastball and miss out on the best pitch they are going to see for the entire at-bat. Bah...on that one I'm indifferent. That's a particular batter's strategy. A guy like AJ swings first pitch all the time. Ozzie isn't giving people 0-0 take signs very often, but he almost always gives the 3-0 red light.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 01:48 PM) Nothing is off limits. Go for it. Though if you go as broadly as DOD or DHS, I'd like to hear you be more specific within each. NOAA and USGS are agencies within departments... DOD and DHS are entire departments with many agencies each (although DHS is really a shadow department, since it's agencies fall within various cabinets). If I had no Congress to deal with... I'd gut the department of agriculture first. A huge chunk of its money is spent subsidizing production that is already unnecessary and makes the U.S. less healthy. An additional chunk of its marketing dollars are spent doing things like coming up with Domino's "Real cheese!" advertising campaign to support cheese producers. I'd massively pull back on DOD spending, first by ending the wars, but more importantly by closing bases, particularly overseas, and slashing the procurement and maintenance budgets. We don't need 300+ F-22's. Largest possible savings here. Department of Energy, I'd cut nuclear loan guarantees, I'd cut high-carbon energy subsidies, if I got to do everything I could I'd fix the completely broken extraction lease auction system, and I'd add in a carbon tax. I'd do whatever was possible to solve that nuclear waste disposal problem...Yucca is probably finished, but there are other general concepts that have never been tested. The DHS probably has the longest list of things that could be cut or repurposed. Immigrations and Customs is a mess. The TSA is a mess. If I had to make cuts, there's trimmable fat in HHS. FHA loans provide a real societal benefit and long-term savings, but no where here did I get to count that. Interior...Think I already noted this, but they also work to handle energy lease auctions, which is a corrupt cesspool. Department of Justice...country as a whole spends way too much on prisons. DEA, FBI, and prisons are the largest part of this budget. State Department...way too much money goes to Israel, way too much money goes to countries like Pakistan that just turn around and buy jet fighters with the money. Transit...well, frankly they're underfunded. They've been having to deal with less since the gas tax has not been raised to keep up with inflation. Treasury is underfunded for what they're asked to do...enforcing that maze of regulations which we've discussed in other areas. The Corps of Engineers...complete debacle of a mess of a debacle. See about 5 posts back. EPA...underfunded, need Superfund back in particular. NASA...well, depends on if you want a spaceprogram or not. NSF...could probably use 5% more than it gets, but is pretty close to where it should be. When you pump up the NSF funds in any given year you wind up degrading the quality of the proposals you fund. Edit: 2 other points. 1: there's still substantial savings available through an expansion of Medicare or even a reworking of Medicare again, and 2., doing any of these right now fails to make a dent in the actual budget deficit, because cutting federal jobs right now just moves people onto unemployment insurance and Medicaid.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 01:43 PM) Just a hypothetical question here... If you were forced to choose, say, five departments or areas in the federal government to cust substantially... can be any agency, any given funding channel, etc... What would you choose? Do I assume the DOD and DHS are off limits because they are too obvious?

And going along with my last post...FEMA has run out of disaster funds for the year. They have an emergency surplus that they use to pay people to actually go into disaster zones, but unless Congress chooses to appropriate additional funds, there will be no Federal Disaster Relief funds going to help rebuild from the next mess.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 10:43 AM) "Approximately this size" in magnitude or actual ground motion? FWIW the plants I've seen use standards that are at least as conservative as IBC and go by the USGS seismic region ratings. So once again, it's those lying fraud geologists that are to blame. Maybe if you actually figured out some EARTHQUAKE SCIENCE instead of just banking on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX we'd know for sure!!!!1!!1 All the more reason why the USGS should have its budget cut, like NOAA. We don't need to know this stuff.

QUOTE (tonyho7476 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 01:11 PM) Cowley says that someone in the organization told him that even a playoff run can't save Ozzie. I guess that means Ozzie told Cowley he's resigning. Anyway...could also mean that they have an offer on the table from Florida.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 12:35 PM) Will it be four years or five (with Hudson)? Did he pitch enough in 2010 to push his service time forward? He didn't come up until well after the Super 2 deadline, so it ought to be 5 more years after this.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 10:31 AM) Edit: but it still apparently exceeded the design basis so that's no good. There have now been 2 events of approximately this size in this region in the last 100 years. That suggests to me that there is a finite probability of a substantially larger event in that area.

The idea that this fairly weak event could have slightly exceeded the design-basis event for this plant is deeply disconcerting. There's no reason at all why this event is the worst possible event that could hit this region.

Dana Milbank

Electronic infrastructure update.

Somehow, I find that one deeply offensive.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 09:48 AM) Of course, none of the youngsters will likely continue at their current torrid pace Except Dayan. He's keeping that 1.917 OPS.

Because you guys don't post them? QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 07:58 AM) I just like how it's always 'unexpected', just like every time unemployment goes up. Seems like the "Expected" result of the "Debt ceiling deal" to me.

What is worth pointing out again on Flowers and De Aza is that these guys don't need to be all stars. They don't need to put up 1.000+ OPS numbers. De Aza has good speed, plays good defense, and so far hits the ball with authority. His numbers are going to come down a bit from here, he's not this good, but with what he's doing right now there's no reason he can't be a .280 hitter with some moderate pop. His walk rate right now is 1/2 of what it was in Charlotte, so there is still some work to be done here, but a guy who could leadoff, play good defense, be cheap, and give a .750ish OPS would be a substantial upgrade from expensive 50% CS rate Juan Pierre. Flowers is sorta the same boat. He's not going to keep up this batting average with that number of strikeouts, but he's taking walks, his strikeout rate isn't "THAT" much worse than it was in the minors, and when he hits the ball he hits it with authority. There's no reason he can't put up an .800 OPS out of the catcher's spot while being cheap.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 29, 2011 -> 11:09 PM) I'm pretty sure he'd hit like first half Juan Pierre. Defense can only go so far. Is that any worse than Omar Vizquel?