Balta1701

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 03:38 PM) I can't believe simply calling Juan a good baseball player can cause so much angst. You guys have high standards if you don't agree with me on that. No, we just watched him in the OF in April.

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 03:23 PM) Did the Indians offer him a competitive contract before he went to Philly? Not even close. $60 million/5 year offer from Cleveland, signed for $85 million with an option.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 03:10 PM) If the only thing that is going to "save the economy" is more efficiency from the energy sector, let's all just die right now and get it over with. Well, those are pretty much your actual choices. Like it or not. There's no more cheap oil to be found and everyone wants whats left. That fact will just get worse with time.

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 03:19 PM) There's a lot of uncertainty with that rotation that's for sure. If the sox have to shed payroll though, that could very well be the rotation next season. Even though it's an uncertain rotation, it *could* still be a competitive one, that's one nice thing. Problem is, for it to be competitive, Peavy, Dunn, and Rios have to play to their contracts.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 03:31 PM) Personally I've been disappointed in Lexi this season. If I'm way off base then I mistakenly offend the Lexi-lovers as they offend me when they hate on Juan. Somebody else was bagging on Lexi the other day as well. With the way Alexei started this season he looked like he was going to be a lot better, but he's been in this ground ball to the LH side groove since about May 1 that has really hurt, especially causing DP's. He's been a lot more useful than Pierre because he's actually hit the ball hard, but no where near as good as it seemed like he should have been.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 03:17 PM) To the 80 percent of America who still follow batting average, his batting average is excellent. His defense is fine. His willingness to learn how to bunt and get a hit off a bunt is very excellent. He's a good ballplayer. I actually was one of his defenders last year because of his defense. His defense this year has been a mess, and especially a mess when the 9th inning rolls around for some reason. He's cost us several games on defense and saved virtually none.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 03:16 PM) 0.1 WAR. He's not good defensively, has no power, and doesn't get on base frequently. He hits for a good average and runs well (not counting SB attempts where he hurts us). That doesn't add up to much of a player. I'd call 0.1 WAR tolerable. We could have lived with a few 0 WAR players if the guys we're paying a lot of money to had played to their salaries

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 03:14 PM) I'll stand by my comment. He's a good baseball player and a good leadoff hitter. A lot of fans (not saying you) buried him after his first error of the season. On a team full of bums (this season) he's been excellent. There's no standard by which he's been excellent. On a team full of bums he's been tolerable if you ignore April and May and his fielding.

Wow, that was some sudden transition to being in shadow/cloud

QUOTE (gatnom @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 02:59 PM) destroy a bullpen. Only if you're comparing it to the White Sox of the last 5 years, where they've had basically the fewest innings out of their bullpen of any team in the majors.

Awful weekend for Morel.

Flowers with a good single up the middle, again. Gordon inside outs a ball to RF.

2 redeeming moves by the Elf for that first error.

Nice looking DP.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 02:20 PM) I personally think that the reason they are keeping Webb at LT is because he played there last year and they dont want to flip him again. They are using the rationale (more athletic) because most fans wont actually look at the numbers and see Carimi is actually the better athlete. Ive been pretty quiet on Carimi all offseason because I didnt want to hype him to much, but he really is a far better athlete than reporters suggest. Someone tell me if I'm wrong, but Webb was the RT last season. Omifail, Williams, Kreutz, Garza, Webb, from Left to Right.

Kinda depends on how much money we have to spend too. If we are at around $105 million or less as our salary limit, then pretty much the choice comes down to whether you resign Buehrle or you trade both danks and Floyd.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 02:08 PM) Especially after such a meaningless poll. It'd be like quitting because an AP Poll showed you were down a few points (although the AP Poll might more reliable and more valid). It's clearly not just the strawpoll, his fundraising has been awful. He probably has had people behind the scenes telling him to get out, and now Parry is in there in the "playing to the base but former governor" role.

Kindly invite a Republican Senator, I wouldn't want us to get in trouble.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 12:34 PM) This surprises me. I thought that he could have been a contender. He seems like a pretty traditional Republican. Wow, I'm surprised also. usually people don't fall out this early.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 13, 2011 -> 08:40 PM) The US is pretty much at the "mature" stage, and there's not really a place to absorb a lot of buying. Houses? Nope. Households have 6 cars per family. Technology? Not really, everyone has a computer. Oh, I have an idea, let's make EVERYONE buy an electric car!! Well, okay, except that won't work, either. It's not like there's some big huge MANUFACTURING issue that is going to get the US going again. I know that the hope and change crowd wants environmental type of expansion to be that next big thing, but it's cost prohibitive or it would have been done already a long time ago. Now, you'd want the government to come in and subsidize this type of activity, and what would that do? Pop goes the weasel. By the way, one point worth repeating on this post again...it's worth noting that "cost prohibitive" is no longer a good excuse now that we're into an energy-constrained world. As I pointed out in the other thread, every economic expansion in modern history has been associated with increased use of some cheap energy source. Now that oil production has plateaued, there is no obvious cheap energy source that can be expanded, and the market is behaving as if it is supply-constrained. Every time demand goes up, the price spikes until the point that the whole economy weakens and the demand goes away. In order to get any sort of economic expansion from this point, it has to happen at a near-constant energy use, unless green energy is involved. Coal, nuclear, oil, etc., can't fix that problem, oil can't expand, coal and nuclear can't supply vehicles. The economy actually has to become more efficient if its going to expand. if that doesn't happen, then the economy will stagnate until it does.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 09:19 AM) Obligatory response for most Dems: Look at those graphs in the other thread. Unemployment would be 65%, and GDP would have been -150% if it weren't for the "stimulus", and in fact, we should have done it 5 times bigger so that it REALLY would have worked!!!! Government spending is the only thing big enough to keep us from shooting ourselves. Of course, none of this is an argument for why I'm wrong, and if it was worth my time, I could write the exact same thing about how we can cut regulations to save the world, but everyone would think it is stupid.

Just in terms of getting up for the game, there's always going to be a big emotional element too. Especially now that the leaded coffee is out.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 01:32 PM) So what do we do with Zach? I don't know about you guys, but he looks like he should be here to stay to me. He throws strikes, he works quickly, and he's definitely got major league quality stuff. I was incredibly shocked by this trade when it went down, but difficult for anyone to complain at this point, given what we've seen of the kid thus far. I've got absolutely no problem dealing Danksy at this point, unless he suddenly becomes amenable to working out a reasonable deal. I wouldn't be mad if he spent a chunk of next season in AAA though. Just don't do the bullpen game with another guy who could benefit from building up innings.

Tommy Hanson hits the DL.

So, the updated versions for today. Zambrano's agent emailed Hendry within 2 hours of the end of gametime saying that he wasn't retiring. \ Zambrano returned later that night and re-filled his locker. He was still allowed in, somehow. The Cubs have put him on the Disqualified list, whatever that is, which would remove him from the team for 31 days without pay. The Cubs however expect to lose their grievance when the Union files it on Monday, but they really don't care, they're making their point.