Balta1701

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QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 01:46 PM) Do you think they will be buyers though? I think they realize their offense isn't good enough, but those younger players could contribute in the next year or too. They just lost 5 games in a row going into the AS break. Before that I'd have answered yes. Now, I think they'll be more hesitant, barring a run of wins coming out of the break.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 01:48 PM) That might be the worst scenario. It's sad to say that we'd rather have a really bad stretch over a mediocre one. But it's the truth. If this team looks no different (player-wise) come August 1, it's going to be very disappointing. I can't speak for KW, but if I were in his chair...the only thing that would prevent me from doing the full hard sell is a major run of winning.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 01:35 PM) Of course there was, all the more reason to not have created the state there. Furthermore, if you were going to do it, it needed to be a multi-cultural state in any case. These groups have been in conflict a long, long time. There is no ideal solution, but segregating out a slice of prime fought-for land for one particular religion's people in this case was sheer stupidity. I think that no matter what solution you chose, 60 years later we'd look back and describe it as "Sheer stupidity". A multi-cultural "State" would probably have ended up a lot like what we have now...a genuine apartheid state, probably with a civil war similar to the one in 1948 to boot.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 12:49 PM) some candid responses from Gonzalez in the mailbag (for a change): mailbag That is probably easily the most frustrated-sounding mailbag I've ever read.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 11:41 AM) They'd have to play Quentin in LF (or DH) with Ichiro already entrenched in RF. Not sure they have anyone you'd love to have besides Ackley or Smoak. Neither of those guys are going anywhere, certainly not for CQ. It would be a pretty shocking move for them to make. More likely he would go to the Giants, Braves or Phillies. Don't think KW wants him to come back to haunt the White Sox playing in the AL. The Mariners have a lot of higher-level guys who should wind up being big leaguers (even if not stellar ones) and some talented stuff below them that is a few years away. They're actually the kind of team the Sox ought to be dealing with here...a team that has guys who might be a couple years away from becoming top-flight rookies.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 12:06 PM) I'm pretty sure the reaction will be to not give a f*** anymore. Team sucks, he's always hurt. Whatever. So, you're in the "angry he's unable to pitch" half.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 01:07 PM) I believe it was 2007 when Contreras got hurt and ended his hot streak. His ERA in the 2nd half of 2006 was 5.40. His hot streak ended in early 06.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 01:24 PM) It's become obvious to me, in my opinion, that the Sox going 3-7 out of the ASB might be the best thing for this organization. It would force KW to go into sell mode. I'm just wondering what they'll do if they come out and go .500 for the next 1.5 weeks.

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Maybe the Priest and nun costumes can stay?

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 12:22 PM) Brett Anderson had Tommy John surgery. Out 'till midway through the 2012 season. That A's rotation is kind of something with their injuries. Some of those guys...the reason the A's were able to get them is that other teams thought they were injury concerns. Beane needs pitching that is undervalued...injury concern guys are undervalued.

Kids visit that domain all the time though.

I didn't know that site was a private organization, I thought it was .GOP.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:56 AM) People want to blame the Israelis or the Palestinians. I sort of agree with those who say both are at fault. But IMO the single biggest fault for the ongoing conflict goes the nations that decided after WWII to create Israel in the first place, where and when and how they did. That was the single biggest reason for this mess, if there is one. The problem with that line of thinking is that there was a very long running conflict going on between those groups before 1948 happened.

Don't describe it when you come back.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:21 AM) How is that a good idea? Why would you sell low on players, who you have NO replacements for, and get nothing in return? If you're a GM and you just dump all the players that are having a bad season, you're going to run out of talent. CQ will never have more trade value then now, he's going to be too expensive next year, and we have a ready-made replacement. This team, minus Dunn and Rios, is still horrible. If you're losing, you have to replace players with players that give you a chance to win in the future. If someone would take on the contracts of Dunn and Rios, regardless of whether the Sox have immediate replacements for them, the Sox should do that solely to rid themselves of the contracts, because in the event of a total rebuild, that money will be extremely useful.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:18 AM) How far does one have to go to violate the first? Would "Islam is the Light" being in 40 pt font on illinois.gov be ok? Depends on the context, I'd say. Overhauling the entire Illinois State Website to support Allah is one thing. Listing public events at a Mosque is another. You might be able to get me more annoyed if Perry launched, you know a state funded ad campaign to support the thing, but I'd hope most taxpayers would get annoyed with that too.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:14 AM) Do you disagree that a link on an official government website promoting a religious event is a violation of the first amendment? Yeah, I'd say I disagree on that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:14 AM) I don't think you even read what you post most of the time. I defend Rick Perry and you can't even be troubled to pay attention to it. That just pisses me off.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:13 AM) Instead of being forced to be accountable for the loans that they made, banks had a place to dump them off, with no risk to them. They didn't dump them off onto FNMA or FDMC though, they dumped the bad ones off onto other investors who wanted MBS, and then eventually onto the Federal Reserve.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:10 AM) Which means anytime Barack goes to church, you should be upset. Do you even bother reading what I write any more?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:07 AM) I'm pretty sure that narrative doesn't jive with numerous official & non-partisan analyses of what happened. But my understanding is based largely on the Planet Money/This American Life broadcasts they've done over the past several years now. He's quite correct that the government actively promoted having the banks give loans to people who otherwise couldn't have afforded loans. Problem is...those loans are still in relatively decent shape. Here's a year old graph on the FHA loan deliquency rate. These are people who otherwise would never have been able to get a loan. Compared to the 30% rate shown above, the tick from 4 to 6 % here isn't bad at all. FHA loans have massively outperformed subprime.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 10:03 AM) Wasting years is a bigger priority for you? Not for me. I don't want to go back to the days of no payroll and less fans. We're already wasting years, and if we're paying Alex Rios $14 mil a year for 3 more years, then we're making a strong effort at wasting those years too.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 12:38 AM) Im in the camp who thinks some of these things should be said. No one would mind him calling Gooddell a Dictator or a Puppet. The homophobic slur doesn't help. The gun photo is just creepy. The calling out his teammates in public is completely out of the bounds in pro sportsw.