Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 05:52 PM) No, Morel wouldn't be the starter if you got Michael Young. That wouldn't make any sense. I'm guessing Brent would become trade bait soon enough, that I would be fine with that. Personally, I'd really dislike that.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 05:27 PM) How much money was he paid by eco-terrorist NWO liberals bent on destroying good, wholesome, clean, profitable energy that benefits everyone? Probably not as much as you'd think. There's an argument to be made that unconventional natural gas is the best climate change mitigation mechanism we have for the next decade or two.

One noteworthy point...Mr. Blackwood gets to wind up in trouble for forgetting his anniversary and for forgetting Valentine's day, in the same week, every year!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 05:01 PM) He didn't have a starting position in Texas. Here he would. In other words, you don't think Brent Morel will be a starter any time in the next 3 years. (Like it or not, that's what that trade would entail.)

Somewhat on topic...Arizona's next immigration law?

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 04:25 PM) I watched one of the most heavy-handed documentaries in a long time. It's called GasLand and while it's an interesting and informative movie and topic...I don't care about how the filmmaker breaks down because some stream reminds him of home. It's about natural gas drilling and how it's affecting the environment and people around the drill sites. Also, how it's poorly regulated, if at all. But MAN...gimme the facts, not your personal opinion. I wanted to shoot Josh Fox, just to put him out of his misery. If you happen to have any Q's about the actual facts of the movie, feel free to pass them along.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 03:22 PM) You could even use Young in the Super Utility/starting 3B role. Let Morel start over there when Young gives Beckham, Ramirez, or even Konerko a day off at first. Also use Brent late as a D sub. Problem is...the Super-Utility role is why he requested a trade in the first place. Also, if you give Ozzie a rookie and a veteran, when's the rookie ever going to get at bats?

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 02:11 PM) PK's stance is SO different these days. That old one looks weird. He's basically just more closed with the front foot, probably giving him a hand at driving the ball better to RF.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 01:14 PM) I think they also forgot what the definition of "now" is Really, you'd be surprised if Buster Posey outperformed Brian McCann this year? In 2/3 of a season last year, Posey put up an .862 OPS. McCann has put up better than that number only 2 seasons in his career; 2006 and 2008. The last 2 years, he's put up .834 and .828 OPS's. Posey could always pull a 2nd year Beckham, but there's nothing outrageous about expecting him to outperfom McCann next year.

Someone should write a song about that.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 12:10 PM) Education is still a bargain! Yeah, there's another one...college costs are the only thing rising at a comparable rate to health care costs over the last 20 years.

Pistons have reached a deal with a potential buyer.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 11:52 AM) The top 3 OFs are from Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee. There's some serious "Big media bias" there. I didn't say the list was flawless, but I just don't see the angle of bias. The worst one really is the list of SS's. I can make complaints elsewhere (Francona as the top manager?), but there's about 5-6 ones I'd just call outright wrong on that list.

Quit trying to stop me from partying.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 11:36 AM) Ok, that's 1 out of 100 in those lists. Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean they are biased. I don't think there is even 1 Yankee outfielder listed. Which of their OF's even remotely warranted inclusion based on their work last year? It's not just the Yankees, there's some stuff that really is annoying on there. It's not what I'd call Yankee-bias, but there's definitely some "Big media bias" on there. The SS list...Reyes and Rollins? Seriously? After their last couple years?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 11:29 AM) In recent White Sox history, nobody had a better bat flip than Tadahito Iguchi. I dunno, I love the legit TCQ bat flip. Iguchi's has some braggadocio, TCQ's flip had that plus it was so emphatic. He'd launch that bat.

Obviously I have no idea what you're talking about.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 10:53 AM) 15,30, 50 years ago people would put their money in a bank and get 3% interest and watch that grow, live a nice life and get a pension from the non-public or public sector. They would live to their menas and banks would make certain that risk was low when giving away money. People are lazy now and use credit to extend what they couldn't get 25 years ago. A bank has no problem charging you 30% interest on a credit card if you miss one payment. Many, many people are ignorant to these things and simply pay their minimum balance and go about to get more credit which continues to mount. Banks don't really care if you default as they are getting interst at a higher rate then they are paying to make up for the defaults. The other part of this is that 40 years ago, you could legitimately sustain a middle class lifestyle on a single family income. Since then, it's moved to where you've required 2 incomes to support a middle class family, then to the point where a 2 income household still can't keep up with its own health care costs.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 10:53 AM) The housing market is just a bigger plan of this. I used to drive around the suburbs of Chicago and wonder where the wealth for the $400-$600K homes came from. I found out a few years later. People also will just walk away from their home as they have no equity or do not realize the impact of walking away. Oh wait, a bank will give you the money again so just walk away. Fiscal responsability is not as great as it was 20 years ago and nowhere near what it was 40 years ago. You write this as though it's a bad thing. If a Business were to invest several hundred million in a large, real-estate investment, say a multi-building skyscraper development, and the market were to go bust, such that there was no way their investment would be recouped, would that business continue investing in construction? Not a chance. They'd walk away in a quarter second if it was the right financial decision. Walking away from a severely underwater home is very often the correct financial move and should be viewed as such.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 10:23 AM) Actually, they have already started doing this with meat. I just read an article about it a few weeks ago. It's not FDA approved yet and getting people to get past the it's not "real" meat thinking might be difficult. People have been working on some cloning-based version of meat production for years now.

QUOTE (since56 @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 09:20 AM) I agree with this 100%. Which is why I think they will find a way to keep him. What's really going to decide if they can keep him or not is if they can keep packing their brand new stadium. If that stadium stays packed like last year (possibly because they stay winning) then a gigantic payroll, $120 million even, is certainly possible. If that big attendance boost they got from the stadium drifts away, they might not be able to handle their current payroll level. Frankly, I don't know that anyone has a good prediction for how that's going to turn out. There are so many variables. Supposedly a great park, but not in the biggest area. Supposedly the fans love the idea of cold weather baseball...but do they really love it or do they just like to brag and go to one cold weather game a year. What happens if they get a series of snowy years in a row and lose a full series? What happens if they have a legitimately down year and don't compete, how much does that eat into their fanbase?

A mini "Flash-Crash" seems to have hit Apple yesterday.

A good read on why Texas's energy de-regulation format played a role in driving the pre-Super-Bowl rolling blackouts last week.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 10, 2011 -> 11:58 AM) "Brr, it's cold! SO MUCH FOR GLOBAL WARMING!!@!112 You hate the House Majority and the Senate Minority.