Balta1701

Although, screwing around seems to be a key part of the argument.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 01:58 PM) all of this is true, if your building a team. However we know two things in reference to your post: 1) Ozzie is going to use a "closer" role regardless of what we feel. 2) With the additions in the off season the Sox want to win this year and with some of the pitcher's contracts may have a small window to win. Are you comfortable enough with this bullpen to believe they can do the job? I would prefer someone with more experience with the rest of the team the sox have. The current bullpen may come through, and as a sox fan I hope they do, however I think they are taking a big risk in relying on a relatively inexperienced bullpen. If a quality person, preferably LH, is brought in to fill that 7th bullpen spot, then I think I'd have more confidence in this year's bullpen than last year's, because of the fact that Jenks is out of there. My main worry is actually Thornton's elbow. I think we have more than enough guys who could be really good in the closer's spot, and I think that by the middle part of the season we'll have guys in the minors who can step up and be back-of-the bullpen guys if we need them to be. But the fact that Matty's elbow finally started acting up last year...that worries me, because that's the one thing I don't know if we could overcome.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 02:13 PM) They are letting the price of oil go up again - weak dollar (i.e. printing more and more and more and more and more money for "stimulus") = higher oil prices, forget every other factor you all want to argue about. It's inflating the cost, and our government knows this full well. Seriously Kap, you're going to argue something this weak? If that were the case, that oil price changes were driven by currency price valuations and not based on general supply/demand issues, then oil prices should strongly correlate with international currency fluctuations, whereas instead, it tends to follow the exact same trend regardless of what the currency is doing. If it was solely the weak dollar, then oil would be spiking only in our currency right now, when it simply isn't. Long term, currency valuations have a weak effect, but the short term behavior is dominated by the actual supply/demand/storage/availablilyt issues. Here's a couple year old summary of the actual argument/data that I found with some easy googling.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 02:01 PM) There is no compairson, the conditions are vastly different. You think the real estate market is headed for another 40% tumble? Not even the biggest doomsayers are on that line. You think we're going to have a markets collapse, toxic unwind, and firm collapses like we had in 2007-2008 again in 2011? Incredibly unlikely. You think the Chinese housing market bubble would have anything like the effect the US one did? Not even a remote chance. You think we're going to nearly double unemployment again next year? To 20%/35%? When every economic indicator shows growth in 2011? Europe's debt crisis is the only one that has a similarity. Everything else is vastly different. I think that the real key in all of those is that you're starting from a weaker spot. In 1998, the Asian Economic crisis could have spread more widely, but it didn't because the U.S. was in a strong position and the Fed stepped in to make sure it didn't cascade here. It cut rates aggressively and bailed out LTCM so that it wouldn't expand here. Got Greenspan onto the cover of Time. If, however, China's market were to burst, the Fed has zero room to prevent its impacts from cascading here. It can't cut rates, and we've already seen how well bailouts go. The U.S. real estate market likely is in store for at least a 10% tumble in prices, on average, over the next 2 years, even if nothing goes wrong, because of the sheer volume of housing now hitting the market. The piece I posted earlier today argued for ~20%, and that's perfectly believable. Throw in the weak European position, and yes, I think there's just as much systemic risk right now as in 2008...because you wouldn't need as large of a shock to do the same level of damage.

Whahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Broussard on camby:

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 01:46 PM) I think you are missing the overall trend here. It spiked from like $2 to $4, then back to like $2.50, and is $3 now. If it spikes to $4, you may see a pull-back, but the economic conditions are different so probably not as much so. So, maybe you go to $3.50, then back up towards $5. Its an overall upwardly moving trend, which pretty much everyone agrees is the direction we are going. Buy up them DBO shares now, folks. The bolded is where I disagree. The gas price spike in this country was associated with the final bursting of our real estate bubble and the collapse of the banking system. Right now, there's every reason to believe that China is sitting on a monster of a real estate bubble of its own. Europe, meanwhile, is 1 bailout away from running out of bailout moneys, with 3-4 possible candidates still sitting there. And in this country, the only place that has genuinely expanded is the same place that imploded last time; the financial sector and the stock market. No reason at all to think that conditions are more stable than they were before the US housing bubble burst.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 01:44 PM) You do not know that Ozzie told these things to Oney. It is just as likely that Oney and Jenks partied together. For everyone that thinks Guillen will lose credabiltiy on this, I really do not think that managers and players are really that intimate in one anothers personal lives. While it's entirely possible that Oney and Jenks could have been drinking buddies...that actually would make me more negative on Ozzie's handling of the whole situation... Because if Jenks's off-the-field issues are affecting his on-the-field play...and your own son is encouraging that off-the-field behavior...then Oney's partying is costing the White Sox wins. That's not exactly a selling point.

At least we can finally have some confidence in Ramon Castro's ability to play SS.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 01:37 PM) Definitely, and that trend will continue. We're solidly over $3 here now, and all indications are its likely we'll be paying $4 or even $5 in the next couple years. Here's the question though...how high does it need to go before it re-does all the damage to the global economy that the last price spike provoked? Because if $4/gallon does what it did last time, then it'll drop back to $2 before it gets to $5. There's still more than enough instability, especially in Europe, that a gas price spike could easily resume the global bank runs.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 12:56 PM) Remind me why I don't have you on ignore. Until you leave this thread, ignoring me wouldn't work, you'd miss every post.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 12:55 PM) So we replaced those costs with other costs that still don't fix the main problems. Not helping. But then the problem isn't the ACA, it's the broken system itself.

We're not spending money on the health care overhaul. We're spending money on a crappy and expensive health care system.

I'm still on the other side on this one, and you and I are obviously going to disagree. But in the sense of being another player in that locker room...let's say I'm Matt Thornton or JJ Putz. Bobby Jenks has been doing things in his personal life that have affected his performance on the field. He's blowing games that I think I could finish. I'm not getting my shot to close because Ozzie sticks with him. I keep my mouth shut despite the fact that Bobby's personal issues are boiling over on to the field and we're losing games because of it. My career is being hurt because of the number of chances that Ozzie is giving Jenks. And then Jenks comes out and attacks Ozzie's use of the bullpen? I'd want to be the one ripping him publicly. You can do the same game with any of the other players...every one of them is keeping his mouth shut about Bobby's issues...they're losing games because of it...and Bobby has the audacity to complain about how he was being used and demand even more of a free ride? You guys can look at it and say that this would build a wall up between Ozzie and his players, I see the opposite. If I were on that team, I'd respect him a lot more if I know that there's only so far that he can be pushed.

Really though, if what I think is at least possible comes true, and every time the global economy tries to grow it produces an energy-price-spike recession, then we're going to have to find a way to speed things up...because otherwise, we'll never get out of that 8-9% unemployment valley we're currently in. And I love biking.

Quit being so lazy.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 12:14 PM) I always tell anyone who'll listen that we lost that SB a few years ago because we lost Mike Brown and Tommie Harris Although you've got that in color, it could well have been entirely true. The Bears lost their best pass rusher and their run-stopping, ball-hawking safety, and they wound up losing the super bowl because they couldn't stop the run or generate pressure on Manning.

I think you have to add in more of the full picture before you can compare Jenks to Hamilton. Let's hypothetically say that Hamilton had fallen off the wagon fully in 2009 (when he had that first few drinks and was wandering around asking if anyone has some coke, by his own description). Then, the Rangers cover for him. They continue investing money in him, continue giving him shots, don't bench him even while he's struggling, and finally let him go when his contract ends. They never say anything publicly about anything. Then, Hamilton comes out and criticizes the team for not giving him enough playing time. After all the covering for him that the team had done. You really would keep your mouth shut? If you were another player on that team, would you respect the team more if they continued to keep their mouth shut or if they stepped up and defended themselves? I'd find it much more pathetic if the team kept its mouth shut.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) I'm positive if it were as easy as that, it'd already be done on a massive scale. That said, a lot of money IS being spent on alternative energy research and development right now, and in the years to come you will begin to see the fruits of that labor, albeit small fruits. It's not something that will happen overnight, and most of these newly researched technologies will fail to produce any actual worth, as most will prove to be less efficient than their predecessors. Until something can be more efficient and available on a massive scale (easy to get/refuel, etc), it's all talk and while interesting topics of discussion, it's nothing more. The problem right now is...relative to the timescale of fully upgrading and replacing our transportation and generation infrastructure, massive price spikes CAN happen overnight. $5 gas by 2012, as predicted by Shell a few days ago, would probably be more than enough to push the U.S. back into a large-scale recession, and would absolutely devastate the already-weakened European economies. And really, if it's going to happen, there's no way around it. Oh, and it's worth understanding that this sort of effect is actually a logical consequence of peak energy supplies being reached. If the global economy can only expand if more energy is supplied, but energy supplies are constrained, then every time the global economy tries to grow it's going to be met with a huge headwind in the form of an energy price spike. In this case...economic stagnation is the permanent situation.

Good day for impressive graphs. Link And a whole page of graphs arguing that housing prices have another 20% to fall.

Obviously you've never heard the real authority discussing this issue.

Must you tell us?

Kincaid, you think the "Get me a sandwich" part isn't a problem too?

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 11:17 AM) So we get a blizzard and the Northeast is stranded. Christie's budget slashing has left many many towns unable to afford to plow themselves free. One person in my office hasn't been able to be home since Christmas because he can't get there. In Newark, Democrat mayor Cory Booker has been shoveling people out himself and delivering diapers to stranded mothers (and tweeting about it.) In Trenton, the governor flew out of dodge the day before the big storm for vacation, while his Lieutenant Governor is also on vacation. So who is cleaning up the mess? Acting Governor Steve Sweeney, the NJ Senate Preisdent (Democrat). Rex, I've noted a few of the websites I read who are looking for reasons to bash Christie are using this one, is it actually playing at all in NJ?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 10:32 AM) I agree, this sets up a bad situation for the players and other coaches. Ozzie's son is causing some significant problems here. I feel like Bobby Jenks was the one who set up the bad situation, and I really think this clears the air. Think about it...these guys covered for Bobby, seemingly for years. They gave him about a half-dozen more chances to be the closer this year than I personally thought he deserved. When he was having personal problems, the team said nothing about it, even when he went on the bereavement list for whatever reason, they kept their mouths completely shut. The only thing they asked in return was the same kind of respect that they gave him. And he decided he didn't want to give them that respect.