Balta1701

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 09:16 AM) Oh of course its a phenomenon right now. But the overall trend will still be people moving more often, because people are moving to other cities for jobs more often as well. Society is more mobile. I don't see a recession stopping that trend entirely, in the long haul. Just out of curiosity, do you know if there's a way to quantify that effect? I can't figure out where I'd look for this one, and I think you're going to wind up being right when you compare to 40 years ago (when people would leave school, get a job, and then keep that job), but perhaps down from 10 years ago (thanks to government policies encouraging homeownership, rising energy costs, wage stagnation, and now the housing bubble).

This was one of the most disturbing things I ever watched.

For being attention whores, the people who actually want to run this place seem to have gotten very little public media attention.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 08:37 PM) 3) The laws against corruption and fraud in this country are hopelessly pathetic. The Supreme Court stripped (probably correctly) a lot of the heft out of the corruption laws in this country back in June.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 12:03 AM) Politically speaking, there is a reason why pensions could get so huge and bloated in the public sector. It's called punting. And while it could raise some hell to give actual wage increases during a political term, it was easy for them to punt 20-30 years down the line when it wasn't their problem. Over and over. Plus, it's a great private financial decision to assume that your pension fund is going to grow at 7% a year so you can put less into it and carry away the difference.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 07:16 AM) Read it again - the same people who are b****ing about US government interferences on the rest of the world want this health care plan -- or even more. It's humorous, actually. Where was I b****ing about U.S. government interference? I was defending it.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 09:08 AM) No one is going to be paying 6% on savings any time soon, unless inflation gets out of control later. And if that happens, the markets will be rising quickly too. Keep in mind also, people don't stay in their homes nearly as long nowadays, so mortgage life is much shorter. I wouldn't be surprised if that has changed since 2007...that the people who still have their houses have actually been there a lot longer...because it's difficult to sell a $400k house when you have a $500k mortgage on it. There is good reason to think that this effect, housing-lock, has been a substantial contributor to the persistence of unemployment and the rise in long-term unemployment concentrated in areas of heavy housing declines...because normally, in a free society like this one, you expect that if one area is depressed while another is growing, there will be population flow to balance that out.

Yes, not having a good Jenks is killing the Sox. Not having the bad Jenks...isn't all that different. Once again, since people keep citing this BS stat, I have to point out...Bobby Jenks did not take the blown save in the game against the Twins where the first 5 batters to face him reached. Sergio Santos took the blown save there, but everyone in their right mind could tell that was Bobby's fault.

QUOTE (Elgin Slim @ Aug 18, 2010 -> 12:01 AM) OTOH, how does Thornton ever get anyone out, I know he throws 95 mph from the left side, but he only has 1 pitch. Logic would say he would be lit up like a pinball machine. Out of the bullpen, one great pitch is all you need if it's always there for you.

So, I hear there was a baseball game last night? Did anything eventful happen?

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:30 PM) Fines Suspensions Player's decline of market value None of which have happened to the Twins despite their guy throwing at Quentin last series.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:26 PM) No way you can dfa him. He's a left handed power hitter, fan favorite, and future hall of famer. You have to treat this man with thee utmost respect he deserves. Oh wait. Who are we talking about again? Even the Illinois Secretary of State love Jim Thome.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:25 PM) So yeah, I'd put him about 19th in the league. I wish these SABR guys would come up with a manager stat. The thing is...if there was a SABR manager stat, Ozzie would almost certainly score ridiculously well, because for the last 6 years, his teams have consistently outperformed the preseason projections and the pythagorean projections.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:19 PM) I don't doubt that his primma donna days started up north. He's probably the most popular person in Green Bay's history, so I'm sure he did what he wanted up there. I meant more that he didn't show that side of him to the public until recently with his "retired/unretired/avoiding training camp" nonsense. I doubt anyone would begrudge him the avoiding training camp part if he didn't fool around with the retirement part. No one seemed to mind when Michael Strahan won a super bowl after ditching training camp.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:21 PM) Fair enough. So 20 years is acceptable? Especially when you realize that the reduction that's occurred to this point has, for all practical purposes, accomplished nothing. What is the practical and real difference between possessing 35,000 bombs and 4,000 bombs? Absolutely nothing. They've been dragging their heels on this and the only accomplishment is a numbers game, so they can say "we've eliminated 80% of our stockpile!" I think we're probably in a much safer world thanks to START 1. Less weapons overall, less chance of accidents, less free nuclear material, less necessity to continue building to outbuild the other guy, fewer delivery systems, etc. Overall, I'd say START has made a significant dent in the likelihood of them ever being deployed. Continuing that program will continue to do so.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:17 PM) Funny thing is that Teahen, at least to my eyes, is a much better high fastball hitter than a low fastball hitter (Kotsay is the opposite). And Baker tends to throw a?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:12 PM) You're in. Expect your campaign materials to arrive in three to four business days. Campaign Materials = Kotsay's next RBI?

Peter Beinart with the winning rant.

To say it more explicitly, Teahen should be DHing instead of Mark Kotsay.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:02 PM) His playing legacy is great and has only improved. It's his attention-whoring personality and legacy of being a d-bag drama queen thats getting worse every season. That only started a few seasons ago too. I kinda disagree. We only started really understanding it a few years ago with the retiring/unretiring shenanigoats. There have been an awful lot of reports to come out of Green Bay about how he was really getting to be a primma donna there, especially in the last few years when they had a younger team around him. The best example I can give is the report that he basically wound up with his own private locker room at Lambeau so he didn't have to hang around the rest of the team.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 05:53 PM) What? Galarraga had nothing to do with the bullpen implosion. The hitters should have beat the crap out of Putz. Exactly my point. You said that being macho never does anything and cited the Zambrano meltdown. I immediately cited another situation where the exact opposite happened. Therefore, by your own logic, the Zambrano meltdown has zero information on whether or not "that macho BS" actually does anything.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 05:44 PM) If you think not having Thome will cost this team the division, you need to find another sport. One where they don't keep score.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 05:39 PM) Yeah, having Kotsay and Pierzynski back to back seems stupid. Ramirez and Beckham are better hitters than both of them anyway. Maybe I shouldn't say anything, because then Ozzie might think "youre right, I should break up the lefties" and move Kotsay back to 5th.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 05:36 PM) That macho bulls*** never does anything. Ask Carlos Z. Armando Galarraga got into it with his catcher in the dugout on Sunday and then the Tigers stood up and creamed the White Sox. By your standard 1 example is sufficient to prove a universal truth, therefore, I think all 3 of our pitchers ought to challenge AJ to a dugout fight after the first inning.

What's the deal with not breaking up the lefties and the righties at all?