Balta1701

QUOTE (girlslikebaseballtoo#26 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 07:51 PM) Phegley is in Bristol. He's there to get some AB's in. Supposed to be there for a week, looks like he'll be catching 3 diff games ..5 innings then 7 innings then he will catch a full 9 inning game. When he's not catching he's supposed to be in as DH. Really, he's back to playing? That's great news. Thanks!

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jun 10, 2010 -> 08:17 PM) He's the chair of the Senate Finance Committee. How did I miss this post? No, he's not. He's the ranking Republican. He could be the chair next year, but not likely.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 07:42 PM) You're not getting Lee for $10 mil, so it's a moot point. I could see him potentially getting caught in that nether-world where no one wants to pay him a big salary because of the looming lockout and cap decrease, and thus being forced to take what he can get.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 08:20 PM) Key West is kinda overrated. Wasn't a big fan, but I was only there for a day. Give it time, soon enough the "Tanning oil" will be provided for free.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 08:20 PM) NW Indiana? Where, and mainly...why? Family lives there.

You guys didn't seem to have a problem with the 30% year over year increase in California that Blue Cross pushed, or the 9% year over year average price increase for the past 2 decades.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 09:12 PM) No they don't. Which part? Are you denying that the government owns the airwaves? Or that AT&T owns the wires?

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 06:41 PM) Haha. Perhaps. One swing of the bat from him is the equivalent of 3 trips around planet Earth. I've heard his swing has its own gravitational pull...complete with 8 moons. His swing causes tidal forces that drive volcanism on the most inner one.

Well, at least sometimes they admit what they think the real problem is...businesses are scared of subpoenas if they break the law.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 02:51 PM) We'll also be in Sandusky and Cleveland next month. Aside from the obvious heavenly destination in Sandusky, where else is on your list of places to go?

QUOTE (docsox24 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 03:14 PM) Oh I agree with what you are saying about the huge difference. I just mean that Flowers is not going to hit 40 Hrs. I would be suprised if he hit 30. And if he can't hit close to 40, he's going to be a fringey/platoonish catcher unless he's really good on defense.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/...atting_standard And whether we like it or not, there are people who say things about him.

QUOTE (docsox24 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 02:58 PM) Hes not going to be a 40 hr guy, especially at C. There are very few 40 hr guys these days. Mark Reynolds is actually a stellar example here. In 2008, Reynolds hit 28 home runs, but because he struck out 203 times, he only hit .239 and put up a .779 OPS. In 2009, he hit 44 home runs, and although his strikeouts actually went up, he hit .260 with an .892 OPS. This year, he's getting a few less hits and a few less HR and that's dropped his OPS down to .799, which is still ok, but not nearly .900. When you're striking out 200 times, there is a huge difference in OPS between 30 and 40 home runs, because your HR are also carrying your batting average.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 02:32 PM) It's a moot point, I agree. But I don't think it was voluntary at all. They had no choice. They couldn't take the PR hit, and they couldn't take the US revoking its licenses/permits. Really, you're right here, but it wasn't the U.S. revoking its permits that was the worry, I think it was outright bankruptcy. Right now, the government has every legal justification and in fact is required to fine them on the order of $4300 per barrel spilled. Right now, that's on the order of $10 billion dollars, plus or minus...just for paying the fine. Not to mention the royalties they owe the government on extraction (it doesn't matter what you do with the oil, if you extract it and dump it into the ocean, you owe the government extraction fees). And then the cleanup on top of it. Getting the escrow account started now stabilizes the company and keeps them from being taken over.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 02:14 PM) It may be a sign-and-trade then. The Hawks would still have to take on salary in that case.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 02:16 PM) Of course the flipside of that is that you've just taken 20 billion of operating capital out of their coffers, and forced them to pay that money today, versus paying out claims slowly over time so they have more of a chance to recover. Actually, no they haven't, they're going to build up the escrow account by suspending dividend payments for the next year, because they have no where close to the cash-on-hand available to fill up that escrow account right now. If they weren't forced to suspend that dividend, then they'd be paying out the money to shareholders (including me) that would need to go to paying for the destruction of the gulf.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 01:58 PM) ahh ok. that June number isnt too hot though Very true, but the power and the walks are still there. I think, looking at his stats, the difference between him being useful and useless is going to be whether he's a 25 HR guy in the big leagues or a 40+ home run guy. With his strikeout rate, if he's hitting 40+ home runs, he's still taking walks and has a high OPS, so he's basically the catching version of Mark Reynolds, and his HR will carry his batting average. If he's only hitting 20-25 home runs, he's striking out so much that he'll be hitting in the low .200's and he'll look like Nick Swisher did when he was with us.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 02:05 PM) Fair enough. You've proven to me the court system is a joke. Let's give the President the power to take over companies and pay out claims as he/she sees fit. Done. Wow, a Republican arguing that it's a great thing for hundreds of millions of dollars to be dumped into legal fees. Remarkable. Anyway...there would be 2 problems with this being tied up in the courts. First, time. If you don't escrow funds, BP has every reason to drag it out as long as it can, as the longer they drag it out, even if nothing changes, the less their settlement will be relative to their company. Second, BP doesn't have enough cash on hand right now to cover the size of the fine the Federal Government is required by law to give them, not even counting the costs of cleanup and the destruction of the livelihood of a couple million people. So quite literally, bankruptcy avoidance here is a major issue. If BP winds up facing costs on the order of several tens of billions of dollars, and they don't have that money, they have every right to use bankruptcy protection from their creditors (aka...the people who's lives they've destroyed). There's a reason BP's stock price went up 10% on the day that the escrow fund was announced...it helps keep the company solvent.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 01:55 PM) There's reality, and then there's some idealistic world that you think exists wherein every company should just assume liability of any claim ever brought to its doorstep. I'm not ignoring the fact that big companies screw with the little guy all the time, but there's recourse for that kind of behavior.......the courts. But I know. Big bad corporation = evil white guys in a board room lighting their cigars with money. And the courts is exactly the issue here. Going to the courts for the victims of Exxon took 20 years. Exxon spent $500 million on attorney fees, and it wound up saving them on the order of $3 billion. Victims who wound up losing their whole livelihoods wound up with about $8000. Hell, even in a much, much, much smaller case, the Texas refinery explosion, BP spent 3 years litigating before reaching final settlements with injured workers and 4 years later BP was still litigating over an OSHA fine for $87 million. ANd in that case, they set up a $2.1 billion escrow account, so that was years of litigating with a much smaller case even though BP had put money aside to pay for claims.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 01:54 PM) Honestly, I expect LeBron, DWade, Nowitzki, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, and David Lee to stay with their same teams. I seriously doubt Joe Johnson winds up in Atlanta. There's every indication they're in cost-cutting mode.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 01:52 PM) IMO, Flowers is only on the cusp of flameout. 73Ks in 54 games and batting .215 in AAA He spent the month of May tinkering with his swing and hit .122 in May. In April, he hit .323 with a 1.045 OPS. In June, he's hitting .234 with a .929 OPS.

Chicago (white sox game), NW Indiana, Sandusky OH, and Cleveland OH.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 01:27 PM) I guess I don't see how its a strawman. That's the logic in both arguments. On the one hand you assume BP will follow the rules, on the other you claim you know they won't follow the rules. The way to fix that then is to make the rules foolproof. Like, for example, you require the relief well to be drilled at the time you drill the first hole. Or, you just get the country off of oil.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 11:43 AM) (despite no evidence to the contrary). Link. It's not like these are hard to find. Remember, BP will pay all "LEGITIMATE" claims.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) Does the government have powers over the airwaves during these times? The government technically owns the airwaves and leases the rights to television, radio, and cell phone providers. Does the government own either the wires that connect your home/business to computer networks or the servers that you're accessing through those networks any more?