Balta1701

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QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 24, 2010 -> 12:20 PM) MIght be interesting if that actually happened. He pulled his supoort when Immigration reform was bandied about as being before energy. Its just posturing anyway. Also, you have to realize that part of negotiation is knowing that you are willing to leave the table. Obama is offering a branch, but is willing to walk away from that if necessary. He's going to try it first though. Seriously, look at this latest veto power thing, look at what else he has done - this is part of his approach to these things. Make an approach to compromise first, and then if people reject it, they can hang themselves on that rejection. 2 simple questions in reply: Do you think the American Power act will pass the Senate? Do you think it will have more than 1 Republican vote if it does?

QUOTE (DBAHO @ May 24, 2010 -> 12:06 PM) Yeah I guess when I meant advanced, I meant he was well pretty major league ready or close to it. He's not going to be a major impact guy obviously, although he might have a chance in Arizona in the long - term in that ballpark, but he'd need Laroche to leave also. Basically, my point is this. If you're trading a low value reliever, you can do 1 of 2 things. You can target a high level, possibly nearly MLB ready guy...but the odds are you're going to get more Brandon Allen than Jeff Bagwell. Or, you can find some 19 year old with some talent in the rookie leagues/low A ball, and maybe try to get him or him and his friend. Your "Bust" percentage will be a lot higher, but the odds of you finding a star are probably greater. That's the Bagwell, Garland, etc., style trade.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ May 24, 2010 -> 12:03 PM) Allen was pretty advanced for a prospect, although Pena's got pretty damn good stuff for a reliever. I got the impression he was at an advanced level, but very few people seemed to think he was the next Jeff Bagwell. More like an "average/replacement" level 1b who could keep the spot warm for a couple years if things went well.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 24, 2010 -> 11:56 AM) I know people are down playing the names being kicked around for our relievers, but it isn't like relievers haven't brought quality prospects before. See also Brandon Allen for Tony Pena, or Jeff Bagwell for Larry Anderson, or Ricardo Rincon for Brian Giles, or Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe for Heathcliff Slocumb. It happens. Serious question...in those deals...how many of them were lower, A-ball level guys when they were traded? (p.s. Jon Garland for Matt Karchner)

QUOTE (DBAHO @ May 24, 2010 -> 11:56 AM) I don't think Dirk leaves Dallas though. If anything, they'll do a sign and trade with Dampier + something to get another star to play alongside Dirk. I'd hate to be the team trading for Dampier.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 24, 2010 -> 09:41 AM) They are getting back in return is the ability to overcome the Senate filibuster, so they can get 75% of what they want. Really? So why did Lindsey Graham pull his support for that bill and stop negotiating after Obama announced he'd support drilling?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 24, 2010 -> 09:41 AM) If it was about money, he wouldn't have left Dallas. He hasn't left Dallas. By opting out, he can now set himself up for that last big contract. He can still sign with Dallas if he wants.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ May 24, 2010 -> 11:02 AM) Has anyone heard anything from Joe Crede lately? Good God how cool would it be to have the Joe Crede from 2006 on this team right now... Maybe he'll have a sort of rebirth like Pods did last year. I know it's wishful thinking but oh well... I think he's basically assumed to be out. No one around MLB is even typing his name as an option. Last thing out there including his name was a Gonzalez mailbag from a week ago.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 24, 2010 -> 09:40 AM) If we continue to suck badly, I bet we trade a big name. It is just a feeling. Rios count?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 24, 2010 -> 09:14 AM) I think your tendency to apply your own fears about corporate protection isn't reality for this administration. They didn't offer offshore drilling because they liked BP - it was a political tactic, a way to bring more centrists to the table (as you point out, this is a centrist administration). If that were true, then they are incredibly bad negotiators. They offered it up without any pledge of getting anything back in return, and then went out and tried to sell hard on the other side's position. By blatantly lying.

QUOTE (knightni @ May 23, 2010 -> 07:22 PM) Sooooo, AT&T is raising the termination fee from $175 to $325 to leave the iPhone for another phone. Sounds like Apple's smartphone market share is dwindling. Apple really needs to offer that phone through other providers. I have to figure there's more people in my market...the people who could use and benefit from a smartphone, might be willing to spend the money on one...but have no urge to be under an AT&T contract.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 24, 2010 -> 12:09 AM) A line in the Tribune story. Another reason for KW to think about unloading salary as this team continues to struggle heading into June. The Indians are without Sizemore and Cabrera. If we can't take 2 of 3 in this series, with D1, Peavy, and Buehrle on the mound, there's something seriously wrong.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ May 24, 2010 -> 08:52 AM) I don't think the Marlins would be willing to part with him in the foreseeable future. As far as I can tell, he is a free agent at the end of the year.

Dirk's max contract value is much, much higher than Bosh's.

One other fun thing that I realized this morning... 2 weeks or so ago, the Republicans finalized their decision on where to hold their 2012 coronation of the former half term governor. Their final choices? The 2 losing cities were in: A state filled with Mormons A state that would arrest and deport all the Hispanic delegates And the winning choice was: Telling people to drill baby drill and saying clean energy can never work...a short drive from the city that in 2011 will be changing it's name from "Clearwater" to "brown oil slick filled water".

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 24, 2010 -> 08:19 AM) This has not been handled well by the administration. I see a lot of theories flying around as to why. One is about campaign contributions - this seems thin, given that the main reason he got so many from BP is because they count each employee's individual contribution as somehow being done for the company (which makes no sense). Another is that he WANTS this to go badly, so that he can push the clean energy agenda harder. Interesting theory, but that would mean he'd be gambling away political capital at a time where he needs every cent of that - so I kind of doubt it. I'd suggest instead there are two, simpler reasons. One, unlike Katrina, no human is dying as a result (after the explosion) - this not only means people are less quick to respond, but it also means that agencies like FEMA simply aren't prepared or trained for this type of event. Two, I think that this is ObamaCo being administratively immature. They are faced with a situation they don't know how to handle, and that the agencies aren't used to handling, so they are stumbling. Much the same as what we saw from BushCo on Katrina, this lack of administrative abilities is hurting the response. Katria was worse in that people were dying, and BushCo was a little more crass in its treatment... but otherwise, the situations are eerily similar in terms of what is making them fail. I don't know if I'd exactly say Campaign Contributions would be my expected reasoning. I'd say it's more a matter of philosophy. Regardless of what Kap says, this is a very "Centrist" administration...at least in the current spectrum definition, where being as corporatist as possible is defined as the center. They're not jumping on BP because they don't want to jump on BP, because their instinct is to be trusting and friendly towards big business. They worked to protect wall street for their whole first year, they used the same lies as Bush in trying to sell more offshore drilling, and they trusted that BP wasn't openly lying to them when they said "it's a small leak" for the first week or two until satellite measurements became available

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 23, 2010 -> 10:40 PM) I want the Suns to win and I agree. Stupid inflexible scheduling.

Of course...another way to have helped this problem would have been to, 15 years ago, or 10 years ago, or 8 years ago...have launched a crash program to get this country off of dirty fuels. You know, I always thought that it would take fossil fuels decades to destroy Florida.

QUOTE (SHIPPS @ May 23, 2010 -> 10:25 PM) Like someone else kinda said already...we always sell really really low on our players as fans and we buy really really high on other teams players. I dont get that. Gavin Floyd, Carlos Quentin, Alexis Rios, Bobby Jenks are guys we bought low on. Freddy Garcia, Brandon McCarthy, Fautino De Los Santos were guys we sold high on.

QUOTE (SoxPride56 @ May 23, 2010 -> 10:12 PM) Anyone have updates on Jarred Mitchell? Really haven't heard anything since he got hurt. How is he coming along? He's out for the year. I figure he's probably barely begun rehabbing, probably while still in cast(s).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 23, 2010 -> 10:08 PM) If we can get a good prospect for Jenks, deal him. If we can get someone to pay Jenks's salary, deal him.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 23, 2010 -> 07:22 PM) Really? How cool. Why doesn't he or hasn't he? He's just like every broken promise BP has given. He hasn't gotten involved because there's no solution. But watch, as soon as they figure out what works, he'll step in and act like he's saved the world and take all the credit. It's too easy. Frankly, this is a troubling week...if they start trying to pump stuff into that well to seal it off...it's entirely possible that they'll make things worse rapidly rather than better. You change the pressure situation after a well rupture and it's entirely possible that other stuff starts fracturing and collapsing. There actually is a solution, but it's a solution I'm not sure anyone wants to hear; nuke the whole F***ing thing. I'm totally serious. Of course, if you were going to do that, you did it a month ago; at this point, the Gulf is already lost, so it's almost not even worth the bomb. Anyway, there was other stuff they could have forced BP to do, like using more effective dispersants, like bringing in outside help a lot more rapidly, like having actual organization amongst all of the fisherman and making sure they get paid and that they have actual respirators rather than letting them breathe in the crap they're breathing, like forcing BP to try these makeshift sealing plans earlier rather than later, like setting up an actual emergency fund and setting up plans to start relocating people out of the area, there's a whole list of things that could have been done. BP's oil spill response tech here is probably worse than the response tech was after Exxon.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 23, 2010 -> 06:55 PM) So far he's been doing that too. I hope today was just a blip. I'm looking forward to the start of the Hudson era, and i'm glad to see him back on track. As a 5th starter in the AL with a miniscule salary, yeah, as long as today doesn't become a regular occurrence, some team will have a Brad Penny go out with a back injury and call us up. If Contreras could become a useful piece for the Rockies last year, as long as Garcia doesn't have an injury recurrence, he's movable for at least something.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 23, 2010 -> 05:45 PM) Here's hoping that no one on the club is a big enough prick to tell Freddy about this line today. I suspect he'd be angry. Freddy's job is to pitch well enough to be traded to a contender.