Balta1701

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:55 PM) Beautiful. Some great execution this inning. And...frankly, some luck.

I have no idea how this inning happened.

You can say the platitude that "They don't "oppose any and every regulation proposed". Nor do they "have either giant loopholes inserted or to be removed" But you know what I can do? I can then point out the fact that required environmental and safety reviews on drilling haven't been done and weren't done on this platform. Or that the 2001 energy task force stripped out regulations that the rest of the world were using. Or I can go to Wall Street for about 30 minutes of line items. Or I can go to the classic case of the FDA actively refusing to allow beef producers to even privately test their cattle for mad cow disease in order to protect the factory farmers that didn't want to test theirs. Or I can go to safety regulations in coal mines. Or I can go to FEMA. Or I can go to the health care industry. Or I could go to gun regulations. If I'm wrong...I'm somehow wrong despite overwhelming evidence.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:48 PM) I hope Pierre can beat out this ground ball to second. We don't need a DP here. Nope. Pushed it past the 2b.

Juan Pierre did something right!

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:48 PM) Unexpected. Ramon Castro has underachieved with the Sox as much as anyone. It's kind of silly having him face a RHP, but he's been as good of a backup RH hitting catcher as there has been in the league for about 5 years. 775 ish OPS against LHP.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:46 PM) Why not pinch hit AJ here? Booyeah.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:45 PM) Pirates, Astros and Royals for sure, and the Orioles and Jays, you just have no chance with those three teams stacked at the top of the division. Coming into the 2007 or 2008 seasons though, coudln't you also have said that the Rays had no chance with the Red Sox and Yankees stacked at the top of that division? They've just been better at drafting and developing than the other guys, while the Jays and Orioles have squandered their resources trying to keep up every year rather than doing it right.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:41 PM) Okay, why would you rather have CJ Retherford than Jayson Nix on your roster as the 25th man? Nix has proven (in limited exposure to RH pitching) major league power, and is a "plus" defender at 2B, "pretty good" at 3B and "adequate/average" at SS. CJ could never play major league shortstop. Maybe you can argue he's the 3rd catcher, but how often does that factor into a game??? And you would pick Nix over Retherford as a pinch-runner as well. Nix is NOT adequate at SS. Nix has also proven he can't hit RHP. Here's your real hypothetical. If I'm building a team, I want to be at least 2 deep at every position. I want 2 backup OF's, 1 of whom can play CF, and I want 2 general backup IF's, including 1 guy who can play 1b to spell my 1b. Now...I replace Nix with CJ...if he can be my backup 1b behind Konerko...suddenly I've eliminated 75% of the reason to keep a guy like Kotsay on the roster. Now, I've got an extra roster spot to play with, because I'm carrying 2 backup IF's in Vizquel and CJ, 2 backup OF's in Jones and CJ, and on top of that, in a pinch, I can pinch run for my catcher and know I have another backup option if my other catcher gets hurt.

Tying run comes to the plate.

QUOTE (spiderman @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:39 PM) Tyler Flowers is hitting in the minors. Why not DH him? Can he do any worse than what we're watching? Yeah, he can...you could bring him up before he's ready and screw with his swing even more and have him wind up like Beckham. Can we turn that into a verb? To Beckham a prospect...what we're doing right now to him?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:37 PM) I voted for the Pirates. Tempted to vote for us, though. At least the Astros made the World Series in 2005, and they had a pretty good run of playoff appearances or at least competing year in and year out for much of the last 20 years or so. Plus, their park is new(er) and they draw pretty well, all things considered. So you're tempted to vote for the other team that made the 2005 world series?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 15, 2010 -> 08:34 PM) Now, for the assumption impaired, again, no one ever said there should be no regulations. Ever. But nice try on that falsification. It has to be that way in your world to make any arguement work, but not in my world. And I'm glad I can see more then one side to an issue, any issue, as you say. Frankly, if you're not acknowledging that there is a very motivated, very wealthy, very influential lobby...which is led by the Chamber of Commerce and which has been absolutely key to the "Conservative" movement of the last 30 years...that will oppose any and every regulation proposed, and which opposes enforcement of regulations on the books, and lobbies for every regulation out there to have either giant loopholes inserted or to be removed, then you haven't been paying any attention at all to where your side has led this country,.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:29 PM) The Astros or the Royals. Management of both franchises is incompetent at every level. Pittsburgh. Their inability to get anything of value for the guys they trade off or the guys they draft is legendary.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:26 PM) Balta, is that in green? If CJ hits 240 with his lack of power (and lack of a position where he excels defensively like Nix), he's going to end up sporting a 650 OPS, like Mark Teahen. Plus he can't run very well, just so-so. As a backup who can play every position but pitcher, what more do you want? Seriously. A backup is like a .250 hitter with limited power.

QUOTE (spiderman @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:17 PM) MLB Network has the Cardinal and Reds on, I'm probably switching to that soon. I'm just so disgusted that this season is over not even 2 months into it. The DirecTV network has Wilco on and the Food network is doing unwrapped on "Fried Foods".

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 15, 2010 -> 09:31 PM) Has a TSN Rookie of the Year ever been demoted in the first three months (or two months, lol) of the following season? Might break another record with that dubious "achievement." I'm sure they have been. Can think of lots of guys who started off quick and never came back, because of injury or slumps.

10 in a row retired. Is there any game when the Sox don't have a streak of double digit hitters consecutively retired?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 15, 2010 -> 08:07 PM) I'll be honest, I never had a great expectation that Danks, Retherford or John Shelby III figured into our long-term plans. But we do need to get something good (eventually) out of Dayan, Flowers, Hudson and Morel (not to mention Mitchell when he comes back). Actually, I think CJ fits quite well into the long term plans...as a super, 8 position utility guy. Which means...he has to hit like .240 in his career to be useful.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 15, 2010 -> 07:42 PM) No one is "kill(ing) off all of the protections", not even close. Well, if we haven't killed them all off...it couldn't be more plainly obvious that we've killed way, way too many of them off. In every sector I can think of. And that is a specific goal of one particular political wing. And that wing is the one we're coming down hard on here.

Someone find Teahen and fire him into that hole in the Gulf of Mexico. He might actually have some usefullness plugging that hole.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 15, 2010 -> 08:17 PM) Sample size. And his poor start for the first 1.5 months isn't?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 15, 2010 -> 08:16 PM) We've played the Twins, Yankees, Blue Jays and Rays. The Cubs haven't played anybody. They've got guys like Byrd, Fukodome, Soto, Silva and Gorzelanny producing WAYYYY above their norms. And they're still 7 games below .500. I'm not trying to argue the Sox are better. They suck. I just don't see how they're any worse than the Cubs when you consider all factors. Fukudome's OPS on the season is .981. In May, it's .712. In his last 7 days, it's .567.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 15, 2010 -> 08:15 PM) The entire reason you drop Beckham down in the order is to alleviate pressure and allow him to come out of it himself. Can someone explain the concept of logic to our manager. He got a couple hits over the past 2 games.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 15, 2010 -> 07:25 PM) I just don't see the percenantage in putting your second best defensive option for the infield in the OF, when you have guys who can play the OF on the bench. Was Nix in the OF this year? Last year there's plenty of reasons. We had weak backup OF's, and younger IF's (Ramirez, Getz, Fields, Beckham) all of whom stood to benefit from additional at bats...as did Nix. If we didn't think Nix was going to be a full time starting IF (and guys with .500 career OPS's against RHP tend to not be), then if we wanted to give him some at bats to develop him, trying him as a utility guy in corner OF spots makes sense to me.