Balta1701

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ May 3, 2010 -> 12:30 PM) that's why he is not getting a max contract at 16 million a year maybe he would get a 5 year 55-60 million contract at least he is an all star, if you want to talk about screw up, then look at pitchers in mlb, like Jeremy Bonderman and Kris Benson, guys are not even all stars, but get 10-12 million a year. or look at nfl rookies, guys haven't even taken a snap but gets a 60 million contract and 40 million guaranteed. if you want to talk about screw sports. the nba is not on top of the list Baseball is a different situation. It's really hard to compare total salary from 1 league to another. Baseball has 2x the number of games that the NBA has, baseball stadiums typically hold 2x the number of people of NBA stadiums, the NBA has a soft cap while MLB has none. One mistaken contract in baseball and you're in trouble, but you can get out of it if the owner is willing to pay more or if you can trade the guy to the Red Sox/Yankees/Cubs. One mistaken contract in basketball, and you've got no options. You try to spend around that contract and you wind up in tax territory. You can't trade that contract for salary relief except in very rare circumstances, and you often have to take on even worse contracts. It's really interesting to see how much a single bad contract does in each league. In the NFL, a single bad contract only really hurts you if you keep playing the guy. The Redskins and Raiders have handed out so much idiotic money it's not funny, but the Redskins look competitive every year and the Raiders might look competitive if Russel wasn't a tool, and then they hand out another large contract the next year. In MLB, a single bad contract can hurt a team, but they can still win with it if they develop guys around it, or they can find ways to dump other salaries around it (see; the Padres, Blue Jays, Pirates). In the NBA, it really is a killer, because that bad max deal eats up 1/3 of your salary.

The Sox are 6 games out right now. If the Sox want to be competitive in this division...they can't have that gap expand. They can make up that gap later in the season. If they end May 6 games out, that means they treaded water with respect to the Tigers and Twins. If they lose serious ground, then they'd be talking about being 8 or more back on Memorial day. That's getting into "this would take an historic comeback" territory. Of course, gaining ground would be ideal. I'm only answering...what do we need to do to keep from saying "screw it" to the season. Also worth noting for its importance...if Mauer is out for a significant amount of time this month, then being only 6 back of the Twins would be troublesome. If they have to play 2/3 of the month without Mauer, and the Sox gain no ground on them, then they're only hanging in there by default.

Oh, and it seems, thanks to an obscure law that creates a general fund that oil companies can pay into to cover claims...after paying cleanup costs, BP will be on the hook for no more than $75 million in punitive liabilities.

BP is trying to get people in the Gulf Coast to trade away their right to be part of future litigation in exchange for $5000.

Oh, and by all accounts, Leno was terrible at the White House embarrassment fest correspondent's dinner on Saturday night.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 3, 2010 -> 11:18 AM) if David Lee is going to get a max contract (bet on it) then Dirk is certainly worth the same money. Which says more about how screwed up the NBA's current system is than it does about either player.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 3, 2010 -> 11:11 AM) The problem is to what degree do we take those measures? If an illegal has been here working and utilizing all of the benefits of our system (free of charge) but sending all of his money to Mexico, what's the proper penalty? Back taxes? Fines? How long do we go back if he's been here for 20 years? That's the problem with a blanket "lets just create a way for them to stay." And I agree a guest worker program of some sort needs to be implemented, and the path to citizenship should be overhauled. But I'm not exactly against the idea of limiting immigration to a point so that Americans can have a chance at those jobs. I'm not convinced that your average Americans are "too good" for those types of jobs these days. Glad we're already quibbling with the details. That suggests we're not too far apart. IMO, it's impossible to figure out any way to deal with the first problem you cite other than a blanket fine. Basically, you pick a number, probably on the order of a few thousand dollars. If you pick a number that's too high, then people will simply stay undocumented rather than pay it, and likely wind up even harder to find. If you try to base it on the amount of time people have been in the country, you've got a mess because they're undocumented. If you want an emotional justification for that proposal rather than an "it's the only way to do it that will actually work", remember this...it's not entirely their fault that they're here. The jobs are here, and the government has provided no means for them to fill those jobs. 90% of the problem would go away if the government was willing to solve it (the other 10% or so is unscrupulous employers who want to get around workplace/wage laws). Naturally, there does have to be some limit and some sort of application process designed (warning...designing and implementing this process and then applying workplace safety rules will make the bill >1000 pages and therefore fully evil) where a company demonstrates that it has made the jobs available to citizens and the company has been unable to fill them at a wage that is at the minimum U.S. wage level, but again, the process cannot be too onerous, because all that will happen is the jobs will be kept off the books and filled by illegals.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ May 3, 2010 -> 10:26 AM) Casey's a pretty hot name ATM, seems as if the Clippers job is his if he wants it. Great! Our front office looks like a paradise compared to that one.

QUOTE (Special K @ May 3, 2010 -> 11:05 AM) Who is Edgar? And I know this is off topic, but what about the possibility of bringing in a guy like Dunn for the short term solution? He would cost much less in terms of talent/money, and I'm fairly certain the Nats aren't going anywhere? Dunn is still going to be a type A free agent if he walks and the Nats will be happy to offer arbitration. In other words...the price that any team trading for him needs to beat is...a late first round pick and a sandwich pick. That's still not a small price.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ May 3, 2010 -> 10:57 AM) Anyone see Conan on 60 Minutes? He had a real honest moment where he said he fought depression for a while. That was a good interview and I think he phrased everything exactly right. Although, he's had several months to prepare.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 3, 2010 -> 10:24 AM) Still, if you’re the Royals and you hype this kid as the next "George Brett," you give him at least three to four full seasons before you condemn to the minors merry-go-round. This would be a very different scenario if this was a competitive organization. We're talking the Royals here, their perpetual ineptitude puts them in the perfect scenario to stick a guy like Gordon into the lineup, and not mess around with him. His injuries have set him back, but not this far. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if going down and facing pitchers that he's confident he can hit is a necessary step for him.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 3, 2010 -> 10:21 AM) Deal in the current reality as a starting point, but feel free to branch off into politically acceptable vs ideal from this point forward. The reason I started off with that question is I'm anticipating 2k5's response, because I've seen it before. His correct argument is that it makes no sense why Mexican immigrants should be given a huge advantage coming into this country over the rest of the world when poverty is rampant in so many other places, which is entirely true...but that winds up ignoring the 15 million or so people already here. The solution is pretty well understood overall I'd say, if you accept that deportation is totally impractical for that large of a population. 1. Path to citizenship and legality for the 15 million people already here. Path to citizenship is 100% necessary, because otherwise, the workers are basically put into slavery; the employer can fire them for any reason and force them to be deported if they can't eventually earn citizenship. Pay a fine, register, etc. 2. Very large guest worker program, also with an eventual path to citizenship. Simple reality is...there wouldn't be any immigration problem if there weren't jobs for them, and if you restrict immigration beyond the point where the demand for workers at those wages can be satisfied, you're guaranteed an illegal immigration problem. I think you can quibble with me on the exact details or on the exact numbers, but I think if you try to propose a fix that doesn't do those 2 things, your fix will eventaully fail. You do those 2 things correctly and make the numbers allowed in large enough to satisfy demand, and the "enforcement" options likely become virtually unnecessary.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 3, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) OK, if you were tasked with writing up a plan for dealing with illegal immigration and border control... considering all positive and negative consequences... what would you want to see done? What is the ideal plan here? Ideal plan in a hypothetical world or taking into reality the current situation of 15 million or so illegal residents already in country.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 3, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) OK, if you were tasked with writing up a plan for dealing with illegal immigration and border control... considering all positive and negative consequences... what would you want to see done? What is the ideal plan here? Ideal plan in a hypothetical world or taking into reality the current situation of 15 million or so illegal residents already in country.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ May 3, 2010 -> 10:15 AM) Apparently future White Sox firstbaseman AGon has said he will boycott the 2011 All-Star game in AZ. There may be a push to move the game to another state. I don't think that the big whigs at MLB can move it until they see how its implemented and it winds up having a direct effect on them. The Union should make a crapload of noise, because its their 19 year old players who are going to wind up being deported. Baseball will, IMO, have a reason to make a move eventually if it gets enforced, but they need to wait until one of their players actually winds up in jail for not carrying proper ID.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 3, 2010 -> 01:39 AM) He was rushed through the minors and now isn't getting a long enough chance to stick in the majors. He's had 1231 career at bats and been given the starting spot 4 years in a row. A couple times he's lost AB's to injury.

QUOTE (knightni @ May 2, 2010 -> 10:27 PM) Beasley is much more valuable than Hinrich. His potential alone makes his friendlier contract a bonus. Beasley is looking like a more rapid bust than Thomas.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 3, 2010 -> 02:05 AM) I was interested in hearing some of the more damning things that Swish did during his tenure as a White Sox, and sure enough with the Yankees series some of the cropped up. According to Mark Gonzalez the Sox were turned off by Swisher's.... bobble head? "The Sox were well-aware of Swisher's outgoing nature that could be viewed as being self-absorbed, especially after one incident in which he showed his bobble head doll to his teammates in the clubhouse." That's some pretty intense stuff. Also, from some comments Cowley made on the radio, it sounds like Paulie and A.J. were almost immediately turned off by Swish. Now, we know that Jenksy and Uribe were fine with him because they played into his Dirty 30 goatee shenanigans, and we know Joe Crede was fine with him, because he countered with his “Hardcore 24,” but it makes me wonder about the Veteran Click that ruled the clubhouse for years, and how their opinions on certain player seemed to have a huge effect on the stage of the clubhouse and the perception of certain members of the team being expressed by the media. It makes me wonder if the Dye-Rios comments and the Getz clubhouse comments debacle were not isolate incidents but indicative of a bigger problem behind the scenes. If you think that was the only thing going on with Swisher...you're wrong.

QUOTE (knightni @ May 2, 2010 -> 06:09 PM) Similar to Quentin and his head maybe? Quentin...I'm not sure if its as obvious from the front. Beckham, it couldn't be more plain.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ May 2, 2010 -> 06:12 PM) Agreed. No Boozer please. Would much rather have Lee. I think David Lee will be the poster-child this offseason for "Teams pay way too much for slightly above average talent once the big names are off the market".

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ May 2, 2010 -> 06:05 PM) Everytime I watch Carlos Boozer play against the Lakers I'm reminded of why I don't want him on the Bulls. He is a good player, but he sucks on D, and struggles to score on anything other than a jump shot because he isn't athletic and doesn't have the length to score against Gasol or Bynum in the post on a consistent basis. Boozer would be a great fit...if we'd already added Wade.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 2, 2010 -> 05:41 PM) I think he's really messed up mentally right now. Just not hitting the pitches he's supposed to be hitting. I wonder what's going on. IF you watch him at the plate, he has a godawful swing technique right now. His hips are flying open on every swing, for starters. I believe his head is flying out following it.

QUOTE (Tex @ May 2, 2010 -> 05:58 PM) Really? I why would you think they would vote Democratic? Honest question. Link

This is the rainiest May in recorded history in Nashville. You read that correct.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ May 2, 2010 -> 05:29 PM) Bench players with minimal upsides getting paid like starters hurts flexibility a lot more than paying a legitimate superstar market value. Really? In baseball, how many superstars paid market value does it take to win a world series? How many teams are able to effectively pull that off? Boston, NY. Got any others? The only other way to win a world series seems to be to find legitimately underpriced value, either through youth or through signing/trading for guys who outperform the salary you pay them.