Balta1701

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 08:26 PM) Oh, something I remember about Sotomayor's confirmation process - the idea that there is a single "most qualified" person out there is f***ing ludicrous. There are probably literally dozens, maybe hundreds of people that are qualified enough to be nominated, even if there's usually about 5 people that seem to get looked at. Well, once you assume that anyone who isn't a white male can't be the most qualified person, it narrows the field a fair amount.

Possible relations between thyroid problems and HGH use.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 05:59 PM) They did spend money. Just on the wrong f***ing players. So which guy would you rather not have, Peavy or Rios?

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 06:07 PM) I love you Kelly Shoppach. He needs to hang out with Joe West for a while. That'd be so hot.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 06:14 PM) I meant that all politicians are not equally worthy of serving on the court. Meaning Sarah Palin has no business being mentioned in the same sentence as Amy Klobuchar or Hillary Clinton for example. So, where does Mayor Booker fit?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 04:38 PM) My final post of the thread: Not bringing Pods into the equation. You guys aren't really excited about Pierre being our new leadoff guy are you? Excited? No. Could he be an adequate cog in an average offense? Sure. Would I rather have Podsednik getting thrown out every time he gets to 1b? No. One thing that really bothers me about Pierre so far is his running. Specifically, the lack of it. If he's not able to run, then he doesn't belong leading off.

There are 2 things that I want a hitting coach to do that I worry about Walker on. I want a hitting coach to be able to overhaul a guy's swing when it needs it. Some guys, Walker has totally failed to do this with (fields, Anderson). On the other hand, he seems to have done so successfully with Rios, at least so far for this season. Teahen is another one who really needs it, he's terrible right now, but that can change. I'm iffy on this one right now, but getting Teahen going is really important. And not just going; he needs to have a good year overalll. The other thing I want a hitting coach to do is making sure guys have a clear plan when they go up against a pitcher. Take yesterday, with Liriano, for example. He was very, very wild for most of the game, but for at least half of his innings, guys like Jones, Vizquel...etc., were jumping on the first pitch and hitting it weakly or falling behind because the ball was so far out of the zone. You need to prep guys better than this...if you have a guy who isn't attacking the strike zone, you need to be more patient than that. The other thing that you want a hitting coach to do is correct a guy when he has an issue with his swing crop up during a year, but with that one, you never know how much the hitting coach can do, because that one, the player has to listen m id-season.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 04:30 PM) Pierre had 380 at bats last year and 375 the year before. I hope Oz has a similar bat load planned for Juan. It sounds like you'd want Podsednik to have even more at bats than that.

Yeah, this bill is ova, but this is kind of cool data. Martha Coakley, the Mass. Attorney General who lost the election to Scott Brown, has a report out from her office on health care costs. PDF can be found by going through this link...it has spaces so I'm not sure it's going to go through correctly. Kevin's summary is good also.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 04:24 PM) I think Pierre playing every day is an out machine. Pods while a bad defender was a hit machine. A hit machine? The last year Podsednik had a better batting average than Pierre was 2005.

QUOTE (SHIPPS @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 04:18 PM) I really want to keep note of this gamethread because in a couple weeks its really possible everyone in here will have changed their tune completely. Once we balance out with some hits to bring the team's BABIP up to a normal level, this team will hit a winning streak, and game threads will be 1/2 as long. Then it'll hit another skid, and there will be multiple threads calling for Walker's head.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:39 PM) Why wouldn't they use Crain as their closer? Rauch actually has closing experience. Crain had a 4.70 ERA last year.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:30 PM) More opportunity to fail. Scott Linebrink hates you and wants your family to suffer.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:29 PM) Using that as a crutch for the Sox poor player development is weak. Boston usually drafts after the White Sox and they have done a much better job. There are more good players than the guys drafted in the top 10. There was one year the Sox had 7 picks in the top 50 or so and picked nothing but garbage. And yet, even with the superior drafting abilities of Boston, look how much money they had to invest in upgrading their team in the offseason. Your drafts seem a lot better when you can spend $150 million every offseason to fill any hole that appears.

Linebrink gets another inning.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:27 PM) It goes way way way beyond that. As I said before, there is a difference between losing and playing well, and losing and playing s***ty. No one feels like they're playing well when they're losing. You could say we're playing darn well with the pitching we're getting. Losing 12-8 every day feels just as bad.

Dadgummit

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:25 PM) We have had a bad offense recently. AL ranks in runs/avg: 2009: 12/13 2008: 5/11 2007: 14/14 And in 2006 we were near the top of the league. So 2 years in the upper half, 2 years in the bottom 1/3, for a team that spends a large fraction of its money on pitching.

QUOTE (The Beast @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:22 PM) I don't understand how the draft works; why do the Sox get the number pick that they do? Is it based off of record like the other major leagues? Yes, it is entirely based on records...with the noteworthy exception of teams keeping their pick if they're unable to sign a draft pick in a previous year. If the Sox get the worst record, they get the #1 pick. The Sox are almost always around .500 or better, so they typically draft in the teens or worse. The only time in the past 10 years they've drafted in the top 10, they got Becktackular.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:21 PM) I don't really know much about Booker, but politicians are not equally qualified to serve on the courts. But...the path to serving on the court shouldn't necessarily be limited to "working your way up as a judge".

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:14 PM) Qualifications for interpreting and evaluating laws in regards to precedent and our constitution should not include being a really good mayor. He should run for the Senate, not be on the SCOTUS. Here's a different way at looking at it. It's the job of legislative branches to write laws, and for executive branches to enforce laws (although executives do a fair amount of writing these days also). If it's the court's job to interpret those laws, can't it at least be occasionally useful to have the opinion and perhaps expertise of a person who's spent his time writing and executing laws?

Teahen with the leadoff walk.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:18 PM) Well, I can't think of a single other job in the world (other than President of the United States) where you can suck as much as KW and Ozzie have the last two years, and NOT be fired. So no, this is not an overreaction at all. Yeah, they've only won 1 division title in the last 2 years. How dare they!

QUOTE (joeynach @ Apr 10, 2010 -> 03:16 PM) Yes you do, it was the 2008 draft we picked like 7th and took Beckham. And the only reason we picked that high is becuase 2007 we sucked ass. You want high draft picks and build the farm with young top talent then suck for like 3-4 seasons in a row. Thats what the twins did between like 1998-2001. Hence the top picks in that period of time. U want to go 72-92 for the next 3 seasons then yeah we can start getting some elite young talent. Drafting 7th is not drafting 2nd.

Linebrink --->El Duque