Balta1701

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 7, 2010 -> 02:09 AM) Ya that was a nasty elbow. I would think he would pull a Rip Hamilton with the face guard, but who knows. That only helps the Bulls. Even if he pulls that off...what are the odds he's ready for a back 2 back game tonight?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 07:06 PM) They're cool if they can actually be used - I mean - we could order another 300 F-22s, but what the hell for? It's the only economic stimulus dollars the Centrists and Republicans will allow us to spend?

QUOTE (Ranger @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 07:24 PM) That's probably exactly what they would be worried about. I doubt they'd be so much worried about sniper rifles from the stands as they would be about a nutjob that manages to get close enough. It's probably a lot easier to get a handgun into a stadium and jump over the fence while shooting than it is to sneak a sniper rifle in.

FWIW, the average OPS of the Catcher's spot last year in MLB was .721. The Average OPS of the DH was .779.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 05:52 PM) I generally avoid doing this but I'm going to pull out the "combat veteran" card for a minute here, just to say that there are a lot of people that don't understand what war is actually like. If you think it's 100% orderly, disciplined, and always clear what the right answer is, you're completely wrong. It's total chaos that you do your best to dress up as something organized, and a great deal of the time you probably have less than half of the information you wish you had even when you have what would be considered "good" intelligence. How do you react to this Greenwald bit?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 05:05 PM) He's playing 3rd base. Every day. So, let him settle in before moving him up to 5th in the lineup and counting on him.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 04:55 PM) Kotsay is pressure proof and Teahan needs to be handled with gloves? Frankly, if Teahen's struggles at the plate the last coupel years in KC related to him having to move around all the time and never settling at a position, as has been suggested...that could easily be true.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 04:52 PM) So what if there's three lefties in a row or four righties. It's never kept Minnesota or Detroit from winning when they set their lineups like that. Even those teams try to break them up though. I've seen the Twins with Cuddyer hitting between M auer and Morneau (didn't Morneau hit 5th when he won the MVP?) And Carlos Guillen is a switch hitter.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 04:33 PM) One thing I noticed yesterday that I love. We have a setup guy (Putz) and a closer (Thornton) for non-Save situations. They won't get used that way too often. Those 2 are going to be used in close games.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 03:45 PM) In your scenario, all a manager has to do is see that Kotsay doesn't hit RHP well, and realize it's worth the risk to minimize the effects of CQ and Konerko. We knew the lack of good LH hitter was going to be a problem this year, but putting an awful LH hitter in a good spot doesn't help much either in any other way than that it theoretically makes sense to split up our righties. Just for 1 more note of comparison. Last 3 years, AJP vs. RHP: .735 OPS, Kotsay .738.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 03:32 PM) You can get that out of A.J. He actually hits for more power than Kotsay too. AJ's OPS since he joined the sox, starting in 05 .728 .769 .712 .728 .755 Kotsay hasn't played regularly because of injury for a couple seasons, so it's hard to give numbers on what we might get from him, especially if we're careful enough to keep him healthy. But he put up a .732 in 2008, and a .783 with the Sox last year. I'll be the first to admit "Sample size!", but if Kotsay hits like a .300 hitter, we're talkign ab out 10-20 points of OPS difference at the worst. AJ and Kotsay seem like pretty similar hitters when it comes to OPS. You can't get me mad about that one right now, the numbers just don't back it up.

Like it or not, there's logic to breaking up the RH hitters. Beckham, Quentin, Konerko, Rios all in a row, followed by Jones/Kotsay, AJ, Teahen, and Ramirez...if you don't break them up, you're setting yourself up to be hurt in the 8th and 9th innings by LOOGY and ROOGY people. That's not just for the heart of the order too...yes, Quentin and others have splits that say they hit RHP fine...but there's always going to be an occasional RHP, say a side-armer or sommething like that, which you can pull out of a hat to frustrate those guys, and if you don't break them up you're giving away innings. The ideal solution is to get an .800 OPS out of Teahen. If he can do that, he can fit in that 5th spot and not be a hole. Otherwise, I'll live with Kotsay until it's May and hes hitting .220. If he can hit .300 out of that spot, even if he does so with no power, at least he breaks everything up.

Yankees president lashes out at Brewers owner and his complaints about being unable to afford to sign his players, says "I'm sorry that my friend Mark continues to whine about his running the Brewers"

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 02:19 PM) Is there more of a background on this specific situation available ie were there troops on the ground in the area, was there previously fire coming from that area etc. ? There is a lot of detail because 2 of the dead were Reuters employees and Reuters has been fighting using FOIA's to try to find out what happened to their people. The military conducted 2 investigations into it and found the behavior of the soldiers to be justified. (The links won't paste properly because there are spaces in the PDF titles, you can find them through Greenwald's post here. The reports magically were approved for release yesterday, right after this video appeared online).

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 02:06 PM) Yeah but their commercials are hip so who cares. Honestly, except for the appearance of the Enterprise, I thought the iPhone looked a lot cooler in its initial ads. I also found it interesting that I suddenly started seeing Kindle ads last week.

Another common complaint appears to be that the iPad struggles to hold onto wireless networks unless its very close to the source.

Total corporate income taxes paid last year by Exxon-Mobil: $15 billion. Total corporate income taxes paid last year by Exxon-Mobil to the United States Federal Government: $0. Corporate taxes in this country are clearly too high.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 01:16 PM) They had nothing but hitting stats for him. Huh?

Rolling stone profile from a few months ago of the CEO of Massey Energy, the most highly paid coal exec in the country.

QUOTE (False Alarm @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 12:18 PM) how was maggs a lowlife about it again or what did he lie about? i'm fuzzy on the details for some reason. might've just blocked it out after '05. The thing that really pissed me off was that he kept insisting he wanted to come back to the Sox but then did everything he could to make sure the Sox couldn't sign him. For example, he refused to give the Sox a chance to even examine his knee after the 2004 season; the first time anyone's doctors got to check out his injury was when Detroit and the Cubs were trying to sign him.

Kotsay

Sure Zambrano completely melted down and lasted 4 outs...but he didn't explode! It's a positive sign! Someone actually wrote that.

It's official: Samardzija takes this year's title for "Worst ERA in baseball the morning after opening day" with a 108.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 09:27 AM) vests don't stop much these days. Vests have been getting better and better at stopping high caliber rounds over the past decade as better fibers have become available. I wouldn't be surprised if we've never even heard of the kind of vest the President wears.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 09:25 AM) You are wrong. In recent years, the President always wears a vest for the first pitch. The President was wearing a Sox Jacket last year for the AS game on like a 95 degree evening.