Balta1701

Good column on the usefulness of a national infrastructure plan/bank.

QUOTE (JoeBatterz @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 11:38 AM) This would be cool to see for other sporting events in other locations as well. With the state of water infrastructure in this country, I'd be surprised if there were many cities that collected enough digital information to record those trends.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 01:33 PM) Again, you blame health insurance when they aren't the ones sending the bills, but unlike the federal government, private industry can't just say, "we aren't paying you that", or they lose the business. Then your argument is that health insurance companies do nothing to hold down health care costs but add a nice additional layer of bureaucracy in there to increase costs.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 11:52 AM) It is also going to prove a lot towards what government run health care would look like, as fewer and fewer medical facilities and doctors are willing to accept Medicaid patients because of the lower payouts The idea that the medical profession will do a lot more work, for a lot less money is the central pillar of this plan, and it is false. I could go through all the international data again but that's not worth doing. There's a key flaw in your line of thinking...you're assuming that there will always be a supply of customers from the private market that are willing to pay increasing prices through eternity. Your argument is correct in that case; if a doctor's office can choose between providing the same service to an equal number of patients at a higher cost and a lower cost, he's going to choose the higher cost group every time. The flaw, of course, is that this is exactly what is happening in our current system, and it is directly related to it being broken; there is no downward pressure from any source. The insurance companies don't push prices down, Medicare does somewhat but only in a limited way, and thus, there's nothing to resist infinite cost increases until the system breaks fully. The actual reality is that this market is much more likely to respond like a market. In other words, only so many doctors can say they won't treat patients if their insurance isn't willing to pay above a certain price level for a certain procedure before doctors start finding they have no customers remaining because their rates are too high. The idea that the medical profession can grow infinitely forever is a central pillar of the opposition to this plan, and to how we've legislated for the last 20 years, and paying $15,000/family per year on health insurance is a direct result of it.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 11:50 AM) Medicare has a forced cost control mechanism that private doesn't have, thus any comparisons between the two are null and void -- as you are comparing apples to oranges. IE, the government often just decides it's not paying what it promised to the doctors via Medicare, or pays less...and there isn't anything they can do about it. The private industry, however, doesn't get away with that. If health insurance companies have no cost control mechanism, then what exactly are they good for?

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 10:44 AM) Why is Randy Williams still not on the roster? Hope.

If nothing else, this thread just reminded me to renew a CD account that I'd left open to have extra liquid funds while moving. Gracias.

From the "random, unexpected costs of a changing climate that we're already enduring" file...an extra billion or two for foundation repair.

No-Mah Nomar. Garciaparra to retire.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 09:26 AM) how many 33 year old career minor leaguers have been brought up to the majors to be a DH? Dewayne Wi...oh never mind.

I think you and I see the graph in question and come to an opposite conclusion 1990 expenditures (all values approximate): Private insurance: $200 billion Medicare: $100 billion Out of Pocket: $130 billion Medicaid (Federal + State) $75 billion 2007 expenditures: Private Insurance; $670 billion Medicare: $400 billion Out of Pocket: $275 billion Medicare + Medicaid: $300 billion There are a few trends I get from that. Yes, the government share has gone up, but the slope of "Private insurance" is higher than the slope of Medicare by quite a bit. Private insurance has gone up by a lower percentage, but that's only because the starting values were so different. Medicare has gone up by quite a bit less than private insurance overall and per year. The thing that has really, really shot upwards other than private insurance is Medicaid. In other words, it's the cost of covering the uninsured, which is, as I keep saying, a big reason to motivate this, because there are cheaper and better ways to do that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 08:54 AM) In other words, give me your rights, your records, and your wallet, so I can take what is in them.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 10, 2010 -> 08:44 AM) That's not a reason to agree with Pelosi, whose point in this case is vapid and obnoxious. Vote for it to see what's in it? Seriously? That's a load of crap, no matter what you think of the bill or its parts. What this is, is a reason to be frustrated with the media. Poor choice of words, but there's a legit point in there. If you poll "do you support or oppose the health care plan moving through Congress right now" it has a plurality of opposition. If you add in even a brief description of what is in the bill to the polling question, support skyrockets and a majority supports it.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 05:58 PM) The average closer should be about a ~1.3 WAR reliever according to last year's stats. I don't really know how you can define league average though. Broxton was the highest at 2.9. Surprisingly, Jenks and K-Rod tied for the lowest at 0.3. To put it another way...if the difference between Broxton and Jenks was 2.6 wins... Does anyone out there think that, if Nathan's gone, the Twins would be angry if they got the exact performance this year out of their closer's spot that we got out of Jenks last year? Yes, it was a down year for Jenks, but I think they'd be perfectly fine with getting that out of someone. In other words, completely understand how losing Nathan could be the equivalent of 3-4 losses, or maybe even more. If the Twins wind up in the mess that several teams wind up in every year, where it seems like they dread having the game get to the bullpen...that's really not an uncommon occurrence in baseball, and that's probably 4+ losses.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 06:06 PM) That's because Bobby allowed 9 HR last season. When your HR/9 is 1.52 your FIP is gonna suck and it did (4.47) and when your FIP is garbage and you're only giving your team 53 IP because you're a closer and miss 20+ games due to injury your WAR is gonna blow. As for K-Rod: a 5.03 BB/09 will not make for a healthy FIP. And yet...both the Sox and the Mets can easily, easily envision worse performance out of the closer's spot than what they got.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 05:51 PM) In this day of modern technology how come every spring training game isn't being tracked via gamecast or similar play by play sites? Because it takes resources, manpower, and money to do that. I guess they think it wouldn't be profitable.

QUOTE (SnB @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 06:42 PM) quick question. How long does it take to get your money from an online savings account to another bank account (one w/ a debit card). 1 business day, 2 days, instant?) Within the same bank, it should be instantaneous. Going from bank to bank, that's going to depend on each bank's rules. I was just trying to set up a way to do an EFT of funds from my Bank of America account to my CU account, and it took about a week of time for them to validate the other account. I haven't tried one yet so there's probably some lag time in there as well.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 05:53 PM) By the way, again for s***s and giggles, the words "reconciliation" and "filibuster" don't appear in the Constitution because the Senate and House make their own rules - see all the things the Republicans changed when they took over in 1994. Was that stuff illegal or did it violate the Constitution? Some of the things they did might've been ethically questionable, but the answer is no. Is it worth noting here that Tom Delay was admonished by the House Ethics committee for basically trying to bribe and threaten Congressmen to get their vote for GWB's Medicare 2003 drug and insurance company bailout?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 04:30 PM) Smoak was brutal at AAA last year In only 197 at bats, in the 2nd half, as a 22 year old, coming off an oblique injury right before he was promoted.

Unless he accidentally runs over Ozzie's dog, it goes to Nix. And replace the word accidentally with the word repeatedly. And the word Dog with Son.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 04:26 PM) Yeah bullpen work is hard to gauge with saber stats at this point. Especially WAR since it's very innings based. That's why I think they're at least 4 wins worse without Nathan. The question in terms of "Wins above replacement" is "how do you judge the average closer"? Where do you define the "Replacement" level? Do you define it as a league average closer, or do you define it as the level of closer that happens when a team has to scramble for a closer and disrupt your whole bullpen or make a panicked trade? Adding only 5 more blown saves to Nathan's total last year would make the Twins go from 47/52 to 47/57. That still is better than an 80% closing rate, and I'm willing to bet there are teams that were substantially worse than that last year. Lidge blew 11. Not to mention any high-leverage spots he pitched in that weren't save situations.

It's hard to describe how fascinating this graph is to me.

I'm just going to put this here because it's anti-Blackwater. A few weeks ago, we learned that Blackwater employees in Afghanistan had made large quantities of U.S. government-purchased supplies disappear, including 500 AK-47's...in one case by signing for the weapons as "Eric Cartman". On March 17's South Park season premier...Eric Cartman is going to sign off on a purchase of 500 AK-47's.

Back to CK's question about whether there is acutally really any deficit savings here...I'm sure I'll get called out for outsourcing commentary to a dirty blogger since obviously they can't interpret anything correctly, but whatever.

QUOTE (thedoctor @ Mar 9, 2010 -> 02:46 PM) this is a great point. i am not sure how hudson can enhance his value by pitching limited innings in relief Well...if he came out and pulled off something like the 1204 ERA+ that Joba Chamberlain pulled off in 24 innings in 2007...