Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 04:23 PM) This is what is on her facebook page now Checked for the link on her facebook page. Havne't heard of the restaurant, it's near the hospital between 3rd and 4th, I think it's probably new since I was last there. If the next time I go through there it isn't gumbo night, I might visit.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 02:19 PM) Apparently Palin's claim that making fun of "retards" is ok if it's satire just went out the window after she berated The Family Guy folks for making fun of her. Family Guy isn't satire.

I wonder what restaurant she owns.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 12:44 PM) That would decimate the Bulls chances to do anything this year. Most of the other deals that are being talked about bring back as many players as we would get, and would give us players that would probably not be hurt in a week. If the Bulls could clear Salmons, Tyrus, and Deng's salaries and put themselves into a position to legitimately make a run at more than 1 top FA, and they didn't do it because they were wanting to get themselves into the 8th slot this year to lose to the Cavs in the opening round...well, I think that'd be pitchforks and torches time.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 12:44 PM) In no way am I discounting the moves we made. I'm simply factoring them into the greater divisional picture. We made two great moves midseason, and then countered losing Dye, Thome, and Pods with Juan Pierre, Mark Kotsay, Andruw Jones, and Mark Teahen. Tenuous improvements, if improvements at all. We cannot look at these deals in a vacuum. Nearly every move that we've made has been countered by a move by the Twins. A team, in the Twins, that won the division over us by 7.5 games, and no longer, like us, has to deal with the threat of the Tigers. The Twins are almost certainly better than last year. They were better than us last year. Logic demands that KW tweak the team to a point where competition with the Twins is a certainty, not a hope that factors in universally solid play from every element of the team. There's one other thing you're missing when you repeat that 7.5 games we have to make up issue...the big 20. If Carlos Quentin hits like he did last year to open and close the season when he wasn't hurt, that's basically taking a slightly below average LF with the bat and replacing him with an MVP. If Q isn't all there, then this team is going to struggle a lot again.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 12:42 PM) I don't think so. The Bulls are going to make a few trades. If Tyrus Thomas is on this team on Friday, I'll organize the riot.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 12:24 PM) Thoughts: If Amare goes to Miami, does that increase the Bulls chances for landing LeBron? At that point he has Four Options: Stay in Cleveland, Go to NY, Go to NJ, Go to Chicago. Don't forget the Clippers.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 12:24 PM) The Sox were weak at DH last year. I don't see it much different except they won't be totally slow on the bases. Odd that this team's recent history reflects injuries at the DH spot. The Sox were #5 in the AL in OPS out of their DH slot and tied with Texas for #4 in RBI out of their DH slot.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 12:20 PM) Thome's OPS was .798 in August of last year and .471 in September/October. In 17 at bats, mostly pinch hitting. That has as much validity about anything as if I pointed out that he had a 1.000 OPS in October. He manages to hit 1 HR in those 17 at bats and his OPS goes from .471 to over 1.000.

If we have the same Rios next year that we had in the 2nd half of last year, we're not winning this division.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 12:08 PM) Those two contributed significantly to that hole post-ASB from '07-'09. Jim Thome stats, 2007-2009 Pre all star OPS: .913 Post all star OPS, .876.

So, there was one other person who had been trying to get on the Indiana Senate Primary ballot against Bayh, Tamyra d'Ipppolito, a cafe owner from Bloomington. As of yesterday it seemed like she had about 23 twitter followers and had raised $60 on ActBlue. And she's a former Lehman Bros. employee. Yesterday she was a few thousand signatures short of the needed number, but today it appears that, unless she's received some questionable assistance in getting those remaining signatures, she'll qualify for the primary ballot. That would mean the only way that she would not be the nominee is if the Indiana Democrats could mount a successful write-in campaign against her in the primary.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 11:39 AM) Plus with Deng playing the way he is, the Bulls could use him as a sign and trade chip for someone like a Chris Bosh, etc. They could even move him for an Al Jefferson. IMO, if there was anyone in the league remotely willing to take on Deng's contract in exchange for something valuable, he'd be long gone already.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 10:56 AM) LeBron plays a 2/3 combo, right? Well, there ya go. When LeBron is at 2, Deng is at 3 until we can trade him. Yes, Lebron can play some PF. The question though is...what does LBJ want to play. If he wants to play SF on a team that is weak at that spot but strong elsewhere, he can do that. If he doesn't want to play 40% of his minutes at PF and he doesn't want to go to a team stuck trying to move a contract for a SF because that'll hurt them long-term, what can you do? If he wants to play a fair amount of time at PF, obviously you'd be crazy to say no, but the thing to remember is that all of the power is in his court to decide what he wants to do.

So, how many venues are left that haven't experienced operational problems?

Jair Jurrjens has a sore shoulder and will be going in for an MRI. The Bravos are hoping its just some tendinitis.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 10:22 PM) That was a big capture. What's kind of funny to me about that capture is that just last week I started seeing articles on the right saying that Obama's tactics were actually becoming too effective at killing terror suspects before they could be captured, thus denying us any intelligence that could be gained from them.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 09:15 AM) And I don't know if PHX would be willing to do that, considering it's probably doubtful that they'd re-sign Gay (considering Robert Sarver is such a tight-arse). Hasn't PHO been paying the luxury tax for like the last 5 years?

Why would the Grizzlies mess with what appears to be a playoff team right now in exchange for Michael Beasley? Why would Phoenix be more interested in Gay than Beasley but the Grizzlies would be more interested in Beasley than Gay?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 08:59 AM) I doubt a guy who is the best in the league at his position is worried about Deng. If he wanted to play in Chicago, that isn't something that would stop him. Its not like he is going to lose playing time to him or something. It's not about losing playing time, it's about how much the other guy's contract affects the team's roster flexibility. If your single goal is to win a championship, and you had to compare a team with a bad contract at your position running through 2013 with a team that only had 1 remaining bad contract that ended in 2011 (i.e. the Knicks), which would you choose? The latter has much more flexibility to build. Especially if the cap takes a major drop in the next CBA, where his contract suddenly becomes much more immovable.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 08:51 AM) It's not his responsibility to monitor their policy, if he needed 2 tickets, they should not have sold him just 1. In the days of electronic ticketing and electronic boarding passes, it's entirely possible and in fact likely that the first time he actually saw a person was when his ID was checked at security.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 09:26 PM) Exactly. I see the point that you're trying to make, Balta, but there is absolutely no way you don't go after Lebron James because of Luol Deng. It's not that the Bulls wouldn't get Lebron because of Deng, it's that Lebron wouldn't want to come here as much as a place that had a better opening for him.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 07:25 PM) What they don't know yet, is how the wind will play. But...the odds of it blowing out when the home team are up and blowing in when the visitors are up are a lot lower.

QUOTE (Sox72 @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 06:55 PM) Out of general curiosity, I was wondering why people never mention Chicago when talking about where Lebron James is looking next summer? Are there specific reasons why it's not a reality, or is it just because everyone is speculating that if it's not Cleveland, then it's NJ or NY? I'm not arguing that he should come to Chicago or anything, just wondering why it's never mentioned as a possibility. Probably a lot of reasons. First, he'd always be in someone else's shadow. He'd also be changing numbers. The big one though is the contracts. While he could probably play PF, having Deng alongside him is really a poor setup. Which means we'd need to find a way to move Deng. Which is already difficult enough, and which would be more difficult if we suddenly HAD to move him. Why would he necessarily want to go through that when so many other teams can offer him the spot wide open already.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 06:39 PM) I wish certain people would bother to learn all of American history and not just the rah-rah parts (We fought a war for independence and won! Lincoln freed the slaves! We saved the world from Nazis and several decades later also from Communism!) so they can see there's some not-so-good and sometimes just plain bad stuff in there, and that pointing this out doesn't make someone a bad person or that the fact that these things happen makes us all bad people. And a lot of it is relevant today... that's why it's taught... it's not some liberal conspiracy to smear America or some dumb s***. Don't worry, pretty soon the Texas Board of Education will make sure that everyone forgets everything but the rah-rah parts and the Contract with America.