Balta1701

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:31 PM) Indeed. This is key. I don't think I can name more than 3 or 4 teams I wouldn't trade systems with. John Manuel of BA put us in the 16-25 range and said it's splitting hairs where you put people there.

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:17 PM) LOL. How good is Damon in the field? He doesn't have a very good arm, no? Would he be willing to DH fulltime? Damon is somewhere between bad and very bad in the field. He still has the ability to play it, but you only really want him playing out there if your other option is something like Adam Dunn or Jermaine Dye or Vlad Guerrero, where they're either terrible or likely to get hurt if they play the field. I think at this point, if anyone offered Damn $8 million a year, he'd be happy to DH full time. But no one's come anywhere close to his asking price. His camp started floating retirement rumors earlier this week.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:23 PM) The Twins' lineup is as overweighted with left handed hitters as ours is right handed. It's a good thing we have two tough southpaw starters, although I'd rather have Peavy on the mound vs any team. Problem is, M&M have killed Danks so far.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:25 PM) Smokescreen - it really worked, didn't it? Yup. They watered the bill down so far that the Dem voters stopped caring, and the end result was defeat. Worked darn well for Snowe and Baucus. Especially considering the several million dollars they've gotten from the insurance companies this year.

NSFW!

Man, and I was actually planning to be there for those. Guess we'll hit up a Sox game instead.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 02:55 PM) However, if two years go pass from here and we can only look at Gordon Beckham as a contributing player, then something drastic needs to happen. Not with the top, but the people doing the actual scouting. If you can't find contributing players with a safe or high risk/high reward philosophy, then what good are you? What happens if they're traded?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 12:39 PM) this is true. according to Soxtalk, there is mud and rocks Yay!

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 12:37 PM) I heard about this a month ago. The Demycrats were trying to rope these guys in, and then push through those tax increases that well, you know, "read my lips, no new (middle class) taxes" -- Barackus the Great, repeatedly. Then, of course, just like health care, it's those evil republicans that can't do anything right, even though we had the votes and then started to argue to death. It's a blame game time bomb that they were trying to lay on the laps of the other party. It's that simple. In other words, we're serious about reducing the deficit as long as the method to reduce the deficit is 100% the Republican plan. Once you agree with everything we say, then we can be bipartisan.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 12:34 PM) I dont know if the states provided include the newer releases or original theatrical run. All of the Star Wars numbers include the rereleases, that I'm 99% sure of. It's a lifetime gross number. I think that if a theater can get the rights to show a movie in selected screenings that those also count.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 12:17 PM) The Wade/LeBron group sounds like they are staying put. Once you get down to Johnson and Bosh, they sound like they are going to test the market. Here is the big question. At the end of the day do you trust this group running the Bulls to be able to get at least one of these guys to come to Chicago? I don't think I do. Frankly, they've gambled their jobs on it more than KW has gambled his job on the DH spot. If they miss this offseason, there's no reason to keep anyone at the top around. They've been selling on 2010 cap space as a reason to not make moves for at least 2-3 seasons now.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 12:14 PM) Yeah, you just keep making up whatever you want me to say. No, you argued that somehow the spatial distribution of patients plays a role in limiting capacity, and you argued that U.S. capacity is more limited than overseas which leads to higher costs. To me, the capacity of a physician is determined solely by the number of patients they can see, not by the distance a patient needs to travel to see them, which is why that last interpretation sounded so bizarre; because the idea that spatial distribution affects the number of patients a doctor can see is equally bizarre.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 12:13 PM) I don't think any of the 2010 Superstars are going to leave their teams, except for maybe Joe Johnson. Bosh? Every, and I mean every report out of Toronto right now says that team is a disaster, including in the locker room.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 12:10 PM) Am I the only one who saw how much worse the team was without Hinrich? Am I the only one who sees how much worse this team is when Hinrich does his usual 1/2 season disappearing act?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 12:08 PM) Most of that work isn't done by doctors anymore. It is done by nursing staff of various levels. It has no effect on the relative levels of doctors per person. One big factor that is missing in that prior number is how physically big the United States is. You are going to have to have many more doctors per person to cover the much less dense population distribution of people in this country, when compared to anywhere in Europe. It is a pointless number in comparison. So your argument is that rural doctors have less to do and thus they charge more per procedure and this drives costs up, because they have a lot of spare capacity in doctors in rural areas?

This is also kinda remarkable. There's been this idea floating around for a "Blue ribbon committee" (Blue ribbon? that's the best kind! all right!) to be created by Congress to come up with ideas on how to deal with the deficit. Yesterday, it came up for a vote in the Senate and lost 53-47 (losing of course meaning it won a majority of the votes). Now, whether you think this is a good idea or not, of particular interest was what happened with 6 of the Republican votes; 6 Republicans were listed as co-sponsors of the bill to create the commission, and then voted against it. Why? Because they realized that the commission might come back and actually produce a plan that would control the deficit; it would probably wind up including a bipartisan mixture of tax increases and spending cuts. These 6 Republicans, the same people who have already complained to no end about spending and the deficit and the stimulus and how it's all evil, realized that they might empower a panel that would in the end recommend revenue increases to balance the budget, and suddenly changed their minds to no. Couldn't even risk appointing experts and having them recommend tax increases.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 11:53 AM) No one's going to say "no" because Kirk is off the roster, either. Hell, DWade might not want to come here if he thinks that Hinrich is still going to have to get his minutes because the org. loves him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 11:52 AM) So where is the capacity actually at then? It's used up inefficiently, dealing with things that could be better dealt with through other method (spreventative care, avoiding ER visits, etc.). If a farmer plows each of his fields 3 times, he may use up all of his time, but that doesn't mean he can't take on additional land the next year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 11:43 AM) I'd like Z, but that makes our backcourt really thin. Ilgauskas's deal expires. Who cares about our backcourt? Play Devin Brown 35 MPG for all I care if it clears Hinrich's deal.

You know how I think they got him to defend the program in the first place? Waterboarding.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 10:45 AM) They shortened LF by 4 ft, LCF by 8 ft, CF by 4 ft and left RCF and RF the same. I'm also guessing there won't be a large wall in RF but I don't know that for sure. But I'm also guessing they won't be able to turn the fans on every time the home team is up to bat.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 10:22 AM) Yes, viewing habits of 1939 are different than today. But even with that factored in, Star Wars is still pretty high. Star Wars also benefits from probably a 20% boost from the re-released special editions. I know I was in the audience for those.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 10:34 AM) Left Field - 339 feet Left-Center - 377 feet Center Field - 404 feet Right-Center - 367 feet Right Field - 328 feet It doesn't sound unusually short to me, does it to anyone else? Is there expected to be a major wind of any sort?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 10:32 AM) Ah, improvement and development by the other teams, but probably career lows for the Sox. I'm not one of the ones expecting career lows by the Sox. My problem is...what is required for this team to be an above average offense is career highs from at least 3-4 key people. If Teahen, Rios, Pierre, and Alexei hit their career averages, Konerko and AJ hit just below their career averages (which wouldn't be surprising given their ages) and the Jones/Kotsay platoon hits its average of the last few years, we're in rough shape unless Q goes for 40+. For our offense to work, we need legit improvement from Teahen, Rios, Alexei, continued growth from Beckham, and for Jones/Kotsay to not wind up being a black hole. That's my worry; if we got off years from people or if Q gets hurt then of course we're in trouble, but even if we just get average years from a lot of guys, we're still in trouble. If the Twins get average years from all of those guys, their offense can win the division again, just by putting up its averages.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 10:29 AM) If that was the Sox rotation you would be calling for 65 wins. Its not good. You are correct, they were towards the bottom of the AL last year in starter's ERA. And yet, they still won the AL Central. And IMO, there's reason to believe continued development/improvement of it is possible. Most of them other than Pavano are 28 or younger. Slowey finished only 1/2 the season last year.