Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:38 AM) Or we could use the Simpsons as inspiration for terminology on tax increase... "Taxes are bad. The finger thing means the taxes!"

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:37 AM) What will tell us everything is how they respond into the third and four quarter of 10. And what will determine that of course is the jobs situatioon.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:36 AM) I cannot repeat this enough. This time is different. It was not a typical bubble. It will linger for a decade at least. This government intervention will linger for a decade? I find that nearly impossible to believe. In terms of the magnitude of its impact, every measurement says it was an order of magnitude smaller than the housing bubble itself. The effect of the housing bubble will linger for a decade, I'll buy that. Here's a way of looking at the government intervention:

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:23 AM) So, this is even more interesting... while Chicago home sales saw surprisingly sharp gains, on slightly lower prices... the rest of the country saw 15%-ish drops in sales, but HIGHER prices. What does that mean for Chicago? Well, our bubble wasn't nearly as bad as some other places. Maybe Chicago is getting rid of the flotsam and recovering faster? Or, is it a bad sign for Chicago, where there are more foreclosures than in other places? Foreclosure rates in Chicago have nto been as high as many other metros, so I'm leaning more towards the idea that Chicago may be recovering a bit faster than other markets. Hard to say for sure, though. Everything in the last 4 months of the housing market needs to be considered in the light of the massive government intervention in the housing market. One way to interpret that is that Chicago saw a rush of buyers to take advantage of the tax credit, and that rush of buyers kept the housing market from falling as fast as it would have had the employment bust been able to affect it on its own. The end result of that might therefore be an expectation of a more severe price drop in that region due to unemployment once the government housing price support program ends.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) "revenue enhancement triggers" I love PC terms... Yeah, what we really need to do is on one hand pass another $2.5 trillion in tax cuts and then on the other hand complain about the deficit some more.

QUOTE (chwhtsox @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:15 AM) honestly, at the time, how did you feel about the Carlos Lee trade? Thought it was a gamble, but an interesting one, and it depended on which version of Podsednik we were going to get. Was more worried about JD replacing Magglio than I was about the Podsednik/Lee trade; we got 2 big things out of it, salary flexibility and a guy who was under our control for a lot longer, but JD had been injured and bad for a couple years, and after April/May that looked like a horrible move.

Since this is more my thread and since blogs are forbidden in the other thread, I'll post this here, best "Spending freeze" commentary I've read.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:10 AM) I am not going to boo this management, because they consistently show me their interest in winning and making smart baseball decisions. All I have to do is look to the North Side to know how valuable that can be. The last time I saw a Chicago team make a decision that I felt was this obviously stupid was the decision by the Cubs to sign Bradley.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:05 AM) Big Jim, you will go into the Hall as an Indian, but you'll always be a White Sox in my book. I can promise we won't boo you when you return. There may be boos though...but they'll be directed at management.

It's also quite remarkable that defense spending...still doesn't count as actual spending.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 09:55 AM) it also won't be accomplished with temporary road construction jobs. Not entirely, but that could have been a reasonable part if the program to do it had been 5x larger.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 09:47 AM) So I take it this means you changed your minds on not increasing the deficit meaning the Great Depression? Not in the least. The way to deal with the deficit is to; a.) fix the health care system, and b.) get the economy back growing again. Neither of those will be accomplished by any sort of discretionary spending freeze.

QUOTE (hogan873 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 09:01 AM) Nix is the most likely in my mind. If the Sox aren't going to sign Thome then I don't see them signing Damon or Hudson. And I don't see any deals going down. Unless, like it has already been mentioned, KW picks someone from the scrap heap. It worked last year with Pods, but how many times can he get lucky like that? The big problem with Nix is he's probably not the greatest option as a LH hitter.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 08:53 AM) Either way, raising the spending, increasing the deficits astronomically, then raising the debt ceiling once temporarily, and a coming second time permanently, and then calling for a "spending freeze" is f***ing stupid, and I don't care if it gets me banned, anyone that buys into this is f***ing stupid, too. Not only would they have to "freeze" everything, but they need to start CUTTING these over funded programs that have the worst job efficiency in existence, and maybe then we'll start getting somewhere. It still amazes me that people can on one hand scream about the deficit being awful (it's not, at least not right now) and then on the other hand oppose the strongest deficit reduction program proposed since the Clinton Tax Hike.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 03:27 AM) The evolution of DR1's shooting game is the difference between Rose becoming a perennial all-star or becoming just "a guy." Suffice to say, Rose is playing the best basketball of his young career. He is taking over games and bettering good competition. He also needs to get to the line a lot to be a top guy,.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 03:36 AM) I wouldn't be so quick to put a fork in Andruw Jones. Power can come from more sources this season than last, esp if Q and Rios rebound. The problem I have with that is...even if it works spectacularly, we're still the 2008 Chicago Cubs in terms of our big weaknesses. Even if the guys we have all hit and hit for power, we're missing power from the LH side unless Teahen comes up huge, and we're missing a serious OBP/walk threat (who is also useful in driving up pitch counts). There was a reason the Cubs went out and spent a ton of money on Bradley; they got crushed by a team throwing 3 RHP out against them in a row in the playoffs, because all their power was from the RH side.

Seriously, we need Hudson.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 10:52 PM) I got a good feeling about our new #23. If there's any magic number in Chicago Sports, that's it.

QUOTE (Tannerfan @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 06:56 PM) I would be curious to know the OPS of Everette and Frank in '05 along with Konerko and Dye. Not to mention Crede vs Tehan and Iguchi vs Beckham. In 2005, the White Sox DH's put up an OPS of .769, 8th in the AL. In 2005, Crede put up a .756 OPS. Iguchi put up a .780. Dye, .846, Konerko .909. Last year, Becksy put up .808, Teahen put up .734. Konerko .842, Dye .793.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 05:23 PM) I keep hearing people say "we'll just acquire someone during the season if it's not working out". That rarely ever happens in a positive way. Even with KW in the GM's slot?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 05:11 PM) And just so Mr. Rongey doesn't misinterpret me here, I do agree with him regarding the lineup needing to step-up as a whole, but should not everything go as we hope, I think a lot of things could fall on that middle of the order again, and acquiring Thome goes a long way towards solidifying it. And even if everything goes as we hope...adding JT as the LH counterpoint DH to Jones still makes this team better and harder to beat both in the regular season and in the playoffs.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 04:40 PM) I hate to keep bringing this up, but accountability does seem to be an issue here. JR did recently say that it is difficult to hold Ozzie accountable if they don't provide him with the team he asks for. Seems like there is a struggle about how closely to follow his vision, and the closer it is followed, the more accountable he will be held. Then why do you have the GM and coach position separate?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 04:20 PM) Having an OPS of about .730, which is what Kotsay/Jones is likely to produce, is a pretty big weak spot - especially when there are guys out there who would sign for cheap that could give you .850 or better. Its not the end of the world, as the team is pretty good otherwise, but its a pretty big glaring hole. You don't leave that kind of hole, when you can do better, on the hopes that MAYBE you get something later in the season. Unless, for example, you're 95% certain that you can get the deal done and the other team (SD?) is waiting on something else, like seeing how guys start off this season in the minors or the point that they can get Mitchell without him being a PTBNL or something along those lines.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 03:57 PM) Is that really the requirement? Cuz I tell you what, having a bunch of celebrities tell me to give money for Haiti relief didn't do a damned thing for me, guess that was a waste of their time huh? So far that telethon has raised $60 million or so.

Phillies signed C Carlos Ruiz to a 3 year deal, avoiding arb.