Balta1701

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 09:55 PM) Pathetic. And I was thinking that the Bulls would be something decent this year. UGH... Really, is simply missing Ben Gordon enough to account for the difference between the team against the C's last year and this mess? I find that hard to believe.

To put it a simple way...we've changed 5-6 hitters from one of the worst offenses in the AL. That's kinda what you need to do.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 03:38 PM) If Kenny is planning on letting PK walk as a free agent next winter and the DH spot is open, signing LaRoche to a multi-year deal and moving PK to DH would make sense. That said, as has already been mentioned, LaRoche is going to want more money than the budget will likely allow. I think it's actually entirely possible they might retain PK at the end of the season for another year or two, but there's little reason to rush it right now. There's more than a few other guys who might be options at that point as well, and it's also possible that Viciedo could get penciled in there at some point if his bat comes around more this year.

QUOTE (Mattchoo @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 03:10 PM) What's wrong with Konerko's contract? Isn't it only one year left at 14M? 1 year at $12 million. The problem is...no one out there would pay more than about $6 million for him this year.

One thing worth noting...right now, this leaves the Yankees OF looking dangerously thin. Swisher, Granderson, Gardner. There's an opening there if they wanted to re-up with Damon or to make a major move on Holliday/Bay. I'll bet the latter is quite likely; they're going to swoop in and grab one of those LF's.

It's not often I get to cite the Washington Times here, but this seems like a legit scoop. Someone can correct me if it turns out this is more common than they make it appear; as it is the Washington Times, I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted Steele gone anyway.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 02:52 PM) Hey I hear Harvard's favorite castaway, Lawrence Summers, is looking for work... He has lots of investing experience! Isn't he already in the Obama administration?

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 02:57 PM) What if by chance KW moves PK in a surprising trade? Stranger things have happened. If he was going to do that then Laroche would make sense, but I really think that would have been done already. No one's going to want to pick up his contract, and KW isn't going to want to pay $6 million to get someone else to take Konerko in exchange for an average prospect or two and then simultaneously spend $8 million on Laroche.

QUOTE (SockMe @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 02:45 PM) I'd say that the Yankees would move from 4 to 2. You really think that makes them better?

This is now my official Bernanke bashing thread. As more than a few people pointed out in response...California went through a very large housing bubble in the 1980's that burst in the early 90's and did severe damage to the state's economy at the time. If the chairman of the Fed did not know/understand that, then who the hell is Princeton hiring?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 12:56 PM) Pargo sucks. Even still, he's not exactly that much worse than Salmons or Hinrich, and no team is goign to last 2 months of the season going only 7 deep.

QUOTE (Brian @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 12:48 PM) Pargo played a total of 6 seconds last night. For a team with no shooters, that is inexcusable. Pargo isn't a world beater but he can knock down a 3 Did his back ever heal?

Yeah, or at least whatever letters they were. My damn right eye is just that bad, my left eye is better than average.

I'm not currently sold on the Red Sox's rotation actually being stronger than us, but it certainly has the potential to be. Then again, D1 and Gavy step up just a little bit and ours can blow them out of the water even if they have a good season. I'm just going to ignore the Braves since they're in the NL.

Awesome, it appears i need glasses before I can renew my driver's license. F***.

Since when are Senate Rules violations also constitutional violations?

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 01:51 PM) This is a feel good regulation that will create more delays and more preemptive cancellation than anything else. The logical response to that is to increase airport capacity to actually meet demand.

It doesn't help us to sign a person to play 1b for this year. It'll be cheaper to sign a DH than a 1b, because of the flexibility. As long as Konerko can play 1b this year, signing a guy who should be a full time 1b is an inefficient use of resources.

QUOTE (heirdog @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 12:45 PM) Good article but I don't understand the "balance the line-up with 8 right handed batters" part. Aren't Pierre, Pierzynski and Teahen left-handed? That would be 3 LH with 6 RH regulars if Jones was DH and 4 with 5 if Kotsay were the DH. The big problem I see is...unless Teahen suddenly puts up an .850+ OPS like he did a couple years ago, all of our power comes from the RH side, esp. if Jones is the regular DH. If everyone performs roughly average, the heart of your lineup is, in some order, Ramirez, Beckham, Quentin, Konerko, Rios, Jones, with Teahen and Pierzynski being bottom-of-the order guys. That winds us up having pretty much no choice but to bump up a worse hitter to a better RBI spot just to break up the string of righties, so that a RHP or a ROOGY can't beat us with ease every day.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 10:14 AM) I have this theory let me know what you guys thing: There is a very strong negative correlation between believing in aliens and believing in global warming. My only response can be this.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 10:12 AM) Gosh... I should take my man made disaster and go home, then... wait a minute... Man made disaster = these posts, I assume?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 10:50 AM) Yeah, but even that was done out of a desire to tell policymakers (i.e. Cheney) what they want to hear - which is a management/bureaucratic failure, not a failure because we lacked some capability or didn't connect the dots when we should have. Not sure how well I explained that Makes perfect sense to me, but I long ago agreed with that.

Are they out of their minds? Also...That would give the Yankees both of our failed mid-00's LOOGY's.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 22, 2009 -> 09:37 AM) I can't remember a White Sox team making so many defensive and baserunning errors in my lifetime. Baserunning errors I don't want to comment on...but defensive errors in the OF, I still give 2006 the win there.

QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 21, 2009 -> 09:30 PM) There is also a case that the intelligence was correct, but key people ignore or mislead people about what it said. My specific goal there was to call the people at the top making the decisions unintelligent. Not to say anything about the intelligence gathering.