Balta1701

If I had to pick between Delgado and Thome at equal dollars I probably pick Thome, unless there's something health-wise with him we don't know about.

Esp. since we currently have no DH...the offense worries me a lot more than the pitching staff.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 10:44 AM) The Rangers also have one of the top rated, and many rate it #1, farm systems in baseball. You would think if any team could get A. Gonzalez it would be them. Of course, they made the mistake of trading him to SD to begin with. Why would the Rangers do that? They're not exactly strapped for LH power hitters, esp. in their ballpark.

Way to do the comeback, Miami.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 12:01 AM) Balta, curious to hear what you thought about Star Trek, by the way. I know you tortured yourself and waited til you finished your dissertation to watch it. Was it worth the wait? I thoroughly enjoyed it, and yeah, I'm glad I waited until I finished that up before doing so. Was a nice reward/motivation.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 11:23 AM) Quitting time! Now you're trying out for the Bears, I see.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 11:54 AM) That is how it was planned all along. I have no doubt there will be a way around it, even if legislation seems anti-abortion. This law will be unambiguously more restrictive than the previous laws were, especially hitting poor women.

Someone stop me before I go after "R".

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Dec 20, 2009 -> 09:46 AM) So... the Rangers need a right-hand power hitting 1b. They need the other team to cover salary and are willing to give up a good-hitting catcher for him. So... Konerko for Max Ramirez. Thereby, allowing us to trade Flowers... Anyone see where i'm going with this? See where you're going, but it's a fairly complex deal...the Rangers here weren't willing to absorb that much salary on Lowell, and the Sox tend to not like to kick in money for guys they're already paying, and you pretty much have to set it up as a monster 3 team deal because you don't want to be left holding 2 MLB ready catchers and no 1b if part of the deal falls through

And to repeat one more point...you argue that the cuts in Medicare aren't real and won't actually happen. This is tantamount to arguing that in 20 years the country will be completely bankrupt and there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it. You argue this explicitly when you cite the $36 billion figure. So, if the country is 100% guaranteed to go bankrupt, at least with some measure fo reform, 30 million more people have health coverage.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 09:20 PM) Jim Thome has 9,463 career plate appearances, and that isn't including spring training, the minor leagues, or even warm up swings. I tend to doubt that about one less than active month (where he was still taking batting practice) is going to freshen him up. I tend to think he's going to put up an .850 OPS or somewhere in the whereabouts if he plays next year, and the only place he is going to play is Chicago. This team could really use an .850 OPS out of its DH spot.

Did you know that the Enterprise D has a giant hamster wheel on it?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 10:37 PM) "Cadillac" health care plans? LMAO. You think people are going to keep that s*** if they get taxed 40%? (Raises hand)...Um...really...that's EXACTLY the point. You know what strikes me as impressive? Kap et al. keep screaming "They've cooked the books" and I haven't seen a single detailed analysis that says anything close to that. The "There's unfunded mandates" things wind up focusing on small points, like "small changes in nursing education" which get funded in the future, which is such an incredibly weak argument We get strong arguments like "The bill is 2000 pages!" as a detailed response to the CBO saying it cuts the deficit by $150 billion over 10 years. Or assertions that the CBO is always wrong that aren't justified, especially since the CBO tends to be exceptionally conservative in its spending estimates. It's really amazing the difference in quality of the 2 arguing sides here. "This bill saves x amount of dollars and would save $50 billion more with a strong public option!" "Youre a Nazi!" "The CBO says that malpractice reform saves at most $50 billion dollars" "Malpractice reform does everything, LALALALALALALALA I can't hear you!" And if you guys cared one bit, any little bit at all, about the actual deficit...there's an easy way to deal with that, a strong public option, or just allowing everyone to buy into Medicare. But no, we like the current system, and the 20k per year that it kills...yeah, poor bastards.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 06:24 PM) well, I hope an Illinois senator threatens to fillibuster so he/she can get a deal like Nebraska got. LOL. i have no idea why only 1 or 2 Senators have been willing to play that game.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 05:23 PM) In other words you've started using "Tricks" and "lies" to create the images you wanted to see! I want emails! Processing seismic signals = a very, very complicated trick.

Ugh.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 05:16 PM) Screw whether they are lefty or righty. Just get the best hitter you can afford. A balanced lineup means nothing to you?

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 04:09 PM) 2.5-3 million seems a bit much for Thome and Cust imo. I have always like LaRoche, wouldn't mind that signing, hits lefty and gets on base. Of course I would love Vlad but he seems destined for the Rangers. 2.5-3 million seems actually a little low for Thome to me. LaRoche should still get more than that since he's actually able to play 1b. Vlad might fit at DH for us...but there are 2 problems, first he hits RH, and this is still a RH power heavy lineup unless Teahen takes a huge step forwards. The top and bottom of our lineup has lefties (Teahen, AJ, Pierre) but the middle and the power is Q, Konerko, Rios, Becksy, Ramirez. Another Lefty power bat provides serious balance, and furthermore, we have 2 potential platoon guys to go with a lefty in Flowers and Jones. A RH DH just doesn't set up this lineup well. Second, one thing that is missing from a lot of our guys is significant OBP. Say what you want about guys being base cloggers, one thing I don't see when I look at that lineup is a guy who's going to take a lot of walks and make you throw a lot of pitches. Just for diversity in the lineup, that could well be useful.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 03:50 PM) In another 60 years maybe. If the Dems can somehow get this package through...then the next logical step is to start allowing other groups to buy into Medicare in future reform efforts. The Public Option was a one time, put everyone else into this batch shot. It makes no sense to set up a public option gradually from this point on, just expand Medicare eligibility.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 03:02 PM) I can't us landing AGon in any way (esp. with other teams playing the field here) without Hudson being involved in any deal FYI. I think we'd do Hudson for him, but I don't think we'd do Hudson plus 3 other guys. And that's the reason it hasn't happened yet.

From the news 5600 years ago.

QUOTE (Mattchoo @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 02:56 PM) Regarding Mitchell, you are correct that you can't trade him until 1 year after being drafted, but isn't possible to make him a PTBNL? In a few days. You can't be a PTBNL for longer than 6 months; if you want to trade Mitchell, you can't do so until After X-Mas I believe.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 18, 2009 -> 07:02 PM) Get 1080p regardless. Even an HD signal will be better. You dont want 720. 720 is supposedly ok for anything that's about 42 inches and below; smaller than that and the difference in resolution doesn't matter. Above that, 1080 is supposed to be worth it.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 19, 2009 -> 02:52 PM) I guess forcing people to buy private insurance is covering more people. But what about those that can't afford it? Many of the subsidies still legitimately exist. For now at least.