Balta1701

From the first reports out of the Supreme Court today, a majority of justices seemed to be leaning towards the side of eliminating every corporate campaign finance limitation on the books. (Tonight's speech by the President, brought to you by Wellpoint insurance).

George W. Bush's tax cuts were passed in the spring of his first year. No Child Left Behind was passed during the summer. The Patriot Act was passed immediately after 9/11. The AUMF for Afghanistan was passed immediately after 9/11. Clearly, these were rushed and therefore they can only be bad things. All should be repealed.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 12:26 PM) Breaking News: FOX: AIRPLANE HIJACKED IN CANCUN, FLOWN TO MEXICO CITY Ended peacefully, hijackers in custody.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 01:39 PM) f***, this thread is okay, but it's no haiku thread. Go away. This thread will devour the Haiku thread. And its soul. And its children.

Effing crazy this is.

Who would you rather face in a 7 game series, the team with Cain/Lincecum or the team with Carpenter/Wainright (Neglect the lineups for a moment).

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 12:56 PM) Torres OTOH has no business being in a Major League rotation for a team which has playoff aspirations. As a long reliever he might one day end up somewhere, but probably not. I love his attitude and confidence and balls, but he's not any good at all. Why do you say that? From what we've seen it looks like he has a good low 90's fastball with some movement, some non-terrible offspeed stuff, does need to work on his control but has already shown flashes. Am I wrong on any of that? It's not like he's getting outs entirely by trickery. If he doesn't have good control on a day right now he gets shelled, but that's what happens with most kids.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 12:49 PM) Hopefully Kenny brings in a legit lefty who is ready though. Nate Jones, if he keeps throwing strikes like he has been, should at least be a September callup next year. I've got to believe KW will attempt to do that on the FA market. There's enough guys out there who can be decent situational lefties who will accept a 1-2 year deal for a couple million dollars that it wouldn't make sense to leave that as a hole.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 12:43 PM) There is also globalthermonuclear war potential. Lock up the strip clubs. I know nothing about Lionel Hollins, anyone think he's anything special as a coach? That's the kind of roster that the coach may well be the difference between 20 wins and an implosion and a chase for a playoff spot. You put Phil Jackson or Pat Riley on the bench for that team and I bet that somehow everyone winds up fitting in to a role and things work shockingly well. I think you need a particularly strong personality to pull it off though. Put Vinny Del Negro on that bench, and well...that might not be pretty.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 12:29 PM) The latter point is just maddening to watch. Scary thing though...we have the #10 batting average with RISP in the big leagues. #18 OPS with RISP. Our numbers aren't that terrible with RISP. But we're 21st in MLB in at bats with RISP. We're not spectacular getting them home, but not terrible, but we also don't get a lot of runners in to scoring position either.

There's a high "complete collapse" potential there, but if Iverson has any motivation behind him to try to revive his career and maybe HOF hopes... Zach Randolph Rudy Gay Marc Gasol/Hasheem Thabeet Allen Iverson/Mike Conley OJ Mayo That's a pretty darn solid front 7 rotation with some non-terrible bench guys behind them. In the East I'd bet that's a playoff team on paper.

Xerography would make for an interesting career.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 11:49 AM) First 10 posts after the eventual error will include the words "worthless", "overpaid", and "pathetic". Did I miss any others? "Worst ____ I've ever seen".

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 12:01 PM) Maybe the thread title should say YEAR instead of MONTH? Naw, give it a couple months first.

OK, which one of you is actually SI Writer Stewart Mandel? It must be one of you.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 09:36 AM) This is factoring Dye and Pods both being brought back? Something tells me KW will find a way to do something to get more left-handed. That to me is a need, albeit not positional. Perhaps he turns Dye into Abreu Frankly, after the last 2 months of p*** poor production at the plate from JD, I'll be surprised if he's brought back. I could see Podsednik being an option, but I'm not sure. That's going to be interesting to watch for a number of reasons...I'm wondering, for example, if he might have played himself in to a type B free agent this year, or whether or not we'd consider offering him arbitration again. Arb experts, is there a minimum arbitration salary guarantee for someone like Podsednik? I think we'll see a LH DH appear next year. Either Thome coming back or someone like Abreu, not sure, but I bet we grab one.

In the interest of being fair and balanced...I'd like to note that I still am no fan of these sorts of manufactured political theater events, like the one we're going to see tonight, no matter who is at the podium. It'll be interesting to see the results perhaps, and the presence of a gifted orator might make it more interesting than usual, but still, I'm just blah about all of them.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 09:23 AM) If I read you right, are you saying that you see upcoming FA signings being very minimal? Frankly, they ought to be. The only positions we're really in need are the 3rd righty out of the bullpen and a corner OF/DH. The only corner OF out there worth a ton of money is Holliday, but personally, I have no interest in being the team bringing him back to the AL to watch him repeat his performance from Oakland this year. The only way some major FA signing would make sense is if there's a big trade of one of our current starters to clear a position for someone. You're not benching Beckham, Rios, Getz, Quentin, Alexei, AJ/Flowers, or Konerko next year.

You know, for a while there I was so proud of this site for not having bought in to the lunacy on the conversion of America's children to Commies...

Now that's a billboard (not sure, it's in the LA Times, but if anyone's looking over your shoulder at work...)

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 09:02 AM) Did Scott Boras screw Joe Crede by not attempting to sign him long term? After 2005 he could have gotten a great long term deal based on his post season heroics. Joe Crede was a full participant in those decisions. Every indication was the team wanted him to dump Boras and they'd have been thrilled to negotiate. Joe wouldn't do it. The team seemed to get more and more pissed with Boras with time as well, esp. when Boras's medical advice started differing from the advice of the team after 2006. Joe could probably have gotten quite a bit more money out of us after 2005 than what he earned in his career.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 09:05 AM) Pointless to call out one party on things like this. It's human nature not driven by politics. People cheat on their spouses. Look at divorce rates. Divorce rates are typically much higher in red states

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 07:39 AM) Of all the flaws that either party tends to have issues with, the one that bothers me most is the bizarre desire of many recent-model conservatives to choose ignorance. I can't imagine why someone would prefer to know less and be exposed to less knowledge and experience, but that is what some of them are doing. It is choosing to be stupid, as if that were something to be proud of. Those high education folks believe in communist ideas like evolution, global warming, environmentalism, birth control, women's rights, the metric system, etc.

Rock on, that's how I wanna go.

Or else what?