Balta1701

OK AJ, just make some contact.

QUOTE (beautox @ Jul 18, 2009 -> 02:25 PM) Thome is so slow lol He also just set the team record for most RBI's in a 3 game stretch in history over the last 3 games.

Be Greedy here PK.

Thome follows that up with a double around Markakis.

That'll do. 21 for JD. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Wise's numbers are actually going down in July.

Neil Armstrong. 38 year old American, standing on the surface of the moon.

That ball by Thome was so deep in CF that I can't even make it out on the MLB.com highlights.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 07:27 PM) Cheap homer for Thome I assume that means its on the Dan Ryan?

Jimbo! I sit down, learn about Walter, and then Jimmy tries to cheer me up.

A flash, apparently official, Walter Cronkite died today at 6:00 Central Standard Time, 7:00 pm. Eastern Standard time.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 04:13 PM) Teahan is only considered good cuz he is on the Royals. He's average anywhere else. Average is a lot better than what we've gotten out of CF and perhaps 3b so far this season.

QUOTE (DanksFan @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 03:28 PM) It's nice that I can post some alternative opinions and not get blasted for it here. I don't necessarily believe everything in that article I posted, I thought it would just be good to provide an alternative opinion, true or false. Thank you for being open minded, Soxtalk posters. If you want, some of us can make a legit challenge on the physics of those claims.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 02:55 PM) I assume you mean Aaron Hill? Not much of a logjam between 2b and DH. Yeah yeah. Oops. Either way, you don't stick a good hitting 2b at DH. A good hitting 2b is a bad hitting DH for most teams.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 12:03 PM) I'd tend to agree on logic, however, I've seen some articles recently, like in the Trib, that hinted Fields may be the odd man out. Frankly it might not hurt him to get some actual at bats against actual pitchers.

It has to be the Wrath of Khan.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 01:47 PM) Angels evidently are rumored to be offering Jared Weaver, Howie Kendrick, and prospects. Or the Jays are asking for that. Not quite certain which way it goes, but heard it on the radio while heading back from lunch. What would the Jays do with both Kendrick and Lind?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 12:29 PM) GS = MSFT If you had a gov't agency that was tasked with dealing in computer software, would you really be surprised if you have a bunch of MSFT execs in there? Sort of has to be that way. You know, that's a great metaphor. GS = MSFT. Making use of monopolies and other should-be-illegal tactics to rake in enormous profits while at the same time filling the market with horrible, horrible junk that no one can really live without. All we're missing is a genuine effort by Microsoft to destroy the world, like what we had from GS.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 12:28 PM) Yes - there is the system we have now, which is the result of decades of compromise between the two sides. Beyond that though...there is an entire scale inbetween. The dramatic concentration in wealth amongst the wealthiest of the wealthiest and the decreasing wealth of everyone below the midpoint over the last 30 years is a good sign for which direction we've been moving in.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 12:24 PM) Not to mention the fact that GS is technichally a bank but I did not see anything about how many loans they issued in the 2nd quarter. How about GE? They are, IMO, the biggest beneficiary of this gov't bailout. They have over issued somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 billion in commercial paper with the full backing of the gov't. With a ton more to come. GE should be forced to spin off GE Capital with the rest of their commercial paper float as the govt's leverage. Let's see how much influence Immelt really has in this administration. Also, I believe GE marked their commercial real estate loans at 1.00 in their earnings. Are you serious??? GE remains a problem Is GE paying out $20 billion in taxpayer subsidized and guaranteed profits to its employees? If they are then they're annoying me too. GS is at the top of the list because they're raking in the dough, giving it out to themselves...and all the people who are making decisions for the government happen to be ex Goldman employees or GS stockholders.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 11:19 AM) Exactly - damn those conservatives and by association, Republicans, letting people actually get "rich". You don't need to be able to buy a yacht an hour to be rich.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 11:17 AM) I never did post my award winning post about this. Something about getting fired from my job and getting all wrapped up in that. The "banks" argued that FASB (the accounting standards board for US) was forcing them to write down assets to an arbitrarily low value. That's the short answer. So now that the value can be set to "market value (whatever that means, hence the problem)" again, they are seeing "gains" from their balance sheets. That's a waaaaay simplistic answer, there's obviously much more to it. And to oversimplify it further...since the Feds have effectively declared that the big guys can't take any more losses on this stuff...the value for them is arbitrarily inflated (Wells Fargo just sold off a chunk of their sh*tpile for $.30 on the dollar and that was probably a high price, for example.)

Hopefully...welcome back frightening monster we have in LF.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 09:25 AM) I don't get this, at all. Goldman has paid back their government debt entirely, and early. They are now, again, a healthy IB. I can understand the risk you see in having such large IB's as one piece, I agree with you there. I can also understand the anger at some of the things they, and to a GREATER extent others, did that led up to the financial mess we had and have. But your statements as to Goldman's manipulation are way over the top. Getting people to pretend that the TARP funds themselves are the only thing that matters is part of the beauty of their corruption. They've been handed somewhere between tens of billions and hundreds of billions of dollars through all the other bailout programs going on, and all anyone pays attention to is the basic TARP funds. Where would Goldman be had the government not handed over something like $13 billion to them as a major counterparty to AIG, which they were key to bringing down in the first place? Where would Goldman be without the "TARP warrants" (No I don't know how to explain those) that still exist and still provide an explicit government backing of the banks regardless of whether they paid the handout-funds back? (And oh yeah, they're lobbying heavily to get the Treasury to buy those back at a huge discount) Where would Goldman be without the FDIC guarantee that was given out to all the banks last fall that basically turned all of them in to AAA rated agencies because they're now backed by the full faith and credit of the government in anything they do? Where would Goldman be without the who knows how much of the pie they've dumped on the Federal Reserve? The Fed has taken on at least $2 trillion or more in pieces of the big s(*^pile and handed out cash for it, basically taking the losses themselves. The Fed has refused to disclose who has received this money and how much each one has taken on? Where would Goldman be if the government hadn't allowed its major competitors to fail? Where would Goldman be if it wasn't profiting hugely off of the TARP repayments? (Any company that wants to repay its TARP funds needs to raise capital. Who is the only company left standing who can help them to do that? You guessed it. Frank Stallone) Where would Goldman be without the ban on Short Selling the government gave out last year that they lobbied hard for? Where would Goldman be if they weren't one of the few companies in the world that is a primary dealer of U.S. treasuries? We've sold off a few of those over the past year for some reason. And beyond that, where would Goldman be without the implicit guarantee that the government has given to all of these institutions that the government won't let any bank that is too big to fail actually fail again? (thus, they've gone right back to doing exactly what they were doing before the bust, making huge, overleveraged bets and running away with the profits as fast as they can before things go bad. Their instutition-wide leverage has actually increased by about 30-40% since last fall since they now realize they've got this explicit government guarantee that they can't lose money)