Balta1701

An interesting other reason why the health care industry as currently constructed is so screwed up...total lack of competition. The Justice Department defines an industry as "Highly concentrated" if a single company controls 42% or more of the market share in a region (aka...it's approaching a monopoly). By that standard, 30 different states are considered highly concentrated. Beyond that, a significant fraction of the country is only served by 1 or 2 insurance companies at all, even in the areas that don't register as "highly concentrated". Chicago, for example, has 51% of its market controlled by Blue Cross. Another reason why a public option would be useful; simple competition.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 01:56 PM) That and to send a message to others who may do the same. I'd spent my last 5 years in prison to get to live the life he led for the last 40.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 01:17 PM) 20-30 years would have been a life sentence for a 70 year old Madoff. This was a message for not giving up any info on the scheme. Really is kind of amazing that we haven't yet heard the full story from him of how it developed, whether it was a ponzi scheme from the start, why he did it, etc.

Bring it G.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 09:39 AM) so jeff marquez is officially a bust? No. He hit the DL for about 2 months with bone spurs in his elbow, didn't have any surgery but is slowly nursing his way back. But really, you can't count on him for anything right now.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 12:47 PM) You mean that is what happens when the country that you grew up in forces you to play even though you are injured. Im sure that Yao playing in the Olympics did not help the healing process. Eh, it's also possible that his body just can't take the pounding of being a 7'6" athlete.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 09:21 AM) Dan Hudson, get used to that name. And who knows if someone gets hurt or whether Richard/Poreda both pan out, etc. Plenty can happen. Expect the Sox to make a run at a corner OF though. It's somewhat hard to see how they can get around that. They have a potential CF on the way up for next year in D2: the mighty Danks, They have reinforcements at every other position on the diamond, they appear to be deep with young starting pitching, their bullpen is expensive but has a lot of good parts, and we're going to have money to spend this offseason.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 06:18 AM) If Poreda and Richard pan out as decent starters, do we even need to pick up another starter? Also, does it really matter if that pickup would be a RHP? Many teams have 4 RHP and 1 LHP or even 5 RHP, so would it matter if we had 4 LHP and 1 RHP? In our division right now, the only big RH bat that scares me is Cabrera. On the other hand, from the LH side, you have the thing Minnesota has catching that I'm convinced isn't human, Morneau, Granderson, Sizemore, HGHafner if he ever comes around, possibly some day Alex Gordon, Mark Teahen, etc. There can be some advantages to having extra lefties in a division that is loaded with strong lefty hitters. And anyway...it's shaping up right now that our 6th starter next year will be Hudson if everyone keeps up what they're doing right now, so we'll have a RHP available to fill a gap if we need one.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 09:46 PM) Just saw that Mariano Rivera picked up his 500th career save. I know it's fashionable to hate all things Yankees. But that dude is the best RP ever! There's not even a debate, IMO. And his first RBI. Hilarity.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 08:52 AM) First, he was accused, not convicted, correct? If so, first of all, he is innocent until proven guilty. In the first case, 15 years ago, he was accused and probably stood a good shot of conviction but the family involved dropped the charges in exchange for an undisclosed settlement (Rumors are it was $20 million).

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 04:26 PM) I got no problem keeping him there for the rest of the season cause I frankly don't think we're gonna do much, and thinking about it, a move like that would be quite the change mid-season. However, we'll see if Ozzie and more importantly Kenny change their mind about Alexei by the end of the year and heading into ST 2010. Like I said earlier/in the other thread/wherever...the problem with Alexei right now is that lately he's had a rash of these. We had a good 10 game errorless stretch earlier this year, although there were some fielding mistakes, they're really coming in bunches right now. Maybe some of it has to do with a newbie at 3b, maybe some of it is a lack of focus, whatever. Right now, what we're seeing is intolerable; it's costing us runs. A lot. I wouldn't mind a message being sent if he keeps this performance up on the field, ditto for other guys, but we need to see improvement starting now towards the end of the season, because right now we're trending the wrong direction, and that's a trend that can't continue.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 05:27 PM) how the hell did this happen? Our starting pitchers and bullpen have been really good. And we've given up the most unearned runs in baseball, which pushes down your ERA (Hi Bartolo!)

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 05:03 PM) He's going to get paid like a superstar this offseason, and he's nowhere near being a superstar. Bringing in infielders is not where I want our money spent right now if we have any to spend. We have more young infielders to develop than we have spots for them to play.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 04:22 PM) If the names were supposed to stay secret forever then Clemons wasen't too worried about it I bet and decided to try and save face. The government had that list in 2004. If he was on it...then telling Congress what he told them would be the stupidest move any human could possibly make. You could have charged him with perjury 2 hours later. Edit: Ditto for Tejada, Palmeiro, etc.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 02:58 PM) I also have a wierd feeling KW has something up his sleeve. . its been extremely quite. . KW is in a holding pattern until he knows more about what he can get from Quentin and what he can get from the team on the field right now that keeps showing flashes.

Man, how good has Tommy Hanson been?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 02:31 PM) I'm with Balta, the name is too overloaded with big names. It certainly could be legit and I could be proven wrong easily, but I'm going to withhold acceptance until someone goes on the record, even if its a major media outlet with an anonymous source.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 02:11 PM) Ummm, Alex Sanchez is on the list. I think Jay Gibbons (suspended,) Brent Abnernathy, Dan Smith (?,) Terry Adams (way old,) and Jose Lima (was out of the league until the Royals picked him up midseason) meet those specs. I think you get my point though. If someone went through 2003 MLB rosters and picked everyone who had big performances or who were simply big guys, then threw in the few other names we already knew from the Mitchell Report list or previous positive tests, this is exactly the list you'd get.

We went 4-2 in the games at home against 1 very good team and 1 team that always plays us tough, now we're 1 game under .500 and going on the road for a while. Need to keep playing well on the road now.

Anyway...The best reason I can give for why this list is wrong? It's too obvious. How many no-names are on there? Where's the guys struggling to stay in the big leagues? Where's the Alex Sanchez type guys? There's only like 3-4 names on that whole list I don't recognize. Everyone else is someone who had a legit career. None of the guys on there are the bench guys who are just barely staying in the big leagues, or who made it for a couple years, or who were busted prospects, etc. Also, Jose Contreras only pitched 1/2 a season in 2003 for the Yankees. Was he in training camp with them? Most of the original 2003 tests were done in ST.

Johnny Danks.

I wonder how similar this is to the pre-mitchell-report-phony-leaked-list.

This thread will forever remind me of Ryan Bukvich. This kid will have to do a lot to get that taste out of my mouth.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 28, 2009 -> 01:36 PM) Pretty much knew coming into the season that defense would be a season-long issue. Other than Konerko and to a lesser extent Dye, it's been pretty bad. And this isn't even getting into the chronic problem we have when it comes to holding and throwing out runners. The difference is...it's actively getting worse. A month or two ago this same team had a 10 game errorless streak.