Balta1701

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 04:48 PM) Right on! You still have to break the government employee unions first.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 04:47 PM) Brian Anderson is quietly becoming an option again in my book. He had a nice series. Every bloody time we give him regular playing time, he winds up performing.

G

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 02:27 PM) You have got to be kidding me - yet another lie from Obama. So that 60 Minutes bulls*** about not giving them miranda rights was yet another lie? I'm glad to know that NON-CITIZENS get afforded the same rights as a US Citizen even on a foreign battlefield. You have to be careful what you say. And yes, I see Bush did it too, and it doesn't make me like it any better. Gee, I guess that makes Sarah Palin right when she talked about this in the campaign. That's kind of scary. Damn dirty hippies.

Fields has 3 walks today?

Really rather not see Getz bunt here.

Fathom, I'm sure you'll enjoy the Zumaya/Fields matchup this inning.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 03:14 PM) I just need to go to India and get it over with, or work 29.9 hours a week at Wal-Mart for minimum wage. That's the U.S. economy the way it should be.

Crap.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 03:48 PM) Then send him to the Mets for Wilmer Flores and/or Fernando Martinez. Is there anyway the Cardinals would take Jenks, Anderson, and Carrasco for Rasmus? Doubtful. The answer is going to be "Doubtful" any time you ask the question "Would a team give up fair value for Bobby Jenks". Quite simply, if someone else doesn't give up the player they don't want to give up for anyone, then we have no reason to move him.

Unless Ozzie's out of his mind, Gavin will leave this game with a 4.94 ERA.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 03:48 PM) Can someone do a little pbp? Ramon Santiago homered, 2-1 Sox.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 03:41 PM) If Jenks goes to the Cubs, it better be for Hoffpauir and maybe even Colvin. There is absolutely nothing in the Cubs System I'd be willing to take back in exchange for Jenks.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 12:48 PM) Well, their big profits come in those short periods of time that they can sell their drugs under patent, so they basically are forced to sell them at such a high price. They need to get as much money as possible in that time so they can accumulate a nice amount for new drugs, and obviously they are making nice money at the same time but thats what a business does. The biggest problem with that setup not being talked about here is that it also puts the profit motive in the wrong direction. The most profitable pill for a company to develop is not going to be the one that makes the greatest number of people healthy or cures a disease the easiest; it's the one that people have to take every day for the entire time that it is under control of their patent. So, instead of drugs that could be targeted towards curing things, we get drugs that manage symptoms, or drugs that are aimed at things that really aren't life threatening. You wind up with erectile dysfunction drugs and antidepressants being the most profitable type of drugs, while necessary things like improving our vaccine manufacturing languishes because you only need that one time per year.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 12:41 PM) Why do people on the West Coast say "the" before highways? e.g. the 5, the 101. I tried asking people this and they didn't even notice what I was talking about. Because that's their name. In the Chicago area, the highways all have other names other than the number that they're given; the Borman, the Ike, The Dan Ryan, the Stevenson, etc. Out here, the highways all have names, but like each 2 mile stretch is named for a police officer who was killed or something like that; there's no single name for a whole stretch of road other than the number.

Viciedo would be a terrible callup right now. If PK is gone for the season I'd consider Allen. Frankly, even for a 15 day offtime...put Fields there, call up a LH bat, don't care where he plays, and see if Josh can show some promise.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 12:01 PM) The NOLA thing is a disaster. They had the chance to do what Chicago did after the fire, and rebuild smartly - in their case, rebuilding in areas NOT as prone to flooding, leaving the rest as open space, which would have had all sorts of benefits in lower infrastructure costs, better home values, and lesser risk of future disasters. But alas, no one at the federal, state or local levels had the balls (or not enough people did) to do it that way. Sorry, that was really a side issue, but its one that drives me nuts. California is the same way. I can walk through the hills and say "These houses are going to burn down within 20 years" and those areas still get built up. There's a wonderful place right next to the San Andreas on the 14 where there is a whole hillslope that has been covered with new houses over the past 6 years, and a few places just down the slope where there are about 5 McMansions sitting right next to a man-made lake...which is there originally because of the fault. Every time you see people complaining about their houses burning down out here, you should remember how easy it would have been to keep houses from being built in the really, really guaranteed to burn areas in the foothills...or at least how many steps there now are to fireproof houses in those areas.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 11:49 AM) Great. So when are we moving everyone out of California, the Gulf coast, and the Atlantic coast? After all we KNOW that there are going to be natural disasters there that are going to cost trillions more than if we just deserted those areas. We KNOW that many, many people there are going to be harmed. Why don't we force everyone out? Why did we pay to rebuild, and maintain places like Louisana when we KNOW that more Katrinas will happen in the future. It would just be preventative care, right? It would be saving people from harm, right?. In California...basically we look at it as you get the building and road demolition done for free.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 12:18 PM) In another thread I posted about Dr. malpractice being one of the greatest myths. In order for a Dr to even be sued for malpractice another Dr. must certify that there was negligence. That is why so many malpractice cases settle, because before the case can even be filed an expert needs to independently state that there was malpractice. If a Dr is negligent, why should the victim not be able to fully recover? If we cap medical malpractice torts, we should cap every tort because no victims should ever be able to fully recover. /shrugs I made a much better post on this topic before, so im not going to rehash it all, its some where in this forum. In terms of malpractice there's actually a lot that can be done as well. There are some simple steps, like better standardization of procedures at hospitals for cleanliness, that can cut those sorts of issues in half. And...I'm not going to be able to find the data for the whole country, but a significant %age of malpractice claims are actually made against a fairly small number of repeat offenders, who medical boards typically will not discipline. Since patients have no access to that type of data, there's really no punishment for being bad at your job.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 11:34 AM) Maybe the Sox want to lose 100 games before it's over. If we are ever leading a game again we need Bobby to close it out. Thornton is not a closer. How many lefties have been great closers? Billy Wagner Brian Fuentes Randy Myers Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams Eddie Guardado John Rocker John Franco B.J. Ryan That's off the top of my head.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 11:05 AM) They all do it. Never Forget the Mike Piazza, 61st round pick by the Dodgers if you're angry about nepotism in the draft.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 11:28 AM) I think his median should be around Mike Cameron or Steve Finley in their primes. I think Mike Cameron is an excellent comparison actually...because Mike Cameron has the same issue that I'm concerned about with D2: the mighty Danks; he'd make an exceptional top of the order hitter if he could cut down on the strikeouts by like 30%.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 09:40 AM) The biggest problem is doctors are held to a standard that should not be. They order so much crap that is unneeded because they have to cover their ass for insurance and liability reasons. Talk about wasteful spending. That's where a lot of it goes right there. There has to be a way to reform this part so that a doctor doesn't order crap just to CTA. This would help immensely. This is where tort reform comes in. There's lawyers that just sit and wait for a dx to be made that is in error so they can start the lawsuits. There MUST be some reform in this area. These two concepts go hand in hand. Then why haven't states that have put caps on malpractice settlements seen huge drops in healthcare spending? I will certainly agree that doctors order a lot of stuff that doesn't need to be done, but I'm going to go with a different reason why; profit. It's a symptom of a broken market. There is no downside to a doctor ordering too much treatment; there is only upside, in that it drags more money in to the system. It's like that article about the highest per capita health care costs in the country spot in Texas i cited a week or two ago...doctors down the road order dramatically less stuff and spend less money. It's not because the high expenditure area is more scared of malpractice suits; the costs are capped in both places, it's that the extra providers there are making a killing offering more and more expensive and unnecessary treatments. This is why something called "Comparative effectiveness research" is so important. It's something the insurance and medical industries are strongly against, because the more they can keep doctors in the dark about how effective the treatments they order actually are, the more they can rake people over the coals. The problem is, right now, the anti-reform folks have decided that denying someone a prescription for a product that is more expensive and less effective than something on the market as generic (i.e. Clarinex vs. Claritin) is a form of rationing, and that's an evil word that we'd never consider doing (as long as "we" aren't an insurance company, for them it's ok), so we always have to pay for the highest cost treatment...because for the people with the best lobbyists, the highest cost treatment is the highest profit treatment.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 10:04 AM) If the government starts mandating and defining preventative care it will only be a short step until that preventative care includes other things like regulating smoking, drinking or any 'risky' behavior, or denying coverage if you do engage in those activities. So you're saying you oppose things like Cigarette and alcohol taxes? (And the whole point of a universal system is...you can't deny coverage!)

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 11:07 AM) I was just curious... Does anybody know how Gio Gonzalez and Fautino De Los Santos are doing in the A's organization? Are they panning out? DLS had the Tommy John surgery last year and has not pitched since. Gio's pitched decently at AAA the last 2 years for the A's, but has struggled when he's come up. 7 starts last year, 10 games appeared in, ERA over 7. 2 appearances in a relief role as a long man for the A's this year so far, ERA over 7.