Balta1701

QUOTE (watchtower41 @ May 14, 2009 -> 09:53 AM) People are so quick to forget that Jose is all about confidence. He dominates Triple A hitters, he will be back and become servicable to this team again. Confidence and throwing strikes. He needs to throw strikes so that people have no choice but to swing at the dancing stuff.

Guess we have to hide her around the weight room with his weed.

QUOTE (lostfan @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:07 AM) As far as the right-left argument on this goes, this article sums up how stupid it is on all fronts. Granted, I think Pelosi is full of s*** on the subject of what she knew or didn't know, but House Republicans are clearly more concerned with making her look bad than actually addressing any issue. Made crystal clear with these comments: Mmmkay John. Nice way to completely deflect and derail the topic, that appears to be their official strategy. How about we actually talk about it? See, this is why we need a full independent investigation. I don't have a clue if Pelosi is covering up something or not. I don't know what she was told, when she was told it, and what she was legally allowed to do after being told whatever she was told. A fully independent investigation would be able to answer those questions. If she broke the law to defend the torture program, she deserves to go to jail just as much as the rest of them. I like the "how about we actually talk about it?" idea you have. Somehow though, I wonder if the Republicans and the media would be willing to go along with that...

QUOTE (ROC Sox Fan @ May 14, 2009 -> 09:36 AM) I'm hoping to cross the border succesfully again this year and catch the Sunday game (blow-up doll day). I'd try and get more in but I'm graduating Saturday. Last year Alexei couldn't come due to visa issues or something. Will he be able to make the trip this year? If Alexei couldn't go, that would mean more playing time for Lilliputian. I'm going to assume via the Lillicurse that he won't be going.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ May 14, 2009 -> 09:22 AM) Alexi is starting to show signs of life. Quentin's been hitting the ball hard, just right at people. Last year, when Quentin hit the ball hard right at someone, we hoped that the fan had a glove. He'll get it back, he's just not where he needs to be. Hopefully these couple days off will give him a chance to practice his swing more, since he does that everywhere anyway.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 14, 2009 -> 09:18 AM) Morally repugnant and ineffective. Gotta love it. Ineffective? It did exactly what it was supposed to do, down to the letter. I'd say it was remarkably effective.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ May 14, 2009 -> 09:09 AM) Score more runs and give up less. That will bust a slump everytime. We really need Q and Alexei to find their grooves and for Gavin to find his. Our bullpen is out-performing last year's pen, we have 3 starters we can count on most times out, Konerko is hitting better than last year, Anderson is hitting better when healthy, AJ's still AJ, JD's still JD, Thome's still Thome. We can work through things like Fields and Getz struggling, esp. if Konerko keeps hitting, but we need Q and Alexei to find their grooves and for Gavin to stop being an automatic loss.

QUOTE (lostfan @ May 14, 2009 -> 08:07 AM) If you're implying that there was pressure to get that information from detainees (when it wasn't actually there) then I have no doubt about that. There have been more than a few reports since the memos came out that one of the things Cheney and Co were after in their "interrogations" was info that would give justification for the Iraq war, but that's not what he's going to be referring to. This is. This guy, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, was captured by the U.S., and "rendered" off to Egypt for "Additional Interrogation". He rapidly did exactly what torture makes you do...confessed to everything the torturers wanted to hear. It then made up this block of text in Powell's speech. It really is an amazing story here. We capture a guy, send him off to Egypt for torture, he tells the Egyptians exactly what we want him to say, the CIA declares his information unreliable because it's obtained under torture, it winds up in Powell's speech anyway (and is actually the last claim Powell makes before his summary portion, like this is the real slam dunk part), he recants easily in 2004 when someone bothers to ask him, he vanishes for a couple years, some members of the press find him a couple weeks back, and like a week later he's dead.

QUOTE (Wanne @ May 14, 2009 -> 12:28 AM) I kinda doubt it...but he shoulda been here anyway... That 5.18 ERA and 1.54 WHIP that he's putting up in Arizona against the weak NL West with no DH and facing the pitchers would fit in beautifully in AAA next to Jose.

The Brewers are the hottest team in the NL right now. They're something like 16-5 in their last 21 games.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ May 13, 2009 -> 08:11 PM) I do? Boy... I guess, now that I look back on it, it wasn't my greatest work. If I could do it again, I'd have written that I was pointing at his injuries instead of assuming my audience could imply it. It's all one injury though! Here, I can play the same game. 2006: 121 IP 2007: 0 IP 2008: 76 IP. Now, can I automatically assume this pitcher can't give me 150 innings this year? He's already thrown 40. Those are the #'s for Liriano. All 3 of those years were down years in IP because he had Tommy John Surgery. He's pitched 40 innings already this year...because he's recovered from the surgery. It was one injury. He's had surgery. Hopefully it's corrected. There's no logical reason to assume that because he had surgery on something he can never recover.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ May 13, 2009 -> 08:16 PM) He also hit 25 HR's as a rookie in 100 games? Or does this argument only work if you're bashing him? There's the rub. Josh Fields clearly has talent. Worked his way up solidly through the minors, earned the right to be here, has had success here in the past. He's struggling now. He hopefully is smart enough to ask for help and learn. His issues are mechanical; they can be fixed. If they are fixed, then we've got a better player here than I thought we'd get, since I was genuinely scared that his defense was going to be a lot worse than it's been so far.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ May 13, 2009 -> 08:01 PM) His past 3 seasons suggest otherwise. 2006: 56.1 IP 2007: 99.1 2008: 39.0 You act like there's no reason for that, he just happened to not pitch much. He went down with a shoulder injury that started in 2006 and wound up requiring surgery in 2007. 2008 was spent mostly rehabbing. There's an entirely reasonable progression there, which suggests that it's entirely plausible he could give you more innings than that this season. Guarantee he won't break down? Of course not. But all 3 of those were due to the same injury, and that injury was treated with surgery in the middle of the stretch.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ May 13, 2009 -> 08:00 PM) Did anyone else see the highlights of Jayson Werth stealing 3 bases in an inning the other night? That might be the first time I've ever seen a guy steal home on the throw back to the pitcher rather than on the pitch itself. I'm sure it's been done I've just never seen it.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 13, 2009 -> 07:35 PM) wow Balta, 84 posts today? Caulfield with 54? So? There's a handful of us (me, Fathom, 2k5) who go over 100 on a regular basis. I'm averaging like 24 a day since I joined.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ May 13, 2009 -> 07:27 PM) You could just remove the link... Actually I'm not sure they can.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 13, 2009 -> 07:27 PM) Ricciardi actually participates in a fan call-in show on Toronto radio, as alluded to by Kyle here, and ARGUES with the fans! You want to talk about a guy with an ego? He had that thing with Adam Dunn last year didn't he.

Also worth noting...Bill Smith and Dayton Moore have been GM's for significantly less time combined than KW has been GM in Chicago for (1.5 years and 3 years, respectively).

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 13, 2009 -> 07:23 PM) If Fields shows he isn't the answer at 3B and Viciedo hasn't made major improvements, Adrian Beltre might be worth a look, but he's a Boras client. Ankiel is another guy who'd be interesting in CF (especially if we let Thome go, we could use his LH bat), but again, he's a Boras client. Johnny Damon would be intriguing for LF and leadoff as well, but again, another Boras client who likely demend a lot if his season keeps going the way it has. Is Ankiel a FA after this year? It's worth considering as well that the market could well be even worse next year. Doesn't matter if they're a Boras client if no one will offer more than $5 million for 1 year for these guys.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ May 13, 2009 -> 07:21 PM) Mental Note To Self: click "Top 20 Posters of the Day" more often. Seriously, please don't.

Clearly, there's some work that needs done.

You know it tends to totally freeze the site when people check that listing.

4.2 IP, 8 hits, 2 BB, 4 runs, HR by Morneau for D. Willis in his return. Fastball was sitting in the 87-90 range according to gameday.

It's just amazing at the lengths you guys are going to in order to find fault with the position the Sox are sitting in right now so that you can go after KW.