Balta1701

QUOTE (JustWin @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 06:06 PM) How were they able to get Harden last year for practically nothing (nothing that hurt them, anyway)? Like someone said once before, it seems other GM's just give their players away to the Cubs to help them succeed. Obviously that's not the case but that's what it looks like sometimes. If they get Peavy this year for nothing I'm really going to be ticked. I really, really hope Milwauke goes after him hard and Peavy waives his no-trade clause for them. Btw, did Hendry trade for Reed Johnson or did they sign him? They signed Reed Johnson after Toronto released him. Cutting him saved Toronto $2.5 million. And they got Harden because he gave Billy Beane 10 starts and that was the first chance Beane had in like 4 years to actually trade him for anything at all.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 11:09 AM) I'm staying at the Palace Hotel and they've got an awesome $10 buffet as well. I'll probably check out the Wynn one as well though. I didn't think the Wynn one was worth the money when I stayed there. Didn't try the Bellagio one.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 05:16 PM) Franken could be seated in the senate, then removed by the supreme court? is this what i'm hearing? Actually, yes, that is one possible option. Highly, highly unlikely, but plausible. But frankly, it's an option I'd be willing to deal with, because the Supreme Court ruling that would be required for that to happen would basically dismantle the Republican Party.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 05:04 PM) Well MN's SC appointed that panel so if they ruled against it they'd be effectively ruling against themselves. This is actually fairly normal though...an Appellate court can't take up all of the issues that come before it, so they break in to various 3 member panels, and then the 3 member panel will make a decision on a case. After that decision it is appealed to the full court if one side feels it still has a case to make, and then the full court can decide or pass on accepting the new appeal. In this case, the full court is virtually certain to accept given the nature of the case.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 04:32 PM) They're basically where we were at before the 2007 draft. They've had a terrible run with their first-round draft picks recently. They've also given up a ton of picks to sign those FA's they've used to build their team.

And the first official court decision... The Coleman campaign will now obviously appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court, an appeal which must be filed within the next 10 days. Here is a detailed summary of where things will go, with this being the big bullet point: The MN Supreme Court can take 1 of 2 steps...they can either rule that the state of MN did as good of a job as they could and order the election certified, or they can judge that a mistake was made somewhere along the line and order additional counting. They can not summarily rule that Norm Coleman won the election from this point on...he would have to close the gap by some counting method. It is worth noting that at least 1 MN Supreme Court justice has been a Coleman donor in the past, so there's some complex issues there. One interesting thing will be to see how far former Senator Coleman pushes his arguments. Let's hypothetically say that he gets all the way to the Supreme Court, argues that different counties enforced different standards for how they counted the votes (an argument which is likely correct at some level) and the Supreme Court in some fashion invalidates the election based on that. What the Court will just have done is affirm the controversial Bush V. Gore argument...that you can't have differing voting standards between districts. This of course would be a nightmare...especially for whichever party tends to benefit from things like having fewer voting machines and longer lines in districts populated by the poor, or where you have different standards or ID requirements for voting from state to state.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 03:03 PM) Well, to be fair, France told us to f*** off on Iraq because they were in bed with Saddam for billions on the oil for food program. I wonder why they told us that, then? *shocker*, huh? And no U.S. company backed the invasion that stood to gain from it either. They were all 100% patriots.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 02:45 PM) Whatterya sayin' there Nostrodamus?....he'll burst onto the MLB scene? I think we're saying that the number of chances this guy has gotten is extraordinary.

Power.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 01:17 PM) Late April supposedly for Nix. Plus I'm sure he's been down long enough that you want him to do some rehab games before you even consider trying him in the show.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 01:15 PM) Who calls 911 for a goat? Also, anyone know why there is no gun for the Cubs game today? I wanted to see Jimenez with the gun, but I haven't seen a reading for either pitcher yet. Does WGN not have a gun and I'm losing my mind? It's only been 20 years since Wrigley discovered the electric lightbulb. Give them time. It took nearly 50 years for the rest of the country to go from the electric lightbulb to effective radar systems, and it took a pretty major war to get it right too.

Eh, put this here rather than the Blago thread. Details at link.

Linebrink in.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 10:17 AM) Then that solves it for me, as far as what I want the government to do. Personally, I'd prefer setting up a system such that maritime crime can wind up being offered to the ICC. The U.S. may have a justice system that can take care of the people doing this, but a lot of the other countries that have ships out there don't have any urge to deal with them, and will thus just pay the ransom or hand them back to Somalia.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 01:07 PM) You'll definately see Lillibridge get some time in CF. Will the Sox bring Owens up, I'd assume so, but maybe not. The only LH hitting OF on the Sox 40 man roster is Wise. The Sox have a couple of slots open on it, but they'd have to put Owens back on the 40 man to bring him up.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 01:04 PM) Anyone else see Ozzie playing L'Bridge in CF? Yes, I think he'll get some games there. The big problem is that he's RH, as is Anderson, so look for a LH bat to be recalled.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 01:04 PM) They wouldn't move Ramirez just for 15 days or so. It might happen if Gordo were coming up here for good, but not on a temporary basis. It strikes me that a separated shoulder isn't just 15 days or so. I could be wrong.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 12:50 PM) What i'm trying to say is that career-wse he's been somewhat consistent, last year could have been the start of a decline, but i don't think the eventual decline will start till about two to three years. In short, last year Swish was bad, but he wasn't as bad as the numbers suggest. But, a key part of why we were able to get him in the first place is that his #'s in 2007 were down from his #'s in 2006 as well. So you actually had a 2 year downward trend, starting from 2007.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 12:48 PM) What happened in bottom of the 7th? Inge flied out, next 2 grounded out.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 12:47 PM) There was nonthing that suggested what Swisher went through last year was anything but a down year. I'm not suprised to see him hitting at a decent clip again. Actually I'd say there are a number of things that suggested what Swisher went through last year could have been well more than a single down year.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 12:44 PM) I believe the NJ senator who is a D attempted to block an obama appointee if the lesser cuban s*** was in the something. i'm tired today dudes. You are correct sir.

Applause.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 10:37 AM) Good. But didn't they already say this, basically, like a week or two ago? Probably not as directly, but, that was the impression I got. By the way, I am not saying its GOOD that more people will lose jobs in the interim - I feel badly about that. But I am convinced that it will be better for everyone and this economy, including the people laid off, to do this now and get it over with. The Obama administration is stuck in the middle of a game of brinkmanship right now, especially with Chrysler, GM to a lesser extent. Basically, on one side, they have the Unions, who want more concessions from the bondholders, and don't believe the government will actually let the companies go bankrupt. On the other side, they have the bondholders, who are demanding more concessions from the union, and don't believe the government will actually let the companies go bankrupt (noteworthy...a number of these folks are the TARP recipients...yay). Basically at this point, unless both the unions and the bondholders start believing that the government will let the companies hit bankruptcy, where a court will actually have the power to enforce concessions, then it's completely guaranteed that the companies will hit bankruptcy. Now that the government has bailed out everyone under the sun, it doesn't have any credibility left when it says it won't keep bailing people out. Edit: more thoughts...the reason both sides feel they have the government over a barrel is that the country still can't afford another couple million job losses right now, so they both feel like they have all the bargaining power. What the Obama Admin. needs to gain some power back is a method of ushering those guys through bankruptcy rapidly, without totally destroying the companies, so that they can extract concessions from the bondholders and the unions without those 2 sides having the ability to threaten the government with 15% unemployment numbers before the end of the year. So trying to design a method to shuttle them rapidly through bankruptcy is a potential way to gain the leverage they need. Edit the 2nd: also, one thing i forgot earlier...the bondholders have one other potential gun to hold to the government's head...the Credit Default Swaps, which for $30 billion in GM debt probably total several times that amount, a good chunk probably held by AIG. Thus, the bondholders have the ability to do even more damage if the government doesn't acquiesce to their demands.

Deep breath

Come on Gavin...