Balta1701

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 02:31 PM) it will probably depend on how their early season schedule breaks out regarding needing a 5th starter. If they need a 5th starter early on I can see both making it since The Count might need an extra few weeks to stretch out The Sox have 1 offday in the first 2 weeks. The first time they need a 5th starter is April 15th @ Detroit.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 01:29 PM) I bought Direct TV Sport pack that includes Comcast Chicago Sports. Why doesn't this channel broadcast the Chicago games? This sucks big time. In the spring, ratings aren't that high so there's not a lot of money to be made broadcasting every game. Some games are broadcast because people will tune in for a taste. It's capitalism...if there's not a big enough market for the games, they won't spend the money to put the broadcast on. Make sure you also get the MLB package during the regular season if you want games...if you don't buy that package, out-of-market games will be blacked out and you won't be able to see them.

The double play the D-backs turned was a 5-3-6 double play.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 01:28 PM) Walks? No, not even close. He trails only Ian Kennedy in the mystery category. Gotta be wild pitches.

Seems all we get is the live box score today. No audio for either side, no gameday. Richard gets through the first inning somehow, although the Box score makes no sense (the leadoff and #2 hitters never came to bat and he only recorded 2 outs according to it). Viciedo with a leadoff double in the 2nd. Anderson then somehow hit in to a double play with only a man on 2nd. Nix struck out.

Sox take a 1-0 lead in the first on a single by Betemit. Hits by Q, Pierzynski, and Wilson in that frame, outs by Owens, Dye, Alexei.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 12:57 PM) He has one of the best swings I've ever seen. His bat stays in the zone so long its ridiculous. Not just that, but his form from the side is incredible. His head is frozen, his weight shifts almost entirely, his back foot maybe leaves the ground by a mm as all of his weight moves forwards without his head moving at all.

Owens, LF Pierzynski, C TCQ, DH Dye, RF Betemit, 1b Ramirez, SS Viciedo, 3b Anderson, CF Nix, 2b Richard on the mound. Haren on the bump for the D-Backs. Thought Thome was supposed to be back today. Hope he didn't have a setback. Any idea if there's a B-game he might be playing in?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 12:48 PM) So, just like BA really. Basically exactly, except maybe a few more stolen bases. Oh, and the manager would play him. That's a pretty big differenc.e

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 12:29 PM) I don't think its too late for a bankruptcy at all. Our bailout is a loan, the US is not just an owner, its a creditor. Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't honor the contracts. But we should also do whats smart for the company we own. How many of these retention bonuses were paid to people who since jumped ship? We are in a bad labor contract with these workers. We should do what many of the same executives think should happen with GM Ford and Chrysler. File for bankruptcy, that way these horrible contracts can be voided and more reasonable rates of pay can be established. The worry there is that if AIG files for bankruptcy, you could get a run on AIG where all these people holding those trillions of dollars worth of contracts come rushing in at the same time trying to get whatever slice they can get. It could blow the whole thing up. AIG has its tentacles attached to so many places in so many other companies that anything rash risks bringing them all down.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 12:37 PM) What I don't understand is this is like the sixth 24. Doesn't Jack Bauer ever get like a day off to eat and sleep and go to the bathroom? Damn, 6 days would totally wear me out. You do realize there's been periods of years between the seasons right? There are students here who pull more all-nighters than that in a month.

If Wise winds up struggling at the top of the order and Getz is doing well at the bottom, I don't think it'll take Ozzie long to start making switches. At least last year he was far less stubborn with lineup slots than I thought he'd be. It took him all of a couple weeks in April to move that Quentin guy up to 3rd, AJ up to 2nd, Cabrera up to 1st, and Swisher down in the order when Swisher wasn't hitting and TCQ was.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 10:21 AM) Which has nothing to do with the rest of the bailouts that they have handed out since. They disclosed all of their expenses up front. And yet, they disclosed all their expenses up front, but they still wound up needing another $30 billion just 2 weeks ago.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 10:19 AM) Personally I don't like the bonuses, but I don't buy the outrage for a second. I think Rick Santelli said it best this morning. He talked about the M's, the B's and the T's. We are more worried about the M's than we are the B's. We are also worried more about the B's than the T's. M's are millions, B's are billions, and T's are trillions. Time for another T party. Anywho, there's a bit of reason that can be applied to focusing on these bonuses, just as there's a bit of reason about why earmarks get a particular focus...in both cases, as currently structured they're an invitation to a much larger corruption problem. In Congress, the ability of Congressmen to earmark funds directly to companies in exchange for "gifts" has now brought down what, 3, 4 Congressmen over the past couple years? Stevens in the Senate, Murtha's going down, Cunningham went down for that, the whole Abramoff clan, etc. In business, the bonus system is set up to provide these guys maximum rewards for short-term performance. These guys get richest if they make the largest possible bets on the market. If their bets succeed, they become ridiculously wealthy. If their bets fail though, especially if they fail really, really big, they lose nothing and still are making a fairly large amount. The only one who loses in that case is the taxpayer. The compensation structure is a key factor in driving Wall Street to ignore its long term risks at the expense of short term gains during positive market movements. Both cases suggest substantial need for reform. The big difference is that earmark corruption is still pretty far from destroying civilization as we know it. Wall Street corruption is not.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 09:45 AM) I was just about to get on here and say a couple of things, and this was actually one of them. There is zero chance that a government bails out a multibillion dollar aid package without knowing every single detail of their business, especially 9 figures worth of an expense. This outrage timing is pretty interesting, because this is what I have gleened over the last two weeks. Frankly, with AIG, I don't think they had a clue what they were doing, they just realized that they needed to do something. Let's review the schedule here: Friday, September 12th: Markets close with Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch teetering on the edge. Over the weekend, Lehman and Merrill have their books opened to the world to try to find a buyer, similar to what happened to Bear a few months beforehand. The Fed is able to convince BofA to take on Merrill's debacle, but Lehman is in worse shape and no one will take them on without a guarantee from the Fed similar to what they gave when Bear went down. Sunday night, Paulson says no. Monday, September 15th: Markets re-open. Merrill is in BofA's hands, but Lehman files bankruptcy for the largest in corporate history. DJIA drops 504 points. AIG is hammered. Its stock drops 60% in 1 day. Tuesday September 16th: The calamity of the Credit Default swap contracts AIG had put out covering Lehman bros has become clear to the Fed and to Paulson. They've realized their mistake. At 10:00 in the morning, the Fed rushes in with an $85 billion loan and takes an 80% stake in AIG to prevent the complete collapse of the financial system. A few days later the $700 billion bailout plan was announced. Just think through that. People had an inkling the week before that if Lehman went down, AIG would have problems, but the Fed and the Treasury had no idea how deep of a hole there was. Otherwise they never, ever would have let Lehman fall, they would have given it the same deal they gave Bear. Less than 36 hours pass from Paulson making the final call that they weren't going to bail out Lehman Brothers to the huge money infusion in to AIG. 1 business day. They went from basically knowing nothing about AIG's financial products to realizing the company was going down hard in less than 24 hours. I doubt they had a clue about 95% of AIG's business when they nationalized it. There just wasn't anywhere close to enough time. They just knew there was a hole on the scale of hundreds of billions of dollars in AIG's books after Lehman went down, and that if they didn't do something then Barclay's, Goldman Sachs (conveniently enough Paulson's former employer), Societe Generale of France, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Citigroup, BofA, and a dozen others would have holes ranging from $5 to $10 billion suddenly appearing in their balance sheets as all of Lehman's bonds that they thought they had insured would go worthless...and God only knows how big those holes would be if all of AIG's debt went worthless as well.

3 days from now I'll be on a plane over the pacific ocean...

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 05:37 PM) The biggest thing with Josh is his bat speed, he's finally catching up to fastballs, something he couldn't do in 2007. That's the sort of thing that tends to carry over into the regular season. That bodes very well for Josh. His biggest flaw in his numbers is the strikeouts. He was on a 200k a year pace in 2007 when he got his first stint. If he could cut that to a 125 k a year pace just by making better contact, with the same BABIP, he's suddenly nearly a .300 hitter.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 07:21 AM) Chris Young would be eaten alive BA-style on this website if he had those numbers while playing CF for the Sox last year. We would be in the same position right now, looking for a CF while considering all of the alternatives Eh, with his defense, Chris Young would be a solid #7/#8 hitter in our lineup and I'd have no complaints. That's of course assuming he'd get playing time.

You look a frightening amount like Derek Jeter in that photo.

DJ got my vote entirely based on his advice about not strapping things on.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 01:31 AM) Ha! Moss is a moron. The show is only like 13 hours old and Moss has already been fooled like 20 times. 24 is terrible, yet I just keep watching... As of next week, we'll now be up to 4 former Star Trek actors guest starring this season.

If you have a few minutes, here's a bit on another of those simple little regulatory changes that when enacted seems to drive an enormous switch to production of alternative energy.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 06:42 PM) I'm not so much worried about their "rights" (I could give a s*** about their rights) as I am about making sure things get done the right way. It sounds less reasonable when you say it Kap's way.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 06:54 PM) And he was right. Really? Young's put up decent power numbers but he strikes out a ton and hasn't hit for average, so his OPS has hung around .760. If you project Anderson over the same 625 at bats Chris Young got last year, Anderson puts up 28 home runs, Young hit 32. Young hasn't put together the whole package and is hanging around at "Brian Anderson" levels of effectiveness.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 05:58 PM) Because overall is better. As I clearly stated a high income tax increases the burden when used with everything else. Not really that tough a concept. So california has no ther taxes, just state income tax? California just has a ridiculously low property tax, especially given property values out here. (That really jacks up the state tax rate, because in a lot of places, property tax revenues go to fund city-based projects like schools. Out here, the property tax base is so limited thanks to Prop 13 that additional revenue needs to be raised somewhere, and Prop 13 required the State government to raise those funds. So therefore, income and sales and gas taxes have to go through the roof, because they have to not only fund what the state government would normally have to pay for, they have to fund all the city governments as well)