Balta1701

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 12:13 PM) Getting that #1 seed is going to be absolutely crucial. Right now, no one, and I mean no one in a way I'm not sure I've meant before...wants to face the Cavs in Cleveland. The Celtics last year showed that you could actually survive the playoffs basically winning only at home for the first 3 rounds. And they weren't doing at home what Cleveland is doing.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 12:42 PM) shouldnt we be wishing joe the best?lol As long as he doesn't sign with someone in the AL Central, sure.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 01:04 PM) on que I liked that one.

"We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black RNC Chair." What, only works one way?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 10:05 AM) Fair enough. I just find statistics easier to argue, .300 versus .330, etc. How do you compare: Taking steroids, with stealing signs, with doctoring baseballs, with being accused of a crime, with being convicted of a crime. I just wish there was more guidance. The same way you compare putting up an OPS of 800 in the dead ball era to putting up an OPS of 800 today. You start using more and more complex statistical tricks to tease out that effect, but then you realize that Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs against all-white pitching and wonder what he'd have done in an integrated league, but then you also realize that Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer and did so without any sort of modern training techniques, etc. The statistics can only take you so far in so many comparisons.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:59 AM) Well, players like Tony Gwynn, John Kruk and David Ortiz have had pretty "decent" careers (to say the least for 2 of them) at least less ideal body weights....same with Manny Ramirez. Manny Ramirez? I'm sorry, but that man isn't, at least in most of his years, what I'd consider to be a fat man. He's just built.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:59 AM) Depending on the testimony it may be relevant it may be irrelevant. The Giambi testimony looks pretty worthless, just saying that they were also on drugs supplied by Anderson doesnt exactly mean anything in terms of Bonds. Even if they say "Anderson told us the cream and clear were steroids" it doesnt mean that he told Bonds. Estella may prove to be more damning, but the question is whether or not the jury will find him believable. Id argue that Estella is a former drug user that had a career which never panned out and is trying to make a name for himself by ruining Bonds. But, Bonds should consider this troubling depending on what he told Estella. There's very little reason to call the Giambis unless they interacted specifically with Mr. Tetrahydrogestrinone.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:55 AM) Well, there's an awful lot of economists who don't... "There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises." -Last year's Nobel Prize winning economist.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:54 AM) I think you mean DeWayne Wise, not the pitcher...or Rick Wise. Bah humbug.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:42 AM) I agree with some of your points, but, you could stretch almost any spending into something that could pay off in some way later. That doesn't make it a true economic stimulus. If you believe Keynes...what makes it a true economic stimulus is that the government is going in to debt to pay for it. In a deflationary, recessionary environment, that's the key. That's where the Keynes quote that in this specific environment, the government should pay people to dig holes one day and fill them up the next day makes sense. Even very inefficient stimulii, like say, corporate tax cuts still provide a stimulus effect if they're employed through government spending in that specific environment. The question is then how effective each variety of stimulus is per dollar spent. That's a different question. Things that provide employment and increase efficiency in other ways can be particularly effective if they drive multiplication of the dollars spent through either people respending the money or other efficiencies that are created, which is the whole concept I was hitting on in the dem thread.

Couple random points. First of all, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if the dresses she wore for the inauguration didn't cost a cent. People going to award shows wear designer dresses that they don't pay for. Because it's wonderful marketing for the designer. Secondly, there are more than a few instances of Michelle on the campaign trail wearing things that were actually quite reasonably priced. And third...really, why the Hell am I bothering with this?

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:36 AM) I fully expect there to be a legit competition in ST for 2B and CF (and 3B if Viciedo hits). If Lillibridge and Getz show they can be good OBP guys in ST, I doubt Wise is leading off for the Sox. Getz and Lillibridge and Owens could all put up .150 OBP's in ST and I still wouldn't want Wise leading off/playing every day/playing every other day as a platoon guy.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 08:54 AM) when do you think he'll be ready to join the team and can he be the long term cf solution? Depends on how desperate we are. Based on last year and the AFL, I think both Danks and Beckham will probably start off the season in AA this year. If they continue to hit there, and a position opens up due to, I dunno, Matt Wise not being the best leadoff hitter...You could see Beckham this year and maybe Danks this year to next year. More time is obviously better, but if you need a CF...

QUOTE (Cubano @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:27 AM) Without the leadership of the banks, the Stock Market won't go anywhere. The Stock Market is not the economy.

For anyone who hasn't yet seen it, there's a major update in the case today. The government appears to have flipped one of Bonds's former teammates, former Giants backup catcher Bobby Estalella (2000-2001) is expected to be called as a witness to testify that Bonds actually knew specifically what he was taking and discussed it with him. It's also rumored that the government will call both Jason and Jeremy Giambi in the case. You can probably assume they'd testify about the same thing - no need to establish that Bonds Juiced, you need to establish that Bonds knew what he was taking, and if he spoke to them about them, that's multiple witnesses.

Cold beer by a campfire.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:14 AM) What does this even mean? That we need another bubble, because thanks to the offshoring of manufacturing and the destruction of the middle class, financial wizardry allowing people to dump their losses on to the government while taking the profits home with them is the only thing that is capable of running the country. It's how the finance industry grew to somehow be well over 10% of the economy

Not seeing a thread on this, but here's an update on Linebrink's rest/rehab. Some good, some bad.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:06 AM) Is it wrong to post this kind of news on this thread? If so I apologize. I don't always look at the Diamond Club as it indicates non-Sox news. I guess Crede and Uribe are non-Sox though. At this point, I think we're trying to keep those sorts of details over there, yeah.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 09:07 AM) What choice did Guillen really have that year...to keep running Anderson out there every day in July and August when he wasn't even sniffing the Mendoza Line? Quite frankly, yes. For the 2nd half, Anderson had an OPS only 11 points below Mackowiak and a batting average .001 below him. And I swear, every time he was in CF, Mack missed a play Anderson would have made that would have cost the team at least 1 run.

URibe thread exists in Diamond Club.

Ozzie, please don't make me feel about Wise the way you made me feel about Mackowiak.

QUOTE (juddling @ Jan 30, 2009 -> 07:18 AM) As Banyan would say...this is gold Jerry....gold!! Pelosi tries to explain how $330 million dollars allocated for STD prevention will stimulate the economy. I'm all for preventing STD's but come on. The government spends roughly what, $12 billion per year on health care fighting AIDS? That is money that could be easily employed elsewhere. There were some 56,000 or so new cases of AIDS reported in the country last year.. Current estimates say that new infections, not pre-existing ones, cost the country on an annual basis on the order of $50 billion dollars per year, in particular in lost productivity, which makes up about 75% of that total. Disease prevention = enhanced business productivity. Plus, it produces a much better gain than having the government pay people to dig holes and then fill them in again.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Jan 29, 2009 -> 08:13 PM) There are different theories about the Great Depression. One says government spending helped and others said it did not help. Others said the WWII helped get out of it. You spend and I save. WWII = the largest government deficit spending program in history. By far.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 29, 2009 -> 05:06 PM) It was administered horribly. That's partially Congress's fault for not attaching more strings, and the Paulson crew for not knowing what the hell they were doing. Perhaps the President should take note of the fact that 2 weeks ago, the House passed, on a near party line vote again (guess which party was opposed) a major retroactive overhaul of the TARP program which would include a mandate that the funds be withdrawn from any company giving out bonuses above a certain level. That legislation has not even been taken up by the Senate. So, Mr. President, Senator Dodd (who the President tasked with finding a way to fix this problem)...the legislation is already written and past the other house of Congress. Care to put some backing behind your words?