Balta1701

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 06:13 PM) Hey! That’s a underrated statistic now that Toby’s gone. http://www.lvrj.com/columnists/normclarke/...tml?normBN=true That settles it. Our regular starting OF next year will be Owens, Wise, Dye.

QUOTE (Kid Gleason @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 06:27 PM) Any giant Earth conquering robots around the office by any chance? Typically they keep those a building or two over. I'm not kidding.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 06:30 PM) We're thinking a seven-man pen, right? Thorton, Linebrink, Dotel, Jenks, Carrasco are pretty much confirmed. Last Year, Ozzie came out and said he sees a place for Russel in the pen. So, we'll put that at six reasonably assured spots. And than i imagine the longman/lefty will be filled by CR/AP. They may also be willing to give Link a shot if he has a solid ST, since they're already talking about him replacing Jenks.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 06:16 PM) Listening to the news and the Angels apparently offered an 8yr 160M deal for Tex. That's still less than what Boras will want.

Problem is...I'm not sure we can offer him a major league contract without tossing someone else out of the pen. I'll bet that unless his arm is ready to fall off, some other team out there would offer him that.

Here's Dr. Chu speaking at the "National Energy Conference" at UNLV some time back. I love this. He absolutely nails the conservation issues in the first few slides. I haven't even gotten through all of it yet. If nothing else, we actually will have an energy secretary who you simply can't B.S. Lisa Jackson comes from John Corzine's office, and she is currently running an auction-based program for selling off carbon credits (by FAR the right way to do it).

The Dems in the Senate slam out the correct pair of moves...sending a letter to Blago signed by all 50 saying that he should step down, and saying that if he appoints a Senator to that seat before the Illinois government strips him of his ability to do so, the Senate will refuse to seat the senator.

Free avatars for the Republicans.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 05:36 PM) At the very top, I agree. The middle management is a totally different thing. Trouble with that statement is...at least a decent chunk of the middle management is in some fashion also going to have been involved in the activities in the CDS market that brought the company to its knees.

It's only a leak and there's at least 1 other news source that's spinning a different name...but some of Obama's energy/environment team seems to be coming out. This is actually kind of remarkable. You know who Steven Chu is? Dr. Steven Chu is a legitimate nobel prize winning physicist. Dr. Steven Chu has a Ph.D. from Berkeley in physics. He's currently the director of Lawrence-Berkeley national labs. The guy is a legitimate scientist. We may actually have a Ph.D. carrying, Nobel Prize winning physicist in the cabinet. I'll take it.

Back on to the auto industry bailout matter...here's a different way of looking at the worker compensation issue. I'd be interested in hearing a response to the key bolded statement there if someone else has different data. If I take a comparably equipped vehicle from the big 3 and compare it to a Toyota/Honda/Nissan, having wages be the main issue would imply that the Japanese companies were able to produce substantially better prices. When I was car shopping, I found it to be the opposite, and bought the Japanese car anyway. Anyone else have an alternate POV?

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 05:22 PM) He won't know it if he does. His son's holding the pursestrings now. You do know that his sons also have the last name "Steinbrenner", right?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 04:45 PM) Who runs the company? I know that ya'll will never, ever understand this... and I'm not condoning (exactly) what AIG is doing, but you have to give these people incentive to stay. Although, the market is not exactly what it was even six months ago, don't I know that well. They can't bail to another job quite as easy. Let me make this perfectly clear....I have no interest in giving the SAME PEOPLE who brought the company down incentive to stay.

QUOTE (Kid Gleason @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 04:16 PM) Missed it. Can you describe this noise? Random sound of metal banging together behind me in my office.

I need starting pitching and AJ Burnett is available for a contract on the order of 5 years, $90 million, similar to what Zambrano got. What should I do?

ESPN already reported that the Braves would go 5 years, and that they were talking about more money than Zambrano got. How stupid are these people?

I swear, I need to find a way to bring a major American company to its knees. It's the most profitable thing out there you can do right now.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 03:58 PM) Who would you guys rather get in 2010- Bosh or Wade? If Wade stays healthy the next 2 years and his body doesn't look like it's about to fall apart, I have to go with Wade.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 03:31 PM) It might be. Go with your fur coat instead. Go buy some leather pants to go with it.

What the Hell was that noise?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 11:59 AM) I will be clear here with my feelings on the matter. I don't care that they met, as a matter of a fact, I would hope that they did. Obama should be involved as possible to help select his replacement, outside of the obviously illegal stuff that is being talked about. He should have met with the Gov, and made his feelings known. I think the court filing makes it clear that they had some discussions about it, whether directly or through subordinates. How else would he wind up being so repeatedly called a "M-F" by the Governor. I just got immediately uncomfortable with what I saw as an unnecessary denial and retraction flying out of the Obama camp, combined with the "I don't want to comment on an ongoing investigation" statement we got yesterday. After the last 8 years (Hi Lostfan!) that instantly makes me queasy. The call on him to resign is a much better move.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 11:35 AM) Didn't the Yankees have $85 million come off their books? Yes. Giambi, Mussina, Pavano, etc. Another key thing about the Yankees and Mets...both of them are opening new ballparks next opening day. That is sure to blunt the impact of the economic collapse on those teams.

I think there's naturally a mix, but I think for most people, the walk rate is determined by your eye/the way you swing. I think about a guy like Nick Swisher. He was horrible last year. Yet, he still saw by far the most pitches per plate appearance in baseball, and his walk totals were the one thing that didn't suffer. Furthermore, there's clearly an art to surviving to the point that you can draw a walk. Fouling off a pitcher's pitch close to the strike zone, for example, is an excellent way to move yourself closer to taking a walk, because most pitchers will only be able to pull off 1 or 2 perfect pitches per at bat.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 10:43 AM) Are the Yankees really that much richer than everybody else or are they more willing to operate in the red to uphold a winning tradition ? Maybe MLB should increase the luxury tax. It doesn't seem like much of a deterent to overspending. They may well be operating in the red, but yes, they're that much richer than everyone else. They have by far the most wealthy media market in the country in NY, and they've used the Yankees to build a complete television network around them and featuring them. Their ballpark is constantly sold out, and they're adding in enormous value in terms of luxury boxes now.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 08:56 AM) What's our 40 man roster at? Whitesox.com currently lists 36 guys. It has clearly been updated since the Vazquez and Swisher deals since the returning guys are on there, and the guys who are FA's are gone. Viciedo is not on there, so I think we should just consider it to be at 37.