Balta1701

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Sep 2, 2008 -> 01:24 PM) Swisher in LF and BA in CF then, probably. BA will not be in CF.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Sep 2, 2008 -> 12:45 PM) McCain Cant take the heat: It looks like the McCain camp is now actively taking steps to punish media outlets that give them bad coverage. Here's the clip that got them riled up.

More procedural stuff...9iu11ani is seemingly out tonight, replaced by Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman, and King George may potentially address the convention via satellite.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 2, 2008 -> 04:38 AM) People keep saying this, but I don't get the point of it. The main gripe people have with AJ being in the 2 spot is his low OBP. So why Alexei? AJ's OBP: .322 Alexei's OBP: .323 AJ's OPS: .757 Alexei's OPS: .810 So Alexei slugs higher and that's really it, if you're trying to improve OBP you do it, but by a whopping 1 point as of now. What's swapping them out going to accomplish? Maybe one day Alexei will start drawing more walks, but that's just not the kind of player he is. However...Alexei's OBP since he really became a full time player and started learning how to hit the league (I'm using since May 15, that's right around the day Uribe got hurt and right around the time he bottomed out...) .341 (With a .863 OPS in there and a .326 batting average). When you start talking about differences of a few hundreths of a point in OBP, then that first month where Alexei wasn't ready and wasn't playing full time are going to weigh down his numbers. I think the post May 15th numbers are much more realistic for what we'd expect him to do right now.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 08:00 PM) It was working quite well earlier this year when Linebrink was healthy. KW should be very thankful that the 2005 team won the World Series, as trading Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik has to be one of the worst trades in recent history (in terms of talent level). The key on that trade is still gettign the Brewers to take on more salary.

Frankly I'm sure the Republicans saw this coming, but here's the NYT doing the leg work on "How much did they vet Mrs. Palin?" The answer seems to be pretty much what I've been saying...McCain wanted one of his guys, couldn't pick them, and then just grabbed something.

From the category of "Things that come up when you properly vet a person", it turns out that in the mid 90's, Palin and her husband were members of the Alaskan Independence party, which advocates Alaska bringing up a vote on secession. She was still in contact with their convention earlier this year.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 06:36 PM) It has to be around 10. I counted 11 including tonight

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 05:00 PM) This has to be the most helpless this team has looked all season. Haven't we heard that phrase or something like it so often as to make it pretty much meaningless at this point?

Btw, I just moved the whole Palin discussion here out of the Gustav thread. Just seemed to fit better.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 05:20 PM) Not really. It's a matter of known versus unknown quantities. Most of the leading GOP veep contenders had already been scrutinized enough that there wouldn't be a bunch of little surprises like this to catch McCain's camp flat-footed. "Troopergate", having to square Palin's past support for Big Oil windfall taxes with McCain's stance against them (and Palin's own family industry ties), and the McCain campaign trying to quickly punt and paint Palin as the climate change expert on the team when she's an avowed climate change denier. . . those are just a few of the things the campaign has had to deal with in just 5 days since tapping her for the spot. "First do no harm" is the golden rule of VP selection, and it's already obvious that the campaign failed in that regard with this selection. Time and ABC are reporting that now, post selection, there's a 10 person Republican team heading up to Alaska to do a proper vetting of Governor Palin.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 03:46 PM) i have no idea, or really care, what they would do. if Chelsea got an abortion should that be front page news? I don't know if it should be, but if was publicly found out, it would be. Abso-freaking-lutely.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 02:40 PM) Ha, well you better pick it up because I was wrong. Swisher is CF according to Gameday. I obviously misheard something on WSCR. You bastard!

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 03:33 PM) In other words, teens will be teens and people will be people. I agree. But I only get concerned when "Family values" elected officials decide they can dictate and legislate the choices my daughter would be allowed to make in a similar situation. If Sarah Palin and her family believe choice is not an option in their case, fine, that is their decision. I, however, also think my daughter's choice should be off limits to the Uber Christians, but sadly it is not. Just as a thought experiment...let's say that Senator Obama's kids were a bit older and we found out one of them was Pregnant at age 17. Or we found out that Chelsea was pregnant at age 17. What would the reaction have been from the Limbaughs, Hannity's, Dobsons, etc.? Would they have left the kid alone?

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 03:32 PM) BA in CF!! It's a Labor Day miracle!!! Jaw. Hits. Floor.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 09:43 AM) LOL, I was just finishing that. Sorry. Probably doesn't belong in this thread, but the media has done some more pushing and questioning on the question Tex asked, whether the McCain camp knew in advance of picking her. I think now the answer should be changed from "Yes" to "No Comment". I think it's safe to say that this coming out has seemingly caught the McCain campaign off guard. Typically if you're doing this on your own, then you leak it at some point when you think it won't do a lot of damage, and you leak it through a trusted source so that you're able to frame the debate. All of a sudden it does seem like more than a few people in the McCain campaign were caught off guard and the press has picked up on that as a theme. If anything, I think it's more indicative of the way Senator McCain made the decision on her, without actually going through a full vetting process and just picking the last card on the table after the ones he liked were eliminated.

And I'll also add my well wishes Texster.

Here's MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell reporting that there are now Republican lawyers up in Alaska working on doing a catch-up vet on Governor Palin and her record. Palin has also lawyered up in the trooper firing case.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 01:48 PM) Not trying to get ahead of myself, but how exactly does the playoff roster stuff work, how do you determine if you are elligible or not? In general the rule is I think you need to be on a team's roster before the call ups to be eligible for the postseason roster. But it gets complex if someone goes on the Dl...if someone on the roster is no longer available then you get do to pretty much whatever shuffling with that spot you want.

1494 runs 2468 hits 495 doubles 1704 RBI .301 career average .419 career OBP .555 career slugging 1667 walks 521 career home runs 2 MVP's, 9 times in the top 10 MVP voting

The case for gavin is pretty simple...he's been the stopper. Every time we've needed a pitcher to come up big for the last month he's been the one who's done it. He hasn't put up the greatest numbers, but he's given us innings on days we really needed them and wins on days we really needed them. Anyway, Q > U.

Today is the day Gallup uses to calculate their official post convention bounce since their full 3 day sample is all people polled after the end of the convention. Obama is pulling 49% in their tracking poll today, compared with 45% before the convention started, so they're writing a 4 point bounce as the official number in their record books. Still holding at a 6 point lead.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 11:00 AM) I'm sorry, but I can't see how anyone would say that's an error. The only way I'd say its an error is if you actually go by the "the first hit must be a perfectly clean hit" rule of thumb. If it wasn't the first hit of the game, I would think it would be ruled a hit without a question.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 1, 2008 -> 09:48 AM) Does that matter when it comes to September call-ups? I asked that same question when he was sent down and was told that it does. I think the fact that he's not up probably is good evidence that it does also.

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Aug 31, 2008 -> 07:08 PM) Is Cinci going to fork over the cash to buyout Jr's option? Link.