Balta1701

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 04:33 PM) Sheffield's numbers are just as bad as poor Paully Sheffield's just a lot older and more expensive.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 03:01 PM) The only downside is that Detroit's offense has been red hot and the defensive drop off is gonna hurt. Quite frankly, with the way Joe has played this year...Joe's tied with Arizona's Mark Reynolds for the most errors in the big leagues this year...regardless of position. 19 so far. He's kept some of the spectacular plays...but Christ...

I think this right here is a classic example of Republican politics in action. In 2003-2004, the FDA was looking in to setting up a computerized food tracking system that would allow for much easier control of the food supply, since it would be able to track food products as they're imported, exported, or shipped around the country. So, if you had a problem in one spot, say a salmonella outbreak, you'd have a much better chance of tracing the origin of it because you'd have very detailed records stored in an easy and searchable form. This was thought of as part of the anti-terror campaign, since hitting the food supply with a bio weapon is a potential way to hurt a lot of people in a large area of the country. The costs of developing this system of course would be in part taken by the food industry, since at some level they'd have to spend additional funds to add in the tracking capabilities and electronic documents at each step. So, they dumped a couple million dollars in lobbyist fees on Congress, and viola, the plan went away. Then of course...2007 and 2008 roll around, and there starts to be a bunch of salmonella outbreaks, in no small part because the government has massively cut back on the amount of inspectors working on protecting the food supply. Suddenly the FDA tries to swing in to action, but really has no way of figuring out what exactly the common threads are in the cases, because the documents are all kept in paper, they're not complete, and there's no quick or easy way to search them. So a warning gets put out on random foods, like tomatoes, cilantro, etc. The food industry loses hundreds of millions of dollars, months go by while people still get sick, and eventually they find one contaminated pepper. The hundreds of millions of dollars lost over the couple months of course...are far less than the cost would have been to set up the electronic tracking system. So sure, the industry flushed millions of dollars down the toilet and a lot of people got sick. At least they don't have big government on their backs.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 12:25 PM) Cardinals sports radio and fans want him bad, but St. Louis won't part with Rasmus. I could see him as a Redbird. Man...Halladay, Carpenter, Wainright, Lohse down the stretch and in the playoffs? And maybe next year too if the Cards manage to hold Lohse? Yowza.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 12:30 PM) The one question is whether the Sox would risk offering Uribe arbitration. If they do he's going to get probably something like 4-6 million and obviously has no starting spot. If the Sox don't think he'd come back to play on the bench than its a good move, but if Uribe doesn't get a multi year or starting offer the Sox could get screwed. If people are willing to trade for Uribe now, even if it's not for much...then holding him around for $5 million isn't a bad move.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 09:06 AM) I forgot 50% +1 only should apply to the Presidential election... And of course...aside from that one simple question that will be on the ballot in November...the results you get always depend on how you ask the question.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 11:13 AM) if it were possible to bring a cy young candidate here for floyd + fields 2 others, KW would do it in a second. I just can't see the Blue Jays doing it for less than (Danks or Quentin) + Fields.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 07:17 AM) I actually think it's spot on and that you seem to have some sort of unadmitted disdain for Contreras because he's a streaky pitcher. People seem to forget that in June and July of 2005, Contreras had an ERA of 5.76 and his ERA for the year on July 31st was 4.58. He pitched so well down the stretch that he dropped nearly a full run off of his ERA. Some say Contreras looks dead in the water; I say he looks like he's in one of his streaks. Hopefully down the stretch he gets hot again. The problem I have with that analysis is that his streakiness post 05 to me seems to be entirely related to his health. He wasn't in good shape last year and he sucked for most of the year, but they gave him some time in the bullpen to rest his arm and he came back better. He got a new offseason conditioning program going this year and came out of the gates strong, but then decided to try to pitch through some tendinitis and sucked for the last month.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 09:14 AM) I wish that were true, but it really isn't. That war was going to happen, no matter what Powell did. You may be right...but he didn't have to go along with it. As far as I can tell, the biggest error he made was he put his loyalty to the President above his loyalty to the country. That is the thing I can't excuse and never will.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 07:32 AM) This is entirely inaccurate. Powell was not allowed to decide policy in that administration. He was used as an expert of sorts, but he had no real say. He wasn't part of the inner circle. Now, as I said, I agree that he missed some clues, and that he could have tried to be more forceful. But, as he's smart enough to know he didn't have Cheney-like pull with Bush, he tried to steer things away from the direction they were going. He was consistently met with a brick wall. Then they let him go. He may not have had Cheney-level pull with Bush but he had it with the country. If he had resigned and said no, instead of keeping all his blow-ups behind the scenes...it would have been almost impossible for the idiots-in-chief to go forwards.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 07:59 AM) Not to mention that the polls indicate a majority of Americans are in favor of more drilling... A large majority of drug addicts favor cheap drugs for themselves as well.

Hopefully, under the radar guy...there is a chair, because it'd be cruel to make him stand there holding that gun the whole game without one. Hahahaha, that's right, I'm that tired. Good night!

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 06:57 PM) I remember reading that. I don't know if it was here though. 14 years older and married her... I would've just hit and run if she was that good looking... Robert Novak has nothing to do with this.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 04:41 PM) Arm trouble? You mean in 2005 when a liner fractured his tibia? Doc has been the biggest horse in the league for quite some time. If you wouldn't give up Floyd for a Roy Halladay signed under market value for 3 years, you've lost your mind. Even as one of Floyd's big fans...if it was possible to get Halladay without giving up Quentin or Danks I think you don't have much choice. I'd give up Floyd in that one.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 03:25 PM) I thought they had a AA shortstop considered to be untouchable who they held in higher regard than LaPorta? Really not sure who that could be. None of their prospect lists were topped by anyone other than LaPorta and Parra coming in to this season, and none of their SS guys are lighting it up this year as far as I can see. Was it Alcides Escobar? That's my guess if you heard something like that, but I don't see it.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 02:22 PM) I'd LOVE to see the Brewers somehow acquire Halladay, they should still have the necessary talent to pull off such a coup. I dunno, they really did spend their best shot in LaPorta going for CC.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 12:51 PM) I think their oil industry is state run there, that could be a subsidized gov't price. Plus I remember hearing that Venezuelan oil, though they pump tons every day, is basically garbage oil and difficult to process from. That is a hugely subsidized price.

Here's the question you have to answer first. Would you give up either Danks or Quentin to pull off that deal? Because without one of those 2 I can't imagine we'd have the bullets right now.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 12:36 PM) That's a very good question, and I wouldn't know. One would like to say that it's America always, but even if that's true, it's not like there is a big gap between Americans and the other baseball-crazy countries. In international competition, that just hasn't shown itself yet. On the other hand though...When in recent memory have actual, top level, in their prime, major league baseball players ever gone out and taken on the top level people from other countries in international competition? The only thing even close was the WBC, and that's at that crazy point in spring training when no one knows what you can get from anyone, and half of America's best people sat it out because they didn't want to get hurt playing real games in the spring. In the olympics and so on, it's been the Cuban league's A team, the Japanese league's A team, probably the A team from a couple other countries, against the best guys not on anyone's 40 man roster. If you took 4 weeks off of MLB later this month for the olympics and genuinely allowed every nation to grab its stars back for a rental...that'd be a much more interesting test.

Can Coop fix him?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 12:18 PM) And I think you hit a point that hasn't really been outright said: one of the biggest reasons that the media is driving this so hard is that they are trying to CREATE history, not just be a part of it. I think that's a huge reason why Obama gets the support he does. It's "new". But, it's not, and I hope people start to figure that out pretty soon. Compared to the way things have been run the last 8 years, there is a fair amount that at least seems new. But there's only one way we're going to find out for sure...and that's to let the man run things for 4 years.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 01:11 PM) What type of person is he? By that I was sort of alluding to the race thing without wanting to come out and say it. The fact that we have a mixed race person with dark skin who's background traces rapidly to Kenya a step away from the White House...that's a story that few countries in the world can match.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 12:47 PM) On the topic of Vegas...i'm goin out with some friends in a couple months and we're looking to book our flight and hotel soon. Any recommendations on where to stay? We're only gonna be in vegas a few nights then rent a car and visit our friend in Lake Havasu, AZ for the rest of the time. It sucks is the cheapest flight i've been able to find is $400 out of JFK so ideally the hotel wouldnt be that expensive, but at the same time be nice and conveniently located. Never been there before, we're looking forward to the nightlife and gambling. You're going to have to give us more details. What kind of hotel room are you looking for? How many people, how many nights? What are you looking to spend on the room part of the voyage? What types of stuff are you looking to do? I.e. Do you want to stay on the strip in the nicest room possible at some price level, do you want to stay mid-strip but have the cheapest room/best deal you can get while on the strip, are you more in to gambling and willing to stay off-strip to save some money on hotel and get a better gambling experience? By conveniently located there's 2 different meanings. In Vegas, there's sort of 2 touristy areas, the Strip with the big & fancy hotels, a ton of nightlife, bars, restaurants, etc., and the Downtown Vegas area, where the hotels are cheaper, the gambling is better, but you usually take a bus or drive if you want to hit some of the nightlife on the strip. There's also areas that are sort of in-between, older hotels like the Sahara that are still on the strip but are a distance from the big ones which are still a little cheaper. Oh, and also, have you checked in to promotions? A lot of the hotels there are giving away stuff for people who book rooms to try to make sure they have people on the casino floors. Case in Point, Mandalay Bay is running a summer promotion where they're paying for a good chunk of air fare for people who stay 3 nights.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 12:08 PM) That's what I'm saying- at the time, they were whatever moves that nobody thought would help. He never brings in a huge name. Freddy Garcia was the biggest name on the pitching trade market in 2004 IIRC.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 12:52 PM) And to me, that's just hating just to hate, in a sense. I think that's why it bothers me so much for all the pandering that Obama's doing. It's all superficial bulls*** - what did he really say today? NOTHING! It was all rah rah rah America has been wrong and I will make it right petty bulls***. Bush has been an idiot, clearly. But Obama is no different then the rest of them, despite the pretty boy image being pushed. Oh wait, I guess all this is supposed to go in the McCain love thread (even though I can't stand him almost as bad as Obama). But there's one thing you're missing...the people over there don't just hate Mr. Bush for his name or his family. They despise the way he's acted and the way he's run this country. "Goodbye from the worlds' biggest polluter (fist pump!)" and all that. And I think there is more to Obama than just not being Bush. I honestly doubt that Hillary Clinton would have gotten a similar reception from the crowds around the world despite probably advocating similar policies. I think Obama's story and how it reflects on America, and the type of person he is, all fit in to that. Obama, at least for now, represents to the world what they're hoping America can still be...a land where a person can still make it.