Balta1701

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 04:09 PM) The ideal #2 guy is a guy who is fast but not as fast as the leadoff man. He's willing to give himself up at the plate to allow stealing, and can sacrifice bunt better than anyone else on the team. Can Gordon Beckham bunt?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 05:09 PM) i never said it did. and for the record i just purchased an Obama button. Perhaps some golf gear for my father as a father's day present

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 03:04 PM) so...much....outrage...must...vote...obama... Since when does the word "Snicker" imply outrage?

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 02:51 PM) LOL, who's this scrub? Everyone dig up scouting reports while I lazily await them. Wait that can't be right.

Snicker. And it's still there.

QUOTE (SpringfieldFan @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 02:13 PM) Well, we have arguments on how Babe Ruth would fare today. How about this. How do we all think would Thome or Bonds do if they hit in Babe Ruth's day??? I think Bonds would have bought himself some bottle of strength training injections from one of the many corrupt businessmen out there, tried the stuff, and wound up destroying his career because of contamination of the product.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 12:41 PM) And for the moment, the only tax I have on grilling is the effect on my intestinal tract if I cook the meat rare like I like it. Oh, and you do know that Charcoal is a renewable resource correct? That it's mostly made from wood?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 12:41 PM) Add yet another tax and see what happens. Revolt! Well, maybe not in the revolutionary sense, but people are taxed out. It would be easier to raise an existing one than to create a new one. But even that would be met with as much resistance as possible. People are taxed out? You do realize how much higher the tax rates were even just a few years ago, let alone a few decades ago?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 12:37 PM) This does NOT have to happen, and will kill this country if it does. If you want to target the biggest polluters with extra fines, etc., fine by me. But making it so Joe Sixpack has to pay a tax to drive his car to work or grill a hamburger is just wrong, and will never pass. Just like it's killed Europe's economies over the last few years (even though, again, they did it the wrong way by handing out credits to polluters). Um...Don't people pay taxes to have to drive a car? I pay a car tax, I pay a tax on gasoline, I paid a pretty hefty sales tax when I purchased my car.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 11:13 AM) Carbon pricing system? Is that like in Europe, where people have to pay penalties based on their carbon output? It's going to have to happen, and it's going to have to happen soon. Depending on what you do with the profits, it's also possibly done in a way that benefits everyone, i.e. you spend some of the money to offset the costs to the lowest-income people, you spend a good additional chunk developing mass transit options and renewable resources, and suddenly you've dramatically improved the future of the country. Europe's problem is they didn't do it very well...they sort of went with the plan McCain is proposing. And I'm serious...the biggest flaw in their setup is the key part of his plan.

How is Beckham in the speed department? How does he compare to the NL East shortstops in that sense?

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 10:31 AM) The Broader General Election: Obama to contest McCain in hardcore red states. The problem with that strategy though is that it can easily backfire. George W. Bush, on Rove's advice, spent the last couple days of the 2000 campaign in California, trying to give the impression that they were so confident they'd win that they could contest there. Had his brother not been the governor of Florida, spending his time there instead of doing one or two more stops in Florida might well have cost him the election. It's a difficult balancing act.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 10:24 AM) OK, let me change that But I agree with you, we ALSO need to aggressively pursuit alternative energy. You can sell it to conservatives as a way to f*** over Chavez and the Arabs. Trying to ram it down people's throats with guilt won't work. Let's put it this way...I'd have been willing 8 years ago to trade drilling in ANWR to the Republicans in exchange for a real, solid, alternative energy program. I'd make that same trade today, although now I'd demand a carbon pricing system in addition.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 08:57 AM) And on the flip side, McCain will probably end it sooner than people think. I've said it before - I think ultimately, the actual result of the War in Iraq will not be as different between these two candidates as their messages portrayed. You know what bothers me the most about this statement? I've heard a paraphrase of it before. The first election I voted in, in fact. 2 candidates, some pretty major differences, but an awful lot of people in the media and elsewhere investing time saying "Oh, Mr. Bush can't possibly do the things he's proposing". Ralph Nader going off and saying that the 2 candidates were basically the same, the media pounding that message in, editorials saying that Mr. Bush's tax plan is never going to get through and was only out there to pander to the right wing but he'd certainly moderate once he got in to office. I'm sure John McCain doesn't mean any of the things he says about the military necessity of going after Iran, or how keeping an occupation force in the heart of the middle east (with or without violence) for years would be a good idea. There's an old saying in Texas, I don't know if it's in Tennessee but I know it's in Texas that goes fool me once, shame on, shame on you, 8 second pause, fool you can't get fooled again.

Fun little bit about Obama's growing fame in Kenya.

The long, long, long, long , long, long, long, long, long, long, long awaited "Phase 2" of the Senate Iraq intel report, the one looking at whether or not the Administration overstated the intelligence case in their pursuit of their war in Iraq is actually out. Here is a press release form summary of the documents, with the full reports available as pdf files at the link. I think this does officially sum it up...these people were lying. Maybe not all the time. But at least some of the time.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 07:50 AM) Well, think about it for a moment. For both sides, the most 'energetic' bunches are the fringe elements (neocons and ultralibs), and they vote the most in the primaries, so of course most of the time the candidate will be on the fringe. The main elections is where they usually try to get a little closer to the middle without pissing off their crazies. There's more to it than that. When a person is off campaigning for a year, they're only showing up to vote in either Congress or the Senate like 1/2 the time if that. They're not showing up for random votes that will go 75-22 without their presence. They're showing up for the highly contested ones, because if their vote isn't the decisive one, then their time is better spent elsewhere. And which ones are the highly contested ones? The ones where each side lines up and holds its ground. In other words, the simple act of campaigning for higher office has the net effect of making one's voting record go more towards the extreme than it would be otherwise...and so consequently, Obama has 1 or 2 votes different than Hillary, and she's the 16th most liberal senator while he's the most liberal senator, and McCain goes from voting with Bush 88% of the time to voting with him 95% of the time.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 07:39 AM) I don't see McCain's age as an issue. I think it should if nothing else cause one to pay a lot more attention to the quality of his VP pick than you would otherwise.

According to Gameday, this pitcher hasn't thrown a single pitch on the inner half to the righties.

Come on Brian, one time...

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jun 4, 2008 -> 08:55 PM) Righties are hitting over 400 against Yabutu. Well, he faced down Konerko and we saw which one's crappiness won...

QUOTE (Wanne @ Jun 4, 2008 -> 08:42 PM) 5 bucks says Dotel walks the first guy he faces.... Hope you're planning to pay up...

QUOTE (Capn12 @ Jun 4, 2008 -> 08:42 PM) Hmm....who is after Dotel, if needed...lets win this game already. Loaiza is listed on Gameday as active.

Boone's ERA drops to 2.05.

Wow, Logan got through his first 2 innings on 13 pitches? Even with the bunts that ain't shabby.