Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 09:57 AM) ? Why is it that the Israeli's have to be forced to choose an option? Can you make an argument other than "They already have it" for why Jerusalem should belong to the Israelis when there are 3 separate religions that view it as one of their holiest sites? The only reason I can come up to answer your question is that I really see no other way to treat that city that would be fair to all of the interested parties. There are enough groups in Israel who wish to rebuild a temple at the site of the former one, and hence, on the grounds of the Al Aqsa Mosque, that I find it difficult to believe that the Muslims will ever trust the Jews with control over that territory. Especially after Ariel Sharon's visit there sparked the last spasm of violence. Conversely, I can't imagine the Jews ever, ever giving control of the Western Wall back to a Muslim led government. And if the Israelis have control of it now, they're not going to want to give it up, even for a peace deal, unless they have no other choice.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 09:22 AM) Here is another thought. How big is the difference between Iguchi and Cabrera? Was it worth Garland? Right now the rotation looks good, but things can change quickly. I was never a huge Garland fan, or Iguchi fan for that matter, but some food for thought. Right now, Garland is 2-2 with a 4.81 ERA. If Garland was still here, Danks would be in AAA because the Sox weren't going to release Floyd for nothing and because Contreras was still unmovable. Danks is 2-1 with a 3.04 ERA. That deal still saved us what, about $3-4 million dollars, probably gets us an extra first round pick this year assuming Cabrera remains a type A FA, and replaced a guy with 1 year on his contract in the rotation with a younger guy we've got for years who is performing better. Even if Danks had been putting up numbers worse than Garland, I'd have said the extra draft pick and money alone made the deal worth it.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 09:14 AM) There was a Tom Clancy book that had the Arab-Israeli situation being resolved like you describe, with the Swiss being in control of Jerusalem. I just don't remember the name. Honestly, that's why I included that as a caveat. It might actually be the format of a workable solution, to treat Jerusalem like the Vatican and set it up as an independent state that none of the religions control. I really don't know if any of the parties would accept that solution without pressure, but I would bet that if a President honestly went to Israel and said that they had to pick between that option and a complete cutoff of all U.S. aid, most Israeli leaders would choose that option.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 07:26 AM) Interesting that the poll with the most surveyed voters has Obama +3! i dont think that is really true given the other polls, but interesting none the less. Of note is the SurveyUSA poll with Clinton only +6. Here's the actual SUSA poll data. Whatever I posted last night seems to have just been wrong. 50-44. That's a decent drop for Clinton, and I'd be more than happy with a 6 point loss. I still think it's going to be a bigger C win.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 07:10 AM) Going forward I have more confidence in Floyd versus Danks over the course of a whole season. I am not sure if Danks will be able to hold up to the workload of a whole season, whereas we know Floyd can pitch that many innings. Danks might be able to pitch more than 160 or so this year, but if the Sox push him that hard, they're risking his future in the process. The rule of thumb is you don't try to increase a pitcher's innings by more than about 30 or so beyond his peak per year. Danks IIRC has thrown about 130 or so each of the last 2 years, 160 or so ought to be his limit this year. Floyd's been in the 170 innings+ area the last few years, so he ought to be able to do 200+ without risking his future health. If Danks starts getting in to that 140-150 inning area around August or September, then the team really ought to think about shutting him down.

QUOTE (NUKE @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 06:53 AM) We may be stuck with him that long. Nobody at all wanted him in the off season. I doubt that's entirely accurate. Nobody wanted him at whatever the asking price for him was. Considering that he still gave us 200 innings last year, and we made a deal to move Garland early in the offseason, it wouldn't have made much sense to move him for anything less than a solid package, which no team would have offered given his contract. If Danks and Floyd keep this up, and either Broadway or Egbert have solid years at AAA or we move someone for another starting pitcher at some point along the line, then the Sox might be more open to dealing Jose at a lower price solely to move the salary. It's also possible Jose could have a significantly better season this year than last year's debacle, and that will improve things as well. That 5.57 ERA he sported last year wouldn't look good to anyone, but if he could put up something around the 4.27 he put up in 2006 or the 4.34 he's sporting right now, in the Cell, for 200 innings then suddenly he goes from looking like a guy who can lose 20 games for you to a guy who's got something left in the tank and is worth throwing out there as a #3 guy, particularly in the NL.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 09:46 AM) Yes indeed. He'll be great for that team. The good news? If Paxson fails in finding a coach that can take advantage of the talent on the Bulls roster, this gets the Bulls a higher draft pick next year, because Skiles is certainly good enough to get that team a few more wins on his own.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 08:50 AM) ummmm..... Hamas offers truce in return for 1967 borders This has been the offer that's been put on the table for years now, every few months it seems, by one of the Arabic-side parties. What you must realize is...this offer will NEVER be accepted by Israel, for one simple reason. The pre 1967 war borders of Israel did not include key parts of Jerusalem. They did not include the wall, the temple mount, etc., the holiest of holy sites. Israel simply will NEVER give those sites back to a Muslim authority. The 2000 Clinton/Arafat/Barak proposal for all practical purposes was the best offer Israel will ever make. Aside from a few various slivers of land, it was all the pre 1967 land except for the key spots in Jerusalem. Unless you can propose an independent governing body for Jerusalem that would satisfy both sides, you will not get a better offer of land for peace than the deal Arafat turned down.

I find it very interesting that the establishment media, rep. here by the Politico, is talking about how the McCain campaign's plan for how to overcome the money advantage that it appears the Democratic Candidate will have is to make use of free media. Aka, using the media to promote him. And they're expecting that the media won't be the ones asking "the hard questions".

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 20, 2008 -> 06:46 PM) It gets ratings. Here's the other side of the token though. Please name for me a network that has tried something different. Name for me a network that doesn't spend 2/3 of their time focusing on stupid, empty, pointless topics that are important because the media decides its important? It gets ratings because it got ratings at one point and no one has bothered to try anything other than to be clones of the (conservative) tabloid network that got ratings by doing so. Every time one of these networks loses ratings, or one of these newspapers loses subscribers, the solution is to cut back more on the journalism spending, to dumb it down more, and to spend more and more time on TMZ crap. And because they spend more time on it, they lose more viewers, and cut back even more. Whether or not there's an 8 million a night audience available for an intelligent show, I doubt that. But there's a reason why Stewart and Colbert have become so popular. They're quite literally able to do more intelligent work in 5 minutes than most shows do in an hour. An intelligent news market is one that simply isn't being served right now. There's no modern William F. Buckley, there's no one filling the Bill Moyers role, there's just this crap, where all that matters is whether or not you'd rather have a beer with Bush or Gore, not whether or not they'd be able to do a decent job running the country.

SUSA PA final pre-election poll- Clinton 53%, Obama 41% Still a much bigger lead than most people are showing, but most people are showing Obama in the 40-45 range, which I think suggests that their poll may be better at pushing leaners and the leaners are staying in the Hillary camp.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 20, 2008 -> 06:39 PM) It wasn't so much the "tough treatment" he was complaining about, more the fact that they just asked a bunch of stupid questions he was tired of having to answer that didn't have much to do with the real issues, if at all. If anything, he's dropping in the polls because he didn't handle the questions well in the debates at all and spent half of it looking pissed off, not because he was whining. But here's the other part of it. Obama also went after the media for being so stupid and vacuous. So, instead of reforming, the Media members, the gang of 500 overlords who are all wise and all knowing representatives of the things that All Americans truly believe in, start trying to focus on the fact that Obama is complaining, "oh he's whining, such a girly man", to defend themselves against having to actually work, learn things, or any of the like.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Apr 20, 2008 -> 01:33 PM) Neither of them are rookies anymore. The 2nd half of the season will be telling for Danks. Floyd has just continued where he left off last September. September starts mean NOTHING! Except, when they do. Like here.

QUOTE (Chet Lemon @ Apr 20, 2008 -> 01:33 PM) Anyone think the Rays would make Wheeler available? If MacD and Masset continue to suck, I think he would fit in nicely as a 7th inning type b/c unlike MacD, he's not a walk machine! If the Sox decide they need to replace a righty reliever, they have a solid option sitting down at AAA that will cost us less to get (aka nothing) than trading for someone.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 20, 2008 -> 09:20 AM) BTW, I guarantee that Swisher ends up with more strike outs and GIDP than Konerko this season. If Juan Uribe is hitting 9th, Konerko is hitting 4th, Swisher is hitting 1st, and Thome is hitting 3rd, you're simply going to be wrong on the GIDP, because Swisher will almost never have anyone on base for him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 19, 2008 -> 03:27 PM) The guys you'd figure would be their top 2 are currently on the DL (Kazmir and Garza). That's going to hold any team back. Oh, and David Price is expected to hit the big leagues before the end of the season. So whatever their starting 5 is now, next year, replace the 3 worst ones with Kazmir, garza, and Price. Ouch.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 19, 2008 -> 03:26 PM) Their young pitchers are still a far way off from being legit MLB starters (see Niemann last night). The guys you'd figure would be their top 2 are currently on the DL (Kazmir and Garza). That's going to hold any team back.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 19, 2008 -> 03:22 PM) You have to wonder why Tampa has held on to him for so long. They're not competing for the AL East title in the next few years, and by the time they can possibly have a shot, they'll lose him to free agency. I think that a lot of people would disagree with your statement that this team won't be competing within the next few years. The correctness of that statement depends on how quickly some of their young guys develop. With the number of top draft picks already making up their roster, I wouldn't put anything past this team if they're coached well Also, I think the D-Rays would have moved him already had they gotten an offer they were happy with, but they're setting the price deservedly high for a guy who gives you Crawford's numbers, and they probably also think that his value isn't going to drop until he has 1 year left on his contract unless he gets hurt.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Apr 19, 2008 -> 03:11 PM) Seriously....what was all that BS about Alexi at 2B?!?........ You're forgetting Brian Anderson's communism.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 19, 2008 -> 03:11 PM) No, it's just impressive for a team leading the AL in runs scored to have a lineup with 5 guys below the Mendoza mark. All this post does is prove the sabermetric theory that OBP is more important than batting average.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 19, 2008 -> 02:24 PM) That's an ugly bottom third of the order. You shouldn't talk about Toby's beard like that.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 19, 2008 -> 03:13 PM) I'll let someone else link, but the new gallup poll has Clinton leading Obama. Padding the ol' post count.

Swisher, RF Cabrera, SS Thome, DH Konerko, 1b Crede, 3b Quentin, LF Ramirez, CF Uribe, 2b Hall, C

Kick ass Mark.

I find it noteworthy that this thread was made shortly after Bobby blew a save, but without noting that Bobby's ERA this season so far is 2.25. As far as I'm concerned, Bobby needs to keep his walks down. If he does that, then he's going to be an excellent closer, because he's damn hard to hit well no matter what. Bobby will struggle if a.) he loses his control, b.) he's over-used (i.e. like this week, 3 days in a row early in the season for the 2nd time, with a defense behind him that lets him down) or c.) he loses a lot more velocity than what we've seen so far.