Balta1701

Hehe, I actually was watching the game when he threw that pitch.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 10:24 AM) Hell, for you, I'd do it for $40 and a ticket to Dallas In exchange for a couple hours of verbally taunting you...I bet we could come up with that from this site.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 07:46 AM) Anyone know if the taxes on fuel are percentages or exact cost per gallon? Perhaps consumers should be talking to our elected representatives to lower them taxes. Of course, economically, this is a terrible idea. If you have a commodity that is only available in a limited amount, and you lower the price of it, then all that is going to happen is you're going to watch demand try to surge to make up for the price decrease, and things will come right back in to balance. So you might lower prices by a few tens of cents initially, but they'd go right back up as people bought more, and all that would happen would be that the Saudis would make more money on each barrel while the governments in the U.S. would make less. And then your property taxes would have to go up, or your sales taxes would double, or something like that.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 07:49 PM) You read what the scout said, he doesn't have any trade value now. Why bother giving him up for nothing? As bad as he's looked, its not like Josh Fields is thriving right now. So if they both suck in ST the rest of the way, who gets the job in the majors? The one who hasn't played ball in 10 months and is struggling after a surgery or the one who was at least decent for your team last year?

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 07:43 PM) Last spring when Rowand hit .171 the scouts said his bat had slowed and he couldn't play CF. Now he's sitting on a $65 million contract. I think its a little harsh to judge a guy on March 10 when he has 22 ABs, and hasn't played baseball in 9 or 10 months. The problem with that of course is that if it takes Joe an extra month or two to get back in to the swing of playing baseball again, then we've spent the first month or two of the season with a black hole in our lineup not named Juan Uribe, and killed off whatever last bit of trade value Crede might have had.

Link. Didn't he miss most of spring training 2 years ago?

QUOTE(iamshack @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 05:59 PM) I understand that Uribe's performance has been unsatisfactory to many. But that doesn't mean Richar should be given a job without earning it or without being healthy. Heck, as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather see Ramirez get the job from what I've seen... Well, at least IMO, Richar performed well enough last year to have easy first dibs on the job this season. He blew people out of the water at AAA, struggled at first when coming up (as expected) but showed more rapid progress than even I expected. Got a good hot streak going in Early September, showed good patience and ability at the plate overall, and at least to my eyes showed promise defensively as well. He was clearly raw, but was getting where he needed to be quite quickly. But of course...if he's not healthy enough to get in the work in ST, we can't start him off with the big league club.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 05:55 PM) story will be buried within 2 days. if this was GOP scandal it would have been front page for weeks. A big story for months. In about a week, I'll try to give you the Lexis numbers for David Vitter's prostitution scandal compared to Spitzer's prostitution scandal.

Link.

It's not the most interesting part of the story, but it appears that Hillary is likely to lose a superdelegate today.

I want my hour of sleep back.

HeGone.

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 10:02 AM) Wade finally going to shut it down for the season, http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3286076 Now the question is, with Beasley as the obvious top choice in the draft, do the Heat draft Beasley and try to re-sign Marion? Wade, Marion, Beasley at 2,3,4 might be interesting to watch. IMO, Marion would be an idiot to actually opt out of his deal. Yes, he could get a longer deal, but no one but Philly and the Grizz have the cap space to actually try to sign him, the Grizz probably won't use their cap space, there are a half dozen other names on the market who will be competing with him for that money (Iguodala, Agent Zero, Brand, etc.) He'd be vastly smarter, IMO, to either play out next season, take the nearly $20 million he'll get for that, maybe make a splash away from Steve Nash but with Wade on his squad, and either try to find someone with more cap room at the end of the 09 season or get lucky and find someone who can pull off the sign/trade with him beforehand.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 02:12 PM) Only if Spitzer is as big an idiot as Larry Craig and doesn't let the story die. But with enemies like Joe Bruno in the GOP controlled NY Senate, the story will be there for a while. BTW: the prostitution ring was based out of NYC. If I was the Guv and intent on saving my skin I'd definitely hype that. Doesn't let the story die = not resigning. Let's face it...a year ago, this guy looked like he had a legit shot at having his name on a White House ticket within 8 years. Now he'll be lucky if he can hold on to his job, and if he does hold on to it he's going to be essentially ineffective because he'll spend half his time fighting indictments.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 11:28 AM) NY Governor Spitzer involved in a prostitution ring. Go to any news site for more info. Linkity. He has 2 choices. Either he has to become a Republican Congressman or his political career is over.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 10:40 AM) They just released a book that details the estimate. Which I'd like to read, but not enough to pay the hardcover price. Just look at it this way. As an American, your share of this war's cost is roughly $10,000 or so (going by total # of Americans, not # of taxpayers. Or if you don't buy his estimate, take the $600b already spent on Iraq and go by # of taxpayers, works out pretty close either way). The cost of that book is around 0.2% of your share of the cost of the war.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 07:40 AM) Although I think Islamic terror is a significant part of the total, I think that a lot of the terror attacks we see are not necessarily religiously motivated, but ethnically motivated. Plus the FARC in Colombia. If you look at the last 5 years, the only question that matters is how you count the totals coming out of Iraq, because those numbers swamp everything else.

Who would have thought 2 years ago in early 2006 that 2 years later the Democrats would control the seats of both Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert?

QUOTE(juddling @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 09:15 AM) i haven't seen the article yet (usually get to the paper over lunch) but upon reading the title of this thread , my first thought was that Jay took his column and made a long plea to the heavens above that before the year was over Stoney would replace Hawk in the booth. I would have bet money that that was the subject. Upon hearing of the jist of the article....don't you think that if Stone felt he was going to be pressured into being a 'yes' man for Jerry then he wouldn't have bothered taking the job????? Likewise...Stone is liked because he presents the numbers (good and bad) and tells it like it is..so if JR was looking for a 'yes' man...why would he think Stone would be that guy????? Isn't that what an interview is for. Personally....I think it would be great to hear Stone's critique of the Sox through the good and bad times this year. He could easily fill those dead spots that Hawk leaves when the Sox hit that mid-summer 10 game losing streak and Hawk is pissed.........umm....not that the Sox will have a losing streak even half that long..lol ^^^^^. The Cubs fired one of, if not the best color man in baseball because he had the balls to criticize a team that was falling apart. If the team struggles or can't play, or just sucks, or is a failure...let him be honest. I'd be vastly disappointed if we couldn't find a way for the organization to behave better than the Cubs.

QUOTE(scenario @ Mar 9, 2008 -> 09:49 AM) Not that it really matters... but I believe Andy Sisco is out of options. (He was first put on a 40-man roster in 2005 with KC.) I'm fairly certain he actually has 1 left, although I'm not sure why. I've been pretty much convinced that the only 2 guys we have remaining to worry about are Masset and Floyd.

Last night, the Dems scored a big Congress win, taking out Jim Oberweis in Illinois...in Dennis Hastert's old district...and on top of it, the nearly broke NRCC dumped a ton of money in to that race too.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Mar 9, 2008 -> 11:21 AM) So, I'm watching the Dodgers spring training game on TV right now and Clayton Kershaw is pitching. Holy s***, I'd give up anyone on our roster for him. He's that freaking good. He has a filthy curve and his heater is worth a million bucks. Plus i just love his mechanics as he really seems to use his leg strength and size/leverage to get the velocity as opposed to his arm. Wow, this is the most impressed I've been with a prospect throwing in spring training since I saw Felix Hernandez pitch a few years back. There's a reason he's considered the best pitcher in the minor leagues by a lot of people. Tuned in just in time to catch his at bat versus Sean Casey. Marvelous breaking ball, started over his head, struck him out looking at the knees.

QUOTE(max power @ Mar 8, 2008 -> 05:25 PM) I don't believe that survey at all. Obama wins north dakota, iowa, minnesota, washington, oregon, arkansas, colorado, and north dakota? Not likely. Well, couple points. First, Survey USA has been as reliable as any pollster out there this season. Second, Obama doesn't win Arkansas, Hillary does though. Third, Obama only wins North Dakota once, not twice. Fourth...this is your baseline. There's a small matter of a campaign to run through first. Obama is unlikely to lose, New Jersey, for example.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 8, 2008 -> 04:16 PM) Except that ARG has been pretty unreliable before. We'll see. I think Obama wins, but I don't think he wins by 20. For reference, he won Alabama by 14 and Georgia by 36.

Paolantonio: Overhyped: Favre didn't deliver in second half of career