Balta1701

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 01:56 PM) Wow. I really like this deal for the Mets. They didn't give up Martinez, and they got the best starter on the market. Don't know what Bill Smith was thinking here. Could be a long season in Minny. Guess this means, Joe Nathan may be on the market now also. He's thinking "well, this is better than a 2nd rounder and a sandwich pick and it saves me $15 million or so this season".

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 10:27 AM) Anyone think Liefer can make the team as the backup 1B/3B? He's got some pop. Just a thought. If this team carries 12 pitchers, which all signs suggest they will, then the only way there's room for a guy like that is if Crede and Uribe are both traded and Ramirez doesn't make the team as a replacement.

QUOTE(buckweaver @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 09:42 AM) Since this seems to be the "possible retreads" thread, and with rumors of Crede, etc. heading to SF. Think there's any possibility of bringing back Ray Durham? I've lost track of his abilities (perhaps he has, too) but it would give us someone who has played a decent 2b and CF. If we have the cash (I think he signed a fairly lucrative contract) would we spin Crede and BA for "fill in pitcher's name here" and Ray-Ray? I've said it before and I'll repeat it here. If this team sends one of its best prospects to Arizona for Danny Richar, and then after giving Richar less than 1/2 a year to learn how to play the position at the big leagues, brings in some veteran to take his spot, then they truly are scrambling and really have no idea what they're doing.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 09:25 AM) Depending on how he looks in ST...Crede could be a cornerstone for a team like the Giants that have some money and need to get a little younger. I don't think it's impossible to get a very close to major league ready player. Or even one that they've soured on...kinda like a Carlos Quentin deal. The problem is...can you name a player like that on the Giants? If we were talking about other teams, ok, but if our market for trading Joe is down to the Giants, they don't exactly have a lot of stuff that we'd be interested in. Their really high draft picks are Cain and Lincecum, but other than that, their system is basically where ours is except that we've traded everyone to get to this point, they just never had it in the first place.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 09:27 AM) The Mets need him the most, but will they give up their top prospectS for him? Cuz that's what it's going to take. I hope so, for the White Sox sake. But I could see them hanging on to him at least until ST. If they can get him without giving up Wright or Reyes, I don't see how they can say no. Especially if they don't have to give up both of those young OF's they've got.

QUOTE(BaseballNick @ Jan 29, 2008 -> 08:08 AM) Holding onto a player who can provide gold glove caliber defense and give you more than respectable offensive numbers instead of selling low on him isn't the worst idea in the world. I really wish there was room for both Josh and Joe, but selling low on Crede doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I think his value on the '08 team is potentially much greater than a couple of average prospects he'd likely yield via trade. Unfortunately, selling low may not make much sense, but the other option remains losing him for nothing. Either we're selling low on him because he hasn't proven his back is healthy, we're selling low on him because he's 3 months away from being a FA if we move him a couple months into the season, or we lose him at the end of the year for nothing.

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 08:35 PM) Angelos is good at screwing his team over. Screwing his team over? Is this deal so good that he'd be a fool to pass it up? Screwing your team over is what he did with the Tejada deal where they could have had say, Santana and Aybar from the Angels and saved money by getting rid of his salary before the Mitchell report came out. This, to my eyes, is an ok deal for Bedard. It does what the O's need it to do. But it's not the best deal in history, and it's not a deal that won't be there in a little bit, and it's not a deal that couldn't be almost matched somewhere else in the next couple days/weeks if the O's wanted to look elsewhere.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 08:20 PM) I agree its very overrated. The leadoff hitter is only guaranteed to leadoff once, but he will bat at least as much as anyone in the lineup. Its more important to get a guy who can get on base, and let the 2,3, 4 hitter do their jobs. Even when Pods was supposedly spectacular, didn't Iguchi have to give himself up a lot? You're taking pitches ,getting behind in the count so the guy can get to second. You know what, you guys can bring up all those points, and while I'll acknowledge the need for OBP, you simply aren't going to be able to convince me that Podsednik's work on the basepaths wasn't a very important ingredient in the 2005 team. Yes, the pitching was the biggest part, no one doubts that. Yes, pitchers throw fastballs anyway. Yes, the guy only leads off once a game. Yes, Iguchi grounded out to 2nd to get Pods over to 3rd plenty of times. Yes, he only scored 80 runs (despite missing a month). But there was a reason why we made sure he got in the all star game. Because whether the stats say it or not, he was a huge part in a lot of those wins in the first half. Just watching the games, you could see it. You could see how big a difference he made on the basepaths, you could see how big a difference it made when he got hurt and was terrible/on the DL for 1.5 months. That's what my eyes told me. I think that's what the 10th in the 1st half and 18th in the 2nd half in runs scored tells me. Whether the stats say it or not, for the 2005 team, having that guy at the front of our lineup who stole 20 some bases in a row was damn important.

CNN has Hillary's gigantic California lead holding at 17 points, poll taken Thurs-Sun.

SurveyUSA's last 2 days of results:

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 07:22 PM) Odd this non-partisan America's based speech by the Kansas gov sounds like all talking points from the democratic literature. And the non-partisan speech from the President sounded like that from the other side. Kinda remarkable, don't you think? God I hate this dance, where each side comes out and just gives a laundry list of things that they care about or want to do for an hour. It's just silly. You know what I'd rather see, is the President coming out and giving a full speech, whether it's just 15 minutes or whatever, on one topic of importance. Like the one big goal he wants to get done this year. Set one policy goal and say this is what I'm going to do, outline a plan, give all the specifics, and use the time to convince me it's worth the effort. I'd find that more interesting and valid than the list of things that we ought to do and applause lines.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 07:16 PM) Ok so who's the favorite in the polls to win in Florida b/w Romney and McCain? Like 8 Florida polls came out today. It comes out to something like Romney 31, McCain 29. Basically right now it's a tossup according to the polling data. Turnout could easily decide things.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 06:59 PM) Republicans are the fall in line party. If Romney wins Florida, all of those polls for ST change quickly. If McCain wins ST becomes a route. In other words, FL is more important for Romney, because if he doesn't win it the race is over, while if he does win it, he has a shot to make up that 10 point deficit, but McCain is still not finished because of the lead he already has. My point exactly

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 06:38 PM) Romney is actually the leader in delegates right now. While this is true...it doesn't mean much right now and you know that. Not when McCain has a strong lead in the national polls and we're a week from 22 states voting, essentially a national primary. His delegate lead is nothing if he can't even up the polling in the Feb 5 states.

QUOTE(Reddy @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 06:19 PM) ok you're right my wording was off - sorry. but it's my belief that Edwards wont endorse someone UNLESS he's getting something out of it so to me it's the same thing. I think the interesting part of that is not that you'd follow an Edwards endorsement, but that you are a case study in the type of person who is an Edwards supporter but if he dropped out you'd go to Clinton...which suggests, along with the polling data that is out there, that having Edwards in the race actually is helping Obama more than Clinton.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 06:24 PM) He isn't afraid to make a move, but more then once has that move been a bonehead one. I think it's actually kind of interesting to consider the comparison. Yes, sometimes KW's moves turn out horrendous, sometimes they turn out OK, and sometimes they turn out amazing. If KW is doing that and all he's doing is increasing the variance of his team's record by gambling, whereas other teams play it safer with the guys they're comfortable with, then KW is going to produce some terrible seasons, but in exchange you're going to get some seasons where just by random chance things work and everything comes together.

QUOTE(lvjeremylv @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 05:58 PM) That is a very good point, and quite true. Unless you've got a savvy veteran pitcher who can stay calm with a speedster dancing around in the corner of his eye, a guy like Podsednik is going to create a lot of problems for the opposition. And yes, the person at the plate is going to see more fastballs because that gives the catcher more time to get the ball down to 2nd when the runner inevitably takes off. It gives the manager so many more options, too. He can tell the 2 hitter to take 2 strikes, giving the runner more time to get into scoring position; he can play hit and run; he can wait for the runner to steal 2nd, then sacrifice him over to 3rd and give your 3/4 hitters an RBI chance; the game COMPLETELY changes when you have a base stealer at the top of your lineup. But, here's the key...the whole idea only works if 2 things hold. First, your guy must be highly effective at stealing. They have to know that he's going and that if they don't put forth the effort to stop him he'll take 2nd base easily. If he's getting thrown out/picked off a decent chunk of the time, then the runs you gain by running don't make up for the outs you lose when he's picked off. That's where the 75% success rate comes in...you really need the guy to steal 2nd successfully 75% or more for that to matter, otherwise they start not caring, because they start thinking their catcher can get them out no matter what they throw or do. When Pods started getting picked off by Victor Martinez on a regular basis, that was it for him. Second, the guy needs to be on base. Especially in a lineup of boppers like we have, the more he's on base, the more runs. Especially if you're counting on him to be disruptive, the difference between a .325 and a .350 OBP, which over a full season winds up being about 15 times being on base, is pretty big, and it gets magnified with every point of OBP you're talking about.

QUOTE(lvjeremylv @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 05:54 PM) So go with a 6 man rotation? Make one of them a reliever? I disagree with both of those options. If you have to yes, you make one of them a reliever, but I think you start Colon off on the DL/on a rehab assignment unless someone else gets hurt and your problem goes away that way.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 05:39 PM) This is must win for McCain. he has to make up the delegate deficit and keep his name up front for Super Tuesday. This is more of a must win for Romney. He is, like Obama, facing an uphill climb in national polls, and this is his last chance to claim that whole momentum thing and put himself firmly ensconced in the front runner role.

I'll make one prediction. The nightmare of a 9ui11ani Presidency will soon be no more. Thankfully, there is still some intelligence left in America, and every state where he has campaigned, his numbers have fallen off a cliff every time he's been seen.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 05:18 PM) Really? I mean, I'd of course hope that was the case, but I am not sure. Though it probably depends a lot on location. I think the South, more of the Edwards voters might go to Clinton. Just my take, based on some of the polls, and the results of SC. Right now, what little polling data is out there suggests that the people who are Edwards supporters would, on balance, wind up slightly favoring Clinton if he dropped out without endorsing. Kinda makes sense demographically, since a lot of them are white.

QUOTE(lvjeremylv @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 05:15 PM) The Mets really only have room for 1 starter. They already have Pedro, Maine, Oliver Perez, and El Duque in their rotation. If I were the Mets I'd go the more safe route and sign Livan. Colon is an injury waiting to happen. How many of those guys would you think are reliable for a full season? The Mets should be one of those teams where they can risk quite a bit of money over a year or two in order to have 6 pitchers with the expectation that some will be on the DL.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 05:06 PM) Who's going to give Colon a guaranteed $8M though? Kansas City maybe? I don't know if anyone else would touch him at that price. The Mets I think are leaning towards signing Livan Hernandez also. If I was the Mets and I couldn't trade for Johan...I'd sign both.

Because nothing says credibility to me, especially when talking about Democratic politics, more than Robert Novak appearing on Cavuto's show on Fox News. Yeah, that just screams "high level sources inside the Democratic party".

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jan 28, 2008 -> 03:18 PM) ... ya know, after I thought about it, we do need somebody to take Aaron Cunningham's spot at single-A Fixed that for you.