Balta1701

Reason Magazine has taken a closer look at the infamous Ron Paul report, who actually probably authored the letters, and how exactly they fit into the Paul strategy at the time. If you're interested in the guy's history or this particular issue, I suggest reading it. (Wow, legit research and reporting. If only the rest of the media could do stuff like that!)

QUOTE(The Beast @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 02:01 PM) It would really make sense for the Sox to take a flier on Colon at the price Lieber is at. Isn't Colon younger and doesn't he have better numbers than Lieber? I may be wrong, but I'd gamble on Colon like the Cubs with Lieber. If Colon was willing to sign a 1 year, $3.5 million deal, I bet he'd have signed with a dozen teams by now.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 01:46 PM) Wouldn't you all agree the odds of us making the playoffs right now are about 30 percent? The odds are greater of us finishing last than first? It's going to take a year of every player being an overachiever as well as Oz Coop and Walker working some magic. Is this team capable of such bonding together or are the Sox going to be clones of the dreadfully mopey Bulls? In this division/league, you better have a lot of confidence to say that the White Sox have a 30% chance of making the playoffs at this point. But you could say the same thing about any team except the Yankees and Red Sox. Once you get past the 25% chance, then you're actually expressing confidence in your chances for most of these team.s

QUOTE(A's fan @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 01:29 PM) I doubt it, benson is very non impressive and I feel that fanneca will end up in chi town too. And on Faneca, I think he'd be a perfect fit for what that O-Line needs, and I think simply adding a guy like him (and hopefully drafting a couple others) would do a lot to suddenly make Ced. Benson look a lot better.

QUOTE(A's fan @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 01:18 PM) Jordan will be a FA next season and dom rhodes has played very well in his time with oakland when starting. It all depends if they are given a good shot to succeed and i think turner with you guys would be ideal. Thats just my opinion on it. And I'll take the counter-opinion, that if you take Michael Turner, or hell even LT, and stick him behind an O-Line that performed as poorly as the Bears' did last season, then the results would be just as disappointing as the results that the Bears got with Benson.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 01:13 PM) Really? One of my business teachers is a consultant for several different HR departments, and he says they absolutely HATE those BS cliche answers to the "What is one of your weaknesses?" question. You're (not you specifically) not answering the question when you turn it into something like, "My main weakness is that I care too much." Well here's the question though. Most people do not do 20 interviews a day, or even 20 job interviews a year, where they'd hear the canned response so often. Furthermore, they hear them even less from a person in the middle of a multi-hour session. So the question is, does a subtle answer like that, designed only to make you look better, hurt or help when people aren't used to hearing it and it isn't a key element of a short interview.

QUOTE(A's fan @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 12:44 PM) well ryan grant was a number five RB, tiki was a backup untill injury, priest holmes was a backup and chester taylor was who isnt bad. Out of those, I think the only one that fits my criteria of being a good 2nd string back who lites the world on fire once he moves teams as a FA. In other words, all the other guys I'm thinking of, guys like Lamont Jordan, Dominic Rhodes, etc., the good #2 guy...i'm just pointing out that when you take those guys out of the system where they're behind the same line that's opening gaping holes for LT, etc., they tend to not be the 5+ yard a carry guy you hoped you were getting, with Holmes as the notable exception.

No idea how it'll actually play up north, but I don't have a problem with a little creativity in campaign ads now and then.

QUOTE(A's fan @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 12:26 PM) Turner would be a good guy to look at for you When is the last time that there was a RB who was used as a successful #2 back who hit FA, was signed by some team for big money, and actually had success? I'm genuinely trying to remember.

QUOTE(A's fan @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 12:21 PM) Have you seen many warriors,kings games? If so you would know how good of young players they are. John salmons is even turning into a good player. Has anyone here heard anything on the eddie curry or david lee to sac for mike bibby? Nothing more than a rumor at this point. Bibby is expected to make his debut tonight.

I almost don't want to distract from the topic at hand...but here's a bit on E. Santana and how the Angels seem pretty happy with his performance this winter.

QUOTE(Wanne @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 09:46 AM) Balta...I thought the Sox signed a couple of pretty young DR's...one of them in the neighborhood of $500-600K? Is that right? After checking, yes you're right, 3 SS, 1 of them for about 600k, the other 2 cost unknown.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 05:02 AM) Houston would be crazy to do that even if T-Mac's become such a fragile, injury prone player. In case you didn't catch it, that post is me mocking the people who think that Pax is too timid to make a deal for a big star, because right now no team out there is stupid enough to trade the Bulls a big star for any of the guys they have the way they're playing.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 08:53 AM) any ford commercial with the this is our country song by mellencamp....radio ones are horrid....i dunno if its a sports clips commercial or something on the radio but they have like just average people singing a song "walk right in...sit right down...yada yada"...same as the 1-877 cars for kids commercials god they are so annoying... There's clearly some issue with their advertising, as it's Chevy with that Mellencamp song. I didn't get them back in Chicago, but the Jack-in-the-Box commercials just drive me nuts. Burger King has been annoying me for like a year also.

QUOTE(Pants Rowland @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 09:14 AM) Anyone have an idea the financial investment it takes to consistently sign and develop players from the D.R.? What about Venezuela? Is there a difference in cost or is it roughly the same? I know there are schools set up by the teams and I am wondering how much more viable it is for the Sox to establish a steady network versus any other team out there. The top guys currently are commanding what, $1-$2 million to sign, while lower-tier guys who are still talented are in the $100k level. The kid we signed earlier this year we spent what, $250k on him, as a 16 year old.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 08:25 AM) Colon had arm problems in 2006 and in 2007, has there been any surgery in those years? Did Colon opt for rehab over surgery at all? How did he close out 2007, any positives? While the speed he is throwing right now concerns me, from what I remember Colon was a slow starter and as he went along, his fastball picked up. I dont see the Sox putting a large burden on Colon to be the ace and eat X amount of innings and getting X amount of wins, so if he signs a reasonable deal and can stabilize the 5th starter position, I think this will be good. Colon tore a rotator cuff partially in the 2005 playoffs. As far as I can tell, he attempted to rehab it to pitch during 2006, but was pretty much a disaster that year and wound up having the surgery. He attempted to return from the surgery in 2007, but again was no where near where he once was, his fastball wasn't there, his shoulder was still sore, and he wound up overcompensating for the sore shoulder by causing pain in his elbow it appears. Furthermore, according to the NY Daily News, he's also used Juan Gonzalez's trainer, who just happened to be caught carrying steroids through an airport (The guy said they belonged to Juan). His only positive in closing out 2007 was that he still had his right arm. And if 3-4 months have gone by and some team like the Mets, who have money and who desperately need a starting pitcher...has not yet snapped him up...that really, really ought to tell you something. And by the way, you have no idea how much fun it is using The Google to search for anything involving the 2 words "Colon Surgery" even if you stick in Bartolo.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 08:10 AM) I don't know, but this off season we've signed a few from the Dominican Republic. The DR breeds great ballplayers. The way to get ourselves on lists like this one, where in a few years we have a few of these top latin american prospects, is to do exactly that. Yes, it's a crapshoot, yes, we'll spend some money on people who fail, but if we sign 3 a year, and maybe 1/3 gets to AAA as a high prospect...then suddenly, after 4-5 years of this, we have a highly ranked guy coming up through our system ready for KW to swap for someone important every year.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 08:22 PM) So the Bulls got hammered again by the Magic. You know things are bad when Brian Cook who's only played twice in 20 games or so comes off the bench and has double figures in scoring. Wallace was -20 or so when he was on the floor, really becoming a liability for the Bulls. -28, I'll thank you not to underestimate our terribleness. Damn, Paxson really ought to pull the trigger on Wallace for McGrady. He's such a coward I can't figure out why Paxson won't do that deal!

QUOTE(The Bones @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 06:15 PM) It'll be interesting if Romney's win can give him a boost in Nevada and South Carolina. The only recent poll I've seen for Nevada shows him in fourth and he seems to be well behind Huckabee and McCain in South Carolina. Here are results from today for ARG in Nevada. The numbers between each poll are all over the map. The one you saw with him in 4th was Research 2000 a couple days ago.

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Election called for Romney and Clinton.

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Rudy is currently losing to Chris Dodd. And is giving Mike Gravel a run for his money right now.

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So, the one suggestion so far seems to be low turnout across the board, not specifically in areas favoring either person. If true, one would hypothetically expect this to benefit Romney out of the 2 possibles, since polls show Romney winning amongst the most likely republicans, while McCain had his advantage in the independents. Although, until results come in, really who knows.