Balta1701

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 07:17 PM) Has there ever been a serious proposal to privatize mass transit? Daley seems to like to sell off city assets, maybe he can work with the state and just sell them mass transit. While there may be examples of good goverment management in action, the CTA sure isn't it. Well, the one problem with that idea is competition. Specifically, it's competition for riders against a heavily, heavily subsidized industry; driving. If the government is picking up the cost of the roads, while a mass transit organization has to lay the tracks and buy all the trains to run their system, then most people are going to wind up choosing the driving route because that is cheaper to them due to the cost required to get a mass transit system working That said...a lot of mass transit systems in this country are getting themselves into sort of a political death spiral, where their budget gets cut, the quality of the system drops significantly (where's our TGV?), the low quality drives away potential passengers, and the lack of passengers encourages the governments to cut their budgets further and put the money into roads. If someone had a valid business plan to turn one of these programs around, I'd listen.

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 05:09 PM) Driver, Jennings, Robinson, Jones, Lee, Grant, etc. aren't enough weapons? IMO, the question is never the weapons. The question is always the trenches. If you've gotten this far, you've got the weapons. The question is going to be...can the Packers D-Line get anything through near Tom Brady, and can the Packers O-Line hold up to Seymour and company after they've had 2 weeks of rest to heal.

QUOTE(Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 04:44 PM) He would put the Tigers in a better position to contend with us. If the Tigers put him in their rotation, sure. That's a lot more losses for them. Make the division a lot more even that way.

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 10:09 AM) What the hell has Lohse ever done to demand $10M a year? Thrown a baseball and hired Scott Boras. This is what I keep pointing out...mediocre pitchers are getting $10 million a year on this market. The only way to compete with this market is to develop your own pitching. You will not build a team by trying to sign FA pitchers right now. Gavin Floyd, John Danks, Andrew Sisco, Jack Egbert, and Lance Broadway are our best chances right now. Because the other option is to throw money at guys like Lohse.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 12:28 PM) What is the upside of this for Toronto? I believe it involves the phrase "Mitchell Report"

The Wizards take down the Celtics, suggesting once again...you ain't gettin' to 72.

Moved to the Filibuster

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 12, 2008 -> 12:10 PM) That would mean they'd be looking again beyond this year. Or they'd just hand the job to Andy LaRoche, which is probably what's going to happen anyways. For some reason, the Dodgers lately have been insane about making sure that their kids do not have a door opened for them. Every year it seems they sign some vet to block a position where they have a talented kid, and deny the kid at bats. Nomar in the infield, Gonzalez in the OF last year, Pierre in the OF, etc. Except Martin of course. I could certainly see, based on past behavior, the Dodgers being interested in a 1 year rental at 3rd base. I just can't envision any team spending actual talent to get Crede until he plays some in ST.

QUOTE(rockren @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 04:53 PM) Why the Brewers wouldn't deal Hall for Crede is beyond me. Because right now Joe Crede is worth less than zero to most teams?

QUOTE(max power @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 04:10 PM) Even if he had the best numbers on the team in spring would we give him a chance? It worked for Pablo.

Whoa. Kooky. Link

QUOTE(ptatc @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 01:25 PM) I disagree. The one thing club doesn't need is a guy who strikes out alot. We have enough trouble with that. I love his defense but he is not a good fit for the club. Anything that improves Milwuakee's defense is a good thing for them. Especially if it allows them to move Braun away from 3rd base, and it'd be even better for them if moving Hall away from CF helped him recover his former form with the bat.

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 01:14 PM) Colon is a battler. If healthy, or at least as healthy as we can be sure of, he might be worth the chance. I still wonder about the condition of Freddie Garcia. I liked him too By most reports, Garcia wouldn't be expected to be ready to pitch until the 2nd half of next year at the earliest.

QUOTE(SoxFan562004 @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 01:04 PM) lol, that was my exact reaction. Wouldn't Santana be making something reasonable next year anyway? Any extension should kick in at the start of '09 Presumably they'd tear up whatever Contract Santana had for 08 as motivation to get him to sign the extension early without testing the market.

QUOTE(BaseballNick @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 12:56 PM) Joe Crede won the Silver Slugger in 2006 and we know what he brings to the table defensively. If Joe is 100% healthy, then he's worth Ervin Santana in a trade. Santana didn't exactly wow anyone last year. The key phrase there is "If Joe is 100% Healthy" but right now no one thinks Joe is 100% healthy. He's coming off major surgery. His back has affected his performance each of the last 2 years, and totally destroyed it last year. Beyond that, Joe is under contract for 1 year and then walks as a Boras client. He's owed about $5 million next year, and with one little tweak to his back he might never play baseball again. There is no way that any team is giving up anything of significant value for Joe Crede right now. Some team might give you someone they don't need as a salary dump; they'd probably do Matthews for Crede straight up, but that's about it.

Failing upwards. Yeesh.

That makes no sense at all. The Yankees were pursuing Cameron, but didn't want to pony up for both Cameron and Santana? What, is Cameron getting $20 million next year? Whoever wrote that is just off their rocker.

Huckabee: Thompson needs to take his Metamucil.

QUOTE(rcpweiner @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 12:07 PM) RE: Rosenthal Do this trade right now, Angels and White Sox: Crede for E. Santana. Please. The Angels will NOT do that deal.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 12:24 PM) The White Sox were above .500 vs. the ALC in 2007. They still came close to the worst record in baseball. Floyd and Danks taking up 40% of the rotation is going to put a lot of stress on the bullpen. Again, no it isn't. Ozzie still uses his bullpen less than any other team in the league, regardless of whether or not his starters are good or suck, whether or not his bullpen is good or sucks, etc. Ozzie does not have a quick hook for any of his starters. He will put a guy out there for 5-6 innings and let people whack at them if he has to. The numbers say that, my eyes say that, and even the positive things we've heard about him (like how he'd let Garland work through his troubles) say the same that. Increasing the Bullpen's innings last year by 25% would still leave us in the bottom half of the league in innings pitched out of the bullpen.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 10:39 AM) More than 40 HR in his first full season? That is quite the lofty goal considering Arod, the Babe, Hank Aaron, Griffey, Pujols didn't even accomplish that. More recently, Prince Fielder didn't even do that. If Josh is a 40+ HR guy, we better keep him because he's going to break the HR record. I'd say, be happy with 25-30. From a quick search, the only players to accomplish 40+ HR in their first full season were Cecil Fielder, Mark McGwire, and Ryan Howard. Not sure Fields can hold a candle to those guys' power. You're holding it against him because he didn't get a "Full season"? So, the fact that he got what, 60%+ of a season just doesn't do it for you? Could you explain to me how those extra 150 at bats are as important as the weight you're giving to them? I can see how they'd be useful, but somehow I don't see the fact that Josh didn't get 150 at bats last season being the difference between Josh being ready for 40+ next year and Josh only giving us 25-30.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 10:29 AM) I want to clarify, i dont know one way or the other if she actually has done anything. I just find it odd that she can make these broad statements and not be called out on them. You see Hillary calling out Obama on his experience (and probably rightly so), yet they let her fly. hmmm.... THis is the quality of our current media...it's all about Narrative. Because Clinton is older and because her husband was President, she's the experienced candidate, and Obama is the youthful inexperienced guy, and it's not worth the effort to question either of those claims because that would require something more than repeating the same thing ad nausem.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 10:29 AM) 12 years? They were inspecting for a period of weeks or months. I am not talking about the UN in general here, or oil-for-food, or any of that other stuff. The UN inspectors were gone for a while, came back and were trying to get their stuff done. And the worst part is, the US kept claiming they had intelligence the UN didn't... WHY?! Why not give it to them then? Arrogance is why, the hallmark of BushCo. Actually, we did. Repeatedly. The UNMOVIC team came back and said, in their words, it was "garbage after garbage after garbage." (The CBS article I linked there suggests that the source actually used the word Sh*t)

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 10:15 AM) Ok, so i just heard an interview on MSNBC with a Hillary supporter and she mentioned that while Obama talks about change... Hillary has produced change. Ya know, every time I hear one of her supports on TV mention that, they NEVER have followed up with a "well, how has she produced change?" I know we have talked about it here, but no one in the national media feels to the need to follow up on that. She helped Mr. Bush start the Iraq war with her vote. That's produced an awful lot of change.

QUOTE(103 mph screwball @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 10:10 AM) Maybe not. I think it is possible if the Angels are getting Crede, Konerko, and losing GMJr contract. They'd be losing the very valuable Kendrick, a pitcher they might be giving up on anyway (Santana), and an outfielder that has been an overpriced, hgh distraction who has been replaced by Hunter. They still remember getting smacked around pretty good in 2005 by both Crede and Konerko and from what I read, they want to win now. Figgins could slide right into second base for them. I'll keep my fingers crossed. A future of Kendrick, Swisher, Fields sounds good to me. If Quentin lives up to his potential... nice. The Sox will have effectively rebuilt the team younger, faster, and with more OBP. The Angels are still not giving up Mr. Kendrick.