Balta1701

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 05:00 PM) Just looking at the Rockies roster, they have Francis and then a huge drop off in starting pitching. Their #2 guy is really Josh Fogg. If the D-Backs are all pitching, the Rox appear to get by mostly on offense. Wow. You're wrong, and I had no idea how wrong you were until your post actually made me look. RK TEAM GP E FPCT A PO 1 Florida 162 137 0.977 1510 4331 2 Texas 162 124 0.98 1744 4290 3 St. Louis 162 121 0.98 1672 4307 4 Tampa Bay 162 117 0.98 1548 4289 5 LA Dodgers 162 114 0.981 1651 4350 6 Milwaukee 162 109 0.982 1529 4333 7 Washington 162 109 0.982 1567 4340 8 Chicago Sox 162 108 0.982 1604 4322 9 Atlanta 162 107 0.983 1657 4369 10 Kansas City 162 106 0.982 1553 4312 RK TEAM GP E FPCT A PO 11 Arizona 162 106 0.983 1635 4323 12 Houston 162 103 0.983 1689 4394 13 Toronto 162 102 0.984 1853 4346 14 LA Angels 162 101 0.983 1550 4305 15 NY Mets 162 101 0.983 1518 4357 16 Detroit 162 99 0.984 1635 4342 17 Minnesota 162 95 0.984 1611 4310 18 Cincinnati 162 95 0.984 1517 4349 19 Chicago Cubs 162 94 0.984 1535 4340 20 Cleveland 162 92 0.985 1697 4388 RK TEAM GP E FPCT A PO 21 San Diego 162 92 0.985 1755 4417 22 Oakland 162 90 0.985 1687 4344 23 Seattle 162 90 0.985 1656 4303 24 Philadelphia 162 89 0.986 1723 4375 25 NY Yankees 162 88 0.985 1588 4352 26 San Francisco 162 88 0.986 1666 4361 27 Pittsburgh 162 83 0.986 1722 4343 28 Boston 162 81 0.986 1538 4316 29 Baltimore 162 79 0.987 1690 4316 30 Colorado 162 67 0.989 1827 4377 Don't neglect defense sir. That team made 13 fewer errors than any other team in the majors, and they were simultaneously #4 in putouts. It sure looks like they're making up for their team's lack of really dominant pitchers by having pitchers who let batters put the ball in play & count on their defense to do the job. And those numbers sure suggest to me that it worked.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 05:02 PM) The season's over, why hasn't Ned Yost been fired yet? I believe that Brewers Management has already said he'll be back next season.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 04:55 PM) but wouldn't the massive discount have cut into his commission? Moveon.org is a regular NYT customer, in that they put full page ads there fairly often to make political statements (i've gotten more than a few emails from them asking for money to do exactly that). It is in the NYT's interest to make sure Moveon.org is a happy customer, just as it is in their interest with any business that buys an awful lot of ad space. It's also perhaps worth noting that when the "price paid" controversy appeared, Moveon.org voluntarily paid additional money to bring the cost of the ad up to the standard NYT full page rate for a 1-time purchaser.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 02:46 PM) It will be interesting if indeed the Goracle jumps in - it might pull enough away from Mrs. Bill Clinton that Obama could get a legit shot. Even if he doesn't, I wouldn't count out Obama yet, or honestly, even Edwards, even though he's been trending down lately. An awful lot can change based on a very wierd process in Iowa that is very hard to poll. You never know when something crazy might happen, like all of Edwards, Richardson, and Obama's supporters realizing that the one thing they don't want is for Clinton to be the nominee and teaming up in the 2nd votes in caucuses to turn that state to another candidate.

I have DirecTV here, have had it in CA for 4 years, and probably have lost signal like 4-5 times in the heaviest of storms, and even then I'd say that the situation has improved a fair amount in the last year or two. Can't even remember the last time it went out. You should def. investigate other sources on the HD issue though if that is important to you. Both of the satellite providers have had a rep as being a step behind in that regard over the past few years.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 02:21 PM) Ah, gotcha. Although, Richardson is doing one thing interestingly different from Edwards. As far as I know, so far, he hasn't accepted public campaign money yet. This is a fairly important thing, because, thanks to the spending limits that public funding involves, if you take public funding, basically, your campaign will have to go dark on the airwaves from the time you win the primaries until after your convention. You literally won't be able to run ads before then. Just on that alone, it seems like electing Edwards is bad strategery, because it gives the Republicans another chance to own the race before the Dem convention, just as happened in 04. Edwards seemingly just feels that after the fundraising numbers this quarter, his campaign didn't have a choice; if they wanted to even stay in the race, they needed the $10 mil or so in matching funds they'd get before the votes started coming in, and they'd just have to live with the limits. Richardson is hoping for a miracle somewhere, but is at least smart enough to not give up the general election to win the primary.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 02:17 PM) ok, so Bill Richardson is in an "ok" position, but Johnny Girly Man is not? I'm confused. I don't think Richardson is in a good position financially either. Not when Clinton and Obama have each 4x his resources.

I figure we'll give Blackwater a couple more posts here until the real hearings begin and then spin them off into their own thread. And by the way, it seems that the Iraqis have finally found something they are actually willing to agree with both the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and each other about; the non-Binding Senate Resolution for partition we mentioned last week is horrendous.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 01:16 PM) Edwards pulls in $7M. OUCH.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 02:10 PM) Or the Barry Bonds effect. No, that involves a lot more needles in your arse.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 12:00 PM) I'm also surprised with so many people here picking J-Roll. Are people aware of how much better a season Hanley Ramirez had compared to Rollins? I guess that gets into the "What is your definition of MVP?" talk, though, so... If Ramirez had that same season on a winning team, he'd be a darn solid contender for that award.

QUOTE(GoRowand33 @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 06:47 PM) If you go to Radiohead.com you can have a download of their new album sent to you on October 10nth for FREE Link

The McCain campaign raised roughly $5 million in the 3rd quarter, but also holds $2 million in debt. The Thompson campaign is saying they raised $8 million. The Huckabee campaign seems to be saying it will not announce its numbers until the FEC releases them on October 15th.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 11:05 AM) That's all fine and dandy, but that philosophy is extremely dangerous. You head into the season with a bunch of "rebound" types and young talent conbined with Jenks and the chance of the season going south in a hurry is very present. No one's saying get rid of everyone but Jenks, but to head into a season with just Jenks as the only solid bet to turn in a good year would not be smart. Add one arm with an extended history of success, and fill the rest of the bullpen with guys like Thornton and MacDougal. The pen has the chance to be really good or it has the chance to be below average, but with 2 reliable arms, the probability of it going to s*** in a handbag like this year is far less. But here's the problem; what's the other option? To go out and spend $5 million a year over 4 years on a Linebrink or something else likie that? Pretty much every one of the available bullpen guys not named "Mariano" is going to be a "rebound" bullpen type at the best, because there's really no one on the market who's had a great season and put up a solid, consistent career. Any philosophy is going to be extremely dangerous. Every philosophy carries a high risk of failure. The job right now is to minimize that risk. It could still happen even if you make the correct decisions 100% of the time, because there may just not be solutions available.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 11:07 AM) Also interesting will be Edwards and Richardson. Johnny E has been declining, and accepted public funds, so we'll see just how bad his situation is. And Richardson actually out-earned Edwards last quarter - if he does that again, that could make things interesting. Richardson raised $5.2 million in third quarter, campaign says

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 10:55 AM) It'll be interesting to see what the Clintons made. I find it interesting that Obama's camp was pretty quick to release this #. Supposedly it's also in the $17-$20 million range. IIRC from last time, Obama's camp was out in front on its fundraising numbers as well. Probably because they think, correctly, it's good press to see them hanging with the Clintons.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 09:41 AM) 72-90 will do that. My point is, bringing in ARod doesn't make the White Sox contenders all by itself. This team was lucky it didn't finish behind KC. Buy the KW propaganda about perfect storm BS, its coming from the same mouth that said last season was playoff fatigue and he wanted to keep the core intact because they won 90 and in his words "couldn't play any worse." That and his $30 million a year price tag would certainly mean a lot of current salary would have to go. 2 points. Just because Boras requests $30 million a year doesn't mean that even the Cubs will be stupid enough to offer that. And Garland + Contreras + Uribe is about $26 million next year.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 09:01 AM) Improving the pitching staff is going to be the largest question mark. Is the bullpen already a bit better? Maybe, but they still do not have all the pieces in place. We need to find another young player to step up, or trade or sign some pen guys who throw damn strikes. The rotation will be a huge problem if they trade Garland and try to rely on Floyd AND Danks for the entire season. If our young guys do not step up in many places, we're in deep trouble. You can say that about almost any team. Yes, it's a gamble to rely on those guys, but you can't just go out and spend $15 million a year on Carlos Silva because you're scared to make that gamble.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 08:53 AM) Didn't he hit 50 with Texas? Didn't make them a contender. The pitching is still the key. That Rangers team put up a 5.15 ERA. The White Sox this year put up a 4.77. And people are accepting the fact that the White Sox's pitching staff wouldn't have to do much to significantly improve over this season (basically, not having Mike Myers would do that). Here is that Rangers pitching staff. SP *Kenny Rogers SP Chan Ho Park SP Ismael Valdez SP Dave Burba SP Rob Bell SP Joaquin Benoit SP Aaron Myette SP *Doug Davis CL Hideki Irabu RP *Juan Alvarez RP Jay Powell = RP Todd Van Poppel = RP Francisco Cordero= *Dennys Reyes Colby Lewis Rudy Seanez Danny Kolb *John Rocker Anthony Telford Steve Woodard *Rich Rodriguez *Chris Michalak *C.J. Nitkowski *Randy Flores *Ben Kozlowski Dan Miceli Reynaldo Garcia

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 03:21 PM) I thought one was a paid for advertisement produced by moveon.org and Rush was himself talking?? I guess I'm confused now. You are 100% correct on both parts, and should not be confused.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 03:02 PM) Can you imagine the emotional high the Phillies are on right now? Trailing by 7 games just two weeks ago? They say teams with the most momentum do the most damage come October. The Phillies are going to be a tough out. Unfortunately, they may say that, but recent evidence says exactly the opposite. i.e. the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals. And until the last week of the season, the White Sox in 05 were pretty much panicking around Mid September too.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 02:55 PM) So are you admitting that the Rush Limbaugh show and the New York Times have basically dropped to the same levels? It just shows the state of that once respected newspaper.... they should now be held to the same standards as a political shock jock. And there is naturally, no difference between the paid advertisements in the NY Times and the actual written content of the NY times or the NY Times's opinion sections.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 02:42 PM) (Yep, get used to it -- until Bonds signs somewhere I'm going to be like Pratt is to JS and the Braves or Fathom is to the Cubs' 'greatness'.) And I will consider you to be my worst enemy.

So...Mets...Brewers...Padres...excellent work you guys did on those upgrades you made at the deadline. Yup, boy, not picking up Contreras when he was worth basically nothing sure paid dividends for you, didn't it.

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 12:04 PM) We really need to lose this game. And Mike Myers is at your service.