Balta1701

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 10:38 AM) Heh -- that's rather funny. Which two pitchers are carrying the Dodgers' rotation right now? And who acquired them, despite being heavily (and I mean heavily) scrutinized? Colletti, OTOH -- Juan Pierre... Luis Gonzalez. I know it's not really fair of me to just bring up Coletti's worst two moves, but it's tough for me to respect a GM who gave Juan Pierre 5/$45. I'm not sure I'd say Colletti has been better...but that doesn't mean DePodesta did a good job. Just remember...both of those guys were brought into essentially a better situation than even the White Sox have had...a team that can afford a $100m payroll, and on top of that, have had an absolutely loaded farm system (as opposed to the Sox). And yet all they've managed to pull off was a playoff birth back in 04 where they were pounded by the Cardinals and which probably consumed Gagne's arm in the process.

QUOTE(OfficerKarkovice @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 10:44 AM) Nothing against Terry Ryan because he has been a great GM for the Twins but... KW would have been absolutely KILLED on this board if his biggest moves in the last two years were adding Tony Batista, Rondell White, Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz. TR's biggest moves have never been in the FA market.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 10:09 AM) I didn't like Rivera much either but I agree that Grossman is a mental midget who collapses under pressure. A lot of QB's, especially young ones, struggle with dealing with pressure. I think Rex held up fairly well with what the Chargers threw at him last week. But this season will be the telling one for him.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 09:44 AM) It's been a while sense we have had a (career) military man in that office. I'd give serious consideration to one. I wish CP would run. Unfortunately, CP sacrificed an awful lot of his good reputation in defending and working for this administration...and did an awful lot of that destruction in one day. He'd probably still win if he ran, but I really wouldn't like to see how that would turn out given the past few years.

Well, nothing in this thread's title says that we only have to be discussing candidates for 08...and considering that the big issue in 2012 is going to be how the Hell do we finally get ourselves out of Iraq...why not.

An interesting side note to this search... Lotta other updates there as well.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 07:54 PM) Surge: 50% More Troops in Iraq 60% Less Nuke Posts What's Not To Like? Actually it's about 20% more, but who's counting.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 07:07 AM) This must be more of this "bipartisianship" we heard so much about during the Congressional elections. So, which side is the one that should put away partisanship? The side nominating the middle finger to the congressional majority, or the side saying "no, we won't confirm your middle finger". A few months ago, Chuck Schumer already offered up a list of names he'd consider to be "meeting the Dems half way". It's not like they're demanding the job be given to Hillary or anything like that.

QUOTE(Chet Lemon @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 08:20 AM) Mark Warner (D-VA) announces his Senate candidacy. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbfV6b-...-zF9SIPMBRWyPFA Up until today, I considered him the leading VP choice of any Dem Presidential candidate. With the number of potential candidates out there for whoever does win the nomination (Edwards, Obama, Richardson, Clinton) I think he's much better in that role grabbing the Dems another Senate seat. If he wants to move up more, his time will come.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 08:40 PM) I think DePodesta, young though he was at the time, would've been a better choice. I'm sure there are plenty of others. KW isn't a good GM and he didn't come into the job with credentials that light up the world. And I never said the bulls*** you're attributing to me. I'm just saying, I don't have a list here and now of people who I think would've been better choices to be hired. Sheesh. Wow. As a southern california resident...and having viewed Depodesta's dealings with the bullpen, Gagne, JD Drew, Beltre, Penny, Martin, and probably at the top of my list, Dioner Navarro...I think you're really, really, really wrong on that guy...and I think no matter how unhappy some of the folks around here are with Coletti, he's still an order of magnitude better than what Depodesta was doing.

And yet...you care enough bout her to make a thread about her.

Depending on the price, I would be content with any of the Halo's shortstops. If you count Figgins and Wood I see 5 guys who can play that spot...

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 11:05 AM) Now I am sitting at work and I swear my entire hammy is red...leg, knee..everything. Each time I spray bactine on it I have to run around cursing for a minute till the pain subsides (than I put myself through more torture with Pydroxide or whatever its called). At least according to the guy I did my first responder training with...a lot of those disinfectants, like Hydrogen Peroxide or rubbing alcohol, tend to be much more than you actually need on most wounds. Those actually tend to kill some of the cells that would like to be regenerating themselves. In general, soap and water is more than sufficient for preventing infection.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 02:33 PM) Well, Dodd is full of it on this one. Obama said end of 2008, and he said a phased withdrawal to that point. What does Dodd want, someone to say "11:59pm GMT on December the 31st, 2008 A.D."? He wants him to quite simply say he will vote against any funding bill that does not include his deadline. The idea being, you can say you're for all the deadlines you want, but if you're not out trying to stop funding bills from going through without them, then you're all just talk.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 02:34 PM) My point is organized labor is an easy scapegoat for why someone goes into bankruptcy. A bad relationship with labor organizations has a lot to do with poor management as well. And most of the CEO's who ran these airlines out of bankruptcy often helped put them in the crapper to begin with. Here's the other point I'd add on to this and to what I said earlier... What forces are there that you can name that would make the average American's wage go down? Things like a poor economy, crashes, issues at a particular company, rising production costs, competition from overseas, etc. In general, you hear more about wage and benefit cuts whenever some business or some sector of the economy struggles for whatever reason. Hell, just the movement of Walmart in an area was enough to force all the grocery stores out here to make their employees take a 1/3 pay cut or so. Now, what forces can you name, or what market conditions can you name that would make salaries in upper management go down? Thus far, the arguments here have been that you have to keep paying CEO's, especially in tough times, because you have to retain top talent. But as far as I can tell, when things are going well in a company, you also want to pay CEO's well to hold onto them then because they're doing a good job. So, I ask...what force out there exists that is actually counterbalancing the drive to increase CEO wages? What market situation could exist that would push them downwards?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 02:21 PM) If the club could get him in a deal involving Contreras I'd definitely listen (or if by taking on the contract they could get him for someone like Sweeney or Anderson plus Broadway again I'd listen). I think right now, any of us would listen to those type of deals, because I don't think there are many of us who have a huge amount of confidence in any of the guys you mention (although I'll still say we desperately need 1 of Anderson and Sweeney to be ready to start for us in 09). Here's the other side question; what do you do if they demand Garland instead of Jose?

Dodd replies:

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 01:33 PM) Do you think there's any chance that JR, KW, and Ozzie see how ridiculous the salaries will be this offseason, and decide to go into rebuilding mode with a rotation of Buehrle, Vazquez, Danks, Gio, and Floyd, and trading Garland, Contreras, not tendering Crede, etc? I think that 1 of those first 2 items will happen. Crede could also be non-tendered if his back simply isn't ready come the arbitration deadline, but that's the only way I think that's happening.

QUOTE(NUKE @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 12:06 PM) Well, if you want top talent to stay then you have to pay them. Why would they want to stay on a sinking ship when they can quit and join a company that is actually doing well? Here's the question though...if you pulled a bum off the street and offered him $400k, or just at least picked a person at random with an average education...or best yet...picked a person who was moderately qualified but for whom that position was a promotion...could they do well enough that the difference between the performance of the 2 CEO's would be less than the salary difference. I.e. if it costs me $25 million a year including severance packages or something like that for a big name CEO fixer guy, and $500k to just promote someone from upper management who's familiar with the company, is the difference between the 2 worth $24.5 million? (of course, $25 million probably being on the low end of CEO compensation packages these days). IMO, due to the corporate board room mentality, this is something that just isn't considered at all these days. Board members hire people of their own standing because it's developed into such a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" system where everyone knows everyone and protects everyone at the expense of many businesses. Therefore, it's never evaluated whether or not this "top talent" is actually worth what is paid for it, it's just claimed that you must attract "Top talent" without evaluating whether or not it's actually worth it.

Just because it's a standard thing doesn't make it the right thing, nor does it mean that those folks actually deserve it or have actually earned it.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 09:32 AM) Madden is a real good baseball guy too. Really wish he could get a managing position for a better franchise. With the talent level the D-Rays have built up in the draft...they really do have a shot at making noise here in the next couple years.

Less than a month ago, 7 soldiers from the 82nd airborne wrote a pessimistic op-ed piece about Iraq featured in the NYT, that I believe I linked here. It started with these words: It appears that 2 of those 7 soldiers were killed Monday in Baghdad.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 09:18 AM) If that is true -- I've asked around -- that is remarkable and bad,. Yeah, they should have to die when they get sick just like everyone else... Just another reason why it's totally insane to have businesses on the hook for the health care for their employees.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Sep 12, 2007 -> 09:02 AM) Nice publicity. Although I should have been more outrageous in my posts. Maybe someone would have printed my quotes. I've just heard a rumor that Ozzie Guillen has tested positive for steroids...