Balta1701

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 06:17 PM) So we are in full campaign swing mode now... Is it worse for a Republican to say that the Democrats are hoping for bad news in Iraq because it is good for their party, or Hillary saying that a terror attack would benefit the Republicians? I rate both as roughly equal, and would look to context to make the determination. Don't like either.

Hillary also had some remarks yesterday that probably should be termed some sort of gaffe... Via Chris Dodd's campaign, I think this is the correct reply to that one: No link on the latter one yet, press release.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 02:25 PM) Why the s*** havent we called EVERYONE up yet? Sweeney should be in LF Borgeouis(sp) should be up. f*** lets see Rogo take some hacks. Do SOMETHING Because the rosters haven't expanded yet?

Well, at least we didn't have to give up anything ot pick Myers up. Time to get another position player on this roster.

And back onto actual campaign stuff. Zbigniew Brzeznski, NSA in the Carter admin and one of the brighter foreign policy folks on the "correct for the last 6 years" side of the aisle has come out swinging for Obama.

They will do everything humanly possible to get an official 2nd game in.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 12:06 PM) Oh my bad. You must have been the only person in the world who saw that some of the most consistent offensive teams in baseball would have one of the most uncharacteristic slumps in baseball. Do you have the lottery numbers for me tonight as well? I think a lot of us saw the potential for issues...particularly once Podsednik was re-signed and Erstad was picked up. You knew both of them were going to be starting from day 1, and you'd have been a fool to expect that either one could give you a full healhty and productive season. That one we all should be able to agree on. But on the other hand...some of the things we saw were in fact unpredictable. Iguchi and Konerko starting the season in dreadful slumps. Dye spending hte first half mired in an even worse slump on top of it...AJ being in a dreadful slump...Uribe not showing any improvement at all and in fact taking still more steps backwards despite supposedly being in shape...and Thome just happening to get hurt at the time all those guys were slumping. Then throw Crede's back into the mix as well. Sure, you could have predicted Crede struggling because of his back, or Erstad and Pods's issues, or Thome getting hurt, but I can't believe anyone foresaw each and every one of those issues piling up all within the first 3 months of the season.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 12:01 PM) Holy crap, AJ threw someone out stealing? --------- Funny if Erstad is back next year as a reserve, which is precisely what he should have been THIS year. A $3.5 million reserve is not a funny thing to me.

And of course, the 2 out rally hurts us again

QUOTE(watchtower41 @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 11:52 AM) Sorry I'm out of the loop today, why is Thome out?? Is he expected to play tonight? Stiff neck. I'd assume not but what do I know.

20 pitches for Garland through 2, 57 for Beckett.

Joe Crede probably had an awful lot less value last offseason than you think...given that he was already following Boras's crew's advice on how to deal with his back instead of the advice of the team. Dye...that one I could have understood, but the payback would have had to have been huge given the season he was coming off of.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 11:38 AM) Oh crap, you're right. So who is on the bench that isn't hurt? ANYONE? Hall, Podsednik, and Thome.

Beckett threw 36 pitches in the first without having to pitch to Thome.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 11:32 AM) 3-2 now... Nope

The question is...does he have it in him to walk Uribe?

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 11:07 AM) Haha, we'll see. But Podsednik was VERY good in 2004 and before. Pods hit .244 with a .313 OBP and .677 OPS in 04. He was, honestly, awful in 04, except every time he got on base he seemingly stole 2. He was significantly better in 05 pre injury, hit .290 with a .351. 03 was his really good year, where he hit .314 and put up an .822 OPS, just with only 43 steals.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 10:40 AM) Umm, I didn't compare him to Floyd at all. I was addressing Balta about how he always posts the most positive but unrealistic hypotheticals such as when he said blank or blank. But that aside, Owens will not steal 58 in a full season I don't care what total he's at now. And I don't he'll keep his current OBP forever or improve it even marginally. That's my prediction. See, we're two different types of people...that's part of the problem. Some see the Sox as glass-half-empty, some see the Sox as glass-half-full....I see the Sox as Half glass full.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 09:49 AM) You do that a lot. "If Gavin Floyd turned into a good pitcher," "If Owens could steal 70 bases," "If Owens develops the good eye he had in the [terrible] International League," "If" and "If" and "If" but they're all unlikely hypotheticals except for Fields + Richar stealing 10-20. Owens can't steal seventy, he won't even be on base enough to steal seventy bases. S'not gonna happen. Here's the other side...if these guys don't develop...if the only guy out of our system worth anything is Josh Fields...we're going to be in teh top 5 in the draft the next 5 years, because we don't have the money to spend to buy our way out of the problems created by a couple of failures. We don't have the money to spend to buy 2 OF's, a SS, 2 starting pitchers, a bullpen, and replacements for guys like Thome. So if we don't get anything out of these guys, if you're right...then the only thing worth considering is what we can get for trading away players and what we can get in the next few drafts, because if all of these guys bust, then we simply have nothing.

If Owens could steal 70 bases and Richar and Fields could each swipe 10-20...that makes your whole team seem an awful lot faster.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Aug 24, 2007 -> 07:12 AM) LEt's just blame it on the Greeks and Persians and be done with it. Come on...I was all ready to take this back to the mass of energy that existed for fractions of a second after the big bang before things cooled enough for electrons to form!

QUOTE(greg775 @ Aug 23, 2007 -> 06:19 PM) Considering he's made some nice catches of late and has some good games, the question remains, is he a starter next year or not? There are still 2 questions that need to be answered to answer that one: 1. Can he hit like .260 or .270 or so the rest of the year and start to show an improving eye at the plate (i.e. more patience, a-la him in the minor leagues) 2. Can we find a better option, perhaps in a trade, this offseason? He goes 0 for his next 30, and you sort of have to send him back to AAA next year and find somethign to replace him. He keeps hitting at least with a decent average, and he'll probably wind up penciled in at least with an OF spot, because we need 2 OF's for next year and he's very cheap. If you trade Garland and come back with some wonderful OF prospect, no idea who, then you go ahead and send him to AAA or use him as a backup OF/PR.

QUOTE(Mplssoxfan @ Aug 23, 2007 -> 02:28 PM) Actually, if you want to go waaaay back, you can certainly point out that not intervening in the Suez Crisis in 1956 planted the seeds in the Arab mindset that the US wouldn't be willing to stand up for its friends, allies and interests. You can certainly make a case that if we had joined with the Brits and smacked Nasser hard, we would have looked stronger in thew eyes of a lot of people in the Middle East. But life is complicated, especially when dealing with that part of the world. If you really wanna go back...the French invasion of Egypt under Napoleon back in 1798 was what really got the whole process of the West trying to conquer and control that area started.

DAMN YOU MATT CAIN!!!

So, let's see... John Warner thinks its time to set a timetable to begin withdrawing some troops from Iraq. George W. Bush adamantly says that we should not withdraw any troops from Iraq and the nation will not do so as long as he's in the White House...even going so far yesterday as to say that the reason we lost Vietnam was that we left. Therefore....Warner has declared that he will support Congress as it does...absolutely nothing to set a timetable to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, and will continue to oppose efforts in Congress to mandate that. Joy.