Balta1701

Well, I still don't think that it was the 100% correct move...I will sit around and say that the proper move was to give Anderson another 2 months playing everyday with Erstad as a genuine backup coming out of ST. But all things considered...this is the best move. Come on Brian, take your licks, get your swing back, and I hope this works just as well for you as the send-down last season worked for the Legend of Boone Logan. An awful lot of people never wanted to see Boone again when he went down. Time to earn your way back. And please do...we really need you. And Ryan Sweeney needs to play every single freaking day.

That didn't just happen. You don't score runs on bloops.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Apr 29, 2007 -> 01:24 PM) How deep into the season must we get before there is actually a real chance that Walker is fired? To about the point where KW has to decide whether to sell on his FA's or go and try to salvage the season like in 03. I.e. sometime in June.

Brandon Wood's first career hit. Man, I wish we could have gotten our hands on that guy.

Clutch.

So...now, can I officially smack anyone who calls for Scott Skiles's job?

I like the move...IF he plays every day. End of story.

Well, I guess those guys in NE are certainly the gambling type, but they do know a value pickup when they see one.

AND WE'LL SEE YOU IN AUBURN HILLS.

Kick some Halo arse Jon.

Naturally, I had this posted a long time ago in the Dems only thread, but I'd like to add this little nugget.

So, this probably isn't even the correct thread, but a while ago someone asked for an image of the variation in atmospheric greenhouse gases over time with the modern explosion in atmospheric CO2 also put on it, and i couldn't find a very good version. I've finally found one. There you can see the dramatic increases in both CO2 and Methane concentrations in the atmosphere associated with the industrial revolution; a 30+% increase in CO2 for example, pushing the modern value well beyond anything that has been seen in any of the glacial/interglacial cycles for the last 600k years.

One would certainly hope they'd learn from this deserved negative press and perform better in the near future.

Just when I post one piece of Friday Bad news , 3 hours go by, and then the government decides to top it with an even more remarkable bit of bad news.

Hope the good Jose shows up tonight.

And man, did Goldeneye ever give me a lot of practice in terms of setting prox mines.

So, George Tenet seems to be the first of the folks intimately involved in the genesis of the Iraq debacle to put out a book. Perhaps not surprisingly, he's trying to say it wasn't his fault. He'll be on 60 minutes this weekend. I figured this might be worth a thread. Here's the NYT article on the book. Supposedly, Henry Waxman has asked Mr. Tenet to come testify before his committee in a couple weeks, so this won't be the only bit we hear of this, if nothing else.

It's Friday Night!

Unless one of them is Bill Frist.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 12:09 PM) If the market is that weak to where the best available bat is a well below average offensive player then I guess you go out there with your best possible in-house options and pray that if the team does tank they tank hard so the soon-to-be free agents can be dealt at the deadline for young pieces. Losing Jim Thome is basically a worst case scenario for this offense. I think that's pretty much the point I was trying to make. If Thome is out for a long time, this team would almost certainly be done for the season. There just won't be enough offense available at a price we could afford to even come close to making up for that loss. So you cut your losses, dump the 2 big FA's, bring up the rookies, and try to come back next season healthy and reloaded.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 12:02 PM) It would be impossible to fully replace Thome's offensive production but something would need to be done. At this point in the season it's not widely known who is available exactly but I'm sure if Thome did hit the DL we'd hear some names thrown out there in the press. Yes, you'd hear some names thrown out in the press, but simply consider this...with that gigantic of a production loss, who would be available that we'd even have a shot at? And beyond that, how much do you give up? Say hypothetically I found someone who would give me a player who could put up the same production Carl Everett gave the Sox in 05 out of the DH slot, but it was going to cost a major pitcher to pull it off. Along the lines of Gio, or maybe a couple of lesser guys instead. Is it really going to be worth trading away all of that depth we just built in our minor leagues for an in-between guy, which is probably all that will be available unless the Braves tank?

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 27, 2007 -> 11:32 AM) To add some actual discussion to this, if Thome does hit the DL with a rather serious muscle pull I fully expect a move to be made, there are no position players in AAA with a .700 OPS right now so expecting any of them to come up and produce at even a mediocre rate is probably asking a bit much. Dye would probably be moved to the DH spot considering his age, defensive abilities and injury concerns (that's if he's healthy of course). That would make the outfield Ozuna - Erstad - Mackowiak, quite possibly the worst in baseball. Considering an abdominal strain could linger throughout the year especially with Thome's violent swing a bat would probably need to be brought in to make up for the loss. Can someone name me a bat at the level of anything remotely close to Mr. Thome which might actually be available on the trade market? Hell, if it comes down to Thome being gone for a long time, the biggest bat available on the trade market could well be Jermaine Dye.

No sitting Congressman featured on Better Know a District has lost yet.

maybe we should stop hearting Huckabees. They might hurt us.

QUOTE(NUKE @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 08:23 PM) Who are they to whine about unfair economic advantages when they subsidize companies like Airbus with government money. Well, to be totally accurate, the U.S. government subsidizes plenty of things as well. Especially farmers, but then think about those brief Steel tarrifs Mr. Bush instituted, all of the subsidies given to energy companies, etc.