Balta1701

Man alive, if the Mets lose Glavine, they'll be in such a horrid position with regards to pitching it's hard to believe. They'll have to land Zito/Matz/Schmidt plus at least 2 more guys if they want to be competitive. If not, then that division is going to come down to the Bravos and the Marlins no matter how good the Mets' offense is.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 02:46 PM) Yes, but not because we are both Jewish. But because a vote for Kinky was a vote against politicians. I hope you didn't mean anything by that other than a legitimate question, but I don't vote for religion, I vote for stance on things that are important to me. So, and this goes for anyone who voted kinky...the racist stuff didn't bother you?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 04:09 PM) And for that reason, it should be an external agency, not Congress itself. But no matter what, because they have the ability to create the laws of the nation, Congress will be the group regulating that organization. The fact is, if you have a one-party rule system and that party is insistent on castrating whatever oversight board there is because they've decided that anyone who finds them corrupt hates baseball, apple pie, chevrolet, and America, there will be no way around it, they'll be able to neuter that investigative body. The House/Senate ethics committees work fine...if you don't have a party which has decided that any ethics body is going to focus on them and therefore the ethics process is an enemy. And no matter what you create, it is just a matter of how determined the party in power is; the Congress has enough power that they'll be able to kill oversight if that's what they want to do. If there was an independent committee of investigation for the last 2 years, all they'd have done is push through a rider on some bill stripping it of some key power in order to shut it down. I for one don't see how anything you could design would actually work better than the current system, in that it would always be subject to the whims of any corrupt supermajority. The one nice thing about having it be a part of Congress was that the minority could actually prevent it from reaching quorum and therefore prevent it from actually killing the whole process; it was all just delayed instead of dead. If it was something created by law, then a simple majority in Congress and the presidency would have been enough to kill investigations. Because of the way the ethics committee was constructed, a shutdown was not equivalent to a total neutering, which was a positive.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 04:15 PM) Hmm I figured he would have waited a little longer, but on the other hand, this is the time to be able to separate himself from Bush, while it is still acceptable. But of course, the problem is, he's spent the last 2 years trying to either move closer to Bush or even move to Bush's right in order to try to appeal to the primary base. Hence the McCain "Vote for GWB" at that presidential candidate gathering a year ago, or his support for even more troops in Iraq (which come presumably out of thin air), and so on.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 03:35 PM) Either way, its only awesome with that enforcement body actually checking the data. Without that, this is nothing but a farce. In theory, the House and Senate ethics committees were supposed to work that way; equal parts of members of each party, with the ability to launch outside investigations, but a few years ago the Republicans decided to completely remove the teeth of those committees by giving each party the ability to totally shut down an investigation without any input from the other party, and the Dems walked out in protest, shutting the whole process down.

So, for those like me watching the whole "power corrupts" meme before it even really starts...here's a good rundown of the non-Jefferson (hopefully he loses) people in the House facing potential ethics problems.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 01:38 PM) This would be awesome if they get it done. Even awesomer, if it gets through the Senate and the White House. I think it would be absolutely awesome if the Dems pushed anti-corruption legislation through both the House and Senate and the President vetoed it.

AP.

Crede gets one over ARod?

QUOTE(AbeFroman @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 01:38 PM) So what does this mean for an Arod deal? It means that the Yankees need less pitching, so it probably makes it harder for teams to pull off, as the Yanks are less desperate. QUOTE(JackTalkThai @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 01:42 PM) If that's all they wanted for Soriano, Dombrowski would have tripped over himself running to the table to sign that deal. But that's not what they wanted. They wanted Sanchez AND Cameron Maybin. lol. Which was a joke. How stupid do both sides look for not finding a middle ground? The Tigers lost a world series, and the Nationals will lose Soriano for nothing.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 01:02 PM) I'd rather the sox take a flier on Shannon Stewart if the prognosis for his foot is decent. He'd be a short timer. If KW could be convinced he was healthy, I'd have no problem with that...but I'm just not sure he could convince people that he'd stay healthy. And I'm also not sure he has enough of that speed that Ozzie/so many folks here want.

QUOTE(ptatc @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 01:09 AM) This was a matter for the legal system. legally the Federal Government couldn't do anything until the State governemnt declared the disaster and asked for help. This is where the delay occurred. Interjecting with a small fact: a Federal state of emergency was asked for by Governor Blanco and declared by FEMA on Saturday, August 27th, 2005, almost 2 full days before the storm hit Louisiana. A state of emergency was declared at the state level on Friday. Here's the declaration, if you want it. Here's the request from the next day to the executive level. Therefore, this statement is incorrect.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 10:17 AM) That's fine, I just don't understand how you were responding to that post. Trading Thome -- seems like an idea that a couple people have floated, but I haven't seen tons of people clamoring for it. He still has something of a no-trade clause.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 11:44 AM) Because I do not believe that the rehab will be as effective. I have seen players do just rehab work only to revert to surgery eventually. From my own experience with herniated disks, I always felt like the rehab work was a temporary solution. Am I forgetting something, or did Crede not have the same injury and attempt to only rehab it last year, only to have it flare up before the end of the season?

Remember remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot...

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 06:31 AM) Now can you imagine what the US is tracking? Based on the debates earlier this year, as far as I can tell, it just topped 300 million like a month ago.

J.D. Drew is an absolute moron. The whole idea of opting out of your contract early is that you'll get more money if you do so, not less. He's going to wind up in the Jeff Weaver role of last season...taking a 1 year deal somewhere because no one will give him the big contract he and Boras want. Unless he was just really, really, really unhappy with the Dodgers, which is always possible I guess.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 10, 2006 -> 07:47 AM) Of maybe the weight loss throws off his mechanics and he regresses. He seemed like he gained what, 20-40 pounds before last season, and his top fastball went from being 102 to 98 (and even slower earlier in the season). I'm hoping he gets a little better range of motion if he drops some of the weight, and it jumps his heater back up to the triple digits.

Another possibly noteworthy point: The White Sox at the end of 2005 did have to spend something like $4 million or so on buying out the end of the deals for Frank Thomas and Carl Everett...money which we don't have to repeat again this year because the only guy we're buying out was Hermanson.

Please Bobby...lose some damn weight. I bet you he regains those extra 2-3 mph if he drops 15-20 pounds.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 04:08 PM) I just want to point out that Bolton is not going to get another hearing. Of course if it were up to my party he probably would have, but Chaffey (a moderate repub) is completely against the Bolton hearing and because of that they will not have it. I'll take the direct words from Bill Frist over the NY Times. Oh and this is my first post over in these parts. Which is a good and valid point, and which I think only makes my point stronger. There's absolutely no reason to nominate Bolton again at this point. His confirmation was already dead months ago...if Chaffee wasn't going to change his mind after losing then his nomination wasn't even going to hit the floor, which means that the chances of success are zero...which basically, as far as I can tell, means that the nomination is a giant middle finger tossed in the direction of the new majority.

Ah, the ol' Uniter not Divider comes back. Yup, there's a way to create amity between the White House and its new working partners...ram through 2 nominations, one possibly controversial and one ungodly controversial, before the new working partners have a chance. Good to know that the Presidential "Middle Finger" still works quite well...because that's what this is to the Democrats. Especially the re-nomination of Bolton.

QUOTE(longshot7 @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 02:13 PM) don't fight privatizing Social Security - just get rid of it entirely!!! No.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 09:58 AM) My guess is Seattle. Supposedly Seattle pulled out of the posting bids, so they have 0 chance.

QUOTE(spiderman @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 09:42 AM) Thanks for the good information! For all practical purposes we are really at $94.4+ (+ is what salary they add back in a trade, but I'm really just expecting maybe a relief pitcher, and prospects) since a starter will be traded, and the DiamondBacks/Phillies are paying some of Thome/Vacquez. Has Kenny Williams indicated how high he will go with the payroll ? As far as I know, we have only guesses to this point as to how high JR and KW will be willing to go with the payroll.