Balta1701

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 11:08 AM) What I don't get is that people outside of this race's immediate vicinity see this as two things "Iraq War Referendum" or "Left Wing (Streisand, Soros, bloggers) taking over the party there." This race is way more complicated than that. Just like the 2004 election was more than Swiftboating and Gay Marriage. Every tough fight has a lot of variables in it. And Lieberman has shown himself to be not adept at realizing and adapting to that. That's all I've been trying to say. It's easier to present the liberals as either crazy or america-haters if that's all it's about. Forget the bashing of the party constantly on Fox, forget the Schaivo stuff, forget his positions on women's rights, forget the contempt he's shown for his own state, forget his part in helping the Repubs pass Alito and Roberts, forget his part in passing dozens of bills benefiting whoever's giving him money, none of those would fit into the "Crazy liberals" narrative.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 08:18 PM) Lopez is good at handling the bat? He has 6 sac bunts in his career. With the bases loaded, if the opposition wants to try to bunt, be my guess. With Jenks throwing high fastballs at 98 mph, I would have been more than willing to tip my cap if he executed the bunt. It's over though...time to move on to tomorrow's important game. And he has 1 sacrifice bunt since 1999. Wow.

So, I think I now have to go see "The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" or whatever the Hell it's called. They're using "Don't stop believin'" in the TV ads.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 08:08 PM) How do you address defending against a bunt in that situation? Javy Lopez could've dropped one down the line with the IF playing back, and even if he gets thrown out the runner scores, especially on a bunt to the right side with a righthander pitching and a lefthanded throwing firstbaseman in the game. Percentage wise, it was the right move. It forced the guy to make solid contact, i.e hard grounder not right at someone or a deep fly ball ... and Lopez got the job done. Was that still with Tejada on 3rd? I can't see a bunt being the smart option. He's not exactly a speed burner. And I doubt Lopez is a great bunter...and how in teh world do you get a good bunt down against Bobby Jenks anyway?

Subtle swipe at AJ's pitch calling?

QUOTE(bulokis @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 08:02 PM) I agree with you there, Anderson have the best chance to catch the balls in CF today. I cant understand why Ozzie keeps putting Mack in CF, he cant play CF! Keep Brian playing regularly, maybe he can get consistent at bats and get his bat going. I dont understand why he has to sit against a tough righty anyway, when can he learn to hit them then. Besides I thought Ozzie preach about having confidence in his players. Is sitting him against tough righty giving confidence? Ozzie said Brian has not caused us to lose ball games with his defense but I think Mack in CF does so stop putting him out there. Get his bat going? This month he's had the 2nd best average out of our regular starting 9, with a .322 Average in July.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 07:51 PM) I think Jones is a total superstar, but I don't see why we would need to replace Anderson. We don't need offense, sure we could use a legit left fielder and that will come in the off-season but the only thing this team can get that would turn us into a world series competitor is our current pitching staff to start pitching like they are capable of. I have major doubts though, since I don't think an entire staff can just decide not to stink. My only hope is that Vaz figures things out, Garland is good and Contreras is an ace and that we hope we can stay in the games that Buehrle/Garcia pitch. I think I agree with you that we are basically at the "This pitching staff is ungodly talented, all we can do now is hope for the best" stage, but there's probably 1 more thing we can do to help them: Actually put a defense behind them that can get outs. Especially in that outfield. And that means playing Brian all the time, and maybe finding a replacement for Podsednik.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 07:48 PM) Yeah that Lopez is starting to get on my nerves. Can we trade him for a reliever too?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 07:44 PM) I understand sitting BA against tough righties, but Bruce Chen (a sucky lefty)??? I don't follow, especially when our pitching has sucked horribly and we need to do all we can to not give up runs because its a lot better to minimize other teams runs than to have to score 10 to win. I don't think I like BA sitting against tough righties anyway, first and foremost because he's been hitting everyone lately, secondly because our team seems to do better against righties this year than lefties anyway (Iguchi, Thome), but far and away, because if we're facing a good pitcher, every run we give up is going to be magnified because their pitcher isn't going to give up that many, and having 2-3 extra balls drop in and around our center fielder is just going to make it harder to win games. It seems every ball that falls in Center Field when Mack is in there costs us 2x as much as every hit that Mack gets helps us. Today, prime example. One hit from Mack, but the 2 balls that fell in CF that Anderson would have had easily wound up costing at least 1 run. I honestly am hoping Mack will go into a slump soon just so he stops getting playing time out there.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 07:28 PM) You should start watching other teams play. He is solid but the best defensive CF in baseball? Come on. EDIT: Not trying to disrespect but with the limited number of posts you've made, you actually come off as a bigger homer than Hawk Harrelson. And I thought that was nearly impossible. Here's an article from BP about a month ago saying how statistically, Brian Anderson had in the first half one of the best defensive halves for a CF in HISTORY, not just the best out of this year.

QUOTE(Jake @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 06:34 PM) I took his comment to mean that we should acquire a backup OF that could play a good CF, but maybe I'm wrong. I definitely don't advocate replacing Brian and I think Brian needs little to no days off. Well, the way I read/figure it, Ozzie has for some reason decided that Brian must sit at least 1 out of every 3 days and Mack must play CF that day. This costs us, roughly, 1 out of every 3 games, at least indirectly, as with today. In other words, the only way Ozzie will stop this is to remove one part of his calculation; if Brian is not there, Ozzie can not bench Brian. Therefore, if Brian were out of the way, and another CF option were there, perhaps the chain in Ozzie's head that requires Mack in CF 1 out of every 3 games might be broken. Yeah, it's stupid. But it's no where near as stupid as playing Mack in CF.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 06:43 PM) Unfortunately for you the Supreme Court sided with the federal government in an 8-0 decision upholding federal statuates making marijuana illegal so in spite of that law it is still illegal in Alaska as well as the rest of the country by virtue of federal law. Yeah, but Alaska is too far away from the rest of the states and too sparsely populated for the Feds to actually be interested in expending resources on enforcement up there (it makes a really poor example), so if the state doesn't do the enforcing, no one will.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 06:13 PM) Hey, I hope you're right. I just don't think someone's going to take all of his contract. Pitching, even pitchers coming off of bad years, is in such high demand, that unless the contract is stupidly large, ARod-large, someone would take a gamble on him. The only question is what we can get back, and that comes down to how Garcia pitches for the rest of the season and how desperate another team is to make a run next year.

If the White Sox's pitching staff could equal what last years' did, just for the rest of this year...then the White Sox could play .900 ball.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 06:02 PM) Exemptions only exist if there is a tax. So someone has an idea for a new tax, lobbyists figure out how to keep those with access from paying it, and a new tax is introduced. I believe we are both correct. My point is it is easier to pass 100 $5 taxes than one $500 tax. Well, then let me also point out that one of the big reasons new taxes are introduced is that thanks to the exemptions for the wealthy and powerful, the older taxes don't do the job of generating the funding that they should. So, for example, 18 families can contribute a few hundred million dollars to a campaign to eliminate the estate tax, a move that would save them something like $70 billion, the government winds up needing to find a few hundred billion in funding somewhere, since we need those F-22's (no, don't ask why, we just do). And so other new taxes are born, and other new deductions are created, and so forth.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:56 PM) How we collect those taxes shouldn't be so complex. Why have 1,000s of taxes? So they can pass increases easier. We need a simpler tax system and more accountability from those that are intrusted to spend that money. No more pretending there are free lunches. Balance the damn budget and if you can't, raise taxes or lower spending. I want a statement at the end of the year that details every tax I paid, fuel taxes, income tax, sin taxes, property taxes, gains taxes, government user fees, etc. etc. You know as well as I do that the reason why we have so many different taxes, deductions, and so forth has nothing to do with making it easier to raise taxes. We have so many because each lobbyist with a ton of cash comes up with some exemption that will benefit his particular employer, and therefore it gets written into the tax code.

Jose...carry us tomorrow. PLease.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:11 PM) That's not going to happen. Ozzie will continue to sit Brian once every 3 games like he has for most of the season so it's KW's job to cater to Ozzie's idiocy. You give him a guy who actually knows how to play defense in CF and can hit a little, you force Ozzie to put a good defensive player out there at a key position day in and day out. So you'd be advocating finding another CF just so that Ozzie might stop playing Mack out there? Hmm, this makes a strange amount of sense...and is probably as good of a justification for replacing Brian as I've seen (and about the only one IMO).

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:47 PM) He wanted him to go upstairs as much as inside. In on his hands, which was a good call IMO but again, it was a missed location, a mistake. And it led to the loss. They had two hit batsmen who came around to score, and they lost by one run. There were a lot of things that led to the loss. When Mack short-hopped that ball in Center Field in like the 4th inning, it allowed another run to score, and Anderson would have had that ball easy. Pick your item to beach about, there were a lot of stupid things done by about 10 people on that team today (Dye gets a free pass).

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:44 PM) No. It was the heater as you correctly state, he wanted to come inside, and got too far inside. He was geeked up I'd imagine and it ran too far in. A mistake. Lack of execution. I know some on this site think Hawk Harrelson is senile but once again he made a great point today. He said they Sox pitchers are throwing too many pitches to these hitters and they are relying too much on these hitters to get themselves out. He said, and I agree with him, they need to go right at these guys a lot more aggressively. And that means pitching inside more, which is an entirely different topic for an entirely different thread. And they were actually pointing out prime examples of it during the game, getting ahead of guys 1-2 and then winding up with full counts. Hard to argue with them on that.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:41 PM) Nope, it was a 98 mph that missed its spot by 3 feet. How in the world did Tejada's arm avoid snapping in half then?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:39 PM) I think we have the arms here so unless we are going to go out and swap starters with someone I really don't see us doing anything. At this point, I'm still really scared to stand pat. This team just does not look like a championship team. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like one because it can't pitch, and the only guy out there who can help with that would be a terrible acquisition (Zito).

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:32 PM) I've come more around to the lack of players execution. It's just terrible. We talked yesterday about the awful pitch selection. The same thing happened with Jenks hitting Tejada. Jenks best pitch has been his curveball this season. As funny as it sounds, his 97 mph is his set-up pitch. There were too many examples this weekend of not trying to put away the hitter...and it was why every hitter for the Orioles had like 10 hits this wknd. As far as my eyes could tell, that pitch that hit Tejada was the curve ball?

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:28 PM) That is exactly what I would've done ... yank him after the out on Conine. He can't rely on Cotts to get an out vs. Markakis ... we have problems. However that doesn't absolve Vazquez of the blame of plunking Patterson, it was the same dumb mistake Jenks made plunking Tejada in the 9th. Do you sense a pattern. Pitchers not executing. That's been the pattern almost since April.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:19 PM) Would you do this deal? Vazquez + $15M cash + Broadway + Fields for Zito? So, basically, we'd be giving up all that for 2 months of a pitcher and 2 draft picks. I just don't like the price for a Zito when the chances of resigning him are absolutely zero. QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 30, 2006 -> 05:26 PM) Is some team really doing to be stupid enough to take Vazquez or Garcia off of our hands without us eating a decent chunk of their salary? I don't think anyone will. To get rid of either of them, we'll have to throw some money the other team's way, too. Someone will take them if offered. Especially if somehow either one of them happened to have a good end to this season, but if you put them out there, someone will take them. Especially Garcia - veteran pitcher, with good history, bad 06 season, but expiring contract? If Garcia keeps struggling, he won't be getting us a young Pujols back in trade, but he'll be moveable.