Balta1701

Wow, I agree with Nuke. Nice. Price controls are particularly bad in this case as all that lowering the price of oil artificially through government action will do is give Americans less of an incentive to become more fuel efficient. Here's a hint...you think Exxon's profits are too high? Move closer to where you work. Don't drive to the grocery store for 1 little item if you could either wait or bike there. Bike or walk anywhere you possibly can. Turn down your thermostat a little bit more. Turn off the lights when you walk out of a room, or when you're sitting in a room not using that much light. Etc.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 01:52 PM) There is a new law somewhere in committee at the federal level right now to more fully disclose executive pay to the public. Real compensation, non-cash included, is to be given out in plain language terms. This could help give the markets more complete information on just how much profit companies are throwing away at a small handful of people. Stocks will suffer for it. Boards will force companies to tighten up on that. At least, thats the theory anyway. But of course, the counterpoint to that "theory" is to say that if a company knows what all of its competitors are paying their execs in total...they will actually have to pay more in order to "stay competitive" or "attract top talent" or whatever other B.S. they use every time they give one of those massive CEO contracts out. If half of the money was hidden as stock options and unreported...then it also is unreported to the guy who wants that same contract.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 01:57 PM) Don't forget that Boston took on Mike Lowell's entire 2-year, $18 million dollar contract. He sure sucked horribly last season (roids?). I didn't forget that, but let's also not forget that they cut salary by getting the Bravos to pay a portion of Renteria's remaining deal (like $6 mil a year or so), and no longer have to pay Mueller, who made $2.5 mil last year as well. They also are out from under Kevin Millar's $3.5 mil deal. So, salary cuts: Removal of: Damon, who made $8.25 mil last year and will make $13 next year Mueller: $2.5 mil Renteria: $10 mil Millar: $3.5 mil Doug Mirabelli: $1.5 mil Additional Salary Crisp - league minimum Lowell: $9 mil 1 year price on Renteria: $11 mil Gonzalez: $3 mil. Loretta: ~$2.75 mil Beckett: $2.4 mil For the first year, they're spending a little bit more, but after that, since they also got rid of Renteria, they get a lot of money freed up by adding some youth and dropping Damon. And I think they probably got better while doing so...especially if Damon really is starting to wear down like he showed towards the end of last year.

Well...Overall...yeah they didn't have a bad offseason...it would have cost them what, $13 mil a year for the next 4 years to keep Damon, but through all their shuffling, they spread out about $14 mil for this season, got younger, added an arm to their bullpen in Riske, freed up money to spend next offseason by not signing Damon, traded a backup catcher for a .300 hitting 2nd baseman, and traded another prospect to get a potential ace (taking a bit of a salary hit in the process.) It's not the greatest offseason in human history, and a lot of it depends on Beckett's ability to stay healthy...but they've put themselves in position to contend this year and freed up salary for next year to make a run at whoever they want (one of the Lee's?). That's not a bad set of dealings. If Lowell turns out to be non-terrible...then it could even be a good set.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 12:53 PM) Defensively. Damn sure not offensively. Yet.

There was actually some real studies on upward mobility in the world released sometimem about the middle of last year. They hit the pages of the WSJ, NYT, etc. Here's a summary I found with a brief Google search.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 11:21 AM) Ugh. I hope not. Ethanol still requires oil, not just in substance but to produce it. And the prices are still naturally higher than regular gas - they are propped up with subsidies. Or at least they were a few years ago. Maybe that's changed with the higher gas prices. If so, it does make a nice bridge. So do hybrid cars. LAT

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 12:13 PM) I doubt that CBS wants her to do it. Yeah, when Fox is willing to remove contestants from reality shows over things like this...something tells me it shan't be happening.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 08:35 PM) Roids are definately a possibility. But G&T made a good point about the Homerun Derby. Remember Konerko's 2003 season after he was in the Homerun Derby in 2002? Konerko said that the Derby screwed up his swing. He also supposedly played the last half of 02 with a broken foot, and it hadn't completely healed when 03 started, according to CSN a few weeks ago.

I'm not even going to waste my time trying the DirecTV sports package again...I'm just going to assume the games will be blacked out, just like last time.

You know...the Red Sox are gonna have a ton of money to spend next year...Crisp instead of Damon, out from Renteria's contract, (does Lowell's contract end this year?), etc.

Um, we had the 2nd lowest ERA in the AL I believe. Not only do the Twinkies have to avoid backsliding...they need us to backslide too. That's still only 3 major starting pitchers. We have 6. They are counting on a lot from guys like Liriano, etc. The Sabermetric guys think he will, but stats don't tell you about attitude. Also...they don't say how much he needs to improve on those. With what the Sox did in getting Thome...he has to improve on them A LOT. 30-40 home runs are mandatory if they want to pass the Sox and Thome and PK stay healthy. Agreed. Agreed, and doable...but he has to stay healthy. It also may take even more than that to pass us if we pitch well. Agreed...but again, he doesn't say how much stimulation is necessary. Give me numbers...average, SB, etc. But how many more balls would Hunter let hit the ground if he didn't crash into the wall as much? Good luck with that. Yeah, if they do all of those...they might have a shot at us...they probably actually need to do better than those if our guys don't take any major steps back next year.

The only part I disagree with is the mushroom cloud part...since basically it doesn't agree with the rest of the column. So on 1 hand...it would take a mushroom cloud for the city to no longer be a cubs town...but on the other hand the Sox could pull it off if they keep winning? Zwuh?

The Democrats voting against Cloture: Bayh, Evan (D-IN) Biden, Joseph R., Jr. (D-DE) Boxer, Barbara (D-CA) Clinton, Hillary Rodham (D-NY) Dayton, Mark (D-MN) Dodd, Christopher J. (D-CT) Durbin, Richard (D-IL) Feingold, Russell D. (D-WI) Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA) Jeffords, James M. (I-VT) Kennedy, Edward M. (D-MA) Kerry, John F. (D-MA) Lautenberg, Frank R. (D-NJ) Leahy, Patrick J. (D-VT) Levin, Carl (D-MI) Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) Mikulski, Barbara A. (D-MD) Murray, Patty (D-WA) Obama, Barack (D-IL) Reed, Jack (D-RI) Reid, Harry (D-NV) Sarbanes, Paul S. (D-MD) Schumer, Charles E. (D-NY) Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI) Wyden, Ron (D-OR)

Jesus H. Christ. Matthews again.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 04:01 PM) Haha, so true. Many of the posters there would rather trade for Zito than Contreras. I really can't argue with that. Zito has had more consistent success than Contreras. If I were sitting there, not having watched a ton of Sox games last year...I'd go with the lefty who had won a Cy Young too. That said...If I had to pick the Zito of last year versus the Contreras of the 2nd half last year...there's not a doubt in my mind I pick Jose, even over the righty.

QUOTE(Frank the Tank 35 @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 05:20 PM) In addition, how many of Dye's injuries were freak accidents? Spider bites. That's all I'm gonna say about that. Spider bites.

QUOTE(AirScott @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 03:36 PM) it was originally an interview about Holmgren. can't blame him for answering questions that he was asked. Just like T.O.?

The motion for cloture on the nomination of Justice Samuel Alito has reportedly passed. He will serve on the Supreme Court.

Picturing AJ bashing someone over the head with the trophy....

I'll take any publicity our team can get. Sells tickets. And I think he has a much better chance of getting hurt driving to the WWE event than he does actually doing anything there.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 02:00 PM) I will add that I saw him at the bulls game on sat. And he looked to be close with crede, cotts, konerko, and BMAC. Aww damn, Crede and BA were there too? I had to rush back into the room when I heard one of them announcers say "And we had some special guests here at halftime"...I only managed to make out Konerko, Cotts, BMac (hard to miss) and Man So Lee I think.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 09:33 AM) my bad. didn't really think of this being a "political" debate topic. more of a business debate topic. as-in, market sets the price, blah, blah. If you're asking for government interference in market pricing for a vital good with a highly inelastic demand curve (which thus produces large increases in price associated with small increases in demand), then yes it is very much a political topic.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 09:19 AM) Borch is the easy pick right now, but if Owens comes on really strong,and Borch really screws up out his chance, I dont think Kenny and Ozzie will have any problem putting him on the bench. I still don't like the idea of putting owens in the big time yet...he's only had 1 really successful year in the minors as far as I know (last year at AA ball), he hasn't really faced even AAA pitching, he has several things to learn still (defense, base-stealing techniques), and as far as I know his arbitration clock hasn't started yet. I know it doesn't seem like a huge thing, but if Borchard doesn't make the 25 man roster this year...we lose him completely. Someone will claim him off waivers. If nothing else, I'm just going to continue hoping for an average year from him just so we can trade him to someone desperate for an outfield bat after an injury. If we've invested that much time and that much $$ in a guy...if there's any potential left there at all (and he still does perform pretty well at AAA), then I don't think it's a good idea to just waste all that investment.

Did anyone else read the title of this thread and think "He gone"?