Balta1701

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 10:40 AM) ferry needs to find an all star free agent to complement lebron and if he does the cavs are goin to the playoffs Ilgauskas was an all-star last year.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 11:33 AM) Both teams should be happy without a doubt. Morse and Reed look like being good players for a long time for the M's, they just have to get Miggy hitting now. And then there's Garcia. Russ Ortiz got over $30 million this off-season. Nuff said. Russ Ortiz got a lot of money because he was in the magic hands of Leo Mazzone and GM's haven't figured out yet that Leo's actually related to Jesus. I swear that guy does for pitchers what Coors Field does for batters. Millwood, Neagle, Ortiz, Glavine, how much better were each of them when they pitched for Mazzone?

Hell, if we didn't grab Garcia, there's a pretty good shot that the Yankees would have ended up with another world series trophy last year too...since most everyone seemed to think they were first in line with Seattle until KW jumped in, and 1 starting pitcher would almost certainly have made the difference for them in the ALCS. I'm not so sure Seattle's too happy that they agreed to take Olivo though.

The Astros may not be in contention this year, but they have a nucleus of guys that they can build around who I really doubt they'll be trading. Oswalt, Lidge, Petitte...I figure those names will come up since the Astros are out of the race, but given their contract status, I find it difficult to believe that any of them will move for anything but an outrageous deal.

"I ask Jo-Bo to come, and take fear from bats. I offer him cigar, and rum"

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 10:36 AM) yeah i cant say i saw that bmac yet this year except for maybe at the cubs game, seems like every time he gets a lead he blows it or our bullpen does I still say that the pitch he's missing is his changeup. If he gets that pitch back to where it was in the Spring, no one will hit him. Without it, he's a 2 pitch pitcher with a decent curve ball and an average fastball.

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 10:28 AM) This is why I have little respect for those who voted in favor of this ruling. First of again it separates religion from philosophy. So it's ok for scientologists to put a doctrine in a court room because they are not a "religion" per-se? It's ridiculous. But even worse is their reference to "religion" in general. The doctrine for sep of C&S pertains to a predominance of any one religion over another. It does not imply that religion in general be treated as a taboo. Yet that is exactly what these recent rulings amount to by the USSC on matters of religion. Here is your biggest flaw in your argument...the doctrine of sep of C&S pertains to dominance of one religion over another, exactly as you specify. So, how exactly does having a public entity order the display of the Ten Commandments, and only the ten commandments not constitute a public entity giving predominance to one religion over another? The court said today in the Texas case that the line was not crossed because the ten commandments were not being displayed on their own. Therefore, that display was not giving predominance to any religion; it was acknowledging history. Religion should actually be a taboo subject to the point that a public body should be able to give prominence to a religion just because the majority of either the public body or its constituents are of that religion. But if the document is displayed in such a way that it is not giving a dominant position to 1 religion over another, there's no problem with it.

Anyone know of any history between Larry Brown & Danny Ferry? That could well be a sign about whether or not Brown will be working for the Cavs next year.

I bet that in 3 weeks, any talk of the Marlins dealing people will have subsided. Baseball is a game of streaks and everyone here knows it...the Marlins aren't that far behind in that division, the Nationals have been hot, the Phillies have cooled off, the Marlins started the season on fire and cooled off...they're due to make another run sometime soon, and then they'll be right back near the top of that division.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 07:27 AM) We have 3 great starters that we can afford to sign for the next 5 years - Buehrle, Garcia, and Garland. If we develop BMac, he could be a very high quality but cheap 4th guy. We then need to find a 5th guy. I think it could be Neal Cotts. I would let Contreras and El Duque walk when their contracts are up. There's also no reason to assume we won't be getting additional help from the minors...Gonzalez, Broadway, etc., might be available within a couple of years. I'm still a fan of Cotts in the bullpen. You don't find left handed relief pitchers who can go 2 innings and get a ton of outs that often. As long as he's successful in the bullpen, I think he should stay there. But I am completely with you in saying that we shouldn't mortgage what we have coming up on the off chance that some player could push us the extra inch, when a.) we don't know that we don't have what it takes to win already, b.) we could end up far more dominant in the future with the young guys and c.) holding onto your young guys and developing them saves you a ton of money over paying higher prices for veterans (thus...bringing along BMac helps you pay to keep Buehrle)

I will continue to hope that one of these days the BMac from spring training will suddenly emerge...

Michael Tomasky is one of the sources cited by Klein's book...and interestingly enough, in his first read-through of Klein's book, Tomasky found Klein deliberately misquoting Tomasky's own book.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 08:20 AM) Do you know how hard it is to prove libel/slander? It's even harder to prove it against a public figure. Klein's book is basically nothing but a summary of a bunch of other poorly-sourced allegations that were tossed out against the Clintons over the years. For some great fun, you can hear Klein himself fall apart during his appearance on the Al Franken show last week when Al (shocking!) called him on factual mistakes.

Read their rulings...the court allowed specific sorts of displays of the ten commandments, where the things weren't displayed as part of an overt religious display. For example, the court allowed a display of the ten commandments on government property in Texas, where the religious message was a part of 17 different historical displays on a couple acres of property. They did not allow the overt display of only a ten commandments monument. In other words, they drew the line right where it should be...you can show the ten commandments if your goal is not to stricly promote Judeo-Christian beliefs. If you put it with something, so that it's not just promoting one religion over all others, then it's fine.

Let's go big Jon...Lucky number 13! Let's see how the Cubs do against a pitcher who can actually use the Strike zone.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 07:16 PM) At what point do you consider them to be sellers rather than buyers? When they are no longer in 2nd place in the division. Or, when they drop below .500. Think about the Flubs...they're in 2nd place, sitting @ .500, and most everyone would consider them to be buyers.

If the Yankees make the playoffs, it will be entirely because they outscored people. They do not have the pitching to make the playoffs, barring a major trade or two. The old adage is that good pitching beats good hitting. I would much rather face the Yankees with our pitching staff than Boston, who has some pitching of their own.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 04:10 PM) The strike zone wasn't nearly as bad as I believe you think it was today. Not only that, but Maddux deserves the benefit of the doubt from the umpire a lot more than Contreras does. The strike zone was not the reason we lost today. Contreras pitching like a pussy in the first inning was. That I will grant you, but I think Maddux's strike zone was what made sure our guys only scored 2 runs.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 04:00 PM) Anyone throws below 90 and our guys s*** themselves to pull the ball. The only way to beat Maddux who lives on the outside corner is to hit oppo. We do this yesterday however the minute our team goes down a few runs everyone is up there swinging and trying to pull the f***ing ball. Hopefully they get a better approach to the plate tomorrow. I still say there was nothing we could have done against Maddux. The strike zone he was throwing to was the Maddux strike zone - every pitch even remotely near either corner was called a strike. With a plate that large, our guys really didn't have a chance...if they look outside they have to swing at pitches that they can't hit, and then they get beat inside because they have no choice but to lean, if they look inside there's no way they can reach pitches that far outside.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 04:04 PM) Another cuban has broken the 4 ERA level. These guys have got to throw strikes, they need to stop giving every team extra chances. It's hard to throw strikes when the strike zone shrinks 6 inches per side every time Maddux leaves the mound and you take over.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 04:00 PM) Or the fact that our number 3 hole had a terrible game today, unable to get the runner home in a few potentially big situations? Our #4 hitter had a terrible game yesterday. Rowand looked terrible today because he couldn't hit 1 pitch...a sinking changeup on the inner half. He had a bunch of swings that were right on time on the pitch, but it sunk away from his bat and he never figured it out.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 03:34 AM) "Cirillo placed on DL with fractured hand Infielder expected to miss an estimated six weeks" http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/NASApp/ml...t=.jsp&c_id=mil I saw the pitch last night...late innings from one of the Twins relievers...nailed him...bounced off into the air, looked painful as all Hell.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 03:51 PM) I still think that against a pitcher like Maddux, Thomas should have been in the lineup. I like Frank's chances against the slow stuff a lot more than I do against Prior's stuff tomorrow. And the Home run that Carl hit?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 25, 2005 -> 03:46 PM) Its funny, when our offense clicks we hit pitches to right. Then they are forced to pitch inside and we pull line drive homers. When our offense blows, we lunge at crap away and try to pull it. Or we have excuse me swings on the outside corner and just slap crap to right. Square the ball up and hit it where its pitched. Maddux pitched us away and we got pull happy. Arow is definately trying to pull everything now. Joe Crede yesterday hit the ball the otherway. Today he fell over lunging at a pitch in the oppo batters box, rolling his wrists over. This is why he will be a 240 and below hitter in the majors. Conteras should not be allowed to think. Watching him shake off AJ in the first inning made me want to puke. How does someone who has a 96 mph fastball not want to throw it and just fall in love with his junk. He pitches backwards. Irish...the biggest problem I saw was that Maddux/all the Cubs pitchers were getting pitches in the left handed batters box called for strikes all day. Our guys didn't have a chance on a lot of those, but they were called strikes. So either they could take the pitch and strike out, or they could swing at pitches 6 inches outside the strike zone and try to protect the plate. Contreras et al would then throw the same pitches and they'd be called balls. ArRow's problem today was he couldn't hit that sinking pitch on the inside half...he swung over it like 4 times, but his timing looked good.

Well, the one thing we can say about this game is that Jose Contreras beat himself...he couldn't throw strikes, and it killed us.