Balta1701

QUOTE (shipps @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 12:53 PM) I really dont see the reason why we still have Chris out there this time of year. I continue to think it's also very smart to get him throwing extra innings at this time of year to stretch his arm out on the off chance that he is needed in a playoff run during these next couple years. This is endurance training.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 12:47 PM) BMW was also hit with this issue on their diesels. Wonder how many other car manufacturers are / were doing this? Where did you see that? The report I saw was that this was discovered because a research group was comparing BWM and VW diesels in real world tests and found that BMWs closely matched their lab performance in nitrogen emissions whereas the VW models were like 60000% worse or something on that order (and I'm not lying about the number, it was a factor of several thousand).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 23, 2015 -> 12:28 PM) all because some people decided to put some illegal code into the software system. Let's not undersell this, this wasn't just "illegal code inserted into a software system", this was a deliberate effort to defraud the system to sell more vehicles. They wanted to market these cars as "clean diesel" so that people who had environmental concerns would purchase them, but they also wanted to have their cars feel more overpowered on the road compared to what anyone else has tried with similar models and do so with a lower total cost. This was a major part of why those cars existed in the first place - had they actually met emissions standards they would have sold significantly fewer cars or made much less money on them, either due to higher costs or due to people turning away from them due to them being more substantially underpowered. As stated above, I know people who purchased these cars. They came to that decision because: they're a good value, good gas mileage, environmentally sound, and solidly performing/reliable car. They only got to that point through fraud. Change 2 of those items, either the affordability or the performance/gas mileage, and they would not have purchased those cars.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 23, 2015 -> 12:14 PM) There were shutdowns during 6 of Reagan's 8 years in office, though they totaled up to only 14 days. The last two shutdowns occurred with Clinton and Obama in office and those two totaled up to 27 days. So at the national level, Democrats have not been willing to cause as much damage with their shutdowns. As to the state level shutdowns ss2k mentioned, the one in Indiana was a legislative walkout that prevented a specific bill from getting passed. It didn't stop government work and stop employees from getting paid the way the Federal shutdowns have. (Although I do still think it was wrong of them to walk out like that.) IIRC there was also a different setup during the Reagan years where the shutdowns also weren't as government-wide and new laws were passed afterwards making it harder for agencies to continue operating.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 12:22 PM) Also "being an average CEO in a declining market" isn't exactly the typical private resume we've seen touted for president of the united states. But her reputation as that CEO really wasn't good, it was a drag on her in the California gubernatorial race. When the only relevant portion of your resume is "I did okay in a bad situation", not sure the desire to try and go straight to the top of government. Try actually winning a state race first. If we're going to bring that up I cannot help but do this.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 10:45 AM) Wouldn't FanGraphs' numbers compensate for the lack of defense behind him? I've been pondering this for a while because there's something really odd about the White Sox fangraphs/BR WAR numbers. When I looked a few weeks ago the Sox had by far the biggest split between their fangraphs WAR and their B-R WAR numbers - fangraphs gave the pitchers much more credit while B-R was giving more to the lineup. There were other teams like this, but there wasn't an obvious pattern to it. If you looked at the teams that were terrible on defense, only the White Sox stood out with that same pattern, and the teams that were good on defense other than the Cardinals didn't obviously stand out the other way, so it's not just "Something that normally happens to teams with bad defense". I'm still trying to figure out what exactly that means. Some hypotheses I have include "The White Sox pitchers are unusually bad at giving up hard-hit contact" so that fangraphs is penalizing the defenders more than it needs to and rewarding the pitchers more than it needs to or "the White Sox are unusually bad at defensive positioning" so that balls are falling way more than they should even taking into account our defenders being really bad. I haven't yet figured this out, but it's an interesting subthread to this season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 12:15 PM) 100 years from now we might be saying the same thing about Chinese, Indian, etc. Most of the world doesn't play baseball. It doesn't diminish what they did in the moment. There's something fundamentally different though about "rules stating that people who are great players already aren't allowed to play".

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 11:54 AM) It worked just fine in 2005. I would argue this team has spent the last 10 seasons doing very much the opposite of what helped assemble that team in 2005. They were built through trades, drafting, and free agency...and in virtually every case the White Sox acquired someone who was undervalued. There was almost no one on that roster that they paid full price to acquire in either trade or free agency. Contrast that with what we did last offseason as an example, where we paid high prices for free agents to outbid people rather than looking for value additions and you might have a formula for why we've struggled to replicate that season.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Sep 23, 2015 -> 09:56 PM) Highly doubt any team is giving up 3-5 players "who can hit" for one player, especially in the era of the pitcher right now. I think some people are way over-estimating the package we could get. Which is the best argument for why we shouldn't trade him any time soon.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 23, 2015 -> 06:10 PM) I would bet that Soto does not get $5M per year. I'm uncertain but that's what he's been worth this year. How much would you be willing to go for him?

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Sep 23, 2015 -> 05:06 PM) Montas is fine. what is f***ing alarming is Avi Garcia. An ISO of 108 and an OPS of 677? From a horrible RF? I've defended him all season but I'm done. I'm not even sure it's worth giving him 600 PA next season. If he doesn't earn it I'm fine with cutting him off after the first half and going elsewhere even in my rebuilding plan.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Sep 23, 2015 -> 05:45 PM) I wish they would give more thought to bringing Soto back but it seems everyone has moved on. How much are you willing to pay for Soto? Based on both sites he's been worth about 1.2 WAR this season - that means he's been worth >$5 million on a 1 year deal. Would you be willing to pay that for next year? If you offer Arbitration to Flowers he's probably about $4 million, even if Soto were to come at a discount is this the catching rotation you'd pay $8 million+ for?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 23, 2015 -> 05:46 PM) Who would trade for Forte? Who needs a running back?

Basically as of now I'm going to throw up my hands and ignore this story until something official happens because it's officially crossed the line to surreal. I don't see any other way to respond to what we've seen so far.

So from reading this thread, people are somehow surprised that a guy who has never pitched more than 120 innings in a season,

Still 1-1? Anything brewing in the 10th?

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 09:04 PM) Seems more like a thread about a kid who is being manipulated by the adults in his life to create a s*** storm. No one made them haul him out of school in handcuffs and question him with no parents or lawyer while being unable to describe what the "larger purpose" of a clock was. His family clearly has some media skills. Would we be better off not knowing about cases like this? Would we be better off if they happened and no one knew about them? Because the right response should not be "gosh it's a conspiracy", it's "gosh, I wonder how many different people stuff like this has happened to in cases where there wasn't someone there creating publicity". And of course, here's one case we heard about because of this one - we talk about a "school to prison pipeline" because kids do things like that and if they're the wrong group, they wind up in jail and their education is ruined. One unjust case we hear about, the arresting people get embarrassed, and the problem is that we're hearing about it?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 07:44 PM) You are no different then Greg. Just like Greg, you focus on every negative out their (in his case...it is violence...in your case it is race). Reality is significant progress has been made in terms of race / sexual discrimination. Is it perfect, no, but we are light-years ahead of where we were previously. Is it perfect, no, and you'll tell me how my argument about what I do doesn't matter, but if everyone treated everyone equally it would matter. I'm married to a minority and my kids are minorities and my daughter is a female and minority, so double minority. I can tell you that I will raise my kids to believe they can do anything. I will not ingrane one iota of because you are a women X or you are not white then this is going to happen. Even if it means they have to drive for more, my kids are going to be raised being role modeled by parents who are accepting and they will have that mentality. Could someone take issue and still not give them that chance in the future, sure, but If that is the case, I want them to use it as extra motivation to work harder because they can. You can say I live in a world of lala land but that is my mindset. I'd rather people spend time thinking they can vs. they can't and why not me vs. it can't be me. We're in a thread about a case where a kid fooled around with a digital clock, added in a hologram, showed it to people at school, and wound up carried out of the school in handcuffs, and his last name was Muhammad.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 06:49 PM) Such a freaking terrible post. This post is right up their with this whole thread. Then let's make a world where I can't make that remark.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 06:11 PM) Zobrist doesn't strike me as a guy who would sign with a team so far away from the playoffs. He's kind of old and this is his first time hitting the free agent market. He'll take the most money he can get.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 05:35 PM) Arrieta will make him look like a genius. Gerrit Cole will disagree.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 04:32 PM) The kid should get a F in his engineering class for ripping off an already made clock and trying to call it his own. but fear of islamophobia will get him a full ride to MIT. You could take a clock apart and rewire it back in middle school?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 03:51 PM) It still looks like a story where pretty much every authority figure involved should be ashamed of themselves/removed from their position. How could it be a "hoax?" The kid claimed it was a clock from the start. There's been no deception on his part. Even if the father was attempting to "make a point," that would still require the teacher, school administration and the police to all act stupidly and in concert in order for it to actually result in anything. Also, lol a link to Pam Geller. eta: as for "where's the media coverage now?!?!" the story happened, it's pretty much over. what do you think they should be covering? I think it's a truly brilliant strategy on his family's part. I mean, think about it. Nothing bad ever happens to people of minority groups when they're in the hands of the police and I defy anyone to provide any recent examples to the contrary.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 02:53 PM) Who are these people? The post I quoted described him as "one of the bright spots this season" and said that the White Sox basically got what they paid for from him.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 01:26 PM) Said it yesterday in the game thread... No idea who will ultimately have the better career, but for 2016, I'd rather see Thompson get the at-bats. If I'm not forced to choose between the two and can play the game the right way, my real answer is that Garcia is the starter at least out of the gates and neither LaRoche nor Cabrera play when there is a LHP on the mound, leaving plenty of opportunities for TT to get at bats against lefties and to maybe earn PAs against righties when Eaton needs a day off. That said...if you want to "have a competitive team on paper in 2016" the real answer is probably neither of them.