NorthSideSox72

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 28, 2007 -> 12:57 PM) If the organization thought there was a non-zero chance of getting something useful out of Anderson and Sweeney within a year, this would be a sensible option as well. I wouldn't want more than one of Owens/Sweeney/Anderson in the lineup if it can be avoided. I suppose if my suggestion is Plan D, and they can't even sign Jenkins or a similar LF guy, then the backup backup plan could be a platoon of those three guys in LF and CF. But I really think that should remain Plan E, with the other possibilities (Rowand if the contract is reasonable enough, Fukodome, Andruw Jones if the price is right, Crisp if reasonable in trade, Jenkins if possible to sign) ahead of it.

Crisp is just not that great. Neither is Taveras. Not worth the money/prospects/players they would cost. If Rowand is asking for ridiculous money, if the Sawx are delusional enough to think they will get 3 good prospects for Crisp, if Fukodome goes elsewhere, and if the Sox can't swing a mega-deal for Andruw (signing) or Crawford (trade)... Then I think a backup plan should be signing Jenkins for LF, and going with Owens in CF. Trade Crede and Uribe for the best young prospects they can fetch.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 28, 2007 -> 12:10 PM) http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14713468/detail.html Stuff like this, rarely reported nationally, does so much to protect our environment. Awesome. I've said numerous times before, this is why I live the Nature Conservancy - these private grants and purchases, and the combination of easements and sensical, small-scale development, are the future of large-scale land conservation. This just happens to be someone else doing it. Great stuff. By the way, the Sangre De Cristo's are one of the most picturesque ranges on the continent, and environmentally, are an important link piece. Being generally considered the southernmost range geologically of the Rockies, their jagged peaks make an ecological highway of sorts between the heart of the Rockies in Colorado and the ranges of the Colorado Plateau (Jemez, Taylor), the eastern ridges along the Rio Grande Rift (Sandias, Manzanos, Sacrametos, San Andreas, etc.) that extend through New Mexico south to West Texas. That connection is critical for protecting and enhancing habitat for a wide variety of animal and plant species, not to mention forming a critical avian pathway.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 28, 2007 -> 12:03 PM) Right now, I think Rudy's best bet for a win may actually be Huckabee. Huckabee right now might not have the money to compete on Super Tuesday even if he wins Iowa. Rudy's money may well just carry that day, since Huckabee's lack of funds has forced him to put everything into Iowa. What a Huckabee win in Iowa might do is simply destroy the Romney campaign, because despite the fact that they've got the money to compete for Super Tuesday, they've pumped an awful lot into Iowa also, and a loss there might well kill them. I don't necessarily agree. I think Huckabee, Romney and Thompson are splitting the social conservative vote right now. As Huckabee overtakes Romney in Iowa, two things happen. One, Huckabee gets a lot more money, which he can use in NH. Two, the momentum gives Huckabee more recognition nationally, and that just adds to his positive trends lately. I think we haven't yet seen what Huckabee could do in NH with some support from the conservative base. And I'll tell ya, I think they are really getting to like Huckabee.

Holy Frijoles - we have a new leader now in Iowa... Mr. Huckabee. New poll sez... Huckabee: 28% Romney: 25% Giuliani: 12% Thompson: 11% Paul: 5% McCain: 4% Jeez. Not only has Huckabee taken a lead now (after being within 2% in a different poll a few days ago), but John McCain has dropped to 4% and 6th place. That is really bad news for McCain. I wonder if he may drop out soon - his IA numbers are falling like a rock, and hasn't been higher than 5th place in any Iowa poll in November.

Well, it looks like Giuliani's decline may steepen soon. A group of firefighters, cops and EMS personnel from FDNY and NYPD are looking to put together a PAC-like 527 group to produce anti-Giuliani ads to run in early primary/caucus states. They apparently want to make sure that people outside NY are aware of just how Giuliani handled them after 9/11 - which, it sounds like, wasn't pretty.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 10:26 PM) Why is it that someone who realizes that we can't just leave is a "crusading, change the world types"? OK, remove "crusading". By nature, if you think we should stay, you think we should change the world.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 28, 2007 -> 09:29 AM) I suppose. He is "catering" though. Which they all do... president is more of a "rock star" approach now then anything else. And a little bit of "catering" is a good thing, I'd say. You can be hard-headed on everything, or else you get what we have now. The question is, is he disingenuous? Is he misleading about his past, or about how he'd be as a President, or what choices he'd make, or who he is as a person? I think he's not. I think you are pretty much going to get what you think you'll get with him - both good and bad.

OK, who voted for Shawon Dunston?

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 11:10 PM) You don't believe Jack Morris belongs? (You're not alone. A lot of people don't.) I happen to, but I'm curious. I don't think he belongs in the first ballot class but I think he belongs. I think Morris is a bit below John. If I had to make a list, he's after those three "maybe" guys I listed.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 10:27 PM) I'm not sure that Obama is "genuine"... but he has the cleanest record due to the fact he's "young". I think he's more genuine than any candidate currently in the field. Well, he's more genuine than any of the 4 or 5 candidates in each party who are worth mentioning. I suppose that Kucinich and Paul are pretty much WYSIWYG.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Nov 28, 2007 -> 03:15 AM) Quite frankly because some fans consider Rowand to be a godsend, while others on here remember his .740ish OPS in 2005; those fans that consider Rowand a godsend are horribly mistaken, and those that compare him only to that mediocre OPS aren't giving him the credit he quite deserves. And for the right price, Rowand should be option #1 at this point. Have to agree. And given this article versus Cowley's, I am not at all convinced that Rowand is "out of the picture". If you don't read the headline and just read the article, it feels more like "Rowand and Sox not on same page", which is a very different thing than saying he's just not a possibility. No doubt KW has other things going too, but I doubt he has written off Rowand yet.

I was kind of surprised at this result from this poll question among Iowa Republicans only: 4. Do you favor a withdrawal of all United States military from Iraq within the next six months? (Republicans Only) Yes 51% No 37% Undecided 12% 51-37 to leave Iraq, even among the GOP faithful? Interesting. Thoughts or comments? I think perhaps Iowa Republicans are a little more of the independent-minded, small government and mildly isolationist variety than the crusading, change the world types.

Voted 5. In order of most deserving: Bert Blyleven Tim Raines Andre Dawson Jim Rice Harold Baines I also almost voted for: Tommy John Don Mattingly Dale Murphy I was amazed how hard it was to decide between the various outfielders - Dawson, Baines, Rice and Murphy. I think their overall values were very similar.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 09:50 PM) http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idU...ndChannel=10000 Zogby = garbage. His methods are a joke. When looking at polls, best to remove Zogby from consideration.

The race in Iowa continues to tighten up, as Huckabee keeps up his fairly amazing upward trend, in a new poll in IA... Romney: 26% Huckabee: 24% Giuliani: 14% Thompson: 10% McCain: 7% Paul: 5% This is two straight polls where Huckabee is within the margin of error of Romney in Iowa. In other news, Giuliani just can't make up ground in Iowa, and Thompson and McCain are still mired in 4th/5th. Have to say, if we actually get a Huckabee v Obama election, I'll be pretty happy. I may not agree with Huckabee on a lot of issues, or even Obama on some, but it would sure be nice to see two people running who seem genuinely... genuine.

After that ABC Poll showed Obama +4 in Iowa, people wondered if that was an outlier, since Clinton had been up in the 2 to 6 point range for a while. Well, another poll is out... Clinton and Obama: 29% Edwards 23% Richardson 6% Biden 4% So, apparently, the trend seems pretty real. There has been a swing in the past month of probably 5 or 6 points towards Obama.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 07:01 PM) General Election: Giuliani vs. Clinton Gallup 11/11 - 11/14 Giuliani ® 44, Clinton (D) 49, Und 3 Clinton (D) +5.0 General Election: McCain vs. Clinton Gallup 11/11 - 11/14 McCain ® 44, Clinton (D) 50, Und 2 Clinton (D) +6.0 General Election: Thompson vs. Clinton Gallup 11/11 - 11/14 Thompson ® 40, Clinton (D) 53, Und 3 Clinton (D) +13.0 General Election: Romney vs. Clinton Gallup 11/11 - 11/14 Romney ® 38, Clinton (D) 54, Und 3 Clinton (D) +16.0 General Election: Giuliani vs. Obama Gallup 11/11 - 11/14 Giuliani ® 45, Obama (D) 45, Und 4 Tie General Election: McCain vs. Obama Gallup 11/11 - 11/14 McCain ® 44, Obama (D) 47, Und 4 Obama (D) +3.0 General Election: Thompson vs. Obama Gallup 11/11 - 11/14 Thompson ® 38, Obama (D) 51, Und 5 Obama (D) +13.0 General Election: Romney vs. Obama Gallup 11/11 - 11/14 Romney ® 35, Obama (D) 52, Und 6 Obama (D) +17.0 California: Giuliani vs. Clinton SurveyUSA 11/09 - 11/11 Giuliani ® 42, Clinton (D) 51, Und 7 Clinton (D) +9.0 More recently... Giuliani +4 over Clinton, after being Clinton +6 recently. Clinton +2 over Thompson, where the lead had been +6 in the last poll (same link). She's trending down a bit. And that +6 for McCain is the highest in the last month, the rest are all +1 or +2 or even McCain +2. The only one she still has a statistically significant lead over is Romney.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 02:49 PM) You don't pull that kind of stuff at Christmas. You do it within the next 2 weeks. People stop paying attention to the news somewhere between the 20th and 24th in a lot of families, because either you're traveling, you're getting time off work, you're stuck at a line in an airport, the kids are home from school so you're dealing with them, and so on. There's like a 1.5 week period where people just don't follow the news that closely (Heck, think about the reaction of this country to the tsunami, took us like 3 days to really start realizing how bad it was)...which is going to be an interesting variable with Iowa at January 3rd. It's possible that whatever we see in the polling data on Dec. 20th might be the last thing that matters in the race for that reason. I think there is another slot for that to occur, right before 1/3, during New Year's week. People in IA will be fed the info because Clinton's camp will feed it to them every day throughout the week, just as the vote is about to occur.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 12:13 PM) You've seen/read "Disclosure"? Replace Demi Moore's character with Hillary Clinton and Michael Douglas's character with Barack Obama. Ew.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 11:29 AM) The thought is that either Romney or Guilianni will be the nominee on the right. If its Rudy, I'm guessing that the whole east coast bias still plays... with the exception of Rudy pulling out of Iowa with Hillary still competing. Romney though could be a whole different story. The MA Governor's mansion is further east than NYC. Also, I think Huckabee actually has an outside shot. For that matter, McCain is still not completely out of it, though he's very unlikely to win.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 10:44 AM) It has to be a real price shock to get people to change their behavior. A straightline increase over a period of years doesn't have the same effect. The 1973 oil embargo was a real good example. Well, a price shock is needed for a major short-term shift in behavior. But a long term increase, at the rate its been increasing the last 5 years, is plenty steep enough to slowly change behavior. It already is. The doubling of hybrid sales each year (or nearly so) is an indication of that. People are already changing their behavior. And I think when the average prices are in the high 3's early next year, approaching $4 in summer, that will increase that curve further.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 10:35 AM) Realistically, what percentage of the population would say that? Very few. Because most people aren't thinking long term, or alternately, can only afford to think short term. Thing is, I think you'll see $4 next year anyway, so $5 is not so out there.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 09:58 AM) No to Rowand...................time for KW to aim higher alot higher! Just curious, what CF's do you see available that are "alot higher!" than Rowand?

Here is a thought for the day... If Clinton continues to slip in the polls in IA and/or NH through December, with Obama leading or matching her, I can virtually guarantee she'll pull a nuke out of her back pocket. She's got something big on Obama saved up, I guarantee it. It may or may not even be true, or relevant, but its there. And if she sees a loss coming, she'll use it. So... what might she have, do we think?