NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 01:14 PM) How much would it cost to actually move their company to indianapolis Direct cost? A decent chunk, not a ton. In terms of human capital? They'd be permanently screwed.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 01:10 PM) Depends on if they stay because they get money or not. The cost of doing business in the state of Illinois is the problem at the center of all of this. The CME's taxes are 9.5% now in Illinois. In Indiana they would be 6.5% now, so they would save even more than the $50 million increase they just saw. If the State of Illinois comes up with a package that saves them a good chunk of that money, then their number one complaint is solved. Why should they move at that point. They won't move either way. CME Group is made up of a whole lot of very skill and knowledge-specific individuals, many of which are not willing to move to Indianapolis, or commute to Gary or the like. The brain drain would hit them real, real hard. This isn't some simple manufacturing business.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 01:04 PM) Well what do you call a team that isn't exactly favored to do anything but has the potential by most to be good? Do you really not see how your statement made no sense and was self-conflicted? You said they looked like a sleeper by "most everybody". Thus, they would not be a sleeper. Its like saying most people picked them as an underdog - if that's true, they aren't an underdog, by definition.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 01:05 PM) I lived on the near north side and commuted daily to/from downtown at all hours of the day for about 5 years. This stuff is new. Of course there have been muggings before, but not like this, and not so frequently. Call it a new tactic if you'd like, but it's "new" and it's a disturbing trend that's been going on for about a month. The only thing new about it is the method. 4 or 6 muggings in a month in River North is nothing new at all, in fact I'm sure the number is higher than that in total for a typical month.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 01:01 PM) It will also be years before any of this shows up in any statistics. That's not true at all. For a city the size of Chicago, monthly stats for crimes are quite useful, and available very quickly. In fact, CPD has a website where you can create a dynamic map of recent crimes in a given area over a given period of time, if you want to get really granular.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:58 PM) Have you been following the news? It's the same type of criminals committing the same types of crimes in some of the "safest" areas of the city. That's completely new. It's not as if the media just decided to open up a crime desk. Its not new, muggings have been happening in River North forever. The fact that its a mob action in daylight certainly makes it semi-unique, but that doesn't mean that something dramatic is happening to the city. Its just a new tactic.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:56 PM) Of course there are. I personally met one of the former heads of VP's of AIG Financial Products who lives up there (yeah, that AIGFP). I found it particularly interesting to watch that trend of tax evacuations start to turn around. This is similar to the often debated city vs suburbs debate for Chicago area businesses. Some businesses opt for the suburbs because land and taxes are cheaper, this was a big trend in the 70's and 80's here. But that trend reversed a while back because employers started to realize that it was harder to attract talent when their office was somewhere in Lake county or whatever. It limits their effective pool of talent to just those north suburbs for all basic purposes, as opposed to downtown, where all transit lines come to a head.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:54 PM) Why's that hard to believe? He's played so hard and ran so often for quite a long time now (while rarely getting a rest, unless it was with the Dodgers). Also, in today's age of baseball, we have no way of knowing what the actual aging process for players is. Its hard to believe because barring injury (which is possible here I suppose), people's speed doesn't fall off a cliff. It goes down gradually. But as I pointed out, it doesn't need to fall of a cliff for his effectiveness to have a big drop.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:51 PM) What the hell is happening to this city? This is like 3-4 events in the same amount of days. http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/news/lo...0,5229666.story This is a perfect example of how people get whipped up in a media-induced frenzy. Crime rates have been going down, a lot, for some time now. So its not about "what the hell is happening to this city". The city isn't have a problem. Its that some crimes individually are getting more disturbing, and in the case of the mobs and group attacks, its that the criminals are finding new ways to succeed. Doesn't mean the city is any less safe, as evidence tells us its in fact safer.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:46 PM) To me the question is how much "slower" is he and I don't personally know that answer. Part of him getting thrown out could just be him having a flaw in his technique when it comes to getting good jumps and part of that is about confidence. The more he "thinks" about something, the slower he might appear. As long as he has above average speed, he should be a solid player. When that skill isn't there, than I think it is time that he is reduced to more of a bench role. I personally don't know if I've seen enough to say he doesn't have the speed anymore to be effective or if it is more of a mental thing as of this point. Kind of like how fathom points out that part of his problems in defense seem to be his “timidness”. I don’t know the answer because I’m not around Pierre enough to see first-hand the difference in his actual skills (e.g., his practice, the time it takes him to get from 1st to 2nd, etc). The eye test isn’t pretty to date, but as I pointed out above, part of that could be due to practice or a slump. The longer it goes though, the more you think it isn’t a slump anymore. I doubt his speed has suddenly vanished, but it doesn't have to. Even if he's just lost a "step", that makes a big difference by itself... then its compounded if he tries to make changes to adjust. That small decline in speed can have a pretty huge impact.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:22 PM) If I was going to bet on any of the 3 players to bounce back, it be rios. He's so talented and still physically there. The problem is, he's in such a funk and mechanically I think he needs to make an adjustment to that swing. Dunn is out of shape and has a slow bat thus far and Pierre is pretty much him (just slower). That said, I still think Dunn could turn things around to (or I sure as heck hope he can). My hatred of him probably makes me more biased though. I'm just trying to point out to you guys that talking in these crazy absolutely is detrimental to the overall quality of the board. I get that Pierre isn't ideal, I really do. But I have to respond when I see some of the stuff getting thrown around in here. If a good chunk of Soxtalk ran everything, every player would get cut within a week of making the roster since as soon as something bad happens, they are immediately the worst of all time at this or that, etc. It just isn't true. Baseball is a long season and you fail a lot more than you suceed and intangibles and other factors not measured directly by some of the new power stat (like OBP/OPS/WAR/etc) do exist. And sometimes you just have to ride out guys slumps because they have proven they are capable major leaguers (no, they aren't all all stars and we'd love to have better guys at different spots) but you just have to be patient and hope it is just a slump. Think about how Boston has ridden out some of Big Papi's slumps. Just my 2 cents. I agree that the hyperbole is terrible. However, in reply to your bolded... Juan Pierre if "just slower" is no longer a starting major league ballplayer. His ability to steal a lot of bases at a 75%+ clip, and cover ground in the OF with his speed, are not pieces of his game he can do without. Without them he's just not good enough.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:18 PM) Dunn and Rios are still in their prime, Pierre's been thought of as a regressing player for a while now. There's still a good chance Rios and Dunn bounce back, especially Dunn. But there's the age/physical hurdle for Pierre to overcome. Have to agree, I think Pierre may not come back, or at least not enough. I'm sure he'll have some hot streaks just like any player, but age will not treat him well on the diamond.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:11 PM) Just for s***s and giggles, that extra fifty million dollars works out to just under a dollar a share of the outstanding shares. CME is already making a gigantic margin, and the stock price is being hit not by the tax situation, but by the regulatory haze that I have talked about before. Once that settles, and people remember that the listed futures were the least of the problems in the collapse AND the CME is diving big into clearing previously uncleared products... that stock will do quite nicely. I'd rate it a strong buy right now. And the state tax situation won't seem like much. Also, I'm betting money that the state will do something for them after their complaints. CME Group is not only one of Chicago's largest employers, it tends to employ a lot of highly paid people, and its growing a lot. Sears and Cat can't say that.

I'll be there. Of course I picked THIS game to go to in June, the worst weather the month will likely have. Ahem... are you listening, team? GO YOU WHITE SOX!!!

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 11:35 AM) They added Matsui, Willingham, DeJesus, Balfour and Fuentes. They had the best ERA in the AL last year, IIRC. They were looked at as a sleeper by most everybody. Then they wouldn't be sleepers, would they?

Chances of CME moving anything significant out of state are

To add to this topic, then there is the other variety of idiots out there. Apparently some of them who were ordered to evacuate have decided to stay. There is a picture on CNN of a dude standing there in front of his house with a garden house, when this 2000 degree mega-fire bears down on him. Yeah, that's gonna end well.

I don't know where else to post this, but I find it to be a disturbing indictment of our current culture... So, there is this huge wildfire burning in Arizona. Its a monster fire, burned like 400,000 acres so far, and keeps going. Approaching some towns now. CNN interviews a resident of one of the towns and his family, who are packing up a couple pickup trucks with everything they can fit to leave. Not everything fits of course. Their choices? --X-Box makes the cut, same with the dog --What doesn't make the cut and stays to burn: family photos, and the cat So... the X-box, easily replaceable, can go... but the irreplaceable family photos, and the LIVING THING, are left to burn? Seriously? WTF is wrong with people? Article

QUOTE (Real @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 06:14 PM) Ozzie sounds sincerely like a pissed off resentful motherf***er that we didn't draft Ozney LOL, I love it Except of course once we got to hear him speak, he was nothing of the sort. But you go ahead and assume that based on nothing.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 12:12 AM) Adam Dunn is contagious. He needs to be quarantined. There's nothing contagious, Ciolli was a K machine last year too.

QUOTE (Nokona @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 03:14 PM) Bernstein on the Score saying the Guillens feel very, very hurt and were promised that Ozney would be taken between 10-15. Yeah that's hard to believe. Though Ozzie was pretty angry today about something. If he thought Ozney was a round 10-15 guy, he's living in fantasy land.

Harrell will be in long relief I assume, which is fine for the situation, that's pretty much his ceiling.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 01:37 PM) White Sox 42nd rounder: Aaron Pangilinan, RHP, Escalon HS (CA). 6-0, 215. Brother of current Sox prospect Leighton Leighton had some off-field issues last year, hopefully his brother is a little more mature.

Marquez claimed off waivers by NYY. He gawn.

Ozney still on the board? Interesting.