NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 02:58 PM) Sure it is. That doesn't mean it isn't true though. Hell Blago is a product of Madigan himself, so he probably know the dealmaking better than most. 1. Lisa Magidan was not going to take that seat, even if it was offered. 2. Both she and her father have already said, clearly, that no such discussions occurred... and note that the tapes do not reflect such a conversation in any way. 3. Blago is absolutely not a "product" of Madigan. Quite the opposite in fact, they hated each other. And I don't use that word lightly here. Criticize Madigan's politics and methods all you want, I won't go out of my way to defend them. But let's at least try not to have opposite day here.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 19, 2011 -> 12:17 PM) What we need is more guns and less regulation: via So explain to me what gun control laws would have accomplished here. You want to make it illegal for a 6 year old to carry a gun to school? Guess what... it already is, in multiple ways.

Sucks, but its still mid-April. The posts ready to write him off for the year or the whole contract already are hilarious.

Tyler Kuhn es en feugo. I remember seeing some info from a scout about him... he just plain can hit. Problem is, he's mediocre or worse defensively at his many positions. This scout said he was so type-cast as such, that they even refer to other prospects with similar skill sets as "Tyler Kuhns".

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 18, 2011 -> 02:32 PM) Then I hope you like the Cubs, because the Sox would have been gone to St Pete. It was about 12:30am, or about 30 minutes past the "deadline" to get the bill passed to build the new park. And that was the cheapassed stadium that we got built. If they had demanded something like a retractable roof, the team would have been gone. I was talking once to a cousin who is an architect, we were discussing the highly specialized field of sports stadiums. A stadium with a retractable roof, all else roughly equal, costs about TWICE as much to build. Its not just some small add-on, its hugely expensive.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 18, 2011 -> 01:52 PM) Its akin to me calling the Democrats all racist because of Jesse Jackson and company. Yes, thank you. Now to piss off the other side... I do think the Tea Party will tend to have more racism in it than, say, a Dennis Kucinich rally. As I said, that isn't because the Tea Party is racist - its because the Tea Party attracts right wingers of varying breeds, and that tends to encompass some racist groups. Which is really unfortunate for everyone involved - it makes the rest of the Tea Party look bad, it partially legitimizes morons who think that way putting their influence on larger coattails, it creates ignorance on the other side of the aisle because they can point and say "look! Racists!!!", and it derails useful polical discourse.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 18, 2011 -> 01:46 PM) Meh. It doesn't seem to be a few outliers in this case. Actual leaders get caught repeatedly doing or saying racist things. And yes I'm sure not everyone in the party is racist but "probably" is an understatement. Look at these two statements: "The Tea Party is racist" "The Tea Party seems to have a lot leaders/spokespeople who are racist" To me, those are vastly different statements. The former is untrue and does the exact thing you are railing against. The latter can be demonstrated in fact, and I'd agree with you.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 18, 2011 -> 01:21 PM) The Tea Part isn't racist. I swear. Ugh. Can't believe I am going to defend the Tea Party, but here I go... Are there racists in the Tea Party? Of course, just like there are in any other political party or sub-party. Does the Tea Party probably attract racism more than other political segments? Probably, by nature of the fact that they attract the right wing in general, and there is a portion of that part of American politics that still thinks that way. Is the Tea Party racist? Of course not, since you can't say everyone, or even be confident of a majority, feel this way. As much as I hate people who are as ignorant and small-minded as this idiot who sent the email... and hate even more that there are other idiots who follow this idiot "leader" and so the idiocy proliferates... I think I despise even more than either of those the broad characterization of millions of people by the actions of individuals. Do you not see the hyporcisy here? You hate that someone in a leadship position would seek to insult and degrade a group of people (a race in this case) by characterizing them all as something insulting.... and then you do the exact same thing by calling all Tea Partiers racists.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 11:51 AM) Three straight (parts of..) seasons at Winston Salem. Time to move him up. Yeah, I had assumed he'd be in B-Ham, but I think they held him back since they were moving him to starting. He keeps pitching anything like this and he'll move up as quickly as slots allow for it.

The name Hector Santiago is becoming interesting. LHP who was a reliever last year, he got an extended look in ST this year... now he's been converted to a starter. Line so far over two starts: 9 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 18 K. Also his GO/AO is 2.00.

QUOTE (Chi Town Sox @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 01:01 PM) Had a mini "online interview" a few days back for a software company where they asked me two question. One of them to speak as a turtle in the 1st person and talk about the turtle's biggest accomplishment As well as take any word in the dictionary and add, subtract or change up to two letters of the word and create a new definition. Good stuff 1st item is checking to see if you can create/write and read/understand requirements and documents and make them work for software development. Similar question sometimes asked is, "explain to a cave man how to build a car". Second item is ripped off from an annual contest among writers, I forget who runs it, but its the same thing. Some of my fave words I've heard from thatt: The Dopeler Effect - the idea that stupid ideas are somehow smarter when spoken very quickly Deifinestration - throwing all talk of God out the window Doltergeist - a spirit that decides to haunt some place stupid, like your toilet DIOS - the one true operating system Or something like that.

QUOTE (buhbuhburrrrlz @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 12:19 PM) gz weaver off to a great start 3-0 .87 ERA - 27 Strikeouts in 20.2 IP. Unsustainable numbers. I like the Sox to help him regress to the mean.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 07:15 AM) with some back problems and now this type of injury, at some point the Twins have to seriously discuss moving him from behind the plate. I know that lessens his value somewhat, but he is seemingly hurt a lot This is why I think catchers deserve special consideration for the value of just being able to play the position, day in and day out, over a period of years. AJ avoiding injury basically his whole career is impressive to me, and when it comes time for HOF voting or just analyzing a player's value, games and innings played are meaningful in my eyes for evaluation of a catcher.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 12:07 AM) Injured. Any details?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 09:40 PM) Kyle Bellamy was placed on the 60 day DL, wonder how bad he's hurt. He's really fallen off lately. Ended last season poorly in B-Ham, looked pretty bad in ST this year.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 02:09 PM) I like Santos but there's no guarantee he'll be a good closer either. You need an overpowering guy uh like Thornton was last year and the year before. He's lost something. How bout the Royals' Jeffries (sp) in the Brewer deal? Wow. Throwing 99 in setup role. Oh how I wish we had a guy with a heater to close. Seriously? Of course there is no guarantee, there are no guarantees with any of these guys. Overpowering guy like Thornton? You mean like Santos or Sale, who both throw a fastball with similar velocity, but both have better secondary stuff? And if he has lost something, its not power - his velocity is dead on the same as in previous years. He may have a mechanical issue that causes his stuff to miss or flatten out, but he's not lost any gas.

The article begins with "Phil Rogers thinks...", and provides no actual information from Ozzie or the Sox. This is meaningless, its just Rogers making a guess, no different than us guessing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 10:26 AM) And it's also true that it recently began plummeting because of a price spike in one particular commodity. I am sure that's part of it. I was just pointing out that you were painting a very innacurate picture, surrounding that point.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 02:53 PM) Sounds like I may possibly end up playing chauffeur for Val Kilmer this weekend. I don't have any recent information, but I know some people who worked with him on projects some time ago... he had a reputation, at least when he was a bigger star, of being one of the biggest pricks to work with in Hollywood. And that's saying something. Hopefully he's come back to earth in recent years.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 07:53 AM) It's patently false that the consumer confidence number jumped off a cliff in March? Nice changing what you said. Look at my post - I specifically said, they had steadily improved over time, and only recently fell back. That is true.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 07:58 AM) Didn't Ozzie stop saying that Matt was his closer after the first loss to the A's? No, he said it after Tuesday's win. He then proceeded to do something the opposite about 18 hours later.

These are some very good arms in the bullpen that are struggling, so I'm confident most of them (if not all) will get their s*** together. The only one that really scares me is Thornton, specifically as the closer, I think he may now not be mentally "there" for that role. But it would be basically impossible for them to continue like this, it just won't happen. And this team, by my read going into the season, had 4 above average, 2 average and 2 below average starting fielders on it defensively... so I highly doubt the errors keep up like this. This will also improve. And really, the starting pitchers mostly struggled the first time through the rotation, but they seem to be getting it together now, and then Peavy should show up in a couple weeks or so. So this area should get stronger too. The only area the team has been outperforming is with the bats, and even that is not fully across the board. TCQ has already come back to earth, so has Beckham to an extent. And we now have Dunn back, and he should be back to full health soon. There will be drop-off offensively, but not massively so. So yeah, I agree with the sentiment that this team is probably going to get better, not worse.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 10:20 PM) I dislike Ozzie, but there is no way he should be blamed for the recent struggles. These relievers have been hilariously bad and there's nothing a manager could do. But no matter whose fault it is, both the GM and manager need to be let go if the team doesn't make the postseason. I mostly agree, though I do definitely blame him specifically for yesterday's f***-up. You don't tell a guy you're his closer, then pass him up when he's rested in favor of a rookie who pitched 2 innings the night before the day game, and then bring in said supposed closer once the situation is nearly out of hand. That is poor managing. Overall on the season though, before that point, I agree, he seemed to be handling it as best he could. QUOTE (bulokis @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 10:32 PM) Do we have anybody in the minors that is getting groomed to be a closer? Not saying for this year? Minors includes some guys closing who have some varying degree of potential: Bellamy, Infante, Remenowsky, Jones. I'm not sure any of them, other than maybe Infante, really profile as closers in the bigs though. I think all four are more likely to be middle relief and setup guys, but you never know.

Glad to see Remenowsky is apparently healthy and ready again. Came in with the bases loaded and 1 out, allowed no runs to score. Struck out 2 in 1.2 IP. Looks like they plan to split closing duties between Infante and Rem.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 07:24 PM) got any links to positive job numbers? Last time I was reading about the jobs situation, it really seemed like the UE rate was going down merely due to the fact that so many people had dropped out of the labor market. Well UE rate is going down for that reason AND positive underliers, plus the claims numbers have been trending down for some time. But I was specifically referring to what I noted in the post - jobs numbers for available jobs, seekers to jobs, and churn were released, all looking far better than anticipated. Linky.