NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 04:10 PM) This team has no chance this year with a bullpen this god awful. I'd say there is a near-zero percent chance the bullpen stays this bad. Too much talent in there. I just hope the come around sooner than later.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 04:00 PM) Doesn't Adam Dunn make a lot of money? How bout doing something soon, Mr. Dunn. You can't be serious. The guy had an appendectomy less than a week ago.

I don't blame MT here, he was put in a s***ty situation, and didn't give up anything hard. I don't blame Sale either, considering he's a reliever who pitched 2 innings last night and he's being put back in on a day game against RH's. Crain I blame some for the walk. This is about 90% Ozzie for me.

Still. Can. Win. I'm not normally one to jump on the Ozzie Hating bangwagon, I think overall he's been a decent manager handling pitchers... but he completely f***ed this up today. Tells Thornton he's the closer, he's fresh and ready, and you bring in... Sale? Who pitched 2 innings last night? Against a couple righties? I could at least have understood going with Crain.

Pennington a .500 hitter vs LHP going into that AB.

Crain.

If Ozzie is so confident in Thornton, why is he not out there, instead of the guy who threw 2 innings last night?

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 01:59 PM) It's nachos, no? I don't know. It was a giant baseball helmet full of some sort of apparently-Mexican food.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 02:41 PM) There's one big problem with that...even if the job market is improving...consumer confidence is plummeting, because of the price of one particular commodity. This is patently false, the numbers rose a lot for a bunch of time, only recently coming back a bit. And jobs will help this number anyway. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 03:07 PM) Inflation is the one thing that will kill this comeback. The income effect will devistate families and businesses alike. But this I agree with, and I think it will start kicking late this year or, more likely, some time next year. This is what scares me the most, is overall inflation starting its snap back.

Tried the new pizza, I was curious. Its definitely an improvement, though its nothing great, which is what I'd expect at the ballpark. Saw some guy with a giant taco salad-looking thing in a full size helmet. Looked like about 4 pounds of food in there.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 11:50 AM) Jobs lag growth. Its not unusual at all. Companies react to the economy, and not the other way around. Except what I am saying is the opposite. In this case, some growth has occurred, but we've hit a ceiling with it, so companies are forced to hire. Therefore, my read is, the growth may be less than spectacular the first half of 2011, but then pick up a lot in the 2nd half.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 11:45 AM) Seems like everyone and their grandmother's financial advisor is rushing out to cut their estimates of GDP growth this week. Which is funny, because the jobs numbers that came out today were surprisingly good. Highest level of available jobs since the recession started, lowest ratio of unemployed to open jobs, largest number in a while for people voluntarily leaving jobs. It seems like maybe we're looking at companies finally realizing that they can't juice any more productivity out of their people, and they can't wait to hire anymore if they want to stay growing. That doesn't negate the Q1 slide, but it more suggests maybe the realization that in order for GDP to grow more, companies need to start hiring more. And that wouldn't show an effect until the latter half of the year, most likely.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 11:39 AM) I have to ask how clean the program really was, given that Floyd ran into a hell of a lot of trouble once he moved onto USC. Floyd is a fantastic college coach though. Very underrated in my book, unfortunately, he made a really stupid mistake with OJ Mayo. Also, think about this... Floyd came from a smaller program into what was, at that time, a significant Big 8/12 program, and had the table already set for him by Orr. So he wasn't forced to do anything terribly wrong, really. Doesn't mean he didn't, just means he'd have been less motivated to.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 11:39 AM) I have to ask how clean the program really was, given that Floyd ran into a hell of a lot of trouble once he moved onto USC. Floyd is a fantastic college coach though. Very underrated in my book, unfortunately, he made a really stupid mistake with OJ Mayo. I obviously don't know anything for sure, I am just going on the fact that in the Orr and Floyd eras, there was little or no news about things like recruiting violations, significant off the court issues, etc. Not none, but, close. Also, not sure if its true anymore, but it used to be that ISU was the only Big 8 / Big 12 team that didn't allow Prop 47 (or whatever the number is) transfers, and had some other rules that were somewhat more restrictive than many other schools.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Apr 12, 2011 -> 09:44 PM) I'm guessing it's just due to how Allen has fit in since he came to ISU. And I don't know how long this transfer trend will continue. But this team is well positioned the next two years. And Hoiberg has more capital in Ames than nearly any coach anywhere, so he'll get time. Hoiberg knows it would take many tough years to rebuild the recruiting for that program. And I'm guessing he plans to do that, but wants results in the meantime, both to make the recruiting rebuild faster and to get the fans more into it again. But he's definitely taking a huge risk. ISU has been a program that was relatively clean over the years, and pulling in a bunch of players with various on or off the court issues. If he's right on who he picked, and if he's really that good a coach, then most of those guys will keep their noses clean and the program will have a huge comeback. If he's wrong and a bunch of them derail, then not only is the program back to square one, he's also made the school look terrible by gambling away their reputation. Basically, 3 years from now, I doubt Hoiberg is looked at as semi-successful. Either he's going to look like a genius, or he's going to be out of a job.

Castro two games this series? Is AJ hurting or something? Also, for a good laugh check out Castro's profile picture on ESPN.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 08:51 AM) Seriously? QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 09:21 AM) The Free Market has deemed this port expansion as unnecessary, it his His Will and His Plan. Perhaps if we were to offer up more sacrifices to The Free Market in the form of welfare cuts, He would be so kind as to grace us with a deeper port. I LOL'd.

Win the game, win the series. Win the series, and the team is not only 8-4, but 3-0-1 in series to start the season. If you told me that would be the case a month ago, I'd be ecstatic.

QUOTE (SoxPride56 @ Apr 12, 2011 -> 12:21 PM) One of the great things about baseball is that there is another game tomorrow. Win the next two, and take the series! Yup. The sox have finished 3 series, and are 2-0-1. Just keep winning series.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 12, 2011 -> 01:45 PM) I always find it funny that we talk about PLANNED Parenthood and funding a program to erase "parenthood" mistakes (in most cases). I think you're right with a lot of what you say, but I wonder what the Nixon era politicians would say when told that PP now performs 330K abortions a year. Broad statistical generalization not found in evidence.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 12, 2011 -> 01:29 PM) I thought government was the answer to everything? I'd be curious to hear a legal professional's view on my earlier post. Do you not see a danger in the US Congress legislating what should be scientific decisions on status of species under ESA (as related to 5A takings clause)?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 11, 2011 -> 01:36 PM) The budget deal will remove Grey Wolves from the endangered species list, for some reason. Of course, this means that after a few years of "Defending the livestock", the wolves will be back on the endangered species list. I was thinking more about this... the thing that scares me isn't what this means for wolves, or even ecsystems as a whole. What scares me is the precedent this sets - that Congress gets into the business of legislating specific species out of endangered or threatened status. That just can't be a good thing.

Charlie Shirek is not handling the demotion and shift to the pen well. Jose Martinez starting the season on fire.

Thornton worries me more than Pierre. He's been a decent defensive OF (minus the arm) his whole career, I don't think he permanently forgot how to catch a ball. He'll get his head in the right place and be fine. But closing is, IMO, a very different game, mentally. And I am not sure if Matt has the right mindset, nor am I sure he can find it. Some pitchers just don't.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Apr 11, 2011 -> 02:32 PM) i agree, and i think i heard they said hes lifetime 4-13 or something against them. i have the least amount of faith in buehrle,of all the starters. heres hoping they pull it out 4-13 with a 3.90 ERA, which is the definition of bad luck W-L-wise.