NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 09:44 AM) Panic Room was rather lame. Probably his worst movie, but I thought it was decent.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 08:47 AM) I wouldn't be surprised if that is a frame job. It is way to convenient, with a ton of info that really isn't public. Definitely possible. Still disgusting that people think this way though, and clearly some do. The whole argument that doing this would hurt military morale is beyond lame. Of course it will hurt morale, it probably hurt it a lot more when the did racial unit integration too, but there comes a point when you realize you have to do it for the long term good of the military and the country. This is one of those times.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 08:11 AM) And just to say my point 1 more time...his long relief outings are good outings because he gets pulled early in his bad outings. I'll leave it there. The ideal analysis here, is one that would be time-consuming (I think). You'd need to go through his outings and see how he performs when he comes in, say, before the 6th, versus in the 6th or after. I think that, combined with the length-of-outing analysis I did, would give you the complete picture.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 08:07 AM) Here's a few more recent examples. June 30th, Sox down 3-1 to the Royals, Pena comes on in the 7th inning, team already losing, Kendall singles, Butler singles, 3 run home run to Jose Guillen, and that's his outing. June 11th against CHC: Sox up 10-2, Pena comes in for the 8th, gets 1 out; 3 others reach. July 24, Oakland, Pena comes on in the 2nd inning to relieve Garcia, down 4-2, allows 1 inherited runner to score, then gives up 4 more runs of his own. So that's two outings of three making my case - he does poorly in late innings. Then one bad outing on 7/24. Also, looking at the numbers I showed earlier, it appears that in terms of long relief, he did well at first, had like 3 or 4 bad outings in a row, then was very good again.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 07:56 AM) Just to say again...I think this is only true because his bad outings are always short ones, not because his long outings are especially good. Having watched a lot of games this year, I disagree. Its when he comes in, in close games, in the 6th/7th/8th, where he seems to struggle. That's my take anyway. I suppose you could go back and try to slice his numbers by what inning he started pitching, but that would take more time than I am willing to put in.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 12:00 AM) They should make him a starter. He can do less damage every 5th day. Well, he has certainly been better in long relief than short. Maybe converting to a starter is not the worst idea ever.

I enjoyed Casino Royale a lot, QOS was garbage. The writing difference between the two was night and day. And knightni, how could you take ANY of them seriously? If that's your criteria, there is no point in watching any of them. QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 06:41 PM) i have never read the Bond novels, but from reviews of the two Daniel Craig movies I have read a lot of people saying that he is the closest to the novel version of bond that there has been in film. I've had a couple people who read the novels tell me that the closest Bond to the books was actually Timothy Dalton. Dalton who, BTW, I think was decent in his first Bond film, but was given utter garbage to work with in the second. QUOTE (3E8 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 07:54 PM) I've been rolling my eyes during previews of 'The Social Network', but early reviews suggest it's legit. A top critic on RT.com even compared it to Citizen Kane, lol Its Fincher directing, and I have yet to see him make a bad film.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 04:15 PM) I love that Obama is nominating guys that undermine his policies publicly. I wish he would do it more. This is one thing ObamaCo has done well from day 1 - he nominates people he actually thinks will perform well, instead of just cronies, or even people who agree with him on policy. I've liked that all along. In this way, he's the anti-W.

Topic title edited for accuracy.

Probably best. This team actually hit, as a group, better than expected on the season as a whole. By all accounts, Walker worked his tail off. And contrary to the jokes seen on this site, I'm sure he wasn't exactly preaching lift and pull. But he did have some consistent flaws on his teams, like a complete lack of hitting in April-May. Hopefully any new coach can address that. Thanks for all you did, Greg.

elrockinmt has been doing this for the whole season, definitely nothing wrong with it. QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 03:27 PM) cause he is knowlegable There is something, however, very wrong that THAT.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 02:57 PM) I need a little advice on how to properly measure my houses square footage. I have a three level rectangular townhome. Level one is a garage and storage room, level two is kitchen, dinning, and family room, level three is bedrooms. Do I just take the internal perimeter measurements and multiply times 3? Or do i need to factor out the area taken up by walls? How do i count stairs? I assume the garage is NOT included in the square footage? Garage definitely not included. Wall space and air space (i.e. stair well space) also not included. Anything in a basement, also not included. Beyond that, you will have to look around on the web to figure it out.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 01:07 PM) I was remembering this article, I think. Here is Passan's article. I think the question should be, what can be done now? If maple is a problem, and ash isn't a practical alternative any more, then what IS a practical alternative? Maybe its not the wood, but the treatment or coating that needs to be addressed.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 01:02 PM) Just to note...neither of you have yet given me an example of exactly what I asked for...some additional bit of information the government could get out of you by doing this. I'm not going to challenge NSS's points that there would be some serious "bugs" to work out and it's probably not worth the effort, I simply want to make the point that if you're going to be creeped out by this...there'd be every reason to be creeped out by filing an income tax fomr. There is no additional data mining to be done, I don't believe, so I fail to see the problem with that. I have other, seperate issues.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 12:55 PM) Well, there's one other potential benefit here...the federal goverment in this country has all the resources to tell a good chunk of the non-complicated tax returns exactly how much they owe. The only changes come when claiming changing exemptions for things like tax-writeoffs. For those people...there's no reason why they need to fill out a private tax return, or do things like buy tax software or visit H&R block, etc. There's a money-saver there as well. I see where the "ick" factor comes from and I want to acknowledge it...but I do want to ask a Devil's advocate question...how much more information would a federal government get about a person if their income was sent directly to the government rather than having a tax return prepared by the individual? I'm trying to think of anything that the government would actually learn that it doesn't already have access to. Can someone give me an example? That is only one of many "ick" factors in doing this. How about the fact that they can arbitrarily decide how much to take out? Yes, they are stuck with the effective rates, but, how do they decide how much to take out of each check? If they see changes in income, they can take more out, but who controls how much and when? Then there is the fact that you are putting in a massive delay potential to people's money. If even a day, that is horrible for a lot of people. What if a system along the line fails? Or there is a delay? Then there is the pure, simple, argument of... do we really want the government taking our money? And I don't mean the proper tax amounts - I mean OUR money. The money they DON'T get to have. Why should they even touch it? I'm sure others can add even more reasons why this is a bad idea.

Here's a more recent article, which sort of highlights both sides of this issue. Hitters have been moving to maple bats by choice, but also, going back to ash bats may not be practical because of the borer beetle infestations and changing climate. So yes, as you say, its personal taste, but its also a problem of an alternative being taken away. Here's one thing I really don't know - are woods other than maple or ash used in bats? And do they have better structural integrity than the maple?

Ah, I found the Uribe quote article in NYT.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 12:38 PM) I thought that maple caught on because Barry Bonds starting using them during those huge years in San Francisco? I believe there have actually been tests that show that the ball does not come off a maple bat any harder or faster than bats of other types of wood. This is purely an issue of the players insisting on using a product they believe gives them an advantage, when in reality, it does not. Purely? No, you can go Google it, there are tons of articles. Many players were using ash bats, but can't anymore, because ash can't really be used for much of anything more. I'm sure you are right to an extent, but there is also a business issue at work here that the players have zero control over. I even remember an article a few years ago, I can't find it now, one of the players they asked about the disappearance of ash bats was Juan Uribe. His reaction was like a 5 year old after you took his candy away.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 12:42 PM) I hesitate to post this for fear of giving all the liberals some ideas, but if this takes hold there, the world is doomed. http://www.cnbc.com/id/39265847 Why don't they just tell us what to eat, when to go to bed and what clothes to wear while they are at it? I'm guessing they are doing it to prevent some scofflaws, and to get receipts in quicker to their treasury. But I agree it seems highly intrusive and bad in grand scheme of things.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 12:24 PM) But I can argue selection bias here...For example, May the 2nd...he came in during the 5th inning with the Sox already down big...and lasted 1.2 innings while giving up 5. If he'd been performing...he'd have lasted longer than 1.2; the games where he's pitched more than 3 innings are games where he didn't melt down in the first 3 innings. That's picking and choosing a game or two. I just picked 3 innings at random before I even saw the numbers, and copied them out. You are picking for the sake of picking here. From your long reliever, garbage time guy and spot starter, you are generally happy with anything under an ERA of 5, just want someone to eat innings and not be a disaster. He's far exceeded those expectations.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 11:51 AM) Doesn't exactly mean he's been good, or even really adequate overall, in that role. He's sort of on the roster, he hasn't pitched well enough to be in the "we want to win this game" bullpen rotation, Linebrink can't go as the long man, someone might as well. OPS against him from pitches 26-50 is 50 points higher than in his first 25 pitches, so it's not like he gets stronger as outings go on. His 3+ inning appearances this year: 3 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K 3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K 3 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K 4.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 K 3.2 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 K 3.1 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 1 K 7 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 K 3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K 6 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K That's good for an 3.15 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and a 24:18 K:BB. He's also only had three bad outings out of 10 games. From your long man and last man in the pen, you take that every day and twice on Sunday. He has been highly successful in that role.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 10:09 AM) Why not Lucas Harrell? Because it appears thus far that Lucas Harrell is not a major league starter.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 09:55 AM) Is it wrong to want the housing market in Orlando to remain depressed until my family can move down there so that we can get a nice house for cheap? Well, if it makes you feel any better, FL and CA were by far the hardest hit in the housing crisis, so I don't think they will be recovering with any real strength for some time.

Well, if nothing else, it seems the team has found a long man / spot starter for 2011 in Tony Pena. That was kind of a surprise find.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 09:04 AM) Although it's a big percentage increase...part of the reason it's a big percentage increase is that the number is currently so depressed that small changes produce large percentage increases. Take a look. It is certainly reasonable to think that there needs to be more decline beyond where we currently are, but it's not like we're sitting at a high point as it is. Real home sales are likely to do some sort of bounce-back, because they'd have been slightly depressed by people rushing to close in time for the Housing tax credit expiration. A small recovery would simply be things returning closer to the point they would have been without the government intervention. Well good, that new home starts number needs to stay low for a while, for the overall health of the housing market.