NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 08:33 AM) As I mentioned, for short notice travel, I wasn't stuck with a center seat. I wasn't aware of an airline that held back seats like you mentioned. That is a better system no doubt. But the carriers that I routinely traveled, Continental and American, do not do that. SW attendants are the best of any airline I've flown. SW's safety record is the best in the industry. American and United definitely both do that. I know because I had status with both, when I was travelling almost every week at my last job.

QUOTE (sin city sox fan @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 08:42 PM) This latest report doesn't sound as promising http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=4922858 Interesting that his source is a "league" source, but the people who cite "team" sources are more optimistic.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 04:03 PM) They're already building them. Explain to me again why nuclear is so expensive and unreasonable and relies on government subsidies and how wind and solar would be so kick-ass if only....they had government subsidies. Straw man, right there. No one is saying that. What some of us ARE saying is, if you have to subsidize something, it might as well be a lower risk, lower security issue, more sustainable solution. Nuclear is a good part of the puzzle in the short term.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 03:34 PM) I'd float Kotsay for a lefty, and see who bites. Renyel Pinto is out of options for the Marlins, and they might be looking to replace Ross Gload. That's a good point, Gload and Kotsay fill basically the same role at this point in their careers. But I doubt they trade Kotsay at this point.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 02:54 PM) Not really. I'm not claiming to be up on my metaphysics or whatever that field of study is called, but they can make some pretty good guesses/claims/theories based on actual verified and recorded evidence. Take a few minutes to read about what CERN is doing and you will see that. I am a Catholic, but the only "theory" supporting the existence of (a) God is pure faith. Faith and documented scientific fact/evidence are not the same thing. I agree. My main point was about how to teach, but its still a SCIENCE class, and religion shouldn't enter into it, and political takes, or beliefs, should be avoided.

I'd love to see Damon Beckham Quentin Konerko AJP Rios Teahen Alexei Pierre But we'll actually see: Pierre Damon Quentin Konerko Teahen Beckham Rios AJP Alexei

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 11:49 AM) I'm arguing that when I hear that, providing data to counter a person's political belief...you're making a political argument and that's how I hear it. I guess I don't see it that way. If you want to take a political slant from providing history, data, scientific information, methodology, etc. - then you seemingly would think anything was political.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 09:27 AM) So you're a professor teaching a class, a student asks a question that directly challenges the basis for the class, and the professor isn't able to answer it in a way that says why the professor believes what he is asking is correct? I think this illustrates the catch-22 here. If you don't answer, you've undermined your own class because you're unwilling to defend it. If you do answer, you're suddenly instilling politics into things. Works the same way for Climate Change. And probably a number of other subjects we could come to if we wanted. You seem to see only options A or B here - defend a belief or say nothing. The real answer should be to respond with evidence, scientific data, an utterance of where that evidence points and why. That isn't defending a belief, that is providing data. That is not instilling politics, and doesn't need to be.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 08:45 AM) And you wouldn't judge that type of answer to be a politically loaded one? I would. Its not for the instructor to answer - that's my point.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 08:02 AM) If you're a professor teaching a class on the geologic history of the earth and you get the "How do you know the Earth isn't 6000 years old" question, how do you answer it and not be political? By answering with scientific evidence, and then allowing people to either take that evidence to heart, or continue to believe in something that can't be measured. Teaching at higher levels shouldn't be about absolute answers, it should be about facts and information, and allowing for analytical thought and conculsions from your students (whether scientific or not).

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 08:03 AM) As much as I would love Damon to sign here, I'm not counting on it at all. The money is apparently not close between the teams and if the Sox aren't willing to up their offer I don't expect him to sign here. How often do players actually accept the lesser offer when it is apparently significant? Plus, we're dealing with Borass here. It'd be awesome if he signed, but I'll believe it'll actually happen when I see it. I'll say this again - why do people keep thinking that the supposed DET offer rumor is 100% correct? I think we've seen in this case that we can't even know if the DET money is indeed significantly higher. It might not be. If it was, I think he would have signed there by now. Seems a lot more likely to me that the offers are close, and that we have no idea what the numbers actually are.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 04:57 PM) The reason I felt good in 2005 in the preseason was that when I looked at the team, I didn't see an obvious hole. Yeah, you could probably count on some guys to have down seasons (i.e. Rowand) but there was a legitimate starter at every position, 5+ deep in the rotation, a deep bullpen, and guys having down seasons would probably be averaged out by guys having up seasons (i.e. Garland). It had a good balance of speed, defense, and power. The 2 things I'm missing right now from this team in comparison to that one are: I don't feel like we have a legit starter at the DH position, and I'm unconvinced by our relief corps (but...relief bounces up and down so much from year to year that you kinda never know with that). I actually feel quite good about the bullpen. There are a lot of good arms in there, and many of them coming off down seasons. The only guy who really performed at a relatively high level (relative to their careers) last year was Thornton. Assuming Jenks is fairly healthy, I think the pen is likely to be pretty good. If we can get Damon to be the DH/OF piece, I think this team has to be the favorite to with the Central.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 07:54 AM) The sad thing is...I got the opposite impression, and I don't think it was deliberate...I think it was because I was in a science, and you can't take a class on evolution or on the fossil record or on climate and just pass over the kind of questions you got from the crowd without having the whole class undermined. That's interesting. The hard science guy found lots of politics in college, and the poli sci guys found surprisingly little of it.

Kettle chips are evil. The sea salt and black pepper ones are really good, but so are the cheddar ones. I could eat those things all day. And then I could weigh 300 pounds.

This would be a nice final piece of a good 6+ months of retooling. Would hate to go into the season having improved in so many areas, only to take a gigantic step back at DH.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 04:53 AM) Was anyone else surprised at how unpolitical their college was? I was pretty relieved, I think I would've been annoyed as hell at Madison, Wisc in 2008. All my polisci courses were so process specific it never really got into political parties. It might just be that thousands of 18-24 year olds on their own without parental influence tend to be more liberal before they find jobs and move on. Have to agree here, about college being surprisingly apolitical. I was a Poli Sci major for undergrad, and very few classes did I detect anything I'd call bias from the instructor or the selection of materials. Not none, but, very few. As you point out though, many of those classes are not about the partisan aspect of politics anyway. One class that could easily have been filled with partisan bias, was the class I took on the Presidency. First day of class, the instructor said, if he did his job right, no one in the class would know at the end of the semester what his political beliefs were. And near the end of the class, we agreed, he had managed to pull that off. I was glad to see that level of professionalism.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 03:25 PM) Fox News: Study proves college makes you liberal That's it: Time to start a war on education. Clearly education is BAD for America. "Is it better to not go to college at all then get this kind of education?" "Well, that's an open question" Really??? Seriously? College is now evil?? This is one of the most frustrating aspects of the GOP, institutionally, in recent years. The idea that ignorance is somehow a good thing. Its absolutely mind-boggling.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 02:22 PM) http://twitter.com/beckjason/status/9199767130 In other words, we still have no idea.

This could all have been solved with a software fix - if you move someone to standy who is in a party of 2, you should be able to specify all-or-none on the standby. Seems like something the airlines should do, just to protect themselves.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 11:19 AM) The unwavering optimism that some people have for this team is shocking considering we had Rios for the back end of the year, and we still finished 7.5 games behind the Twins. A whole year of Peavy and a Rios recovery will be a significant improvement to the team, but it is unlikely to be one worth 7.5 games. By all objective assessment our offense will either be of minimal improvement or exactly the same depending on what projections you want to believe, and what rebounds you want to factor in. Our defense is questionable, but I'm willing to believe that with Getz, Pods, and Dye being gone we will improve, minimally. Factoring in all of these we still have to deal with the problem that the Twins have gotten better too. We've lucked into the Tigers taking a dramatic step backward, and the Royals and the Indians content with stewing in mediocrity (albeit, the Indians doing it with a very competent new manager) These divisional issues will allow us to be a factor. A Damon signing would push the gap between the two teams to well within any statistical margin of error. I think it would assure a damn good chance of taking this team to the top of this division. No one has unwavering optimism, to which you are referring. People are countering you because you are extrapolating one weak spot on the team (and most people agree it certainly is that), into meaning the whole team sucks. You are ignoring or discounting the significant number of improvements the team has made in the past 6 or 7 months. The pitching looks very good, the defense will be significantly improved, and team speed is significantly improved. Even if the offense is similar in performance as you suggest, the team will still likely be significantly better.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 11:22 AM) This is the worst case scenario for the Dems. At least if she fell short, the party could pick someone. Yeah, I really didn't see why it was a huge deal for Bayh to leave like that at first, even if you were a Dem. But his choice of timing is pretty s***ty, to the party that supported him for a long time. Not real professional.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 10:11 AM) Im going to reserve all predictions this year. I know the key to our team is the offense- a lot will depend on how Rios rebounds, if Q can stay healthy. I love Beckham, Ramirez and Pierre in the lineup- while AJ and Pauly provide alittle bit of offensive power. Teahen may be the sleeper of our team- if he can have a career type season, i love our chances. The DH thing does bother me a bit. I love Kotsay as a pinch hitter- and as a backup 1B, but thats just what he is. Anduw Jones has lost his bat over the last 2 seasons. All of a sudden he'll find it? I say lets avoid the whole lightning in the bottle method and sign Damon. . While we complain a lot about the DH (myself included), I think the key to this year's team is the outfield. The infield and C are pretty predictable, I think... pitching, both rotation and pen, I think we have good guesses on... defense is improved too. But I think, as Quentin's health, Rios' return to being Rios, and Pierre's OBP abilities go... so will go the Sox.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 10:00 AM) You'll love to see him join some lobbying group to make millions. Shows how much he truly cared about his constituents. How Palin-esque Who cares if he does? I see no problem with that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 09:51 AM) That assumes that things haven't changed in the last 10 years or so. I think the simplest question in response is...if these folks are so careful about accounting, then how did they accidentally miss an $8 trillion housing bubble in the U.S. (and, as is now becoming apparent, have the same thing happen in country after country. Dubai, Greece, Spain, etc.) My explanation is that they didn't miss it...but that we've set up a system that provides strong incentives for short-term gains but no downside for intermediate or long-term losses. Thus, we've incentivized having Wall Street creating bubbles and taking huge profits on the way up, while someone else takes the losses on the way down. I think you have the cause and effect backwards, to an extent. The incentive for both short and long term gains is not new, its been there forever. If they see a bubble, they should and will act to make money off of it, within the bounds of the law. And individual consumers should be smarter as a whole as well, in the same sense.

This team has improved in lots of places since late last year. Problem is, the one place they stepped back, they stepped WAY back - at DH. Overall, this team looks stronger than the 2009 Opening Day team did. But right now, I think the Sox could finish anywhere from 1 through 3 in the division, and it will be a close race. I think we're a slightly better team than Minny, but I still think the new stadium messes them up a bit. If we go into the season as is, and everyone stays basically healthy, I think the Sox have about a 50% chance of winning the division (MIN 40%, all else 10%). If we can improve the DH slot with Damon, that adds a few points.