NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 11:05 AM) In a multi-way primary though...a cult following of 40% of the voters is enough to, you know, win. You are assuming mutual exclusivity. The poll numbers I saw (I'll have to go find it) had Palin's numbers less than all the others in every positive way. She was trounced. Palin may have 30% support, but others had well above that, adding up to more than 100%.

Mark GonzaleS writes for the Trib. Adrian GonzaleZ plays first base for (insert team here).

I'm sort of annoyed with Obama's sudden decision to reign in the deficit. Just today, he talked about confidence problems in the economy, and trying to avoid a double-dip recession by being more careful with his spending. WTF? We passed an enormous stimulus package, for some $800B, mostly full of short-term stuff like road construction work. If we had spent the money on something sustainable, like alt energy tech or other areas where real job growth is possible, then instead of worrying about a spike and another dip, you'd be dealing with a smaller spike followed by real growth. Congress carries a substantial part of the blame here of course, as the Stim bill wasn't what Obama asked for really, but Obama was the one who pushed a lot of the temporary B.S. in there. Just business stupid.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 10:02 AM) Anytime you are polling as pulling 40% or more of your base, that's popular. OK, then she's popular by your standards. Doesn't really change what I was trying to say. She's has a cult following, if you will.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 09:42 AM) She, being a former VP candidate, is clearly not going away. And she's making sure of it. I also think it's false to say she isn't popular among republicans. Clearly the numbers of people she draws are not democrats. Depends on how you define "popular". I think she's wildly popular with a certain segment of the GOP, but the rest just see her as noise at this point. That's what I have seen.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 09:08 AM) The AFL is for AAA and AA players. I think teams can send like 1 player from the lower levels. It's not at all surprising Mitchell isn't there. Starting this year, they are experimenting with an AFL for lower level players. Sox are participating, and there are some lower level guys playing in AZ - its just not an official league yet, so its all like practice games that no one follows. I know of at least a couple A-level guys that are down there playing in that semi-league. Mitchell may be as well.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 09:05 AM) She's really not. Simple as that. I hear probably 10 times more about her in this thread than I do in every day news. An interview her comes on, I change the channel; I see an article on msn.com, I don't click it; I see an article in the newspaper, I don't read it. You greatly underestimate how many Republicans simple couldn't care less about her anymore. I wish she would just go away, and i'm fairly confident that's the majority opinion of people with half a brain now. Yeah, I tend to agree. Just saw a poll recently posted, about various potential GOP Prez candidates for 2012. Something like 70% of people felt that she was nto qualified to be President - 70%. Even among GOP'ers, it was near 50%, and she was beaten badly by the other potentials in most categories. Palin is only a story because two groups of people keep making her relevant - her lunatic followers (of which there are a small number), and the far left who want to use her as a punching bag. No one else cares.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 08:33 AM) Trading Flowers means that the pressure is turned on Phegley in a big way. The issue here is that do we think Phegley will be ready in two years? He's certainly not ready now, and he's far from a sure thing. So, we trade Flowers and where are we? Are we comfortable with being left with the Cole Armstrong's and the Donny Lucy's of the world? We finally have the next big thing, why let it go to waste? If Flowers gets us the right pieces elsewhere, it may be worth it. And I don't think anyone sees Armstrong or Lucy as future starters. I'm not even sure Lucy is considered as a backup possibility anymore, he just hasn't been the same since his injury, and was bad even in AA last year. Armstrong as a backup to Flowers or someone else, maybe, at best. Phegley still seems like he is a few years away, even if things go well. Miguel Gonzalez is even further away, and I think Dubler has fallen off the radar entirely. AJ is still a pretty decent option at C, and I'd be willing to sign him for another couple years, if trading Flowers gets us a serious upgrade elsewhere.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Nov 17, 2009 -> 04:48 PM) I hate her and the TMZification we're really starting to see in politics these days. My roommate watches Morning Joe on MSNBC (the other shows are no better, frankly) and within five minutes I found myself getting visibly angry. The stories aren't about what the issues are, the stories are about how popular the issues are or what Sarah Palin wrote on her facebook page. Her facebook page, for christsakes! When did the media become seventh grade homeroom? I find myself listening to NPR, occasionally reading a couple blogs and that's about it anymore. I'm actively trying to stay disengaged because I don't want any part of campaign 2012 when its only 2009. It makes me sad. NPR and PBS (at least the one here in Chicago, WTTW), are some of the best news sources around. Unfortunately, they have minimal resources, so they don't report on nearly as much as the big kids can.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 17, 2009 -> 02:20 PM) I have many back and forths with him where we basically attacked each other over the course of weeks. He's a douche. Nothing professional will ever come back to you from him. This is a guy who was ousted by his own peers from voting for awards in the very subject he "reports" on. He doesnt even have the access to the clubhouse he claims, and this is backed up by several players comments to me personally. What is this referring to? I didn't hear this.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Nov 17, 2009 -> 01:10 PM) I wouldn't even bother to respond directly to Cowley. All it does is lend credence to his opinions. It would be better to respond by touting your own website and the long history that you have had with the original soxnet, soxtalk and of course the gold standard for whitesox prospect information futuresox.com. His attack is that this is some sort of blog that was just created. You attack that with facts. And the facts are that this is a new blog that is based on a long respected history of sox information that you have provided through several web platforms. And for all those who feel the need to avenge this by sending a profanity based diatribe. Think before you send. Its one thing to send a response in email. Its another to send emails that say "Dear f***face". Jason will handle this himself. I don't think email bombing Cowley is going to help things out. Well said all around.

Since I seem to be the only poster who puts anything positive in this thread, I found this to be a pleasant surprise: IRS amnesty program for overseas tax evasion nets 14,700 entities and billions of dollars in revenue.

Regardless of what any of us think of the rumor, Cowley's twits (or tweets or whatever) should illustrate to everyone here what a joke his writing is. He isn't a journalist at all, is a guy who shouts a lot about sports. You can find those at your local pub too, but they don't get paid for it. He had nothing material to add, so he resorted to insults. Childish and unprofessional are understatements.

Just read the two articles on this topic written by the two main beat reporters - Mark Gonzales of the Trib, and Joe Cowley of the Sun Times - and you can clearly see why one paper and one writer are generally respected for sports reporting, and the other paper and writer are looked at as jokes.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 11:44 PM) http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article_external/1577618 Someone close to the PADS says no deal. Sorry link got squashed. Link is live again. This Fletcher fellow is a FanHouse writer - in other words, a blogger or poster just like everyone else here. So, while he may be right, I wouldn't put any more stake in it than anything else we've seen or read.

QUOTE (docsox24 @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 02:11 PM) I dont consider it much of a story at this point. The fact that teams have talked about a deal is a long way from anything happening. That alone most certainly makes it a story, in the offseason especially. You just have to understand what this is, and is not - its not an imminent trade, as stated.

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 01:52 PM) http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-1...,4524518.column Take this article with a grain; I know the hitting sample size to claim Morel has surpassed Viciedo is small (12 games?), just thought it was something to point out to those that may have missed it. There is a discussion thread on this in FutureSox.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 12:25 PM) I figure if say, for example, al-Qaida staged a massive raid and freed terrorists out of the Supermax, then we have other problems... the fact that they had that capability in the first place and we couldn't do anything about it. If they have that capability then it can be used elsewhere. Yeah, it would be very difficult, and take a serious armed force, to crack prisoners out of a Florence or Tamms type facility. No way AQ has that sort of capability here, if they did, they would have already done a whole lot more damage elsewhere.

QUOTE (KevinM @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 12:29 PM) Yeah, not buying it. I'm guessing the Angels aren't jumping at the bit to get a mediocre, overpaid first baseman while also ensuring that one of their fellow AL contenders gets a far better player at the same position. Why wouldn't they just go after Gonzalez? Any package we put together could easily be trumped (save me the 7-8 player package KHP, it's not realistic). You are assuming that LAA is in this deal primarily for Konerko. On the contrary, I'd be they are in it to get the right spect or two, and Konerko is a nice 1B/DH fill, as a secondary desired piece. You are also assuming that LAA has what SD wants - the only reason you even have 3-way trades is that a 1-to-1 deal doesn't fulfill their needs. SD may be able to justify losing A-Gon because of the COMBINATION of what they'd get from the two other trading parties.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 12:16 PM) It would probably be a supermax wouldn't it? Yes, it would be bolstered to be like Florence or Tamms. This is not a zero threat - but it is a very, very miniscule one.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Nov 16, 2009 -> 07:28 AM) Once again, why all the David Cook hate? Don't compare him to Josh Fields either, that's insulting. He could the White Sox version of Ryan Ludwick. I'm generally in agreement with you, that it seemed very odd that he wasn't given a look the last couple years. Seems to me he could be of value. But the fact that he wasn't given that look, tells me there is something going on there we don't know about. Could be a flaw or lack of skill in some way that we don't see, or it could be a personality conflict, or who knows what. Because I can't see a logical reason why, with all the OF problems the team had in 2007-2009, Cook was never even given a look in Spring Training.

Phil Rogers seems to feel that Brent Morel has surpassed Dayan Viciedo as the Sox' 3B of the future: From this article. I wonder if he actually heard anything from the Sox, or if he is just flinging s*** at the wall.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 15, 2009 -> 05:22 PM) Is this seriously the Republican line of thinking on Afghanistan? (written by the "dean of the washington press corps") Sounds pretty much like BushCo to a tee. This is one of the truely massive differences between Obama and Bush - considered decisionmaking, versus shooting from the hip. Mind you, I am not saying either is somehow 100% correct. But in the great majority of cases, including a long conflict like Afghanistan, I definitely agree its better to make a studied decision.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Nov 14, 2009 -> 06:22 PM) I'd say after Hudson, Hynick, and Torres, Ely is 4th in line of spot-starter guys. He's a very good arm, hopefully, he keeps giving us encouraging signs. If I had to guess... Hudson will be in the pen waiting for Freddy to founder (which may or may not happen), Torres will be kept around as a long reliever or else be in another org, Hynick will stay in AAA and be, essentially, the backup plan. Ely and Shirek will pitch fulls seasons in AAA and show if either or both are ready to make the jump in 2011.

Which area are you looking at? NW burbs?