NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 05:51 PM) Perhaps the pessimism of my first post created a smoke screen around my intended message: that the work needs to be done by the US population for there to be a green jobs boost to the economy and we need to encourage innovation. I agree wholeheartedly. And I agree with you that even if you start it that way, bits will eventually start to migrate away, as with most tech stuff. Its all part of the way things work now. I'd just rather get in there now if we can.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 05:22 PM) I will tell you exactly what is going to happen to the 'green collar' boom of jobs. First, a major US corporations will get the project due to a strong lobby effort. They will then use the cheapest possible labor, building inferior products, but we'll be stuck with them. This is not going to produce any groundbreaking technology. As far as innovation, I totally agree with you. I have seen the decline groundbreaking work and relative quality of the technology products engineered by US companies for a while; with exception of the likes of Apple and such. The problem here is that corportations are given so many handouts and advantages, with no incentive to actually be good at what they do. Just look at the amazing breakthroughs we had in the 80's and 90's. Having a lot of the talent raised in the United States out of the loop in the mathemtatical sciences due to the fact that outsourcing has damaged the prospects of a great career, the best and brightest will often avoid the mathematical sciences. I truly believe the United States needs to get back in and innovate once again. If you think I am advocating taking steps backward, you are incorrect. I am sure in some cases, big companies (like GM for example) will get money for these things. And some will do what you are saying, but others will do better. Either way, the money will be tagged in many cases for certain uses. But, there are plenty of smaller ones getting money for this. Here is one example of both: Tesla and other electric and alternative car tech companies got big money recently for their work (via loans and grants), but Ford and biggies got some too. It will go both ways here, which is ideal - larger companies with more complete abilities to produce, smaller ones for niche markets. And note the Ford and Nissan money is specifically geared to go to US plants and jobs - what I was saying earlier. Also, the stimulus bill has given out numerous chunks of cash for new solar panel technologies, panel manufacturing, parts and supplies, etc., to fuel projects like this BLM solar study area thing that was just announced. Most of that goes to small companies because in the US, only small companies make them at this point, though big companies like DuPont make components of it. It won't be black and white, and unfortunately, some of what you predict will happen. But lots of money is going to fostering the little ones too, the innovators. That doesn't mean necessary success, but not funding them means we get inferior products anyway, but we get them from overseas, and then we're toast.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 08:30 AM) I just finished The Big Rich, a very good read on the Big Four Texas Oilmen, Richardson, Cullen, Hunt, and Murchison. Very interesting, especially their early attempts in politics. While a small, almost side note in finishing, the Bush family's ascension, and resulting higher energy prices, should have been predicted. Now onto Endurance, a story of Shackleton's arctic adventure. Endurance will humble you. Anyone who thinks they are actually tough should read what those guys went through.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 03:44 PM) More news...Future Sox Leaves a bullpen slot open at W-S (with Mabee's promotion). I'm guessing Remenowsky most likely, though possibly Corley or Burdie.

June was an interesting month for Garrett, but really, the whole year has been a strange trip. Let's look at some highlights... --Begins season in Kanny as a starter, at just 21 years old, and puts up decent numbers in his first month: 3.71 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 3.13 GO/AO, 14 K and just 3 BB in 17 IP. --On May 1st, he gets shelled - 4 IP, 10 H, 4 ER - raising his ERA by a full point. --On May 2nd, he goes on the DL - still don't know the reason for it. --On May 20th comes off the DL, this time in the bullpen for two appearances, and a start. Over those three outings he goes 5.2 innings, gives up 8 H, 4 ER and 3 BB. --On May 31st he's back in the pen, and from there through 6/16 he looks OK in that role - 8.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K. --So he makes another start on 6/20, and gets shelled, again - 4 IP, 12 H, 11 ER, 1 BB, 1 K --Now he's back in the pen, one appearance so far - 2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K Just not sure what to make of all that, but, the word erratic comes to mind. I'd suspect they'll leave him in the pen now, and we'll see how his season plays out. He's still very young, and he has some time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 01:46 PM) Of course, the gigantic spikes in energy prices over the past couple years could play in as well. That's an obvious answer to why Europe is so far ahead of us as well; they've mandated through the government that their energy prices are higher than ours, thus it makes more economic sense for us to drink ourselves silly on oil while they develop alternatives. Works fine if oil never runs out and if fossil fuels cause no harm to the environment. Edit; on the off chance that fossil fuels are not infinite, that also means that through the actions of their governments, the Europeans have gotten themselves a massive head start developing industries that will be key to the next 20 years of economic growth, because the governments were more forward-looking than industry. Yes. The fossil fuel energy prices generally, which are back up again this year by the way, will continue to rise (with some spikes and falls of course) over time. That's not even considering the fact that countries want to un-tie from the countries that produce oil and gas, which is simple risk management. Speaking of risk mgmt, you are right on about it being a finite resource of course, and that is a HUUUUUUUUUGE risk down the road. Talk about spiking prices, you are looking at a huge pricing issue later on. But apparently, some folks want to put on the blinders and just run right off the bridge into the big, warm, comfy vat of really expensive oil.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 01:54 PM) Thats not true for most high level companies. Maybe some small mom & pop shops. I worked at a major world tech leader for a number of years, I know what they'll do. The upfront money will not mainly go into US jobs, it's gonna go straight to offshore R/D as it's cheaper. R/D is really trending to an offshore model. Big upfront money is just more potential profit, hiring US workers is not going to be on the radar. As far as managing outsourced work, yea thats great for someone like me but s***ty for the millions of people who lose their jobs. I guess I need to get with the program and be as greedy as possible only thinking about myself. Maybe I can work at AIG. I'm telling you, that the 'green collar' job boom will never happen unless there are protectionist measures put in place. On another sad note, we are going over 10% unemployment very soon. The June numbers were worse than expected. lost around another 450,000 jobs http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=a5utvno88qDM I disagree. I have worked in tech for a decade (financial tech), and there is definitely a way these things tend to go. Sure, there are exceptions, but if the money goes to US companies (as it will from this stiumulus and energy spending), a lot will stay here. Not all, but it doesn't need to be all. In a sense, that IS protectionist of course, as you are channeling the money very specifically, probably with certain requirements attached. But hey, if people want to try to get water from a sand dune, and try to build up heavy manufacturing of already-existing technologies, go right ahead. You'll fail in a hurry most likely. This is the best way to go - getting in front. If someone has a better suggestion on how to create higher paying jobs and compete a world market that has lower costs than us, let me know.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 01:24 PM) Dye is one of the very worst fielders annually in all of baseball. Dye is simply disgusting to watch out there. Dye's throwing arm just so happens to be one of the worst in the majors also. Quentin has long proven to be a better right fielder than left fielder, he is actually a plus defender out in right. While quentin in left is no where near as good as he is in right, he is several times better out there than dye on his best day. All the numbers and visuals suggests that much. I'm going on what I have seen from TCQ in left, having not seen him in right, so I'll take your word for it. I see Dye as below average in RF, but not as bad as some characterize him, and TCQ as slightly below avg in LF (thus, not a big upgrade). But if you are saying TCQ is better relatively in RF, then that's great, I'm happy with that.

Dan continues to dominate as Kanny's closer. Here are his June numbers... 9 games 9.1 IP 0-1 W-L 1.93 ERA 1.18 WHIP 1.14 GO/AO .200 AvgA 12/4 K/BB And his overall season so far... 27 games 3-3 record 11 saves 28.2 IP 21 H 7 ER 1 HR 7 BB 48 K 2.20 ERA 0.97 WHIP 1.43 GO/AO .202 AvgA I'm pretty surprised he's still in Kanny. He's striking out over 15 guys per 9 innings, walking just over 2 guys per 9, his ERA, WHIP and AvgA are very low. And he's not slowing down either - his last five appearances over 6 IP, he's given up three hits, no runs, no walks, and struck out 8. I've got to think he goes to W-S as soon as a spot in their pen opens up.

June was not good to Donny. Corky Miller's demotion took playing time away for a bit, but he's gone now. More importantly, Lucy has just been plain bad at the plate, and Cole Armstrong has now taken the majority of playing time as Cole is actually improving. Here are Donny's numbers for June... .109/.125/.196/.321 That is... bad. His overall season numbers now look pretty awful too, as his average is below .200: .195/.236/.271/.507. Also, alarmingly, in his last 10 games, he has 12 strikeouts against just 1 walk. One thing Donny had done well in previous years, which gave some encouragement about future growth, was keep his K/BB ratio pretty close to 1. This season so far, he has 33 K against 8 BB. Defensively, Lucy threw out 6 of 12 attempted base stealers (50%), keeping up his nice rate there (18 of 41 for 44% on the season), but he also made 2 errors and had a pass ball. So even defensively, he didn’t have a great month. At this point, the train may have left the station for Donny. Not sure if that knee injury is causing this suddenly bad hitting, but whatever it is, Armstrong may have leap-frogged him on the charts. Plus, Armstrong hits LH, and with Flowers the catcher of the future (he hits RH), that further decreases Donny's chances. Donny needs to go on a serious tear the remainder of this year, and hope he manages to either get into another organization in the offseason, or maybe get an outside shot in ST next year of backing up AJ, if Flowers isn't ready yet at that point. Its a long shot now.

Charlie seems to be adjusting to AA just fine thank you very much, after his promotion in early June. So far with B-Ham... 4 Games (all starts) 25.2 IP 25 H 7 ER 1 HR (his first given up on the season combined) 5 BB 8 K 2.45 ERA 1.17 WHIP 1.52 GO/AO .255 Avg/A The K numbers are a little low, less than 3 K per 9 IP, but other than that, everything is what you'd want to see for a guy making the jump to AA. Keep it up, Charlie!

Cassel made one start in B-Ham to finish his disappointing June. It was a reasonably decent one - 7 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. His time in Charlotte in June was not pretty, and his final numbers overall in Charlotte looked like this: 14 Games (12 starts) 63.1 IP 72 H 37 ER 8 HR 25 BB 42 K 5.26 ERA 1.53 WHIP 1.09 GO/AO .280 AvgA Hopefully Justin can put it back together and put together a July in B-Ham that is along the lines of what he did there last year, because it looks like he's been skipped over by a couple guys on the big board now.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 12:08 PM) This is the first time I've ever seen him say anything off-base. I don't know then. Maybe he is possessed by Dick Cheney.

Quentin is not much of a defensive upgrade from Dye. And Beckham and Alexei are still learning their positions, they are both likely to get better as the season goes on.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 11:08 AM) He's actually not a wackjob which is why it's so odd. I've quoted him before, even. Something to the effect that al-Qaida doesn't give a damn about our "freedoms" and that we watch R-rated movies and have women's rights and such and that our government (then it was Bush) needs to stop patronizing us and explain they attack us for what we are, not what we do. Could be he went the Cheney route - something snapped after 9/11 and now he's paranoid to the point of being mildly insane (though still intelligent).

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 10:49 AM) I'd honestly like to read or at least skim whatever study this is if its freely available. The excellent journalists at WND can't be bothered with a cite, though. Clue One that the article is disingenuine, and engineered to make people believe something that isn't true.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 09:19 AM) We need a devastating attack on this country in order for us to start protecting ourselves from a devastating attack. Scheuer just deployed a major weapon against the logic center of my brain. Who is this guy anyway? Nutjob, yes, but what is his day job?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 10:39 AM) Please stop relying on anything printed by WND for pretty much any information, but especially anything environmental. The "Maine study" isn't cited or even really named. There's not that much involved in cleaning it up. There's no reason to seal off a bedroom permanently because of one broken bulb. Perhaps she was given bad advice and an exaggerated quote. The rest of the article just reads like polemics against CFL's, which is no surprise because WND prints nothing but polemics. The response you will get to this post is someone who doesn't like the fact that things need to change, will tell you something like: "of course, your science is always right, ours is always wrong", which of course ignore the fact that "their" science ISN'T SCIENCE AT ALL. It is just someone strining together some quotes to scare people.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 10:31 AM) I'm sorry, but I'll prefer to stick with the good old lightbulbs, even if I don't save money. This way, I avoid any dangers with mercury, and avoid the incredible task of cleaning one up if you break it... And I'd prefer it if the government didn't force me to use something I don't want to use. do what you'd like, but as has been discussed in here before, when you look at the substantial percentage decrease in energy drain by using CFL's instead of regular bulbs, that decrease in environmental impact (less oil needed, less pollution generated) makes it substantially better to use them, especially since they can be recycled. And here is the thing that kills me - some of you guys want less government, right? If you substantially decrease the energy demands on power grids, you just made yourself LESS GOVERNMENT.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 09:16 AM) Like I said... and like SS keeps trying to say - we're being forced into an artificial demand. That doesn't work well. Did you just ignore what Balta and others have posted, that the amount of purchasing of this sort of equipment is skyrocketing? The facts are quite clear, demand is increasing at a very large pace, and there is zero question that this is where things will continue to go. The only questions are about which methods work best, what the pace will be like, what countries do which first, etc. There is absolutely nothing artificial about that. Its real demand. It just doesn't fit in the nice little nothing-changes box that some people want to stay in.

QUOTE (Special K @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 08:38 AM) You misunderstood me though, I said Fields was not a starting 3rd baseman, I don't think he can play the field adequately at all. I do see improvements in his swing, and I can realistically still see him hitting 20-25 hrs if he played full-time the remainder of this year (but he won't). That's why I can say there may be room on this squad for him as a possible 1B or DH when/if we lose PK or Thome next year. Personally, I'd rather him stop bothering w/ trying to learn the field, and get his offense polished to be a very positive offensive producer so we could fill the possible need of a DH or 1B internally, and it would also be for years to come... Not to mention we'd have a pretty young and talented infield in that event. Interesting thought. Fields and Allen to replace Konerko and Thome (in either configuration)? I could see that being possible. Plus with Fields there you do still have a sub 3B on the team for the occasional off day for Viciedo or whomever ends up over there next year.

QUOTE (Special K @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 08:28 AM) What really bothers me though about this all, is that I think a good majority of us knew Anderson should play over Wise, that MacDougal, Lillibridge, and Broadway had no business on the roster, that Colon is finished, and that Josh Fields is not a starting 3rd baseman. My question is why is it so hard for Guillen to see all this. I know a couple of those guys cost us at least 1 or 2 wins. I know Pods has been a savior that no one and expected and you need to go through a little trial error, but if Guillen/KW realized all these things in the beginning of the year, like I think many people here saw, I think we would be sitting atop the division. I'm personally not sure about Fields yet, I think he was taken out when he was just starting to make positive adjustments. But Beckham has certainly adjusted quickly and has been great offensively, while learning a new position, so I can't complain really.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 08:25 AM) Honestly, isnt any production from Quentin at this point just bonus? The Sox are clicking right now on offense, Quentin provides another presence in the lineup, but it isnt as if the Sox offense struggles could be pinned on the absence of Quentin. I would lay most of the blame on complete lack of execution and coinciding slumps if anything Offensively, Quentin will be replacing Anderson/Wise in the lineup, as Ozzie has said Pods moves to CF when TCQ returns. So anything he gives us beyond what AnderWise has provided is a positive, and it shouldn't take him long to pass that bar and do a lot more.

This thread is so SoxTalk. The first two posts managed to say "Team WILL make playoffs" and "Team WILL NOT make playoffs", as if they were facts. In June.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 06:47 AM) How's this movie different from the Matrix? That was a popcorn flick too. Same basic goal. I didn't have to "turn my brain off" to go see the Matrix. Yeah I agree, popcorn action flicks can still be done well. Actually, my favorite example of a completely silly and excapist action movie that was still very entertaining and well done was The Fifth Element.