NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 15, 2009 -> 08:14 AM) Are you actually championing a 31-year old career journeyman AAAA as a better option, then a 28-year old kid who’s yet to fail at the big league level? Seriously, just look at Wise's numbers this year, and for his career, minors or majors. Now tell me that you really think Cook, or Kroeger, would be likely to do worse. I'm not sure its possible to do worse than Wise is doing at the plate right now. And those two aren't 31 year olds who have had 6 shots at the majors and failed each time.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jun 15, 2009 -> 08:09 AM) Agreed. Wise should be in AAA, but it's not his fault that Ozzie and Kenny think he should be playing in Chicago. I doubt he goes out there every day not trying or caring. Hopefully they send him to Charlotte, but until they do you just have to hope he doesnt get much PT but when he does that he does well. This is really on Kenny and Ozzie, not on Wise. And LOL @ the people who want to bring up Cook. Really? I know Wise hasnt done s***, but you're advocating bringing up a 28 year old hitting .250 in AA with very limited experience even in AAA? Really? If they did indeed call up anyone to replace him it'd would have to be Restovich or Phillips (if he can play the corner OF spots). Cook and his .885 OPS, 1.083 in June, has a much better chance at success than Wise does IMO. But he hits RH so Ozzie wouldn't take him anyway. Kroeger also would likely do much better, but, he isn't a CF. I think these are both silly reasons, especially since Wise doesn't play CF any better than Pods (probably worse) anyway, but that is the Ozzie mindset, I think. Kroeger or Cook would be far better choices than Wise. Doesn't matter though, this has been suggested ad nauseum, and they are sticking with Wise.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 15, 2009 -> 07:49 AM) Some of you take things like this way too far. And without naming a single name, each and every one of you who does knows exactly who you are. Rather than dwelling on things like this (which seem to crop up on a daily basis), try to fix a problem in your life no matter how small, it'll end up making a world of difference over your lifetime. Be it the house, the lawn you haven't gotten around to fixing, the leaky garage roof, maybe martial or girlfriend/boyfriend problems, family tiffs over little to nothing, whatever...just...go do that instead of sitting on here arguing about late term abortions and Bill O'. You would all be better off. Oh, and besides all that, nobody cares. Not one of you of side, and visa versa. None of you ever will. So this entire argument is like watching Rams bang heads together until one of the two falls over with a splitting headache...and even then, the opinions expressed on the matter remain the same. Silly. I think you are right on the bolded, but, only in so far as dealing with people descirbed in your first graf. If you just ignore the noise from the extremists and read the more throughful posts, sometimes, you do indeed learn something. And I've even changed my view on a few things after discussions in here (not many, but, a very few).

I can't believe no one posted this yet - maybe I missed it. The Trib did a survey and ran this article, showing that statistically, Cubs and Sox fans are much more similar than different demographically. Thoughts? No quiz on baseball knowledge was given.

QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Jun 14, 2009 -> 12:01 AM) Do people with peanut allergies really have it that bad that they can't be in the same park as them? For whatever reason (I don't know why), peanut allergies tend to have much worse reactions than other foods. Like, deadly reactions. The day care/school my kid is in, no peanuts or peanut products are ever allowed in the building.

Flower is nowhere near ready defensively, he is still learning the position. AJ gets crap for his inability to throw guys out, but Flowers would be worse than that in every aspect, AND doesn't yet know how to handle pitchers. Trading AJ, who is key to this team and is having a good offensive season, doesn't make sense. And even offensively, he's not "ready", but he's close. 2010 we should see AJ one more year, with Lucy backing him up, and Flower in AAA getting one more full year behind the plate learning how to catch. Flowers will be a 2010 callup or a 2011 Opening Day starter. You do NOT want him playing backup for more than half a season, as he needs to be playing to develop. Lucy isn't a future starter, or heck Castro or whomever, just have them back up for now. 2011 Opening Day seems ideal, or maybe 2010 midseason as the backup at the earliest. The non-hitting aspects are far more important than the offense for a catcher.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 13, 2009 -> 07:29 PM) Steak Dinner Boom? Homemade pizzas by chef Northsider, which are now in the oven.

Feel free to add, I have to go make dinner.

Crazy bread is good, pizza there is bad. And honestly, I'm glad I'm back in Chicago, where I don't have to care who among the bottom feeders (pizza hut, little caesars, papa johns, dominos) is best or worst, because I can actually get good pizza.

Obama must be in Chicago today. Marine 1 and its escort just flew over our building, as they always do between O'Hare and whereever it is they go downtown to land.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 13, 2009 -> 09:25 AM) Not really, at least without some revolutionary breakthroughs in power transmission and storage. These sources cannot be implemented in many places in the country. Look how cloudy and rainy its been in Chicago for the past week or two--we'd be in big trouble if we were solar-only. There's no room for wind farms in the city proper, and we don't have hydro or geo sources there either. There's over a Terawatt of power production in this country. We'd need about 9 million square miles of solar at absolute peak efficiency for 8 hours a day to replace that. That's half of Texas. Wind farms take up more space. Hydro and geo are great where they are available, but they're not available everywhere. Yes, really. Any one can't be implemented in certain parts of the country, at least not efficiently. But they all can in some places, and you don't need power production from every acre of land (we don't get it from most acres now). Solar can be implemented pretty much everywhere, by the way, and produce some power - its a matter of regional scale against cost. Panels may have a power payback against cost that is very low in Arizona, much higher in Seattle. You use the source that makes the most sense for your location - solar, wind, geo, hyrdo, tidal, green matter, garbage even. Whatever is already present or going to be present. Plus, you are making an assumption that the technology involved is static, which its definitely not. Solar alone has made huge strides, and the panels that will be produced in 2010 will be twice as efficient as the ones just a few years back. And the more money goes into that industry, the further it develops. This is a natural curve, it happens with all technologies. Its a slow build at first with early adopters willing to lose money or shell out big bucks, and as time goes on, the technology is better and cheaper, as more people adopt it. So to continue the solar example, its efficient in certain areas now in certain implementations, but the broad ability to work will expand over time. I personally am a huge fan of a distributed solar power system. If you want Solar to give you half your power, that's an area like a quarter of Texas, which is obviously unrealistic. But you put a couple panels on every house and business roof (or just solar shingles), you now have more square coverage than that, without buying a single acre of real estate. You can add in small solar farms where they are practical, and you've got more than enough.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 13, 2009 -> 09:02 AM) Because wind and solar are not a feasible option to replace coal and natural gas. A combination of solar, wind, hyrdo, geo and other natural sources is definitely a feasible option. Just not one that will come to complete fruition any time in the next decade. It takes time.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 04:16 PM) northside is just overreacting I don't think I've ever been accused of that on SoxTalk. This is a first.

Oh, and, in case people missed it... turns out Stephen Sauer is in fact mortal. He walked 2 guys last night, and gave up some runs.

Numbers-wise at least, the system has a very good set of closers... Jon Link, AAA: 7 saves, 2.57 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 10 BB / 38 K in 28 IP Fernando Hernandez, AA: 11 saves, 1.32 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 11 BB / 33 K in 34 IP Nathan Jones, A+/A- combined (not the closer in W-S, but that is his projection): 1 save, 1.57 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 11 BB / 33 K in 28.2 IP Dan Remenowsky, A-: 8 saves, 2.78 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 4 BB / 40 K in 22.2 IP

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 04:00 PM) He threw the ball into the stands and thought it was 3 outs when it was only 2. Twins didn't score an extra run because of it, but it was funny as hell. I thought he lost a hit in the sun?

QUOTE (2OutRally @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 03:55 PM) Wow. That's a lot of pent up anger. I hope he has to serve his suspension for part of this series. Cameron's statements, or this thread?

There has been a lot of talk lately in the news about the practice of "fracking" (har). This is used by companies looking to drill for natural gas or hydrogen or the like, by flushing compressed air, water and/or chemicals into the ground at very high power, to "bring up" the wanted materials. Some of the discussion has been that this practice has screwed up and possibly contaminated water supplies, and some states and agencies are looking at banning or restricting the practice, which was allowed in a loophole in federal legislation. But here is an interesting one, that Balta could maybe sound off on. An area in Texas, thought to not be geologically risk, has been experiencing regular earthquakes lately. And the locals feel that the fracking and drilling might be causing it. Balta, is that even possible?

The absurdity of some of the posts about this Palin/Letterman thing is amazing. You've got someone saying the joke about the kid was OK because Mom drags them out in public, and on the other hand someone saying Obama is somehow to blame for this.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 03:28 PM) Hopefully he continues to take the Shirek route or definitely, the Zumaya route in terms of that. Shirek didn't suddenly put on velocity - he was probably a high round talent who got himself into trouble on and off the field his last season before being drafted, dropping him to Round 13.

As I do each year when we start interleague play (forgot to do this for PIT), here is a look at how some of our pitchers do at hitting... MB: .083/.108/.083/.191, 6 SH, 1 BB, 20 K in 36 AB JD: .125/.222/.125/.347, 1 BB, 4 K in 8 AB GF: .044/.044/.044/.088, 21 SH, 5 K in 45 AB JC: .000/.130/.000/.130, 3 BB, 13 K in 20 AB CR: has not batted in the majors Jenks: hasn't batted Thornton: .000/.000/.000/.000, 1 K in 1 AB Linebrink: .222/.222/.278/.500, 1 2B, 2 SH, 10 K in 18 AB Dotel: .068/.138/.068/.206, 1 RBI, 9 SH, 5 BB, 42 K in 74 AB Carrasco: .000/.000/.000/.000, 1 SH, 2 K in 9 AB Poreda: hasn't batted Gobble: .000/.000/.000/.000, 1 SH, 1 K in 2 AB

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 01:54 PM) Don't know if this was posted or not, it is about our 31st round selection, Jacob Wilson: Sounds like maybe a future ROOGY. Ozzie doesn't use those properly.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 01:29 PM) HOLY SH**, Cuddyer is playing center field um... why?

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 11:05 PM) Oh, I love the temperatures. I'm just surprised at how often (not how much total) it has rained. But yes, I can imagine that mild in Chicago would not be so good. I remember being very surprised when I saw the temp at one Sox game was like 50 degrees and this was a couple weeks ago. I remember thinking that I thought it would be warmer by then, even in Chicago. I was at the game two nights ago, on June friggin 10th, and it was 51 at game time, going down from there. I had actually brought three people who work for me to the game, none of which had ever been to (and barely had even seen) a baseball game before (they are from three other countries). They were treated to 50 degrees, wind, and a boring, 2-1 loss. They will now probably hate baseball.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 01:29 PM) No, but I understand the sentiment that Obama lets this all go - because it benefits him. It happened in the election cycle, and continues to happen now. This has little do with the "joke". You have got to be kidding me. You actually think that Obama has some blame in this? Seriously? Look, as I said, what Letterman said was way out of line, and he should apologize for it, repeatedly. And by the way, from a purely political aspect, this does not help Obama, in fact it hurts him. Palin looks like (and is) the victim here, of inappropriate and slimy jokes from an icon. No to mention that it keeps her in the spotlight. This helps Palin, not Obama.