NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 18, 2009 -> 07:18 PM) You expected Josh Fields to be hitting .224 with 2 homers at this point? Fields has had 125 AB this year, after 125 AB last year Alexei was hitting .293 with 4 homers. I don't know what he did today, but coming into today's game Fields was hitting .109 when he fell behind in the count 0-1. Meh, I expected more like .240 or .250, which is why I specifically said he is a little under. Also, he is at a bottom right now, and will probably be back to .250 relatively soon. So yeah, he's just a little under.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ May 18, 2009 -> 04:12 PM) Fields and Getz do not appear to figuring anything out. I liked them both as players but they started nicely and have regressed to a point where they are adding nothing to this team along with Lillibridge. Phillips can play third that is why I mentioned him. I'll just have to very much disagree with you here. I think Getz and Fields are doing about what you'd expect them to do at this point, maybe a little under for Fields. Alexei Ramirez at this point last year was worse than Fields or Getz are right now. There is plenty to be frustrated about with this team, but it makes no sense to replace either of those guys today. A month or two from now, if the team is still terrible, that might be another story.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ May 18, 2009 -> 04:02 PM) The Sox are in a sticky situation. They raised my season ticket price 10% this past offseason. If 2007 and 2009 are both cublike futility, I am walking. They screwed us over last offseason with the playoff deposit. If they sell guys to save money they better give it back to me....I know they won't. The Ray Durham deals don't cut it. You go down with these guys or you get guys that are going to contribute to a greater degree than the Lillbridges and Jon Adkins the world. This isthe slope Kenny Williams has made for himself. What needs to happen right now..... Send down Fields, Getz and Lillibridge. Bring up Phillips, Anderson and give any infielder in the minors a shot who may be able to not strike out and can hit mediocore pitching. s*** trade for Ozuna or Willie Harris. KW got himself into a world of s***. Then reassign Greg Walker Field is just starting to figure it out, and Getz is doing pretty well - not sure why you'd send those two down. And if you bring up someone from AAA as a hitter than isn't Anderson, I'd rather go with Kroeger than Phillips.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 18, 2009 -> 04:00 PM) No offense NS, but these team will suck a long time if they consider Torres or Whisler a long term option. Same with Cook. Maybe they find a way as a last man in the pen or in Cook's case a 4th or 5th outfielder but anything more and its a bad sign. Who said anything about Whisler or Cook? I've said before I think Cook is being underutilized, but for pitching, I am NOT saying Whisler is some great prospect. I do think that the pitchers I mentioned are intriguing though.

By the way, anyone have any idea what the hell happen to Justin Cassel? Dud won an ERA crown in AA last year, and has been atrocious this year in Charlotte. He's also been on the DL. I wonder if he's still got an injury.

I like some of the pitching prospects we may see for next year - Poreda, Omogrosso, even Torres as potential starters, along with Richard if he can stabilize. Link in the bullpen. Not exactly stacked, but, a few nice arms to consider. Everyone talks about the position players, with good reason, but there are some pitchers worth watching for 2010 too.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 18, 2009 -> 03:27 PM) I mentioned this in the other thread, but I'll mention it in here. Josh looked much improved today. He still looks lost at the plate, but his approach was much better. He actually turned on a fastball, which was robbed on a great play by Rolen, and that was nice to see. He was also making contact with the ball. Yeah, I was saying a couple days ago, the fact that he started looking really lost up there appeared to me to be a good sign. It means he was making adjustments. People were way too quick to write him off, thinking that was the hitter he had become. I don't know how effective he'll be able to be in the end, but he wasn't going to stay completely lost like that forever.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ May 18, 2009 -> 03:18 PM) This is the first time I've really ever heard anyone lump this conflict into the war on terror. It's really just a sad situation. The Tigers are a horribly brutal bunch, but they seem to have come to singlehandedly represent the aspirations of the Tamil people. Sounds a lot like the crooks and terrorists who are "fighting for" the Palestinians, doesn't it?

QUOTE (fathom @ May 18, 2009 -> 03:08 PM) I'll be completely honest (and opening myself up for ridicule), but I'm about two weeks away from going into full anti-Cubs mode and hope the young guys play well for the White Sox. This has been just a dreadful baseball season since Game 2, and it's shockingly getting worse as the days go by. Wait... you aren't in full anti-Cubs mode now? You have like half the posts in the Cubs thread. This does suck right now though, no argument there.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 18, 2009 -> 03:07 PM) All I can say is that you knew what was going to happen when Dotel walked the lead off batter This is actually true - you can usually tell right from the first batter whether or not Dotel has it that game.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ May 18, 2009 -> 02:47 PM) Thanks, I'll take a look at these writers. As far as being dubbed a big Cormac McCarthy fan, it's actually not true. While I love The Road, outside of Blood Meridian, I don't think he is anything special. The Border trilogy is fun, but far from outstanding or memorable. You mention I'm probably into stylists, and this is true. McCarthy is not a good stylist, and at times, his prose is worse than Bukowski (who I oddly love.) Some of my favorite writers include: Nabokov, Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Capote, Beckett, Kafka, Camus. That's interesting - in that case, drop Card from my list. Keep Clarke and Dick, though neither are quite properly stylists. One guy who is a sylist of sorts is Heinlein, but that is a whole different can of worms. His stuff reads like a great author who is forced at gun point to write soft core space porn. Its an interesting effect, and his better known stuff like Stranger in a Strange Land is fun to read. But its fluffy as hell.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 18, 2009 -> 02:58 PM) The previous post made it seem as if Rumssssfeld single handily did it based on his faith. Tex, I think you are the only one going to the extremities on this one.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 18, 2009 -> 02:39 PM) Not to be all over the map here but, IIRC Congress, the President, Colon Powell, CNN, Fox News, and a few others decided the basis for military action. Again, IIRC there was concerns about weapons of mass destruction, mass executions, and perhaps torture and mass killings. I must has missed where Rumsfeld used religious text as a basis for "military action!" Go read Woodward's books. And Curveball. Then let us know if you still think that Rumsfeld wasn't a major guy promoting engineering the Iraq war.

Some pitchers going tonight that are worth watching. Need some baseball other than the crap the Sox are putting up right now.

Encouraging signs from Richard. Thome is maybe finding a groove a bit, if he can keep healthy. Other than that... blech.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 18, 2009 -> 02:08 PM) I believe you can sort by school in the draft section of baseball-reference.com Sure enough, thanks! ISU has had 17 major league players. The most well known one seems to be former pitcher Mike Myers. The last time they had a player drafted was 2001 - Alan Bomer, RHP, 9th rd, to the Cubs. Never made it to the bigs. Looks like they used to have at least one guy drafted each year up until 2001, then nothing.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 18, 2009 -> 01:23 PM) Matt, that would be a really good question to put into one of the free Q&A's Baseball America does. You might even be able to get it in today as BA is doing its college chat right now. I personally have no idea on any guys that were drafted out of Iowa State. Another good spot, check out Iowa State's baseball page cause it usually tracks alumni especially this time of year. Oh and more specifically, I rarely follow baseball in the big ten because aside from a few teams its just not very good. Indiana has a few good guys this year, Ohio State is decent, Michigan has its years, Minnesota has had some solid squads, but rarely if ever do I see a team that is a legit playoff contender or is fulled with top talent. Thanks. You do know that Iowa State is in the Big 12, not the Big 10, right?

QUOTE (tommy @ May 18, 2009 -> 01:36 PM) Was the 2nd RUN they scored an earned run? No, 3 base error on Pods. BUt I didn't see the play, not sure what happened. Richard: 6 IP, 1 ER. Can't really complain about that.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 18, 2009 -> 01:34 PM) No, I like Nix. It's just crazy how much better his ABs seem to be than the others, and on almost every other team in baseball, he'd be the weak link. For a rookie (basically) who wasn't expected to do anything, he does in fact look decent at the plate, and on the field. I've liked what I've seen so far.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ May 18, 2009 -> 01:05 PM) GMAFB, where did anyone in America hear about this conflict? It was probably the biggest victory in the entire Global War on Terror and barely anybody knew it ever happened. Was there even a post on ST regarding this war? If there was did anybody even respond? You can call me an elitist/stuck-up college kid/whatever but the very thing I'm accusing this board, and on a broader level the entire country, of couldn't be more true. -There is no 'y' in the word political. You might get a little more credit for your posits if you didn't use blanket statements quite so liberally. We have definitely discussed it in here, though not lately, that I recall. Keep in mind too, we also don't hear about long-term on-going conflicts elsewhere in the world. Many have gone on for decades. Its nothing new, so often, there is nothing new to report. In this case this is certainly an important moment though, no doubt.

So here is a weird question for you guys who know more about college ball than I do... I went to Iowa State, and flirted with the idea of trying to walk on there. Didn't do it. I looked into the program there a bit, and it looked like (at that time) they were pretty much the bottom of the Big 8 (now Big 12). How would I look into seeing what, if any, Iowa State players have been drafted? Made it to the majors? And does anyone know anything about the current state of the program? Sorry for the tangent.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ May 18, 2009 -> 12:59 PM) Given that FIAT has its own balance sheet issues that will rear its ugly head in about two years.... I wouldn't say smelling like a rose will necessarily sound that apt. Well, and remember too, Fiat is an Italian company. Labor relations in Italy are ridiculous - if GM or Chrysler think they have a hard time with labor here, its nothing compared to the level of control that labor has in Italy.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 18, 2009 -> 11:53 AM) No, but corporatism sure does. I wouldn't even go that far. I think the problem isn't corporatism generally, its a two-part problem of the current way corporations prioritize the value of personnel, and a securitization system that doesn't properly check that.

QUOTE (False Alarm @ May 18, 2009 -> 11:12 AM) dunno what you've read but knowing that your background's probably in lit fic i'd recommend writers who are at least servicable stylists. i don't recommend ender's game. the book's decent, if a little overrated, but the prose is fairly juvenile and i think that'd turn you off if you've read mostly lit fic and are a newcomer to SF. i'd also be hesitant to recommend dick for the same reason, though his ideas tend to be so strong and cool that any deficiencies in his prose are easy to ignore. he's definitely required reading for peeps interested in SF, but maybe someone you should save for later, when you're more used to SF. some writers i think might work for you: neal stephenson, gene wolfe (who is a complete badass), ursula le guin, william gibson (though he's gotten away from SF as he aged), vernor vinge (who's very good but maybe more in the dick category cuz his writing ain't always the prettiest). right now i'm reading kim stanley robinson for the first time and it's too early for me to rec him, but it's looking real promising and his prose is heads and shoulders above that of most hard SF writers i've read, so you might wanna take a look at him. david mitchell (in cloud atlas, anyway) and jonathan lethem are two more contemporary writers i consider mainstream rather than SF, but their writing's much more polished than most SF writers and they've both done work in the SF field. finally, covers: you've pretty much gotta ignore them when you get into genre fiction. it's just a sad fact that SF and fantasy publishers pander in their cover art. He's a big McCarthy fan, and PK Dick's writing reminds me a bit of McCarthy. That was why I thought it was a good connection.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 18, 2009 -> 10:05 AM) So by your example we should totally leave alone all businesses that are not being funded by the government? We should tax and penalize all businesses not currently propped up by the government fairly and equally based on current fiscal structure.