NorthSideSox72

Can we start talking about Torres coming up as the new 5th starter if Richard can't hack it?

QUOTE (longshot7 @ May 15, 2009 -> 03:55 PM) I'm with the parents. The Freedom of Religion (or lack thereof) should not be abridged. If they want to pray instead of take chemo, that's their choice. But their choice is effecting a child who is not old enough to understand that kind of choice. That is the issue here. If it was for themselves as adults, then obviously the courts should stay out of it.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 15, 2009 -> 03:46 PM) I like this lineup, except I would move Getz to third and let Nix play 2B. Nix has a much stronger arm than Getz, so its much better to keep Getz at 2B. Besides, Nix is being used as a bench guy, better to move him around than Getz.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 15, 2009 -> 03:14 PM) Can Cook play CF at all? If so, yeah, he'll be the likely call up. He's played all three OF positions in his time in the minors. People here have said he does well at all three, but I haven't read any actual scouting material on the topic. Looking at his minor league splits by position, he has played CF a fair amount - 50 games in the last 4 seasons. 2008 with B-Ham (his last CF work) he played 22 there, and 39 in right. He is given a +1 in both CF and RF in 2008 on minorleaguesplits.com. So he's probably at least passable, but, that's as far as the stats go.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 15, 2009 -> 03:20 PM) Per the White Sox Twitter, JD is appealing his suspension and will be in the lineup tonight. Good, with the OF potentially back intact this weekend, we need to get our wheels under us again.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 15, 2009 -> 02:45 PM) Actually, odds are it'll be Nix. We can only hope. And if Anderson is back, it will probably be him. It SHOULD be, left to right, Nix/Pods-Anderson-Quentin with Dye out, but likely Ozzie will put Pods in center, TCQ in left and Anderson in right.

Seems about right. It was significantly more contact against the ump than what Bradley did, and watching the video, Dye meant for the helmet to head that direction (though maybe not hit him). 2 games seems about right to me, though I obviously wish it was less.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 15, 2009 -> 01:08 PM) When it passes clinical trials. "Alternative medicine" that works becomes medicine. Well, not everything is that black and white. For example, what if the treatment IS a clinical trial? How is that different than some alternative treatment that is homeopathic? I'm not sure the courts should be taking those options away. But I also feel it should be done case-by-case.

QUOTE (Soxy @ May 15, 2009 -> 01:01 PM) Yeah, I think this is a murky area only because it is a child. With Terri Schiavo, I was so disgusted with the court's intervention. But here, I'm uncomfortable--but I think it was the right judgment. Huge difference for a child, I agree. I feel the same way about seatbelt laws. For adults, the argument for seatbelt laws is about reducing insurance, rescye and medical costs. Those are valid arguments to make, but I personally don't think they "weigh" enough to offset the fact that its a paternal law, which is a slippery slope as Kap said. Now kids, that is different. A parent throws their 5 year old in the car, no seat belt or kid seat or anything, and the kid is injured or killed in a car accident... that kid didn't make a choice. Can't make a choice, legally, he or she is a minor. Not only am I OK with seat belt laws for kids, but further, I've suggeted before that parents in that scenario should be prosecuted for reckless endangerment. In this case? You have to be careful. If they are just refusing treatment at all, preferring to hope for help on high, then the courts should step in on behalf of the child. If its an alternative treatment though, that's awfully fuzzy - when is the alternative a real, possibly viable alternative, and when is it something crazy that isn't really a treatment at all? Tough choice to make.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 15, 2009 -> 11:40 AM) They would much rather have Nix, who any team in baseball could have claimed last year. Nix is as good defensively as Lillibridge and has the 2nd best RH swing on the team right now. I like what I've seen from Nix so far, but he has little experience at SS or in the OF, so I am not sure you can make the claim he is as good defensively as Lillibridge. At 2B I'm sure he is. Otherwise, maybe not, though the jury is still out. Right now, in terms of defensive value, Lillibridge trumps Nix.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ May 15, 2009 -> 11:25 AM) why 18mil? thats what the angels signed him for. but the sox were going to sign him for 15mil a year. Huh? 18mil is what he took, that's what it took to acquire him. Some amount some other team tried to acquire him for is irrelevant.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ May 15, 2009 -> 11:09 AM) This brings up a good point. And maybe it's own thread. But, what response do we, as citizens, have to retaliate. And I don't mean directly to Stroger or any public figure who doesn't get it. But, I'm talking on a grand scale. When we get screwed, and a public employee, corporation, etc. gets off or a slap on the wrist or less than what is deserved...what can we do? One example is ss2k5's above. Another would be airlines. They charge us for everything. So, what if I am unhappy with the service I get, could I send them a bill for what I think it was worth? (Obviously not, because the amount of time they would have to spend going through all of that would cause fares to rise across the board.) I guess, besides switching banks, moving out of Cook County, etc., there isn't much we could do. But...is there something more direct? Hard to blend private business and government that way. If the airline screws you, you go to another airline, or drive or take a train or whatever. With government, elections are supposedly the way to do this. But maybe there should be more liberal laws allowing for recalls. How often do we vote for Cook County Board? If its every two years, then I think that works fine.

By the way, anyone hear if Anderson really is coming back today? And therefore probably lillibridge being demoted?

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ May 15, 2009 -> 09:14 AM) The family made over $250,000 last year. This is what I am getting at. His own life is an analogy for how bad he is running Cook County - he makes a lot of money, draws from some sort of deferred compensation, and doesn't have the sense to put aside money for taxes. And this is a guy some people want running county government?

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 15, 2009 -> 09:10 AM) Money is critical to building a team. The Sox are not positioned in a market where they can toss the asinine money at some players, and they should not have to. The important thing this season and perhaps next season is to save money. Seems reasonable to me. There is a balance between building a winning team and spending too much money. Without strong fiscal responsibility, we'd wind up like the Yankees. As I have stated before, it would really suck to find out the team lost money in 2005. Please stop. Tex, no one is saying that its important whether or not the team makes money, in a vacuum. They are saying that salary has to be part of the picture because they don't have an unlimited budget. Why is this so hard for you to even acknowledge?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 15, 2009 -> 09:04 AM) According to Forbes, they have made over $70 million collectively the past 3 or 4 seasons, that's after paying the players. Maybe Forbes is incorrect, but I have heard KW use some of their figures when Forbes said they had the highest pct. of revenue spent on player salaries. Face it, the Sox took advantage of their fans this year by raising prices because they had a lot of money in hand from unused playoff tickets, and dropping payroll. You can blame the economy, but the other teams in town have shown that people will still come out to the games and spend money if you give them a good product to watch. The Blackhawks will be freezing prices next year. Could you imagine the percentage increase they would have if the White Sox were running that organIzation? It also doesn't help when trying to justify the Brent Lillibridges of the world, your chairman is quoted as calling your 2008 division championship team boring. I don't know how they were going to pay Hunter or Fukudome had they decided to play with the White Sox. The fact is, the checks wouldn't have bounced. Sounds about right - that's like $18M per year in gross profit, less in net, which means they are making just a few percentage points in profit. I remember seeing the Sox at something like 1.9% the last year that I looked at Forbes' numbers, and that was better than a lot of teams. This whole conspiracy theory that they are taking money out of the team and going "cheap" on payroll is just manifestly false. They make little money, they have one of the highest payrolls in baseball, and are facing lower ticket sales and rolling sponsorship losses. They aren't juicing the fans, they are doing what everyone has to do right now. And for the love of... Brent Lillibridge is not playing because of salary issues!!!!!! He's the f***ing 4th string option in CF, due to injuries, which by the way no team in baseball would have a good option for.

LOL, not sure if anyone saw this, but apparently the IRS put a $12,000 tax lien on Mr. Stroger. He claims it was a tax bill too big for him to handle all at once, and that it was taken from a deferred compensation of some type. Um, Todd, Mr. County Board President, did it not occur to you to leave some of the money aside to pay the taxes against it? Your excuse is only making things worse, as it appears you don't understand taxes and how to budget your own money. This guy is such a joke.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 15, 2009 -> 03:05 AM) I'm sure there are going to be many people faithful to the novel very upset with this trailer. It's obvious they're attempting to appeal to the general public . First off, if the movie is going to be at all close to be book the whole intro with global warming and a tornado is deceiving. Cormac McCarthy himself said in an interview that when writing of the destruction he had envisioned an asteroid hitting the planet. That would explain devastation on a scale that covers large amounts of land, blocks out the sun, and turns the Atlantic ocean grey from fallen ash. On that note, it's EXTREMELY disappointing not to observe any ash in this trailer. The book mentioned it frequently, and it added to the dreary vision in your mind of McCarthy's post apocalyptic world. I had my doubts about this film when it was delayed last fall. I believe the essential problem here is trying to faithfully adapt the book, which has sparse dialogue and numerous moments of boredom. These moments, while appealing in the book, don't translate well into film if you're putting millions into post production (ie, Special FX of cities). You figure at the end of the world it isn't going to be adventure, as much as boredom and a fight for survival outside of battling cannibals. I wonder from this trailer if the cannibal angle is going to be pushed heavily. That's weird, I took it as a nuclear war, when I read the book. I can't see the trailer at work, I'll watch later, but I'd agree the movie wouldn't work so well without the ash... and trying to make it a global warming thing would piss me off. Completely wrong effect.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 15, 2009 -> 08:48 AM) If you listen to the Sox, they make no profit whatsoever. There actually are people who believe them. Because its true, or nearly so. The Sox little or no money year to year in net profits - which by the way is true of most baseball teams.

Its amazing this team is just 2 games back right now. We now have Quentin back, possibly have Anderson back, Danks on the mound, Alexei looking a bit better lately, same with Thome... the time is now.

Cook didn't play for B-Ham, system-wide filler guy Javier Colina DH'd instead. Adding fuel to the fire of Cook going to Charlotte rumors.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 14, 2009 -> 06:49 PM) You are correct, the whole team looks like s*** at bat right now. Except right now, Fields probably is playing the worst of all them. You gotta start somewhere. Konerko still looks decent. A little light on home runs, but overall, doing reasonably well.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 14, 2009 -> 03:17 PM) Worth noting...the reason why they rejected his request is that those documents are part of another FOIA case already being argued. Whether there is political motivation behind the rejection/other case, I'll leave to others do determine...but it's still entirely possible we'll see the documents at some point. Also FWIW, at least one Senator (Feingold) said during the testimony yesterday that he's seen the documents and they don't make the case Cheney claims they do. Seriously now, would you trust Feingold to be objective about whether or not it met Cheney's claims? I mean, I think Cheney is nuts, he went cuckoo on 9/11 and never came back. He's probably not got anything useful to go after, so he's probably wrong. But even if he was right, no way Feingold would admit it.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 14, 2009 -> 03:06 PM) There is an open roster spot as of right now in Charlotte, but I think David Cook will be promoted when Gordon Beckham is activated from the DL in the next day or so. They can demote Lillibridge and promote Cook, and then release some piece of flak they have in Charlotte. Guys like Myrow and Dawkins serve no real purpose down there anyway.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 14, 2009 -> 03:00 PM) So, trade them Lillibridge when Brian Anderson is activated? It could be for a PTBNL. Lillibridge's value is at its low point. I'd rather send him to AAA and see if they can re-tool his swing. You aren't getting anything of value for him right now anyway.