NorthSideSox72

If it has to be one of the disappointing 3, hopefully its Anderson, since he can at least defend the position.

With Fields looking good, multiple 2B candidates also looking good, and the pitching solidifying... CF is the one position left that I see as problematic for the team. I don't like any of the 3 supposed candidates for the job. I'd really, really like to see them give Kroeger just a game or two in CF, to see if he can man the position without totally sucking.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 12:25 PM) Whether you like how I'm going to reword it or not, your argument is that we should just keep going for quick-fixes that sound good because actually fixing the problems are too hard, and you hope that you can build something solid out of the quick-fixes. Without some hard data saying that the quick fixes will make a positive difference rather than going all NCLB on us and making things worse, I find that logic flawed, and I think the data that is out there backs my case up. If you read my posts, I said the opposite of quick fixes - long term fixes to individual elements of the problem, is what I am suggesting. I agree that the logic you THINK I used is flawed.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 12:11 PM) Heritage Corridor? Also I would doubt that these will be express trains and the suburban people may have long train rides if they hit all of the local stops. DeLaSalle and IIT are better served by this as does the whole Bronzeville neighborhood. This is not just a White Sox stop which I see being a politcally charged debate. It would likely be treated like the Ravinia stop. When no event is going on, its like a small local stop, where only the milk run trains make that stop. Expresses continue through. But you add an extra train or two on game nights that make 35th and selected other stops, in each direction.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 12:14 PM) So basically your argument is that we should keep trying things whether or not they fail? Even if they're entirely likely to make things worse in schools for both students and teachers? No. I am saying that when dealing with a complex system that is broken in multiple key and related ways, if a true all-at-once overhaul isn't realistic (which it is not here, for cost reasons among others), then you need to try to fix a few things at a time. You go with what will work long term, even though it may not work well short term. And when you implement those things, you see where the bad parts fall out, and then deal with the biggest pain points (again addressing them with long term solutions). You keep doing this until you have your cohesive system.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 11:51 AM) That's not what I was trying to suggest though. The issue I'm trying to make is that the system is so fundamentally broken that things that could be good reforms can easily wind up screwing up/backfiring because they will only work in a functioning system. I'll try to give you a specific example other than NCLB. Merit pay for teachers. Seems like a no-brainer, right? If a teacher is sucking, they should get paid less. But of course it's more complicated than that. Not just how you measure the suckiness of the teacher, which has a whole host of factors like the type of students, the quality of equipment, etc., coming in to the classroom, there's every reason to think that a merit-pay system could easily drive people away from the profession entirely, thus driving the overall quality of teaching downwards year after year as people don't want to risk having their pay cut because they get a bad set of students some year. It's not that you're not trying to fix it. It's not that the idea itself is bad. It's that the messes are so entrenched that they literally take what could be a positive fix and turn it in to a negative. That describes NCLB's testing program to the letter, and it could easily describe other proposed good ideas. And sometimes, you need to increase the turbidity to extract the crap.

He missed all of 2007 for some reason, I don't know the reason, and was mediocre in 2008. Now he's been cut. I'd say there is something wrong there - injury or whatever. I wouldn't go any further than a minor league contract with him, and besides, we have a pretty solid bullpen group anyway.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 11:30 AM) There you've hit the rub on all of these. All of those things...improved standards for standardized tests, merit pay for teachers, etc., can be good ideas in the right scenario. But there are so many other underlying problems so deeply rooted in the makeup of the education system...from the inequalities of the private/public school systems to the inequalities created by how they're funded through property taxes (amongst many others), that everything so far winds up being a band-aid on a gaping wound. Things that can be wonderful policies on paper, like say, better and more thorough standardized testing, can so easily be destroyed by the current system that I'm not sure any of these things will actually make a difference. Just look at what happened to NCLB. It was created. Then it was under-funded. Then schools realized that the goals were unreachable. Then schools started teaching only to the tests. Then states started dramatically lowering testing standards so that they wouldn't lose federal moneys. And the only end result seems to have been that nothing changed except more class time was wasted on preparing for the tests that would make or break the school's funding for the year. The system is most certainly littered with different contending problems. That shouldn't stop you from fixing some of it though, and then addressing more as time goes on. You cannot realistically rebuild the whole thing in one shot.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 11:31 AM) Nice. It'll be easier traveling to Midlothian and paying $1 for parking instead of driving downtown. I heard before that if any station was going to be made near The Cell it'd be the Rock Island, since the Southwest Service Metra line (which I ride and passes directly near the park) has too much freight line traffic to guarantee a path near the platform. You wouldn't want people, possibly drunk, walking across the tracks -- especially with Amtrak and other Metra trains whizzing by at 50+mph. That freight and Amtrak traffic is why they are, seperately, also discussing moving the SWS and some other line (I don't know which) over to that RI line for that stretch.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 11:25 AM) So, Obama's education policy is a gigantic success? Heh. Looks like a good start to me, but he has some uphill battles ahead of him.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 11:22 AM) I don't like merit pay for teachers. Under performing districts (that are already in dire need of good teachers) will be less likely to attract and retain good teachers. So, kids that are screwed by being in a poor district or one with low parental involvement (or both) will be screwed because teachers will be reluctant to take positions there. Should be fine for teachers with plenty of resources though. I think that goes to how merit pay is implemented. You don't allocate merit award moneys to schools based purely on performance against a large pool, you take into consideration funding levels, student population and their issues, and have at least some money going to every school regardless of school-wide performance. Also, you need to be careful how you measure "performance".

Obama gave a speech laying out his plans for education. He manages to back the ideas of more charter schools as well as merit pay for teachers, which will upset the unions. He also says he backs better funding for pre-K education, which will rankle Republicans. I like his plans at this point, overall. Here is a synopsis. Maybe this can spark a good discussion on education in this country.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 10:28 AM) This could be it!!! I wonder how much political willpower there is to change this? http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=home That is a huge need - regulatory overhaul. Not just the rules and laws, but the agencies who enforce them as well.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 09:39 AM)

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 09:44 AM) so hey what would this proposed metra line be? (what towns) Its the Rock Island line, already exists. But one of the plans Metra has is to re-route a couple other south suburban lines, that currently run just west of the park, over the RI line east of the park. So then the station would be on 3 lines instead of 1.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 09:16 AM) How close do the Metra tracks get to that side of the Dan Ryan? Its right there. The RI line is probably no more than a couple hundred feet east of the Ryan. The station, I believe, is planned for the stretch of track from 35th street north, and it would be only a block or so further from The Cell than the Red Line 35th station is. Very convenient to the park (as well as IIT).

By the way, markets up big today, 4 to 5% on major indicies so far. Not sure if this is the beginning of a bounce or not - there seems to be increasing levels of noise that the market is oversold on irrational levels of fear (as I suggested recently). Could also just be a blip.

Included in some of the federal stimulus package monies is $7.9M that was needed to get the 35th Street Metra Station on the RI line next to the Cell in place. Not sure when it might be completed, but, the money is now there, and it is under federal restrictions to get moving quickly. So maybe we'll see it this year, for next season. Article.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 08:32 AM) If the CME is interested, I am guessing the hold up is finding enough capital for marketmakers to be able to function with. I am surprised they haven't put something together for Globex yet, but at the sametime, how do you standardize a product like that? It would be interesting to see what their prod/dev team is doing with it. You don't really standardize it, per se. You can set up swap condition templates, which can then be customized per contract. You create a matching engine for the parties to use to link up (some of these already exist). And then you have a clearing house for risk and capital/collateral validation and provision. Not quite the same as a true exchange/clearing house relationship, but close, and good enough to significantly handle counterparty risk. That would get a lot of people on board. The follow up on this, of course, is that once you have clearing houses and venues established, you then set rules where if people decide to do OTC swaps, you heighten the reporting requirements, to expose the risk-takers as being just that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 08:18 AM) 1.Dollar/cost averaging is the system that makes the most sense to me. 2.Rumor on the street is that the have been pushing the CME to get into this business. Don't know if that is true or not, or in what form it would be, but that's just what has been said. I can confirm that #2 has been underway for a while, CME wants to do it. But I don't know if the feds are pushing the issue to get going faster, or if they are promising any sort of funding.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 08:48 PM) Joe Mauer to have an MRI on his ailing back. Yikes. Despite that he's a key player on a rival team, I'd hate to see his career screwed up by whatever health problem this is.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 10:04 PM) Like someone said, he'll be catching for the twins. I worry about Mauer, that guy has something seriously wrong with his kidneys. Huh? EDIT: Nevermind, I see the thread in Diamond Club now.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 11:24 PM) Oh, I guess I'm bored so I'm posting again. But I'm trying to not be a Kaperbolistic asshole. Not a word either, but, I like it.

A couple thoughts on this discussion... 1. If you stop MTM valuation, you have to replace it with something. What model or models are the people who want to stop it, suggesting we use to replace it? 2. The government would be smart to heavily back efforts to get clearing houses and organized exchanges online for fixed income and swap instruments. That is a big part of why these parties were able to trade into such high risk - there wasn't anything binding them into the consequence of each transaction on their risk profile.

After showing up in the US with far less velocity than advertised, and with two unremarkable years in rookie ball under his belt, the Sox released Po-Yu Lin in October of 2008. So ends the Lin era. Closing thread.