NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 18, 2009 -> 08:58 AM) I don't think there is any meaningful correlation there. Agreed. Economic factors are so all over the place with their cycles, and disconnected from government action over time, that you can't really get much out of that.

I am not sure which are bold and which aren’t, it depends on your perspective. So here goes everything, what the hell (subject to revisions in late March)… --Buehrle struggles with the mediocre defense behind him, but does OK --Danks has a big year --Floyd opens with struggles, but improves and finishes strong --Contreras is in the rotation by end of April, and has a good year --Marquez gets the 5th spot, and takes over for Colon when JC shows up and Colon struggles badly (and is relegated to the bullpen or DL). Marquez has a decent 5th starter year. --Bullpen does surprisingly well, pretty much across the board, and is a strength for the team --Richard is in the pen, Poreda in AAA, Broadway traded before Opening Day --Konerko has a big comeback year – not huge for average, but big power and big OBP numbers --Thome struggles, bat speed is an issue, has some nagging injuries. No trade occurs though, and he limps on, deciding to retire after the season. --Fields gets 3B job, is above average offensively and only a little below average defensively, by end of year. --Alexei is similar at SS as he was at 2B – brilliant at times, but makes stupid mistakes too. Offensively, he struggles a bit, but finishes with similar numbers to last year. --Getz gets most of the playing time at 2B, and is pretty damn good by the end of the year – high OBP and average, a little power, speed, and good defense. --Owens starts in CF, actually does well, but then gets injured. Lillibridge takes over in CF, does well, and Owens fades into obscurity. --Anderson is the 4th OF, again. --TCQ puts up similar numbers to last year, maybe a little lower, but is more erratic with ups and downs. --Dye has a good year, but not great. --AJP has the best offensive season of his career, his defense is still mediocre. Armstrong wins the backup job despite being LH, and struggles. Replaced mid-season by Stewart or Lucy. --Bench starts as Lillibridge, Betemit, Anderson and Armstrong. First three do well, Armstrong not so much. --Beckham starts at AA and adjusts easily, is in AAA by August. Jordan Danks doesn’t adjust quite as quickly, finishes in AA looking good. Allen is a beast, finishes in AAA with big numbers, looks like new 1B/DH to replace Thome. AAA rotation is superb, with Poreda, Egbert and Cassel all looking nearly major league ready. Flowers finishes in AA, looks good, defense improves, but his average and OBP start to drop off a bit. Viciedo starts at AA, adjusts quickly, puts up big numbers and is in AAA for second half. Overall, the system looks very good for the Sox in 2010 and 2011. --Overall, team does far better than projected by most “experts”. They start in the middle of the pack, but it’s a very tight pack. They make a run late season, but fall just short of the division title, winning 88 games. Final standings look like this: CLE SOX -3 KC -6 MIN -7 DET -10

I've never held to the concept that it is OK to do something because others do it. Its a complete cop-out. Even if 99% of baseball does it (and I don't think its more than 50% tops, probably substantially less), then its still just as wrong. One thing I haven't seen brought up much on this site, in the steroid discussion... there is a positive result to all of this. It took way too long, its still weak enforcement, and its ugly for the game, but... a lot fewer players are using now. I've seen players and coaches bring this up a lot lately. So, despite the ugliness, the good news is that fewer and fewer players are making these stupid decisions. Sunlight is a good thing.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 04:39 PM) Check out the trib today. Hm, somehow I did indeed miss that. I'll have to look around and see what the back story is, what he tested positive for, etc.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 03:03 PM) So you aren't a Tyler Flowers guy. Got anything to back that up? Because that would be news to me. Not to say it isn't true, just that I haven't seen anything about that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 02:36 PM) I'm not so sure about that. Isn't it actually possible to get things like vitamins (Tejada's infamous B-12 shots) that are legally taken in injection form without a prescription? I am 95% sure that, even vitamins, if injected, requires a doctor's note, aka a prescription. Even though B12 is available OTC in pill form. I don't think anyone can go (legally) get injectable substances without a prescription.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 02:48 PM) Not as funny as Northside's bat throwing contest... If its raining again, I'll be bringing batting gloves. And maybe pine tar.

QUOTE (The Beast @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 03:56 PM) I hope you guys need a 6"2' 190 lbs. southpaw...because that's what I can offer you if I play. By the way, what is Soxtalk's history against WSI? We won the first game, by a lot. 2nd game was so under-manned and rained out, that the teams were all scrambled.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 17, 2009 -> 01:02 PM) Said it was him and his cousin , no one else. Took something with a street name of "boley" as best as I can make out what he said. His cousin didn't distribute it to anyone else. He was young and stupid. Said it was over the counter stuff. Not even sure if he and his cousin took it the right way. Says it was injected. There is no such thing as an over-the-counter drug that is injected.

Watched Munich today, it had been on the pile for a while. Considering you knew what you were going to get, it was a very good film. Well acted, just enough reality feel, dealt with all the issues it should have... glad I watched it. Ciaran Hinds is one of my favorite non-star actors, by the way. I've now seen him play characters that were Irish, Russian, Jewish/Israeli, and American, and did well with all of them.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2009 -> 09:46 AM) The Illinois Assembly could have passed a law that changed the way the governor seats someone in an instance like that. The Senate could have stalled his seating for MUCH longer than it did. I think that Illinois tried something like that. AG Madigan tried the courts, that failed. I agree, the Senate could have stalled much longer, which I was hoping they'd do as well. But I am not sure the Illinois Assembly has the legal standing to change the way the executive fills a US Senate seat (anyone who knows anything about this, feel free to expound on it). The flip side, of course, was that IL wouldn't have a Senator in that seat, which is bad. But, since Quinn was elected not too long after Burris was seated, it seems like just a few more weeks would have been worth it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2009 -> 08:01 AM) Awesome. Just awesome. The funny part is if the Senate and/or Illinois House/Senate had stuck to their guns and refused to seat him, this eventually would have come out and they would have looked like geniuses. Instead they caved, and now they have to go through this stupid stuff all over again. I got the impression that the Senate, and the Illinois Assembly, had their hands tied. I think the best they could do, legally, was stall in every way possible. They did that, part way maybe.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 15, 2009 -> 04:56 PM) I also noticed an amendment by Senators Sanders (I-VT) and Grassley (R-IA) which disallows companies using TARP funds to layoff workers and replace with outsourcing and such. That one I'm not sure I'd agree with. If they need TARP funds, they probably need to be spending less money, not more. I could see not allowing outsourcing overseas, but not allowing them to terminate employees seems like a dangerous railroading to me.

So, interestingly, the final version of the stimulus bill has an important amendment added to it, restricting executive compensation. It was added by Senator Dodd, and is actually much MORE restrictive than Obama/Geithner's original plans. Details: I applaud this, personally. Only, however, for companies received TARP funds, which is the case here. If it went past that, I'd be strongly against it. But in this case, we (the taxpayers) had to bail these people out. They now report to us, as far as I am concerned. The article also contains some laughably ridiculous criticisms from industry folks.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 11:34 AM) Also got an email update from Tesla saying that a Chicago store will be opening soon. Can't wait to test drive one. Yeah, that's good stuff. I'm glad the new administration is embracing these concept car companies.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 14, 2009 -> 07:33 PM) If its being installed in the Pentagon, that's a $50,000 stimulus right there.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 12, 2009 -> 12:04 PM) Latest update wrt mass transit: LOL at "Joe Biden, D-Amtrak". Good though, that if we are going to go on a spending spree (which I am not convinced on yet), that we are putting more money that originally planned into mass transit. One of the better places for it to go.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 01:40 PM) I remember Biden being held up as 'an amazing' pick at the time around here. The Democrat posters were very defiant when confronted with facts that Biden is an idiot. They actually got extremely angry when he was criticized or mocked. Careful with the whole "they" thing. I saw very few posters talking about Biden being "an amazing" pick or anything like that. I saw a lot of Dems calling it so-so, or OK, or in some cases not-so-great.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 01:38 PM) Ah I see, it's any home buyer now. Well I hope they put limits on it. Yeah, I'd be good with it being just first timers, or once every 10 years as you said. Just to keep the speculators away from it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 12:14 PM) FWIW, a compromise appears near on the stimulus bill. The rumor is the bill will get slightly smaller and will probably improve substantially; with some of the Senate-added tax cuts and the "Flip your house" credit either weakening or removing, with some portion of the spending on education that the Senate cut going away. The total price tag will drop slightly below $800 billion. I hope they keep the new home buyer credit in.

First rainy day in Chicago in a while, so I'll add this one... People who walk around downtown Chicago (or any other crowded area) with giant golf umbrellas that could protect a small house. They end up clobbering people in the face, they take up three times as much room on the sidewalk as you need, and you look like a pompous ass. Stop it.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 09:31 AM) Huh? I thought part of the money was to create jobs so that work can get done. That could be part of the game here. Feds trying to get the states to staff up, create jobs, and be able to handle the work.

Illinois may not get as much money as they could from the stimulus for roads projects, because the Feds feel that IDOT is too understaffed to handle them anyway.

I didn't even know he had AIDS/HIV.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 11, 2009 -> 08:12 AM) The intelligence community was like that until recently. It still kind of is but it's not as bad. I wrote a paper on this topic actually. The intelligence and law enforcement agencies were notorious for this. FBI, CIA, ATF, USSS, DEA, NSA et al were hugely competitive with one another, didn't like to share information, and were in different departments of government entirely. DHS was supposed to help that get better, but from what I have heard, DHS didn't do squat for that purpose. The improvements made, I am told, are more from within those agencies, on a one-to-one basis.