NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 05:01 PM) The city pays the Department a fee for each emergency that they are called out for. Of course they do. The department couldn't function otherwise. But the actual firefighters wouldn't get paid, as they are volunteers. That money goes to equipment, supplies, training, etc. That's the way most volunteer fire departments work.

PK's defense has really taken a dive this year, and he has yet to find a groove at the plate. He's probably gone after this season, if they can work a trade with someone PK is willing to play for. But for now, you have to look at his career, and see a guy who has a very good chance of getting hot as the season goes on. He'll get better with the bat. Not sure on the glove, though. QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 09:29 AM) First order of business, move AJP out of the 2-hole Yeah, 'cause its been terrible having a guy hitting there with a .288 average, rarely striking out and being able to hit to all fields. Awful. Must be the problem. Before everyone goes into a panic over one damn game, look at the numbers. This offense, since mid-May, has been quite good. We just took 2 of 3 on the road from a KC team that is NOT as bad as previous years' teams. There is no need to be making big changes at this point.

I think Wes Whisler is a pretty big story this year. Here's a guy who struggled in AA and was labeled as just not having the stuff to make it. Not enough velocity, etc. Look at his season so far - 10-5, 3.46 ERA, 1.73 GO/AO (lots of ground balls!), and good control (31 BB in 101 IP). The only warning sign in his numbers is the low strikeout total (43). Anyone seen him pitch this year? How is he getting guys out with the lack of "stuff"?

Per the Trib, the Cubs signed Cashner (their first round pick) today.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jul 9, 2008 -> 12:25 PM) Some of them were called. Many of them may have been out there regardless. There's no way you or I will get to know that. If they were out there, they didn't get paid for it. The Fire Department is paid for it, however. The volunteer fire department was paid for it? That would be news to me, and I've volunteered as an EMT. Most volunteers in those departments get paid no, or very little, money, regardless of the number of hours they work.

QUOTE (juddling @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 12:34 PM) found this online today. She's nice to look at but i was never a big fan of her talent. The writers have ther work cut out for them... "Former Friends actress Courteney Cox has reportedly signed up to appear in the next season of hit TV series Scrubs. Cox signed up to appear in three episodes of the medical comedy drama series following the announcement that her own show Dirt had been canceled by network bosses at FX. According to Entertainment Weekly, Cox will become Sacred Heart's new Chief of Medicine and her character will "ruffle feathers". Yuck. I like that show. This is terrible. She is one of the most annoying actresses of all time.

I'd like to see ONE of these candidates promote a program or policy set that would actually make government less wasteful and more efficient. As of now, both candidates, and for the most part both parties, have stances on the issue that are mildly delusional. The Democrats see a problem - need for alternative energy, lousy schools, etc. - and their reaction is to throw money at government agencies to solve the problem. This is incredibly flawed. Most government agencies are hugely wasteful, and don't contribute as much to the economy as the private sector. Why they think this is the answer is beyond me. Then you have the Republicans, who think that if you simply cut budgets by X%, you will magically make government more efficient. Have any of these guys and gals ever actually functioned in the business world? If you take an already inefficient agency or department, and simply cut their budget by some amount of money, what do you think the result will be? It won't be more efficient government. It will be less efficient, with less services delivered (probably even more of a drop than the spending reduction), because the people left are all lifers who are just protecting their jobs. This is an assinine method for reducing government waste. How about a real program. How about we get some non-government business fire teams (consultants) to analyze these agencies and departments as businesses, and follow their recommendations. That may mean spending more in some places (where they are relatively efficient, or where staffing shortages are decimating their services), and spending less in other places (where money is being wasted). Put actual, real performance standards in place, and here's a novel idea... reward good performance. Look at outsourcing to private industry. Use the money saved from the spending cuts (which are now targeted in an intelligent way) to cut taxes, or fund areas that need more help, or pay off some debt, or hire more competent people at higher salaries (since you will have fewer people doing the work). Or heck, all the above. Please, someone in power, be serious about cutting government waste. I'm tired of this grade school campaign trail garbage that won't do a damn thing.

I had pointed out in a thread a couple days ago, this team was 20-22 at one time. 33-15 since then. Awesome.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 10:24 AM) Kerry versus Obama is a tough one for me. I think I might prefer Kerry. It sounds crazy to say this, but I think he might be more moderate than Barack. I really can't think back to one spot where Obama has crossed over to a predominantly republican stance, or opposed his party on anything meaningful. I think Obama is a world better than Kerry in many areas outside policy. But I also want to add here, to see a candidate as more independent, its not just based on going across the aisle. Its initiatives and ideas that don't belong to EITHER party. Obama has a number of those in his policies. The idea of alternative energy policy is somewhat Dem, but is really not truly either party at this point. And he's been pushing that pretty hard (more so than McCain). Obama has also talked about mass transit and other subjects that neither party wants to touch.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 10:29 AM) Telecom immunity Also, he was with the conservative SCOTUS opinion on child rape not too long ago, for whatever that counts. Before that, he'd been painted as anti-death penalty because he voted against it in Illinois a few times for other reasons. Also, something that was in the news recently... Obama is in favor of not just keeping, but expanding, Bush's faith-based initiatives. Then there is the Iraq War, which Obama opposed early on when a lot of Dems were jumping on the war wagon. His stance on that is basically Democrat now though.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 08:15 AM) That's fine, you are smart enough to determine your own ideas. There are quite a few (I would say the majority) that don't see the hypocrasy. If you can live with the hypocrasy because he's going to be "less hypocritical" then most, okay then. Hopefully I'm saying that right. Both candidates have been at times hypocritical, both have flip-flopped, both have thrown campaign staff under the bus (so to speak). Some of that is a necessity. Some of it is political B.S. games that they all play. Some is because of the incredible, pedantic overanalysis of everything either one of them say (usually by their loony ultra-wing followers trying to make the other look bad). And yes, some of it is also just failures on their parts. I think its interesting to see what types of things each candidate tends to get hounded on, because its not necessarily done the way you'd think (finding a weakness, exploiting it). McCain tends to get pounded to no end about misstatements and verbal miscues, and also gets pigeon-holed as Bush II every time he says or does something remotely like Bush. Obama gets pounded for how he handles his staff, and also for every time he does something that might be seen as elitist. It looks to me like the media, and the campaigns, have decided on some themes to continuously beat to death in the other candidate. And if real material is lacking, they stretch reality so far as to be unrecognizable in order to fit that agenda. For the campaigns, I expect that. The media, though, is just lazily following along with it.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 09:36 AM) Chris Deluca was on ESPN First Take this morning and said how OC still hasn't really adjusted to the clubhouse. I was surprised because OC and Swisher seem to always be joking around and I haven't seen anyone verbally upset with OC (aside from yesterday's Dye incident). Either way, Cabrera has played tremendously and has always been regarded as a great clubhouse guy anywhere else he's been. FYI, the Trib (Gonzales) said the exact same thing about OC leaving early and not talking to the press, as per his usual. Its not just Cowley saying it.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 08:12 AM) And my question is, why can't general people see this? I just cannot understand the hype. Barack Obama is an eliteist - and I'm not trying to use that as a cliche - but he promotes social divide with his policy. Anytime you want to "redistribute" anything in a capitalistic society you have trouble. I understand there has to be some - but his whole policy on damn near everything has elements of it. There are other ways to do things. There is a difference between not seeing, and not agreeing. I don't agree with your assessment.

I guess they wanted a long man. You know... to replace Jenks. Goofy.

Lost in all this discussion is that Jose was not nearly as bad last night as the numbers indicated. He gave up more B.S. hits in his outing than I've ever seen a starter give up. Rarely did anyone hit the ball hard. He made a mental mistake at 1B, and threw a WP, both of which made things worse. His outing actually doesn't upset me at all.

QUOTE (vandy125 @ Jul 9, 2008 -> 10:25 AM) As a citizen in a small state, I really dislike the idea of getting rid of the Electoral College. If that happens nobody will care about what is needed on our farms and away from the cities. Those all become fly over areas that the candidates will not care about. Actually, I'd suggest the opposite will happen. If you are in a small state, probably, they don't bother anyway. Unless its a "swing" state - then it doesn't matter if its big or small, they'll matter. But that's the whole problem with it. The electoral college artificially disenfranchises 80% of the electorate who don't live in "swing" states. If you have a truly national vote, then every vote counts the same.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 11:01 PM) Because most of those people are the same religion. He should move on to a religious school where he can educate and preach if he wants to. Doing this in a public school is asking for a problem. Not to mention that, regardless of the preaching... tattooing his students?!?!?! I wouldn't think anyone would tolerate that in any setting.

Halfway season update on Charlie... Mr. Shirek has been fairly solid this year for Low A Kannapolis. His win-loss record of 3-4 isn't very indicative of how good a season he's had so far. Here are some numbers worth noting, as of 7/8... 13 Games (12 starts) 65.1 IP 57 H 25 ER 12 BB 38 K 3.44 ERA 1.06 WHIP 1.85 GO/AO .224 AvgA Among current starters, Shirek leads Kanny in ERA and WHIP. His ERA would put him around 20th in the SAL and his WHIP around 7th in the SAL, if he qualified - but because he missed most of May due to injury (still don't know what that was about, but he's back now), he is a couple starts short of the minimum. Shirek's numbers since his return from the month off have been good but not great. If he can regain his early season form (which he seems close to already), he's a strong candidate for promotion as the season goes on.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 06:41 PM) Thats more than can be said for uribe. Uribe has some power, good defense and thats it. Pablo can play sound fundamental ball, brings speed to the table, and can hit for average consistently. Pablo is a better player than Uribe. When you are talking about middle infielders on the bench, defense is a huge key. Possibly #1 on your list. And Uribe is far, far better than Pablo in that department.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 06:33 PM) Obviously I was tongue in cheek on that one. I really hope Kenny is looking in the market though just in case Bobby's injury is a little more serious than they are making it look I figured you were kidding, but, it isn't entirely out of the question. Stranger things have been done. Just really unlikely. And I bet Kenny has a rolling list going for this kind of scenario. The Sox system does have some nice young closers in it, but most aren't ready. The guys closing in Charlotte are Wass (who is not a real closer) and MacDougal (who has trouble closing paper bags). The others are too young yet.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 06:30 PM) Maybe they'll surprise everyone and bring up Poreda to close in the mean time............ He's been starting throughout his minor league time, and he started this year in A+ (recently promoted to AA). I somehow doubt they will pop him up to the club for a week to close.

Ozzie insists on 12 pitchers, per the Trib. Since Loaiza isn't ready, I'm guessing we'll get Wassermann for a week. He probably won't pitch more than once or twice at most anyway, so, I guess it doesn't make much difference who they call up.

That's odd. Then why DFA Ozuna now, unless Ozzie insists on carrying 12 pitchers? So who gets called up? Loaiza is supposedly injured. I guess we'll be seeing Wassermann again?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 03:28 PM) Gload was all hype...he made a few very costly errors over there. Swisher made a lot of plays look easy that PK wouldn't have gotten to. QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 03:34 PM) I never understood the Gload hype either. He was one of the worst defensive outfielders I've ever seen, and his 1st base defense sucked too. I think you are both dead wrong on this. I think people took his early problems in the outfield and extended them to 1B, which wasn't the case at all. But that gets into another topic, one which doesn't really matter anyway. I agree that Swish is the best I've seen over there for the Sox, at least for a very very long time.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 03:22 PM) Ozzie can still manage this team to use everyone effectively. I agree though, Swisher played amazing defense at 1B. By far, he was the best defensive first baseman I've seen on the southside. I didn't like Wise's defense, as he played far too shallow. Ross Gload was awfully good when he played there. He's the only one I can think of that is close, but Swish is still better.