southsider2k5

QUOTE (fathom @ May 5, 2009 -> 06:46 AM) Seriously, the Javy trade was to get Flowers, and the rest didn't really mean much. As for the Rangers-Braves trade, the Rangers got a hell of a lot more than Andrus. That was an amazing trade by the Rangers. They also traded a great young hitter Mark Texiera in a bidding war, and not Javy Vazquez after another late season blowout. The difference in returns is to be expected.

QUOTE (JustWin @ May 4, 2009 -> 08:00 AM) Zambrano has been placed on the 15-day DL. I would love to see Zambrano out for an extended period of time and see the cubs really fall back in the race. It's too bad they didn't lose a few more games while Aramis Ramirez was out (he'll probably be back in the lineup tonight). The Cubs are playing just well enough to keep close to St. Louis and if they start clicking like they can, they can take off and not look back. Remember in 2007 they started off badly and then around June 1st they got hot and remained hot the rest of the year. So I guess they did underexagerate after all

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ May 5, 2009 -> 05:50 AM) Looking at this roster Pods is not the dead weight on it. He can do enuf to be on my 25 man. Fact is we traded the prize commodity , starting pitching to Atlanta, and we have Lillibridge right now to show for it. Texas trades Mark Texiera to Atlanta, basically a rent a player, and amongst others Texas got Elvis Andrus. We trade Swisher for no immediate help either. It appears our GM is not restocking the team as we were led to believe by the GM. The best players in the deal are not in Chicago yet. I don't think there is anyone who would have said different from day one.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 5, 2009 -> 05:42 AM) Kroeger starting to heat up, has his OPS up to .810 after an awful start, he's been on fire the past 5 games or so. Lucy with his second straight 2-hit game, and threw out another runner. I'd love to see those two on the roster instead of Lillibridge and Miller, since Nix can now play every position that Lilli can except CF. Poreda looking tempting, but I still think they don't jump him up like that. If JC falters, I think it is more likely that Richard and JC just flip positions. Torres is intriguing. I figured he was doing better, as the Josh Kroeger is batting .XXX updates had stopped.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 4, 2009 -> 06:51 PM) WSJ. You know, there have been a lot of times in the past couple years I've just wished I was this corrupt. I heard this on MSNBC today and then got to thinking... Hello Mr SecTreas., you know, the guy out of the New York Fed bank... Why hasn't he been mentioned in any of this, because this is who GS was dealing with.

I predict a pretty brutal game thread...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 4, 2009 -> 01:44 PM) You can pull gold out of the oceans too. You just have to expend an enormous amount of energy to do it. More energy than you get by grabbing the uranium or more money than you'd get by selling the gold. Uranium is like a fossil fuel in that sense...it's available because there are actions that the earth has done in the past that have concentrated it enough to make it economically viable. You'd get a hell of a lot of gold and uranium and lots of other heavy metals if you could extract every little bit of them from the Sierra Nevadas, for example. The problem is it takes an enormous amount of energy to do that. We're lucky in that processes the earth has done has made it possible to use them. If you can come up with a semi-infinite energy source, then you can get the uranium out of the oceans...but then what do you need the uranium for? The Yucca Mountain case is a fascinating one. What most people don't know about the nuclear industry is that decades ago the U.S. government promised it would find a way to dispose of the waste from running these power plants. So far, it hasn't done so, and the power plants have done the storage...but they have billed the government to the tune of tens of billions of dollars for that storage. The weird reality is...without that giant subsidy relating to the waste, nuclear power simply isn't profitable. Nuclear power wouldn't exist in this country without the government subsidizing the waste. Always found that weird. Yucca mountain is an absolute mess. It reminds me an awful lot in spirit of things the government has done like the Levee system around New Orleans. We don't know everything about the materials the U.S. wants to use in constructing the long-term storage things they have there (classified)...but it really does strike me as a boondoggle of the highest order. Here's the basic story...the government needed to find some place to put this stuff. They happened to have a mountain sitting on the side of their already contaminated Nevada Test site, where they'd blown up bombs for decades, so they grabbed it as a convenient spot. Currently it has some advantages...it has very low population, very low rainfall. The mess is when you get in to the details...because this stuff is nuclear waste, it's going to be hazardous for on the order of hundreds of thousands of years. Less than 20,000 years ago, there were large lakes in this area and the water table was much higher...high enough that it would have soaked the canisters they want to use To actually have this thing work, you need to be able to seal the stuff off for longer than the lifespan of the radioactivity. But since things like climate cycles and tectonics change on timescales that are less than the radioactivity, you're asking us to do a predictive problem that is just impossible. If you sort of ignore those things, you can ram through the waste depository, build it, ship stuff there (that's a whole different can of worms), and hope for the best, and it's entirely possible that you wind up ok, and you never have, for example, a category 3 hurricane hitting those levees that you never bothered to do the correct work on. Really, it's an impossible problem. There's no where on earth that you can guarantee a stable climatic and tectonic environment for the lifespan of the stuff. If you're going to put it somewhere, Yucca is probably safer than the way it currently is stored all around the country haphazardly...but I don't want to be in Las Vegas after it turns out that we underestimated something in the climate or tectonic system. Putting it there is asking for trouble. Not putting it there is asking for trouble. Really have no idea what to say other than that. Boy that sounds familiar...

I actually locked in my 401k recovery today... I am now officially waiting for the Stress Tests to clear.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/updat...2626&ref=mf Kanny is trying to set a world record for the World's Biggest Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. Not a half bad idea for a promo!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 4, 2009 -> 09:15 AM) On this one, I'll believe it when I see it. I totally agree with this... It won't be long until there are new loopholes getting put in. The elelected officials realize that this sounds good, but in reality, they can't lose these companies out of their districts.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 4, 2009 -> 06:32 AM) Which is impractical in today's society. The framers of the Constitution could not foresee plane travel, the internet, telephones, etc. and the need for a cohesive national plan. We should be doing what is in our best interest, not Jefferson's. I do not think it is in our best interest to run a country in 2009 based entirely on a 200+ year old document. It has to be a living document that adapts to our needs. However, conservatives would prefer rolling back the past 50 years and reverse Roe v. Wade, restrict pornographic materials, have prayer back in schools, define marriage as one man and one woman, decency on TV, less social programs. So I guess it isn't a stretch to go back another 150+ years If it is impractical, then someone needs to get together and come up with something new. Until then, it is the law of the land.

More reasons for companies to leave the US, great timing.

So our of curiousity, is anyone else completely done with the NBA playoffs at this point?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 4, 2009 -> 06:11 AM) Also, I have defended Ozzie (and will continue to do so) for playing his bench. But I really do wish he wouldn't have a "bench day" like last night. I thought he had finally learned to get away from that, based on last year (he did it a lot less last season). But now its back - run the whole bench out there in one game. Not a good strategy. The bench strategy would have looked a whole lot better last night if the guys who are paid to hit when it matters, had hit when it mattered. The four guys (Pods, Lilli, Miller, and Nix) that were being slammed here as minor leaguers went 4-15 with a sac fly. The problem was Fields, Q, and PK went 1-11 with 5 Ks, a GIDP, and 10 LOB.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 4, 2009 -> 05:18 AM) Where does it say in the Constitution that abortion is a state issue? Sounds like that touchy feely crap you do not like As soon as you said abortion is bad, I knew you would be against Roe v. Wade. The part that saids all issues not addressed by the Constitution are left up to the states...

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 4, 2009 -> 04:55 AM) I like Wilson Betemit and thought he would add some good depth and versatility... but I'm with Fathom on this one. Why the hell did we trade for him if we aren't gonna use him. So far in most of the the games he's played in (which seems like 3), he's hit. I don't get it... maybe he's assosiated with BA too much. If he could actually catch a baseball, it would be a nice reason to put him into the line up.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 3, 2009 -> 06:34 PM) I'd prefer we made this a completely hyperbolic gamethread. That was the worst call at third ever. You mean its not? Coulda fooled me.

QUOTE (lostfan @ May 3, 2009 -> 05:46 PM) I'm taking Wite's side here - it's not that he's saying Nolan Ryan doesn't deserve to be in the conversation of all-time greats, and he certainly deserves to be in the Hall, but he isn't as good as his legacy makes him. So to you and everyone else, where exactly does Ryan rank in the all-time greats? I don't think anyone has said he is THE best of all-time, but one of the best.

Not fan of this s***ty line up, but here is Ozzie reason... Harrison versus righties .406, versus lefties .217.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 3, 2009 -> 03:10 PM) Yes, for Mark Prior (who funny enough is complaining of shoulder issues again). They've had so many injuries the last 2-3 years where it seemed like the player would be out a long period, only to miss a week of action. Hell, Zambrano has left with forearm/elbow pain about 5 times over the past few years, and has only missed maybe 5 starts during that time. Lou's post game said it was more of a cramp, so I am guessing he misses no time.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ May 3, 2009 -> 03:29 PM) You mean numbers like 96 MPH heat,7 no-hitters, and 5412 K's? That's all I ever recall people saying about Ryan when his career was winding down. Nolan was great. definately a HOF, but he was not better than Pedro, Maddux, or Randy Johnson. The dominance that Nolan had on the game for a significant period of time is lost in all of the walk/strike out/IP/hits arguments. Watching the guy pitch, and the task that a hitter had trying to get to the guy, is what I look at. I'd put the guy above Pedro and Johnson, but below Maddux personally. Pedro could rate higher, but his durability sets him back from the other three.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 3, 2009 -> 02:55 PM) Zambrano's a maniac...if there's someone who will pitch through pain for them, it's him (the anti-Prior). Cubs injuries also never are as serious as they appear at first. There will probably be a vigil outside of Wrigley tonight for him though. This is the team who is notorious for their injuries being way worse than they start out! I don't disagree with the last part.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 3, 2009 -> 01:12 PM) The problem with Owens is he didn't know how to use his "speed". I'm still not convinced that recent injuries left Owens with anything other than good, but not great speed. And the problem with Gathright is that he does nothing well, but run. He sucks.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 3, 2009 -> 02:18 PM) Pulled his left hamstring. Now that could be disaster for this team.

Happy Birthday guys