bigruss

QUOTE (Cali @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 10:29 PM) I don't think you can discredit the fact that Beane's A's choked EVERY YEAR in the playoffs. I'm sure there are plenty of A's fan (and if I were one I image I'd fall into this category as well) that are kinda sick of the whole Moneyball thing cause it brought them nothing but heartbreak. I swear, if I only had two choices and two choices ALONE: Miss the playoffs or Get in the ALDS and get eliminated every time like the A's, no fantasy scenario where one of those times you win--you're out every time by the first round, I'd take miss the playoffs. The A's and more recently the Twins have kinda proven that in the playoffs big slugging and 100 mph fastballs win out in the end over the scrappy guys who play the "right way"/.OBP heavy teams. And in some cases (Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies...) Money wins come October. Most of the teams that win have some big time OBP players though. And if I was going to choose between playoffs or no playoffs, well that's pretty easy imo, you always go to the playoffs. You may not be as talented, but if your hot you can win it all.

I was literally just talking about my favorite Scrubs episodes with relatives about 3 minutes ago. Hooch is crazy.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 09:39 PM) I love when he is trying to come up with a street name and comes up with "Diesel". So hilarious. I've recently started watching Sons of Anarchy and it's safe to say I'm hooked. Knocked out the first season on Netflix this week and started season 2. Good stuff so far. SOA is simply fantastic, especially season 1&2, season 3 drags on a bit but is still very good (especially the final episode, which makes the whole season worth it). I've got high hopes for season 4, I think they will learn form their mistakes and keep building on what is a already one of the best shows out there.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 05:40 PM) If the White Sox win tomorrow, they will be .500. Hopefully they will circumvent the two teams above them soon.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 05:00 PM) Rob Van Winkle stole my look in the early 90s. i have that hat, but my jacket is green Where is Sqwert and his vanilla ice wannabe model.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 10:16 AM) Oh, as for your question about cash back bonuses, etc... 1) NEVER agree to pay a fee to hold a credit card. They're already going to collect interest payments in the case you hold a balance...they deserve no such fee, not ever. 2) Watch those cash back bonuses...most default to 1% or less, with "specials" such as you are talking about. Those special high yield cash back %'s usually come with strings attached. For example, Discover offers rotating deals on things such as 5% back on gasoline purchases from July-September...HOWEVER, they offer that 5% back on the first 300$ you spend on gasoline, and that's it...after that 300$ it's defaulted back down to 1%. Yea Im really wary of paying the annual fee, but I looked into the fine print and the cashback that they are advertising is there to stay as long as you have the card, it won't go away after a trial period and there is no minimum. It also has unlimited Reward Dollars and an extra $150 cash back if you spend $500 in the first 90 days (which isn't hard for me since I use my CC for everything). The only thing now is that annual fee...

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 10:10 AM) If you are buying into ETF's/funds, make sure you pay attention to the cost basis -- this is the % they're going to skim off of your money, whether your ETF/fund goes up or down, it's the house take. I prefer investing into Index funds because their cost basis are like 0.15%, where MOST mutual funds and whatnot will have a cost basis of almost 1%, or more. The stocks in your current portfolio look good. I'd thinking about swapping your VZ stock for T (AT&T), but we are in the same boat on this one. I currently own VZ, but their P/E ratio is over 30, which is pretty high...AT&T, which pays roughly the same dividend (depending on when you bought VZ), has a P/E of only 9.3, and it's currently 6$ cheaper. I've been considering doing this myself. It's something to think about, anyway. Oh, and a little advice -- never listen to anyone that claims to know if the market is going to dip or pop...anyone that makes such a claim should be a billionaire, because it would really be that easy to become a billionaire if you *really* knew when/if the stock market was going to way up or way down. Like others have said, with a long term outlook, don't listen or care about such things, find a stock at a decent price, and buy it. Vanguard is under .2% for each I believe, it's almost nothing. Yea when I was buying VZ I thought about T, and I ended up buying VZ at about $29.50 a share, so the dividend is better currently. I've been watching the stock because of the P/E, but I do believe they have a stronger outlook than AT&T. I'll keep monitoring that one. I see your guys' points, I'll most likely invest as soon as the money transfer occurs.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 09:51 AM) I use Scottrade. Pretty satisfied with it. Only complaint is that it doesn't show pre-market/afterhours pps, but I'm not sure the other big guys do either. Good thing for cnbc.com. I will say that I've been very pleased so far with Optionshouse.com and google finance to check in on the market.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 09:26 AM) Balance transfer means, if you move a credit card balance from another card to the Amex. You will not get charged for paying your bill. I will give you two answers to the questions about buying. One, if you are a long term investor (or even medium term), you need to avoid thinking like a day trader. Don't wait for the perfect dip, or jump on a bandwagon. Decide what you want to do long term, and do it. So if I were you, I'd buy whenever you are ready. Two, if you want to know what's going on out there, I've see some of the "experts" say we are oversold right now, and others saying the economy will further dip and the markets will go with it. So take your pick, one or both groups are wrong, maybe one is right. Thanks for the response! Good to know about hte balance transfer. Yea, Im just 21 yrs old and I started investing last summer since I have had some pretty well paying internships, so this is a long term investment (mainly so that Im not just sitting on a bunch of cash in a bank account that gives me nothing, and I wanted to get some practice in before I graduate). So far I've felt more comfortable buying stocks with good dividends to help increase my buying power and to offset some of the risk, but Im willing to invest a certain portion in riskier stocks. I just don't want to invest now and see the market tank and realize I could've bought more shares at a cheaper price in just a month or so. I'm not in a rush or anything but by the end of the summer my goal is to have close to 10k invested (currently at about 2k in those 3 stocks I mentioned before).

Bumpadoodle. So I've got a few questions. I just set up an account with Vanguard and Im going to be investing in their Total Stock Market ETF and their Total International Stock ETF. Now, do I want to purchase into it now or do you guys see a dip coming and it would be worth holding off for a few months. Also, I got a credit card application that intrigued me, it's an American Express that offers up to 6% cash back at supermarkets, 3% at gas stations and department stores, and 1% on everything else. It also has a $75 annual fee, but that could pretty easily be made up by the supermarket cashback (average of $25 a week covers that), my biggest concern is that they say that balance transfers cost $5 or 3% each time, so does that mean each time I pay my statement online that I would get hit with a 3% charge? That would completely kill the extra cashback. Current portfolio includes: VZ, BP, KO.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jun 29, 2011 -> 02:36 PM) Lol me and Oney actually broke the good news with Dunn ;> I can't believe how many people didn't want anything to do with.. Paulie. Everyone is like D Lee this D Lee that, what's D Lee doing these days? It wasn't unreasonable to want DLee at all, and many of those who wanted him (including myself) were worried over the number of years that Paulie would demand and his cost since at the time we didn't know the Sox would be going that high in payroll. Of course, I also stated that signing DLee was contingent on a great physical on his part. Don't forget, Konerko had to be swayed to stay, DLee at the time was a very reasonable answer without knowing budget and the actual health of the players.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 29, 2011 -> 12:10 AM) Anyone ever take an interview you feel unqualified for? I got it from a referral within the company, so I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm going with it anyways. Just go in knowing your strengths and ready for standard questions, and ask a friend in the organization what to expect if you can. At the same time, don't bulls*** them in your answers, if you don't know something tell them, but make sure you tell them in a way that shows you will go out and find the answer to that question.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 28, 2011 -> 03:09 PM) The problem is that you usually don't want the guys who will sign a one year deal. Maybe, but here's last year's notable FA list that signed 1 yr deals: Jeremy Accardo Rick Ankiel Rod Barajas Erik Bedard Lance Berkman Melky Cabrera Tod Coffey Johnny Damon Octavio Dotel Justin Duchscherer Kyle Farnsworth Jeff Francis Frank Francisco Jon Garland Jason Frasor Vladimir Guerrero Aaron Harang Andruw Jones Hiroki Kuroda Gerald Laird Derrek Lee Fred Lewis Russell Martin Hideki Matsui Hideki Okajima Lyle Overbay Carlos Pena Brad Penny Joel Peralta Chad Qualls Jon Rauch George Sherrill Jason Varitek Javier Vazquez Kerry Wood Chris Young They may not be top of the line FA's, but their is some definite talent and production out of that group.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 28, 2011 -> 02:32 PM) And of course this guy was much cheaper too. *sigh* There's something to be said about 1 yr deals, if they don't work out then you lost a bit of money but you're not tied up. If they do work out, you can resign the player or get some draft picks on top of the production they gave you.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 28, 2011 -> 02:56 PM) I can't believe the Sox are 7th among AL teams in OBP. With Pierre, Done, Beckham, Rios and Morel being below league average (the latter three well below leave average), I figured we were 11th or 12th. I thought I heard on the radio that we were 26th in MLB in OBP. That doesn't seem right.

If only I just had a chipped tooth from a candy apple that made me whistle with every "s".

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 28, 2011 -> 02:09 PM) That blows. Im pretty much just pissed at the first orthodontist for telling me that if I pull 4 teeth than when my wisdom teeth came in they wouldnt have to be pulled. Well that turned into an extra 3 years of braces, all while letting my wisdom teeth continue to come in horizontal, causing a fantastic area for bacteria to grow between one of the wisdom teeth and one of hte teeth in back. This led to me having to get the wisdom teeth pulled and getting a root canal done on that tooth. Now that tooth was too damaged and only after they f***ed with my gums back there did they decide to pull it.

Online ballots should have updated stats next to the players, I think that may help deter some people from blindly voting for a player from their team.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jun 28, 2011 -> 11:42 AM) MLB/Dodgers have banned the sale of "Chapter 11" jerseys That's lame. It wasn't profane, it was a joke on how stupid there owners are. It shouldn't offend anyone, since the McCourts put themselves in that situation anyways.

I am 21 years old and I may have gone through every single f***ing dental procedure. Today was the icing on the cake, I went to a periodontist (spelling?) to get some gum removed so that they could put a crown on a tooth that had an extensive root canal done on it. But, the damage was to severe so they decided to pull it, which makes it my 9th tooth pulled. I hate how this pretty much all started because of what turned out to be a s***ty orthodontist I had in Michigan.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 28, 2011 -> 09:00 AM) That'd make no sense though...whether 3,000 people show up or 30,000 people show up, they're paying Pierre the same amount. The finance change right now by cutting Pierre and calling up Viciedo is what, $250k? I think his point was that if the Sox had more money from attendance, they would be more willing to take the hit of cutting Pierre and having to buy him out.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 27, 2011 -> 04:31 PM) ILLUSIONS! Hey, look at that. You're funny when sober too.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 28, 2011 -> 08:15 AM) I didn't realize he was in the league. He was hitting like .370 in AAA, along with over 20 homers I believe. And Im surprised that ball still had the cover on it after that.

QUOTE (FlySox87 @ Jun 27, 2011 -> 07:58 PM) This. If anyone like BigSqwert or Russ wants to write off my views as "Tea Party bumper slogans", I don't really care. It's a cheap, weak argument, and me or AD could just as easily write off our opponents' arguments as "liberal hippie bumper slogans". But that would just be dumb. So you can ignore me, but that doesn't change what I said. Obama has bowed before multiple foreign leaders, and that's below the office of President. I know you treat foreign leaders with respect, but bowing shows subservience. JFK realized this when he met the Pope. He did not kiss the Pope's ring because he knew he wasn't meeting the man as a Catholic, but as President of the United States and thus the show of subservience would have been inappropriate. Obama hasn't realized this. Also, personally, I'd say the Saudi king is third world, fundamentalist despot. Regardless, friend or foe, POTUS doesn't bow to him. Just off the top of my head: there's the ICE memo. The DREAM Act was rejected by Congress, so Obama has set out to find other ways. That is unlawful. Then there's the War Powers Act. After crucifying Bush for years on Iraq, Obama flat out ignores the same act to which he tried to hold GWB accountable. And then he comes up with excuses as to why he doesn't have to answer to that act. Oh, and then there was his promise a few weeks ago that gun control was being worked on "under the table". This from Mr. Transparency, mind you. I'd figure he was talking about an attempt to ratify the UN Small Arms Treaty. Gun control from the UN, bypassing Congress and violating our national sovereignty. He should be warned that such an act would be treason, and no conservative I've ever met is going to simply give up their guns and go easily into the night. The man has shown repeatedly that he will forgo Congress if he thinks he can get away with it. You guys write off the insults to a good portion of the American population, but how would you have reacted if Bush had said that some people won't ever vote for him because they are "dirty hippies who cling to their bongs and government assistance"? That wouldn't have gone over well. He can insult my culture and my politics and my belief in American exceptionalism all he wants, but it's not winning me over. And since I doubt many of you are in the military, I assure you, the regular troops are none too pleased by his neglectful insult of two of the more heroic men in our ranks. Oh, and may I just mention his unpresidential pettiness? We can start with him spitting on separation of powers with his State of the Union remark about Citizen's United vs FEC. He's free to disagree with the ruling, but that was totally unbecoming. LOL, I never even said that you were posting that way. I had a problem with you labeling your values as America's values. But since I don't agree with you I must be labeling you something tea party related.

One thing I would be wary with in this situation with Dunn is overcoaching. It seems like we do this too much in the organization and overcoaching can lead to prolonging slumps even more, and it seems like some guys never even really cover from it.