bigruss

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 18, 2011 -> 07:56 AM) Take a look at the 2012 Free Agent Pitching class, as it currently stands. Jared Weaver Matt Cain Cole Hamels Zach Greinke John Danks Isn't Greinke the only one that the Yankees aren't the best fit for? If they all do go to FA, that is one damn impressive group not even including the other available starters.

QUOTE (High Mileage @ May 17, 2011 -> 08:11 PM) With Everett Teaford getting called up today, the Royals now have EIGHT rookies on the 25-man roster, 6 of them being pitchers. Top pitching prospect Danny Duffy will officially join the 25-man roster tomorrow, so of course that number could increase... Should be entertaining baseball in KC, could see some major flops and some guys start to establish themselves as upcoming stars.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 17, 2011 -> 06:59 PM) These last couple of pages have been a blast. I lol'd at Milkman's use of the Family Guy Emperor picture.

QUOTE (cws0591 @ May 17, 2011 -> 03:03 PM) but he is not fired and you should then no that Kenny will respect Ozzies wishes. so then what i say to you is if you hate everything about this team why do you post on a message board that was created to support it. DONT WATCH Is it really so awful for a fan to want the team to make logical improvements to the team? I mean, this whole winning thing os overrated. I don't know about you, but I'm enjoying seeing a vastly underperforming team do nothing to fix itself. There's nothing that I love more than watching my favorite team, in my favorite sport, do nothing to fix the debacle that has been this season. I just love watching the same losing product and hearing the same pathetic excuses. Excusing this makes me a better fan, obviously.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ May 17, 2011 -> 03:15 PM) He's actually only 172 out 192 of qualified hitters in OPS. Haha. Somehow he is actually better than Hanley Ramirez this year. But you know that I am right there with you in my hatred of Pierre. At this point, he is a sunk cost who will be gone after the year. So why keep trotting him out there every day only to see him misplay fly balls, get caught stealing and ground into double plays as a fast, left-handed hitter? When combined with defensive stats and adjusted for position played, Pierre is actually the worst player in the bigs.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ May 17, 2011 -> 02:29 PM) You'll never make it big out of Seattle unless you 1) learn the guitar and 2) live out of your car. Portland, not Seattle. Don't confuse them, the Portland mayor will come after you.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 17, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) LOL. Such a good show. Love that show. That whole first episode was just golden.

The dream of the 90's is alive in Portland. Awesome to hear man, hope you get some good news from them in a few weeks!

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ May 17, 2011 -> 10:46 AM) I think it's cheaper to use charcoal vs. propane. FWIW, I've got a Smokey Joe that we use when we go camping and it works just as good as the larger version. Just make sure you get the actual Smokey Joe and not one of the cheap imitation ones. They usually don't have the adjustable vents on them which makes temperature control nearly impossible. I've used a Smokey Joe before, loved it. I would definitely pay the few extra bucks for that compared to a offbrand one (when the difference may be $5, I won't care). QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 17, 2011 -> 01:37 PM) Depends how many people you are cooking for as well. In college I went with charcoal just because it was cheaper and we have plenty of time in the summer when I was still in school. I just went to the local wal mart and bought a POS cheap charcoal grill and it worked pretty great. It'll vary between 1 and a max of 8 on certain occasions, but mostly between 1-4 people, and 75% of the time probably for 2. Im thinking that since Im not on the common area floor and that storage may be more difficult, that a propane grill may make mroe sense especially if Im just cooking for myself and want an easier startup (or less time between start up and cool down). At the same time, Im very comfortable with charcoal grills and have had great success grilling with them in the past.

That would be Dallas McSpearson.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 17, 2011 -> 09:56 AM) Cook or Palisades? He probably knows the company I work for if he's involved in security design. Cook. Im not too sure how involved he is in security design, he's an electrical engineer and was involved in a project dealing with antiterrorism. Although, my family's cottage is right next to Palisades, you can literally walk onto the beach that is owned by Palisades (and get stopped by security in a jiffy).

Im looking to buy a grill for my apartment on campus next year, problem is my apartment doesn't have a balcony. We are in a building with a large common area in the middle where I don't think they really allow grilling but everyone does anyways. That said, I think a small/portable propane grill may be the smarter way to go, like the weber q100, but not sure on costs of propane compared to charcoal (for usage). I was originally thinking of getting one of those small Weber Smokey Joes. I will be grilling quite a bit, especially when its warm out. I have always used charcoal and actually have never used propane, so any suggestions or ideas are welcome. Remember, this is a college budget .

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 16, 2011 -> 02:35 PM) Lower discretionary spending, but not as much as the screamers on the right are saying. Embark on a real, actual study of how every agency does business and what value comes from that spending, and make business-like adjustments based on the findings. This can include shutting down some entirely, re-tooling others, and may even mean increasing funding in yet others. Get out of our three wars as expiditiously as possible. Get the government of the business of supporting social security in any way, shape or form, but making it an elective investment vehicle instead of a giant ponzi scheme. Take yet another look at Medicare and health care in general, and see what can be changed there in a way that is financially responsible. Whatever cuts, as a general percentage, are made to discretionary spending... force the Pentagon to make cuts in the same percentage, and force them to make the choices of what to cut. In terms of revenue... stop funding oil with subsidies... close more of the overseas investment tax shelter holes... Require people whose primary income over a base level is from investments to pay their taxes as income instead of cap gains... remove the carried interest and investment management tax tricks... stop all block grants and direct funding of state and local governments... and temporarily, until you can fully re-tool Soc Sec, lift the SS tax cap entirely and make it a flat rate to all, instead of only to the poor. Whatever percentage gain comes from discretionary spending, that money goes to the debt as direct payments. Whatever percentage gains you get from everything else, subtract the running deficit, and all other money beyond that goes to alt energy needs (which I consider to be the current day moon shot type project). Going forward the federal government needs to slowly pull themselves out of the zillion different things it tries to do, and focus only on core national-by-necessity and/or Constitutionally required areas. This would mean things like defense and security, federal justice system, national and regional level infrastructure, foreign affairs, and maybe a dozen other things. All else, force the states and localities to make the adjustment to the reality that they need to deal with them. -- Do all of that, and you will only need to raise it once.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ May 16, 2011 -> 01:24 PM) Guenther retiring, done on June 30th. That's been in the works for a while now right?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ May 16, 2011 -> 12:32 PM) I love the older group's mentality. We're better than we were when we were a laughingstock. Hooray! We moved up to 4th place. Life is good.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2011 -> 08:43 AM) Forget what have you done for me lately, its more like what have you done in your last at bat. Forget this general idea, add more details like what have you done for me lately considering your top 5 in payroll.

Just draft the best available, it's too hard to know when each prospect is going to be ready anyways, so best method is to choose the best player.

QUOTE (YASNY @ May 16, 2011 -> 08:20 AM) That's my perspective though. I appreciate this period of Sox history because of all the lean years. Fine, but I just don't think it's right to make comments like you did pretty much insulting fans who want to win more often (which is such a horrible thing to want ).

QUOTE (YASNY @ May 16, 2011 -> 08:17 AM) Let's look at this. The 1950's gave us 1959 only. The 60's ... good teams through 67 but nada as far as postseason. The 70's ... gag. The highlight of the 70's was 77 and the defense on that team was garbage. The 80's ... 1983. That's all. The 90's ... nothing. 2000's ... 3 division winners and one WS championship. It sucks to be a Sox fan now. We were garbage before, yea that sucks. But that doesn't excuse the Sox from winning in the future. As a fan, Im going to relish anything we win, but Im not going to excuse the Sox from winning just because of a bad history that unfortunately you had to go through.

QUOTE (YASNY @ May 16, 2011 -> 08:04 AM) You mean the 10 year period that has been the most sucessful decade in Sox history since the late 50's through mid 60's? Yeah, I hate that crap too. A team with the market, resources, payroll, etc. that the Sox have compared to the rest of the teams in the Central, yea it pretty much is crap compared to where they should be. Fact is, they have been underperforming with the amount of resources they have available and what they have used.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 15, 2011 -> 10:58 PM) I always enjoy when you join in this discussion, Russ. And I really think that is a legitimate argument, except for the fact that we always seem to get a major piece if we want it. Someone always seems to step up unexpectedly and fill the role of sacrificial lamb, whether it be McCarthy, Hudson, De Los Santos, or whomever. This year it looks to be Petricka? I know Im a stickler when it comes to the farm system We've lost out on a few major pieces, Miggy Cabrera, AGon (couldn't really give up Beckham, didn't have the other pieces), and what we have gotten are guys usually past their prime or with big risks associated with them to help drive the price down.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 15, 2011 -> 10:52 PM) Juan Pierre did not hurt us last year. His defense was enough to justify his position in the lineup last year, IMO. This year, yes, he is hurting us. I think both Jerry and Kenny would have done things differently last year, but chose to give Ozzie a shot at having a bit more say in the team he wanted to put together. JR said something to the effect of "How can we hold Ozzie accountable if we don't allow him to have the players he wants"? Then he went out and gave him a contract extension this offseason. I put last year more on Jerry and Ozzie, to be honest. That being said, Kenny has made some poor moves, and this is a result of his ultra-aggressive nature. I guess maybe it's just my personality though. I remember the Ron Schueler era, and having players become available, and we were never part of the discussion. Then Kenny came and we are ALWAYS part of the discussion. I guess I just like that excitement and the aggressive nature. I'll go down swinging year after year rather than sit around and wait for the prospects to pan out in some perfect storm ala Bill Stoneman. I know a day is coming soon when Kenny will no longer be the GM of this baseball team. And who knows, maybe we'll be a more successful club when that happens. But I know one thing - it probably won't be nearly as exciting to be a White Sox fan in the offseason and around the trade deadline when that occurs. It's all fine and dandy that you're going down swinging, but you're swinging with a mini-bat with the depth of what you've got to trade with.

QUOTE (Tex @ May 15, 2011 -> 04:53 PM) If I say that someone should be responsible for the team's underperformance for most of the past ten years it is mocking? I believe this thread conforms what I've been thinking, Williams, not Ozzie or Walker should be the one to go. Tex, you tend to have many mocking posts of people on this site, so when you actually make a claim like this people are going to assume you are once again mocking them.

QUOTE (Tex @ May 15, 2011 -> 03:20 PM) It's called stating the obvious, year in and year out posters here have outperformed Williams. There was some great stats earlier in the thread, with all that salary, there should be a string of playoff appearances, yet there isn't. His roster moves have been so obviously bad, more posters than not, could have done better. I have no idea whether you are being serious or mocking posters.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ May 15, 2011 -> 03:09 PM) It doesn't tell me anything. I remember people b****ing about the Danks/McCarthy trade and wanting to crucify KW. I'm sure the people from that thread are still holding to their belief that it was an awful trade. Oh wait. It's easy to play arm chair GM and have revisionist history at the same time. Apparently it's also pretty easy to blindly follow Sox mgmt, and never question anything they do as they continue to fail to produce a consistent winner.