lostfan

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 10:38 AM) I feel like I am living Groundhogs Day. Seriously. It's all happening exactly on cue.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 10:33 AM) If he had lost the election, I could have totally seen him getting into the media if he wanted to. He would be perfect for it. TV, maybe, if he wanted to give up the Senate. And he would be orders of magnitude less successful than Rush if he did, but I don't see it because he's a career politician (he'd made it a goal to be president when he was in the IL senate 10 years ago). My point being that in order to keep a radio audience captive, you have to be good at talking constantly and coherently. That's Rush's unique skill set.

Clockwork

DBAHO, where do you draw the conclusion that it's mainly a lack of power from a .706 OPS? OPS = on base PLUS slugging percentage. It could be either one, or both. It's probably both, actually.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 09:21 AM) And Obama doesn't? The man once told a staff member that he had a gift for speaking. He loves to do it, he's quite proud of it. Really now? Do you see Obama hosting a liberal talk radio show and making all the millions Limbaugh has doing the same thing, and being as mainstream? I don't. Hosting a radio show and keeping a transient audience's attention is not at all the same thing as public speaking.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 08:58 AM) Agreed, we're pretty much making the same argument. I kind of figured we were. Basically this team needs players who don't suck. It doesn't have to be Curtis Granderson (although that would be really nice), but something, anything with a .350+ OBP up there, and not AJ batting right behind him. And the less sub .300 OBPs in the lineup, the better.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 08:46 AM) Almost every speech Obama gives is to a local audience. He rarely gives a "national" speech. That's semantics though. When you have cameras, your "audience" is still national, or international. If there are no cameras (i.e., stump speech), it's probably something you've said in front of cameras anyway. Personally I couldn't do it, without some kind of visual aid. I need Powerpoint at the very least.

Rush isn't the best example to make that point. He talks, and talks, and talks, and talks about politics, that's his special talent. He's made himself obscenely rich doing it. He wouldn't do much of anything in the radio business if he couldn't. Rush gets knocked not because of his delivery, it's his tendency to make outlandish and at times offensive statements. He gets criticized by the GOP too because sometimes he is a liability to them, and he doesn't know when to STFU.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 08:27 AM) Swisher. We added Getz, Lillibridge, Wise (late last year), ETC. bunting and stealing can't be a priority with our current lineup, not until the old core is gone. Ideally, we'd be OBP oriented team. Swisher's OBP is too high for me to lump in with Crede and Uribe, who together probably have a .300 OBP. If Swisher's BA/OBP had been 30 points higher last year (more in line with what he's done for his career) he'd have been ideal, instead he sucked. Bunting and stealing won't help Wise unless they both raise their OBP by 100 points or more. There's nothing wrong with the core of the team, it's the rest of the lineup that's killing us.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 08:08 AM) We felt the need to turn a good station to station offense into a proto-small ball team. It doesn't work. There is no middle ground. The station to station hitters we lost: Joe Crede, Juan Uribe.

QUOTE (rudylaw @ Jun 7, 2009 -> 11:37 AM) We did get some palyers in those years. Still makes me mad about the srikre in 1994. That could have been our year. I was 12, this scarred me until almost the end of that decade. I was devastated. I couldn't tell you much about baseball from the middle of the 90s.

Inconsistent OBP. When's the last time we actually had something passable at leadoff... yeah people will tell you "leadoff is the most overrated position in baseball" but that's such a half-assed statement. Last year we had Cabrera up there, and he was very up and down, but mostly down. He had 2 good months there - June and September, the rest of the time he was horses***. We tried Swisher and his knack for OBP there, that worked for a few days, but he ended up falling on his face. The 2 spot was no better, AJ was our best option and that was a joke (.307 OBP hitting 2nd). It's a wonder Carlos managed to get as many RBIs as he did in '08. 2007 was... well, I don't have to go into 2007, we know what happened there. We've had decent OBP from the middle of the lineup. TCQ, Thome, Dye (usually), even Konerko manages to put up a passable OBP even when he's bad. After that there isn't much left. Definitely not AJ or Ramirez, not so much Anderson - he is capable of drawing walks but it's irrelevant if he can't hit, same with Fields. Getz has a .310 OBP right now but he projects higher than that if he ever adjusts. Pods MAY put up a .340 OBP this year (doubtful if he slugs anywhere near .400, by the way) in the leadoff spot and that has some people here giddy. Last year, we had Crede and Uribe still on this team, both were barely .300 OBP type players. And I won't even bring up Wise. Bottom line: this lineup makes a lot of outs, and doesn't give the guys who can slug very many chances to drive in runs.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Jun 7, 2009 -> 07:17 PM) The majority of ''hookah smokers'' in this country are non smokers, which i find laughable. Hookah smoke is worse for you than cigarettes by a large margin. If you do not condone cigarettes or any other form of smoking, you simply are going against your beliefs. Cigarettes are absolutely disgusting and it's addictive to boot, cigars are OK but they make my breath smell. I can't smoke weed. I'm aware that shisha smoke is not healthy, but I also don't do it often enough to hurt me, either. Maybe twice a year, tops.

Soxtalk's lowest common denominator.

Oh, this argument again. Time to stop reading this thread.

Finally, Anderson does something other than make an out.

2007 had a laughably weak farm system, at least now we have real prospects in the system so it doesn't look like we'll be screwed for the next 5 years.

Over/under should have a .5 in it... as in, the over/ under is 2.5 runs. That's if you're trying to say Cleveland will score more than 2.

This team is just so hard to like. I'm trying, but it's not working.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 7, 2009 -> 02:03 PM) Actually I wouldn't. I hate prepared speeches. They slow me down and I spend more time reading than talking to the crowd. I hate having to follow a written speech. Eh if you're talking to a local crowd that's probably a lot different than being on TV. I imagine being in national politics is a lot different, much more coaching and image management.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 7, 2009 -> 01:49 PM) I have done a fair amount of public speaking and ran for office. I have never once written a speech. I'll write some notes once in a while before hand, but I don't refer to them during the speech. Its just not my thing. You would if you had a packed schedule and had professional speechwriters to do it for you.

My friend suggested I use vodka instead of water, or cut vodka with water.

Speaking of Mediterranean food, this brings up something I was talking about with Milkman the other day. It's really hard to find a gyro place outside of Chicago. Over there, they are a dime a dozen, even in the suburbs. This probably goes for New York too. They might have some down in DC, but in Maryland, I can only think of one place, and it's a good 20 minute drive away.

QUOTE (G&T @ Jun 6, 2009 -> 11:44 PM) I had a friend with one in college and had a lot of flavors. It was nice to do after drinking all night. Or while drinking, lol. If you ever go to an Arab country and go on a business meeting or whatever they do this all the time. That's how I got exposed to it, actually friends who had to do meetings, and they'd come back with their own pipes and do it with us. I was pretty happy to find out they actually had hookah bars here, they're getting more popular.

You might find buddies that do it in college, or someone with one. I'm otherwise an avid non-smoker for the record.