JorgeFabregas

Tyrus set a nice screen and got called for a moving pick. Bah.

I fear that they are far too dug in and committed to the "flexibility" of the rotating DH. I'm not sure why adding a good hitter would decrease flexibility, but that seems to be the prevailing idea. Also, the whole notion of "holding Ozzie accountable by giving him the team he wants" seems wrong-headed. Who cares about holding Ozzie accountable? Is the idea that ownership can feel better about themselves if and when they fire him?

I heard multiple reports on NPR that the only people let into the airport in Haiti in the first days following the quake were people with American passports---even those with European passports had trouble leaving the country. Meanwhile, it's not clear that the Americans were invited to take over air traffic controlling duties (although perhaps they were right to assert themselves if the traffic was being mismanaged).

Right. 7:07.

I don't think they used to be 7:10. The article says "moving start times back four minutes."

QUOTE (everafan @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 06:22 PM) Den the kind of year he has will determine if he is offered arbitration. If he has a year like 09 I don't think he will command $10M+ and the Sox will not offer arbitration. If this last off-season is any indication, he won't be offered arbitration even if he matches his 2005 or 2006 numbers.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Jan 18, 2010 -> 12:27 PM) If we try to resign Konerko to a cheaper contract, how do we avoid the rules where players cannot have, like, more than a 20% pay cut, or something like that? Or is that only for arbitration players? Yep. Players can not be awarded or offerred less than 80% of their current salary in arbitration. If they hadn't reached an agreement by the time that the arbitration deadline rolled around, they could opt not to offer arbitration. They would still be able to resign him in that case under the new rules.

Vizquel put up defensive metrics in line with his career averages last year. Granted, he didn't play that much so it's a small sample size. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/o...the-south-side/

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 13, 2010 -> 11:15 AM) The team is more like the 2005 team but with better pitching all around. Everyone except Pierre and AJ can easily hit 20-30 HR. Pierre: 1 HR Beckham: 25 HR Quentin: 40 HR Konerko: 30 HR AJ: 15 HR Rios: 25 HR Missile: 20 HR Teahen: 20 HR Bench: 30 HR Is this not realistic? Around 200 HRs of the balanced variety. 20 From Jones and another 10 between Nix, Kotsay and Castro. Maybe we could use another player but I'm ok with this. I still wish we had another good outfielder. The only difference from 2005 is that this pitching staff only has to pitch up to its ability, not out their asses like 2005. Mark Teahen has never hit 20 HR in a single season. Alex Rios has never hit 25 HR in a single season. Carlos Quentin has never hit 40 HR in a single season. I don't see Kotsay, Jones, and Castro combining for 30 HR unless one of them starts for most of season (is Nix going to be on the team?). So no. Not very realistic. You are talking about the high end in terms of HRs for most of those players.

He accidentally used BA's Red Sox stats/OPS+ instead of his cumulative 2009 stats.

The computers they're using in that classroom are about as old as the students are.

I'm looking forward to my increased health insurance premiums. Yummy. The 15th will be here soon.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 8, 2010 -> 10:02 AM) Royals fans are pretty awesome. They were hoping that signing BA meant they wouldn't sign Pods. Heh.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 8, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) Hilarious. They have 4 members of our team from last year now. xD 5 if you count Betemit.

There is a pretty amusing comment thread here with Royals fans complaining about the team acquiring all kinds of lousy ex-Sox: http://www.royalsreview.com/2009/12/22/121...anderson-to-one

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 8, 2010 -> 08:26 AM) Where's he playing? Left? ESPN says center. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4807676 As bad of a CF as DeJesus is--he's probably better than Pods.

I was trying to figure out the justification for that as well. All that comes to mind is that they've been victims of state-sponsored terror. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubana_Flight_455 Here is a page on the subject from the Council on Foreign Relations: http://www.cfr.org/publication/9359/state_sponsors.html

I actually had some PED suspicion about him when he had one of the best years of his career at age 38.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 26, 2009 -> 10:01 PM) What I heard was from Boers, so you can take it with a grain of salt, but Mulligan confirmed it on their on air call in. Apparently it isnt Rivera who has to get over it, its the Bears. He said that many in the organization felt that Rivera made it very clear that the job was a stepping stone and rubbed a lot of people in the front office the wrong way with how he went about it, and there was a big falling out in the weeks leading up to the Superbowl. So if the Bears have to "get over it" how is Rivera as head coach inevitable?

What kind of stuff does he have? His stats are certainly nothing special.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 06:59 PM) But I know plenty of white guys that smoke weed all the time - we all do actually - and it is looked at in a completely different manner. Heh.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Dec 17, 2009 -> 01:06 PM) I'm sure you will provide examples. And what about the supposed threat of closure of Offutt AFB in NE. That has "rat" Emanuel wriiten all over it. Not to mention it is probably the 2nd or 3rd most important AFB. But this is all politics. So you are upset that the United States Senate--the highest legislative body in land--did not spend 12 hours reading 700 pages of an amendment that wasn't going to pass? Are you sure you're upset about that?

"World industrial production" whatever that means. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/0...in-one-picture/ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/2...eat-depression/

Why avoid judgments based on ideology?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 07:37 AM) If KW is being straight, this is not encouraging. From the Sun Times: "Ozzie and I have been speaking on that, and we spoke on it again [Tuesday],'' Williams said of the DH spot. "Right now, what he would like to do is sit where we are right now because he likes flexibility with the DH position, whether it be a guy getting a break or keeping your bench players fresh. Guys like [Andruw] Jones, [Mark] Kotsay, [Omar] Vizquel, getting [Paul] Konerko off of his feet and getting into the DH spot ... he likes the flexibility that comes with it. "I've given him some names - this is a very critical last thing on our list. I certainly don't want to do anything from my seat that conflicts with what my manager wants, so regardless if I think there may be a need for a bigger left-handed bat in the middle of the lineup, he's the one in there and I fully support how he and his coaching staff see the situation fitting. That's something we'll continue to think about.'' KW already trying to deflect blame a la trading for Sandy Alomar for the 12th time if it doesn't work out. He's the GM. If he thinks the team would be better with another bat, its his job to get another bat. If there are no additions, Greg Walker is going to get more heat than ever before. Who wouldn't be thrilled at the prospect of Omar Vizquel as a part-time DH?