vandy125

So, it looks like a Blizzard is coming our way. Omaha has apparently shut down its roads, and a good portion of I-80 west of us is closed.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 12:20 PM) There's a reason I always try to stick a link to the article in question. It's 3 pages, and I'm not excerpting the whole thing in 1 post. The answers to your questions are within that article. My bad. I did not realize that you had not posted the whole thing. I think the summarization of the snippet threw me off. It looks like another one of those "How do you deal with the poor?" issues. I don't know what the answer would be. It sounds like there are a lot of children she is taking care of without the proper finances/education (it sounds like the desire to make things better is there). We need to find a way to deal with the root of the problem rather than one of the many results of it (overloaded Medicare system, etc).

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 28, 2007 -> 11:40 AM) On second thought, I think this story is important enough to give it its own thread. WaPo. So, to summarize; lack of insurance + a toothache = $250,000 worth of medical bills and a dead 12 year old. It is tragic, but instead of blaming the government right away on this one, I would like to hear both sides of the story. Why was his mother not insured? Why did they lose Medicaid? It could be that they lost it for a completely moronic reason, but it could also be that the mother put her children in a dangerous situation by not doing what she could to get a decent job, etc. We don't know which side of the spectrum it is. There is too much information lacking to make a judgment on the tragedy.

That was what I thought/was hoping to hear. Thanks!

Linky I am confused by this...

Time to buy!

This is the old, "I have nothing to write about so I am going to throw something up there and see what sticks."

Haren no question. Sure Pettite may be going to the Yankees, but that means he is going from the NL Central division to the AL East division. That is a huge change from a cakewalk to a tough division with no automatic pitcher outs, IMO.

I bought the one last year just because it was the year after the Series and I wanted to see a highly rated Sox team (how could they not be). It turned out to be a terrible game. The game play was absolutely sickening. The Sox were ranked 9th in the league. The Cubs were ranked higher than the Sox (3rd or something). It had a messy menu. Etc. Etc. Needless to say, I am not buying this year's version of the game. I am going to just download the updated rosters for MVP 05.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Feb 20, 2007 -> 04:42 PM) I think the fast reply, add reply, and new topic buttons should stay the same.. however, I really like the style of the new buttons and think they should replace the current ones we have including the on, card, pm, report, top, quote, and reply buttons. ^^^^ Agree. Some of the old, some of the new. I like the fast reply, add reply, and new topic buttons, but I also like the new style. Not sure how to vote for that one.

Nicely done!

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 04:23 PM) No I will not shut up. KW has been horrible this offseason. Poor trades for Garcia and McCarthy. Trading Cotts for nothing. And now unwilling to even talk about extending our up and coming free agents. Sure we won a World Series, but I don't want to be a one and done team. And at this rate, why would any good free agent want to come here and why would any of our players want to resign with a hard nose, small market approach. Overall it's not get business to get your own players, and your fan base upset. How about we wait until, I dunno, we actually play some freakin games, before we call this any type of an offseason? We won 90 games last year, and can certainly expect to be around that number again this year. What makes you think this is a one and done team?

That would SUCK! I always wondered how it was possible that someone could have them for so long.

To me, this is like buying a house. You go in there with a set price that you want with the willingness to walk away if the price does not get there. You don't start out with that price, you start below, even to the point of almost losing interest. This is the part that freaks everyone out, but its called negotiating. You have to make sure that the other party knows you can have other options that you will go to if they don't come down. Otherwise, there is no incentive for them to go down. You never put yourself in the situation where the other side knows that they hold all of the cards.

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 01:44 PM) Were in arguably the most competitive division in all of baseball and not only do we not seem to be doing much to improve, but we seem to be regressing and doing it on a public forum. Im sorry, but I dont think giving yourself an out for when every single one of our free agents leaves as being a good GM. His job is to field a winner and to sign these guys for as cheap as possible, not tell them theyre better off going to a bigger market. This is Chicago and were coming off a great attendance year, we should be buyers. If KW isnt gonna do anything then I wish he would just shut up. I know it seems like overreaction before the season but Im sick of hearing about how all these guys will benefit from leaving Chicago. How cheap can he sign them if they all know he will just bend right over? There has to be some posturing.

QUOTE(Mr. Showtime @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 01:02 PM) It's fun to laugh, thanks. No problem. I am tired of all of the overreaction from every little thing that is said right now. Can we please just get to some baseball?

Am I the only one who is reading this as KW just being a good boss? Maybe building up the view with his players that he is loking out for them? He is not giving them the BS view that they should sign without even considering the FA market with how high it is right now. I would be insulted if someone kept pushing me to sign without exploring my enormous options that would be available. I would imagine that if the offers on the market are similar to what the Sox are offering, these players will be back. If not, they won't be back, and they would not have been BSed by KW. Us fans don't like hearing any conversation of key players leaving the team or exploring other options, but good God look at that market. You would have to be dumb to not see what was there, and you would be even dumber if you told your players that they shouldn't and expect them to listen to you.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Feb 17, 2007 -> 08:43 AM) So you currently have Haeger penciled in as your 8th inning guy? Not at all. If you looked at my next post that I clarified my thoughts with, the point was that we have a lot of fireballers, and I like the thought of going from Haeger to any one of those guys. I just threw Jenks out there as a name of one of those fireballers. I would never pencil Haeger in for the 8th. Give me some credit for at least having an IQ.

QUOTE(rock1735 @ Feb 16, 2007 -> 06:24 PM) Take look at his stats after the september callup. 14 innings 14 baserunners allowed (7 bb's, 7 h's), 17 k's, 1 ER. He would not be in after the 7th in most games, the GM did a nice job adding the desired late inning power arms like Detroit. I think with a starter like MB who's had a up and down career, the real age of Contreras and whoever the fifth starter is makes a mid/long reliever very important to this team. Sorry about the Masset spelling, that was bad....at least sisco was close That was not really my point about when he would be used. It is more that we have abunch of fireballers in the pen, and I just like that change between him and a fireballer. I agree with whoever else stated that they don't necessarily like a knuckleballer in the pen from the walks angle. Another point to that is how easy would it be to steal on him? I don't know how good he is at holding on runners, but knuckleballers can be very tough to catch.

I like the idea of Haeger in the pen with those fireballers. Can you imagine adjusting from Haeger to Jenks?

I shiver even thinking about some of those bunt attempts last year. They were incredibly pathetic.

1) What format you prefer playing (head to head or roto) H2H 2) Your relative level of experience (experience is not required to play, I'd just rather not put beginners in the stronger leagues) Advanced 3) Your league preference (if you have played before) League #5 Champ 4) Whether or not you are willing to be a league commisioner (especially for people that have done it in the past and/or veteran players/posters) No thanks, really don't have enough time for that.

I see a whole lot of this in the thread... Seriously, I would love to see someone actually give some suggestions as to what could have been done better. Upgrade CF. Ok, give a suggestion, and I hope it is not the almighty Rowand. Upgrade LF. Maybe we should have gotten Carlos Lee. Wasn't he available? Upgrade SS. Let's just throw away all our talent and get someone like Miguel Tejada. At least throw something out there that we can consider. I don't even see those pathetic suggestions I listed.

Just wanted to point out something that I am seeing in general that I thought was pretty funny. The naysayers of the Garcia trade (including Rosenthal) are saying, "He was in his contract year, and you know what type of numbers guys like that put up." The supporters of the trade are saying, "He only has one year left of a cheap contract, you are getting a one-year rental unless you want to pay a whole heck of a lot." I think that this was a good trade, but my viewpoint is colored by my optimistic view of what Kenny has done in the past.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Feb 9, 2007 -> 11:29 AM) pretty tempting to switch to warm weather, but I'll stay with cold because sometimes there are women you just don't want to see taking off layers. There is also the couple of days of sunburn that I get every year (I just burn and once that clears up, burn again) as well as car problems due to overheating in that kind of weather. You can just as easily have car problems in either type, most of the ones I run into are during the heat waves. And it would probably be an "Ozone Action" day. So there are certain things you cannot get done during those hot days too.