Balta1701

Obama draws first blood from the Kerry castoffs.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 11:24 AM) The 4th OF would have just been Sweeney or Owens or Terrero or somebody in that ilk without the Erstad signing, and that's who it will be if he gets hurt. It's not like getting Erstad was going to change that fact. It was going to be one of those people, and now it's Erstad. If Erstad gets hurt, it will be one of those guys anyway. For 2007, or at least the first part of it, Erstad>>>Sweeney, Owens, and Terrero in terms of being a big league backup as well (mainly because I think Sweeney and Owens need to hang out at AAA for a while longer)

Duncan Hunter is officially in the race on the GOP side.

Informer You know say daddy me snow me-a gon blame A licky boom-boom down 'Tective man he say, say Daddy Me Snow me stab someone down the lane A licky boom-boom down

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 02:49 PM) Well right. Levee systems I guess I'll give you. But I was meaning the homes and neighborhoods, commercial districts, etc. You look at pictures from the last month and it looks like nothing has changed. Entire neighborhoods look like a tornado just ran through them. This, to me, is a failure of the local and state government. Nagen is too busy gaining sympathy (and face time on national tv) than fixing his city. That's how I see it. None of that can or will be touched by anyone until there is a functioning levee system that insurers believe in.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 12:00 PM) Unless Hillary or Barack does something incredibly stupid, or has something big in their closet, they are going to crowd out everyone else. There is only a finate amount of money to go around, and that is going to prohibit anyone else from getting their word out on the democratic side of things. The other guys in the race are just wasting their time if you ask me. Its sad, but money is the only way to get elected now adays. He's probably not going to get my vote, but I wouldn't count out Edwards just yet. He has the built-in advantage of having done all of these states 2 years ago, he has an active ane experienced organization in all of these key states where the other 3 are just in startup mode, and he has significant potential funding sources from unions and lawyers. And the Dem calendar may benefit him as well; the current setup I believe is as follows: January 14: Iowa January 19: Nevada January 22: New Hampshire January 29: South Carolina February 5: Delaware, Missouri, possibly California, Florida. Iowa, Edwards is currently leading in polling and finished 2nd there in 04. Nevada is supposedly pretty strong union terrotory, and South Carolina is Edwards's back yard. But anyway, if you're so sick of the money-in-politics, then join me brother in supporting a full public campaign financing package, possibly along the lines of the one the senior Senator from the Great State of Illinois is proposing.

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 11:11 AM) Federal government aids in disasters, they don't fix. But no one other than the Federal Government is in a position to actually build a working levee system.

Link

QUOTE(NUKE @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 09:47 PM) What effect does El Nino have exactly and why? I remember there were a few years in the 90s where El Nino was cited as the cause for milder than average winters and now it's causing colder weather? Im just a bit confused here. El Nino is basically like throwing a gigantic wrench into the global climate system for an entire year or so. Basically, what happens is that the normal pattern of wind-driven mixing, cooling, and downwelling in the Eastern Pacific breaks down. This starts off by leading to an abnormal warming off the surface waters off of south america. But beyond that, the real issues start showing up when we start dealing with the interconnectedness of the climate systems. Normally, the warm water generated in the eastern pacific is mixed by the trade winds to the western pacific. But when that doesn't happen, the western pacific gets colder and the eastern part stays hot. Now, one of the driving mechanisms for mixing in the ocean is temperature controlled; cold things like to sink, and warm things like to stay at the top. Suddenly with El Nino, you have a large, warm, buoyant patch of water inplaces where it usually isn't. This tends to wind up dumping moisture into the atmosphere in the Pacific, but not in the usual places; so some places wind up with storms that usually don't see them, other usually wet places go into droughts. There is also some intensification of storm events because the water is warmer. The warm water also serves to change wind patterns, causing, for example, shear winds that can break up forming hurricanes in the Central Atlantic. It sort of depends on where exactly you are in the country and a lot of random chance exactly what an El Nino event will do in terms of temperatures and precipitations. When you throw a wrench into a machine, you know things will screw up, but you don't always know exactly how.

Um, North Korea's test by most accounts wasn't a successful test.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 06:43 PM) In OOTP leagues I've always loved acquiring Erstad from people with the same mindset that you have, wite. That he sucks, that he's this, that he's that, and because of his salary he'll be moved for chump change and if he stays healthy he performs like an all-star. Point I'm making, so what if his career is over and he turns out to be Timo Perez. If the guy can remain healthy, something I'd set at about a 33% chance, he could be a real valuable chip for the 07 White Sox. Low risk, High reward. The only problem is that there is still some risk in any guy you give to Ozzie, at least based on previous experience. Ozzie has shown no willingness in previous seasons to adapt his usage of people to their performance; hence Mackowiak being placed in CF so often last year, Timo Perez seeing significant playing time in 2005, some of Ozzie's pitching/bullpen decisions, etc. It's entirely possible that this move could wind up limiting Anderson to 350 at bats next season, further stunting whatever chance he had at developing as a big league hitter, and also hurting the White Sox by keeping Anderson's defense out of CF, at the same time as putting a .220 hitting guy who's lost several steps into the lineup every other day. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but based on how Anderson/Mackowiak were dealt with last year, I'll believe it when I see it.

Rage Against the Machine , yes you read that correctly, Rage Against the Machine to headline this year's Coachella Valley Music Festival.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 06:10 PM) Starting today. So he'll be ready to start ST after about the first or second week. But...that assumes everything goes well. If you recall, Pods was supposedly ready to start ST on time last year, but wound up unable to play for pretty much the whole time because he was dealing with scar tissue from the surgery.

So, in SOTU drinking games, how many drinks does one take when the President brings up Dikembe Mutumbo?

Wow. - George W. Bush, State of the Union Speech, 1/23/07.

QUOTE(SEALgep @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 05:48 PM) How was 05 a bad year for him? Well, the 2nd half wasn't exactly stellar, but my goal in that sentence was this season. Last season, yeah, ok, i'll accept Pods being hurt as an excuse. He had no spring training, had surgery in the offseason, and didn't seem healthy all year. Now, we're talking about him missing chunks of ST again, maybe having no ST or missing parts of the season again, and its fairly likely that this will negatively affect his playing ability...again. In other words, he may well suck again this year because of injuries. At which point, he'll have sucked for 2 straight years and been hurt for 2.5. That's injury prone. That's the kind of guy you don't pencil in as your starting leadoff hitter.

QUOTE(Straycats @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 04:59 PM) My prediction for Erstad stats are Avg 282 Hr's 9 Rbi's 59 Based on his recent season numbers, for him to get to that point, 60 RBI's and 9 HR's, he'd have to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 at bats.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 04:25 PM) Motherf***er. Erstad's highest OBP since 2000? .346. With an average OBP about .320.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 03:13 PM) Wait, has it been said anywhere that this is a minor-league deal? It sure sounds to me like a guaranteed major league deal, but we'll see: Whitesox.com

QUOTE(fathom @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 02:56 PM) Well, the Pods lovers have an excuse now if he sucks all season again. Forget about Pods or Erstad...Mackowiak's a much better option in LF. When you suck because of surgery 2 years in a row, it's no longer an excuse; you've gone from being a player who didn't perform because of injury to being injury-prone.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 11:16 AM) There are a lot of players I'd give up Hinrich and Big Ben for. Ok, yeah, i should have added the "potentially rumored to be on the trading block" caveat.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 10:29 AM) Dispite what they say, they are going to be doing whatever they want to be doing, just like North Korea did. They were bribed with everything in sight, complete with a Michael Jordan autographed basketball toted over by Bill Clinton himself, and they still had an undergroud weapons program going on all along. Talking to them, has not, and will not solve anything. The plutonium which was used in the device North Korea test-detonated last summer was under U.N. lock and seal and monitored by cameras until 2002, and was reprocessed during early 2003. They were only able to build that bomb because the U.S. ignored them for around 4 years, and so they threw a tantrum. North Korea did not do whatever it wanted; it did not produce anything remotely successful on the line towards a nuclear weapon until they pulled out of the Nonproliferation treaty and the accords agreed to with the Clinton Admin.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 10:10 AM) The best way to be kept from making a nuclear weapon, is to not have any nuclear material in the first place. Its kind of hard to fire a guy without any bullets. And considering that Iran does have its own supplies of uranium-ore, I think that means we desperately need some sort of inspection regime in that country.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 09:56 AM) Just as much as it is worth pointing out Iran's repeated overtures towards the destruction of Israel, and their leaders religious beliefs that they destruction of Israel begins the rapture. Which is all the more reason, to my eyes, to keep them from getting a nuclear weapon, something which is not happening with the current policies.