Balta1701

At this point, the Bulls have so much depth that they can afford to dump 3-4 players in a single deal and still be all right. They'd be sacrificing depth in exchange for impact, which is a deal they should make. Khryapa, Sweetney, etc., don't do much to help this team when they sit on the bench or are inactive for weeks in a row

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 09:19 AM) Why should we fear that. Erstad has proven in the past he can be a fully capable player and if Anderson plays like s*** he doesn't deserve to start. If Erstad is healthy (and I don't know if he is) than he is worthy of starting for the Chicago White Sox (and 90% of major league teams). I think I'll take a second and chime in here...from the perspective of a lot of the stat-guys, Erstad even when healthy has been a terrific drag on the offense of the Angels the last few years. He simply does not contribute much with the bat at all and has not done so for several years. He's been tolerable for that team because of his defensive performances, but he's also been a big part of the reason why they haven't been able to put together an offense around Vlad since their WS run. Erstad in 2000 could start and play for 90% of major league teams. Erstad from 01-05 could start and play for a few ML teams, those that had holes and needed a guy to play solid defense. Erstad after his injuries...probably even less.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 08:49 AM) So it's all up to us corn-growers, eh? My first choice is still Richardson. But since Iowa is a series of caucuses and not a single vote...you should know quite well that your 2nd and 3rd choices can be very important.

Last night on Sportscenter, Luol Deng, Timo Perez, and AJ Pierzysnki all made it into the top 10 plays.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 07:08 PM) Trust me, when a mushroom cloud is going off over Tehran I dont think that other governments in the middle east will be willing to run into the frey. What I was saying was that if one goes off over Tehran, then I would expect the next step to be one going off in Tel Aviv, at which point, israel just turns the whole middle east into glass.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 07:03 PM) How long do you think that Israel exists the minute Iran can get the weapons over to Israel. Drive them into the sea, scatter their electrons to the 4 corners of the world...what does it matter. I believe that the minute Iran tests a nuclear weapon, Israel is at war with Iran and will use whatever means necessary to stop the threat. Which means that if that moment comes, the entire middle east will cease to exist.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 06:58 PM) Well if they have an underground test in Tehran, we wont have to negotiate. Because Israel will take some of their fusion based weapons and turn Iran into glass. Do you really think Israel would launch a war with an unprovoked nuclear strike?

Miller is through with their Man Law ad campaign.

Joe Crede. Not just Joe Crede...but the way Hawk said it after the game against the Tribe in 05.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 05:06 PM) Polls in Jan 07 mean that more people know who Hillary is. I think the 100 million is a bit overestimated to be honest, and I think that there's plenty of money to go around. Beyond that and probably more importantly, there is no national primary, which is what that poll would measure. There are a series of state-by-state primaries. John Kerry was not winning any of the national polls IIRC until after he won Iowa. But anyway, it at least is measuring something, and useful or not, data is data.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 05:00 PM) I do not want Haeger anywhere near this rotation. Gavin Floyd will surprise you all. I have a feeling that both of them will be surprisingly good. All things considered I'm probably rooting for Charlie this year, but I think both of them have it in them to turn out darn good.

Very interesting and worth-while article. I certainly think that some of their points are completely correct, and I think there are other circumstances we can apply it to as well. Many other problematic issues follow a power-law distribution, such that they can be fixed by just cracking down on the worst of the bunch. For 2 more examples: 1; pollution from power plants. Most of the new power plants are no where nearly as polluting as older ones. But the older ones stay online, because it is cheaper to buy a lot of lobbyists than it is to upgrade the plants. So we spend years haggling over legislation requiring improvements to new plants, while the big polluting older plants fail to be upgraded, and then every time the deadline comes up for them to be upgraded, we come up with some sort of "New Source Review" policy letting them off the hook. 2. Medical malpractice. Big one here; a huge majority of malpractice complaints come from patiets of doctors who have multiple complaints. But to this day, the public does not receive full access to that sort of information, and it's not something a lot of people disclose. So in other words, the people with the most malpractice suits against them just keep going on practicing medicine and racking up the lawsuits. If there were some method of disciplining poor performing doctors, the malpractice problem in this country could be dramatically cut. Instead however the policy currently is to limit malpractice lawsuit claims, punishing the victims instead of punishing the one making the mistakes.

"The OC" will be filming in my building next Tuesday. Not nearly as interesting as the time ER filmed here with James Woods, IMO.

QUOTE(hi8is @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 02:24 PM) i just found this out and figured it was note worthy.... last year he got paid 8.75 million. For his production, the last few years his contract has been awful.

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.