Balta1701

QUOTE(YASNY @ Dec 12, 2006 -> 10:41 AM) Just wait, Tex. Just you wait. As the great Merle Haggard said ... It's rolling down hill like snowball headed for hell. Yes, there may be some things that are that way, but it's not because there's no public prayer in schools. We're not trapped in Iraq because there's no prayer in public schools. We're not failing in Afghanistan because there's no prayer in public schools. (With the notable exception of the well known correlation between global warming and the # of pirates, which is clear evidence of the unhappiness of the Flying Spaghetti Monster)

Wow, so the Vietnam war was directly related to lack of prayer in schools? They didn't teach me that in Public schools! Bastards! Where's my fiber-optic Jesus?

The Rangers have reportedly agreed to a 1 year, $8 million deal with former Dodger closer Eric Gagne, a day after agreeing to a deal with former Dodger CF Kenny Lofton.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Dec 11, 2006 -> 08:58 PM) It's too bad. Just goes to show how much of an influence ESPN has in sports these days. God, I hate ESPN. There's another factor other than ESPN in that one.

Jay Payton goes to the Orioles with a 2 year deal. Lefty Reliever Darren Oliver goes to the Angels with a 1 year deal.

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 11, 2006 -> 07:26 PM) I call BS. Give me proof of that. Germans killed 6 million innocent people in one war. I doubt the US has killed that many in all wars combined. They killed a HELL of a lot more than 6 million. They killed 6 million Jews, probably 20-30 million other Russians. The Eastern front was UNBELIEVABLY bloody.

For a moment, I thought this was Tony Batista.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Dec 11, 2006 -> 02:42 PM) That is an exremely abstract and generalized conclusion you are reaching. Exactly what aspects of American society have been 'ruined' by the actions of the airline in question? I think he was referring to a different group of roughly 19 Muslims.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Dec 11, 2006 -> 02:28 PM) Funny, I think Rush Limbaugh looks better on radio too. I don't.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Dec 11, 2006 -> 01:30 PM) Christmas list? I thought he misused a cigar! Something tells me that if I were to compare the number of hours of sworn congressional testimony on that matter to the entire number of hours of sworn testimony on the entire Iraq debacle, I'd come up with a similar ratio, or an even larger one.

QUOTE(ptatc @ Dec 11, 2006 -> 11:47 AM) Rosenthal from fox sports said that the rangers are looking to trade for young pitching. They must not be too impressed with thier own prospects. Maybe that's one deal we should not consider. Within a couple of years, the entire core of the Rangers offense right now will be hitting Free Agency...Teixeira, Young, and Blalock. Tex, notably, hits after 2008, and the odds are by then he's going to be looking for an almost-ARod type deal, with Boras as his agent. The Rangers have a short window with this offense, and will almost certainly not have enough time to actually develop starting pitching if they want to make a run at that division.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 10:36 PM) Chargers draft day trades: 2001: LT, Drew Brees, and Tim Dwight for Vick 2004: Merriman and Philip Rivers for Eli Manning Not bad, L.J. Smith I believe Nate Kaeding (sp?) also wound up being part of the 2nd deal.

QUOTE(Capn12 @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 09:49 PM) I think through all of this, its been pretty clear from the Front Office that Contreras isn't going anywhere, no matter how old the guy is. They have him wrapped up for a few years, and he is an innings eater. So we need to brace ourselves for, IMO, trading Garland or BUehrle, depending on what the offers are. Jose Contreras also has a full no-trade clause for 2007, the first year of his new Contract. QUOTE(scenario @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 09:51 PM) One of my favorite databases is baseballmusings.com. Here's an analysis I did there that helped me understand the value GMs see in Vazquez. It's pretty simple. I just did a K/9 search for all mlb pitchers who have pitched over 1000 innings since spring 2000. The results? Here are the top 20. The first set of numbers is strikeouts per nine innings; the second set of numbers is BB/9 (walks per nine innings). Seriously, that's about as weird of a dataset as you could possibly get. First of all, you exclude anyone who hasn't pitched an average of about 160 innings per season, or anyone who made their debut since then. Secondly, you managed to pick a dataset that allowed Vazquez's best years to show up in it but cut out the first years of his career (while capturing the first years for people such as Johan). Hell, any data set that makes Hideo Nomo actually look good...the utility of it is somewhat limited.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 06:12 PM) When did I ever say that was going to happen? Of course there are going to be investigations. There needs to be some investigations. Especially about the situation in Iraq, and the terror front. But from what I've read, this event is something Reid decided to do with the assistance and support of the new Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell. And unrelated to that investigation that was promised but never done in the 109th. The Republican Congress held over 150 hours of sworn testimony to determine whether or not President Clinton misused the White House Christmas Card List. The Republican Congress held about 12 hours of sworn testimony on Abu Ghraib.

Drew Brees came into the game tonight wiht 3649 passing yards. If I recall correctly, he added 383 to that tonight. That gives him 4032 on the season. He is therefore 1052 yards behind Dan Marino's single season record. If Brees averages 351 yards passing/game for the last 3 games of the season, he will break that record. So far, he is averaging 310 yards passing per game.

QUOTE(Brian @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 04:54 PM) Because....we...the Bears...I mean...you see...Dallas...Saints...um....I give up. I don't get it either. I think it's fairly simple, and it's a matter of momentum. Right now, Dallas feels like they're on top of the world. If they ride that to the playoffs, while the Bears sit around debating whether Grossman is ok with 3 INT's per game, then Dallas is going to come into Chicago and find the Bears not ready, and they'll blow apart the Bears offense enough to win that game. And I think everyone would probably prefer the Saints get the Bye rather than the Cowboys right now for that matter too.

If the Cowboys win tonight, then I think it pretty much cements that the Cowboys and the Chargers are playing head and shoulders above everyone else in the NFL right now. Seriously, Bears fans ought to be cheering on the Saints tonight. And 1 more thing...J...E...T...S... JETS TAKE THAT! Just a couple more players on the Bills...and I believe they have a ton of cap space next offseason.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 03:03 PM) I give it a month or 2. Maybe 3 on the outside. Theres a lot of budget work that needs to get done. Which was technically supposed to be done 3 months ago by this Congress...but anyway...

QUOTE(YASNY @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 01:20 PM) What is it about those Louisiana Democtrats? The politicians or the voters who reelect them?

QUOTE(whitesox1976 @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 04:16 PM) Trading Vazquez we would be getting rid of a medicore pitcher. I would trade him before I would Garland or Buehrle. The one downside of Trading Vazquez is the upside Vazquez has. In other words, if we dealt Javy now, we're dealing him from a position of weakness...he still is off of 3 years that are well-down from his best season. If, somehow, he were to show a significant improvement next year, then his value in a deal next offseason could be through the roof, especially when pitching salaries take another step upwards. The upside though, is that there's no guarantee that Vazquez will not be even worse next year, given that last year was actually not his worst year. I would be open on any pitcher not named Contreras if the price was right (Contreras having a no-trade clause).

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 04:16 PM) He only broke the record in 13 games, he sucks. On that last play, every single person on Denver, every single person on San Diego, every single person in that stadium, and every single person watching on TV knew exactly which player was going to get the ball, knew the defense didn't have to worry about the play fake, or the pass, or any trick plays, and they still couldn't even get close to him.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 10:51 AM) If the Sox dump Vazquez they'll have to eat a big part of his salary. They wont do that IMO. I agree with you though that getting rid of Garland should be the last thing the Sox do as he was their most effective pitcher last season. In this market? They could dump just about anyone without having to eat salary unless they're trading him to Tampa Bay. Hell, the Royals just spent $11 million a year, $1 million less than Vazquez, on Gil Freaking Meche. QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Dec 10, 2006 -> 11:14 AM) Let's keep our f***in starters. Haven't we learned anything from pre-2005? I don't want Floyd or Haeger in the rotation. Didn't we also learn things from 2005 though, about the joys of having extra depth in a pitching staff, and about the value of having young pitching capable of performing well while not earning a fortune?

Rep. William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson unfortunately won reelection yesterday in a runoff election (with something like 16% turnout). This will make things quite a bit harder on Pelosi in terms of keeping her anti-corruption pledges, given that in order to do that, she'll have to make sure the caucus excludes Jefferson at almost any cost, and that will seriously anger the Congressional Black Caucus.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 9, 2006 -> 11:31 AM) I know, you said KG would love to play with Garnett, I was just giving you a hard time about a simple mistake. Ah, je comprends.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 9, 2006 -> 11:22 AM)