Balta1701

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 12:09 AM) See if you can update your flash players. I usually have ESPN's chat room open during the day in IE, and the last few days, it's been crashing IE on me as well (flash player problem). So it's not just you guys.

QUOTE(BHAMBARONS @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 05:34 PM) It looks like OSU/Michigan part 2 Unless FLA makes a comeback and blows out Arkansas. Arkansas and UCLA just became the best friends of the BCS system.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 05:26 PM) At least Beltre showed some promise in the 2nd half of this season (think he hit over .300). But then there's the really, really stupid signings like Carl Everett (didn't last the season), signing Jarrod Washburn to a 4 year $36M deal (produces a 4.67 ERA in an excellent pitching environment) etc. Right now, does that Washburn deal really look that bad?

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 05:27 PM) I think the odds of this are low. More and more people have medical problems that are treated earlier and earlier. It would take a lot of people to have this affect on the system. I dunno that there are that many problem-free americans that could afford to stop participating. Especially now that 1 in every 3 or 4 kids is obese. But you see, then that does exactly the same thing. In the insurance pool, something like 10% of the sick account for 90% of the medical expenditures (could be off by a factor of 10% or so, but it's really close to that). If the number of really, really expensive people goes up due to obesity, then either rates have to go up for everyone, or the insurance pool has to get bigger. But if rates go up, fewer businesses will provide health care, fewer individuals will be able to buy insurance, the uninsured pool will keep getting bigger, and that will keep driving up the costs of health insurance...which is exactly what we've been seeing the last few years as the amount of uninsured has surged simultaneous with the surge in health insurance costs.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 05:21 PM) I don't exactly think going to the FA market is a bad option when it comes to filling that need. If you remember with Jermaine Dye, it was basically a buy low type of signing. Didn't have great numbers out of Oakland, but he came to a better hitting environment, became healthy and produced. I'd expect the Sox to try and make that type of signing again if possible. As for Milledge, I'd just prefer to get good young pitching over good young hitting. And as for Milledge, I'd imagine KW will do some checks on his attitude and his background, because you know they want good character guys for the clubhouse who will fit in (although you can argue we signed Pierzynski but that really fit a huge need for us). Well, the thing about the Jermaine Dye signing is that the Free Agent market right now is totally different from the Free Agent Market at the end of 2004. At the end of 2004, it was possible to get bargains in the FA Market, because the market was still recovering from the glut of contracts signed around 99-00 (Hell, JD was being paid like $12 mil a year at the end of his deal by Oakland). Right now, it looks like we're in another big surge period in the FA Market. Which to me means that its going to be much, much, much harder to find a bargain like JD in the FA Market in 2006-2007 than it was in 2004. It may take a couple years for the market to come back into equilibrium with the new money available in baseball, and until then, the FA Market just does not seem like the smartest option. Also, I would prefer good young pitching over good young hitting as well, which is why I'd still ask for a pitcher in addition to Milledge (even if it were just Heilman) if we were to deal someone to the Mets.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Nov 29, 2006 -> 10:58 AM) I don't think a part of working with anyone is acting buddy buddy at a cocktail party. The vehicle next to the one Webb's son was in was blown up a couple weeks ago, killing 3.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 05:11 PM) Yep, shows why Bill Bavasi is probably the worst General Manager in Baseball today. And it'll only get worse in 2008 when the likes of Ichiro are gone, and they'll completely have to rebuild, which is a sad state of affairs, considering how good that franchise was from 95 to earlier this decade. Some of the responsibility for their decline is not necessarily the GM's fault...some of it is probably due to the, ahem, "cough cough" "sudden unexpected decline in performance" of some of their players, like Boone, which really hurt them as well. But yeah, they're really regretting that 3rd baseman they bought. And I'll even admit, I thought that was a great deal when it was signed.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 05:08 PM) Most people think he's overrated. I would rather target the likes of Eric Hurley and John Danks from Texas, considering we already have some young OF's in Brian Anderson and Ryan Sweeney. I would say that some people think he's overrated, not necessarily most. I would say that the Mets had some problems with his attitude, being a little too arrogant for a Rookie last year, and that might have hurt him some. But personally, I think he could be an excellent addition to the White Sox, especially as a Left Fielder/replacement for Podsednik. And yes, we have 2 young outfielders in Anderson and Sweeney, but there are 3 outfield spots, all 3 of which we may need people for by the time 2008 starts. We can throw Fields into that mix, but it's looking more and more like he'll be needed at 3rd base. And after that, our options are the Free Agent Market or Jerry Owens.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 04:45 PM) What I have a problem with is spending money on insurance when I didn't need it. It's like car insurance when I don't need it. All of that money goes down the drain, or rather to those in the system who need it. (I understand that's how it works and why my premiums are low.) But you see, here's the remarkable thing about how poorly our health care system is constructed...it is exactly that statement which will be the death of the current American health care system. Right now, I'm pretty damn healthy. I exercise regularly, eat pretty well, don't get sick much. Have some bad knees, but that's about it. Probably similar to you. But the key about the health care system is...if people like you and I aren't paying into the large pool of insurance, if we judge that it's so expensive that it makes more sense for us to just take ourselves out of the pool for a while until our risk goes up...then it winds up leaving fewer healthy people for the insurance pool. And of course, when healthy people start to leave the insurance pool, that drives up the cost for the people who remain in the insurance pool. And when the cost goes up, it is more incentive to drive more people from the insurance pool, which literally creates a cycle that doesn't end until the system is reformed.

Ok, I'm up for a Michigan/USC Rose Bowl rematch from a couple years ago.

Well, looks like I'll be getting USC's band marching in the Rose Parade again this year.

So, I think this is a pretty interesting story. Radio host decides to go on an anti-Muslim rant in response to the Imam's who were pulled off that plane last week. He starts demanding that Muslims should be tattooed, forced to wear armbands, etc. Then, after about an hour of taking calls, he reverses course, admits it was a hoax, and says that every one who called and agreed with him should be ashamed of themselves. Link Full audio of the show, comments from the host, and a statement/Press Release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations can be found at WMAL's web page.

By the way, if I understood the rule changes last night, not every player who is offered arbitration and departs would result in draft pick compensation. Starting immediately, there are now 2 classes of Free Agents who get their teams draft pick compensation if they are signed, type A and type B free agents. Type A free agents are the top 20% of free agents on the market, type B is from 20-40%. When a team loses a type A FA that they offered arbitration to, they receive high draft pick compensation, I believe in the form of a first round pick and a sandwich pick. When a team loses a type B free Agent, they receive a sandwich pick and a 2nd rounder, if I recall correctly. Under the old system, there was also a "Type C" Free Agent consisting of free agents of lower caliber than the top 40% of players on the market. That designation was eliminated under the new CBA. So, if I understand it right, if a player is not ranked in the top 40% of free agents on the market according to the list baseball draws up during the offseason, a team offering that player arbitration and still losing him would NOT receive draft pick compensation of any sort. If David Riske was not a type A or type B Free Agent, then offering him Arbitration would have not meant that the White Sox would receive draft pick compensation if he did leave, if I understand the changes correctly.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Dec 2, 2006 -> 11:28 AM) Because whenever the Govt gets their hands on something, they f*** it up big time. To my eyes, there's a lot more depth to that problem than just saying that the government f***s everything up big time. Specifically, I would say that from the point of view of just a relatively average citizen, every time lobbyists get their hands on something, they f*** it up big time for everyone except the company they're lobbying for. The one other point someone in this thread ought to say is this: just because some other system isn't 100% perfect doesn't mean that it isn't better than ours. Does Canada's sytem have some problems? Yes of course. But that doesn't mean ours is a priori better...Canada spends like 7-8% of its GDP on health care, we spend like 15% of our GDP on health care. Canada has longer wait times for doctors, but 15-20% of Americans can't even see doctors, and you can't by any means tell me that America doesn't have problems with wait times for doctors through HMO's (because I've seen them on my own). Canada doesn't allow, if I recall correctly, people to purchase their own insurance plans above and beyond what the government offers, so choices are limited, but on the other hand, companies like Toyota are choosing to put new factories in Canada instead of the U.S. because the cost of paying for its employees health care there is so much lower. There are a wide variety of health care systems around the world. Just because Canada's has some problems doesn't mean it's not better than ours, and it doesn't mean that any system that even looks like Canada's would be bad. France, for example, actually has, as far as I can tell, a remarkably good system, which costs much less than ours, but which does provide better care than Canada at the same time. The one thing that you have to admit, all of you, is that our system, as it is constructed right now, is on the verge of collapse. The employee-based health care system is falling apart. Companies are cutting benefits left and right to save costs, the number of uninsured keeps going up, and costs on every front, from insurance to drugs, is going through the roof. The system is approaching crisis level. Something has to change.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 08:43 PM) So you want to trade young good pitching, so we can get more hitting. Welcome to the 2004-2000 Whitesox. Maybe we can spend 130 million and have medicore pitching and finish 4th. Applause. If we're trading talent...get pitching in return. Do not sacrifice young pitching for young hitting. Do the opposite if you want to win.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 08:31 PM) Soxy, what kind of car(s) do youdrive? How big is your house? Do you eat out often? Drive a less expensive car, downgrade your house and eat out less, maybe you can afford better insurance. For alot of people, the type of coverage is a 'lifestyle' choice. Why spend the extra $200 a week on insurance when we can get the new sportscar, or take the vacation to Europe. Unfortunatly, those people who can 'afford' insurance but choose not to get it also fall under the uninsured catagory. I bet the amount spent on season tickets would get a nice upgrade in coverage. And before you join him on the high horse, I know that there are always exception. Spent most of the last 4 years doing nothing but driving a bike, no car. Never eat out. Rent, don't own a house. Still can't afford insurance for the Fiancee.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 08:33 PM) So basically, true intentions mean nothing, and bulls*** is what rules here? Just say the right thing, even if it is total crap, and you get the 'high ground'. Doesn't make sense. That is 100% the way diplomacy works. It is also why a specific segment of american politics (the segment currently dominating the government) despises diplomacy above everything else...because it is so nuanced, so contradictory, and so contradictory, all of which are bad things if you only view the world in black and white. But none of that means it doesn't work.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 08:20 PM) Well, nice to see that GP answered for me. Seeing as he isn't yet old enough to own a gun, I think maybe my opinions might be different... SoxFan1 - I'll lay it out for you. Here are my views on these subjects: --Restrictions on types of guns, magazine sizes, pistols specifically, etc. are worthless. They've been proven again and again to do zero to reduce crime (who expects criminals to follow such restrictions?), and they violate the spirit of the 2nd Amendment. Its akin to telling someone they can buy a Ford Taurus, but not a Mustang. They are both deadly weapons. --Registration of weapons is a mistake - it takes away the originally intended teeth of the 2nd amendment. --I DO agree with brief waiting periods, and background checks should be done always. Those restrictions are common sense, and don't violate the base principles of the freedom. So, on these 2 points, I feel I am going to be the one who disagrees with you. Specifically, on part 1, the assualt weapons ban, for example, despite all of the holes in in for gun shows, alternate varieties, and so on, led to a significant reduction in the number and lethality of assault weapons used to commit crimes while it was enforced. In other words, we banned the manufacture of specific types of guns, and those guns wound up being used in fewer crimes. If we ban the most lethal and most dangerous guns, therefore, it has been shown that it may be possible to reduce the lethality of crime, by making criminals use less lethal weaponry. I consider this to be a good thing. Similarly, registration of guns has one important potential benefit...being able to trace a gun used in a crime to a source. Especially if some sort of true ballistic fingerprinting technology is developed in the near future, which it may very well be, this could be an invaluable tool to law enforcement, such that a crime using a gun could be rapidly traced back to the owner/purchaser of the gun, or at least to a narrow group of owners of a specific type of gun, thus keeping the trail warm. When I purchased my car and licensed it, the government learned rapidly that I had purchased a blue Honda Civic. If a Blue 06 Honda Civic runs over a person tomorrow, and no one identifies a license plate, I would expect that my name would come up within the group of potential suspects. Given the purely lethal of guns and the likelihood that the information can be protected except in the event of a criminal investigation (i.e. there is a warrant), that is one type of information I am happily willing to pass to the government and law enforcement agencies, whether we are talking about a gun or an automobile. If someone shoots a person with either a gun I own or a gun similar to the one I own (if I were to purchase a gun), then I would feel the police would be fully justified in asking about the whereabouts of that gun and whether or not it had been fired recently.

QUOTE(supernuke @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 08:05 PM) I see a lot of people are talking about draft pick compensation. I thought that with the new CBA there was not going to be any compensation anymore. Can anyone clarify this? That was only a rumor. In fact, they did maintain draft pick compensation for Free Agent losses in the new CBA, although they decreased the value somewhat. Here is a summary of the changes according to Baseball America.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 06:12 PM) Err, I said that. I said, if we can get some good youthful pitching in a trade, then do it, but if we can't get something good then keep the five. If all 5 of the starters were signed for 2 years, I'd agree (which is where we were last offseason). But the reality is, we have 2 starting pitchers who will be hitting Free Agency after 2007, and it will cost us more than likely an additional $10-$15 million a year (at current going rates) for 5 years or so to keep both of them around. The fact is, it would be insane of the White Sox to sign both Freddy Garcia and Mark Buehrle to the type of deals they could command on this open market. Which means the White Sox have to face 2 options...try to resign 1 of them and trade the other one (Buehrle being the preferable signing because of simple age constraints and performance) or hold onto them both and almost certainly have one, if not both of them, walk as Free Agents, with the White Sox only receiving draft pick compensation. The latter option makes sense if we are planning to seriously contract salary after 2008 and go into a true rebuilding phase for a couple years, where our outfield is Owens, Anderson, Dye, our infield is Fields, ?, ?, Konerko, and our catcher is ?/Stewart/Molina, and our Rotation is Jose Contreras (for 1 year), Brandon McCarthy, Charlie Haeger, Lance Broadway, and whichever pitcher we can resign. But that's the only way it makes sense to me to hold onto all those guys and risk letting them walk. In 2008/2009, having traded one of our SP's for a bunch of prospects this offseason and signed the other one puts us in a much, much, much better position, given that the talent we could acquire now could be ready in 07/08, and anyone we get with the draft picks won't be ready until several years after that. We have to deal at least 1 SP, because I don't think we can resign them both, and we will be so much better in 2007 and 2008 by making a trade and putting McCarthy in if compared to holding onto both 07 FA's and risking having them walk for draft picks.

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 06:22 PM) Well, Pods better toughen up, because it's very hard for speed players to stay healthy throughout the entire season. One more thing to suggest to Pods...I don't care what happens on the play, keep running full speed until you hit first base. And keep your damn eyes on the ball in the outfield.

QUOTE(TheOcho @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 04:16 PM) I also don't buy into his whole "injured" excuse. If he was really injured since ... last year? Shouldn't he NOT be playing? Oh yea ... then there is his fielding with no arm. So, as we all know, there are different degrees of being "Injured", some of which you can play through, some of which you can play through but at a reduced level, some of which you can't play through at all. In the 2nd half of 05, Podsednik was clearly injured, in a couple of ways. I believe he had a hamstring problem that made him sluggish, and he had a back problem as well. He was still able to be a productive hitter after he hit the DL for a stretch, which made him somewhat useful, but he was clearly reduced from where he was before the AS break. In the offseason, Podsednik had hernia surgery which both limited any chance he had to spend the winter recuperating and getting into playing shape, and when he hit spring training, he had if I recall correctly some problems with scar tissue. When ST hit, he was not ready for ST, and wound up being unable to play until the last week of ST. He then started the 2006 season basically after having a week to get in shape, and probably with some scar tissue and other problems still lingering. He was still able to play baseball, but at a clearly reduced level. Honestly, after having seen how badly he was reduced, it might not have hurt the team to put him on the DL for the month of April, send him to AAA on a rehab assignment, and actually give him a chance to get in shape and fully recover, something he never had. I can't guarantee that Podsednik won't come back at the same reduced level, or at an even worse one, next year. But it's at least possible that a whole offseason of rest, hopefully punctuated by getting into much much much better playing shape before the start of ST, might be just the thing Pods needs.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 05:07 PM) Then I guess my follow-up question can be directed to the both of you... What would you do to help preserve the sport of hunting and reduce the Anti-2nd amendment/anti-hunting groups such as PETA? Doesn't PETA do enough already to reduce their influence?

"Here's to the losers" - K.C., Pittsburgh.

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 01:39 PM) You're right. My family members all invested in themselves, went to school, and have decent jobs that give them the choice of obtaining health insurance. They're not sitting around waiting for handouts. And what happens when a person is so sick no one will hire them?