Balta1701

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 15, 2006 -> 05:30 AM) I think historically dictators like this make the people around themselves so weak that when it comes time for succession, there ends up being an ugly brutal fight. Hopefully it at least means whoever takes over will look somewhat to the outside world for help because there are still an insane number of people dying of starvation there. NK is a mess after repeated (mostly self-imposed) famines, and terrible choices economically (way too much on military, nothing on things like food) the country is on the verge of collapse. Whoever takes over will probably have a revolution on their hands if they don't immediately and brutally make their "strength" known to the country. Well, there's 1 issue here though that I don't know if we've ever seen before except in the collapse of the Soviet Union...the potential for a significant change of power (i.e. a revolution and not an election) in a country that has nuclear weapons. That just sort of ratchets up the whole situation to another level. Whoever winds up with the support of whatever faction of the country controls the bombs may very well be the only one who has a chance to win. Or it could wind up totally destroying the country, and maybe taking Japan or Soeul out with it.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 11:15 PM) I don't like Hunter offensively at all. I (hope to any and all gods out there) wasn't one that said he wouldn't be an upgrade, but he is just an undisciplined hitter. Swinging at the first pitch after a pitcher walks the previous hitter on 4 pitches, watching the first pitch down the middle for a strike while swinging at the next pitch out of the zone, almost always trying to pull everything, regardless of the location of the pitch. If you make a mistake up and in, the ball is gone. If you keep the pitch away, low and away, up and away, he, by and large, will not beat you unless he is crowding the plate(in which case, knock him on his ass) Another year of development on Anderson...and he wouldn't be an upgrade by any stretch of the Imagination. Anderson is as good or better defensively already, Hunter's going to be making like $12 million next year while BA makes $400k, all Anderson needs to do is close the gap with the bat, which he's already doing.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Sep 15, 2006 -> 08:55 AM) It doesn't matter if you think both have speed or if we all see the obvious lack of speed from Podsednik, all that matters is what Ozzie Guillen sees and he's made his feelings pretty clear this year as to the leadoff hitter. He thinks Podsednik and Ozuna are the only players on this team that can leadoff for whatever reason and it's highly likely that these are the only 2 who are going to see any time in the 1 spot. Which of course, is why we all sit here and b*tch on a message board. (Not a personal attack on you, just pointing out that 3/4 of the fun of being on a message board is complaining about the decisions made by a manager)

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Sep 15, 2006 -> 08:27 AM) my dream team next year LF Crawford SS Young RF Dye DH Thome 1B Kong C AJ 3b Crede 2B Guch CF BA Wake me up before I go go If they stayed healthy...that lineup would probably score well over 1000 runs.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Sep 15, 2006 -> 12:08 AM) I know man, but the issue is this. If you play Gload over Pods in LF against RHP, who's going to lead off? You'd have to play Sweeney over Anderson in CF, and let Sweeney leadoff, when he's probably not ready to do so, as most people would know. Gload's never going to leadoff or Mack, even though they have good numbers, because they don't have speed, and that's what Ozzie wants for the top of the lineup. Let's put it this way: If Ross Gload could come out and hit around .300 in regular playing time with at least non-trivial amounts of power, which is exactly what we've seen from him off the bench and in 2004 and in the minors last year... Scott Podsednik putting up a .255 average, stealing bases at a 70% clip, playing a poor defensive LF, and only getting on base about 32% of the time is a significant downgrade from Gload putting up a .300+ average, stealing fewer bases, having a higher OBP, still being weak in LF defensively, but maybe finding a little bit more power. Having fewer stolen bases at the top of our order would not cause our lineup or the universe to implode. If we had Kevin Youkilis leading off in front of Dye, Thome, Konerko, our lineup would be absolutely killer, and we'd have even fewer SB's. There is something to be said for getting on base and getting hits.

Minnesota's going to have a real shot at Cleveland's bullpen. 70 pitches for Lee through 2.2 innings.

Cliff Lee has had 1st and 3rd, 1 out in 2 striaght innings.

QUOTE(kevo880 @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 03:45 PM) Jeter isn't as good as Juan defensively, your right. However he does bring his all every single day to the ball field. He is a true player. a complete player I never said Jeter wasn't a decent player. However, I was responding to specifically this clause in your previous post: If we want to take into account offense, then yeah Jeter is more useful than Uribe. But if you want to talk defense at SS...Jeter comes in pretty near the bottom of the list. He's probably not the best defensive SS in his own starting lineup.

QUOTE(kevo880 @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 03:10 PM) No offense, but Uribe is not the best defensive SS in baseball by any means. Yes he is very good and I have been amazed by him countless times, but there's no way any of you can say he's irreplacable. You don't think Jeter is better than him? I'm not saying to get Jeter because I know that couldnt happen, however I am making the point that he isnt light years above many people. I wouldn't mind at all getting a SS that is a slght dropoff defensively that would bring more consistency to the plate. Are there really people out there that would rather have Uribe than Jimmy Rollins? come on be serious. Jeter is no where close to Uribe defensively. Fewer attempts than Uribe, more errors, RF and ZR massively in favor of Uribe. Using the stats ESPN gives me, Uribe has the #7 Range Factor and #3 Zone Rating in baseball this season. Jeter comes in at 20 and 21 in those 2 stats. Uribe IMO has it within him to be even better than he was this season. He's had some silly errors/mistakes that have hurt his numbers, especially when it seems like he's distracted due to his performance at the plate. He has the potential to be the best defensive shortstop in baseball, and I think that in the 2nd half of last year he probably was, but he still has some work to go. But there's absolutely no way on God's Green Earth that Derek Jeter is a better defensive shortstop than Juan Uribe. Jeter is the classic example of a guy who can make plays look hard that other people could make look easy. The numbers have said that throughout his career. There are even years where with the same pitching staffs, his backups wind up recording more outs/game than Jeter does.

Boof on the mound for the Twins.

QUOTE(samclemens @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 02:55 PM) http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/0....070138889.html does anyone know if he has a son or someone who is succeeding him? somebody should make a move soon and topple n. korea. From the article you cited: From Wikipedia

Here's the link

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 01:06 PM) If he wants to pitch, fine with me, he will have to retire at the end of the year if he does. The twins shouldnt ruin arms just to make the playoffs. He's retiring at the end of the year anyway.

So I don't have a link on this yet but here's the rumor about what the MRI showed:

147,000.

The one thing that bothers me a little bit about Uribe is that his salary gets a little more expensive in 2008 than I think he's worth. $5 million option that season, with a $300k buyout ($4.15 million in 2007). If his defense doesn't stay a little more consistent than it has been this season, he might not be worth that. But I would still be quite willing to live with him out there if he could get himself finally into a defensive groove like we've seen from him before. We can afford to have 1 or 2 positions that aren't producing dominant numbers for an entire season on offense as long as our others are doing so. Uribe's numbers this season would not look nearly as bad had it not been for the horrid start by Anderson and the terrible season by Podsednik. Hopefully those 2 should be corrected by next year, via winterball and a new LF.

QUOTE(AbeFroman @ Sep 13, 2006 -> 07:06 PM) Ed Schultz is pretty good though. He's on during the day, so i never listen to him. Ed Schultz is not actually an Air America radio show. He's a left-leaning talk show host who finally was able to get syndicated once a few stations started picking up AAR, and he was good enough that the stations that weren't 100% AAR but wanted left-leaning listeners to occasionally tune in started grabbing him.

QUOTE(Molto @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 05:19 AM) Where the Twins screwed up is not noticing his delivery. Then again, doesn't look like many did. I think a lot of people actually noticed his delivery. I find it pretty hard to believe that the only people who notice that he has a really wild delivery are posting at a White Sox message board. I'd say it's probably more likely that the Twins have tried to get him to make some changes as he came up through the minors, but didn't want to do too much to risk making him not as good of a pitcher, a-la Kerry Wood.

I try to rigidly enforce that superstition in game threads as much as possible when and if there's a potential no-no going on. Never works, but it's always fun to do. I also sort of enjoy Farmer and Singleton's casual attempts to talk around it. Would I be annoyed if an announcer started talking about it? No. Why? Because somehow the fans are going to figure it out, and if there's a perfect game on, the fans who just turn in won't necessarily know that the pitcher hasn't walked anyone unless you tell them (Walks aren't a standard part of the scoreboard). Farmer and Singleton have a habit of saying "zeros across the board" or something like that, which is vague enough but still says waht is going on. But to spend an entire column ripping on an announcer for actually saying that a pitcher's been perfect? Yowza. That's what I call a slow news day.

QUOTE(cgaudin @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 07:46 AM) That scrub makes over 4 mil a year? Cheeses-H-phawking-Cripes! I thought he made 1 to 1.5 mil. Get rid of that turd. Garcia will be gone after the season. That's what 10 million saved? Pods is gone, he would have been at around 4 mil with arbitration so you save that much. Get rid of that chump, Uribe and you save another 4.15 mil. That's a total of about 18 mil. Sweeney replaces Pods, and I think he'll do at least as much as Pods has done this season, certainly hit more than 3 HR's. Hate to keep Anderson but I don't see an alternative. BMac will take over Garcia's spot. That leaves SS open for a quality player who can be aforded about 15 mil. I know it would break the bank but Miguel Tejada could help a ton here. How much is he? He's getting 11.8 mil this year, a PHAWKING bargain. But I think he'll be asking over 20 mil, that's just too much, IMO. I think Julio Lugo of the DevilRays would be perfect in White Sox garb, and he'd only be at half of what Miggy would get. Who else can we get? First of all, no one is going to give Miguel Tejada $20 million a year. Secondly, Miguel Tejada is not a free agent. He is signed through 2009. He would only be available via a trade. Third: Given that the Angels reportedly offered Ervin Santana and Erick Aybar for Tejada, and the O's turned it down, it's doubtful that we actually have anything that could acquire Tejada, unless the O's rank McCarthy far ahead of E. Santana.

ESPN is talking about Tommy John surgery already.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 13, 2006 -> 03:22 PM) This is becoming a theme in this series. Non-HR production. I like it. I'd have liked it more if we could have put 4 runs up last night.

Yeah, so Freddy did ok. Nice to see a few hits too. 9 runs, 15 hits, 0 home runs.

Farmer says that Tim Salmon is coming up...at which point Singleton says "Fish", and I just burst into laughter.