Balta1701

I think Ryan Sweeney in the big leagues next year is still too early for him. I want him to have another full year in AAA before I talk about calling him up. Also, his OBP is still lower than what I'd think I'd want from a leadoff hitter that doesn't provide a ton of speed. .342 and .357 and .355 last 3 years. But in 2 years, I could see it happening, depending on his development next year. Josh Fields, on the other hand, has an OBP approaching .400 this season. Has 18 more walks thus far this season than Sweeney, by my count. My only worry is that he'd come up and pull an Anderson, several people have said his swing is too long already this season. A lot more strikeouts too.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 03:47 PM) Brandon McCarthy Is Not an Ace HWBNY.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 02:32 PM) I like this guy. Did you have a twin who was separated from you at birth and moved to Detroit?

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 01:39 PM) Why was a 23 year-old (according to the story) using a fake ID to buy booze? So drunk she couldn't remember the last 5 years?

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 01:42 PM) You don't use Tylenol? ....She uses vaseline...(add in appropriate tune)

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 01:40 PM) Don't put sarcastic words in my mouth, fathom. I'm sure plenty of players smoke pot. I don't see that many that have also gotten fatter, appear lazier, and have lost a lot of their talent, too. Man, I don't know whether to go after CC or David Wells here...

That's Kinda Funny.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 11:43 AM) The Swiftboaters hate freedom... And children. Your angry words about those patriotic Americans who were only doing their duty proves once again how much you hate America.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 09:44 AM) As a fourth outfielder. Ozzie would still find an excuse to start Mack in CF.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:54 AM) Hezbollah wouldn't exist in its current form without financial and military support from Iran. Taking out the rogue regime is the key here."Taking out", yes. But not militarily. If you "Take out" Iran using military force, all you do is create another failed state of folks who hate you. In this statement, you totally ignore where Lebanon was actually headed after the Hairi killing. The Lebanese people Had actually effectively rebuilt that country from the civil war. There was a real nascent democracy in that country. It was on the verge of turning from the failed state that gave Birth to Hezbollah into a functioning country that would actually be able to deal with Hezbollah. That course has been totally reversed in this attack. 1. You and I actually agree on #1, Iran cannot be allowed to get a bomb. This is what my point was earlier...you have to manage these crises however you can, try to not allow things to go too far, and give those people time to actually decide that they want to replace their government. Iran trying to get a bomb is a crisis that must be managed, but the wrong way to do it would be to try to impose a government on Iran militarily. 2. How's that freedom and economic prosperity in Iraq working out these days?

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:44 AM) I think you're right. People won't want to admit this, but Lidle has had a better career than Javier Vazquez. The Yankees pick him up and a lot of people yawn or don't mention he being included. Well, aside from 2 years in Oakland where he was suddenly good (01 and 02, interestingly enough), it's worth pointing out that the years he's been in the AL he's been shelled, and his numbers in the NL the last 3 seasons have been pretty poor, ERA's from 4.5-4.9, which would be somewhere in the mid 5's in the AL.

I think if someone like the Royals actually offered us enough for Gload to give him up, and genuinely let him have a starting job, he'd surprise a lot of people with the numbers he'd put up. We've seen him hit .300 with at least some power for month-long stretches in the past, and I think he could do that for a full season if he was given the shot. That said, I doubt there's a GM out there who would give us enough to really prove it, at least not before Gload gets too old to do that. Sort of sad for him really, I think he could at least have had himself a decent few years if the cards had fallen right.

No different than what they did with Nader, and no different than things the left would do if say, Roy Moore or someone like that were to have run against Bush in 04.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:31 AM) The ethnic hatred and the lack of respect for human life has to stop NOW, not 100 years down the road when Sunnis and Shia grow up and realize that it's not only OK for them to peacefully coexist, but that the Jews have a righ to live as well. Ah, but here's the key...this is not going to happen when the military might of the west keeps turning various countries in the Middle East into failed states. Lebanon was actually starting to look like your real hopeful place, in that someday, it might be able to grow out of the terrorist mess. It actually had a democratically elected government, it was actually on the road to recovery from a long civil war, it was actually undertaking steps at modernization. Yes, Hezbollah was still there and armed to the teeth. However, within Lebanon, there were growing movements before this to either bring Hezbollah into the fold as a solely political organization, a-la the IRA, or to forcefully disarm it by using the Lebanese armed forces. Which btw, may be one of the reasons Hezbollah launched this attack in the first place...now no one in Lebanon wants them disarmed. Now, Lebanon has been once again reduced to a failed state, which will generate decades of additional fighters, and Hezbollah has seemed like the only force capable of acting to defend that country. You cannot simply make millenia-old hatreds vanish by sitting at your computer and telling them that it should happen. You cannot bomb away millenial aged hatreds either. The only way you're going to do that is to actually sit back, try to contain things, and focus on encouraging economic development within the countries that are there. It will take time, and patience, and you will have to deal with managing smaller crises, and occasionally a big one (Peak Oil or the Iranian bomb), but the only way you're going to allow this hatred to die off is to give the people paths to better lives.

I think JD is a very good defensive player when he gets to play alongside a very good defensive player. Yes, he does have key weaknesses, like some of his runs to the side after balls. Those weaknesses get magnified if he doesn't have someone alongside him who can fill in those gaps. If you put JD up alongside a center fielder with great range, JD will do an excellent job in RF, because it cuts down on the area he has to cover moving laterally; he can take a few more steps towards the line, and focus more on covering forwards and backwards rather than covering the Right Center gap. In other words, stop (#&*($&389&&*(%* putting Mack in CF, and people will stop complaining about Dye's defense. His arm is good, but the accuracy hasn't thrilled me. His arm is good enough to scare some people into not advancing, which is helpful, but he doesn't have the outfield assists to show for it.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:08 AM) So ... what exactly should Isreal do? I believe the only option in this case is an immediate Cease-fire along the currently proposed lines, with a large U.N. force in the area with the goal of disarming Hezbollah. Of course, this has its own problems, specifically the fact that Hezbollah won't want to be disarmed, and the fact that given the manpower demands in Iraq, very few countries actually have soldiers that could be contributed to such a peacekeeping force, and even fewer would be willing to do so, but it's certainly going to be vastly less messy than what Israel is currently doing.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 09:30 AM) But in THIS CURRENT conflict, I believe that the Israeli response has been justified. I may have done a few things differently, but overall I support their effort to defend themselves from a terrorist-controlled Southern Lebanon. And that, right there, is exactly the line of thinking which has made the "War on Terror" go so poorly thus far. When your enemy is willing to attack civilians with no regards to any of the laws of war, a nation can use that reasoning to justify any action in response. The only problem is, of course, that it totally neglects any thought about how the rest of humanity will respond, which is exactly what we're seeing in Israel right now; a dramatic strengthening of support for Hezbollah, and for almost every terror organization, due to the Israeli response, and Israel will spend its next few decades fighting against the terrorists born out of this campaign, just as they've spent the last few decades fighting terrorists born out of previous campaigns.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 09:23 AM) If history is any guide, another despot will take his place in Cuba. It's their tradition. But if we can get a US backed Despot, everything will be great!

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 09:15 AM) You're right. I should've given the examples of the IDF sending suicide bombers into malls and restaurants in Ramallah during a time of peace. Or I could've used the exmaples of the IDF going across the border and kidnapping members of the Lebanese army. Oh, maybe the example of the IDF firing missiles from the backyards of Israeli homes and going screaming to Al Jazeera that the Lebanese are targeting Israeli citizens in their homes. Thank you for finally proving my point. Because of the transgressions of their opponents, EVERYTHING Israel does is justified in your eyes. Any time someone points out a war crime Israel has committed, that is exactly your response, you say "yeah, Israel has done some bad things, but they're all ok, because look how bad their opponents are." It is that line of thinking from the west which has helped feed the terrorist threats we see today for decades, and which will continue feeding it for decades to come.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 08:56 AM) I have a friend from Ramallah and have heard several stories about the heavy-handidness of the Israeli police/military. Trust me, I know that Israel is far from innocent. But you're correct that there is no moral equivalency between building a highway through a Palestinian man's farm and blowing up a bus full of Israelis. People who believe otherwise need to get away from their socialist college professors for a while and experience the real world. So you choose the most benign example you could possibly give, building a highway through a farm? Do you really think that's even remotely representative of the worst things being done by that side in this conflict?

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 06:20 AM) The amount of innings our starters have thrown over the past few seasons, were probably bound to catch up to them at some point; MB 01- 221.1 IP 02 - 239 IP 03 - 230.1 IP 04 - 245.1 IP 05 - 236.2 IP 06 - 138.1 IP (so far) That's over 1300 innings in 5 and a half seasons for Mark. Freddy 01 - 238.2 IP 02 - 223.2 IP 03 - 201.1 IP 04 - 210 IP 05 - 228 IP 06 - 133.2 IP (so far) Total of over 1200 innings for Freddy there in those 5 and a half seasons. But don't those numbers and the fact that we haven't seen a dropoff before on either of those pitchers argue that they've been able to handle a lot of innings in the past without problems so there's no gigantic reason to expect that the innings will all of a sudden kill them?

"Tonight, we make soap."

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 06:29 AM) Not sure of the exact wording in the tax bill, but as it is reported, it says estates valued over $1 million, not the portion of estates valued over $1 million. It could be the way you described, but with the IRS, you never know. However, even if it is just the part over $1 million, it is still mine. No, you are incorrect, it is just the part over the limit which is taxed. Non-partisan Factcheck.org.

By the way, I'd just like to take a moment to say that Jim Bowden, IMO, cost himself his job today. It might happen at the end of the year when Soriano leaves, it might happen 2-3 years down the road after the Nats way overpay Soriano in order to avoid losing him, but it cost him his job.

Come back Mark! We miss you! Oh, and Mack better not F***ing start in CF tomorrow.