Balta1701

Another Bush "Signing Statement" saying basically "I'll sign this law but won't follow it", this time with the Patriot Act.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 11:19 AM) Im a little confused on what you are trying to prove.... Everyone knows of the 2 that Cruz is a much better player than Thornton. But Thornton cost us Joe Borchard who might not even of made our team and than would of been gone for free anyways.....Cruz the starting asking price was Brian Anderson, while obviously we wont give up that much you better bet that at the very least a Josh Fields would be involved. The Sox would have to be insane to move Fields before signing a long term deal with Crede. Moving Fields kills the Sox's leverage with Crede, and Boras's folks would know that immediately.

I'm almost certain that I've seen BMac pop a couple in hte 93-94 range this spring. But the times I've seen him he's mainly been throwing that 2 seamer he's been working on, so he's been in the high 80's.

2005, that's in part mistakes on the part of Stoneman, but it's also the fact that their minor leagues are absolutely F***ing loaded. They clearly should have held onto 1 of those guys, but they just didn't have room for more than 1 of them.

IIRC, we drafted Broadway last summer, and we have to wait something like 1 full year before we can trade someone that we draft.

So, last year, despite 110 wins, I managed to wind up shut out in games that I started the thread. In the hopes of getting a slightly improved record, I'm starting one here, since even if I keep losing...well, it is still Spring Training. Freddy Garcia is on the mound for us today, against Jamie Moyer of the M's.

Step 1: Congress proposes reform bill to help stop companies from underfunding pensions (and passing the cost onto the federal government). Step 2: Lobbyists! Step 3: Congress Passes reform bill allowing companies to underfund pensions by an even greater amount than beforehand and pass the costs onto the Federal Government. Step 4: Congress sees a temporary rise in tax revenues of about $10 billion or less for 3 years or so due to quirk in law. Deficits shrink slightly. Step 5: Congress spends $100 billion or so in bailing out underfunded pensions. Net corporate welfare >$50 billion. Beautiful.

QUOTE(Soxy @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 09:14 AM) Jackie's a a "he." D'OH.

Don't worry, Iraq will soon take care of this whole thing. Of course, the problem with this argument is fairly obvious IMO...while parents do have an affect on their children's political beliefs, there's certainly no 100% guarantee that just because a child has conservative parents, they'll also grow up to be conservative, or liberal, or whatever. There are a huge variety of other factors that can and will come into play as demographics shift. The trends with factors like income and education tend to be much more strongly correlated with voting patterns than do who your parents are. Naturally, if your family is that one which rides around the country protesting soldier's funerals the correlation may hold more strongly, but even then, there's always the possibility of movement, especially given unforseen political events in the future. A person could always be raised in a conservative family, go to college, wind up in a left-leaning dorm, spend 10 years as a communist, get married, wind up with a high income, and vote himself or herself some nice shiny new tax cuts, and then realize when they'r 64 that those tax cuts for them whipper snappers are gonna cut into social security and medicare.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 09:06 AM) I assumed that jackiehays' quote, from Chapter I Article II of the Afghan constitution, was correct. I did not verify it myself. If it is not, along with other parts I have seen quoted in news clips, then that obviously changes things. I think her quote is accurate in that you're free to practice other religions, but the government has also seen fit to ban conversion, and they may choose to ban other practices in the future. Hence, there's really only religious freedom on a quirky level vastly below how we'd define it in this country.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 05:29 AM) Another journalistic coup for the Fox Braintrust. Does Hollywood Treat Albinos Worse Than Conservatives?!?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 06:44 AM) Well, it seems that there are legal conflicts the Afghans need to resolve - the Constitution allows for freedom to practice any religion, but also allows for Islam to be part of government function. In cases like this, how do you harmonize the 2? Are you sure the Afghan constitution allows for that? An independent group set up by the U.S. Government called the "United States Commission on International Religious Freedom" has, as far as I can tell, complained repeatedly to the President that the Afghan Constitution does not do so. Before the constitution was passed, they said This about it: In a letter to Mr. Bush yesterday, they said:

Trent Lott once called that company "an arm of the People's Liberation Army". Link.

Well, this should certainly be interesting. Any ideas for what the couch gag might be?

QUOTE(WCSox @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 04:39 PM) They've been a hell of a lot more successful in the post-season over the past 15 years than we have. World Series wins by the Braves in the last 15 years: 1. World Series wins by the White Sox in the last 15 years: 1.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 03:54 PM) You got that right. It might be worse than last year. And that's saying quite a bit.

My rent payment would be some of your mortgage payments.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 03:39 PM) Braves and post-season success don't go together well. People here are worried about our bullpen...yikes.

So it's never been any sort of secret at all that there were contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda in the mid 90's. The 9/11 commission said so bluntly. But nothing at all ever came of those contacts, and none of the documents there say anything beyond that. In fact, the last document ABC cites sure seems to me to suggest that Iraq was actually concerned in 2002 that Al Qaeda folks had entered their country, and were trying to track them down (i.e. searching hotels, etc.) Not the sort of stuff you do if you have a friendly relationship.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 02:42 PM) This guy doesn't deserve to be pitching in the majors. I hope KW's not too proud to see that. You're 100% correct for now, but let's just remember that our guys have had all of what, 2 days to work with him now? Give them at least a few months, and hopefully we won't see him in too many 1 run games.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 02:20 PM) Too bad he's slow as Konerko. Or as slow as Molina? (B.)

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 01:48 PM) Now that fastball on Iguchi was Cotts-esque. Not often do hitters miss a straight fastball down the middle unless there's some deception. Or they're really struggling...

So, Crede and Contreras for Blalock...any takers?

The thing that still bothers me about any "Statistical" prediction method is that I still don't think the statistics are yet up to the task. In terms of offensive production, I think the numbers are pretty close to able to give an idea of what you expect a person to do with some margin of error (which can sometimes be quantified.) However, with both pitching and defense, I dont' think the numbers are anywhere close to being able to easily catalog what a person will be able to do. Especially on defense, there just arent' good proxies that cover every single detail of what a guy can do, and what sticking him into your defense will do to affect a pitcher. Do you guys really think JG wins 18 games last year without Uribe and Crede on the left side of the field? I don't think the Statistics yet have any way to work out things like that, and iwthout that part, i just can't believe any of their complete statistical predictions.

Sidney Ponson appears to have the Cardinals 5th starter spot wrapped up. Jorge Posada took a ball to the face yesterday. Broken nose. Torre said he'll be out for a week or so. Pedro Martinez won't be pitching for the Mets on Opening day. His toe keeps bothering him, and they may very well come knocking and meet KW's price for Jose.