Balta1701

Anyone else have the feeling that BMac will record a non-trivial amount of saves this year? I still think he'll wind up being a starter very early in this season though.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 06:42 PM) no. There is little to no market for old, injury prone DHs. That's why Mike Piazza is still a FA, though he too could be moving closer to a deal with whomever. There was actually some talk a few days ago that Piazza was at least speaking to the Phillies

I still have that card sitting in a frame back home in Indiana.

QUOTE(Felix @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 04:35 PM) I don't take much pride in knowing that a board mostly full of morons thinks that the Sox are a good team, but hey, thats just me. Did you just call us all morons?

"Which is more than we can say for those Freeloadin' Canadians. Canada sucks!"

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 04:27 PM) Johan Santana may not have won a world series yet but he's better right than Mark Buehrle ever will be. He's better than MB thus far...but I wouldn't put it out of the question for MB to take that last step. He had a great year last year despite having a couple of really bad months...including 1 part where I'm still convinced he was slowing up his delivery and tipping his changeup. He gave up something like 4 runs in the entire month of June last year. It'll take a decent step upwards by Buehrle to pass Santana, but having watched Mark since he came up I wouldn't put it past him. I won't say it's likely, but it's certainly not impossible.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 03:33 PM) The A's wont be out of it. The A's won't be out of it...but it's entirely possible that they may need pitching more than they need a bat later in the season. It's at least plausible. If Thome were to go down for the season, and somehow, Frank was having a fine, healthy season over in Oakland...and the A's were willing to take on extra salary and hurt their offense in exchange for 1 more dominant pitcher...sure I'd do it, but I doubt that's even possible for these reasons: 1. The only way the Sox would want to reacquire Frank is if Frank is having a very good, healthy, Frank Thomas type season. To me, this means he'd be on pace for 30+ home runs, playing most days of the week, and hitting .275 or up. If he's only playing 1/2 of the games each week...he's not going to be that useful or worth the price. 2. If Frank Thomas is playing at a level which would allow us to reacquire him willingly...he'll make at most $2.5 million. Billy Beane will not give up that kind of bargain unless we throw in everyone and their grandmother (would he like Buehrle?) 3. Our best bargaining chip, Contreras, could very well be more available at midseason if BMac continues to dominate and no one else develops any obvious health porblems. But Contreras also is still being paid a lot of money this season, and if the A's were to let Contreras walk at the end of the year...they wouldn't get draft picks. They would if Frank proved he was healthy and was offered arbitration.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 03:23 PM) And you got your ring too Damn...the A's have a game on April 4th, Ring ceremony day. Frank won't be getting it that day. The A's are at the Cell on May 22, 23, and 24.

If the Knicks ever wanted a way to get rid of Isiah without coming out of it looking stupid for putting up with all of his dealings...They've got it.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 02:53 PM) I don't think I've ever had a President's Day off. And White Castle's definitely not going to be the one to make this succeed. I believe Stock Markets, many schools, and the Post Office are closed that day, along with quite a few other businesses. Just means you, like me, picked the wrong college to go to. (I still can't figure out how the hell IU doesn't get 1 break between the start of school and Thanksgiving.)

Dude, Texas traded Soriano to the Nats weeks ago.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 02:39 PM) You're wrong. As has been said, until he's a free agent, he has no say, period. For his f'in agent to pull the crap he did (leak it to the media to say Artest wanted to meet the Kings ownership first before he'd accept a trade) was CRAP. He has no official say, but that doesn't mean he has no "Leverage". There is no clause in any NBA contract I know about which says you have to give your 100% best game every single outing. There's no clause I know about which is going to penalize you for yelling at the refs and getting a Tech called on you, giving the other team free throws, at critical moments in close games. If you really want to be a malcontent...you can still do it and really hurt your team in the process.

Election day first. Then that one. How about we just move the Super Bowl to President's Day Weekend? Just knock the start of the season back about 2 weeks. It'd compete with Baseball less, people would be home anyway, and you'd get far more games where the elements are actually a problem than with the current scheme (something I personally think is one of the more entertaining parts of football games)

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 02:43 PM) I think that captures communications intercepts. But the questions in reply are...does that law give the President the right to override any existing law based on his judgement that someone "aided" the terrorists, and how does one define "aiding" the terrorists? Let's take this to the extreme in the hopes of proving something...if a terrorist were living next door to you, and you helped him unpack his car when he moved in, you may well have aided him. You helped him move in, maybe even carried bomb-making material, and then you didn't report him to the government (cause man, the stuff was in a box and you can't see through cardboard.) Can the President bypass the laws and just have you killed? If you're willing to apply such a wide standard that you say that the law in question allows the President to override existing laws to go after anyone he says aided the terrorists, what is stopping that circumstance beyond the hope that the President's office wouldn't do that? Clearly, I think that at some point, someone has to be willing to draw a line somewhere defining what the President's powers are based on that resolution when there is other settled law on the matter, and similarly, there must be some sort of definition of "Aided" applied, because otherwise there is nothing to stop the obscene example I gave above.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 02:27 PM) I agree. It makes sense for a big salary team like the Red Sox to trade Marte if they want to. IF Youkilis pans out, they could move him back to 3B and sign a top free agent 1B like Derrek Lee or Mark Teixeira in a year or two once Lowell is gone. In fact, they may very well be BETTER off doing it that way...for the simple reason that the odds that any player will turn out to be better than Tex are minimal...and if they stick a guy like Tex in their lineup...it matters even less that they have a guy who isn't great with the bat at 3rd as long as he gloves the ball every now and then. Ortiz and Teixeira in the heart of that order in 3 years? Eek. The only way that really becomes a bad move for the BoSox is if Marte turns into a 30-40 home run, MVP-caliber type guy every year...and even if he turns into a great player, the odds of him being better than the FA they could stick in his spot are even smaller.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) I think that Coco Crisp would fill a huge hole for the Red Sox if he can play good defense as an everyday center fielder. But if the Red Sox end up keeping Andy Marte, I'm sure he will turn into an All-Star third baseman in the future. See, now this I can step in and argue a little bit. If I'm building a team...I probably hold onto Marte. Why? Because I personally don't have the budget of the Yankees or the Red Sox. However, if I'm building a team with their budgets and the expectation that I need to win 90-95 games and get to the playoffs every year...I think I have to make that deal, for 1 simple reason; the fans expect it. When I'm spending that kind of money, I just can't go into the season with a AA ball level player in Center Field. No matter who else I have in that lineup, it's just going to make me a laughingstock. Didn't the Yankees try that with someone like 2 years ago and wind up losing a couple of games because the guy was booting everything? That might even have been last year. If the Red Sox can get something which will help them compete this year...that's good enough for them. Why? Because even though they won't have Marte @ 3rd base in 07-14, their cash resources will let them find someone who can do a decent job there. All they need to do is bring in youth every now and then at 1-2 positions, such as the bullpen, to make the rest of their team a little more affordable (like the Y ankees with Cano) and they'll be in good shape if they don't make any other boneheaded personnel decisions, like trading for a Kevin Brown or something like that.

I have a problem with a few of these picks...specifically ones like the Blue Jays...since I just can't figure out how the Blue Jays can be a sleeper when a lot of people have been out there saying they could be better than the BoSox this year. To be a sleeper, don't you have to be a team no one is talking about? Baltimore would strike me as a sleeper in the AL East...and honestly I wouldn't put it past them to do some damage there if Tejada stays hot, Lopez and others stay healthy, Leo Mazzone is as good as advertised, and Palmeiro is gone.

Is there some means by which I can start taking bets on how long it will be before a thread is closed?

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 02:04 PM) Artest Not Not Traded. Can we make that the name of this thread...but keep the "d-bag" part?

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 01:51 PM) Most businesses that hire illegals would hire legal workers if they were available and willing to work. What we need, is what Bush proposed, a guest worker program. There are not enough Americans willing to do the manual labor jobs in the US. As Bush supporters have pointed out, our unemployment rate hovers at 5% and under. So it doesn't appear as if these workers are displacing anyone. Check http://themonitor.com a border newspaper and see all the job offers for migrant labor and meat processing plants. First of all...you know very well I don't believe those "Hovering at 5% unemployment rates" since they exclude the long-term unemployed and a wide variety of others who are classified as "out of the workforce" despite the fact that they may well be actively looking for a job. But related to that...I still am unconvinced that there really is a lack of people willing to do manual labor jobs here in the U.S. If I had no position right now, I'd do it quite willingly. The problem is...I wouldn't be willing to do it for $2 an hour when I could earn $6 an hour at McDonalds somewhere by being documented. Through the fact that they're undocumented, they have no workplace protections, and employers can pay them whatever they want and bury the corpses when something goes horridly wrong, and no one can say a thing. I don't view this as a way to fill in gaps created by the lack of Americans to do the work...I view it as far more an effort by employers to avoid having to spend the extra effort and money required to follow U.S. laws.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 01:57 PM) Funny you should mention Nissan America when the Japanese automakers are creating jobs here in the US while the "US" automakers are taking jobs to Canada and Mexico. Funny you should mention that, since one of the main reasons Japanese automakers have opened plants in the U.S. was a Reagan-era requirement that a certain percentage of those companies' vehicles had to be built in the U.S. for them to continue doing business here. Once the Japanese automakers met those requirements, they started opening their new plants up in Canada, because the population is much better educated and because their state-run health care system provides dramatically lower costs to the company than down here in the States, despite the fact that the tax rates are higher to pay for the health care system.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 01:25 PM) Frank is basically homerun or bust right now. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think he can last a whole season. The White Sox did what they had to do, and obviously Frank doesn't think he's done. It would be a shame if he injured his ankle/foot again and it caused him problems the rest of his life. Its good for him that he goes to a solid team, the real shame would have been if he tried to hang on with a team like TB. Frank was home run or bust last season...because there was so much pain in his foot he could basically do nothing except swing for the fences. There's always some possibility that another offseason has been enough to help him heal to the point that he can run without pain, and that he can put stress on the thing. It's not a terrible gamble on the A's part. On the other hand...even if I had him on my team, I don't think I'd want to risk giving him more than 200 AB's unless I was in dire need of a DH down the stretch, just because I'd be too worried about losing him again.

And you thought it was impossible for us to beat Oakland last year... So long Frank...I promise I'll be watching when #500 sails 450 feet somewhere.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Jan 25, 2006 -> 12:44 PM) Why don't we tax these bastards on this money? If the banks don't comply, revoke their charters. Dude...if you think the banks are the big problem...you're aiming your gun in the wrong spot. A few months ago Wal-Mart came to a settlement with the U.S. government for $11 million for using illegal immigrants as employees in like a couple dozen states. First of all...that number is almost certainly a pittance compared to how much the company made by using those immigrants as workers...but more importantly...the settlement, agreed to by the department of justice, required that the Feds give Walmart a 15 day official advance notice before any further inspections of their working conditions would take place. Yes, read that again..it's true. If I want to check to see if a Wal-mart is filling 1/2 of its workforce with illegal immigrants...I have to give official notice to the store and to Bentonville that I'm going to do the inspection, then wait 15 days, then go in. Now, can anyone out there figure out why exactly a company might want that 15 days? As far as I'm concerned, the DOJ agreed to a settlement which made it impossible for Walmart to ever be fined for using an illegal immigrant, child laborer, or laborer without overtime/lunchbreaks again.

I'm going to pass on the Cubs as a "Bust" team since I think it's implied. One real possible sleeper team could be Seattle...if Jeremy Reed and Adrian Beltre both have good years and their young pitching holds together. I don't think it'll happen, but it's at least possible. My top Bust team right now is the Angels, if you define a "Bust" as missing the playoffs when you should make it.