Balta1701

Uribe will deserve to win it next year. He didn't start off the year with either much name recognition at short or, more importantly, much experience at short, and I still think it showed for the first month or two. Next year his defensive stats could be incredible. He made a lot of silly errors in the first couple months while just getting used to things. Now he's acclimated. Crede is just ever so slightly below Chavez right now. Just barely. He's more reliable when he gets the ball (fewer errors, etc.), but he also doesn't get to every single ball Chavez does. But it's very close. Crede could very well be better than him next year. Mark and Aaron deserve those damn awards this year.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Nov 1, 2005 -> 12:52 PM) Judith Miller got Bush his war almost single-handedlhy. Ok, I'm as big of an opponent of Miller's Iraq work as anyone, but even I'm no where near willing to go so far as to say that Judith Miller got Bush his war single handedly. She was a nice cog, but that was a major machine they had built up there. Up and down the list, virtually the entire Republican media apparatus was turned for an entire year to the task of hyping up Saddam's WMD's to the point where the American people would feel there was no other option. Miller was nice in that she got front page NYT scoops. But go read the WaPo editorial page. Go watch some old Fox News. Go watch some old CNN or NBC Nightly News when the Republicans were lashing out at the inspectors. Go listen to Rumsfeld openly lie on Meet the Press ("we know where the weapons are. They're around Tikrit and Baghdad"). It was so much more than Miller. Without Miller, that war still would have happened. They would have just found someone else to be their shill.

Stealing from Americablog...

This story is so remarkable it's hard to believe. A few years ago, WalMart was facing charges for using child labor. They ended up with a settlement giving them a fine on the order of $100,000, and an agreement with the government where the Feds couldn't inspect their stores for child labor without the Feds first giving a 15 day notice. Sound like WalMart got off Easy? Want to know why? Well, it turns out, the Bush Administration's Department of Labor literally let them write parts of their own settlement. Thank God WalMart is now able to use illegal child labor without having to face major difficulties. If WalMart couldnt' break the law, I don't know where our Country would be.

Judith Miller. Patrick Fitzgerald himself has said that if Judith Miller (and the White House) had not been covering up, lying, and fighting legal battles to prevent them from having to testify..."we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005". In other words...Judith Miller's legal battle may very well have prevented the Bush Administration from facing pre-election indictments. The NY Times does some stupid Democratic things. But they do plenty of stupid Republican ones too. You want to tell me that open indictments against the Administration couldn't have shifted a few hundred thousand votes in Ohio or Florida?

I'm on like 3 hours of sleep and I just finished up an exam, but this even caught me off guard. Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid has invoked Senate rule 21, which basically kicks the cameras out of the Senate chambers, slams the doors, and dims the lights. Beforehand, Reid gave a long speech hitting on basically 2 main points: the Libby indictment last week, and IMO, more importantly, the fact that the Senate has basically completely sidestepped any investigation into whether or not intelligence was politicized/abused in selling the Iraq war. (On that latter point...a really brief history...to get the media off his back in early 04, Bush agreed to 2 investigations into Iraq's WMD's, an independent investigation which was to focus solely on how the intelligence was so wrong and which was specifically prohibited from looking at the questions of how the politicians used that intelligence or were involved in its gathering, and a Senate investigation. The Senate investigation was to be in 2 parts...1 part which was basically a duplicate of the independent investigation (that part is arleady completed) and a 2nd part actually looking at the question of political involvement with the intel. The Republicans have basically shelved the 2nd half of the investigation.) Here is Reid's statement:

And while you're reading through that article...just think about those other ESPN guys who dubbed this the worst world series of the ESPN Era.

This is why they play the games.

QUOTE(bighurt2719 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 10:09 PM) spoken like a true cubs fan. garland is better than wood; he is a member of the white sox. wood is on the cubs. Wins by Garland since 2001: 60 Wins by Kerry Wood since 2001: 49. Drop the fact that Garland came into the league several years after Wood, and Garland is already outpacing him. And given that Jon is 2 years younger...well...add it up.

QUOTE(DABearSoX @ Nov 1, 2005 -> 01:24 AM) Oh yea, and even though it wasn't a play.....DJ's quote "Whatever you do just don't strap it on" Hawk (reading): Dear Hawk. Mike Ditka always used to tell people to strap it up. Before every game, you tell us to strap it down. Which should I do...strap it up or down? DJ: Well, whatever you do, just don't strap it on. (10+ second pause) Hawk: we got another email here...

I would still listen to most of the games without Rooney, but if I purchased the DirecTV package again next year, I would be far more inclined to head home to hear Hawk & DJ than I would be to stay @ school and use MLB Gameday Audio with rooney than without him. Either way...I expect he'll have a TV Job with some team before the end of the winter. He's earned it.

How about an Ichiro deal involving Podsednik? I don't like the idea of dealing any of our current starting pitchers one iota, but if they asked for a package of something like Podsednik and a couple minor leaguers (of any name other than McCarthy) I'd be open to it.

I don't know if I laughed any harder during the season than when Podsednik hit the home run in game 1 against the Red Sox. Funniest damn thing I'd heard - guy goes without any home runs the whole season and then bangs one out during a blowout in game 1 of the playoffs.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:30 PM) So in essence it's up to Moreno, but I think with a player like Konerko they'd go for it. That'd still be nearly a 20% increase in their salary over this year. That'd still be an increase of about $18 million dollars this offseason. I just can't see them being willing to do it unless they let Molina and Byrd both walk. $12 million a year for Paulie maybe, but $15 just seems like overkill. Hell, Vlad the Impaler is only signed at 5 years, $70 million.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:30 PM) Yeah which is pretty stupid for the money he's going to get, especially if they give him a 5 year deal. Which is exactly why I expect them to sign him...it is a perfect fit...a stupid amount of money for a player who maybe deserves it and maybe will play well enough to earn it if his skills never diminish.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:25 PM) The Yankees are finally dumping old fart Bernie Williams. They aren't going to want to add 40 year old Steve Finley who had a garbage year and whom you have to really question if he was on steroids in previous years. The Yankees would rather have a young guy like Rowand or Juan Pierre to patrol center field. The Yankees are old enough as it is. I doubt they want to get even older. The Yankees will sign Damon. I feel pretty darn confident in that one.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:23 PM) I easily think Moreno could go to the $110M payroll range if they could sign the right players. Byrd will probably get around 4 to 5M. Molina about 6M, unless they decide to go somewhere else. So I still think they could definitely offer Konerko $75M/5. That puts them in the $115 million range.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:19 PM) That article needs registration. But they can always try and trade Finley to the Yanks to save salary, and Salmon's contract comes off the books. That's $17M in possible savings right there. I don't think Washburn's going to be back, although I think Byrd may stay leaving a rotation of Colon, Lackey, Escobar, Byrd and Santana. They'll probably re-sign Molina, but there's other options out there like Kojima and Hernandez.

QUOTE(White Sox Josh @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:05 PM) some of the money will be deferred. I mean Delgado got $4 Million last year and will now get somewhere around $18 Million. But was anyone offering Delgado the same total price the Marlins were? That argument only works if there were no other equal suitors. If the Marlins were offering $5 million more total than any other team, but they would only do so if Delgado deferred some of the money, then it would make sense for him to take that option just because the total sum would be more.

QUOTE(Felix @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:01 PM) Not sure when this one was. My dad records the show onto his computer basically whenever its on, and he showed a Sox mention in one of them during "The Word". It wasn't really long, but it was hilarious. He was talking about Harriet Miers being a quitter, but never an acquitter, and then mentioned how the Sox sucked for 86 years, but never quit, and finally reached their goal and swept the WS. Like I said, not really long, but I found it funny. Ok, that was the Colbert Report last Thursday (and not the Daily Show)

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:56 PM) I'm pretty sure they will, if you've read pretty much every Konerko article, snippet in the off-season etc., the Sox may have to go to $65M over 5 years to keep him, because that's what these teams like the Angels are going to be offering him. I think it'd be worth your time to hit up This LAT Piece on how the Angels salary situation sits in 2005. In order to make a serious run at Konerko, they'd probably have to push $110 million in 06, if not more, given that they have 2 FA holes on their starting rotation right now and a FA hole at their starting catcher spot.

So wait, they complain about how Bo was trotted out to throw the 1st pitch in game 2 of the W.S., yet they don't even bother to note who threw out the first pitch of the first game of the playoffs?

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:51 PM) If you were Paul Konerko, why would you take $6M in the 1st year of a contract after the season and playoffs you've had, when Anaheim will definitely offer you $13M over 5 years at least? I would not say that Anaheim would definately offer him that much. I don't think we have a clue what the Angels will offer.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:51 PM) I've always wanted to know this but if your Paul Konerko what the hell is the difference between 48 and 50 million dollars? To me, all that matters is that maybe it's a reason to sign with Anaheim instead of Chicago. I don't want him to have that reason.

QUOTE(White Sox Josh @ Oct 31, 2005 -> 09:44 PM) I hope they can backload Konerko's contract. Like have him earn $6 Million for the first year and he ends up earning $14.5 Million in the last year of the contract. That would total up to $49 Million and you can put bonuses in there to. On the other hand, what happens if we offer Konerko the same amount of money as some other team, but we offer it backloaded, the other team doesn't, and Paulie decides that the non-backloaded deal is the better option, and we lose him for that incredibly stupid reason? If we want him back next year, we should not jerk him around. Don't push for obscene amounts of deferred cash, don't push too hard for anything backloaded...if we want to keep him, we need to be willing to match what other people offer, not just in dollars and cents but in the details of the contract. I don't think we can afford to lose the guy, and if we're going to pay the money anyway, that's not something that's worth risking losing him.