Balta1701

How would we look outside the Central if we excluded Oakland? We caught Texas when they were on fire, caught Baltimore when they were on fire. We've only seen a little bit of Seattle. Some of those points have to hurt. If nothing else, we did end up 12-6 in Interleague play.

This is exactly why no-trade clauses shouldn't be tossed around like they're nothing. If you've got a veteran guy who's been with your team for years, yeah sure, but otherwise, you're practially setting yourself up to be screwed.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 08:43 PM) I was buying the attorney/client privilege line about the unreleased Roberts docs during Reagan and Bush I. But it sounds like such a privelege (sp?) may not exist in this instance. can anybody here give clarification on the matter? Ken Starr argued that even White House Counsels are not bound by Attorney-Client priveledge. The Solicitor General is basically an Appellate Attorney for the US of A, and is even farther from the President than the White House consels Ken Starr argued weren't bound by it. Here's 1 blurb:

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 07:33 PM) I thought it was only 5 times? What makes someone so f***ing stupid to wear a big heavy coat in the middle of summer when the police are worried about assholes wearing suicide vests? First of all, he's Brazilian. What sort of temperatures would you expect him to be adapted to in his home country? Secondly, I believe that the weather that day was something like 70 degrees. Not exactly blaring hot...especially when you're from Brazil. I can't say that the police made a mistake in terms of taking no chances with a guy running away from them under the circumstances. But let's at keast realize that it's not illegal to wear a heavy coat. And I don't know how many times he was shot. I've read 5, 7, and 8. I think 8 will end up being the final #.

QUOTE(SpringfieldFan @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 03:11 PM) I believe we won 2 out of 4 in Anaheim this year, so I am not so much concerned about them. They were without Vlad the Impaler at the time.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 04:53 PM) He's been hitting the ball much better lately, I wouldn't be surprised to see him take off soon. AJ's been hitting the ball better for liek a month now...and still it seems like things just won't fall in. I swear he's hit more line drives straight at people than anyone on our team. By far.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 04:52 PM) I hope Iguchi's not just sitting to give Willie some time. I think it's probably pretty safe to say that Willie is in the lineup because he's 6 for 10 in his career against Greinke.

QUOTE(SpringfieldFan @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 03:04 PM) So, just out of curiosity, what would he have had to do be be a starter again? Sign with the Yankees or the Cubs.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Jul 24, 2005 -> 07:35 PM) Did anyone hear DJ invent a new word today? I can't remember what they were, but he called two separate things "dramastically" different. Took me like a minute of debating with myself to realize that yes, in fact, that is not a word.

QUOTE(SpringfieldFan @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 02:12 PM) I guess that closes the book on him ever being a starter again *sigh*. The day he "temporarily" got converted to middle relief was the day I thought "uh-oh, he will never start again", despite assurances from others to the contrary. At least I am pleased with the value he now adds to the team and that he likes the role of reliever. Otherwise it would seem a cruel irony for him to earn a "demotion" by excelling in a role he may not have wanted. I think that in a few years you'll really be surprised how much people will be giving up for a quality relief pitcher, especially a left handed one...both in terms of players and cash. Think about this...let's say Cotts was still a starter and was putting up average numbers. If you were Boston, would you prefer to pick him up as a starter or as a reliever? A dominant relief pitcher is starting to turn into a more valuable commodity than a .500 W/L starter, and probably deservedly so.

Man, not only does it seem that the computer somehow double-posted this one, it seems to have lost all of my text. Blasted technology. "Since it's a new countdown, here's a new thread. The Shuttle Discovery is counting down once again to fire itself into orbit of the Earth, sometime tomorrow morning if weather cooperates. Here's the link from NASA. "

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 01:14 PM) He is a thrower, not a pitcher. The guy is flat out living on his rep after one unbelieveable game. He is worthless, and will continue to be so. I disagree that he is worthless, but right now he is not useful. When the Cubs throw him out to work him hard, he falls apart not just for a month, but for 2 seasons. He is not worthless in the sense that Randy Johnson was not worthless after the 92 season, when he had a career record of 56-61. At that point, someone got through to him (Ryan?) and helped turn him into a pitcher. Since then, he's gone 200-73.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 12:44 PM) Personally I am more sick of irrational whiners who bury their heads in the sand with their grudges and focus on a specific stat or narrow band of stats instead of looking at the big picture, while excluding their heroes from the same kind of treatment. Man, I'm sensing a lot of rage/anger/annoyance at this site today...this thread, the athiesm one, etc.

This was what DeLuca wrote today in the Sun Times...if anything, this team needs a backup for Hermanson, not another starting pitcher. Even one of the other guys discussed here won't give us that.

I don't think he'll pull it off. His average has come down about 20 points lately, although he's still beating everyone else. This is his most likely category to win...because no one else is close to him. In Home runs, it may very well come down to him against Andruw Jones. In that he has an advantage, because Jones will play more at Turner Field while Lee gets to hit at Wrigley. Neither player has a big advantage in people pitching around him, because they both have good pop behind them. This will be a fun chase to watch. It's RBI's that i think will be his Achilles heel, and the team stats show why. For reference, I'm going to look here at Konerko (who we know pretty well here), Carlos Lee (his main competition) and Derek Lee himself. Simple stats here: # at bats with runners on and # with RISP. Konerko 162 92 El Caballo 193 119 DLee 139 88 During the Cards game last night, the announcers repeatedly gave the stat that the Cubs had scored more than 1/2 their runs this year via the home run. Want to know why? The answer is right there. They've got a guy hitting .370, and he has come to the plate 60 fewer times than Carlos Lee with runners on base and 31 fewer times with RISP. In other words, the Brewers are a far better team than the Cubs at getting people on base ahead of their biggest bat and moving them into scoring position. DLee is coming up far more often with no one on base. CLee even comes up more often with just a guy on 1b. DLee has come up with the bases empty 40 more times than CLee. When you come up with the bases empty, there is only 1 way to drive in runs, and that's to hit the ball out of the ballpark. This is Lee's achilles heel; he comes up with no one on far too often, and that gives CLee a huge advantage in terms of driving people in. On a side note...take 1 second and imagine how many RBI's Lee would have if he were hitting 3rd on our team, with Pods and Iguchi in front of him. Now wipe up the drool.

Anybody but Oakland should be an option in the poll. It would win hands down.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 11:40 AM) I do wonder if Bill will be giving the same sort of apology down the road for 9-11? I bet you if you asked him if he would apologize for not going after Bin Laden in 98-99, he'd do it...at least I'd hope so...that is obviously a huge mistake. You think Bush will ever apologize for not ordering any sort of alert in the summer of 01 or for not going after Bin Laden when we had firm proof of who hit the Cole?

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jul 24, 2005 -> 09:51 PM) Why should America be blamed for Rwanda... it wasnt our mess... we werent the ones who conquered it and split the people up. Than just leave. Have you ever felt guilty because you failed to do something and someone else was hurt? Hundreds of thousands of people died. The U.S. had the power to stop it. Bill Clinton chose not to help. That is all that matters. In an interview a few years ago, Clinton said his biggest regret of his presidency was that he hadn't intervened in Rwanda when we could have helped keep people alive. I have difficulty understanding any "let them die" philosophy.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 22, 2005 -> 10:19 AM) I was offered and accepted a Citi Dividend MasterCard earlier this year It's the only card I have and I just got a nice dividend check for over a hundred smackers a couple of weeks ago. NICE! That's basically the same card I've got...I get a nice 5% back on anything I spend at gas stations or grocery stores.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jul 22, 2005 -> 09:55 AM) Oh, so these stories don't matter? They're ANECDOTES? Wow. It tells me about how you people think of things and where your priorities are. The "good stories" are anecdotes, the savagery is more significant. That just burns me about the thought processes of some in this country. No, it's not that the Good stories are anecdotes, it's that the incredibly small stories are anecdotes. This is a story about 1 hospital in 1 place in Iraq that will at most convince a couple hundred people not to hate us. Yeah, it's a useful story, but it's not a big story. This 1 place is not going to change the future of Iraq. A thousand of those places...maybe they could. But not 1 of them. Not even a dozen. What would be a great story that I would think of as a non-anecdote? The completion of the Iraqi constitution on time. The election certainly was. A dramatic increase in the generation of electricity. Saddam finally going to trial. Or getting a significant amount of Iraqi forces trained and actually seeing them performing well. Those are things that can genuinely help improve the future of the country for everyone.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 22, 2005 -> 09:03 AM) The sad part is that you'll never see an article like that in the bloodthirsty mainstream press. If you want good news you're forced to go looking for military press releases. So, let me ask you this in reply: Which do you think is a bigger story: people manning hospitals or a car bomb going off killing 50 people? Which do you think is a bigger story: people manning hospitals or the abduction of 2 Algerian diplomats? Which do you think is a bigger story: people manning hospitals or the representatives of 1/4 of the people of Iraq pulling out of the constitution drafting committee because their membership keeps getting killed? Yes, there is a place and time to tell these sorts of cute stories about how we are helping the Iraqis. Some of them should be told. But they don't tell the story of what is going on in the country. They are anecdotes.

U2 Smashing Pumpkins Pearl Jam Ben Folds Five Led Zeppelin Wilco In no particular order.

Um, it won't be tomorrow night. The Daily Show doesn't run on Fridays. It will in fact be next Monday.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jul 21, 2005 -> 04:40 PM) Are we better offensively at any position when you put them head to head? When you put them head to head, is their pitching staff better than ours at any position? When you put them head to head, how many positions are they better than us at defensively?

QUOTE(winodj @ Jul 21, 2005 -> 04:28 PM) I drive a car that gets 35 miles to the gallon. I have a second hand TV, a borrowed computer. My one extravagance: I have my own apartment. My only transportation is a bike and my feet. Neither is a fun way to get groceries or to get to school when it is raining. My shoes were purchased with a gift card that I received by trading in points earned on my credit card.