Balta1701

QUOTE(Adam G @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:27 AM) Arent we pretty much on pace to hit as many homers this year as we had last year? No, we tied for the league lead with about 240 last year, and we're on pace this year to hit just over 200, which in itself isn't bad at all. Of course, some of that is due to the fact that we didn't have Thomas for the first half of the year, so whatever number we're "On pace" to hit may have changed a bit since he returned. The other big decreases: Aaron Rowand is on pace for about 1/2 as many as he hit last year, and Carlos Lee isn't htere.

QUOTE(Ozzie Montana @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:45 AM) Im sure Iguchi would be upset especially since he came to Chicago to play with Shingo. I believe Iguchi came here far more because there was only 1 team in the big leagues really expressing interest in him at a reasonable price; us. After the Mets's disaster with Kaz Matsui, people weren't really looking for Japanese infielders. KW did his homework and came up with a price that we were willing to pay for Iguchi...Tad at first said no, then he looked around, found no one willing to offer even close to what we were offering, then he came back to us a few weeks later and we worked it out.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:47 AM) Ster-oids!!! Ster-oids!!!! At least I wasn't the one who had to say it this time.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:35 AM) Then the Marlins can keep Burnett, imho. I've been saying that the whole time.

QUOTE(Princess Dye @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:38 AM) finally someone is with me. Um...that was supposed to be an argument against your point.

QUOTE(Princess Dye @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:34 AM) the key, however: will my thread be credited as the inaugural Shingo is gone thread? this is what Matters. So if I post a thread saying the White Sox have won the world series, would I get credit in October as the inaugural victory thread?

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:34 AM) Why trade for Lowell at all? Because the Marlins supposedly won't let go of Burnett without dropping Lowell's salary.

Jayson Stark answering a Twinkies question:

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:20 AM) At this point he is exec of the year, he can only go down. I was thinking exactly the same thing last night. Last year, around the time of the Trading Deadline, the Dodgers were in first place in the AL West riding a hot bat in Beltre and a dynamite bullpen. They had at least a 5 game lead on the Giants, if not more. Then Depodesta decided he had more work to do with his team and that they couldn't win as-is. So he made a deal with the Marlins, getting Brad Penny and Choi for LoDuca and Mota. He also grabbed Steve Finley from the Diamondbacks. What happened next? The Dodgers rapidly started to crumble. Their vaunted bullpen started to struggle as Gagne became overworked from having to use his arm to make up for the absence of Mota. Their catching spot became a black hole. And they started to fall in the standings. They only won that division because of a grand slam by Finley on the last day of the year, when they had a comfortable lead a few months beforehand. The Dodgers then were crushed by the Cardinals, and they've fallen apart since then. Gagne's injury is probably in large part due to the extra time he had to work last year...overworked and then hurt himself. Finley is gone. Penny is there, but certainly not an ace. Choi needs to face Radke more. And they're practically playing their entire Las Vegas team as their big league club.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:22 AM) 5.88 ERA down at Charlotte. Hey, let's bring him up in a pennant race! What is Walker's ERA at Charlotte?

Chat with Jayson Stark: "John (Peoria) What do you see the DBacks doing as the trade deadline approaches? Do they sell or buy because as we know, the NL West his very winnable at this point JAYSON STARK They want to upgrade their bullpen, for this year and beyond. I think Danys Baez has cooled off. But they could get Shingo Takatsu from the White Sox as early as today." Nothing new, just another name.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 10:07 AM) If we are considering trading Shingo for Hawkins, then the real question is ... who do you prefer on the 25 man roster, Hawkins or Jenks? So let's see, my options are: A rookie with a 99 MPH fastball who has limited experience A veteran guy with a dominant changeup who has struggled with his control all year A guy with good but not incredible stuff who has been average to mediocre for 2 straight years. That's pretty close to a tossup in my opinion. If I had to pick, I'd go with the guy with the 99 mph fastball, just because he has the best chance to be completely dominating, and he's not trying to "turn anything around", only to just adapt to the majors.

Don't you just adore the high standard he's holding himself to...to paraphrase.... "No convicted felons will work in the White House"

Let's Go El Duque...this one start could go a long way to getting you in the starting rotation for the playoffs. It's a challenge for sure; Detroit doesn't have a bad lineup. If you really mean it when you say you're feeling stronger than you did in the spring, it's time to prove it. And man, if you have a solid start...it'll make my head hurt a lot less from the trade threads. I think now's as good a time as any to run off an 11 game win streak, or like 13 out of 14. Go get em boys!

Ah, moving goalposts.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 09:49 AM) Oriloes get Burnett for half a season and have a chance to see if Lowell improves. Meanwhile, they rid themselves of that fat tub of goo, Ponson and a good part of his ugly contract. Plus, they don't have to give up much else in talent. Marte, Anderson, BMAC>>> anything that Bal would be sending Florida. Bigbie, Julio, Kline = not so good. This post expresses exactly why the Burnett to the Sox rumors are so completely wild...the names being tossed around just make no sense. This sort of deal is actually pretty fair for the Marlins and Orioles.

QUOTE(Cubs Suck23 @ Jul 18, 2005 -> 09:28 AM) Hawkins has pitched very good lately.. He is alot better than Shingo. Um, where exactly do you get the idea that Hawkins has pitched a lot better lately? Looking at his splits...since he went to the Giants, Opponents average against him has actually gone up from .250 with the Flubs to .262 with the Giants. His WHIP has gone up from 1.31 to 1.37. His ERA (this one is funny) with the Cubs was 3.32, with the Giants it has been 6.75 In June, his ERA was 21.00. People hit .308 against him in May and .467 against him in June.

QUOTE(Southside hitmen @ Jul 17, 2005 -> 11:13 PM) Another poster on the Redsox message board had the same post From: chisox4ever 1:20 am To: drice unread (4 of 8) 133914.4 in reply to 133914.3 Ben Maller was on XM Radio reported that Burnett,Lowell and Mota will be traded to the Whitesox My God we're desperate... :banghead

QUOTE(peanut33tillman @ Jul 17, 2005 -> 11:07 PM) how credible is this poster any idea??? Presumably, just as credible as any random poster on Soxtalk.

I heart natural selection.

Boy...please someone out there raise your hand if you honestly didn't see this coming. The FBI has seemingly been monitoring left-leaning groups, notably the ACLU and Greenpeace, under the guise of fighting the war on terror. They've collected literally thousands of documents, and the ACLU is suing to get them released. 1 document was somehow leaked out, and it showed the FBI conducting surveillance on 1 group planning to protest the RNC Convention in 2004. As a bit of a history lesson, the FBI did something exactly like this in the 60's and 70's during the Vietnam war. They went and started gathering files on anyone and everyone that they could find who they thought opposed the war/opposed the current administration. They infultrated legal political groups to monitor them. They blacklisted people. Created files on John Lennon, on the song Louie Louie, on just about everything. Heck, the FBI even sent a guy to my alma mater, Indiana University, to try to organize some anti-vietnam war protests so that they could see who came to the protests and put their names down on lists. When these files came out, and people learned how far the FBI had gone and how much it was used against political opponents by Hoover and Nixon, the FBI was banned from doing this sort of surveillance. Many of those bans were then removed by the Patriot Act, and more may have been removed simply because the current Administration has refused any Congressional Oversight of how it has employed the powers of the Patriot Act. Just remember 1 thing here...if the FBI is monitoring the ACLU to make sure no terrorists try to hide themselves in the ACLU...are we so certain that no terrorist is smart enough to make a sign that says "Vote Bush"?

QUOTE(rcpweiner @ Jul 17, 2005 -> 10:46 PM) Um ... over on his website (www.benmaller.com) he says that A.J. Burnett will be traded to the RED sox within a week. So ... I don't know if you just heard Sox and assumed it was the white variety, but just thought I'd point it out. Please God let him go to Theo...Burnett is not worth Marte, or Contreras, or any of the other names tossed around to get a poor man's Kerry Wood for a 1 year rental.

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Jul 17, 2005 -> 09:29 PM) That's my problem....... I don't know how to do either. I am working on Windows 98, by the way. I thought I had it figured out when I figured out how to get the system to boot to the System Recovery disk, but before I could get to the menu an error message came up. It said the Recovery disk was for an HP Pavilion system only and to call HP support if I am seeing the error on a Pavilion computer. So that is where I am now......... Do you have an HP Pavillion system? What usually happens with a system recovery disk is that it will give you the option to load from the recovery disk... The way it worked on my old one, when I would load in a system disk, it would take me to the system disk menu and it would give me a series of options, one of which I believe was reformatting the computer. If that didn't work, then another way to do it is to try to exit Windows and get yourself to a DOS prompt with the restore disk in the drive and simply type in "Format C:".

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jul 17, 2005 -> 10:39 PM) The largest newspaper in Chicago. Unfortunately they own the Cubs, and print the wrong pictures along with captions of reputed mobsters, but it's the best we've got around here. Well, at least they're not saying we'll be clearing roster spots by dumping half of our team on Florida. That's something of a relief.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 17, 2005 -> 10:20 PM) I'm thinking I'm going to get home from work tomorrow and am going to be reading about quite a bit of stuff (or potential trades). If nothing else, you'll come home and hear about some roster moves. Someone (Jenks?) has to move to make room for El Duque, and Gload's rehab assignment also ends tomorrow.