Balta1701

Frank goes up 3-0, and ends up striking out. I think we've seen that as much from him this year as we did from 1991-1998 combined.

Something tells me Jon is going to have to be right on the money today, because we might not score many runs. We're not going to win this game with the long ball, so we need to string together some hits with guys who haven't been doing that.

Ouch, foul ball bounced off the plate & nailed Willie in the face.

Pods pops out on the infield, 1 down. Blast. This guy has given up exactly 3 home runs all year long. In other words, we're not going to win this game with the long ball. We need to get people on base and move them over.

Timo...

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 10:55 AM) The media might think abortion is the central issue here but they've been wrong before. Bush has never advocated overturning Roe v Wade & he well knows that about 60% of Americans do not want to see that happen. The reason that Bush has never advocated overturning Roe v Wade is that Bush has never actually answered the question "Do you want to see Roe v. Wade overturned. He spins his way out of it and answers a totally different question. For example, he was asked that question point blank during the debates last October. He chose not to answer. From Debate 3 last fall... See, he totally refused to answer the question, and instead answered the "litmus test" question.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 05:08 PM) first and foremost i hope we resign Curry and than Chandler in that order.... than if we have cap room and he wont cost much make an offer to Duhon..... I know a lot of people think Chandler is >>> Curry but in the playoffs if it was the other way around Chandler being injured and Curry healthy i bet we would of won that 1st series. Chandler for the most part was pretty ineffective during our little playoff run and while I like him more than Curry, Curry is far more valuable to this team. Chandler was ineffective in the playoffs because Washington had 2 or 3 big men while we only had basically Chandler...this ended up putting Tyson in big foul trouble the whole series and limiting his minutes and hence his effectiveness. We'd have been no better with Curry...he's a worse defender than Chandler, and without the 2nd guy, we'd still have been outgunned in the middle. Either we need both or we need to find more firepower somewhere else. If we want to be a dominating team, we need both.

QUOTE(Spiff @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 05:07 PM) This repeat on ABC is only gonna be 2 hours. I know about the ABC one, but I'm asking about individual performances online. If you go to AOL Music right now, they're replaying the shows from each of the sites.

Does anyone know if individual performances will ever be put online from Live 8? I'm watching some of them right now on the repeat, but I don't want to wait through like 6 hours of London performances in order to get to The Who and Floyd.

QUOTE(drowninginflame @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 03:40 PM) I don't even smoke and I think I need a cigarette after their set for Live 8 If they tour again I will be there. If it's anywhere ...California/new york/anywhere/london I will be amazed if they ever tour again. But yes, they are one of the single greatest bands of all time, and I'd give a kidney to see them. But you know what? Personally, I doubt it would top the U2 show I saw @ Conseco Fieldhouse on their Elevation tour...managed to get myself front row right in front of Adam Clayton...Bono spoke to me, etc. I know some of you don't like U2, but I love them, and that was one amazing show.

This was posted yesterday.

Guys, please, if you actually read the article, the U.S. government itself seems to have had basically no role in Al Jazeera deciding not to show the clip. In fact, it seems that AL Jazeera was responding almost entirely to the noise being made by the Minutemen. That group filed a complaint with the DHS, and at least according to the guys interviewed from AJ, they actually made the workers for that network fear for their lives. This is the opening part of the article, which is not quoted in the first post on this page. The U.S. Government took no actions in restricting press freedom here. At least 1 Republican Congressman got riled up, but Congress made no law restricting the freedom of the press. If you want to have a discussion, there are a couple valid topics; whether or not our southern border is secure enough, whether or not it's ok to have a bunch of vigilantes in Arizona making news organizations feel threatened, and whether or not we think it's appropriate for Al Jazeera, or any news station for that matter, to film and broadcast reports that could show weaknesses in America's security apparatus. But the discussion here has gone the wrong way, and I think the rest of the article answers most of the recent questions.

Newsweek may have more soon, from what I'm hearing. A couple of noteworthy items...first of all, Karl Rove has testified several times under oath before the grand jury. As have George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. In other words, if any of them went up there and said specifically that Karl Rove did not do something which they knew he did, then they have committed either perjury or obstruction of justice. And as we learned with Bill Clinton...it's not about sex, "It's about the lying". Secondly, George W. Bush has said in public that he specifically ordered everyone in his administration to cooperate with the investigation. If Rove was the leaker, either the President's #1 advisor felt it appropriate to lie to the President, or the President lied to the American People. This either says something about the kind of people the President has working for him, or the kind of person that the President himself is. The White House has also endorsed in the past having the leaker fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If it was Rove, that means that Bush would be firing the single person without whom he would never have been in office. And finally, just as a reminder, Karl Rove had the gall a few weeks ago to call Democrats and Liberals traitors for disagreeing with some of Bush's policies, like ignoring Afghanistan in favor of Iraq, etc. If Karl Rove was the leaker...Karl Rove is a traitor according to the laws of this land.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 04:06 PM) I'm fine with the suspension here's what perplexes me if Rogers gets chosen to the allstar game he can pitch Even worse, if he's chosen for the all-star game, he gets a bonus from the Rangers that will more than offset his fine, and he still gets paid his salary during the time he's suspended. Therefore, the Rangers lose their best pitcher and a lot of money, and Rogers loses a part of his All-star bonus.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 02:53 PM) Corky Steriods got bench by Baltimore. Has hit only 1 homer the last 16 games and hasn't driven in a run the last 10. It appears this guys whole career was based on performance enhancers. I wonder what kind of money he'll be looking at next season. He's getting paid like $17 million this season. Honestly, if you were him, would you really care that much about next year?

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 12:35 PM) Earlier this season we won our first game in Oakland 6-0. That's a pretty Hawk-esque way to look at things. I believe that was when Jon was doing his "I am a f***ing monster and you can't hit me if you try" work on the mound. No way we were gonna lose with him the way he was pitching. At some point it is worth wondering how well this team deals with Jet lag though. Especially if we have to play in Anaheim in October (or San Diego, or Arizona)

QUOTE(qwerty @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 12:16 PM) He has a pretty nice 12-16 foot jumper actually which is where half of his shots comes from. He is also pretty good at taking it hard to the hole and finishing. His shot may be kinda ugly but so is shawn marion's ( is there a worse release in the leauge?) and they both shoot at high percentages. Gordon was top ten in one category for rookies last year while iggy was top ten in four categories and that is not accounting for his defense (iggy>>>>>>>>>gordon's lack of defense). Without Gordon, this team will have basically no outside shot. Duhon, Hinrich, Pargo can all make jumpers outside, but they're not guys that you really get scared if they start firing up threes. Ben Gordon is one of those guys. You do not want Ben Gordon getting an open shot outside. Even if he's had a bad game, his shot is still a threat. And with a few more years on him, i'll bet it'll be even more so. AI has a decent jumper, but he's not a guy who can stretch a defense by any stretch of the imagination. He doesn't give us another element at all, and I think he wouldn't be a good fit on this team.

I don't think there would be a big reaction if 1 of the Cubans went to the pen. They'd still both be on the same team, and I think that's the big part. Personally, I still say that no matter what happens, I want El Duque on this team come October as long as he's healthy enough to pitch. This team is a very inexperienced team when it comes to the playoffs - we've got only a couple guys with decent playoff time, A.J., Dye, Timo, Frank a little bit, and maybe a couple of other guys who have seen a few games. The core of our team, guys like Buehrle, Garland, Pods, Iguchi, Crede, ARow...most of them weren't around when we were there in 2000, and even then we were only in there for 3 games. This team will have a need of a big game pitcher before the end, and that is what El Duque is.

Just because a guy has bad numbers this year doesn't mean he doesn't have value. How much are we talking about getting in return for a guy named Brandon with an ERA over 7? The Pads get a veteran reliever with playoff experience who's struggling, and a couple of roster spots. The Yankees get a roster spot, and a couple of guys who might throw together a decent season at some point in the future.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 12:02 PM) He's a RFA and I don't see Pax letting him go, so we are good there. I love Du too. I agree, but my 1 point would be to say that he shouldn't get so much money that it prevents us from signing Curry, Chandler, or Hinrich in the future. He's an important piece of the puzzle, because he might be a better pure point guard (passing) than Hinrich.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 2, 2005 -> 11:54 AM) I haven't forgotten how well he pitched, but I feel like the Contreras we see now is the real one, and the good one was an aberration. It's just my opinion. Do you think they'll get another starter? And if so, who? The 1 thing I'd also like to point out is that there are very few teams who can expect a huge amount from their 4th or 5th starters. You don't expect that guy to be the stopper. You don't expect that guy to come out and win 3 games in 1 playoff series. The goal of your 4th and 5th starters, in my opinion, is to be able to give you a quality start 1 time out of every 2 times they pitch. You shouldn't really expect to get more out of them...if they're in the big leagues clearly they can win games, but you don't really expect a 4th or 5th starter to be a 20 game winner (Hi Jon!). Sometimes when your 4th or 5th guy comes out, you'll face the other teams' 5th guy as well, and you'll simply outscore the other team. So if you're a good team, you can win even some of the bad starts by your 4th or 5th guys, but the real goal should be for them to give you a chance to win a decent number of games, while your lead guys really head out and pile up the wins. I'm willing to live with Jose Contreras having ups and downs, as long as I know that every time he has a down, there'll be more ups. I'm willing to live with El Duque gong on the DL every now and again, as long as when he comes off the DL he can run out there and give us a shot to win in 3 or 4 games. Your 4th and 5th starters aren't aces. We shouldn't expect them to be that. We should expect them to be the guys who need help from the offense, and we should expect them to get help from the offense because they'll often face the other teams 4th and 5th guys. If Jose has a July exactly like his June, then I may lose confidence in his ability to have another up period, like he did in April & May. In that case, another piece could be plugged in. Aside from that, I still say the only thing we need is a backup 1b.

Gosh, if I keep doing this I'm going to start becoming the guy who hates all trades...seriously, I like the Lee for Podsednik deal! I think that the lineup the Bulls have right now is basically as good of a lineup as anyone can build, anywhere. It's missing exactly 1 piece. Curry and Chandler both have strengths and weaknesses. Both are still developing, but the key for me is that their weaknesses and strengths perfectly complement each other. Chandler is a dominating force on the boards and in clogging up the middle. Eddy Curry is a dominating offensive post force. Chandler needs to work on the offensive post, Curry needs to work on rebounding and defending the post. But when you slap them together, you cover the asses of both of them; you keep both defense and offense in there. I think the lack of Eddy Curry was probably the biggest reason why the Bulls lost to the Wizards. Why? Because Washington's big men were able to dominate the lane - Davis, Harrington and Chandler weren't enough to stop them. Why? Because our guys were constantly in foul trouble and none of their guys were. This means only 1 thing...without Curry, we didn't have a solid offensive post presence. When we got the ball, we couldn't go down into the lane and work their guys, so we couldn't draw fouls on the big guys from Washington. Then, those guys with no fouls would go down to the other end, draw fouls on chandler, break down the defense, and their outside shots would open up when our guys had to double down. Curry and Chandler make up a perfect pair; you have offense and hopefully improving defense, and you have defense and improving offense. What do you need to go with this combo? First, you need a couple of guys who are money from outside, so that when teams double down on Curry we can hurt them. Read: Ben Gordon, and partially Kirk Hinrich. You need a guy or two who can get the ball into Curry and Chandler's hands on offense in good positions, where they're not immediately double-teamed. This is Hinrich and Duhon. both can make shots, so their guys can't leave them, and both are improving as passers. And finally, we need 1 last piece...outside defense. We have to be able to defend on the arc...for most guards, there are 2 ways to score, either they drive into the lane or they stay on the outside and make shots. Ginobili and Parker are perfect examples. If we stick an average defender in Curry and a dominant defender in Chandler in the lane, it'll be damn hard for anyone to penetrate. This means that the outside shot will be the only other piece that can hurt us. Therefore, we need a couple of guys to clog up the outside. Deng can do some of this...good long arms, athletic, etc. Right now, Gordon can't do this. Hinrich can do some of it, but he's not dominant yet. Therefore, the big piece I'd say we're missing right now is an outside defender. Someone like a Doug Christie, who I believe is a free agent this year, would give us the ability to cover all our bases. Therefore, my goals this offseason are; 1. Re-sign Curry and Chandler. 2. Re-sign Duhon if humanly possible. 3. Find a defensive minded guard.

Since it's popped up in previous threads, I think I'll note here that the Yankees have reportedly dealt Paul Quantrill to the Padres for a couple struggling pitchers and cash, according to ESPN. link.

The San Diego Padres have decided to take a chance on one of the Yankee Relievers who was released this week, according to ESPN, Quantrill will be going to the Padres in exchange for 2 struggling Padre pitchers; lefty Darrell May (1-3, 6.69 ERA) and Tim Redding (0-5, 8.94). Both will go to the Yankees minor leagues. The Yankees will also reportedly receive cash. God only knows they need more of that.

Let's go big Jon, we need you to be our stopper today, let's even up this series. Jon, you da man! Let's get that career high in wins today.