Balta1701

13 in a row retired now by Garcia I believe. He's a monster today.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 07:21 PM) Come on Joe, base hit and bust it open. No reason at all for them to pitch to Joe. Come on Freddie...you're due for a hit.

And A.J. drives in 2...3 runs scored with 2 outs this inning

4-3 sox...somehow Konerko scores from 2nd on a single.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 07:09 PM) If its anything other than his Hammy, then its s***. Its not that hard to run something out. Another 1-2-3 inning after a deep flyout to center. Heck...even if he's feeling fine, the last thing we want is a hurt starter. Or hell, even if he's saving his legs to keep himself fresher on the mound, i'm fine with it. It's not like these guys are exactly accustomed to the air up there.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 07:04 PM) What happened to Pods and his patient approach? He's walked twice in his last 18 games. What happened to Crede and trying to keep his swing plane level and his shoulder closed?

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 06:54 PM) I usually tune to Fox for breaking news. I usually like their live coverage better. If the Dems have blundered, I watch Fox to get the worse possible slant. Hey...at least you're not denying it. I don't mind the existence of Fox News. I don't mind the existence of a Republican news channel. But I can't stand 2 things; 1. They lie and say they're "fair and balanced". 2. As a Democrat...I don't have anywhere I can turn for the same thing. No one out there would even consider giving 75%+ of their interview time to the Democrats.

QUOTE(quickman @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 06:55 PM) even though uribe hit the ball well, he is the most un dispiplione hitter I ahve ever seen. No exaggeration. Why the hell can't harold baines teach him to be patient. Just work on it damn it. Just be patient. Side note what does Harold do anyway? I think he does Ozzie's job when Ozzie gets tossed.

You know what I think the funniest part of this whole post is... It's the fact that Larry Elder is still willing to claim that the U.N. resolution calling on Saddam to Disarm was still justification for the war. I could rant for a couple pages on the distortions above...but I think that the fact he doesn't even bother to pretend that the war was about democracy promotion/freeing those people and still acts like it was about those non-existent WMD's I think should tell you how credible that source is.

QUOTE(quickman @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 06:38 PM) I agree you need to get the runner in, and that was better than his usual strikeout, but how about gettting a hit. Lets try that next time. we will need 9 runs this game. I'm wondering if we'll have a chance to finally score 5 runs in an inning this series.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 06:36 PM) Actually, in that situation, it was very important for Crede to get that runner home. With the pitcher up next, it would have likely put Pods in a situation where he had to get a 2 out hit. I don't like Crede at all, but at least he got the runner in. Now, if we can just get Garcia to stop throwing 3-1 fastballs to lefties with a righty up next, we'll be fine. For once...I almost rather Joe would have hit it in the air.

Man...that didn't take long. You think Paulie will like Coors?

11 game hit streak for ArRow

QUOTE(Chisoxrd5 @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 02:13 PM) I cant wait to see my Sox in California!!! (meaning yes I will be out there) If only I had a car...or money for tickets...I'd be driving. Dah! Anyone other than me hoping for a Sox/Dodgers or Sox/Padres W.S. this year? (Just so that I can attend)

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 05:39 PM) Garcia's got him by 1 point. I wonder which one of them is the better bunter...

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 05:35 PM) LINEUPS ARE IN: Podsednik LF Iguchi 2B Rowand CF Konerko 1B Dye RF Uribe SS Pierzinsiki C Crede 3B Garcia P Yay...Nothing I can complain about! Hey...you want to know something scary...guess which is higher...Freddie Garcia's career batting average, or Joe Crede's batting average this season.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 05:28 PM) If this is true then the Cubs have the worst advanced scouting in Baseball. Well...you know the Tribune company...if they don't have to pay to get MLB Extra Innings in the locker rooms at Wrigley...they won't.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 05:32 PM) Overbay = f***ing huge pricetag Name a person available for trades this year who won't have a huge f***ing price tag.

I think the most amazing thing about the NL East right now is that it seems almost certain that the wild card will come out of the Central or the West. Think about it...right now there are 5 teams in the NL East above .500. Each of those teams has to play the teams in its division 19 times. That makes nearly 80 games for each and every team there against a team which is currently .500 or better. There is no one, like the Royals for us...for those teams to beat up on. This gives teams like the Cubs, DBacks, Padres, etc. a huge advantage - they can go to Colorado, Pittsburgh, and so on 19 times during the year, and beat up on those terrible teams, while those 5 in the NL East slug it out with each other for the division. It'll probably be a heck of a run in the NL East, but I wouldn't want to finish up 2nd in that division, because it just might be close all year.

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 03:41 PM) You are confusing opportunity with action. They often extend invitations to those who are expected to give rebuttal opinions & those invitations are declined. You hear O'Reilly say this often. Extending the invitation is in keeping with being fair & as far as being balanced they do what they can with the people who are willing to speak on the network. If some of those invited are gutless what's a network to do? They had the highest ratings for both coverage of the DNC & RNC amongst cable networks. That pretty much squashes the belief they short-timed the DNC. So your second claim is simply nonsense. They showed more of the Republican convention than the Democratic convention, but had high ratings for both - higher for the RNC convention of course. How exactly does having high ratings for both justify giving 1 party significantly more time than the other one? Or, let's take the October 18th speeches by both candidates last year as another example. Both John Kerry and George Bush gave campaign speeches that day. Neither were overlapping. Other networks showed almost as much of each speech. But not Fox. MSNBC CNN FOX Bush speech 43:27 36:42 47:14 Kerry speech 39:35 35:25 9:40 Or how about we look at the Content of stories run about each candidate during the campaign. And finally...to fire back at the O'Reilly part...your quote is... If some of those invited are gutless what's a network to do? Well, it seems that the answer to your question is "give them a prime time news show." You see...Mr. O'Reilly has long had a bunch of fairly vocal critics over at Media Matters for America, run by David Brock. Mr. O'Reilly has even compared MMFA to the KKK and Castro for keeping an eye on what words are comign out of Mr. O'Reilly's mouth. Mr. Brock has repeatedly offered to appear on O'Reilly's show to address the content of that show. Mr. O'Reilly has claimed that he has had "trouble" finding people to appear on his show to disagree with him, but has never shown any willingness to face his well-prepared critics at MMFA. Fox News is the single biggest audience in terms of cable news shows. No self-respecting politician would turn down the opportunity to appear on their shows, even if it were a challenge. There are plenty of guests waiting to appear on those shows who never are asked. Their panels are remarkably unbalanced. Their coverage is hugely slanted to the pro-Republican perspective. Their leadership sends out memos telling their anchors what angles to focus on in particular stories. The numbers and the facts simply do not lie.

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 02:59 PM) You still don't know what fair & balanced means. It means for every opinion they express on the news shows they offer time to someone who might have a counter opinion. Nothing more. This is simply not true. Not in the least. Fox News makes it a point to give far more screen time to Republicans, and cherry picks Democrats for many of their topics who already agree with the Republicans on the issue they're discussing. For example, the Terry Schaivo case...1 person in 2 nights opposing congressional involvement...12 supporting it. The Minutemen project along the southern border...the only opposition voice on the screen over a 6 day period on 1 show was 1 clip of a border patrol agent. Fox Aired far more of the Republican Convention than the Democratic Convention last summer. On Special Report with Brit Hume...they have a segment where Mr. Hume does a 1-on-1 interview. And the makeup of that interview? "[a]mong ideological guests, conservatives accounted for 72 percent, while centrists made up 15 percent and progressives 14 percent." And not infrequently, the Democrats who do come in either come in like Bill Clinton, talking about something like the tsunami and not politics, or they come in as another Congressman did talking in favor of Bush's social security plan. Fox News is in no way fair and balanced. The numbers do not lie.

Citigroup has now joined the ranks of the companies that have lost huge amounts of customer data that can be incredibly useful in identity theft. This includes such data as Social Security numbers and birthdates. It seems that Citibank decided it would be a good idea to just ship unencrypted data using UPS. I have 2 credit cards with Citibank. I'm sitting here today wondering if their incompetence might someday jeopardize my ability to buy a car or a house. It seems now that almost every week, there is another reported case of a major U.S. company being incredibly careless with its customers personal data. THIS MUST STOP. The federal government gave a massive handout to the credit card companies a few weeks ago in the form of a bill making bankruptcy more difficult for all but the richest Americans. Now its time we get something in return. There must be federal legislation passed to give companies a reason to protect the private information of their customers. Right now, the only thing that can happen to punish Citibank for this is that they may lose some customers, while in the meantime, if someone gets their hands on that data...3.9 million people could have their credit histories permanently screwed up, and have to spend years of their lives paying higher costs for credit before they get them fixed. This situation can not stand. This must be fixed.

I think a much more valuable poll question would be "Who would you NOT trade to upgrade at the deadline".

I disagree with the 2 statements that either confidence or warmer weather is what Shingo needs right now. What Shingo needs is control. Plain and simple. The only pitch he has been able to get over the plate on a regular basis is his fastball. Now, that's ok if you're throwing 98, but not if you're throwing 88. What I've seen from Shingo this year is that he'll throw the hook and the change up and more than half the time he'll miss the strike zone, so he'll have no choice but to throw the fastball. He'll fall behind hitters, and then they can just sit there on a pitch and wait for it. Let's face it...he's not going to overpower anyone; he needs to outthink them. He needs the hitter to be sitting fastball and then be able to throw the changeup at the knees, forcing the hitter to swing. He needs them to think changeup and see fastball. He needs them to think fastball and get curveball. That was what killed everyone last year; they saw pitches coming but had no choice but to swing because they were going to be strikes often enough. If he gets those 2 pitches over for strikes, there's still almost no one who can hit him. Without those 2 pitches, he's a batting practice pitcher.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 11:30 AM) Where does he mention his "pull ball" philosphy? I never saw anything where he says I want guys pulling the ball? In all seriousness...I've been wondering about this lately... Can anyone tell me anything about how Greg Walker was as a hitter? I'm honestly too young to remember watching him. This team's had a ton of trouble staying closed or hitting the ball the other way (Crede, Konerko, etc.) and we've heard quotes about how he might have suggested to A.J. that he open up his stance to be able to better pull the ball. Would Greg Walker's hitting style have fit in on this team right now? Was he a "pull first" kind of hitter?