Bridgeport_Joe

Also, given that Minnesota has played the easiest schedule in baseball by a significant margin to date (the Sox have had a slightly-easier-than-average schedule), I have a hard time feeling sorry for the Twins. The Twins will almost certainly end the year with an overall lower SOS than the Sox.

FYI-- Baseball Prospectus looked at this last year in a pretty extensive study. They were completely unable to find any evidence that a catcher's game calling ability affects starting pitchers' ERA by more than a couple hundreths of a run.

Seriously, though, anyone know what the story with Reed is?

Frank's "team first" approach is to be commended, but I'm not sure I agree with him hitting behind Magglio. While both have nearly identical OBPs, Frank's is primarily due to high walk numbers, whereas Maggs's is due to his high BA. Given two guys that get on base 38% of the time, with one batting .265 and the other batting .320, I want the high average hitter behind the high walk hitter. A walk will only advance runners one base (if that)--a single will, on average, advance runners 1.5 bases or so.

I'm making at least 10 times what I made in 2000. Of course, I was only working during the summer then, and I've got a full time gig now...

How can you eat at Shaller's without having the hash browns??? Also, if you go on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the prime rib is only $10, give or take a dollar. The only down side about the place is that it usually is closed for food by 9:00, and given my work schedule, I'm usually unavailable for dinner until then.

Yes. It's actually delicious. Basically, it's mostly stews and stewed-type vegetables, with very distinct spices (not hot, but very complex). Then, it's served with these spongy tortilla things (called injera) that you use to pick up the food. They're slightly sour, like a combination of tortillas, pancakes, and a splach of vinegar. There typically will not be cutlery in the entire restaurant--you eat with your fingers and the injera.

Unfortunately, Chinese and Thai curries bear little resemblance to Indian curries. Not that they're any worse (though I like Indian curries better)--they're just different. As for Chinese food, a Chinese friend (as in she just came over from Beijing three years ago) turned me on to a place called Szechuan in Chinatown. Very, very spicy. But their rabbit and tofu dishes are excellent. I'd definitely give it a shot, but only if you like REALLY spicy food. Seriously, I cannot stress enough how spicy the food is.

Unfortunately, no. Several years ago, when we first moved to Bridgeport, I had a craving for some Indian food. I went into Shinnick's and asked if there was one within a five mile drive. The bartender (one of the younger Shinnick grandchildren) looked at me kind of funny and asked "Is that like Chinese food?" Needless to say, I quickly learned how to do my own curries.

I would say more snobby than lazy or racist. Face it--your average Chicago media type comes from an educated, upper middle class background (as do I, by the way). They know what they like, or liked--meat market places like HiTops or the Cubby Bear. They certainly don't (or didn't) like cheap greasy spoon places or quiet neighborhood watering holes. Thus, because those are what dominate the southside, they don't get covered very well. It's actually kind of ironic--I NEVER go to the type of places that they like on the northside.* If I want Mexican, I do Pilsen or Bridgeport. If I want Chinese, I'll go to Chinatown. Italian? Little Italy. Indian? West Devon. Steaks? I'll go to a good butcher and grill my own. * One exception--there is a good Ethiopian place on Clark, just down the street from Wrigley. I'll go there.

Ah, talking about the nieghborhood digs. Pancho's is good--the carne asada is the best steak on the southside. The waitresses are very cute, too--there is some sort of Latvian pipeline where they come to the UIC for a year and all work at Pancho's. Seeing the endless streak of tall, attractive 21 year olds has bumped the Baltic republics way up on my "to visit" list. I'd avoid the margaritas. For breakfast, there is a great Mexican place on 35th (I forget the name), a block west of Halstead. It's right next door to the Bridgeport Cafe (hint: DON'T GO THERE--WORST FOOD EVER.) Get the migas. Another good breakfast place is the Ramova Grill on Halstead between 35th and 37th. Nice 50s-style diner. It's a favorite of the artists around the southside, so expect a surprisingly trendy crowd. For something fancier, Franco's on 31st (just west of the Dan Ryan) has decent high end Italian. It's more of a northern place, though, so don't expect your typical spaghetti. Also, it's not cheap--but the wine list is pretty reasonably priced. Obviously, go to Morrie's if you can. It's on 35th and Union. The hot dogs are only so-so, but everything else is pretty good. As for bars, for a real taste of Bridgeport, try Shinnick's on 38th and Union. It's the epitome of a Bridgeport hangout. Just park on the right side of the street, because if you park on the left, you'll probably be taking my space. Also, say hello to the black and white dog in the window of the house next door. She's friendly and enjoys the company.

Actually, a Val-Rowand platoon in RF would absolutely rake--it wouldn't replace Ordonez's production, but it would come reasonably close. Look at the respective players' stats against LHP and RHP.

Could be that Everett unsuccessfully gambled that the Sox would offer him arbitration. But this is probably just a silly rumor.

If the Mariners want Valentin, it's almost certainly to platoon him at third with Cirillo and to spell Vizquel when he's hurt.

Knowing Reinsdorf's reluctance to part with $25K, I'd be somewhat surprised if Grilli wasn't on the 25 man all year long. Unless he's DL'd again. Speaking of which, does anybody know the rules about DLing Rule 5 draftees?

Rauch was surprisingly effective during the second half of last year, though his K/9 rate continues to bleed. There is no reason that he shouldn't be given every shot to make the rotation in the spring. And quite frankly, worst case, the Sox need to put him in the pen, protect his ERA and K/9, and then try to deal him at midseason. There's a word for prospects that are 25 or 26 and always seem to be one step away. They're called "former" prospects.

Good plan...except for the fact that when Soriano becomes a free agent, do we let him go then too? Probably, but even if we do, 2007 is a long ways off (and it might even be 2008--I'm not sure how many days Soriano was up in 2000 and 2001).

Anyone that wouldn't do Soriano for Maggs straight up is a fool. I'd even throw in a prospect not named Honel, Cotts, Reed, or Rauch (the latter just because I think we're going to need another starter from within the organization this year, and who else is there?). And don't get me wrong--I've never been a huge Soriano fan. It's just given the chance to deal an unsignable RFer due $14M this year for arguably the best offensive 2B in the game (which says more about the dearth of good 2B than anything else) who makes about $12M less, I do that in a second.

Thanks, though I'm afraid I'm at a disadvantage of not knowing the name you posted under on the ESPN boards. I was just chirping in about the intersection of baseball, the insurance market, and the law--one of the very few things I know anything about. It was pretty interesting a month or so ago--in the course of a case I'm working on, I had to review lots of baseball policies, including Thomas's. I found out a good bit about various injuries or chronic conditions that different players have that aren't public knowledge. In at least one case, it shed some light on a trade that was never made. I've been extraordinarily busy at work and doing other stuff the past few months, so I haven't really been posting that much anywhere. With the holidays approaching, though, I should have a little more free time.

Couple of things: 1.) People are adhering to the common misperception of Lloyds. It's not an insurance company. It's basically a reinsurance market. In the baseball player context, a (usually American--in general, companies writing direct insurance must be domiciled and licensed in a particular state) company will write a policy, then reinsure it through Lloyds. This means that Lloyds will essentially hold an auction, whereby members (called syndicates) will be able to sign on to reinsure a portion or all of the insurance policy in exchange for a percentage of the premiums. Sometimes, the syndicates will be de facto primary insurance companies, because the American insurer will pass on the entire risk (usually insurers keep 5%-20% of the risk on their books) and the entire premium (minus a 50 bp or so commission). 2.) The sports reinsurance marketplace is in a significant amount of flux right now. To make a long story short, salary escalation in the baseball and European football markets really killed insurers and reinsurers in the 1990s. Heck, I'm working on a case right now involving a reinsurer (actually reinsurance pool, but that's a different story) that suffered mid nine figure losses, much of which was attributed to these markets (they actually reinsured Thomas's contract, and got hit pretty hard in 2001), and refused to pay the Chicago company that directly issued the policies. As a result, you simply can't find syndicate members or any other reinsurers that are willing to sign on to any policy extending past three years, unless the most common injuries (e.g., injuries relating to a pitcher's arm) are excluded from coverage, with the net result being no company will be foolish enough to write coverage for these long term policies, knowing they can't obtain reinsurance protection. With salaries coming back down, I expect this to change in the next three or four years--meaning if a team is willing to gamble, they could sign a player to a long term deal, then try to get insurance in a year or two. But this is just a guess.

Well, sort of. His .247 average is unspectacular, but he's walking a ton, and showing a lot of power, resulting in an impressive .902 OPS. If both of those are signs of things to come in Chicago (i.e., increased power and plate discipline), then he's not just a good everyday CFer--he's one of the better ones in the AL.

That's actually an interesting philosophical question. The answer is yes, "zillion" is probably a word. There are an infinite amount of numbers. Given that there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, there is a finite number of letter combinations (i.e., words), assuming you limit the length of a word to some number of letters. Accordingly, each letter combination must either be a word that does something other than describe a number, or it must correspond to some number. Thus, given that "zillion" doesn't describe something other than a number, there must be some number equal to a "zillion." The contrary argument is that "zillion" does describe something other than a specific number--it describes a large, nonspecific number.

million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintrillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nontillion, decatillion... That seventh grade math is coming in handy, albeit fifteen years after the fact.

Not to be pedantic, but that means that only one in 10 septillion baseball fans are in the position to own a baseball team. Given that the Earth's population is only roughly 5 billion, that means your math is way off.

Um, not to be overly sympathetic to the MLBPA, but if the teams are getting together and agreeing not to pay higher salaries, that's illegal (or it would be, but for the antitrust exemption). Business can't collaborate to drive down wages. It doesn't matter whether it's $6.25/hr of $6.25M/yr.