lostfan

QUOTE (Cubano @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 03:27 PM) But once you defect, there is no reason why cubans can not be free agents for being a cuban. Why did Contreras have to go to Nicaragua and El Duke to Costa Rica to get those countries citizenship? They got it fast because they were famous but for less known players, this move may be detrimental for their careers because they have to wait longer. Age is very important for MLB. That's a pretty good question.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 01:45 PM) It would have been hard to imagine a world war fought over an archduke's assassination too, but it happened. For me the energy that Iran holds is key to China's futures. Its not hard to see them getting involved if the US went in and cut off China's supplies. Especially if the US cut off food exports to or imports from China trying to influence China's role there. It would really force their hand. I think you hit the nail on the head here. Russia's more or less self-sufficient but China needs those external resources, without them they're screwed.

Cubano, also with the policies you were touching on, you figure MLB has to play within the rules the U.S. allows them to. Considering Cuba is an embargoed country and all their hands are kind of tied. But I have no doubt that if we changed our policies here, there would be a flood of Cuban players to the U.S.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 01:46 PM) I have an awful lot of difficulty believing that Russia or China would be willing to go to war with the U.S. over what are frankly some fairly small financial investments in Iran (small when compared to things like, the business China or Russia does with the West) I don't mean that it's going to literally be World War III (in the sense of the first two). I mean that doing that would be a spark to a much bigger eventual conflict, bigger than what it would be on the surface at first, that probably reshapes the world order. Hence, neither Bush nor Ahmadinejad wants that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 12:30 PM) Why do people constantly insist on saying that small regional wars against countries that have what, 1/100th of our defense spending would qualify as world wars? World War 1 and World War 2 litrally involved the entire globe. If a country wasn't directly attacked, it was probably either sending troops or money along. The only way that would be "World war III" is if you were planning on attacking China or Russia while you were at it. It wouldn't be limited to Iran and Israel.

Cubano where do you live if you don't mind my asking?

Only about a month and a half too late. At least when Huckabee did it, he wasn't really doing any intentional damage.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 10:33 AM) I'd be curious to really see what it is like on the ground there. I really doubt there is much love for America there. Me too, but I'm under the impression that the people are pretty indifferent, and probably cynical about America for the most part. That they don't really care that much one way or the other.

How in the blue f*** would the Antichrist be described as a Muslim (assuming Obama was in fact a Muslim, which obviously he isn't) considering Islam didn't even exist until the 7th century?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 09:56 AM) I have read a couple of stories to the effect as well. Internally he is viewed as weak at solving lots of the domestic problems plaguing Iran such as inflation, jobs shortages, and energy prices. All of which are far more important to them than any of the issues we've been beefing with them on for the last 30 years. Especially with the young people, there isn't so much of an anti-Western mentality among the people as a lot of us think, that's just how they get portrayed in our media.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 06:52 AM) So Taguchi Kaz Matsui Ideki Irabu Ken Igawa Tsuyoshi Shinjo These are some Japanese players that have felt short of expectation to say the least. I have more but I do not remember now. To conclude, you hit right in the money with this: "people seem to expect Japanese players to jump right in without much adjustment." MLB and then the media have convey this idea but stats wise and performance wise, it is not true. I'm not saying a Japanese player is guaranteed to be good just because he's Japanese. Japanese players bomb, so do Cubans, so do Americans... that's just part of baseball.

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 06:47 AM) I'm sure he was merely mistranslated. The peaceful solution is probably that Ahmadinejad keeps talking like this but doesn't do anything. It's empty rhetoric. He doesn't have the stupidity to attack Israel, particularly with a nuke. Despite the criticism over the word choice, we would obliterate Iran if they nuked Israel (no matter who ends up president), and he knows it. This is just playing to his base. I was getting ready to type "yawn" but you just about said it. Move along, nothing to see.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 09:51 PM) He's been saying it for years, except he gets the benefit of the doubt for some reason (well he didn't EXACTLY say to destroy Israel...) He only gets the benefit of the doubt because it hasn't happened and it won't. Talk is cheap, he knows better. The consequences would be ugly, I'm talking World War III. So rather than outright try to "destroy" Israel they try to be slick about it and do things like support Hezbollah (talking out of both sides of their mouth, they always say "you have no proof that we support terrorists" as if there was going to be any).

QUOTE (Cubano @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 08:27 PM) It is true that Japan has more population than Cuba, but population along is not the best parameter. Venezuela's population is twice of the Dominican R and has fewer MLB and minor league players. I am trying to convey that cuban defectors have performed at the same level and sometimes better than Japanese import despite the odds (losing time once defecting, etc). Remember, the best Japanese players ussually come and cuban defectors can be anybody. Sometimes the best players do not defect. Cuban junior teams have dominated international competition. You got the best players competing in these junior tournaments becuase they do not belong to any pro team yet. If you are a kid in Cuba and has some talent, you are send to special schools (academies for 5th-12th grades) to train sports. I don't argue that the Cuban players will, at least eventually, perform at the same level or better. I've never doubted that. Talent is talent, and Cuba is a gold mine. I just believe that in most cases, the average Cuban defector tends to be more of a raw product for a little while whereas people seem to expect Japanese players to jump right in without much adjustment.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 05:15 PM) I respect your opinion. I disagree that Japanese is better than Cuban league. Japan has the same amount of victories as Cuba since the incepcion of pro players. Ussually, Japan send its best pitcher against Cuba and then looses against other teams. Japan finally won a major tournament when they beat Cuba in the WBC. If Japan is a so called "second majors", why their hitters see their power evaporate so much? Sort of like I was implying but never actually said, it's not that individual Japanese players are better than individual Cuban players (or American players for that matter), it's the diluted talent pool in Cuba. Cuba has ~10-11 million people, Japan is more like 125 million with Cuba having 16 teams at the highest level and Japan having 12. So an ace pitcher from Japan is as good as an ace pitcher from Cuba, but there's just not as many good ace pitchers (or position players) that are going to come out of Cuba, and they're not going to be playing against the more skilled players.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 02:59 PM) Tony, I am Cuban and I follow Cuban baseball very closely. There is no way that the Cuban League es A + or AA. I read all your posts (they're good btw) and I'm just going to respond as if they were all one. edit: those ERA numbers are really interesting btw. It seems to me that you interpret people comparing the level of competition within Cuba to high A ball to be saying the level of talent of Cuban players is going to be lower as a result. I don't really see it that way - baseball more than any sport (maybe basketball might compare) is a game of development and progression. In order to become better you have to move up to each pro level to face tougher competition and adjust to it or at some point you max out. So Cuban baseball is obviously a higher level than, say, semi-pro or college, but it's not quite AAA (Japan is, IMO). That's not to say at all that Cuban players won't project to MLB well, or aren't talented - just that they're going to take time to get adjusted to facing the best collection of players in the world and also get adjusted to American baseball and lifestyle. Cuban players are good, no doubt (as seen in the Olympics and WBC) but they only face other Cuban players in a diluted league. So the best players from Cuba won't see their full potential there. All this is JMO. That being said, I thought highly of Alexei when he was signed, but I expected him to go through a rough adjustment period if he didn't play in AAA, and he's surprising me right now.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 02:18 PM) I think Obama is going to do fine with the white male vote (especially with John Edwards endorsing him, that was a rare endorsement that actually DOES matter, most don't IMO). The problem for him is that there are going to be a lot of bitter, white women that will be pissed they don't get to vote for a woman. Not as mad as this crazy lady, but at the same time, a lot of white women and feminists will have to be convinced to not stay home or even vote for McCain by Obama, because they are dillusional and angry right now. The ones you're referring to are older white women, who happen to vote quite often. He doesn't seem to have a problem with younger white women, and I don't get the impression that white women in their 40s or so are as rigidly committed to Hillary as the ones in their late 50s and on are.

There's still some development involved with Alexei. We shouldn't be expecting him to hit .295 with 18 home runs. There's an adjustment period, and he's handling it a lot better than I thought he would.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 01:26 AM) The rumor of this tapes existence has been out there for quite a while now. It might be used an October surprise I think, but I'd be somewhat surprised if it doesn't exist with as much as has been said about it. I have no opinion on it though until there is concrete proof of it's existence. From what I know of Larry Johnson (admittedly not a whole lot), he's not a credible person and it's plausible he'd try something like that.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 08:08 PM) Too bad KW couldn't sign Colon. The Sox would have a starter to deal. I was at the Orioles game today with him pitching and my god is he fat.

There's new life in Hillary's campaign, it's anybody's race now.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 02:57 PM) So, it's ok if someone is only 5% racist? Certain things you can seperate out. This is what you call "deliberately polarizing." It's kind of an absurd question and responding to it's not really going to do much good. If you ask a real question that you expect an honest answer to I might answer it. (Hint: do not arbitrarily use the word "racist")

PR is fine where they are, they've voted on it several times and the result is the same. Most of them are content to get all the benefits of being a territory, the extra formality of being a state they can do without.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 12:04 PM) Hang on too long? I thought he never heard any of the questionable sermons? Sounds more like he is ditching this as quick as possible according to Obama's recallection of things. He said he heard the questionable sermons, he also said it was impossible to separate them from everything positive, which probably 95% of it was. To me that's plausible, but now when you just back out like this it's a little on the spineless side IMO, after taking so much effort to look like a leader it just seems like he's giving up.

Slightly off-topic but the first sponsored link I saw was "Tooth Whitener Exposed"