Desipio Message Board

Quote from: *In a Nutsack on August 19, 2009, 08:45:31 AM
I figured I'd get this response and it's completely warranted.  I just don't mind watching a good baseball team, even if it is the Cardinals, especially when my team might be nowhere in sight.

Do I at least get a marginal pass for not being regional to the Cardinals/Cubs?

And, yes flannj.  I would.  But, don't tell my pops.

Do you also root for the mailman to nail your mom? I mean, your dad is your dad, but that mailman is so good at delivering letters you'd be crazy not to support his mom-boning attempts.

There's a difference between admitting the Tards have a pretty good team, and actually rooting for them. Even BC knows that.

Quote from: Dr. Nguyen Van Falk on August 18, 2009, 09:17:24 PMSo, Kent Conrad's plan to solve the health care crisis and foster competition could wind up shelling out government cash to the likes of regional near-monopoly behemoths like BCBS?

Brilliant.

And it's okay, because it's totally not socialism.

A decent read on the topic: http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/archive/2009/06/14/hacker.aspx

You're missing the strategy aspect of this, Tank. This is just a brilliant tactical move by the Senate Democrats! Even if it's a terrible, pointless idea policy-wise:

QuoteOK, let's start with the notion that a co-op can do a better job of negotiating prices and protocols. But wait, on day one how many members does the co-op have? Well it has no members on day one. So, the co-op's provider relations guy goes to the doctor and hospital administrator and demands better prices and protocols. My guess is the provider's response would go something like this, "So you are here because your stated objective is to screw my reimbursement down more than it is, you have no members now, and if I give you the rates to take members away from the existing health plans you are going to make life even more difficult for me than those existing health plans have?" My guess is that when the provider stops laughing...

QuoteCONRAD: Well, the important thing is they'd provide more competition. In about half the states, John, there is no meaningful competition in health insurance. There's one dominant carrier. And so, the first thing they could do is provide more competition. But beyond that, I think it's very important not to over-promise here. The Congressional Budget Office tells us the big levers in terms of affecting cost lie elsewhere.

The big levers are reforming the delivery system in this country to move to the kinds of integrated systems like Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic that work so well in holding down costs and delivering high quality care, and other reforms, the insurance market reforms, and changing the tax subsidy to health care.

The experts tell us those are the big drivers in terms of altering costs.

ROBERTS: And would co-ops address that?

CONRAD: No. The things that co-ops address are really twofold. One, providing additional competition.

ROBERTS: Right.

CONRAD: And number two, being an entity that is not government- run, government-controlled, but is a not for profit competitor.

ROBERTS: So nothing in driving down the cost of service, then?

CONRAD: No. If you believe competition helps drive down costs, then they would certainly contribute to holding down costs.

this harebrained scheme will be just the olive branch the pant-shitting "centrists" in the Senate need to garner some GOP votes and make it all bipartisan and stuff.

Wait, nevermind.

QuoteGeorgia Republican Tom Price, the chairman of the House Republican Study Committee and a medical doctor, came out against current proposals of a nonprofit health care cooperative to compete with private insurers, calling it "simply another name for a public option."

QuoteOn the nonprofit insurance cooperatives that Sen. Kent Conrad and other centrist Democrats are proposing as an alternative to a public plan, Kyl said it was a "Trojan horse."

"It's a step towards government-run health care in this country," Kyl said.

"Centrist" Democrats in the Senate: an awesome combination of inept and corrupt.

QuoteLobbying contributions appear to have the largest marginal impact on middle-of-the-road Democrats. Liberal Democrats are likely to hold firm to the public option unless they receive a lot of remuneration from health care PACs. Conservative Democrats may not support the public option in the first place for ideological reasons, although money can certainly push them more firmly against it. But the impact on mainline Democrats appears to be quite large: if a mainline Democrat has received $60,000 from insurance PACs over the past six years, his likelihood of supporting the public option is cut roughly in half from 80 percent to 40 percent.

Quote from: Weebs on August 18, 2009, 01:56:06 PM

Quote from: Kermit, B. on August 18, 2009, 01:49:42 PM

Quote from: *In a Nutsack on August 18, 2009, 01:43:58 PM

Quote from: Kermit, B. on August 18, 2009, 01:38:00 PM

Quote from: Poon on August 18, 2009, 01:33:11 PM
Finally.  I had to talk the woman out of buying one on Sunday.  She didn't believe all the rumor crap I've shown her over the last month so glad they finally announced it.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/18/sony-announces-new-slimmer-ps3-coming-first-week-of-sept/

I'm more excited about the price cut, but the bigger hard drive, unit size, and less power consumption are all plusses.  No backwards compatability but really, you can buy a PS2 on the cheap so who really needs that?  Price cuts on existing models come tomorrow, wonder how cheap the current 80 gig will be compared to it's current $400 tag.

At that price and size, I'd consider it solely for Blu-Ray and The Show.  And maybe God of War III.

The link is blocked at work.  Did they list a price after the cut?  I'm with Kerm...I've already been considering it for The Show and the blu-ray.

$299.  From the article:

QuoteWe know, we're as shocked as you are! Sony has used the GamesCom stage in Cologne to announce the oh-so-tiny PS3 Slim. The good news is that the system sports both a slimmer form factor (33 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter and 34 percent less power use) a 120GB hard drive and the tidy price tag of $299. It boasts all the same features as the current PS3, which means still no backwards compatibility with your PS2 games.

Well I'm glad I bought a PS3 about four months ago...GUH.

http://www.sadtrombone.com/

Back to the bullpen: it's bad.

QuoteThe bullpen has averaged 7.98 K/9 IP. That's very good, and is the 7th-best number in the majors. Unfortunately, they are also posting a horrendous 5.07 BB/9 IP. That's beyond horrible. It's the worst number in the league and if they keep this pace up it'll be the worst BB/9 IP posted by a team since 2004, when the Arizona Diamondbacks also posted a 5.07 number in a season in which they went 51-111. Yikes. The high walk rate has essentially eliminated the value the Cubs gain from their high strikeout rate, as they have the 3rd-worst K/BB ratio in the league despite the relatively high K rate. Only the Nationals and Pirates are worse.

QuoteI'll add one a few more things about the pen as a whole... they're not missing the zone as often as you'd think: their zone% is 48.6%, which is below average but not abysmal like their walk rate. What's really dragging them down is their 1st-strike%, which is 2nd-worst and their swing%, which is the lowest in the league. Basically, teams know they can just sit with their bats on their shoulders and let Cubs relievers walk them.

QuoteThis will hammer home how poor the control on this team has been: of pitchers with at least 10 IP that are still on the team (i.e. including Patton but not Ascanio), Jeff Samardzija has the 3rd-lowest BB rate (4.44 BB/9 IP).

Matt Spiegel is just stunningly bad. Bernstein can be annoying at times, but it's hilarious to listen to him call out Spiegel's meathead idiocy during the transitions.

Quote from: Dave B on August 18, 2009, 10:50:51 AM

Quote from: Slak on August 18, 2009, 10:23:34 AM

Quote from: Eli on August 18, 2009, 09:48:43 AM

Quote from: Dave B on August 18, 2009, 09:32:35 AM
Instead of swinging at a close pitch with a 3-1 count and the bases loaded to drive in runs, he'd rather spin in and take a walk. I saw it too many times this year. More concerned about drawing a walk. It did wonders for his batting average and RBI, didn't it?

If you're at the plate with the bases loaded and a 3-1 count, you shouldn't be looking at "swing at anything close."  A hitter should look for a ball in a certain spot and if the pitch isn't there, take it.  A walk means an RBI in that spot.  Swinging at "something close" usually results in an out.

And batting average?  Who cares?

It's never going to happen Eli. Just let it go.

I don't know how you can hate on a guy for not swinging at a ball just to get his batting average and RBI numbers up. That makes zero sense.

But then again, maybe that's why Ryan Theriot has such a following. He'd happily roll a grounder to short when he's ahead in the count because it's scrappydoolicious.

Way to twist it all around, and even bring Theriot into it. Good job at generalizing.

If you guys actually think Bradley had a good year, then I'd like to know what games you were watching.

My point was that Bradley's offense came nowhere close to meeting the expectations we or (hopefully) Hendry had when they chose to sign him. They were determined to get more "left-handed" at the plate and this is the option they chose. If you simply looked at his OBP over the years, it was pretty good. But when you actually watch all of the games and see that there are numerous occasions when he's more concerned with taking a walk in RBI situations, it gets frustrating. And how many games did he miss due to injury, or more importantly, for Lou taking him out of the line-up because he wasn't hitting? Top all of that off with being a selfish, brooding prick and you can have your guy who's "pretty good at baseball". I guarantee they got more out of the 500K they paid Theriot than the 10 million they paid Miltie.

Would you classify Theriot's complete lack of awareness on the basepaths (and to a lesser extent in the field) as lazy/selfish/prickish?

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on August 18, 2009, 09:47:05 AM

Quote from: R-V on August 18, 2009, 09:31:13 AM

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on August 18, 2009, 09:23:20 AM

Quote from: Weebs on August 18, 2009, 09:15:21 AM

Quote from: CBStew on August 18, 2009, 09:14:13 AM
I can't believe that there aren't at least 10 middle infielders in the farm system who would be better at the shortstop position than Aaron Miles.  Hell, I bet that the guy who replaced Yosh in the clubhouse would be better than Miles.  I bet the brother of the girl who dates the nephew of the guy who replaced Yosh would be better. 

I like Miles because he makes me feel like even I could make it onto a big league roster.

It's funny how he went from a 99 OPS+ when he was with St. Louis to 23 this year.  It's almost as if there was something about playing for Tony LaRussa that enhances your abilities.

Holy shit, 23? I didn't know it could go that low. For some perspective, their worst years with the Cubs:

Neifi put up a 53 in 2006
RonCe put up a 55 in 2006
Macias put up a 52 in 2005

Miles is more than twice as bad as those ingrown chodehairs. Sweet sassy molassey.

Wouldn't the scale be logarithmic?  23 isn't twice as worse as 46.  It's like 5 or 6 times worse because of the curve of the scale, no?

You never fail at ruining things.

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on August 18, 2009, 09:23:20 AM

Quote from: Weebs on August 18, 2009, 09:15:21 AM

Quote from: CBStew on August 18, 2009, 09:14:13 AM
I can't believe that there aren't at least 10 middle infielders in the farm system who would be better at the shortstop position than Aaron Miles.  Hell, I bet that the guy who replaced Yosh in the clubhouse would be better than Miles.  I bet the brother of the girl who dates the nephew of the guy who replaced Yosh would be better. 

I like Miles because he makes me feel like even I could make it onto a big league roster.

It's funny how he went from a 99 OPS+ when he was with St. Louis to 23 this year.  It's almost as if there was something about playing for Tony LaRussa that enhances your abilities.

Holy shit, 23? I didn't know it could go that low. For some perspective, their worst years with the Cubs:

Neifi put up a 53 in 2006
RonCe put up a 55 in 2006
Macias put up a 52 in 2005

Miles is more than twice as bad as those ingrown chodehairs. Sweet sassy molassey.

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on August 18, 2009, 08:58:08 AM

Quote from: Ghost of Dave Rosello on August 18, 2009, 08:54:36 AM

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on August 18, 2009, 08:38:00 AM

Quote from: Kermit, B. on August 18, 2009, 08:31:53 AM
I haven't caught up yet this morning, but I sure hope elsewhere on the board the completely shitty offense is also being discussed.

It's not.  It's all Kevin Gregg hate.  What a waste.  We have more hate than Kevin Gregg deserves.  Directing a large portion of it at Milton Bradley, Aaron Miles and Mike Fontenot would we a decent form of release.

When do we start hating on the GM who signed these three fuck-ups to begin with?

Three years ago.

I wonder how many versions of InternetChuck "vindication" we'll get to read the next couple months. I can't wait to find out!