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That is not how I'll choose to rember Beltre

Yeah one thing is west of chicago there are no real cities west of chicago. Just model play sets where people go and work and a smidge of nice restaurants.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 03:42 PM) Should the Bulls play in this free agent market? Yes, we just flipped Butler...but should the Bulls make a run at any of the free agents on this market? Essentially, move Butler to get more assets (with upside) while then using his contract today to get a player of similar (albeit slightly lesser value) such as Gordon Hayward or do you get Blake Griffin? I know everyone on this site is pro tank and therefor we should wait two years to sign someone...but next year there are some quality free agents and another year from now more....I guess the question is what is the pacing / approach to do it. If Rondo opted out and with Butler gone...I think we could give Gordon or Blake max (separate question is whether they are worth it) and surround them with the other players...waiting a year for Wade to come off the books before flipping him for another free agent. I'm not suggesting it...but just throwing it out there given speculation that there is a 4th team interested in Hayward. I'm also not saying any of those players would even want to come here either. This roster is 1 known good quality player. And he is 35. Some of these guys may turn out good but you may as well figure out who is actually before deciding this is the roster you are going to roll with + 1 pretty good player in Hayward.

It's not dismissed, they need to figure out multi-site though.

I don't expect this is the long term roster. I'm not going to get a bunch of defensive veterans just to improve numbers for our young pitchers.

That would be really interesting. You can hate the way Cal exploited freshman rule in college bball but he has a lot of relationships and it could be interesting but more likely spectacular failure because Knicks.

Cubs despite being in penalty are getting 2 top 50 players...how does that work out.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 11:06 AM) Uhhh. His ERA is 2.30. Well, there was a 3 in there somewhere.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 11:36 AM) Part of the issue is it is so difficult to identify the guys that can hit AND stick that are still some years away. You end up with a bunch of all glove guys or guys that end up moving off short to third. That low-hit rate is the reason I want to see some more there. We don't need an heir apparent (yet), but if we hit on one it's incredibly valuable. But, hopefully LatAm/next draft can do this. The HS talent next year is supposed to be great.

I would like to get see some younger SS prospects in the system, however. We just have Curbelo. Keiboom would be nice for that reason, but, it's not something you have to get. Just an area I hope we even out in the system.

I haven't paid for a babysitter once. It's great.

Good point, if Anderson is terrible, he's not good.

That's true. I love the west, would love to experience living there. Perhaps I could find ways to have month or 2 month stays. But I don't feel regret about staying. I live blocks from family, and raising a family in that situation is too good to be true. My parents family was all east when we grew up. Among other things, every vacation is just visiting family. At the very least we get to visit the world on our vacation time.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 11:00 AM) Good info, thanks. I know that, in general, taxes at the state level are regressive across the country. Is Illinois pension model really that much more generous than other deep blue states like Cali or Mass? They are modeled worse to pay, and now are in backlog that is hard to get out of. Those states also are not facing the downward pressure of outgoing population headed south the way the midwest is. The reason exhorbant pensions are difficult from a state level is when population drops, you need it to drop from the older population. It's one reason I don't think state gov'ts are always the best mechanism for delivering those types of benefits.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 09:00 AM) Maybe not that much chaos, but employer-covered plans would undoubtedly get worse as well. Annual and lifetime caps would come back, claims denials would go up, who knows what services would or wouldn't be covered. Fun fact I learned yesterday: prior to the ACA, 88% of plans on the individual market didn't even cover maternity care. We have no idea what large scale firms like walmart etc would do with restrictions taken off. Again, it's damn near full employment. That could smooth the issues for 2-3 years.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 10:49 AM) Illinois tax system/rates baffles me because we seem to have the highest taxes on just about everything but not noticeably better public services. I don't get how other states that aren't bare-bones services wise get their funding and why that doesn't seem to be able to work here. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...530-column.html Issue 1 is pensions. Issue 2 is the low income tax created a hide the ball series of taxes that imo have been incredibly regressive. Property taxes as a result, are exhorbant. And as tribune has shown, regressive. Sales tax - > regressive. Soda tax -> regressive. Red lights? Regressive. Cigarette tax -> regressive. You couldn't pick a stupider tax model. Yet, and the worry is legitimate, if the income tax was revised upward, there is legitimate concern the others would not go away. I'm sympathetic to that. So Illinois as crazy stupid spending state, true with pensions, not so true with everything. Illinois as idiotic revenue model state? 100%.

I hope Rondo becomes a coach.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jun 29, 2017 -> 10:46 PM) At this point, I think it is an ownership issue. Rizzo had a deal in place for Robertson once already and it was shot down. It seems that their payroll is really tight and they don't want to give up the prospects for the Sox to eat money. Yeah, I bet they wish they had that Wieters budget now.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 09:07 AM) I just dont know what Joe can do here. If he responds, he is lowering himself to Trumps level(smh, "lowering yourself to the POTUS level" is a thing) and he looks bad, and if he doesnt respond, then Trump keeps repeating his lie as if it is real and people believe it and he looks bad I don't know. I've always found Joe Scarborough to be an attention seeker, and business-wise he won't be hurt by this at all. Like 600 people watch morning news shows on cable. This will surely bump them up to like 900.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 08:57 AM) I agree...I don't think it does us any good to be packaging some of our better assets such as Q and Robertson or Kahnle unless it gets us the PARTICULAR guy(s) that you really want. Otherwise, there is enough demand out there to trade them separately and get additional depth. That being the case, if the Sox really loved Rutherford or Frazier, for instance, much more so than Tucker or hypothetically Jimenez, maybe it would be worth burning one of those chips to get the guy they really wanted as opposed to just some other top 50 prospect. At the very least, I'd rate every single one of the players mentioned above Drew Ward and Jesus Lazardo from the previous rumored Robertson deal.

I'm sure Trump being caught in a lie will have dramatic consequences.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 30, 2017 -> 08:31 AM) If AHCA doesn't pass and he just repeals Obamacare, what is the healthcare system we'll have? Anarchy? Hmm. For 60%, probably unchanged. For 15%, crippling. For those with pre-existing conditions who lose insurance, they'd face sure bankruptcy in new system. For other 15%, unknown. The fact that we are near full employment means a lot of the adverse affects of removed regulations may be delayed. Could be hard to cut down on some of things like lifetime caps without losing labor that could be costlier to replace. Hard to remember now but the employer provided healthcare was starting to rip apart at the seams in 2000s due to costs that were getting out of control. The costs plateau'd in 2010s for reasons possibly due to ACA or something else. If they stay more constant, maybe employer provided does a better job of coverage. But, equally likely, the growing cost of labor is starting to cut into profit margins, and they save by cutting back on healthcare. If youa re in a city, it wouldn't be that much chaos. But rural areas will see a lot of sudden closures and go back to days of 5000 people going to a free clinic in oklahoma for care.

Great article. Key part is still he is unsure Cashman would throw his line in with Q/Robertson or look for cheaper options, but really nice seeing a line that thinks that's fair value. Obviously it's a 2-for package, but getting 4 top ten prospects in a system like the yankees would be really exciting.

That sucks

Damn. I first thought this was just the Florida guy who dm'd guccifer2.0 and bragged about it. Pretty interesting.