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Ah, thanks. I trust flavum's role as resident weather expert so I thought it could be a weather phenomenon I should know.

Is Gordon a typo or is that a weather term?

I think the bulls path to playoffs is if teams like milwaukee/washington have an injury or really bad start and then players get "injured" to tank in the second half. As it is they are in a dogfight for the 8th seed.

That's right, '03 we caught up to Royals in august then lost out in sept. Man I wish that team could have made playoffs.

I remember in the early 00s we were considered a second-half team. Or at least Hawk said it all the time and it never felt like we were. Aug/Sept have definitely been most depressing months as sox fans. Watching twins chip away or pull away, the scary collapse in 05, the failure to put it away in 12. The failure to take off in 09/10 when it seemed like we were poised to. The getting swept in 08. Can't wait for that to change with the depth we'll have soon.

Not like Alex Smith doesn't love TEs but I have a hard time trusting Reed at all until he proves it again. I'd probably go Burton, though, with what limited tape is on the bears offense that may be what packers focus on stopping. Plus, wasn't trubisky best in middle of field? They may just try and give him the outside and prove it.

I don't know what we mean by unlucky in the first half. Our record indicated exactly how bad this team was playing, but I do think the team was playing worse than its talent level (especially pitching). I think the team is probably correctly a 63 win team right now. Eloy + improvement I think gets us back to 72 wins next year. Massive leaps in production need to occur in several positions to get to that 80 win threshold. And i think we can personally.

one of the issues you see with the VA is the state by state variation of its quality matters. Massachusetts VA does well, virginia I believe as well. But other states crater. In many respects I think moving VA to medicare benefits is beneficial, but I think that hits its limits in rural areas where quality/access is going to have same issue. For stuff like this, providing mass purchasing power through national insurance/price setting seems so much more likely to increase outcomes than leaving it up to states.

You betcha.

Not only was Uribe's a cannon but his strategy of backhanding everything made his release incredibly quick too. I loved that guy (actually when i was young, stupid, I was annoyed by his feast or famine offense, but as soon as he left I missed the crap out of him)

I don't think he'd run, but he may have a huge influence on who wins. But what will be more interesting if he endorses is who it will be. His dad worked in the Emanuel administration. He was largely silent on individual policies until the last year. He has the clout to really be a big chess piece and I don't think that's exaggeration at all. Anyway just kill me if bill daley runs.

There are some things that are legitimately are more possible because of a machine system ("the city that works"), but a side effect of that is brutally undermining the minority communities through restricting their access for any real representation. Many of the post-war urban renewal policies of the state and city provided more power for eminent domain. Some of those projects we may appreciate today (UIC campus), but came at the cost of displacing many, many people and further entrenching segregation in the city.

Why?

Incredibly stupid men that were very good at keeping their friends happy. Like Daley, we will remember Rahm for some decent public greenspace surrounded by the blood of kkds and crumbling institutions. Rahm of course did have a harder road ahead, doubled by much more difficult state politics, but still these years were a failure.

My guess is he left because of polling. He did go to runoff last time. He also has not even tried to be a public facing mayor and chicago probably needs one.

The reason I think this is a good move, and this was discussed on the nfl ringer pod this weekend, is you only get 4 years of a cheap rookie QB. If you wait and they are good, you are already hamstrung by the QB deal on the roster. You may as well anticipate them being good and load up the roster with the additional cap space and elite pieces, and if Trubisky is a good qb, you are a legit contender immediately for a few years. Then you figure out post QB extension what team you can consistently put out there around him.

Exactly edit: I mean, come on, this isn't supposed to be The Heart of the Ocean

I agree though I will say one thing that would obscure the blowouts is everything fox did was to merely keep games close. More than win, he just wanted them close. That was more effective when we had gase, who designed an offense to keep d off field. Loggains designed a bad, predictable offense because he had less ability to convince fox that trying to score was better than trying to slowly punt. I just think a productive offense makes our d even better, in addition to mack. KC's offense is not actually a fast pace one, it controls the clock though and moves the chains. Anyway, I can't predict things. I just know this year I expect to win every game and will be upset when they lose. Regarding offense needing time to adjust. Probably true, but, if the offense isn't good I won't be thinking "man they just need time to adjust". It will mean both trubisky sucks and nagy isn't very good. I have a hard time believing this team of offensive minds won't scheme our way to much more potent scoring and yardage.

It's a tough division, but football happens. All 4 teams are in a position to capitalize and that's all you can ask for, then just mercy from injuries.

I'm not sure there is evidence to support this. There is always going to be a balance of those that take the money vs. those that risk it. People see manny/harper, but also notice guys like frazier/moustakas who didn't get near the payout they expected.

And for the record, I get that it is the rules, and it's not fair the white sox org should have to be benevolent when other orgs are taking advantage. But I am curious if, removing the white sox control from the equation, they think this actually makes the game better?

Vlad's age is not a reason to keep him down. He slashed .381/.437/.636 this year across A+/AA/AAA. Daniel Palka could develop defense in the majors but I guess Vlad Guerrero can not. Frankly I think this stems from an attitude that no player deserves to be paid millions for baseball, and any curtailing of that salary, no matter how unfair or no matter how much it's just profiting owners, is justified. Major League Baseball, constantly fighting off detractors that it's old and stale, should not be in the business of preventing the game's best players from playing in the league. Yes, it's also the right of NBA teams to sit their best players when tanking, or stars for rest. But the league doesn't cheer that on, and there's no reason for me to be going around saying "yayyy, save jerry that money! Chop that year of Eloy's career off! He should have never written that article and kept his mouth shut like I woulda in that situation cause i'd just be happy to be there!" This shouldn't just be the players' cause to improve the product of baseball.

Only one of his receivers last year is still on an nfl roster: josh Bellamy, and he ain’t on a roster because of his receiving skills.

Local coverage for sure. But they also had somewhat of an excuse with Donaldson, which is now gone. Twins, Sox, jays have been getting pretty much equally hammered nationally.

.500 vs winning clubs and beating up on bad ones is a winning combo