Balta1701

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:14 PM) Agreed, I think Alfaro would be a great get. But that is their top prospect and Sardinas is their 2nd. Odor could be reasonable, I hope. If not I would go with Mazara or Luke Jackson if we want SP I've still got to figure the White Sox would target position players here.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:03 PM) Nathaniel Stoltz from Fangraphs wrote a fantastic, long piece on Courtney Hawkins today. It contains info that many of us have been waiting for. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/dissectin...-and-potential/ TY Very much for sharing.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:04 PM) I think by the time I'm in the market for another car, dare I say it, I might actually be looking at something like this as a 2nd car. Of course by that point I'm sure all the good incentives will be gone and then the cost/benefit won't be as good. Chevy has a good thing going with the Volt and if they can make the car roomier and also figure out a way to get solid gas mileage with the gas engine, that would be one great vehicle. I think that's exactly what will happen in the 2015 version, and if I can ever find a permanent job that's going to be on my list. Good comparison is the first generation Prius to the 2nd generation Prius. The first generation was a bit ugly and clunky and you lost trunk space for the batteries, and Toyota didn't turn a profit on the first generation one. The 2nd generation was a much better car and they've made a fortune on it.

So, exclude the 40 man roster. Who do the Rangers have that would really interest people as a Rios Return?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:58 PM) Kind of crazy that they didnt' think about this when building the vehicle. You'd think it would be common place to have the back-seats of this type of car being able to handle all types of child safety seats. It isn't like we are talking about a smart car or a coupe, which you could at least understand the notion that those type of cars aren't marketed for typical family types. Edit: Now that I think about it, I have a friend who has a Volt and he loves it (charges for free at work and gets carpool lane access for free). I swear he fits his newborn in the back no problem though. At least I presume he does. I guess I never look to see which car he drives when he comes over to our place with his younggun (who is Like I said, with the Volt, they were building this version as a test-bed. They used the structure of another car already being produced by Chevy, they didn't redesign it. That means they needed to steal a lot of room for the batteries and the electric engine, leading to less space in the car. The 2015 redesign should help cover that problem.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:59 PM) Yeah I dunno if we can wait much longer. Our work schedules are starting to become more demanding which means our one car commuting is becoming more difficult to manage. I thought the Leaf would be too small and the lack of a gas engine back up kind of scares me. Do you have another car already with a gas engine? If you do then I think you should seriously consider the leaf. Take the time and figure out...how often do you actually drive more than 75 miles in a day? And keep in mind you're burning very little power if you're stuck in traffic, it's only the distance.

When this law comes into effect next year, Blue Cross will not be able to say "no" to insuring you. In fact, I believe that part of the law has already taken effect, insurers cannot turn you down for insurance entirely based on pre-existing conditions. This law also includes what is called "Community rating". What that means is...an insurer cannot decide your rates based on your individual conditions. They can't decide your rates based on what disease you have. They can only decide your rates based on a few categories: Age, Gender, tobacco usage, and a 4th that I forget. The law states that employers with more than 50 employees will have to pay a penalty if they do not offer insurance as a benefit. Instituting that requirement has already been complex and it has been delayed until the 2015 tax year. Yes, more businesses will have to provide insurance for their employees, but the government already foots a huge portion of the bill for that through the employer-insurance tax credit. This bill benefits a couple groups of people the most. People with pre-existing conditions who could not get health coverage beforehand because of that condition will be able to get care for that condition. People who are self employed or work for a small business will benefit hugely because this bill drastically reforms insurance for people who are buying it on their own, they don't have to deal with being singled out because of an injury 5 years ago. They will pay much lower rates and that has already been seen in most of the states complying with the law. The other group that will benefit hugely is the lowest-income group. I think your state may be one of the ones trying to kill that group, but this bill provides a very large increase in funds for Medicaid. Those funds will allow the poorest people in the 30 or so states accepting the funds to actually find medical care other than just by going to an emergency room.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:47 PM) Major flaw in the Leaf is it lacks all of the flexibility of a Volt (e.g., the fact that you can actually go more then 30 miles....albeit using gas...but that is a pretty huge safety net). That's why I said "If you own another car". He said this would be for his wife I believe. A leaf makes a ton of sense to me as a second car. I wouldn't buy it as my only car, but if your commute is 20 miles, you've still got a 50 mile+ extra buffer in those batteries.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:45 PM) Do you own stock in Nissan? Possibly, but only through mutual funds in my 401K. I did pick the "green fund" option and I wonder if Nissan might qualify on that. Seriously, I drove the car early on and liked it quite a bit. One of the features I absolutely loved was the ability to program the heater/AC, you can program it to turn the heater on while it's still on house power so that the car is warm when you get into it but you haven't drained the battery at all. Makes heating/cooling the car a ton more efficient than any other heating/AC system out there. I don't know whether the Volt can do that or not but I absolutely loved that idea.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:43 PM) I say zero chance of both those things occuring. If we want to shed the entire salary we just let them have him for nothing. If we want any sort of legit prospect we will need to eat some salary. Then why move him? He can contribute next year and perhaps bring back a better return in talent either in the offseason or next year at the deadline. It would make zero sense to move Rios for a pittance of a return, save $12 million on his deal, and then give 5/$90 to Choo or Ellsbury.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:06 PM) I'm still torn on what to get my wife. Government Motors just started a 5k off promotion on the Volt. Added with the Federal tax credit of $7,500 and the Illinois rebate for electric cars (10% of the base price of the car, so about $4k), I could basically get one for $24k. And the nice part is that my wife's commute (20-25 miles max) is less than the 38 mile range on the car. According to Chevy you can charge the thing for $1.60/day (assume that's a really low estimate and double it and that's still about a grand a year for "fuel"). Very, very tempting. Ford isn't offering any good finance deals on the ford fusion hybrid or the energi (the plug-in model) doesn't get any of the tax credits (as far as I can tell). Decisions, decisions. I almost don't want to tell you this, but GM is looking for a fully redone Volt in the 2015 model year at some point. It might well bring the price down substantially again as well as outperform this version by quite a bit. Right now the Volt is built on another car's platform, which means the battery weight is not well distributed, it's stuck in where space could be found. The next version is supposed to be a fully independent platform for the Volt designed around its specific needs. If your wife's commute is 20-25 a day, and you have another vehicle that you'd use for long distances, have you thought about a Nissan Leaf? It's a bit smaller but a really nice car, it's cheaper than the Volt, they're flying off shelves and many of the tax credits still work.

Is Viciedo going to be healthy enough to play tonight? Wells has played for him the last 2 games since he jammed his thumb, right? If he's a DL candidate then this could in fact open up a slot for Garcia for 2 weeks.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:37 PM) I'm going to assume the Astros would select any good prospect headed their way, so if it is someone on the 40, it will be a PTBNL. There are plenty of good prospects who aren't on the 40 man roster though. No team is going to want to do a PTBNL with someone on their 40 man unless you hold a gun to the team's head. Guys who are already on the 40 man roster can be called up in September. The Sox aren't going to PTBNL for a guy and then have him contribute to another team's chances.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:37 PM) They would have to clear waivers or could be a PTBNL and slid through that way. That's true, good point.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:36 PM) I have a hard time believing they didn't know by July 31st what his plan was. I doubt he just up and decided to serve it without letting them know. His name has been attached to this all year, he and the Rangers had time to deliberate and form a plan. Steve Stone couldn't have been more clear a couple days ago. He said that Cruz's taking the suspension caught the Rangers completely off guard and a number of people around baseball were saying so.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:34 PM) How does it work with what is coming back? If what the Sox want is on the 40 man, wouldn't they have to clear waivers as well? I think the Sox will try to buy a prospect, but if that fails will just let him go. Correct, the Sox can only take people back who have a.) cleared waivers or b.) are not on the 40 man roster, unless they use the PTBNL setup somehow (and teams don't like to do that for guys on their 40 man anyway. Can you imagine a guy contributing to a team in September and then finding out he was a PTBNL?)

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:32 PM) I would be livid, as you should be, if we just dumped him for salary relief. Everything the Sox have said and indicated through these moves are that we are "reloading" not "rebuilding." Rios has value, we might have to eat some salary to get a premium prospect, but it can be done. Dumping salary would be a cop out, especially after we didn't pay any of Peavy's outgoing contract. It's also worth remembering that the difference between letting Rios go now and trading him in the offseason is what, $3 million? Yeah that's enough to pay for a reliever for 1 year, but it's less than the cost of the option on Lindstrom next year.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:31 PM) Wow. So whoever acquires Ellsbury and Choo shortly after will be trying to dump them for salary relief (cause they are not worth 20 million a year). Baseball owners are so crazy. Basically yes. That's actually how a functioning market should work...the team signing those guys should be the top bidding team. That means the team signing them should be willing to pay more for them than any other team. If a guy could be signed and put on waivers the very next day, in theory, no one should claim him because no one was willing to meet that price the day beforehand. The only reason why another team would be willing to claim that contract is if the player's value to that other team increases for some reason beyond what they were willing to pay on the free agent market.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 02:10 PM) 72 hours is the claiming period, but I think once the claim is awarded there's only 24 hours to get a deal done. According to the bleacher report article I just linked, 48 hours is the claiming period and 72 hours is the "Time post-claim to get a deal done" deadline.

Unless the rules changed with the last CBA it's a 72 hour clock. And here's a bleacher report summary of how this could work, if anyone needs a refresher on the waiver wire trade rules.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 02:05 PM) Yep, like I said...a good game of chicken. How long do we have to work out a deal again? And if we pull him back, we can't move him during the waiver period, correct? A guy has to clear waivers for a deal to be worked out with a team of the seller's choice, correct? If Memory serves from the time Rios was claimed it was a 72 hour negotiating window, although that might have changed or been impacted by the weekend at the time.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 02:05 PM) Yep, like I said...a good game of chicken. How long do we have to work out a deal again? And if we pull him back, we can't move him during the waiver period, correct? A guy has to clear waivers for a deal to be worked out with a team of the seller's choice, correct? If the White Sox pull him back, the only thing they can do with him is put him on irrevocable waivers. If he were to be claimed on irrevocable waivers, he gone. If somehow he made it through waivers that time, I think he could be traded again. That's a pretty complicated setup though...would require this to be a blocking maneuver, Hahn to pull him back, then Hahn to say "screw it" and risk losing him for nothing later in the year.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 02:02 PM) Which can also create some leverage for us. Basically Hahn can say, "Either give us some prospects and we'll eat some money, otherwise, he and his $14M salary are all yours". It's also possible that he was claimed by a team who wouldn't want him, entirely as a blocking maneuver, to keep him away from Pittsburgh or Texas or someone like that. That team could be gambling based on Hahn's trade-deadline asking price for Rios that Hahn won't let him go for nothing.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 02:00 PM) Not that it matters in the slightest bit, because Casper Wells is brutal, but does this mean the SOX put him on waivers, someone claimed him, and the SOX just said have him? I thought that past July 31, if someone was claimed on waivers, the teams had a day to figure out a trade, pull the guy back off waivers, or let the other team have the player. Obviously the SOX just said have him, but usually I thought there was a day or two lag time before you know what the outcome of the claim is. They have like 72 hours...but Wells could have been put on waivers 3 days ago.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 02:00 PM) I'm wondering if the same thing happens as when we claimed him off Toronto. "We'll take... actually never mind just take all his money" Toronto was in a much worse place financially at that time than we were now. No one could ever imagine some GM being dumb enough to take Vernon Wells's deal off their hands and that deal was so crippling they let Rios walk because of it despite wanting to keep him.