Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 09:09 PM) Forget about him until AT LEAST 2019. They're still the White Sox.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 07:38 PM) It's not admiration so much as holding out hope that he sticks to his word. It's a slim hope. I'm just not a fan of all the sensationalism bulls*** surrounding his votes. I like facts, regardless what side of the aisle they support. How many times will he have to vote in a way that 100% contradicts his own words before you realize he's bulls*****d you and you were ok with letting him?

The U.S. DOJ tonight announced it was changing sides on a court case arguing that Title 7 should cover discrimination against gays - that's the part of the US code that forbids discrimination based on gender. The US was previously supporting a case saying that it should prevent discrimination against homosexuals, the U.S. DOJ is now arguing that discrimination against homosexuals should be legal.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 04:25 PM) Holland has probably played himself out of a trade. With as bad as the market is for relievers, there isn't much point to trading Jenkins right now. I don't really have a problem holding onto Holland as young guys come up, he seems like a good teammate. Gonzalez should in fact be gone within a week, he's the only one who is really moveable for a return that could have any value. Cabrera I still think no one will ask about him with anything serious and he'll be a waiver wire move.

Garcia last 7 days: BA 0.125, .285 OPS Garcia 7 games before that: .296 BA, .863 OPS (crosses AS break)

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 03:22 PM) McCain voted NO on clean repeal. His yes vote wasn't for a final bill, but for adding the BCRA to the AHCA bill. Don't agree with it and think it goes against the spirit of his speech, but it doesn't technically violate the letter of the speech. He didn't vote for the bill "as it stood" but as an amendment to the AHCA bill that would continue to be reworked and receive additional amendments. Not defending, just explaining. The Democrats filed a motion to do exactly this today, to send this bill back to committee. You can guess which way the Maverick voted, I won't hold my breath while waiting. Mavericky.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 12:28 PM) Dignity mainly. Yes, that's right, dignity. That's the first thing I think of when I think of the modern day Republican Party. Dignity. Its not like any of us can come up with a much larger example of where they completely gave that up.

The United States elected a 1960s white supremacist minus the hood.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 11:06 AM) I don't understand at all what will happen after the house bill presumably fails next. Like, I get there's some sort of new bill introduction but I don't get what applies to that in terms of byrd rules and the like. Apparently the setup is going to be that they will do a 50+1 passing of a "skinny" bill that repeals everything they can, such as the individual mandate and a lot of the subsidies, then punt it back to a conference committee with the House. A few weeks from now they'll announce an agreement and then everyone can celebrate going back to being uninsurable.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:52 PM) He has another vote. The BRCA lost in a 43-57 vote. John McCain voted for that bill. Not just the MTP, for the bill itself. Are you content yet?

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 09:06 AM) Has there been any Avi rumors of late? A couple of random sportswriter notes but nothing even approaching a rumor.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 09:18 AM) It's not just disgustingly bigoted and cynical, it also shows that they're making decisions on how to run the military solely based on political calculations. How do you know they don't just hate them and want to do everything they can to make their lives miserable? That's why I'm assuming Texas will pass their version of a bathroom bill this week. Because the United States is run by bigots who hate anyone who isn't like them.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 10:53 PM) Who would be in the market for Melky? He's having a pretty year, but I keep hearing that OF's are not needed by the contending teams, and his defense is not good. If the market is as thin as it's being made out to be, can't see them getting much more than a low level prospect and maybe some minor salary relief. We traded Adam Dunn for a bit of salary relief and Nolan Sanburn after the waiver wire deadline, that's pretty much what I expect. 99.5% of the time the guy we'll get back in a deal like this will be filler and we'll save a couple million.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 10:56 PM) That seems to be a ton to give up for a player with a strong 100 games or so (really 80ish). Even with his year, age, and control, I'd be surprised if they got anything more than around a teams 10th best prospect (maybe a teams 10th and 20th). The only thing going for moving him is that teams outside of the contenders could have interest. I'm not sure how a team like Pittsburgh looks in the OF, but they would fit the profile in they need cost control, etc. Pittsburgh's OF is currently: Marte, McCutchen, Polanco. With Austin Meadows working at AAA. He's a poor fit for them. They could use some OF depth for this season so Cabrera could make some sense for them, Polanco has been hurt and Marte just got back from the steroid thing.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 08:28 AM) I don't think this is fair at all. You're right it's unfair...but it's becoming less unfair lately. People have watched him getting frustrated and not hustling and this is unacceptable.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 06:34 PM) Meh. Certainly not exciting but whatever. Looks like he is currently on DL. QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 06:45 PM) This is exactly what I was thinking. Melky might not be here very long. So anyone what's his DL status?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 05:50 PM) I don't think Moncada should be sacrificing, no, but he and Anderson should be trying the occasional bunt for a hit. Both have very good speed, that sort of thing can easily become a weapon for them. I totally agree Moncada should be working on bunting for a hit. Squaring around to sacrifice several times during an at bat is not the same skill or technique and that's the one this thread is about. He's been ordered to do that more than once now. I would have no problem if Moncada had been turning rapidly to try to bunt for a hit and turned it into a sacrifice because it went to someone. That is not what he was doing. He held the bat out and gave the 1b and 3b time to charge - that's a sacrifice.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 05:00 PM) Typically you are looking at a runner on 2nd with no outs or runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. And in both of those cases...for example, if Yoan Moncada is bunting, we've failed terribly with our player development. I want Moncada swinging away in those cases, even if it's the 9th inning and we're down by 1 run. Ditto almost everyone else on our next competitive roster. Fine, Adam Engel should be bunting in those situations. Leury Garcia should be bunting. The idea that we need to get Moncada prepped to do that is straight up backwards.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 04:41 PM) That's silly. If anything, bunting makes plenty of sense. It's a fundamental skill that, when developed, allows a team a better opportunity to score 1 run. When the Sox are good again, that is something that helps them win close games. Beyond that, excessive bunting is actually causing them to lose games more often now, which is what I think we all want the Sox to do now. Really, if this persists in 2019 and 2020, then I'll take issue with it. At this point, I couldn't care less. Apparently the bolded is only true under some very limited circumstances/with batters who aren't particularly good at batting.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:41 PM) Unfortunately, in the era of Trump, planning a presser is tough. There's always some new shocking shiny object for the media to focus on instead of the thing you want them to cover. Kushner was that thing yesterday. Can't predict crap like that. I bet we can still plan for when Labor day happens.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:32 PM) yep that's me, the Bernard Brother who demands immediate perfection. I've argued for years that people need to vote in the most efficient way possible, even if it's for the best of bad options, and I'll continue to do that. That doesn't mean I can't find this latest messaging attempt to be absolutely pathetic and uninspiring. This was their big, new unveiling. This was their chance to lay some bold policies out. They didn't do that. They've chosen a bunch of meh around the margins. There's nothing big and aspirational there. Putting out a bunch of policy papers over the coming months won't matter, either. If this was a big unveiling it wasn't even well thought out. Remember the Iraq war marketing setup - "You never introduce a new product until after Labor Day".

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:08 PM) Don't just get sucked in by the media hype of the issue. Some studies have found incidence of CTE in non-pro football players as high as 92%. Here are a couple of quotes from the suntimes article even: "Some players do not have evidence of this disease despite long playing years,” she noted." "It’s also uncertain if some players’ lifestyle habits — alcohol, drugs, steroids, diet — might somehow contribute, McKee said." Some studies are starting to link abuse of steroids or opiates to the issue as well because most of the brains studied are from the 60's, 70's and early 80's. here is a link to a systematic review which is a much more rigorous study than the case reports that suntimes article is based upon. Huh on the bolded? This study is saying "110 of 111". So that quote is saying there are examples outside this study where it isn't present, and yet you just said it can be as high as 92% elsewhere? Your statements against this disagree with each other.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:52 PM) With his arm injury, and the down time, he sort of lost the change up. He is working on it pretty hard during side sessions. He had it working vs. Oakland, and knows he needs it. But that's still my point - when he came up, he could dominate some people with the slider, but his fastball command was iffy and he could only be really good if he had a 3rd working pitch that he was working on. That same description still applies word for word today. He had one stint in his career where the changeup worked well, but if he can't be consistent and have it every day how does he win games? Most pitchers won't have every pitch working every game, so if Rodon doesn't have the change for a day, does he just give up 5 runs that day?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:56 PM) He had a vote today and he chose to take a major step towards killing thousands of Americans a year and bankrupting many more. Him giving some speech decrying the very thing he just did is absolutely typical McCain, but it's not brave or bold or powerful. And it's people who never hold him accountable for his own actions that have created his "maverick" label. He plays them for suckers. Constantly.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:44 PM) I disagree, during that great stretch he had in July-August last year he was clearly mixing in the changeup pretty frequently when in 2015 he barely threw the pitch at all. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/carlos-rodo...a-step-forward/ This article covers it more. After the All-Star Break last year he was throwing his changeup nearly 20% of the time but before the All Star break it was just 6% of the time. And this year he's back to throwing it 10% of the time, so overall he's thrown it 9% of the time in 2015, 10% of the time in 2016, and 10% of the time in 2017. So he had a few game stretch where he tried something different and it worked, and then he stopped it and went back to what he did when he came up. Where am I missing something?