southsider2k5

If it means giving vets a care option that isn't the VA model, I am all for it. The idea is to give more options, not one. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/17/two-million-vets-get-taxpayer-funded-private-care/617101002/ also, veterans groups are for it, it is unions which are against it.

Is this a rumor because if it is

I have always liked the Alexei comparison best of all for Anderson, as their career arcs also seem to remind me of each other, but Uribe isn't a bad one for Anderson.

The GOP has actually been the party to push for access to private care. The Dems have largely tried to keep them imprisoned in to the VA system.

13 Ks thru 7 IP for Sox pitchers

I do believe we are a year early. I don't see the point of a deal that isn't either for a long term superstar or a spacefiller in the 18/19 off season. If they aren't, you should let the group we have in the system show you what your next moves should be. I don't want to see a 50 million or 100 million dollar type of deal this year. If you can get MM or BH do it. If not, sign some space holders to make the 25 man work (maybe a 5th starter, pen arm, or position player filler if needed). Keep scouring the waiver wire and moving international cap space for interesting young kids. We did our best work last year with guys like Palka and Ruiz, plus ones like Burr and Frare. Past that play 2019 and let the players in the organization tell you who is worth keeping and dumping to dictate your next big moves.

If you watched the 1st half of the season and saw a 120 loss team then sabermetrics have failed you because you missed out on the talent that was there which has made itself known over the last couple of months. Again if you watched these guys and believed they were failures because the numbers told you that they deserved to be failures, the numbers have proved you wrong.

The games are a good place to start.

That was awful by the Tigers defense. Should have been caught, Lamarre hustled it into a double instead

How long have you been waiting for this post?

Again your definition of luck is too narrow if it is only BABIP related. There is more to baseball than how hard a ball is hit, as I cited. I can't help your narrow view dismissing everything else I talked about.

More accurately 2000 to 2015.

Cordell took a terrible route there.

Your definition of unlucky is too narrow if you are only basing it on a couple of stats. For example if you are leading mlb in Ks on called strike 3s out of the strike zone, I would call that unlucky.

I mean all you have to do is look at individual performances to know that the first half was pretty much a worst case scenario. You had major injuries to centerpiece players, combined with major flops by key players. For example, do you really believe that Engel is a .160 hitter? Do you believe that Giolito is a 7.00 FIP guy, and a 1:1 BB/KK guy? Do you think Abreu is his midseason slump? Do you think Moncada is his midseason slump? I would call those flukes as well.

I'd call it a first standard deviation. Probably not the most likely outcome, but a realistic chance for sure.

So you will look at the second half numbers as a fluke, but the first half was not? That's weak.

That is a bridge too far for me then. I think we make a realistic push at .500 as is. If we add MM or BH, maybe we push that out to 85ish wins. Realistically, 2020 to 2021 when the big wave of position players is hitting is when we should start thinking playoffs realistically.

No one is talking about playoffs. We are talking about. 500 first.

I want to say it is 20 to 25% of the contract. In a case like this is it worth a couple of million dollars to hold on to Avi for a team that might be .500 next year?

Again, I don't think you know many vets then.

You don't know any Vets then.

Avi is a pretty awful defender. Ideally your bench guys can play some positions at least decently. If not their bat has to be a big carrying tool. If we are looking at Avi as a bench player, would you rather have Palka's lefty bat coming off of the bench with all of the other RH hitting OF's on the roster? Eloy is RH, as is Engel (who I will call the leader for at least Apr 2019 CF) Cordell is also RH if he were to win CF. Leury is a switch hitter. Avi being a righty doesn't give us any more diversity on the bench to attack a tough righty, while a Palka or Delmonico does.