Jack Parkman

It's an individual choice. Props to the players that are telling the public though. This speculation without confirmation blows.

^^^^ They're not allowed to say anything if they requested privacy. We know who it is by who's not there. Right now, Kopech and Moncada are the obvious guys missing so it's probably them.

That's been my thoughts on it the whole time, if you go back in time Kelenic is the easy choice . I wasn't sold on Madrigal, but as it got closer to the draft I was ok with it. Dude better be a perennial .300 hitter otherwise it looks really dumb.

No. My understanding is that opting out because of someone other than yourself means you get nothing. No pay, no service time.

More believable, but I tend to agree with you that he's fulla shit.

^^^^

Fair enough.....Don't shoot the messenger.

I think they should consider moving Lopez to the bullpen. He'd probably end up throwing 100 mph out of the pen and because he's really inconsistent with his secondary pitches, he can experiment with all three of them to see which ones work best. I think he should focus on his curve and change because I think those are his better secondaries. The problem he has using slider/changeup is that they're both around the same velocity in the mid 80s. The other thing is that you have to see if Rodon can stay healthy. If he does, you might be able to get him for a bargain of a contract because of his injury issues. We all know what Rodon can do when he's healthy....the issue is that he's rarely available. If I were setting the rotation it would be: Giolito Keuchel Kopech/Cease Rodon Cease/Kopech Gonzalez as a piggy back with Kopech/Rodon/Cease if necessary Lopez to the bullpen, with the option to piggy back if Gonzalez is unavailable.

We all thought that Quintana was going to be good for the Cubs. In retrospect, his 1st half of 2017 was a sign of what was to come but he was just coming off of 3 straight 4+ fWAR seasons. In July 2017, Quintana over Verlander was the smart choice, as Verlander had shown signs of wearing down. Verlander didn't find the fountain of youth until he got to Houston, and the difference between Verlander and Quintana's contracts are huge. Quintana is actually getting market value for the pitcher that he is currently, while Verlander is getting paid TOR money.

Darvish wasn't a terrible signing. He was injured and had confidence issues due to the Astros cheating off of him in 2017. If the choice was Darvish vs. Arrieta I'd take Darvish 10/10 times. It wouldn't shock me if Darvish is just fine going forward for them. Don't discount the pressure of living up to a contract in a large market. Some can handle it, some can't.

You're probably fine. I'm 99% sure I had covid in March and one of the symptoms I had was abnormally clear and itchy sinuses. I usually have horrible seasonal allergies and I have had none this year. I have had minimal to no snot in my nose since I got sick, along with loss of smell and taste. I lost taste for 8 weeks and my smell still isn't normal, was gone completely for 12 weeks. Also, do you go into raging coughing fits when you're eating or drinking? That's the first thing that happened to me. I was unable to get tested due to age+lack of availability of tests at the time I was sick.

I can't wait until we can talk about real baseball again.

Can't wait to see this guy do his work.

This thread title drives me crazy because it uses the word teammate twice. "Ex-Teammate alleges Grandal took steroids openly in clubhouse" sounds much better.

I love this post. I mean in a better world where the US had the same type of social safety net as the Scandinavian countries, there would be incentives to start businesses like this one that exists in Spain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation It would be very simple: Corporate taxes would be significantly less for a corporation structured like this one than a simple for profit current style company. Also, high corporate taxes only kill jobs if you let the companies leave your country. If you levy penalties on them for packing up and leaving, then you can tax them at higher rates, which actually leads to more investment in new products (innovation) and higher wages for their employees. It incentives them to cut their profit margins to not pay as much in taxes. Another thing: The Sherman Antitrust act is there for a reason. Use it. Too large of a market share in every major industry is controlled by too few companies. They're essentially being run like the old NYC Mafia, where the CEOs get together like the Commission did and divvy up who gets what business where, and everyone gets screwed. Price fixing is common, but can't be proven. Every industry is basically a mafia style cartel, with 5-10 companies holding 80+% of the market share in each industry, and squeezing whatever is left. Then you have industry giants like Wal-Mart and Amazon that are trying to own the overwhelming majority of the market share themselves, because sharing with other companies is even too much to ask for their greedy asses.

I don't think companies are inherently evil because they don't want to go under either. I do think that they should make whatever sacrifices necessary to make working conditions safe for the employees while still at the very least breaking even if possible. IMO the idea that companies are entitled to a profit no matter the social cost has to end. Business is fine. I believe in capitalism with a conscience. I support the founding of socialist companies that want to go further than the government can, but social democracy(aka the Nordic model) is as far as I'd go on a federal/governmental level. Anything further allows for corruption to take hold. I believe that a business is far more than solely a profit machine. They have social responsibilities as well, such as to protect the environment, treat their employees well and fairly, and contribute philanthropy toward the communities in which they're located. Btw I'm as pro-labor as you can get but labor has to have more common sense than it does. Protecting bad employees is not a good practice.

I'd agree with you there, but we've lost the credibility to point out human rights violations in other countries. The US used to have credibility internationally(albeit while waging pointless wars) More than anything else the pandemic has exposed the US as a fraud. All of these things have existed for 35 years at least....institutional racism never left.

Jewel and Aldi are already doing curbside and Instacart exists. Not a huge stretch.

Our culture

We are a heartless and soulless society. We couldn't care less if people are homeless in the middle of a pandemic. We force essential workers to interact with hundreds of people per week unnecessarily, while working for peanuts. Our government thinks it's better to force people off of UEI when the jobs they had aren't coming back. They bail out businesses instead of people. How ethically bankrupt can we be?

I already said I wasn't suggesting a complete shutdown. People have to and get food and water. I don't and never have since March suggested that retail and manufacturing shut down completely. I have suggested that allowing anyone other than employees into retail facilities is probably a better choice. Curbside or delivery should be mandatory for all shopping. Hard to get items should be limited for purchase per week, so there is enough to go around. Only stuff that is absolutely necessary should be open. I support keeping state parks and county forest preserves open but only people from your state and your county and adjacent ones can go to them. There should be a limit to how many people are allowed. State borders should be closed.

No dude, I think you're the one divorced from reality. This is a fucking public health crisis. You can't "save the economy" without solving the public health crisis first. The Venn diagram is the same circle. There's a choice we have to make. The economy can be rebuilt. Dead people cannot. I'd rather be alive, wouldn't you? You can't take money with you when you die. Everyone has to make the sacrifices. Me, you, everyone here. People shouldn't have to die so rich people can maintain their lifestyle. I mean, I think there's no way to stop this without shutting down the entire economy.

Yeah, Reich is more mainstream so I use him. I don't expect everyone to have views like my own. Have you ever read Chris Hedges? He makes really good points but is super depressing. He believes that the dystopian future is reality.

Thanks Ray Ray....I'm with ya. You can't put a dollar amount on human life. The fact that we are doing so as a nation is disgusting and disgraceful. I'm starting to believe our culture is ethically bankrupt.

1st bolded-no, not even close. 2nd bolded-what's good for the employee is good for business. The economy is not a zero-sum game. You can make it bigger. I suggest you watch "Saving Capitalism" By Robert Reich. He talks about how there's a cycle of prosperity where everyone gets more, and a cycle of austerity where inequality runs rampant. The economy runs from the bottom up, not the top down. The Italics: If they feel safe, that's good. The fact they went on strike for 3 weeks to negotiate working conditions is what is supposed to happen. It's all about what's essential and what isn't. Baseball and other team sports aren't essential, so they shouldn't happen, period. 3 weeks ago I could buy this stuff coming back. Now, no way in hell because the shutdown did nothing. If this pandemic should have taught you anything, it's that the people that get paid the least are the most important workers in our society. How does that make sense? 1. I don't think it's safe for people(the public) to go into stores though Retail(including groceries) should be instacart-style or contactless curbside only. Hire people to be package delivery drivers and do contactless/app based delivery. They shouldn't let the public in retail stores, Period. It's not safe for the employees, especially when idiots refuse to wear masks as a political statement. 2. With regard to manufacturing/food chain issues, they have to spread out more. They absolutely need to keep running, but they should have to space people out 2-3 times more than they are. No being packed into a plant like sardines. My thoughts are that they need to cut the number of workers in per shift in by 1/2 to 2/3 for safety purposes. Everyone keeps their job and benefits, just work fewer hours. 3. I'm not suggesting a full shutdown, but I think phase 1 is the furthest that I'd go at this point, and even some of those protocols don't go far enough. It's fairly obvious that opening businesses is hazardous to your health. Anyone who can do commerce online, should. you can pass the shipping costs out to the consumer. The bigger issue is people cannot be trusted to police themselves in the US. There's always going to be some risk, but the amount of risk that people are asked to take is way too much imo. Also, I question the safety of public transit so that opens an entirely different can of worms. The thing is minimizing the amount of people in one place at one time, and who is allowed in and who isn't. It seems like this thing is really contagious indoors, but significantly less so outdoors. We need the entire country, all 50 states to get on board with this plan otherwise it's going to get out of control for the foreseeable future.