Dick Allen

So Ben Carson is returning the $31k dining set. I wonder if he will bring back the staffer transferred for calling them out on it. Shulkin and his lackies trying to hide taxpayers paying for his wife's European vacation. Scott Pruitt having to fly first class on the taxpayers. Interior secretary Ryan Zinke brings his wife along on military jets and private planes. All after Tom Price had to quit over basically doing the same thing. Trump drained the swamp and only hired the best.

A quote yesterday from Donald Trump "I'm not into popularity, I'm into getting something done that's good."

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 1, 2018 -> 09:00 AM) Anyway, President Trump set to announce tariffs at meeting Thursday He's expected to announce 20%+ tariffs on imported aluminum and steel later today. Where will Trump get his steel?

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 09:25 PM) You brought an article talking about how companies' are going to put their new profits to use. Somehow you pivoted from that initial point and it devolved into another "Trump ruins everything" rambling. He just signed the bill. He's in the past as far as this bill and its progress goes. To financial side of it, I don't know why you would think a company getting a ~21% increase in pretax income would take it and give all or the majority of the incremental income to increases in wages and bonuses. That'd be a really silly use of that money. But I guess this is all or nothing. He's read them all. When the news articles about them came out the board laughed at them and said that it was nothing. I wonder how many people getting paid minimum wage thought the several hundred dollar or couple thousand dollar bonus and thought it was nothing. Sarah Sanders @PressSec What would your family do w/ a $4,000 raise from the President’s tax cut plan? REPLY & I’ll share your family’s story in the press briefing I always get a kick out is someone justifying a $200 bonus because that person is making minimum wage, so it’s yuge. After tax, it's less than $0.50 a day. And a few of those bonuses were shown to have nothing to do with the tax cuts but trying to keep up with competitors.

Over $80 million in cap space for Ryan Pace.

Hope Hicks is calling it a day.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 09:22 AM) I hope the refs don't screw Illinois tonight. There's no way they won't. The Illini, when they win, overcome biased officiating.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 12:35 PM) You can't use the Batting Title Qualified as a filter in this case -- that's always a higher number than people realize. And since WAR is a counting stat, there isn't even any sampling issue by dropping it. Might as well set the PA filter to 0. Which, in case anyone was wondering, shows 23 third basemen at over 2 WAR last year Does WAR accumulate the same if someone was playing 2B more than half the time? in other words, are the standards for each position identical? If Yolmer Sanchez had played 3B exclusively and put up the same numbers, would his WAR have been different in any way?

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 11:04 AM) It should. If they went even 4-3 in those games they'd have 17 wins right now and the #1 pick in the draft They would have the best odds at the #1 pick. The ironic thing is the draft lottery was created to stop all the losing on purpose. It's a league were very few teams have a legit shot. If this is allowed to continue, someday 20 + teams may be trying to lose.

QUOTE (wrathofhahn @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 10:45 AM) Yeah, all I'm saying you don't really mess around when it comes with the knees. It kind of reminds me of Troy Glaus who you thought was going to be this great 40 HR guy but ended up retiring at 33 partly due to shoulder problems but mainly because of his knees. It can end that fast for some guys. That's why you have to be a bit careful with older guys. I know some like to use the aging curve, but it's different with everyone. Who would have thought Albert Pujols would have put up an 8.6 WAR with the Angels if you add up each of his 6 years, from where he was at? You would have thought he would have been worth it for several seasons. I think he was 31 when he became a free agent.

QUOTE (fathom @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 10:40 AM) That supposedly is the last of their available payroll. Cuthbert I believe will play 3rd for them They clearly have more they could spend. They did make a pretty big offer to Hosmer. But they now don't want to spend it.

There's a difference between being bad because of rebuilding, and flat out trying to lose. Again, if the Bulls select 8th next year and get a good, but not franchise type player, and get a typical mid first rounder with the NO pick, do they bench all of their good players again next year so they will lose? At what point does it stop? Other teams will surely be trying to lose. A contest to see who can be the worst should not be rewarded. I get it's the correct thing to do, but the league needs to change it immediately. This doesn't interest people. It's basically playing exhibition games. No one really cares about those.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 07:41 AM) Apparently, once you're injured you will become a DH. To be fair to him, the prognosis improved. At first Burger's career was over.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 04:50 PM) Are you worried about rich people losing money? Who cares what the attendance is. It is how it starts. And then can snowball. What happens if the Bulls get the 8th pick and something in the teens with NOs pick and get a guy with Hinrich like impact and another Noah Vonleh? Do they tell LaVine, Laurie and Dunn to take next year off so they can lose some more and try it again? Trust the process is currently a 7th seed. NBA hell still with all those top picks.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 02:50 PM) I wonder if Silver and the top NBA brass realize that most of the fanbases of the teams tanking are actually happy with what their franchises are doing. I love that the Bulls are finally tanking, and except for that 10-15 games stretch when Dunn came back, they've tanked really well. Sacramento and Orlando may be outliers since they've been tanking forever, but for the Bulls, Lakers, Nets, Mavs, etc. this is the only way they can be decent again. Frankly I'm not sure why it's such a big deal. I suppose if half the league were tanking there would be a competitive imbalance, but since when does the NBA care about that? And it's not half the league, it's a 1/3rd of the league at most. It's pretty close to the only way. That's the problem, and more teams are doing it. People pay a lot of money to watch the NBA . Tanking not only ruins the games for the fans of the teams trying to lose, it makes the games these teams are involved in vs. teams actually trying way less interesting and entertaining. They actually went to the lottery because teams weren't trying. Now it is getting worse. I wouldn't mind making all non playoff teams given equal odds on the draft. Make it all ping pong balls, no guarantees one way or the other. You can tank or you can win 40 games, you might pick 1st, you might pick in the teens. I am sick of rewarding losing.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 02:46 PM) Kushner loses access to top-secret intelligence A memo sent Friday downgraded the presidential son-in-law and adviser and other White House aides who had been working on interim clearances. Considering it's been 13 months and all the times he has had to edit his application. Why is he getting to see anything considered secret?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 12:37 PM) Huh, I was never quite positive he was straight, not that it matters. Same. When I first saw the headline yesterday, I was expecting the accuser to be a guy.

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 09:09 AM) Bulls has 22 games left, but they probably have most games against tanking teams (bottom 8) out of everybody with 7 games. They also have 1 against Knicks, who might as well be a tanking team after losing Porzingis. I think they just aren't not bad enough and finishes with 24-25 wins. You never know the power of Cam Payne when it comes to losing, but I think your right. I really think a couple of these teams might lose the rest of their games. I would think if it was too crazy, the Commissioner could step in and do something. Maybe even take the pick away or move it down the draft. But with so many teams doing the same thing, that won't happen if it was possible, which I have no idea. I do think this year's massive tank is going to spur the league into doing something about it.

Here's a good one: Stephen Colbert ✔ @StephenAtHome I’m surprised the NRA was affiliated with car rental companies at all, considering Hertz and Avis enforce tyrannical rules like "age restrictions" and "having a license." 9:06 PM - Feb 26, 2018 166K 36K people are talking about this

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 12:12 PM) You guys are seeing something I don't see. Was he shocked and surprised? Yes. So what? I would be too (as would you). He certainly didn't react like a guy who would go in after a gun man unarmed. But as Colbert said, maybe he would stab him with his bone spurs. He is also on record from getting away from someone who fell at Mar A Lago, because he was sickened by the sight of blood. How would he have done in that school? Of course he is also on record bragging about assaulting women. Yet the women who accuse him are all liars. All because he put an R after his name.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 11:21 AM) This is the thing: of course there's a price where it makes sense. You could have said "all I'm saying is that Moustakas' price might fall far enough where it makes sense to pivot from the unlikely plan of signing Machado." And maybe I might disagree that I think it'll fall that far, but that's the end of it. Two reasonable sides to the same coin. You spend so much time trying to find decimal points where you can catch where my on-the-fly, message-board mental math is off, you rarely bother to even consider my point. And so we constantly argue only to find out we barely even disagree. I have been pretty consistent from the get go. Just read the first page of the thread. I wrote at the beginning if signing Moustakas hinders you to make any move next year, you cannot do it. I don't know how you could have interpreted I ever advocated signing Moustakas for anything but a pretty decent discount. Besides, we are at the point where it would just be bidding against themselves. If all he is getting is one year offers, that plays into the White Sox hands. They can always try again next year if necessary he wants too much.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 10:48 AM) Then what is the point here? Why are you arguing so vehemently with me that we should sign a guy at terms you don't believe he'll sign for? Ok, yes, if Mike Moustakas takes some insane discount, totally counter to both precedent and his agent's stated intentions, to the point where it's clearly below market but still relatively long-term, then I can get on board with signing Moustakas. Is that what you wanted me to say? You weree arguing about signing Moustakas takes you out on Machado. Do you really think that signing is going to happen? I think there is a better chance Moustakas would sign for something the White Sox are agreeable to, than the pipe dream that is Manny Machado, who doesn't even want to play 3B. I still think it's slim. My point was there was going to be a price that made sense. From the get go. You are the one arguing, no, no, no. Making up stuff, rounding down to say he's average. Using stats of players who barely played to try to make him look worse. And it still wasn't enough, so you want to start it again. As I stated previously, I think eventually Boras will pull something out of his ass, and Moustakas will get something something right now that doesn't seem possible. If not, the Sox should be ready to pounce.

QUOTE (wrathofhahn @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 10:16 AM) There is that small possibility but you can't pay him on hoping he will somehow improve in his 30's you have to deal with what he is now. I do agree I'd rather sign Moose for 4 then commit to Machado to 10. I think if signing Moustakas to what most here want him signed for, precludes the White Sox from going after the top guys next year, they weren't getting those guys anyways. If you are going to spend, you are going to have to spend a lot and be prepared to pay extra for upgrades and/or mistakes. If everything has to be done with such precision, it isn't going to work out. All big market teams have more than their fair share of dead money and/or money paid to other teams to take highly paid players. If the White Sox aren't in a position to do this, everyone dreaming of Machado and everyone else was just dreaming anyway.

QUOTE (Sleepy Harold @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 10:11 AM) Daryl Van Schouwen @CST_soxvan now Jake Burger: Ruptured left Achilles. Surgery this week, out for season. Horrible. Stick to your rehab, Jake. Hopefully, he can do some fall work, and maybe winter league. From what I've read, it's a long slow rehab from this. But it is important he doesn't try to speed up the process.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 09:55 AM) He may have but I think it's at the margins. I think he could have made more next year, or last year. But I don't see these all power, not particularly versatile, low-OBP players coming back at least in the next 2-3 offseasons (conservatively). Justin Turner is really good, he was granted older and shorter track record, but had an unreal year and got 4 for 64. I'm not so sure this isn't the ceiling for the 29+ year old FA 3b for a few cycles. If someone signed Justin Turner when he was 29 to a 4 year/$48 million contract, everyone would be calling for that GM's head. Moustakas was a top prospect who really struggled offensively for years. Seemed to find himself. His OBP was over .340 in 2015. Then gets hurt, and became a total pull guy less patience during his free agent year, perhaps because HRs generally pay. It wouldn't surprise me if his OBP increases a bit. Maybe not to .350, but maybe.330/.335. I'd like to think moving from Kaufmann to GRF would help him, but we have tried to rely on that recently, and it hasn't exactly worked. I have no idea what they would agree to, but I do think there is a price where saying no is being very shortsided.