StrangeSox

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 10:11 AM) I guess because "Fall" is for the playoffs and World Series, and everyone considers December a winter month even though it's technically fall for 2/3 of it. Meteorological and Astronomical seasons run differently! http://www.weatherdudes.com/facts_display.php?fact_id=30 The Difference Between Meteorological Winter and Astronomical Winter Meteorological winter is a three month period that runs from Dec 1st to the end of February. It is the coldest three month period of the year in the northern hemisphere. Astronomical winter is what we all refer to when we talk about the winter season and this is based on when the sun reaches the most southern point on the globe, the Tropic of Capricorn. If you are located right on the Tropic of Capricorn at 12:00 noon on the first day of astronomical winter, the sun will be directly overhead. Also, on the first day of astronomical winter, the sun is at its lowest point in our sky at 12:00 noon and, of course, it is the shortest day of the year. Obviously, it is the first day of the summer season in the southern hemisphere.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 09:40 PM) I don't understand anyone's anger at the direction we are taking. We are finally doing something with a distinct plan. It finally appears we aren't half assing something. To look at the 2017 roster and throw your arms in the air is just absurd at this point in time. They actually are doing something with a plan. None of us know if it will work, but at least they have a concrete plan that they are operating towards vs. these half ass cockamamie schemes. Some would have said the Cubs had too many talents at one position and they used some of them at other positions and have used others as surplus to move for other pieces to fill needs. None of us can have a crystal ball and look at what this roster is going to look like in 2019...sure some of the pieces are here, but some we think are great, wont' pan out, others we aren't thinking of might...new parts will come on...and other trades will be made. Either way, we are still in the midst of our off-season. For god sake, some of the most anti front office people on the planet (on this site) are actually on board and excited. I was skeptical after the Sale deal, but confidence grew significantly after the Eaton move. Now they better not blow that confidence and they better be willing to be patient. No idea if this will work (we could get all busts and there is luck to all of these equations, but the strategic thoughts and direction make absolute sense). Positions don't mean jack right now...top talent means everything and it isn't like we have 10 starting pitchers or something. We have very few and some of these people will bust (whether guys we got today or guys we look at that the club has drafted and brought along). We couldn't trade two front line pitchers, without filling those needs plus getting positional talent. After the next couple of trades, that should all come together even more clear and we should see an exceptional mix of pitching and positional talent. But if the Dodgers were to dangle an Urias for Q, I don't give a s*** that he's a pitcher, if I'm RH I'm making that deal. I can always flip these guys later on or make other moves. In isolation, I still don't like the Sale deal (I don't hate it either..just believe that ultimately we should have been able to get a 3rd above average piece) but I have nothing but kudos for today's deal which was a provided us with a plethora of high upside talent for one player. Now I'm curious to see what we do next and to be honest, I don't love the idea of just a Bregman based deal (as I do think we need a few more deals more like the Nats deal...I'd like another 3 high caliber guys like that (2 position and 1 pitcher would be ideal) for Q (which I actually think is fair since Q has a bit higher surplus then Eaton (and Q is really about the only thing like this on the market now and FA market is awful). IF we can do that, we will be in an excellent position heading into moves for Robertson / Jones / Abreu / Frazier / Melky. very solid post

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 10:17 AM) That is 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times more worrisome to me than Trump being vocal about the criticism he receives. Trump being this vocal about any form of criticism makes future criticism less likely or at least softer and possibly anonymous out of fear of retribution which lessens checks on his power. I'm going to say it again until it sinks in, this is how authoritarians work. Unless you like authoritarians, this behavior should be very concerning.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 10:05 AM) I agree it was inappropriate for a President to do. I agree he's a petty, thin-skinned baby. These tweets, however, are not anything close advocating violence or suggesting to his followers that they shut him, and others like him, up. Yes, but he has a cult of personality and he knows how his supporters have responding to any of his critics, especially ones he names himself, before. That is the whole point that you keep missing--he doesn't need to explicitly call for violence or for anyone to shut his critics up. All he has to do is drop that garbage out there, his supporters will do what they do, and then people will give him all sorts of plausible deniability cover. You're free to argue that you don't think Trump will go down the authoritarian path or that something will prevent him from going down it, but you can't deny that this is how authoritarians work in the real world. There are far too many examples. Go check out the story about the Philippines I posted earlier--plenty of extrajudicial mobs doing the killing along with the police, and Trump has said he has no problem with this while reiterating his racist anti-immigrant platform: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/d...s-a7460801.html

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 09:58 AM) I dunno, you don't seem concerned. People in this thread don't seem concerned. People in the media don't seem concerned. You're going to an extreme that isn't reasonable. We're pretty much all using pseudonymous names here. The media has some level of power, but Trump will have more and his supporters have already been harassing members of the media and even calling for lynching them, for months. Trump himself has expressed a desire to sue any media outlet who criticizes him out of existence. I'm going to an "extreme" that has played out under authoritarians time and time again. Will we get to that point again, in this country? I don't know, but just putting our fingers in our ears and saying "LA LA LA IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE LA LA LA!" only helps usher it along. Making excuses for abuses of power and conforming to expected authoritarian demands without them having to explicitly make them is how they get and maintain power.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 09:58 AM) Wait, so a President can never respond to criticism? And he's advocating violence? A President directly responding to a single private citizen criticizing him via a massive national platform is miles beyond inappropriate. He isn't explicitly advocating violence, but he has to know how his supporters (and internet lynch mobs in general) will react. And that reaction benefits him if the next person thinks twice before publicly speaking out against him because he can wield enormous power to ruin their lives directly and indirectly and is a petty, thin-skinned baby.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 09:57 AM) No response is necessary. Everyone agrees that it's wrong except for the few assholes doing it. This includes the soon-to-be President of the United States. This is how you silence critics. This is how authoritarianism takes hold.

Do you disagree that having the soon-to-be President calling you out individually on a national platform because you dared to criticize him and then receiving death threats has a chilling effect on criticizing Trump?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 09:30 AM) Aren't all stats made up? aside from pure counting stats like hits, yeah.

They do not, and they typically have cadres of supporters who are more than willing to carry out the violence without any formal or direct orders.

Shouldn't your P/S being cleaning up the power signal anyway, not the UPS?

Those picture fade-ins and outs.... enjoy your morning

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12...lings.html?_r=1 No more excerpts because it's heavily a photojournalism piece, but the crackdown going on in the Philippines right now is just brutal.

The local Union president for the Indiana Carrier workers dared to criticize trump for misrepresenting the situation today. The president elect took to Twitter to publicly and directly insult the man. That man is now receiving death threats. This is how authoritarianism takes hold. Silence all critics, make it clear that anyone who speaks up will face retribution.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 08:29 PM) We.Need.Postitional.Talent. Multi. year. rebuild, stop melting down about a pitching heavy fleece on day two.

Linda McMahon of WWE fame for head of the small business administration. She was the single largest donor to the trump foundation. https://t.co/psZE4VpbXA His entire transition has been one f*** you to everyone who didn't vote for him and also everyone who did.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:42 PM) They will never be a contender if they can't send a full roster out there. That is the lesson. Pitching is no good if you are losing 2-1 every night. We just spent years doing it. Sending out and getting more pitching doesn't fix the problem. It extends the problem. That's not the lesson of the last decade, though. This isn't doing anything close to what that "plan" was. They need to acquire more position players, I don't think anyone disagrees there, but we're two days into a multi year rebuild.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:39 PM) Even better is 56 win teams. You say you wish they'd learn their lesson at the same time you're pining for the last multiple years of garbage baseball. They were never going to flip from what they were to a serious contender in a year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:39 PM) No, I'd rather them learn their f***ing lesson versus doing the same damn crap that just failed. It isn't about the BA top 25. It is about the entire roster. They are too stupid to learn that lesson apparently. This isn't the crap that has failed for years though?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:30 PM) I love southsider's recent posts. The Sox front office should NEVER be given the benefit of the doubt with its track record. It's wait and see on both trades. Not one of the guys we've gotten is CANT MISS. It's 'maybe' on all of them. We shall see. I love the White Sox but after so many years of s***, you have to take southsider's position on all this activity. Southsider is our current superstar on this site. Kiss of death

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:26 PM) Apparently your fandom is based on the BA rankings, and not what is going on with the actual major league team. I don't care about the major league team in 2017. If you do, well, that's unfortunate, but I've had enough middling garbage baseball the last decade to fill me up for awhile.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 06:23 PM) Prospects get more attention than ever before, there is no doubt about that. They have become their own subculture to the point where the numbers on the list seem to matter more than actual team make up. What isn't up for debate is that they buy less than they ever have before. At no point in baseball history have teams had to bundle up so many top guys to get a good player back from another team. Even some garbage players were bringing back top prospects at this deadline. There is example after example. If prospects are really undervalued right now... Isn't it good that Hahn is raking them in? What exactly is your complaint here? Everyone, including other GM's, seem to think the nats got fleeced. What do you think the Sox could or should have gotten for Eaton if this was a bad move?

This take exceeds the core temperature of the sun

QUOTE (gosoxtim8 @ Dec 7, 2016 -> 05:59 PM) so bruce levine saying the nationals will put adam in center insead of right https://twitter.com/MLBBruceLevine/status/806639448448499712 That was the message I got from their presser