bigruss

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 3, 2016 -> 12:41 PM) Baseball is a stats games, so what I'm really driving at here is....show me the empirical data of the impact of the draft on something like WAR, long term. Or World Series titles? Pre free agency, the draft meant a whole lot more. It's how all teams assuredly got better. These days? It's a complete dice roll. With all the overseas players creeping in from Cuba, Japan, DR, other places, and with the huge impact of FA signings on teams, the draft and particularly the first round of the draft seems to have diminished impact on the chances of a team to get really good. It already had arguably a lesser impact anyway. At best you were getting a player 1-2 years away from ML ready, and at best he was one player in a lineup of nine. Sure, there have been those difference makers like Thomas, Bonds, Griffey. The list goes on. And certainly a player like Chris Sale - it's impossible to argue that his value isn't through the roof compared to most. However, I think there's little evidence to suggest that having a marginally higher pick in the draft is how certain teams have built winners recently. Do you disagree? Oh hey, evidence. And more! So yes, the data supports the model. If you want better players, get better draft position. Is it a guarantee? Nope, still lots of variables, but it gives you the best chance.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 3, 2016 -> 12:05 PM) Call me old-fashioned, but I think it's much better to cultivate an atmosphere where you expect to win and play absolutely as hard you can with what you have, every day, than to try to lose 90 games instead of 85 in order to get a crap-shoot draft pick that doesn't really pan out, help the team much, 80-90% of the time going back 26 years. I wouldn't even call that old fashioned, it's just wrong. Old fashioned is under the belief that the better draft pick you have, the more likely you are to add impact talent to your organization. It's why the worst team picks first. You know what helps build a winning culture? Having good players.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Aug 3, 2016 -> 11:11 AM) The only thing I've played since its release, I'm still absolutely in love with it. Yea still playing a ton. Finally playing Competitive, hate that people leave in that s***... Also hate that if you do well but your team sucks you still get docked, should have a better algorithm for that.

QUOTE (smalls2598 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 03:49 PM) Ok, thanks, I'll give Redfin a try. I had mostly been using Zillow, Realtor.com and Trulia. Yea I started on those, but Redfin was the best search tool. Zillow has a good layout and some nice tools on it but Redfin was more comprehensive IMO.

Oh, and if you like a place talk to your realtor that day about it.

QUOTE (smalls2598 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 12:20 PM) Looking for a house sucks. I thought finding a house would be so much easier than actually finding someone to buy ours. Nope. For the past 2 weeks, I've been scouring all the real estate sites/apps. Everything we like in our price range is already in contingent status. Our agent told us that the good ones are flying off the market within a day. Very frustrating. Use Redfin, it was quicker than my realtor's feed and the alerting system is top notch. It made the looking part SOOOO much easier.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 1, 2016 -> 07:32 PM) She's not anti-vax, but she leaves the door open to appeal to anti-vaxxers. And yeah, her platform is "boo establishment", hence why she was pro-Brexit. Oh, so she's not crazy just open to the crazy vote?

There isn't much sanity in the 3rd parties. Starting with the fact that they focus almost completely on the presidency, thinking that they can start change from the top...If you really want the respect of voters then you start locally and go from there. Make real changes that you can advertise.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Aug 1, 2016 -> 10:47 AM) This really should be the nail in the coffin for the base of the Republican party supporting him. You don't mess with the military/dead soldiers. Don't really think it will matter, most don't seem to care.

I'll echo others, this has truly made me tear up at least a handful of times. Life just sucks some times, but you've been so strong throughout the process Jeremy. So much love to your family, hang in there bud.

Again, why would he make that statement? What purpose does O'reilly saying that s*** besides being a troll or actually being a racist? There's just no need to bring up those "facts" in response to Michelle's speech.

Greg, enough with the Chelsea Clinton comments. Just stop it.

I can't even imagine going through this, hopefully we can help lighten some other burdens so that you can focus on your family. Lots of love to your family Jeremy, wishing for all the best.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 25, 2016 -> 09:26 AM) They might have to pick up some salary to move some of these players....which is another fly in the ointment: will JR allow that? Robertson gets 1/2 of what Chapman will bring. They've done it recently so I would assume that yes, if the prospect bump is good enough they'll send cash.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 22, 2016 -> 03:54 AM) It will likely go down in history as the eulogy of the GOP Isn't that what BW wants?

We also have no idea what "king's ransom" is, our viewpoint of that can differ quite a bit.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 21, 2016 -> 11:20 AM) I can't trade Sale straight up for anyone in the game. If we move Sale, it has to be to get multiple pieces, otherwise I don't see how the deal puts us in any better spot long term. Straight up for Q, not Sale, just an FYI.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 20, 2016 -> 11:14 AM) What is all this bball talk? Lovie's taking his sweet time with recruiting

QUOTE (Boogua @ Jul 20, 2016 -> 10:14 AM) Get Goodwin and Frazier and call it a day. I think that is the expectation at this point and it might very well be the best recruiting class at Illinois since the Self era. Yup I'm fine with this, and you swing for the fence with the last scholarship. Probably won't use it but then you have some interesting options in 2018.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jul 19, 2016 -> 05:41 PM) Not that it means much but Illinois made PF Theo John's top 6 and SF Terrance Lewis is going to visit Illinois in August I'm not impressed by John at all, he was a decent option if we couldn't land Tilmon but I don't see the fit now. A redshirt candidate would be fine with the last scholly but I don't think John wants that. I'm still high on Lewis but if Goodwin does commit to us I again don't see the fit.

QUOTE (Tony @ Jul 18, 2016 -> 01:19 PM) Saw Hannibal Buress last night in Hyde Park in front of about 200 people. He did a quick pop up show and put it on social about two hours before hand. Sat in the front row, was awesome, especially for a Sunday night at 11pm Awesome, love Hannibal.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Jul 14, 2016 -> 03:29 PM) I'm sure there are others much more qualified to speak on this topic than me but from what I've read and understand, the white privilege they are talking about isn't so much about how much money you had or how much you had to eat or who paid for you to go to school. It's things that are much more intangible. Things like being able to walk down the street without being stopped by the police. Being able to drive without being pulled over for no reason. Being able to walk down the street and not see the woman and her kid cross the street so they don't have to pass so close. This article kind of explains it. Exactly, this is what I was trying to get at.

By being white, you have certain privileges, you just do. A broken household growing up would impact any child, but that doesn't mean he didn't have privileges elsewhere. And that's not to say he didn't overcome a ton to be successful or even just to get to a normal household later in life, no one is saying take that away from the individual (or if they are then they're wrong). It can be a real touchy subject because you have someone like you mentioned where they truly had some bad s*** happen to them growing up, and it was awful and hard to overcome. But what was the support like around them? The community? The police? It's hard to acknowledge that it may have been even worse, or the individual may become super defensive because they know they had a ton to overcome and feel like it's being diminished, but in a good dialogue on this topic it wouldn't be diminished, instead it should revolve around "yes you went through that, but what helped you out of it? Is that something that could've been impacted by your environment? Your skin color? etc." Suddenly you may be thinking "yea I went through a lot, but calling the police I knew would help, not make it worse or even have a fear of the officer shooting a family member because they 'felt' threatened upon entering the household." It's not to diminish one's own experiences, it's to open their eyes on how different it could've been.

Acknowledging privilege is really just another way of saying "take a walk in X person's shoes", but hopes to go a bit farther than that. Sure, I've worked my ass off to get where I'm at, but what if I grew up hungry? What if I was constantly afraid of walking down the street? What if I had to take care of my family before I could study and do homework? What if my teachers didn't give a crap about me? What if I couldn't afford to play baseball? What if there wasn't even a baseball team in my neighborhood? It's not apologizing for what you have, it's acknowledging that just because you got to some point doesn't mean others had the same path to it. Once you allow that then you start thinking about what differences there could have been, how could it have impacted you? Once you start asking questions like that you can start applying it to how you can impact the environment of those going through the struggles that you may not have had to go through.