caulfield12

Well, it must be happening in the Deep South (Alabama and Mississippi) because .... "fill in the stereotype" This whole overweight issue is just another red herring. I don't see anyone arguing we should take guns away from people because that's yet another leading cause of death. As far as Republican talking points go, it's a complete failure...look at all the the pushback Michelle Obama got when she attempted to get involved in school food/nutrition, and that was young people. Generally, protecting young people is universally popular as a polling issue. But make it "big government," "mandates," "taking control away or decision-making authority from local officials," each and every time "freedom" and Americans being allowed to do whatever they want, no matter how harmful to their health it is will win out. Why not take away alcohol from everyone, that's another huge issue, right? Why not outlaw cigarettes, too? If anything, guns, cigarettes and alcohol (through drunk driving) all are better comparisons to Covid-19 because they can impact OTHERS around you....not just your own personal health (or insurance rates.) Of course, many Republicans are screaming now about insurance companies not paying out benefits from Covid deaths when unvaccinated. Shocking.

China, Singapore, Vietnam and to a lesser extent Thailand have all taken draconian measures to prevent Covid spread. The closest countries where you might have similar lock downs but more "obese" people would have to be Australia and New Zealand. And Thailand now has an increasing Delta death rate because they waited too long to join the vaccine pipeline...95% of their vaccines are from China, and dubious against Delta.

And therein lies the danger of not being at the top but "pretty/really good," especially with Rodon likely leaving and Lynn getting older/more injury prone. We're either going to hit a payroll ceiling...or we're going to have to keep coming up with unexpected performances from guys like Yermin/Goodwin/Hamilton/Rodon. Hard to bank on that happening every single season, unless you're a team like the Dodgers spending in the $250 million range. And ramping the payroll up to compete quickly can backfire too, or making trade after trade after trade...like the Padres have done. If they held on to Quantrill, Patino and even Lauer, they might have ended up better off. We'll see what happens with Clevinger, Snell, Lamet, Darvish and Gore next season. As Fathom noted, they've turned into dead team walking and Tingler will definitely be gone if they miss the playoffs and likely if they lose the WC Game to SF. (Although I'm sure Preller will keep repeating injuries, injuries, injuries as his off-season mantra, attempting to deflect blame from himself.)

I would take Francona or Bochy in a heartbeat. For all the talk about Hinch, he's done a solid job getting the most out of an offense-less Tigers team as well...don't think anyone expected them to be competitive as early as 2022.

Bigger picture, we really need the Tigers or Royals (they've given us fits already) to emerge as real threats to keep the team (as well as the front office and JR) honest...because coasting into the playoffs every year for the next 2-3 seasons doesn't seem like that greatest idea in the world. The Indians look to be around .500ish again, especially if they decide they can't sign Jose Ramirez. It just MIGHT work this year, who knows really...but there's plenty of examples where teams in all professional sports couldn't just turn it back on when they actually needed to in the post-season after an extended period of "resting up" and picking their battles carefully.

The ONE hope I have (and that goes along with Rodon's health) is the White Sox break through with playoff success early in their competitive window, this year. It happened with the Cubs, Royals and Astros. The Red Sox and Dodgers were the only teams that didn't fit that trend, but their mega-budgets don't make comparisons with the White Sox as useful anyway. But TLR's managing and the bullpen have to scare the heck out of everyone, even the most optimistic fans. Someone like Luis Robert is just going to have to carry the team, Grandal, Anderson, Eloy, etc. Can't count on Abreu, he has done it for too long and too consistently. Vaughn disappearing (as well as hurting) down the stretch isn't helping to boost that optimism much, either.

We're going to hear over and over again about how experience helped the Astros to prevail, just like last year's post-season when they were a .500ish team most of the year. It felt for awhile that we were going to be ahead of the curve and miss the Blue Jays' rise by one year (and a down season for the Yankees), but the only positive is whatever happens we wouldn't face them until the ALCS. Still think the only team we really match up pretty well with is the Rays.

What are the odds that Kimbrel and Cesar Hernandez are still both with the team on Opening Day, April, 2022?

God knows what will happen in the playoffs, we either get wiped out by the Astros or make it to the ALCS and fall short...

This is the obvious place where we miss having a Nick Madrigal on the team...

Why is Hamilton not stealing? Still not at 100%?

Longest streak with six consecutive wins dating back to last season over ranked teams. Last time they accomplished that was 1959-60.

It’s interesting that four of the original teams from the Big Eight would be left in the North… Except for Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado and Oklahoma leaving now. Then you have Texas A&M moving twice (Southwest Conf to Big 12 to SEC), Texas also following that path with Texas Tech and Baylor remaining. Drake, Grinnell, Iowa and Wash U. were members in the 1920’s. St. Louis University was rejected.

Between the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Astros…the only team we might be able to beat right now would be the Rays. No confidence in either Kimbrel or TLR. Grandal has been great offensively but he will invariably let something bad happen on the defensive side to mess everything up. We really need Anderson’s fire back leading this team. Getting swept out of the playoffs feels just as likely as advancing to the ALCS. Just haven’t even felt excited for most Sox games these last six weeks unless we were playing an opponent outside the Central.

The difference is they will fire Tingler and try to bring in Francona, Bochy, etc.…whereas the White Sox losing to Houston won’t even out a dent in LaRussa’s protective armor.

Whatever happens in that AL East, it’s going to be a crazy finish. How the tables have turned. SD/Cincy vs. SFG looking anti-climactic after what looked like the Wild Card game of all time a month or so ago.

Mendick just hasn’t had enough at-bats. Vaughn’s in a terrible slump. Boston just had the better arm out there this inning.

As the US averages more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths daily, not getting vaccinated is akin to driving while intoxicated, one health expert said Friday. "We need to start talking about the choice to remain unvaccinated as the choice to go out and drive intoxicated," CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

That's almost like the Era of the Statniks/Sabes. Although not sure you can trademark an era or epoch that has yet to occur, officially. (Perhaps we had a previous era with our Saturn rockets....) The problem, of course, is that everyone reacts differently. Some will only respond to government force or heavy-handedness, believing that everything's basically just a friendly recommendation that can simply be ignored without any significant personal consequence. Otoh, we have people getting locked up for months if not years in Asian countries for breaking quarantine protocols or knowingly exposing others to Covid. This whole argument is at the heart of the vaccine passport/s debate that puts 90%+ Republicans firmly in the against column.

Gordon Beckham had similar quotes...

We must be setting a record for leg injuries in one season. Lynn, Robert, Madrigal, Engel (multiple times), Kopech, Giolito...probably missing another handful more.

They're definitely not going to fire any member of the Bossard family...and why did it say Kruk came out with TLR? Obviously not John Kruk... Katz? Umpire?

Goodwin 6/55 vs LHP so far this season. Yikes. What's the latest with Giolito?

The last couple of years, Ray was another version of Snell and struggled to get into the sixth inning due to high Ks, general wildness and increasing pitch counts. Feel like he's in that same category with an Eovaldi (in terms of FA offers) and Rodon a notch below.

We get Francona next year, yay!