caulfield12

https://www.yahoo.com/news/a-wakeup-call-how-resilient-new-coronavirus-variants-could-prolong-the-pandemic-152538072.html Another reason herd immunity was a bad strategy...Manaus, Brazil. “How can you have 76 percent of people infected and, at the same time, have an epidemic that’s bigger than the first?" asked one Brazilian epidemiologist. The answer may have come on Jan. 10 with the discovery of P.1., the new Brazilian variant. Its mutations resembled the strain from South Africa, but it appeared to have arisen independently. A second variant (P.2) was soon detected as well. Both were linked to reinfection in individuals. In December, according to researchers, P.1 accounted for 42 percent of the cases sampled in Manaus; in January, that number skyrocketed to 85 percent. It’s unclear how much of Manaus’s second surge can be attributed solely to reinfection; other factors — including increased transmissibility, an overestimation of the city’s initial infection rate and the natural waning of immunity — could be playing a part as well. But the risk is apparent. When B.1.351 became dominant in South Africa late last year, triggering another massive surge, participants who received a placebo in Novavax’s vaccine trial caught the disease at the same rate whether or not they had experienced an earlier infection, implying that “prior infection with COVID-19 may not completely protect against subsequent infection by the South Africa escape variant,” as Novavax wrote in a news release. “It has global implications,” Shabir Madhi, the lead investigator of the South African Novavax trial, told the Wall Street Journal. “The immunity that was induced by the prototype virus is not protective [against the new variant].”

The problem with that is most are expecting to need at least $2-3 million for retirement, especially when SS perhaps is theoretically cut by 20% in 2035. Of course, there are no easy shortcuts. The problem with the GME story is it encourages day trading as a career (yet again, remember 1998-2002?), instead of disciplined, dollar cost averaging monthly/quarterly investments. The other issue is counting on 7% for the next decade. You still need to factor in taxes and inflation. Things have gone so well for so long...one can just look up the ten year return for VTSAX, VFINX, etc., and believe that 200% returns over a ten year time frame are going to be the new norm. Of course, setting out too ambitiously leads to lots of young people losing patience...look at the returns for many from let’s say the tech crashes of 1998-99, 9/11...through the worst of 2008/09, you might have very little growth or even losses over that time frame. But if you panicked and sold then, chased high returns and sold low...or panicked again this March. Heck, there were many who thought Trump would destroy the stock market were he to be elected, and he had the second best GOP record after Reagan of all the modern presidents. So best to ignore all that noise, look at your porfolio once or twice a year and keep plugging away. But for young people, tuition costs/loans, saving increasing amounts for house down payments, marriage/ring/honeymoon and then the exorbitant cost of child raising and health care make saving a challenge until age 45-50, when it’s way too late to take advantage of the effects of compounding.

Well, the Rockies managed that feat as recently as 2017-18 and some are now calling them the worst combined organization/GM in baseball. https://www.startribune.com/twins-starting-to-map-out-plans-for-return-of-fans/600016808/?ref=nl&om_rid=48311239113&om_mid=2318334409 That the Twins are able to plan out having limited numbers in the stands for ST and Opening Day...compared to the White Sox situation, might be yet another reason/excuse JR is tapping the brakes on excessive (at least in his eyes) spending.

He’s a lot more lenient than Judge Judy or Judge Dredd.

Well, it has happened four times within a decade that we’ve added premiere players (at their positions) as free agents...Dunn, Robertson, Grandal and Hendriks. We could be charitable and add Abreu, so that’s 5 in the span of 13 years.

https://www.ajc.com/sports/mike-check-blog/could-braves-benefit-from-mets-connection-to-gamestop-stock-saga/T6LJ244MPVCMNO6JHTQ7G2DKD4/

https://sports.yahoo.com/dodger-stadium-covid-19-vaccinations-shut-down-protesters-012430216.html Among the protesters were members of anti-vaccine and far-right groups, per the Times, with signs urging people to not get the vaccine. The group reportedly went out of their way to avoid political apparel: A post on social media described the demonstration as the “SCAMDEMIC PROTEST/MARCH.” It advised participants to “please refrain from wearing Trump/MAGA attire as we want our statement to resonate with the sheeple. No flags but informational signs only. “This is a sharing information protest and march against everything COVID, Vaccine, PCR Tests, Lockdowns, Masks, Fauci, Gates, Newsom, China, digital tracking, etc.” One of the protesters apparently livestreamed the incident, which can be seen here. One witness told the Times that the protesters were baselessly telling people in line that the the coronavirus is not real and the vaccine is dangerous.

What just happened?

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/rotten-tomatoes-predicts-the-2021-golden-globe-nominations/ On the Rocks was a nifty little film....if you’re a Lost in Translation/Bill Murray fan, you’ll like this one as well.

Yeah, although I hope the controversy brewing on the part of audiologists and abled/disabled community doesn’t get Riz Ahmed’s likely nomination for best actor sidetracked. News of the World is almost exactly what I expected...Dances With Wolves Meets Tom Hanks, although clearly an inferior film to that. A little dose of anti-Trumpism/populism thrown in there as well, which didn’t come as any great shock.

Novavax is the one that really seems ready to go with eight partnerships for production and distribution ramping up around the world...

The problem is you’re buying Ozuna really high...if you look at his last five or six seasons, he hasn’t been tremendously consistent. Can we really afford to sink $15 million into a bat-first player?

No, a genius again for motivating him with the lack of security about his future...put up or shut up time, no excuses, etc.

Esteban Loiaza (minus the cross-border trafficking operation)

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/white-sox-havent-had-two-promising-catching-prospects-50s-so-whats-next

Oklahoma must be the quietest team in NCAA history to knock off three Top Ten teams in the span of about ten days. Most would be hard-pressed to name a single player on their roster. Lon Kruger is definitely a HoFer when all is said and done. Just wish Iowa had a coach who could get the team through the final six weeks, B10 tourney and into the NCAA’s on a hot streak for once.

Does he have a single save his entire professional career?

Next, we will bring Ian Hamilton back. And glad it’s Emilio and not Jason Vargas, had to double-check. Marshall, Foster and Cordero are pretty interchangeable...tough to expect Evan to be quite so effective again, but we shall see. At least there are plenty of options, at least for the moment.

Right. If nothing else, he can cover innings. He still brings X amount of value, to where the risk/reward ratio makes him a fit for the time being. But like Rodon, don’t necessarily see him making it as a high leverage reliever. We’ll see.

Don’t we get some credit here for TA? How many really good all-around catchers are there, in general? Maybe five, seven tops. It’s the most demanding physical position, and really good hitters at that spot like a Mauer, Posey or even Salvador Perez find themselves eventually at 1B/DH. That said, the White Sox have had some high profile misses, like Kurt Brown and now Collins. Before AJ, it seemed we went 10-15 years with a different FA catcher ever year or two. Guess you can also add discovering Omar Narvaez to your list, as well.

A little bit of the Brian Anderson thing, where he was the best NCAA pitcher with just two pitches and didn’t have to work hard on his craft, relying on natural ability to get him through. Anderson at Univ of Arizona was always about potential...he could be the next Torii Hunter if he could actually hit the ball. Rodon definitely has the attitude and sense of privilege from always being a top prospect and perhaps was coddled too much...and nobody was willing to confront him about changing his approach because it got him so far, so fast. Maybe the failures of the last 2-3 seasons and being quite fortunate to get a guaranteed contract have made him more open to coaching, hopefully.

The White Sox are too stubborn to cut Lopez...unless he simply can’t get back his mid to high 90s fastball. If the stuff is still there, they’re going to extend some more rope. Hamels seems like a much better fit in the NL.

That has definitely been the case with Garrett Richards. I just hope they give up on the idea Rodon will ever be another Andrew Miller out of the pen. He’s just too wild/inconsistent for that. Of course, we’ve seen him get burned over and over again with low 90’s fastballs, especially behind in counts. Chris Sale usually could get away with that, Rodon cannot.

Foltynewicz threw for MLB teams on Friday and was reportedly hitting 90-92 on the radar gun. Not bad for the middle of winter. If Foltynewicz can get that fastball up just a bit more and learn how to use his sinker and change-up as more effective weapons, he certainly has a chance to get his career back on track. https://dawindycity.com/2021/01/30/chicago-cubs-mike-foltynewicz-stands-ideal-free-agent-target/ Would be pretty ironic if Archer ended up back with the Cubs, with Rodon returning to the Sox. Folty is blah to me unless he’s at least in the mid 90s range but still not quite 100% effort.

Except the order of events this offseason make this feel like you’re in on GME @ $300-350 instead of $10-15. Feels like another of those “we need to prove we were right on Rodon” moves, so the expectations are almost zero so there’s at least the possibility of some relatively pleasant upside. Maybe there’s something to said for starting over with a new manager and pitching coach, but that takes a lot of the blame off players and puts it all on Cooper’s supposed malaise.