caulfield12

1 Covid year=3 ordinary years

Moncada?

The Catholic Church has always been conflicted between the peace and social justice side vs. conservative issues like abortion/population control, divorce, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” etc. Another factor is perhaps the falloff by 15-20% in church attendance over the last decade. Negative feelings created by the abuse scandals? Separation of church and state doesn’t come into play here. Nobody’s forcing you to pray in order to receive a place in line for a vaccine...I do believe that if this happened during the GW Bush years you’d see more focus on the faith community as a potential solution. Biden’s as Catholic as it gets and you don’t hear it brought up in a way that could ever be considered proselytizing. But he certainly never hides his faith and how it has gotten him through three family tragedies.

That’s one of those Joe Crede, Jesse Crain or Jenks deals. Injuries and Bryant’s performance drop off are nearly impossible to predict. 2-3 years ago, both Baez and Contreras looked like best at their positions. Now, they’re going to be sold off at 50 to 75 cents on the dollar, or just held onto for rebound years. Or think about the Brewers and Yelich...think what any team would have offered for him at the end of 2019. But what about today? Brewers’ fans would have gone crazy had Stearns traded him after 2018 or 2019, right? But how many GMs have the cojones to deal someone at peak value unless they’re staring a rebuild in the face?

If you said $2,000 for every family at $75-100,00 or less, you’d be okay, haha. Once you get to the $125-150,000 joint income range...of course, cost of living is the key factor. It’s not unlike the student loan debate. What to do with the societally deemed irresponsible? Is a couple with massive debts but a $200k combined income equally needy to one at half that income with one or both spouses out of work and struggling to pay for food or rent? Otoh, there are plenty of Americans saying they really don’t need that money...it should go to families legitimately in need that will inject it directly back into the economy rather than saving or investing it.

Isn’t there a certain degree of fear in the religious right about vaccine efficacy? At one point, roughly 2-3 months ago, only 55-60% of Americans were willing to be injected. I don’t know where the anti-vaxxers line starts and crosses over into religious belief, but there’s probably some cross pollination. All things considered, schools, convention centers, basketball stadiums, community centers would seem better suited. LA County just announced they expect it to take all of 2021 to get everyone vaccinated. Ouch!

General liberal thankfulness for something about America, that we’re helping our people directly during the pandemic. That said, we reserve the right to complain in the future when/if inflation rates finally rise to 5% or more and we have to make huge cutbacks at every level of government due to increased interest payments on bonds soaking up more and more budget outlay on those pie charts.

But pitching extensions are always going to be high-risk. Look at Danks, or Jose Contreras after 2006. What if we extended Lopez off his one good year, where would we be now? Plus, with hitters you’re never dealing with the career impact of a second TJS. Sale and Q worked out so well, but the White Sox continuing those relationships long-term would have been disastrous. JR also let Buehrle walk but kept Konerko. We can see the hesitancy they have going any longer than 3-4 year deals for pitching.

I’ll play along with Tex. Thank god we can borrow what looks like $7 trillion ($30 trillion plus, overall) and still maintain the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency...at a very low inflation/interest rate for refinancing such debt. Many countries either can’t afford or are refusing (China) to subsidize individuals and small businesses with cash payments for philosophical reasons. Mr Taweep Mee Phan who took to Facebook out of desperation offering to sell one of his eyes. Photo: Chalong Municipality PHUKET:-- A man who has been severely affected by the COVID-19 fallout took to social media in desperation last week offering to sell one of his eyes. Mr Taweep Mee Phan, 57, from Chalong posted on his Facebook account last Friday (Jan 15) that he was willing to sell his left eye to raise much needed funds to support his family. Mr Taweep was a bus driver for a Chinese tour company for 15 years before losing his job last February when tourists numbers visiting the island dried up. Full Story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/struck-poor-by-covid-phuket-man-tries-to-sell-eye-on-facebook-78693.php

If only we could run the government like a business and create more competition...!!! Well, we created a monopoly, or, at the very least, an oligopoly. War-time footing requires government intervention, and aspirational leadership, not bean counters from accounting who don’t want to be troubled to work on weekends. It’s ironic, because those community health pharmacies in WV adopted localized solutions, since they already had or maintain longterm relationships with their nursing homes and don’t want to jeopardize them...and they actually know and care about those residents, they’re not just numbers on a spreadsheet. In the end, the supposed “trust” in the vaccine those brand-names companies were supposed to create is destabilizing the system, because their performance has been so inept. If they hadn’t guaranteed those contracts...well, you only have to go back to the Theranos case to see how greed/profit is the primary driver for corporate pharmacies.

Without CJ Frederick (injured) and Bohannon hitting from the outside, Iowa is reduced to a team without any offensive creators on the floor. They have length, but not enough athleticism to routinely lock down opponents. Bohannon is really bad defensively, Toussaint is limited offensively, and McCaffrey isn’t a good enough outside shooter to keep defenses honest. So you’re going to see every team from now on swarm Garza and Weiskamp, forcing the rest of the offense to beat them. Nunge is going to play more and more of a role going forward, IMO. Of course, things always look bleakest after a bad loss, but at this point I would be happy with the first Sweet 16 in over 20 years, but not counting on it by any stretch. No illusions of winning a national championship when a team relies so much on outside shooting (see Creighton.)

https://www.yahoo.com/now/texas-school-district-proposed-diversity-100050047.html Here’s a Texas-sized example that is the quintessential argument that’s dividing our country today (race relations)...as an educator there, I’m sure you can appreciate the “both sides” aspect of it. The fact that the Cornish family after all that time still didn’t feel welcome tells one that we still have a long ways to go, and it didn’t get any easier the last 4-5 years. In the end, “liberals hate America” is the other side of the coin just as as labeling everyone on the other side a wanna-be Charlottesville Proud Boy rightfully rankles the majority of conservatives. It’s the same argument Vietnam War protesters heard, or The Dixie Chicks. If you don’t love your country in the same way I do, feel free to leave. We can easily retreat back to these general arguments about legacy, diversity, cancel culture, identity politics and patriotism, but then we’re simply skirting the issue.

Jeremy Reed? Anthony Webster? (Okay, we'll just go with Weems.) At least it wasn't a Phil Rogers, White Sox PR special. And this thread should go back to being called the Corbin Bernsen/Roger Dorn (Major League) one until we can secure an actual, legitimate rumor to substantiate it...

How much extra can players make through sponsorships over there? I think between tax differences, comfortable home culture and local sponsorships, it should be at least roughly even if you're talking $10 vs. $15 million. What was Ichiro getting right before he left for Seattle in endorsement money at the peak of his career, for example?

That stadium is better suited for a sinker baller...but he still needs to keep the ball in the center 1/3rd of the field. What is the relationship between Tanaka and Maeda, for example, as that's another key consideration. Then you've got the money they just spent on JA Happ as well. Of course, then the question becomes why don't they just go with their known quantity in Odorizzi if he's willing to back off one year in his demands (3/$39 down to something like 2/$28)? They're definitely not going to add contracts beyond the window they have closing with Buxton and Berrios leaving after the 2022 season. If there's a Twins' Way, it's never to overspend.

Isn't Tanaka either deciding between the Yankees for 1-2 years and going back to Japan on a rich 3-4 year deal to finish his career there?

Extending Lynn seems to be "nice dream," especially if they're pretty sure Giolito isn't amenable to the good 'ol hometown discount...but not putting money into the back of the rotation when it's clearly the biggest area of uncertainty or volatility and you already had one of the better bullpens in the league with the addition of Crochet, well, we'll just have to wait and see I guess.

Can Hector at least confirm that Cruz is in the DR?

Between guns/violence, the state of K-12 public education (along with rising university costs), social inequality/disparity, climate change/environment and fixing ObamaCare, as well as our ailing/aging public infrastructure, Covid-19, institutional racism, police reform...we've got a ton of issues to address. Right now, everything in the US pretty much comes with a caveat, YES, BUT...

Cruz or Odorizzi just make too much sense. Take away from the Twins, simultaneously add to the White Sox probability of winning the division.

Vaughn is one of the top rated prospects in baseball, and he's a HUGE need for Milwaukee right now. Most importantly, he's going to be cheap for his first four years. And Heuer solidifies that bullpen if they trade Hader. The fact of the matter is that Kopech and Crochet give you so many different possible outcomes in terms of innings pitched. At the very least, Lopez seems to have a rubber arm and is a decent change of scenery candidate if there ever was one.

Obviously, Milwaukee would ask for Cease (first), assuming Kopech/Crochet were off the table. The question is whether or not they would settle for Lopez, especially with his salary about to start rising. It's simply that there's is almost zero likelihood of trading Kopech or Crochet, so those two would be the most likely to go...and, all indications this offseason are that the Sox feel very confident about Cease being able to turn things around with a new pitching coach and approach.

So no Kyle Lewis, either?

If you're willing to go Vaughn, Lopez/Cease and Heuer...you might have a deal. It all depends on how highly Milwaukee scouts value those two pitchers (as opposed to Kopech/Crochet.) That said, would still prefer to go just Cruz and Richards and give the youngsters another year to define themselves. Don't need to make an "all in" move just yet...at least until the trade deadline. Of course, that means another $25 million or so in spending, so not counting on BOTH those guys. But at least ONE would be nice.

Milwaukee's going to need at least ONE pitcher who can compete this year if they're dreaming of staying in the NL Central race. Houser can be really good, but Lindbloom and Lauer is shaky as it gets as a 4/5 on a playoff-competitive team. At the very least, it would have to be Lopez/Cease and Vaughn (and perhaps one more piece.)