caulfield12

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/dylan-cease/18525/stats?position=P You must be confusing Cease 2019 with the 2020 version. If he repeats 2019, there will be be massive bullpen issues if he again averages less than 5 IP per start. If you had Cease 2019 for fifth start, that’s more what would expect from the typical playoff-bound rotation.

https://qconline.com/news/local/debate-sparks-over-glass-steagall-act/article_da61ae1e-056f-566a-b254-32f038075496.html Of course, Rep. Leach from our district in Iowa was acting in retrospect like he wasn’t at the center of all this, along with Phil Gramm of Texas. (Well, at least his niece, Leslie, who went to Occidental, was nice...Leach was always perceived as a center-right banking expert and had as much to do with financial rules and regulations as anyone in the 1980’s and 90’s.) I guess if blame had to be assigned going all the way back to Reagan/Regan/Stockman, it’s 55-60% GOP and the remainder on the Clinton administration, with Obama giving everyone a convenient free pass at the end of it all. On GME second move... “But, don’t expect it to happen once more. Wall Street will likely fight back against another onslaught of coordinated buying by Reddit investors. Whether that’s via trading restrictions, as we saw brokerages like Robinhood do at the height of the short-squeeze saga. Or, perhaps Wall Street could pressure Reddit itself to shutter the popular subreddit. How Wall Street fights back isn’t the point. It’s the fact it’ll likely curb any future short-squeeze sagas any which way it can. With it more a game of predicting the unpredictable, the ability to handicap the situation is limited. We’ll know in the coming days whether this second round has legs, or if it quickly sputters out.” https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/despite-reddit-rebound-stay-away-160643747.html

If if if he can actually stay on the field for 145+ games...

White Sox Jimmy Cordero: The White Sox bullpen is stacked with intriguing pitchers about to embark on their first full seasons. We're highlighting Cordero because his bloated ERA (6.08 in 26 innings) tells a misleading story about his 2020. His sinker-slider combination suppressed contact at an elite rate last season, permitting him to rank in the 96th percentile of exit velocity. That didn't prevent him from allowing 11 hits per nine frames, but we don't think that will carry into the new year. As an added bonus, Cordero has the best short-sleeve game in the majors since the days of Joel Peralta. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-breakout-candidates-one-player-from-all-30-teams-whos-ready-to-step-up-in-2021-season/

Yes, where Dustin May, Gonsolin, Gavin Lux, etc., don’t even have starting roles without injuries (see Price, David).

He’s this year’s version of Drew Anderson with lesser stuff. Dennis Michael Wright Jr. is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago White Sox organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball for the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners, and in the KBO League for the NC Dinos. Wright played college baseball for East Carolina University. Wikipedia

https://www.mlb.com/news/best-baseball-cap-for-every-team?partnerId=zh-20210227-156906-MLB&qid=1026&bt_ee=vCw1KXOrq7s4xKn0lqGTnyie0Z60wHy5%2FAsJLGMRKG5vqxbF2mfObP7wojzFirOu&bt_ts=1614429995422 This was about the closest I could find with a quick online search...the 1959 version is much more common, for obvious reasons. https://www.detroitgamegear.com/product=/chicago-white-sox-47-brand-cooperstown-vintage-navy-franchise-fitted-hat?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIisaQ5qmK7wIVXiCtBh0BSQiYEAQYASABEgJpxfD_BwE

Well, it’s essentially like an adjustable rate mortgage for utilities such as gas, water and electric. When someone benefits by rates going lower, they are smart. When the rates go up, or they have a balloon payment they can’t make after buying a house, essentially enjoying a service they couldn’t ordinarily afford...who is responsible? If they bought the house with an ARM or interest-only loan but flipped it for profit in the meantime...will they not enjoy profit? We had a president bragging for years about taking advantage of the system, loopholes, paying no taxes for nearly a decade...why should it be surprising everyone now wants special treatment? Like forgiving student loans, for example. HOUSTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Texas's grid operator on Friday shut Griddy Energy LLC's access to the state's power network for unpaid bills and shifted its 10,000 customers to other utilities, as new signs of a financial crisis rose after a state-wide blackout. Griddy was the power marketer that sold consumers electricity at wholesale rates, which rose to $9,000 per megawatt hour as cold weather struck the state last week. Unable to cope with demand, utilities cut power to 4.3 million residents as temperatures fell below freezing. Grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) "effectively shut down Griddy," the electricity marketer said in a statement on its website. Requests for further comment were not returned. ERCOT separately said $2.1 billion of its service bills went unpaid from utility and other grid users on Friday, another sign of the devastation from high electricity rates during the cold snap. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-electric-firm-griddy-loses-005444136.html

One positive with this new bill is that at least checks are only going out to those under $75,000 household income and families...if it went to those over $75,000 as well, you’d see 50-75% of that money going right back into the stock market, rather than paying off debts and being recirculated right back into the economy for goods and services, keeping those small businesses and hourly workers in their jobs. The goal on the flip side of the equation is consolidation/mergers, wiping out anything remotely resembling small mom and pop stores or local restaurants....just feeding into the continued massive corporatization of the country. Those corporations, meanwhile, figure out any possible way to cut down on both human resources and physical office space, driving up stock prices (more buybacks) and driving the bottom 2/3rds of Americans further away from the American dream. This next decade, it will be increasingly challenging for that bottom group to even afford a decent house, with interest rates/inflation rising.

How would you define who’s most responsible? Barney Frank? Rubin and Clinton? Summers? Greenspan? Mortgage lenders who didn’t even verify incomes in the quest to beat the competition and generate as many new loans as possible? Investment banks mixing retail and investment banking? The rating agencies? You could go through that Inside Job documentary (Matt Damon narrated) and there would be so many guilty parties there would be nobody left but Elizabeth Warren, and she’s not entirely the saint the media created, either. I think that’s why nothing substantive was done. You would have to destroy our whole financial and regulatory system and basically start over from scratch

That’s what happens when there was no attempt at national or Federal coordination for a full year, contracts were simply given to pharmacies and public health departments were left out of the loop...to the previous administration, just coming up with a vaccine itself was the victory that would theoretically allow for a second term. But there was no to no thought given collectively or collaboratively on how to distribute it effectively. It was more like a political prop or tool.

Another Hahn special, Emilio Bonifacio...not officially retired yet but don’t see him connected to a team. Will probably end up in an international league.

You can argue just as easily that if Renteria didn’t experiment with the pen (Rodon) and Robert didn’t fall off a cliff...that 2-8 against the Indians, etc., we’d just put away the Twins and were running away then suddenly let up on the gas.

“Meanwhile, I'm guessing most of the fans who remain highly critical of the team have continued living through those painful years, and feel that team ownership and management owes them something for them having to endure those years. Is there something to that? For me, returning to the team as I did last year, all I see are good things and growth. Here are a few things that I really like (whether or not other Sox fans do)...” I can just imagine every loss bring blamed on TLR, just like previously with Renteria...but it’s going to be even more polarized. Because lots of fans who have been dormant for the better part of a decade are going to come back to the fold. Expectations are high...the most interest/excitement in fifteen years now since the 2006 team. That’s half a lifetime for quite a few posters here, or at least covering high school through mid to late 30’s. Many posters have left the bachelor lifestyle behind and now rank the Sox in their list of priorities well behind family, friends, work and Covid concerns. Personally, I tried to find other reasons to follow baseball (see Puig or Tatis)..but still followed most of the games on a daily basis until that mid 2016 collapse up to the Moncada debut and then Kopech in 2018 and in and out through 2019. What doesn’t sit too well with me is judging other Sox fans when you deliberately avoided following them for so long. You can argue or assert you’re not judging or preaching or carrying JR’s water or seeing everything White Sox through rose-colored glasses...but you can’t suddenly reappear and suddenly anoint Mr. Collins as a potential everyday player without having watched his at-bats the last three seasons. That will not be well received, certainly. So this relentless, new thread each day or even multiple threads cajoling everyone into being more optimistic are just going to start a war after every loss. If the White Sox were running a $140-150 million payroll out there for Opening Day, I might be convinced they actually were aiming to win a World Series, or at least advance in the playoffs or even to the ALCS. The Royals went from 20th to 17th to 9th in MLB Opening Day payroll from 2014-2016, but they at least set a new franchise high every year from 2013 through 2017, increasing for five consecutive years. The Cubs went from 19th to 13th all the way up to $184.5 million at the start of the 2016 World Series with the Indians around $95 million. The odds of teams not in the Top 12 payrolls advancing in the playoffs over the last four seasons is basically limited to the Rays and A’s over the White Sox. 90% of the frustration is that unwillingness even in the second year of the competitive window to spend at least in that $140-150 million range....it’s even harder to take when you see the Padres spending $162 million with the best team with the deepest pockets the team in front. It feels like if we were in the NL West we would simply aspire to 3rd place and maybe a wild card, but that would be the extent of it. And that self-satisfaction without having really accomplished anything yet is pretty galling. We had the division and coughed it all away the last two weeks...and the main reason we were there was beating up on the worst teams in baseball, particularly the Royals, Tigers...we only went 10-10 versus the relatively weak NL Central, too. We were 7-13 against Cleve and Minnesota, but 18-2 against Detroit and KC. 17-23 is closer to where we really were against the majority of MLB, but the unbalanced schedule and 16 team playoff field saved us.

Go Sox?

Injuries/lack of playing time/issues off the field. Nobody in baseball knows exactly what to expect, and how/if he will respond to such an extended layoff. You could even argue for the vision of Crochet as Randy Johnson over Kopech's long term future as a starter. We just don't have a clue how he will react.

SD Padres, #2-3 team in baseball coming from the 29th media market and opening 2021 at $162 million in payroll in a state with noteworthy Covid issues. We are only around what, $130 million in one of the Top 3~5 media markets in the entire country. It's roughly split 60/40 with Cubs, but that still is a significant market to exploit if only the organization could creatively use their collective imagination...in terms of at least reaching parity with the "greedy/evil" Cubs' collapsing empire.

Madrigal and Moncada will never have an easy road to the ASG. If we do extend Lynn, it won't be easily done, as a strong season from him has to roll down and impact money earmarked for Lucas, Vaughn, Madrigal, Kopech/Cease/Crochet, etc. Personally, would be pretty surprised to see it happen with Keuchel on books. Another obvious weakness besides 4/5 is going to be Grandal's health as he ages. And Zack Collins isn't being counted on for much at all by the majority of the fan base. That said, we could still get lucky with Micker, Sheets or Burger... not to mention Cespedes or Colas.

Meanwhile, JR has signed a deal with the City of Chicago to limit in-person attendance so he has a. legitimate excuse not to invest any more money in the on-field product.

He needs to spend less time on social media and more time exhaustively assessing all options for DH beyond internal ones if Vaughn is deemed to be at least a half-season away.

Except everything from last year we didn’t see... We heard Madrigal wasn’t close to ready after similar struggles his draft year. Why would Vaughn, arguably a more polished hitter, not be capable of following the same timeline of 1 1/2 seasons before recall?

Sheets should also be ahead of Collins at 1B...

Any team in baseball could have tried to spend $60 million on Latin American prospects alone in 2016, with half the money going to taxes and penalties. Was that smart? Well, it certainly boosted their minor league system into the upper tier, and in a hurry that bottoming out and drafting like the Royals or mid to late 80s White Sox would require hitting on nearly every first first rounder before the competitive window pushed picks down. We can criticize the Hosmer and Myers deals...or even Pomeranz before last year, but it’s certainly more fun to follow a team willing to dream big dreams rather than one getting by by exploiting market inefficiencies or niches like the Rays or A’s. Look at what’s happening in Atlanta, or with the Blue Jays. It’s not rocket science. Even the Marlins are getting up off the deck. I mean, honestly, that sounds exactly like a complaint of White Sox fans against the Cubs the last 20-30 years...calling them yuppies, that they’re only there to skip work, party/drink, play on their cell phones, aren’t as knowledgeable as Sox or Cardinals’ fans, pee everywhere, frat nerds ogling babes in bikinis, it’s all the same currency being spent, whether it’s a grandma from Des Moines or Pete from Peoria at the park.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/padres-have-tossed-aside-small-market-stigma-to-act-like-a-model-franchise-heres-why-its-great-for-mlb/ Speaking of which, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic in response to the Tatis extension voiced a concern that wasn't hard to find among some corners of the baseball cognoscenti. He wrote: "Fans in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and some larger major-league cities would love their clubs to operate as aggressively the Padres, who are locking up their 22-year-old superstar rather than starting their countdown to trading him. And yet, there's a danger here, and it can't be dismissed, even in the giddy elation of Fernando Tatis Jr.'s 14-year, $340 million extension. How the heck are the Padres going to sustain this?" That question gets it precisely wrong. A better way to frame the Padres' boldness would be to use it as a cudgel against the vast majority of other teams. That is: "If the Padres, denizens of one of the smallest markets in MLB, have achieved all this, then what the hell have you been doing?" For all the diversionary oxygen being devoted to pacing concerns and the dearth of balls in play and the like, the gravest current crisis in MLB is the overabundance of team owners who have no interest in winning as many baseball games as possible. Not only does treating cherished civic institutions like portfolio holdings disaffect fans (i.e., customers), but it also makes ongoing labor peace between players and owners much less likely. It's the hometown nine, not a tranche of debt instruments. When a team like the Padres gives primacy to the goal of winning -- as they darn well should -- it puts the lie to all those risible claims of financial woe emanating from most other C suites around the league. Seidler, who rose to the top of the Padres' org chart late last year, is not deluded about such matters. He knows MLB is a wildly profitable industry. He knows the claims of financial hardships resulting from the COVID-compromised 2020 season are temporary and almost certainly overstated. He knows that owning an MLB team yields investment growth that can be duplicated almost nowhere else. He knows the best way to get fans to care is to improve the product. So that's what he's doing even if few other owners have the fortitude to behave similarly. That kind of behavioral pressure from within is exactly what the current guild of MLB owners badly needs. Promising $340 million and a wire-to-wire no-trade clause to Tatis isn't a sign that the Padres are doing too much. Rather, it's a sign that many of the more well-heeled MLB teams aren't doing enough. The next time your team's owner costumes "I choose not to" as "I can't," cite for them the wee-market Padres and Tatis. After all the lies and self-defeating avarice on the part of MLB owners, we need to deprogram ourselves and stop thinking of signing a deliriously popular and deliriously excellent young franchise shortstop as something to wring hands over. Again, they're doing what they should be doing. With their fine and many-splendored ballpark, near-perfect weather, and re-imagined uniforms that evoke the strong franchise identity that was there in the beginning, the Padres have the trappings and settings of a model franchise. That they've lately been acting like a model franchise is an unqualified good thing and should serve as an example for the rest of baseball. Nice to see someone calling out the Pirates, Orioles, Royals, Tigers, Indians, Rays (understandable enough), A’s, Mariners, Cubs, Brewers, Rockies, Reds...although this could just as easily be aimed at White Sox and Twins’ ownership as well.

Robert already showed us how low his lows can go last September, forfeiting what seemed like an easy claim to AL Rookie of the Year honors by hitting .136 (11 for 81) with a .409 OPS. It's not fair to assess a player by his worst month, of course, but when that month is basically half his season (not to mention his career), it weighs heavily. Only one of the seven qualifying batters who struck out as often as Robert did in 2020 (32.2 percent) had higher than his .233 batting average (Willy Adames at .259), and while we've seen players like Aaron Judge and Joey Gallo thrive with that sort of strikeout rate in years past, it required them to be some of the hardest hitters in the game. Robert's average exit velocity (87.9 mph) was actually in the bottom half of the league. His expected batting average, according to Statcast, was .226. His expected slugging percentage was .466. No matter how scarce stolen bases are, Robert won't live up to his ADP without taking a leap as a hitter, and while such a leap is possible, I'm not willing to project it onto him at the expense of another ace or a Corey Seager-type hitter. There will be chances for those sorts of gambles later. https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/fantasy-baseball-rankings-2021-sleepers-from-advanced-model-that-called-will-smiths-strong-season/