caulfield12

Of course, (for 2019 alone) the Mariners are still stuck with King Felix ($27 million), Cano ($24 million)...even Seager is $19 million, which seems crazy, although he was pretty darned good before last year. That's more or less $70 million. And it doesn't even include another $50 million to Leake, Segura, Dee Gordon and Nicasio. The only contracts that could be relatively easy to move there are Segura and Seager (will have to send back something really nice or eat salary). This is the exact position the White Sox don't want to be in in 2022-23-24...with a handful of overpriced veterans they're going to have to offload at 25 or 50 cents on the dollar. And they're still cutting payroll even with a billion dollar tv rights deal in place for Root Sports.

If they can get someone like C. Allen, Britton, Miller, Familia or Herrera for an advantageous 1 or 2 year deal...great. But not at inflated/overpay prices. There's got to be some vets out there who are looking for that opportunity to grab a closer's job by the horns and re-establish their value again...that will be coming in at lesser rates than Kimbrel. Take on Jansen, maybe...but his stuff really deteriorated down the stretch. Too risky at those salary numbers.

Florida and Ohio governors’ jobs to the GOP loom large...but that could be offset by Sherrod Brown as President or more likely VP on 2020 ticket. Still a ways to go in resolving Nelson/Scott, Montana, Arizona and the GA Governor’s race. O’Rourke, Sanders, Brown, Harris and Warren the five best-positioned to take up progressive flag. Pelosi, go away!!...Trump is raring to tear into you like red meat again...a younger Dem without such negative poll numbers nationally would be the better choice to turn over the position to in the summer of 2020, before she gets weaponized in the presidential election.

Cardinals logically being linked to Harper...especially (or despite?) after losing out on Price and Heyward, positive momentum to Cubs and Brewers.

Sox lucky to be in the best division for rebuilding. Astros have a ton of talent still, and the Angels have both Trout/Ohtani and an owner willing to spend in a big market...along with a new manager.

https://sports.yahoo.com/9-former-athletes-running-office-performed-tuesdays-election-053416828.html Former WR Anthony Gonzalez, Colin Allred, Napoleon Harris and Royals’ 2B Frank White win various elections...

You’re willing to sign Happ for how much and how many years? Seems like much better move 2 years down the line...whereas we might be forced into moving on some positional players earlier than we originally wanted. Just so many things that can go wrong with veteran pitching you’re paying market value or even higher.

30 million increase in voters, from 83 million in 2014 to 113 million plus, an increase of around 35%, roughly. Normally, Presidents with a popularity rating below 50% lose an average of 37 seats...Obama lost 63 in 2010, but the country is still 75% center right (especially on financial issues) and this election will end up around +29-33 for the Dems due principally to the fact that this is one of the strongest economies in a long time (at least for the top 25% of Americans) and higher healthcare costs haven’t fully come home to roost quite yet. Tester still has a good chance in MT, Sinema maybe 25% in AZ....Nelson and Scott would have a runoff in FL if the final margin is 0.5% or less. Elected three 20 somethings in Finkenauer, Katie Hill (CA) and Ocasio-Cortez...two Muslim American women in MI and MN. https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/opinions/why-this-blue-wave-was-no-tsunami-granderson/index.html

Trump’s tactics worked in the South, Indiana, Missouri and maybe Montana... The problem for the GOP is losing PA, Michigan, Iowa (3 of 4 seats, King almost lost and Reynolds barely held on), Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc. Nevada is going more and more Dem. Barely held onto Arizona. It ORourke didn’t go so far to the left, he could/should have won Texas with $70+ million behind him. Walker and Kobach are gone. When the dust settles, the pickup in the House will be around 30 seats. That said, Abrams, Gillum and ORourke each lost, along with that Iron Stache dude. Four high profile losses. If Trump goes to war with the House, he won’t win. If they decide to work together and Trump betrays the GOP on areas like infrastructure, lower prescription costs, pre-existing conditions and actually lowers taxes on the middle class (only), he has a very good chance to win again in 2020. It just depends on which side makes a better argument to the 40% in the middle, not the 30% that are hyper partisan on both extreme wings ideologically. Trump controls his own fate. More culture wars in the middle of an expected recession and he’s doomed to bring down the GOP brand for a decade. (The Handel/GA 6 seat flipped back to the Dems by the slimmest of margins.)

Looking like 226-209, but that could shift by 2-3 either way in the House. Walker finally lost in WI. Trend against Dems continued everywhere except for Nevada. AZ barely went to McSally. Tons of Republican seats that were chopped down from 20-30% wins in 2014 and 2016 to losses or slight victories this time around. The Handel race in GA (she's the one who beat Jon Ossoff in the hugely expensive runoff is up by just 57 votes with 100% reporting, Chris Collins of insider trading fame in NY went from 34.4% margin down to 1.1%, and it's still not over officially). 4 "lean Dem" seats are still within 1%, along with 6 "lean GOP" House seats. California 25, 48, Michigan 8, Minnesota 1 could still go either way...same with California 10, ME 2, GA 6 (Handel), NC 9, NJ 3 and NM 2 are all within 1%, too.

Also, there's NO WAY IN HE-L-L Hillary Clinton is going to run again, let alone win the nomination. The Me-Too movement and her husband's past transgressions (look at the trend of white/educated women voting DEM this election, it's almost 2 to 1) make this a complete non-starter.

Looks like Scott Walker has 9 Lives. That race is going to go down to the middle of the morning, by the looks of it. 3000-ish vote spread with 6.7% still left to report (which typically would favor the Dems.)

The headline story will be the Senate and FL/GA for the GOP. The even bigger story for DEMS is the rejection of Trumpism across the Midwest and Rust Belt. Those 77,000 votes in 2016 are quickly evaporating. PA is a massacre, Wisconsin might be one as well (Ryan will keep his seat intact because the Dems ran someone with too much baggage against his successor)...Michigan and Iowa are coming back home into the Democratic column after flirting with Trump and rejecting Clinton (equal doses of both). Ohio is going to be another huge battleground, looks to be going GOP again for governor, following up Kasich's more moderating tone. Trump had a great opening these last two years to move towards the middle and wipe out liberalism...and that chance is now blown. With a strong economy, if he had fixed the Obamacare loophole/donut and balanced the tax cut more evenly between the rich/corporations and middle class...and not started an unnecessary trade war with China (the tariffs were a bad strategy, all he needed to do was build a coalition with Europe and Japan/South Korea/India and they could have extracted even bigger concessions than what we'll receive eventually). You would never know (from the following map) that America has never been more divided...at least since the 1960's/Watergate or the Civil War.

Things are looking up for Reddy in Iowa. It would be a shock if King lost (losing to Scholten in the early going), but the other three seats and governor could all go back to the Dems by the end of the night.

Pettie, don't get the thread closed, lol... In the battlefield (vulnerable GOP) House races, the Dems are up 12-9 so far, with PA-14 and potentially NJ-5 the only ones that look like they could be going the other direction. Net House pickup is 12 seats, so far. PA has been a wipe-out for the GOP, compared to the last few elections...GOP can take solace in FL, Georgia, Indiana, ND. Losing PA is also going to make winning it in 2020 for Trump a huge hill to climb (twice). Trump will still be able to declare victory...especially if Gillum and Abrams both lose their races. It means we'll see more of the same for the next two years (immigration/identity-based politics). Knocking off Scott Walker and Kobach is a SMALL consolation for Dems. The bloom is already off the Walker rose, after 2016. Cruz just knocked off O'Rourke. Beto's still got a puncher's chance in 2020 if he can figure out how to tack towards the middle and off his extremely progressive views (which never had a chance in a statewide Texas race, but would play much better in a Dem primary assuming he's not hemmed in by Sanders/Warren/K.Harris). Feel that Sanders won't run again, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Kobach lost in Kansas...a decent-sized surprise.

If you add Dunning/Hansen/Robert and of course Kopech, that's a pretty substantial hit. Other than Jimenez, there's no "surefire" impact position player. Robert and Madrigal have tons of POTENTIAL, but...

Seems like they're heading for 223-227 in the House (218 for majority). Most optimistically, they were initially looking at 235-240. Trump will be able to tout his Senate holds, even though more and more of the governorship's and state legislatures are trending in the Dem column. With Donnelly losing to Braun, all Senate hopes are already extinguished before they even got started. And, if Nelson and Gillum both lose in FL, that's a HUGE break for Trump's 2020 chances. He absolutely has to win FL/OH...because WI/PA/MI/IA are going to be much harder gets the second time around. Another fascinating subplot....Kansas, Maine, South Dakota are all trending Dem (so far) for governor, any of those three going that direction would be pretty darned surprising. Wisconsin and Ohio continue to be the two races (after FL and GA) that everyone's closely monitoring.

VA 2 and 7 are the next dominoes to fall. Otoh, the GOP has kept Barr's seat and another key VA race, so it's not going to be a blue wave. Net is +2 so far. Things looking pretty grim for Donnelly and Abrams, Nelson and Gillum could go either way in FLA. Also a bit surprised by the margins in the TN Senate race, Bredesen was expected to be within at least 5%. An O'Rourke win in Texas (still highly unlikely) and he becomes the temporary favorite for the Dems in 2020.

KW is lurking with the Adam Jones/Nelson Cruz moves...it's 2007-2011 all over again, haha.

Trading Abreu (unless it's simply offsetting salaries) for a so-so prospect in return doesn't make much sense, especially with the talk for 2-3 years now about he was the most respected guy in the clubhouse, leader/role model for Latin American prospects, etc. Cruz is simply going to be a "filler" for a couple of years...and wouldn't be in the long-term competitive window, unless that window is being pushed up to 2019/20 all of a sudden. Abreu at 1B, Cruz at DH and Palka/Garcia platoon in RF (or Harper, obviously, which allows them to cut Garcia and save some money) is the best line-up they can possibly put out there. Palka could also DH occasionally against tough RHP that Cruz (or any pitchers that Cruz historically struggles against.)

Also, does anyone want to venture a guess that the Georgia and/or Florida governor's races aren't resolved tonight? Florida with Gillum leading slightly (1.8%) with 35.4% in. Roughly 40% of the electorate (national) is describing themselves as independent.

Really strange results so far...nobody expected Wexton (D) to be up 17% on Comstock in VA, but Donnelly being down almost 16% against Braun (even if it's only 25% reporting) in Indiana is a bit of a shocker as well. By the end of the evening, a 53-47 split in the Senate wouldn't be much of a shock. Winning ND is long gone. TN, Texas seem like long shots at best. Missouri could go either way, just like NV and AZ.

He only threw 97~98 for a few starts and that Futures Game....look at average velocities from 2~3 years ago, you will see him closer to 94. 95, touching 96.

Also, RF at Guaranteed Rate is not that challenging to play...not nearly the size of other outfields, and we should (at least) have a legit CF defensively to help compensate for weaknesses on both corners.