caulfield12

Fine, then why does it work so well in China? They have more capital reserves than any country in the world, and everyone can cheaply see a doctor in 30-45 minutes...the same day they have a problem. The only problem is that it’s so affordable, people take their young kids there for trivial issues...whereas we wait until near death to dare going to a hospital in the US. This, invariably, makes the long term costs of avoiding treatment even more onerous. Or you just end up with more medical bankruptcies or costs getting written off, with premiums consistently rising on the most high risk insurance pools.

Yet every industrialized country in the world can figure it out despite the US spending far and away the most per capita on health care well before the age of ObamaCare, with abysmal mortality rates and preventive care being two lowlights? At any rate, fixing the donut hole within ACA is STILL much better than destroying the ACA, completely starting from scratch OR Medicare for All. Let’s not forget the dangers of complete profit-oriented online schools, prisons/military contractors, bridge and tollways that charge a ton but are always under repair...where is the so-called market efficiency there?

Listening to Red Sox/Phillies...or maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention and it was Philly? “Of all the teams, the Cleveland Indians make far and away the most sense. They desperately need outfield help. They could absorb the remaining $7 million or so of Harper’s salary. The issue would be the prospect cache the Nationals would demand. They could ask, rightfully, for something similar to what the Dodgers gave the Baltimore Orioles for Manny Machado – and the Indians, an organization that thrives because of its ability to produce homegrown talent, almost certainly would balk at mortgaging some of its future for a rental in a league with the Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros and Yankees playing as well as they are.” Jeff Passan Dodgers and Yankees can’t afford to go over the luxury caps...

Indians and Mets (what?) two highly-interested parties. Go ahead, CLE, losing some more top end talent can only help the WS unless they somehow win the World Series.

Nyet! I am Ruskie bot paid for by the Spencer’s. I switch font now, comrades, you see how ubiquitious and innocuous the damage is, almost imperceptible to the naked eye. Dos Vadanya

"We are excited to welcome Roberto Osuna to our team," Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said in a statement. "The due diligence by our front office was unprecedented. We are confident that Osuna is remorseful, has willfully complied with all consequences related to his past behavior, has proactively engaged in counseling, and will fully comply with our zero tolerance policy related to abuse of any kind. Roberto has some great examples of character in our existing clubhouse that we believe will help him as he and his family establish a fresh start and as he continues with the Houston Astro. We look forward toOsuna's contributions as we head into the back half of the season. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/astros/article/Astros-trade-Blue-Jays-Roberto-Osuna-Ken-Giles-13117676.php Team control through 2021...3 1/4 years total.

Obama Joins Club of the Super-Rich – Defends Global Capitalism in Lecture https://therealnews.com/stories/obama-joins-club-of-the-super-rich-defends-global-capitalism-in-lecture

“Enacting something like ‘Medicare for all’ would be a transformative change in the size of the federal government,” said Charles Blahous, the study’s author. Blahous was a senior economic adviser to former President George W. Bush and a public trustee of Social Security and Medicare during the Obama administration. Responding to the study, Sanders took aim at the Mercatus Center, which receives funding from the conservative Koch brothers. Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch is on the center’s board. “If every major country on earth can guarantee health care to all, and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States cannot do the same,” Sanders said in a statement. “This grossly misleading and biased report is the Koch brothers response to the growing support in our country for a ‘Medicare for all’ program.” Sanders’ office has not done a cost analysis, a spokesman said. His 2016 presidential campaign website cites an estimated price tag of $1.38 trillion a year for an earlier version of the plan, but other studies have projected much higher costs. Sanders’ staff found an error in an initial version of the Mercatus report, which counted a long-term care program that was in the 2016 proposal but not the current one. Blahous corrected it, reducing his estimate by about $3 trillion ($29-30 trillion) over 10 years. Blahous says the report is based on his own work, not the Koch brothers’. https://apnews.com/09e06d686a1a481fa76e3fd91f3fcbc2/Study:-'Medicare-for-all'-projected-to-cost-$32.6-trillion

Franco starting ahead, hopefully related to John, Matt or Julio.

They've already crossed the ethical bridge with Aroldis Chapman. Would be eligible for the playoffs this year. Two years of arbitration in 2019 and 2020. They could probably acquire him for a lot less than the combination of Happ/Schwarber/Russell (2 of 3) being asked for deGrom (of course, Jacob has considerably more value as a starter than as an elite closer.) This is the kind of creativer/outside the box move a team could make (very high risk, controversial) to trade for and extend someone who could be one of the best closers in baseball earlier in his career (instead of overpaying for the Kimbrel's and Jansen's of the world.) If they could get him to sign an extension from 2023 or 2024, would/should the White Sox do it? Who are you willing to trade? What is he worth in this market, coming off suspension and with a team forced into a rebuild but theoretically able to turn it around more quickly with Vladdy Jr. and Bo Bichette (but probably not before 2021)?

Yoan Moncada Mahalanobis Comps Rank Name KATOH+ Proj. WAR Actual WAR 1 Ian Stewart 8.5 3.1 2 Andrew McCutchen 14.3 34.5 3 Melvin Upton 12.6 22.4 4 D’Angelo Jimenez 13.2 7.4 5 Alex Gonzalez 14.0 6.2 6 Bobby Crosby 11.5 8.1 7 Andy Marte 13.8 0.3 8 Grady Sizemore 8.3 29.4 9 Jim Thome 12.0 27.8 10 Sean Burroughs 15.0 5.4 I'm sure everyone will love with Jimenez comp, lol...

Reddy’s “progressive” candidate gets some national hype. Also, her lead was reported at 6%, Fwiw. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/abby-finkenauer-iowa/566159/

Last week the San Diego Padres traded Brad Hand and fellow reliever Adam Cimber to the Cleveland Indians, and in return received Francisco Mejia, baseball’s top catching prospect. It was yet another elite addition to what has become baseball’s best farm system by miles. Padres general manager A.J. Preller has methodically built San Diego’s collection of prospects into an absolute behemoth, one that looks more loaded than any in recent memory. While the results have yet to be seen at the major league level, some of the team’s impact prospects are knocking on the door. Preller and the Padres have taken their cues from the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros. They tore the major league product down and invested in high-upside youth at all levels. They bet on their ability to out-scout, out-draft, out-recruit and out-spend their competition for talent. It’s paying off so far. How jam-packed is the Padres’ system? With the addition of Mejia, San Diego now boasts three of the top six players on Keith Law’s midseason top 50, and seven of the top 51 (he made an addendum to his list). On MLB.com’s top 100 list, the Padres have 10 of the top 100 and a ridiculous seven in the top 42. MLB also ranked San Diego’s system at No. 1 before the season. https://thebiglead.com/2018/07/25/san-diego-padres-prospects-preller-has-bulit-monster/

Royals have to be pretty close to the bottom as well...with DET not much better. Seems Tigers aren’t going to gut their team by trading Castellanos, Fulmer, Shane Greene, Boyd, etc.

Interesting FG projection from a little more than one year ago... https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/projecting-yoan-moncada/

Depends partly on what you think about Mejia’s true potential, the Braves losing eligibility for Maitan, Acuna Jr. and Albies...the White Sox only lost Jace Fry (?) But the injuries have taken their toll, too. Giolito, Lopez and Fulmer all lost their rookie status last year, or the beginning of this year...along with Moncada.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24229846/mlb-baseball-always-good-cooperstown-new-york

Anderson has taken a slight step forward, but he's still not an All-Star shortstop compared to what the very best at that position do. Moncada hasn't progressed much, if at all (especially when compared to where he was in late April.) Yay for Soria and Shields improving the most? Giolito, Fulmer and Lopez are basically the same or much worse. Davidson/Sanchez are treading water. I suppose you could argue that if you combined Palka and Davidson into a platoon, they would be "serviceable." Engel and Delmonico have been disappointments, although nothing was expected out of Engel other than from some who get excited about ST results. His defense hasn't been particularly good, and he almost always throws to the wrong base or inaccurately. Even Avi has managed to take a lot of shine off his future prospects with the Sox, assuming Hahn was potentially serious about extending him. We all know the minor league side of things...but Hansen and Robert being lost for most of the season...not to mention Dunning being out, has set the rebuild back to 2021 in the minds of most prognosticators, essentially forcing a trade of Rodon since he will be a FA after our first legitimately competitive season. White Sox fans should get a reward for not recording the worst attendance in baseball, and coming out this weekend, months after the team was buried. They're pretty close to being 26th in the majors, which is exactly what they have averaged from 2013 through 2016 while "trying to compete."

Jared Kushner was a life long Democrat before working with Trump, and was Partners with Soros, In 2014, Kushner, with his brother Joshua and Ryan Williams, co-founded Cadre (now RealCadre LLC), an online real-estate investment platform. His business partners included Goldman Sachs and billionaire George Soros, a top Democratic Party donor. In early 2015, Soros Fund Management financed the startup with a $250 million credit line. Kushner did not identify these business relationships in his January 2017 government financial-disclosure form. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Kushner

What is the benefit of supporting a team with hard earned money that doesn’t care about having a chance at closing games, winning in general and is holding Jimenez and Kopech back? Will it compel the Sox to pursue Machado or Harper if attendance climbs to 20,000+ per game from 18,500? One would think not.

And they have taken a huge gamble putting most of their eggs in the pitching basket. Look no further than what has happened with the 2015 Mets’ rotation. Compare to Baez, Bryant, Contreras, Schwarber, Happ, Almora and Russell. The only failure there was Soler, so they were 7/8 with their top position prospects (we can eliminate Baez because he was Hendry and Contreras because he could have been picked up by any team in Rule 5 a half decade ago.) If you want to extend to pitching, you can add hitting on Hendricks as well. Is ANY MLB team realistically going to hit at an 83% rate for top pitching prospects? The rate there is 30-40% at best. It was MUCH worse than that for the White Sox in the 1998-2001 groups. If they come up short, do they have the budget to throw $100-150 million at a Darvish type and then cover for the lack of hitting (see worst outfield fWAR in baseball, -0.6)? An elite closer? That’s a lot of heavy lifting still to go even if Jimenez is an absolute stud hitter (900+ ops). Can you afford to keep Avi Garcia? To put it in perspective, Happ and Schwarber can’t even play everyday and each of those guys would be the best hitter on the Sox. Heck, David Bote would be our best contact hitter. And Russell is still a better player than Moncada or Anderson despite being a huge disappointment to most Cubs’ fans this season.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nazis-racists-bigots-extremism-us-ballot-2018-053425570.html Extremism in GOP candidates (growing collection of Nazis, racists, bigots continues unabated)

Okay, but what can you actually get in return for him this offseason or next year at the deadline? You’re merely creating one more huge hole without guaranteeing you can fill another with your acquisition pieces.

And, if you trade Rodon (for far less than you got back for the Big 3), you’re essentially forcing Kopech or Cease to be a #1/TOR piece. The Sox haven’t acquired one from outside the organization since Garcia and Contreras. I guess tryouts can count the Quintana steal and his evolution into a 2, almost signing Tanaka (that would have blown up if they committed Darvish money.) Hansen has taken two steps backwards, he was the other one with that potential ability, with Dunning slotting in as a 2/3 guy and equal numbers believing he’s a 1 or merely a 4/5. López’s future outcomes are all over the map, too, along with Giolito’s. Simply put, without a healthy Rodon, there’s yet another element of uncertainty for that predicted 2021 dominance.

I just met a huge White Sox fan at my high school reunion (husband of former classmate)...we spent a long time talking about this very issue. Honestly, I have no idea what we actually have in Moncada or Anderson at this point. If they are going to be 2-3 war guys or much more. Moncada was supposed to be a 5-7ish superstar. What do we have in Giolito, or Lopez, at this point? Covey? The biggest cause for celebration is the healthy return of Rodon (for now), and Abreu/Avi hitting better than they did previously. But it's likely neither of those guys are part of the 2021 team, unless they shock all of us and sign Garcia to an extension. There's just a lot of uncertainty and frustration. I suppose the White Sox might not have any choice in eventually making it back to the playoffs, because we should be ahead of all the other rebuilding AL Central teams in 2021 and onwards, but actually having the firepower to beat the Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, Cubs, Dodgers, etc., is another matter altogether. Having a run like the Pirates in recent years (where they would make it but get knocked out early or just have one WC game) doesn't automatically turn this team into a 2.5-2.75 million attendance generator, which is what Reinsdorf would need to justify spending $130-150 million on payroll again. The Cubs are still going to be dominating the Chicago market at least for the next couple of years, too. Beyond the minor league health issues, we have a number of posters wanting to trade Rodon (clearly our best pitcher now)...and the simple fact that Hahn and Company have bungled almost every free agent signing for a span of almost five years. Eventually adding Jimenez and Kopech will make this team much more watchable, but still more or less back in 2010-12 mode, where we're competitive but far from dominant. And the odds of signing any big name FA's this loaded offseason are diminishing by the second. At best, we get someone like AJ Pollock (who can hardly stay on the field) for a "bargain" price but alluring enough to get him to sign for AT LEAST 3 years, if not 4.