caulfield12

97-100 mph at Harvard Westlake...Farmer scouted him. Sharp breaking “teacup” curve, more like a slurve at 87-88.

If they push Turner out of OR, will you be happier then at least...? She’s actually alienating Hispanics more than she is bringing African Americans back into the fold. As far as flipping the Senate, chances are pretty darned slim.

Why would we pay him $40 million the next two years ($80 total) when we’re probably not going to be able to win the division until 2021...?

You can’t honestly think African-Americans would sit out another election after everything that’s happened under Trump...that they dislike Sanders so much they’d rather keep Trump for 4 more years? I find that nearly impossible to believe.

Even though every single head-to-head poll consistently had him doing better against Trump than HRC? This is where the Dems have to push back forcefully. No raising of taxes...if the Republicans can create trillions of dollars in debt that won’t be paid back in revenue generated from the tax cuts, then the Dem’s can INVEST money into education, infrastructure and health care that will be paid back tenfold over the next 20-30 years. That’s the only way to spin it...that Medicare for All (the hybrid which allows a choice of continuing with present insurance or opting into Medicare AND negotiating down drug/pharmaceutical prices) will save anyone earning under $100 or 125K or whatever arbitrary number they come up with (indexed to cost of living in that metro area) thousands of dollars more over a decade by cutting out the middleman/insurance monopoly. And that we absolutely have to invest more into education, the environment and infrastructure or China’s going to eat us for lunch while we’re worrying about coal miners and clawing back industrial/factory jobs. The irony, of course, is that Republicans hate giveaways or anything that’s FREE, unless it’s FOR THEM. The middle class has to see a clear difference this time around. It’s all how you sell. It’s not giving away school for free, it’s investing in our future and making our future workforce more competitive with the rest of the world, etc.

The Newest Deal: Dems build a progressive platform for 2020 Six ideas are the centerpiece, and it’s guaranteed to drive Reddy crazy, haha. Actually, the USPS/microloan and bank idea is the one that’s the most interesting to me. That is, as long as they’re bringing in banking/finance experts and not expecting post office employees to handle this job (fwiw, Alibaba in China already is going to be IPOing a $100 billion financial/banking arm called Ant Financial which has a lot of similar properties....threatening traditional commercial banks and the equivalent of payday loan sharks for poor and middle class borrowers.) https://www.yahoo.com/news/newest-deal-dems-build-progressive-platform-2020-090052433.html

https://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfxo.aspx?playerid=14825&position=P&statArr=&legend=1&split=base&time=daily&start=2017&end=2018&rtype=mult&gt1=15&dStatArray=SI&ymin=&ymax= Covey has picked up about 1 1/2 MPH on his (average) fastball from last year... Hardest pitch he threw last year was 97.2 and 96.8 this year. https://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfxo.aspx?playerid=14825&position=P&statArr=&legend=1&split=base&time=game&start=2017&end=2018&rtype=mult&gt1=15&dStatArray=SI&ymin=&ymax= Interesting how he threw so much harder his sixth start last year and then again last night...not sure what, if anything, that's indicating

Greg, don't confuse REDDY with widespread hatred. Frustration sometimes, about his (over) support for 2nd Amendment gun rights (but this is true of many Dems from rural areas, not just Sanders)...about his lack of interest in foreign affairs, leading him to focus almost exclusively on domestic (economic) issues, but he's actually "loved/admired/adored" by many people under 35 in America. They might believe a lot of his ideas are impractical from an economic/budgeting standpoint (pie in the sky), but the Republicans just sold an equally preposterous tax package that gives 90% of the benefits to corporations and the rich/elites, and they got away with it...so who's to say what's possible anymore and what's not.

Yeah, Montero's currently listed as a FA as well. Renteria didn't overlap with him though, left at end of 2014, Montero came to the Cubs in 2015.

Him or HER at catcher? Jessica Mendoza of ESPN? Carlos Ruiz and Geo Soto are the only two guys on the MLB Trade Rumors list (of FA's this past off-season) without a current home.

Seems Passan and the Sox staff have a difference of opinion (as they've already pushed the idea of the benefits that he'll get out of AAA baseball exposure). Imagine that...

Yolmer Sanchez...arguably.

Unlikely...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumpcare-will-hurt-people-next-year-201655059.html TrumpCare will hurt these people next year...and now the blame gets tossed back to the other side, like a political football Bill Luffman, 61, is a tobacco consultant in State Road, North Carolina, whose premiums have soared since the ACA went into effect. But he doubts the Trump proposals will help him. The premium on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy covering him and his wife, Joan, rose from $689 a month in 2015 to $2,347 per month in 2017. He paid. But when Blue Cross hiked it to near $2,500 per month for 2018, he applied for a federal waiver letting him buy a cheap policy with limited coverage, because the cost of health insurance was well over 25% of his income. He got the waiver and now pays $1,350 for a policy that covers catastrophic care, but little else. Luffman rides motorcycles, and doesn’t want a policy that could expose him to open-ended medical costs. So he won’t go without insurance or buy a plan with a low payout cap. And he doesn’t trust Blue Cross, the only insurer in the area, to offer a better-value plan if it can force people into expensive plans. “I think what Blue Cross will do is parlay this into an all-or-nothing situation,” he says. “Without a mandate, they could say, ‘there’s no mandate, either go uninsured or pay us four grand a month.’ Everything about it just really makes me angry.” He hopes to stick with his catastrophic plan — assuming it remains available — until he turns 65 and qualifies for Medicare. Only a few insurers have so far proposed rate changes for individual plans for 2019. In Oregon, at least three insurers are planning to roll back rates, with six others proposing increases ranging from 9% to 16%. In Maryland, Vermont and Virginia, insurers have proposed rate hikes ranging from 8% to 91%. Those are only proposals, and state officials typically negotiate rate hikes lower. Still, double-digit premium increases seem likely in at least some areas.

Because they don't trust Vasquez or Leon, either...want to keep him as a fall-back option if the offense goes south.

If we're going to criticize Sanders for not releasing his donor list, then we need to do the same with Obama. The lack of support for the national and state parties in 2010 and 2014 when he wasn't running (even then, 2012 was a debacle for almost every aspect of the party other than keeping the presidency)...it's not difficult to understand the lack of trust after 2016 and everything that happened to the Sanders campaign. And Laura Moser got crushed in Houston because the DCCC weighed in against her, not unlike Blankenship in WV. Of course, that runs the risk of someone like Blankenship continuing to run as an independent because he's so pissed off he basically wants to give the election to the Dem's in order to spite Trump and McConnell. Our Revolution endorsed Abrams in GA, although they didn't actively support her financially. I do think getting behind Cynthia Nixon (the Sex and the City actress) despite her lack of any substantive policy experience besides celebrity-oriented advocacy work is going to blow up in their faces in NY. Right now, there's a stalemate. Sanders and Warren are probably too old....the likes of Gillibrand/Booker/Harris aren't ready and Biden is the fallback option for many Dem's who just want things to return to a sense of normalcy. Biden's also the only Dem who Lamb brought into that district in Western PA...who can actually talk to rural/white/middle class voters and has their respect. Cheri Bustos in Western Illinois would be one of the few others that I can think of.

Let's just roll with Luis Robert's recruitment/marketing video...they can play it on the scoreboard and Machado can imagine it's him in a blowout game like this, playing for the worst team in baseball, lol.

Renteria's brilliant for one game, at least. Jose Rondon as DH, who woulda thunk it coming out of ST?

Look at Jordan Hicks' strikeout ratio if you think they're not at least hittable (solid contact is another question). All about location (above the belt, good luck), movement and what count the pitcher is working with...

Mercedes at Winston-Salem looked good in a few ST bats I watched...better than Alfredo Gonzalez.

I was reading somewhere where the average fastball for MLB starters this year was 95...is that correct? Thought it was closer to 92-93?

2005 Houston Astros were 15-30 before making their run...in a much stronger division.

Wasn't Austin the personal catcher for Rodon? Or am I confusing him with a different NC Stater that we drafted the same year?

They need a new section for fans at G-Rate..."Covey's Coven" (does that sound too much like a #metoo violation, or secret cult?)

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23573718/state-baseball-rebuilding-teams-already-contending-uncertain-futures On the field, it has been a mostly dismal campaign for the White Sox, as evidenced by the 114-loss pace mentioned before. But there are emerging signs of where this is all headed. Yoan Moncada is on a five-win pace in WAR. Reynaldo Lopez looks like a budding front-line starter. Tim Anderson has climbed to league average and is still getting better. Top prospect Eloy Jimenez is mashing the ball in Double-A, while fireballing righty Michael Kopech is knocking on the door in Triple-A. There are bumps -- Jake Burger's ruptured Achilles and Lucas Giolito's command issues, to name a couple -- but there always are. The Chicago rebuild is in just its second season, which underlines the 2021 season as the breakthrough campaign if this all stays on track. There is no reason to think it won't. Basically, behind the Braves/Phillies and certainly the A's (who have the much tougher division to deal with, A's have more "core talent" up in the big leagues right now)...and ahead of the Marlins, Padres, Tigers, Royals and Reds. We're 25th! We're 25th!