caulfield12

Never throw a first pitch fastball to Alcides Escobar.

And I would have been wrong to pull him...everything worked out perfectly, THIS time.

Too late, opened ourselves up for the big inning. Lost a lot on his fastball from the first 2-3 innings, some there were in the 89+ range.

First batter reaches, I'm pulling Giolito to ensure he goes into his next start with a positive mindset.

Need to say adios to Keon Barnum soon...

Here's why Don Cooper deserves more credit than he has gotten (recent years) Let's go back to that 1999-2001 group. Buehrle and Garland were the only ones to really make it. Kip Wells and Josh Fogg succeeded with the Pirates, but not here. Then you have Guerrier, Rauch (huge failure for the #1 overall prospect) and Biddle that had decent relieving careers. But a LONG LONG list of failures. Ginter, Barcelo, Danny Wright (injuries/ineffectiveness), Jason Stumm, David West, Corwin Malone, Kris Honel, Lance Broadway, Aaron Poreda, etc. Not all from that #1 ranked BA Class of 2000 (Borchard/Crede/Rowand as well). There was another pitcher we acquired from the Rangers in 1998 or 1999 that was on most Top 10 lists as well, his name escapes me. That brings us to this present generation. Essentially, you only have McCarthy and Daniel Hudson...then Floyd, Danks, Sale and Q. Over all that entire time, nearly 20 years, Buehrle and Sale were the only ones that were Sox drafted/developed and succeeded with the Sox. So it's not far-fetched to suggest we'll need to acquire at least two pitchers (Contreras for Loaiza, Garcia for Reed/Olivo/Morse) and sign a veteran back-end guy (El Duque).

Well, this is an interesting line-up tonight. McEwing is managing, right? Can't be Cooper...and so, without Abreu/Delmonico, we officially have the weakest bench to start a game in the history of modern MLB.

Let's just hope the Indians finally implode due to pitching wear and tear and/or payroll concerns for a small market team. It has already happened twice in the last 20 years that they had to essentially do total rebuilds...actually, three times. They have Lindor, but Kipnis looks like garbage this year, they lost Santana and Encarnacion is trending downwards bigtime. The problem is that Ramirez and Brantley (when healthy) are pretty darned good players, and they have that dominant pen (for now). Plus they have some really interesting prospects (Mejia, catcher) in their farm system as well. This might be the last/best chance for them to win it all, though.

Rutherford 2/2, RBI, .361 Basabe at 338, Adolfo at 329, Sheets at 290 Call and Fisher (AA) not exactly distinguishing themselves from the crowd.

At least Logan Morrison, despite the worst fwar in the entire game today...can return to his NYC bias beef over the home run derby when Gary Sanchez was selected over him. Priorities! Those MIN/NYY numbers are like the Sox in Anaheim, Seattle and Oakland back in the early 00’s. Acuna just hit his first homer, blast into the upper deck in Cincy...off Homer the Bailey.

Kanye West, Chance the Rapper and Abraham Lincoln Trump was asked about the rapper’s unsolicited praise of him on Twitter. “I have known Kanye a little bit. And I get along with Kanye,” the president said. “Kanye looks and he sees black unemployment at the lowest it’s been in the history of our country. He sees Hispanic unemployment at the lowest its been in the history of our country. He sees, by the way, female unemployment — women — the lowest it’s been now in almost 19 years. He sees that stuff, and he’s smart and he says, ’You know what? Trump is doing a much better job than the Democrats did.’” Trump was also asked about Chance the Rapper’s assertion that “black people don’t have to be Democrats.” “People don’t realize, you know, if you go back to the Civil War, it was the Republicans that really did the thing,” Trump said. “Lincoln was a Republican. I mean, somehow it changed over the years. And I will say I believe it’s changing back.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sounds-off-comey-cohen-kanye-freewheeling-fox-friends-interview-135144849.html?guccounter=1

AJ Pollock and Grandal should be two of our top FA acquisition targets...from that FG leaders page. And how is it possible for Corey Dickerson (many teams passed on) and Semien to be the top and 6th best defenders? Moncada, for what it’s worth, shows up as the #22 defensive player. Avi Garcia is back to being 179/180, fwiw. Engel is even worse, but not qualified anymore. Anderson, Sanchez, Abreu, Davidson and Castillo round out our top 6.

What about Pedroia for Madrigal? Seems more likely than Altuve...

What about the five million American workers who have lost their jobs due to robotics, automation and outsourcing? https://www.technologyreview.com/s/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/ Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence, according to Brynjolfsson, is a chart that only an economist could love. In economics, productivity—the amount of economic value created for a given unit of input, such as an hour of labor—is a crucial indicator of growth and wealth creation. It is a measure of progress. On the chart Brynjolfsson likes to show, separate lines represent productivity and total employment in the United States. For years after World War II, the two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. The pattern is clear: as businesses generated more value from their workers, the country as a whole became richer, which fueled more economic activity and created even more jobs. Then, beginning in 2000, the lines diverge; productivity continues to rise robustly, but employment suddenly wilts. By 2011, a significant gap appears between the two lines, showing economic growth with no parallel increase in job creation. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call it the “great decoupling.” And Brynjolfsson says he is confident that technology is behind both the healthy growth in productivity and the weak growth in jobs.

“Democrats are obstructing good (hopefully great) people wanting to give up a big portion of their life to work for our Government, hence, the American People. They are “slow walking” all of my nominations - hundreds of people. At this rate it would take 9 years for all approvals!” Thanks, Donald...glad you didn’t notice what happened to Merrick Garland or praise the Waffle House hero, either. That Ronny Jackson seemed like he would have been the best of the best, should have been voice approved without any objections.

http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=1977180783&sid=milb Collins homer for those who missed it...

In Seattle’s red-hot housing market, a group of millennial techies is using data skills to alter the look, and affordability, of their adopted city. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/26/seattle-housing-what-works-next-218058 “My generation is never going to have that.”

The Braves built around Glavine, Avery and Smoltz (trade with Tigers for Doyle Alexander), later Jason Schmidt...but they didnt take the next step until they added Greg Maddux.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-big-changes-coming-trump-tax-cuts-201857455.html Big businesses known as C corporations will enjoy a 40% reduction in the corporate tax rate, from 35% to 21%. Yahoo Finance and many other news outlets have reported extensively on what big companies are likely to do with the tax savings, with many buying back shares or raising dividends. Some companies, such as Apple, have committed to new investments. And dozens of companies have given employees one-time bonuses. The JCT research provides new insight on how the tax cuts will benefit smaller businesses. The effective tax rate for sole proprietorships—which account for about 73% of all businesses—will drop from 24.7% to 19.8%, according to the JCT. That’s a hefty 4.9 percentage points, a bigger decline than most individuals will see, since the effective tax rate for individuals is expected to fall from 29.1% in 2017 to 26.7% for 2018, or 2.4 percentage points. Most privately owned businesses will benefit from the tax cuts, but those owned by the wealthy will benefit the most. The JCT found that 44% of the net benefit of a new tax break for privately owned businesses will accrue to individuals with incomes of $1 million or more, while just 7.5% of the net gain will accrue to individuals with incomes of $100,000 or less. That skew is both deliberate and problematic. Slashing business taxes is supposed to leave companies with more money to invest in workers and facilities, and wealthier business owners obviously have more income to tax. But there’s no guarantee businesses will invest the windfall in ways that help ordinary people, and many Americans feel the tax cuts favor the wealthy over the working and middle class. If businesses really do amp up spending and hiring, maybe skeptical voters will start to feel they’re getting a bigger share of the tax cuts. But we’re still waiting for convincing signs of that.

Logical conclusion to draw here.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2771769-padres-144m-eric-hosmer-risk-backfiring-giving-credibility-to-mlb-tanking?src=rss Padres' $144M Eric Hosmer Risk Backfiring, Giving Credibility to MLB Tanking https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/04/25/cincinnati-reds-who-goes-see-worst-team-baseball-meet-them/543434002/ Who actually goes to see the worst team in baseball? Meet them...

Maybe on the MLB Pipeline one...but not the majority of well-respected ones, like Baseball America's or Law's list

Rutherford would need to hit at least 15-18 homers to get back on the "watch lists," although the high average and OBP is nice to see for the moment, compared to what we had to work with last season...plus, he has a not insignificant number of doubles, which is another positive sign.

https://sports.yahoo.com/will-baseball-gods-reward-marlins-playing-hard-153210559.html Will the baseball gods reward these Marlins for playing hard? Lots of lessons/analogies (minus Jeter and trading Eaton/Sale/Q last offseason vs. what Miami did this past offseason)

http://www.wnff.net/index.php?topic=34710.1125 Here are 46 pages of posts on the Giolito/Lopez/Dunning trade from Nationals' fans. Interesting reading. Of course, lots of obvious comments that Eaton hasn't been on the field enough for WASH, either. His (Lopez's) control seems to get worse and worse. I think the moves the Nats made to their development staff especially pitching wise sent some shockwaves especially when it looked like the guys the Nats traded away started to turn things around. Now, maybe it's not as shocking that those guys still look like they have a long ways to go, but that still doesn't cover up the fact that the system has been pretty low on pitching in general for a few years now. Re: Eaton for Giolito Lopez and Dunning « Reply #1130: April 02, 2018, 10:37:31 AM » This entire trade will be a referendum on Rizzo and the development staff's ability to project prospects. If you are someone who bought into the high rankings for Giolito and Lopez, then this trade was and is a massive overpay. But it looks like Rizzo and company had a much cooler view and so far it looks like they may be right. I was really against the trade at first but after seeing the pitchers not really impress so far I have moved from being negative on the trade to wait and see. Re: Eaton for Giolito Lopez and Dunning « Reply #1131: April 02, 2018, 10:51:08 AM » Giolito will be fine. he's a rotation regular. He's not going to be Stras 2.0, but he'll give Chicago 6 years of nice #3 results with a chance for more. No worse than a righty Gio.