caulfield12

Donaldson's potential upside on a one year deal loaded with incentives...then auctioning him off to a contender at the trade deadline, that's the logical play here. Jake Lamb's a decent player, and Escobar's coming off a career year, but Lamb's not going to move the meter much. A contending team like the D-Backs is going to want to go with the player who gives them the best opportunity. That said, Eaton and Quentin both came from over there, probably the two best moves of the last decade in terms of trades. So that whole "can't handle the NL to AL transition" didn't apply to them, for some reason.

Would take Maddon or Banister....

Let's just hope Burdi can get back to the high 90's by next season. At 93-95, he's basically Carson Fulmer. Without an established back-end guy, you're going to be forcing Jones in that role, not to mention everyone is "moved up" perhaps earlier than they're ready (and Jones' health prognosis might be worse than Rodon's)...I'm not sure how wise it is to have Ian Hamilton getting his brains beaten in late, but maybe it will work out slotting 3 young guys and Jones into the back-end that you utilize to close out games. A decade ago, it meant overspending on Dotel and Linebrink for that very same reason, but that was a "win now" mode team back in 2007-2009. The pen was so terrible in the 7th and 8th, they HAD to do something or they were going to blow 16-17 leads from the 7th inning on like this year's team. Then you get into the overspending on a veteran who you might not even really need the first 1 1/2 or even 2 years of what would likely be a 3 year deal.

Not even sure it would cost $35....maybe $27.5 or $30 for 2 years? It's the pitching equivalent of Kendrys Morales, where he was terrible when he wasn't signed until mid-season and never really got started that year, depressing his value. As noted, his velocity finally picked up the second half of the year.

The argument of adding legit starters (Shields traded for Myers/Odorizzi to KC, Lester to Cubs) on multi-year deals is obvious for 2020. This year, it’s all about holding the rotation together. Covey’s fate is still also undecided. The only exception is that unique case of a currently injured pitcher you really believe who would, at the very least, be around for 2020 with at least a club option for 2021 (see Richards).

Don’t see that one very often. Trubisky’s stat line ends up looking decent, except for the interceptions and lack of accuracy, lol. Well, realistically, NE fought harder for those picks.

Apparently they hired one of the Stoops brothers at halftime to help the D.

Bears’ receivers not exactly helping, either. Gotta make plays on the ball.

It’s why Mahomes is so amazing, a mobile QB with an arm like Favre who’s accurate, too. Guess it helps having a former MLB pitcher as your dad, and an array of offensive firepower all over the field.

It was a bit strange they made the deliberate decision not to feature the planting of the flag...nonetheless, the movie was nothing, if not patriotic.

Jeffress might end up with the White Sox at the rate he’s going in the playoffs. That Taylor catch really killed the Brewers’ momentum. We’ll see how Puig does in the WS. The Purdue/OSU game is much more compelling right now.

Personally, I think you should try to build a balanced team with 4-5 “complementary” (2-3 fWAR guys, like Moustakas) types, then you need 2 or 3 All-Star level players (one MVP/superstar would certainly be nice!) Like the Brewers, with their core of Yelich, Cain and Aguilar right now, with Moustakas/Shaw/Braun all being legit complementary threats as well. Or the Red Sox with Betts, Benintendi, Bogaerts, JD Martinez and Devers. You’re likely to have weak spots in CF, C, and SS, but you can’t have all three be easy outs, even with the DH.

If It Feels Like Capitalism is Killing You — That’s Because It is What American Collapse Teaches Us About Capitalism https://eand.co/if-it-feels-like-capitalism-is-killing-you-thats-because-it-is-304690c453a5 A lot of the underpinning of the FIRE Movement is contained in this article...it might be bleak, but it’s understandable that more people are starting to question the assumed “must work until 67 1/2 or 69” mindset. It’s meant to provoke, and push peoples’ buttons, and posit controversial ideas like Universal Basic Income paid for by corporations or higher taxes on everyone. The alternative is just refusing to jump on the Hamster Wheel at all. (Note: most parents aren’t exactly going to support that notion, but it’s not just “lazy Millennials” with this idea.)

Isn’t that Hawk’s buddy George from Windy City Limousines next to Marlins’ Man? Must be nice to be able to spend thousands of dollars on sports tickets per year, haha. Amazing play by Taylor in that situation...Dodgers’ pitching held the lead during the Hader innings. Ironic, our Vandy starter in Fulmer went backwards velocity-wise, Buehler consistently has been 3-5 mph better than college despite that thin frame.

Chacín was due for a shaky start after being so good. Obviously, putting Hader in early is going to be second guessed, but it felt inevitable that the Brewers were going to surrender more runs if they didn’t do something. Looks like Hader will be able to go at least 4 innings now.

Various websites have been posting lists like this for weeks and the Sox haven’t appeared once that I have seen. With marketing being more important to the Sox than others, you’d have to think the player Reinsdorf would be (justifying) spending $300-350 million on would be Harper, but that’s considered even lower odds at the moment.

If we’re not in the Top 10 for Machado...and Arenado and Rendon would be switching to the arguably tougher and unfamiliar AL, how would you describe the odds, exactly? There’s even been talk about Rendon retiring, he’s been a bundle of injury issues throughout his career, his desire to play has been questioned and Washington still needs to hold onto some of their young studs or retrench/rebuild around Soto/Robles. Arenado is THE franchise player for COL, like Goldschmidt but even more integral due to his defensive prowess at a critical position. I’d put it right around Iowa’s chances of winning the Big Ten this year.

This is equally relevant to the White Sox...especially with Chili Davis gone. "It has to be more about production than talent going forward," Epstein said. "And that includes our own assessments. Beyond that, it's also trying to understand why we're not where we should be with some individual players. In other words: If you look back, players who do certain things at 22 and 23 should be progressing into a better, more productive phase of their career at 24, 25 and 26. "I'm the first one to talk about how development and progress - those aren't linear things all the time. There are a lot of ups and downs. But I think there's a trend where Javy took the big step forward, but there are other guys who went the opposite direction or have been trending the opposite direction a little bit. We have to get to the bottom of that. "It's our job not just to assemble a talented group, but unearth that talent and have it manifest on the field. Because that's ultimately all that matters. It's an assessment on those two fronts. The talent that we have and who's going to be productive, who's not or where we can find that production. And then also understand the environment and are we doing everything that we can in creating just the right situation to get the most out of these guys."

Yes somehow he’s one victory away from having played/started in 3 of the past 5 World Series, in both leagues. Must be doing something right.

I don’t recall seeing any of the mods around here go on record asserting we will sign Machado, Arenado or Rendon. 12 months ago, it was a completely different story. The odds are also fairly high that one of the latter two might be amenable to an extension with the Rockies or Nats. Its absolutely ridiculous as a Sox fan to expect it, because we’ve gotten our hopes up so many times about acquiring prominent, in their prime free agent talent. Adam Dunn is about the closest, going back to Belle in the 1990’s.

The White Sox need to be competitive/respectable beginning at some point in 2020... Who’s going to play 3b that year, Moncada? Madrigal’s going to be ready that quickly? Maybe, but that’s asking a lot. And we know the odds of signing Machado, Arenado and Rendon are pretty much slim to none.

https://www.mlb.com/news/best-2018-19-hot-stove-value-may-be-in-trade/c-298301320 Jonathan Gray, Realmuto (the most unlikely), Schwarber and Castellanos are all players that deserve consideration as trade targets. The average MLB roster production is typically going to be 35-40% via players acquired from elsewhere than internally.

Moustakas at 3b for two years with a 3rd year option makes a lot of sense. Or Donaldson, even. One additional big bat in the order to go along with Jimenez suddenly suddenly makes our lineup at least competitive in the AL. We don’t have any legit internal candidates at that position. Moncada deserves another full year at second before they consider moving him. One or two veterans on incentive based deals to hold the rotation together and 2-3 similar deals for bounceback candidates like Swarzak or Kahnle in the pen. Dont see many catchers or CFers available. We are stuck with Castillo until we can dump him for salary relief at mid season.

Poor Reddy, his race is back in play after it was considered all but over. Should be an interesting stretch run, with the GOP gaining some traction after the Kavanaugh appointment. Now it all comes down to 223. Dems are guaranteed to pick up at least 15, but there are roughly 75 competitive races still out there. The Senate is going to stay in Republican hands, so more divided government is likely. At this point, cooperating on an infrastructure bill (afterwards) is an iffy proposition, at best. Reddy can more accurately make the argument that 2020 will rank as the most important/defining election for the direction of the country. This election seems that way to him because he’s right in the middle of the action, the can’t see the forest for the trees thing.

My father died at 63 from a heart attack. Never got to enjoy all those things that people save their whole lives for because we led a simple middle class life other than 2+ week family vacations every summer. Never took out a loan for anything but mortgage on house with 1976, paid off in 15 years. My mom never worked more than part-time, places like Hardee’s and Bishop’s Buffet. She worked for the Federal government in clerical work in the 50s and 60s but was unable to adapt to technology changes when she tried to go back in the 80s when I was in middle school. To this day, she’s never had a computer or cell phone, and has only travelled a couple of times on an airplane. But she’s almost 90 now and was driving a car up until last year. My father ate everything he enjoyed, didn’t care to exercise and almost never went to the doctor unless there was no other choice. Pretty typical of that generation. At any rate, I’m extremely happy I went to Iowa for BA English instead of Northwestern or Notre Dame. (Two Master’s were basically free due to teaching assistant positions, the other was like Teach for America and subsidized by a grant.) When he died in 1999, he’d managed to save about $375,000 (mostly Vanguard and value investing, like BRK.B), plus his government pension (some still goes to my mom now), the paid off house, gold coins (not a good ROI), etc. Not bad for a person who never earned more than $44000 per year in a civil service position, and only one family income. The only big decision we had was long term care coverage or not. No was the choice. Now, it’s costing $4500 per month out of pocket for assisted living, which is more or less offset by incoming money from pension, small amount of SS, dividends, forced distributions of taxable accounts, etc. We’re much better off having invested that money (despite 2001-02 and 2008/09), rather than investing it into a pricey “elite” school. It’s a bit ironic, since the students I’m working with here in China are going to Oxford, Cambridge, London School Of Economics...all of them are 1500-1600 on SAT, maybe 1530 average, and they’re all going to spend the maximum as international students at top 30-50 US or Canadian universities if they don’t go to UK, and that’s after $20000 per year for 3 years of high school, another $15-25,000 for training centers for IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, ACT, another $15,000 for agents to help with the overseas app process, like financial forms, essay editing, etc., and that doesn’t even count ESL training and expensive tuition for KG through Grade 9, music lessons, art classes to boost creativity, robotics or design, martial arts. I would guess the average family invests at least $250-350,000 on just one child’s lifetime education, and $500k isn’t unheard of if you count MA/MS. They also at the very least give their kids the down payment on a house upon marriage, another $150-250000 on average if you include the wedding/honeymoon. Kids never get a job here until after they finish college, it’s all study, summer camps and extracurriculars to improve their admission opportunities.