caulfield12

It should be noted that just mentioning Moncada caused not only one homer tonight, but Puig has also gone 2/3 (2B and HR) to raise his OPS for the season all the way up to .795 after a terrible start to the season (12-3 Dodgers, BOT 6th).

Palka runs like a combination of Lurch, the Hulk and Shrek...faster than the Flying Molina Brothers, at least. Omar Narvaez continues to have the phrase "days are numbered" attached to his big league roster presence...

The umpires have lifted their curse/s!!! Rutherford homers the same night...might as well have Robert hit his first too in the nightcap. Basabe. Yolmer.

And the deluge begins...notice I picked a day when Moncada was facing a favorable match-up against a pitcher he looked good against in CLE, haha?

Well, I quickly jumped on board the Covey, Madrigal and Tatis, Jr., bandwagons. Will see how those work out. Ohtani and Puig, the results have been mixed, at best. Obviously, there was concern from the very beginning about his elbow ligaments before the Angels signed him, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Puig has been worth 15.6 fWAR over about 5 seasons, so that works out to a 3.1 fWAR average. Still a HUGE step down from the 4.75 promise of his 2013-14 seasons. I think a 3.5-4.0 fWAR is a reasonable expectation for Moncada, right?

You didn’t like the post expressing concern/s about Moncada. You are obviously unconcerned...based on what? The fact that he now pretty much has to hit for the cycle tonight because this thread was bumped, allowing everyone to more safely jump back onto the bandwagon? Why have gamethreads if not for hot takes, armchair managing and “grandiose declarations?”

Well, considering he was already at 1.6 fWAR weeks ago before the whole hamstring thing, ANYTHING seems a possible outcome with Moncada at this point in his career. And, fwiw, Carlos Correa (and Lindor) were two of the very top group of prospects pre-Buxton.

The same thing has happened to Adam Eaton over the course of his career...young players are always going to rub veterans the wrong way, especially when they have $63 million at age 19/20 instead of waiting until free agency like American-born players. Of course, similar things were also said about fellow Cubans Cespedes and especially Puig.

“I couldn't disagree more with anyone talking about his bat speed. I say this with zero hyperbole but he reminds me so damn much of Manny (Ramirez). Even his outs are goddamn tremendous. I had a discussion with some of the clubhouse people for Greenville (Sally League.) Their take was that he came onto the team with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and probably a feeling of superiority ('he was a prick'). The first few weeks humbled him quickly and to his credit (and to the credit of HC Darren Fenster) he turned it around almost on a dime.” http://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/yoan-moncada.9105/page-3 Some interesting observations here...concerns about the K’s, his trying to bulk up, his eventual defensive position...the scouting report is gone, but former Angels’ Scouting Director Tory Hernandez had him at 60 floor and 65 ceiling.

He wants North Korea to look like Seoul or Tokyo and for Japan and South Korea to pay for everything. Of course. Just like the wall. Meanwhile, he keeps bragging about saving 30-40 million people from certain death...the Nobel Peace Prize is going to take a lot more substance than the PT Barnum show we have going on so far with both these egomaniacs.

Look at guys like Willson Contreras, Sal Perez and Gary SANCHEZ....odds are much higher with position conversions or simply just playing Latin American lottery tickets than drafting high first rounders.

Fair enough. But go back to late April in this thread...there were people projecting a better fWAR than Sale already for season. Development is never linear for raw Latin American players, but he needs to be closer to a 5 than a 2.5 for this rebuild to actually work, because we already have those guys (1.5-2.5) in Yolmer, Davidson, and maybe Palka/Delmonico, but Timmy and Yoan SHOULD both be in the 3.5-4 range for us to really turn the corner. Other than Eloy Jimenez, we really don’t have any “sure” things right now on the offensive side (Collins still needs to sustain his numbers through Sept. to be be put in that category.)

So, once again, how confident are that either Buxton or Moncada are the consistent 5+ fWAR players they have been projected to be over the last 3-4 years? (Another commonality is that they were both “raw” athletes who have developed from the age of 18/19 at the professional level instead of coming out of college.) And he will still be compared to Benintendi/Devers for the rest of his career...and Sale, to a lesser extent.

Simple, they are the last two #1 prospects in baseball. And carry almost the EXACT same fWAR numbers through their brief major league careers, although Buxton has double the number of plate appearances. Obviously their games are completely different (other than oodles of athleticism), but the perception of many is that Buxton is now at elevated risk of being a bust. Of course, we are missing the key information here...Moncada’s next 500-600 plate appearances. He has his K percentage down into the mid 30’s, at least, but the walks and power have disappeared. And there really is no great player comp for him...Cano crossed with Ryan Howard’s minor league strikeout profile with a little Roberto Alomar mixed in. Individually, those comps don’t hold...and then there’s the huge split differences on the RH side to deal with as well.

So how confident are you that Buxton and Moncada are 5+ fWAR players for the foreseeable future? Buxton can put up a 2.5 on CF defense alone, but he has only done it once so far...

North Korea already has their own version of an abandoned 105 story Trump Tower for the ages... http://desertedplaces.blogspot.com/2017/09/inside-north-koreas-abandoned-hotel-of.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel

All that after Giolito changed his mechanics in July (of 2016). He shortened his windup in pursuit of better balance, dropping a step back in favor of positioning that made him start his delivery almost from the stretch position. To see a young pitcher make an alteration was one thing. To hear Giolito say the decision how to change was about 90 percent his, the rest left to the organization, was strange. Baseball’s top pitching prospect had decided to alter his delivery on his own. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/8/untouchable-no-more-lucas-giolitos-dramatic-fall/

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/2018_generic_congressional_vote-6185.html Generic advantage back up to 7.6% from 3.8% That said, who knows how the spin about North Korea, tariffs/trade and USA vs. Canada/Europe/Mexico/China works out...?

What’s the average amount of time that poor/lower middle class people live in one house or apartment? Usually less than one year. Heck, we’ve heard stories of carriers not delivering any mail for a year at at time...just carrying it around in their personal vehicle. What’s the average amount of time that upper middle class or rich people live in a house (often not an apartment, where mail more easily disappears or doesn’t get delivered/received)? 5-10 years? 15 years? It’s the same argument if they used “internet” voting or registration, it would disadvantage the lower middle class and poor people who might not have access or would have to go to a public library, versus everyone else who can just do it on an ipad, mobile phone or PC. Of course, you’re going to see more disenfranchisement in one group than another.

Don’t forget Bolton, Pompeo, Kelly and some Haagen Dazs ice cream....first, it was the “immaculate” chocolate cake served at Mar A Lago for Abe and Xi Jinping, now more dessert-bonding. I watched the press conference Tuesday afternoon live from Singapore and, of course, he had to make a comment about beaches and prime North Korean real estate and how perfectly it was situated between China and South Korea/Japan. It was hard for him to stop gloating, or criticizing Obama, even though the actual agreement signed today is about as thin as a razor in terms of actual, concrete details/agreements.

NATO is based on the principle of collective defense: an attack against one or more members is considered an attack against all. So far that has only been invoked once -- in response to the September 11 attacks. To make the idea work, it is important for all members to make sure their armed forces are in good shape. So NATO sets an official target on how much they should spend. That currently stands at 2% of GDP. The 2% target is described as a "guideline." There is no penalty for not meeting it. It is up to each country to decide how much to spend and how to use the money. source: CNN Not exactly, Southsider2k5, he's just TRYING to say Germany is paying 1.2% (out of 3.467 trillion USD, Trump actually said the number was closer to just 1% in his verbatim quotes) for military expenses/defense (this ALSO doesn't count all the costs of taking on the burden of immigrants flowing into Germany from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.) That would be about $41 billion USD for Germany The North Atlantic alliance has its own military budget worth €1.29 billion ($1.4 billion), which is used to fund some operations and the NATO strategic command center, as well as training and research. But it is miniscule compared to overall spending on defense by NATO countries, which NATO estimates will total more than $921 billion in 2017. The alliance also has a civilian budget of €234.4 million ($252 million), used mainly to fund the NATO headquarters in Belgium, and its administration. Only five of NATO's 28 members -- the U.S., Greece, Poland, Estonia and the U.K. -- meet the 2% target. The US is 3.61% X $19 trillion=$686 billion (total spending on NATO/defense) From doing some more internet research, the USA pays for 73% of NATO dues/costs.

The remarks came amid an improbable series of events that few could have anticipated even three months ago. The unlikely images of US and North Korean counterparts engaging in friendly dialogue lent the day an air of unreality. In a detailed menu, the White House said the men were served Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream for dessert. Other developments also fueled that impression. Minutes before the historic handshake, Trump tweeted that his top economic adviser Larry Kudlow had suffered a heart attack. Immediately after the encounter, Dennis Rodman -- one of the only Americans to have met Kim -- was openly weeping while being interviewed by CNN's Chris Cuomo. Even Kim seemed to acknowledge the surreality of the day. "Many people in the world will think of this as a (inaudible) form of fantasy ... from a science fiction movie," his translator was overheard saying as the two leaders walked down a white-columned colonnade. source: cnn.com

Winston-Salem Dash (CWS) 37 27 .578 - - 18-11 19-16 23-18 8-2 W4 Buies Creek Astros (HOU) 34 28 .548 2.0 5 18-13 16-15 22-20 5-5 L1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans (CHC) 33 30 .524 3.5 4 19-12 14-18 21-19 9-1 L1 Down East Wood Ducks (TEX) 32 30 .516 4.0 4 21-10 11-20 26-26 2-8 W1 Carolina Mudcats (MIL) 29 33 .468 7.0 1 19-15 10-18 20-29 3-7 L3 The Winston-Salem Dash have a 2 game lead with 6 games left to play before next Tuesday night's All-Star game. Buies Creek has 7 games left, including a DH on Tuesday (rain-out Mon). Birmingham has an elimination number of just 1, and is in 5th place (out of 5 teams) in the Southern League North Division.

Is split-ticket voting officially dead? By Amber Phillips November 17, 2016 Going into the 2016 election, Senate Republicans' hopes to keep their tenuous majority were pinned on persuading voters to do something they're less and less inclined to do at the ballot box: Split their ticket by voting for the Democrat for president, Republican for Senate. Turns out, Senate Republicans didn't need split-ticket voters to keep the Senate. Quite the opposite, actually: The 2016 election saw the highest percentage of STRAIGHT-ticket voters in more than a century — literally 100 percent of states holding Senate elections voted for the same party for Senate as for president. And Republicans kept control of the Senate and won the presidency. As a team of nonpartisan political analysts under professor Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia pointed out Thursday, we haven't seen partisan numbers like this since the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, allowing senators to be elected by popular vote (as opposed to being elected by state legislatures). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/17/is-split-ticket-voting-officially-dead/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5d62fd7ecbbf

Unless you count "internal" extensions for Buehrle, Contreras, Ordonez, Konerko, Danks, etc. I guess we can certainly say we haven't given out boatloads of $100+ million extensions...but we've been very smart about guys like Eaton, Sale, Q and now Tim Anderson (creating surplus value.) We potentially were in similar situations with Crede and Jenks but injuries derailed their careers before extensions could be signed (luckily, for the Sox.)