caulfield12

The key question is how is the difference/s related to sports reporting in general (especially the new direction of ESPN and strategy correction with the layoffs) are unique or singular to baseball compared to other sports like football, basketball or even e-sports. With baseball, the writing quality is far better and more detailed (thinking back to the days where The Sporting News and Baseball America dominated), but you have to know where to find it and whose opinions to trust (for example, the new generation of Twitter story breakers).

GOTG2 was a bit disappointing. Kind of slow paced in the middle, too much melodrama about family relationships...some of the cultural references felt corny or forced compared to the first one. It was 86 at rottentomatoes, so it's not going to be a dud, but I would never want to watch this one multiple times like the first film.

Nice time of the year to do it. June, it starts to get uncomfortable in that neck of the woods, unless you're in Asheville.

3-4 starts at Winston-Salem is not enough. What's the reason to rush him to Birmingham, anyway? I'm going to guess until the end of June/early July with W-S and then the last two months with the Barons...then maybe playoffs in Birm or Charlotte. It's doubtful WS or Birmingham will make it, has to be Charlotte.

The airlines need to follow some logic here, especially when you have a family with kids at that age. And the threat part, that was completely over the top and an outright fabrication.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 4, 2017 -> 09:25 PM) This from the only person who signs his name to each post. Ironic Greg does do the whole third person thing. I guess if you signed every post "Ptatc" at the end, it would be more authoritative, lol...like "PTATC has spoken, that's officially the end of the debate." On the other hand, it's hard for professional writers to get rid of their habits. I'm pretty sure it's something he picked up as a journalist and then online blogger, and I suppose it does make you more "familiar" with someone if you see their first name repetitively.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 4, 2017 -> 08:43 PM) Going to be at least a month or 1 1/2 months till teams start looking for pieces. Q/ Robertson and pending FA's might be the priority but anyone expecting 5 or more trades will probably be disappointed. After all you need starting pitching to finish the season and bullpen pitchers also. Just have to wait to see who is healthy and who else decides to sell. I don't know how many sellable pieces the Sox will have then , probably more than half the 25 man roster to varying degrees. 1. Quintana (but might be hard to trade in June/July) 2. Robertson 3. Nate Jones (depending on health) 4. Todd Frazier 5. Derek Holland (depending on health) 6. Miguel Gonzalez 7. Melky Cabrera 8. Anthony Swarzak (free agent after this year, get what you can for him ASAP) 9. James Shields (depending on health) 10. Pelfrey Assuming they're not going to trade Abreu (and circumstances could certainly change), that leaves you with another list of guys like Kahnle, Tyler Saladino, Leury Garcia, Carlos Sanchez, Geo Soto, etc. They're in a holding pattern with Avi Garcia for now. Davidson/Hayes/Delmonico all need to get at-bats in the 2nd half, along with Moncada. Robertson, Frazier, Holland and/or Gonzalez, Cabrera, Swarzak, Shields and Pelfrey are the obvious ones to go. No surprises. (Nobody's going to trust Kahnle as the Kelvin Herrera yet.) That said, you've got four starting pitchers there and might need to keep at least 1-2 of them to protect the youngsters. Giving Fulmer, Lopez and Danish first cracks at the rotation (along with Burdi in relief) Giolito/Kopech Dunning

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/228044602/re...prospects-list/ Two weeks to go!!! Cuban connection Cuban outfield prospect Luis Robert, 19, ranked no. 1 on MLBPipeline.com's Top 30 International Prospects list for the 2016-2017 signing period, was declared a free agent by Major League Baseball on April 20 and will become eligible to sign with a Major League team on May 20. Should Robert not sign before June 15, the end of the current international signing period for which he qualifies, the teenager will eligible to sign during the next signing period that starts July 2 and move to the top of the Top 30 International Prospects list for 2017-2018. Per the current signing rules, Cuban players age 23 or older with at least five years of playing experience in Serie Nacional are not subject to the international signing guidelines. Robert does not qualify for the exemption because of his age and his experience.

Good luck with that, the Koch Brothers control the entire state...the only choice is to move across the state line to Missouri, lol. That said, Missouri's hardly a liberal bastion, but it's slightly conservative vs. Creationism/Fred Phelps Land outside of Johnson County, Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan and Wichita. Almost all of those provisions worry many members in the more moderate upper chamber. Senate Republicans are considering staunching the coverage losses projected under the House by altering the Medicaid repeal, making tax credits more generous and strengthening protections for people with pre-existing conditions. “There will be no artificial deadlines in the Senate. We’ll move with a sense of urgency but we won’t stop until we think we have it right.” said Alexander, who will be a leading figure in the Senate’s overhaul effort. For instance, the Senate is likely to increase the transition period for cutting off the Medicaid expansion beyond 2020. A significant bloc of Senate Republicans represent states that expanded, and many have been told by their governors to fight for more Medicaid funding. In March, Senate leaders insisted they could pass a repeal of Obamacare in a week. Now senators say the debate is likely to go into the summer, taking a month or more. Alexander would not say Thursday whether he’ll have public hearings. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/04/h...nate-doa-238000 If they put all the Medicaid funding back, it will wipe out the tax cut for the 1% embedded within the AHCA AND/OR it will block that huge tax reform (redistribution back to the top and corporations) effort that was supposed to come after. Not to mention that the House Freedom Caucus can't possibly vote for a bill with that provision (preserving Medicaid) back in. http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/cap...care/index.html The legislation already included $130 billion in the fund. But the Center for American Progress, a DC-based progressive think tank, said the amendment (adding $8 billion, Upton) would only help cover 76,000 enrollees, a small fraction of the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions. According to the center's data, a person with metastic cancer would have a surcharge of $140,510 while a person with lung, brain or other severe cancers would have a surcharge of $71,880. An enrollee with breast, kidney or colorectal cancer would have a $28,230 surcharge. The surcharge for a person with diabetes without complications would be $5,510, while someone with major depressive and bipolar disorders would have a $8,370 surcharge. "The AHCA would need to provide a total of $327 billion to offer moderately subsidized high-risk pool coverage for those 1.5 million people," Gee and Spiro wrote. "The current version of the Affordable Health Care Act falls $200 billion short of that, and the $8 billion promised to House Republican moderates would fill in just 4% of the funding gap." https://finance.yahoo.com/news/new-trumpcar...-183649801.html The New Trumpcare Bill is a Self-Made Trap Healthcare costs have been rising far faster than inflation for 30 years, eating more and more of the family budget. That was a problem long before Obamacare, and it will continue to be a problem for a long time to come. This chart spells it out: Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank Many people struggling with soaring premiums, deductibles, co-pays and other onerous costs blame Obamacare for their woes, even though Obamacare, if anything, put a lid on total outlays for newly insured Americans. Obamacare, on its own, did little to push overall costs higher, yet constant demagoguing by critics of the law basically worked: It convinced people that if rising costs and a new law seem to happen at the same time, then the new law must be the cause of their problems.

That Robinson Cano comparison's a pretty good one...let's hope it holds up. (And it saved the White Sox having to spend $200-300 million on a FA contract for a player who will be in pretty sharp decline the 2nd half of his deal.) Which allows them to sign Luis Robert. The key is having star position players in their 20's and cost-controlled. If nothing else, the last decade should have taught the White Sox the diminishing return with veterans on overpriced deals. Seems that with the Barons at home, their hometown scorekeeper's attempting to give a friendly no ER ruling to Kopech, but not sure how it can stand up upon league review.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 4, 2017 -> 07:21 PM) I really don't think Petricka gets enough credit for how helpful he can be for a pen when healthy, which sadly hasn't been enough. If your bullpen is healthy and Robertson is your 9th inning guy, Jones your 8th inning guy (and apparently Swarzak is the best pitcher in baseball) then he and Putnam just need to be your 6th/7th inning guys - which they have enough talent to be. I really wish both could stay off the DL. Well, he originally had starter's stuff...and when on, he was looked at by some (including the White Sox) as a future closer, at least he was used that way by Ventura his rookie year in the second half. With the injury history, though, I'm sure his value to the Sox (if/when he recovers) is probably higher than it is to other teams.

Jinxed Kopech...

Putnam hasn't been able to stay healthy, and he doesn't have dominant stuff (on the radar gun), so those two factors weigh down his value, along with being RH. Petricka was just another guy. Not being able to dump Shields' contract off on someone hurts mostly in a financial sense. Otoh, Holland and Miguel Gonzalez are intriguing options, and obviously David Robertson. Hopefully Frazier can get his average back in the 240's or 250's, he could bring a nice piece back depending on other 3B on the market, Cabrera will end up mostly a salary dump. In the end, they really need Rodon to come out of this healthy by the time 2019 rolls around, whatever's wrong with him. Anderson needs to look much more dangerous than his bottom 5% OPS would indicate. As for the next few months, even if Jones can't come back, they've still got Swarzak and Kahnle that are increasingly intriguing, not to mention Burdi lurking in AAA. It's not like they have to worry so much about service time with him either, White Sox closers never make it into arbritration years.

Greg, nothing is for FREE. We'd have to pay higher taxes by 10-15%, but the amount of waste would go WAY down. Insurance companies wouldn't be able to extort 15-35% profit margins, and the government would be able to negotiate drug prices down because how much more leverage can you have than representing the financial interests of hundreds of millions of Americans in one pool? In that sense, the argument could be made that the tax increase would be more than offset by the corresponding benefit in not spending much money at all on healthcare insurance (maybe some would buy supplemental policies), rather than the relatively low co-pays for prescription medicine, for example.

70% might identify as Christians (majority), but the percentage of regularly attending churchgoers has gone from around 54% to 43% in the last decade. Their influence is waning, just like labor unions on the Democratic side.

Courtney Hawkins is nearing the end... Kopech 4/2/0/1/5 with 2.05 ERA, chugging along.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/opinions/hea...nion/index.html Democrats have opportunity to use "Medicare for all" as the litmus test for candidates and a battering ram against GOP in 2018 and 2020...this vote actually brings America the closest it has eer been to a single payer system instead of "trusting" free market insurance and drug companies to reign in costs. Bernie Sanders just got a huge boost again.

Funny, May got a hit in his first at-bat. En fuego.

Just be happy they didn't go to tOSU, lol.

Just noticed Bregman doesn't have a homer yet. Swanson garbage. Benintendi (unavailable), Judge and Turner (unavailable) were the only difference makers, it seems.

That Davidson homer was Judge-like into the fountain. He might have longest average homer (those with 5+) in the majors.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 4, 2017 -> 02:13 PM) A whole lot of people on the left haven't been happy with many aspects of Obama's administration. Republicans will make those things worse. That's pretty straight forward. So apparently letting all the Big Banks and auto makers go bankrupt would have been preferable, lol. Mitt Romney stuff there. And Bush/Paulson enacted the framework for the bailouts (like Washington Mutual getting picked up for a pittance by his buddies) before he left office. Obama should have undone all of that, TARP too, thrown America into complete and utter chaos and 20-25% unemployment. Revisionism.

I'm not so sure we should be praising Wal-Mart insurance...assuming they can actually earn enough hours to be eligible. It's pretty common to be suppressed at 28-33 hours, leaving them out in the cold to control rising costs and competition from Amazon. https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/20...e/#64455e753e83

Guess we need to trade Holland now, before he gets hurt again...

Aetna CEO Bertolini says Obamacare's 'biggest problem' is that it's not fully funded by government https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aetna-ceo-be...-204414622.html "I don't think it's a matter of raising premiums on people with pre-existing conditions," said Bertolini, whose company went from selling Obamacare plans in 15 states last year to selling them in just four this year after citing big financial losses on individual health plans. "I think people with pre-existing conditions, people under the age of 26, should get insurance. Anybody who applies should get insurance," he said. "I think the biggest program with the [Affordable Care Act] is how it is funded," Bertolini said. "If it were funded correctly, all these people could get coverage." "If it's just funded on the premium basis without reinsurance, if cost-sharing reductions don't show up after September, none of it works," he said. Most Obamacare customers receive subsidies that lower the cost, often sharply, of their monthly premiums below retail prices, because they have low or moderate incomes. Reinsurance is the subsidization by the government of insurers who find themselves covering customers with high health costs. Obamacare's reinsurance program ran only from 2014 through 2016, and the Republican-controlled Congress has barred the government from paying insurers the entire amount they are owed for another Obamacare cost-reduction program, known as risk corridors.