caulfield12

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 25, 2017 -> 02:38 PM) TJ MIller leaving Silicon Valley has taken up WAY more media time. Even Big Head, Jinyang and Ed Chen got to meet the Pope.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 25, 2017 -> 02:32 PM) My personal opinion, the President of the United States is in some ways a representation of all of the US. While we may disagree with Obama, Bush, Reagan, etc at the end of the day I feel that they generally upheld the standards of what represents America. To me (personally) loyalty is important, it shows what type of person you are. When a country/person/whatever is loyal to you, you repay them in kind. It may not be the most pressing new story in the history of the world, it may not be the most important issue today, but sometimes its just flat out boring to say the same damn things about Healthcare, Environment etc over and over again. Over the last year I have simply become bored of those issues. The Spicer incident, while not earth shattering, shows Trump (imo) for who he is. Nothing more than a bad boss, something that almost every American can relate to. Which brings us to the real issue: Is this who we want to represent America? I apologize if its not a "big" enough issue, but most of life is the small stuff. Reasonable people can have reasonable differences on taxes, healthcare, even the environment, but how you hold yourself, especially as the highest representative of my country, means something to me. Not saying that everyone has to agree. Exactly. Like pushing his way to the front during that photo op. Obama didn't deserve the Nobel Prize award pre-emptively (yet another topic that never is raised by Republicans!), but at least he upheld the dignity of the office and seemed to be a good husband and father, like Jimmy Carter. Even restored some admiration for America , after Bush. Trust me, living outside the US for most of his eight years, foreigner's views towards the US became much more positive again...outside the Beltway Wars. Trump's approval ratings in Europe range from 8-22%. That's somehow even worse than Ryan, Gianforte and the AHCA.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/secret-budget-as...--politics.html But we need an additional LUIS Robert contract in terms of spending on Trump Tower security, lol? How many Meals on Wheels would that provide to elderly rural residents in America? You might want to refresh your memory about everything the media said about Obama's golfing, Hawaiian vacations and trip to Spain. Heck, at least he had the respect for the office to not pretend he was too good for rustic Camp David. As far as anything I post, I'm pissed. I hardly went to this section for a decade...but after reading all the ill-informed comments of Trump voters, the alt right and conspiracy theories about the Clinton's (I don't even admire them anymore but your posts are forcing a response from many), the whole Birther thing, enough is enough. There's a war going on and I'm not going to sit on the sidelines. If just one person changes their mind, that's enough for me. I mean, this is a baseball message board. If I spent all the time investing in the stock market,working overtime, traveling or reading all the classic works of literature instead of following the Sox, maybe my life would be 25-50% better by some random objective criteria, but I doubt it. One's opportunity cost "wasted" on sports is another's treasure. The same goes for anyone getting involved in politics again after sitting on the sidelines for a long time. Plus, as an added bonus, Dick Allen and I don't even fight anymore...and perhaps you vs. Reddy is the #1 current grudge match of the month, lol. So just maybe you can do some self-reflection and you will want to reallocate that time as well!

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ May 25, 2017 -> 02:00 PM) WAR already accounts for the positional value and context of his peers. And given that he's one of the worst framers in the league you could make the argument that WAR is overstating his value. EDIT: You're also overstating his offensive value, even just looking at catchers. Since his rookie year Perez has been the 22nd best hitting catcher among those with enough PA to be qualified. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=...0&sort=17,d No HoF voter has ever cited pitch framing, to my knowledge. That list just proves almost nobody will make it other than Posey. He's the clear exceptional player. Nobody will consider Carlos Santana as a catcher, or John Jaso, for that matter. Alex Avila, by your argument, should have received a multi-year contract, btw. And, of all the ones not named, I might have gone with Russell Martin, but there's not a strong case for any of them.

Was waiting for Fathom comments on Eddie Butler vs. Dylan Covey...

QUOTE (Reddy @ May 25, 2017 -> 01:50 PM) I literally don't know what Markahm is. Yeah, I read it as Arkham prison from Batman, lol. According to the news reports, the standard for felony was not met because the injuries were not deemed severe enough, whatever that means. So if he had a broken arm, a felony? What about a fractured or slightly displaced elbow? His glasses were broken/shattered, that much is clear. If this happened in an inner city high school (let's say the bathroom) and the kid was 18 or older, have a feeling it would result in felony charges. If there was video and not just audio, the sheriff might have had no choice but the more serious charge.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ May 25, 2017 -> 01:40 PM) Whether he's 3rd best now or not doesn't matter. Perez is clearly nowhere near being a HOFer. He's been a 2.5 per season fWAR player for his career with a 98 wRC+. That is basically an average MLBer, not a HOFer. Not when you consider his defensive value, premium position...it's like comparing Omar Vizquel and Ozzie Smith with McGwire, Sosa and Bonds. You need a fuller context of their peers. I'm not even 100% convinced Ivan Rodriguez and Piazza belong with the steroids accusations. Biggio started out a catcher, but that wasn't his primary position. Those were the two best of the previous generation, although Piazza was 90% offense. I Rod was the unquestioned best combination of both in my lifetime, but it depends how much of it was real/natural.

So the most compelling cases are McCann and Lucroy... Neither of those guys are particularly great defensively. As I said, Perez would have to continue for at least another 4-5 years to merit consideration. But McCann is already on the downside of his career. I'll give you Lucroy MIGHT be there (ahead of Perez), but then he doesn't have the postseason exploits like Posey and Perez, or Bumgarner for that matter. In the end, none of those guys probably get in. I'm not even sure Mauer and Molina do, for that matter.

https://soapboxie.com/us-politics/Violence-...he-Senate-Floor After Brooks violent attack on Sumner, from which Brooks escaped unscathed and somewhat of a hero in the South, he continued to be a "bully". This perhaps was spurred on by southern newspapers that applauded these acts of violence against northern public office holders. After the Brooks-Sumner altercation, the Richmond Enquirer described the incident as follows: "We consider the act good in conception, better in execution, and best of all in consequences." Congressman Anson Burlingame from Massachusetts, called Brooks a coward on the floor of the House of Representatives. Brooks response was to challenge Burlingame to a duel which he enthusiastically accepted and named rifles as the weapon of choice. Brooks failed to show up for the duel after learning that Burlingame was an expert marksman. This caused Brooks to be called a coward for the rest of his life. Modern Times: Not an argument between Congressmen but very interesting was the heated discussion which took place between Zell Miller, former Democratic Senator from Georgia, and reporter Chris Matthews in a televised interview just after Senator Miller delivered a keynote speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Yes, Senator Miller is a Democrat, however, he endorsed Republican George W. Bush in the presidential election and, much to the chagrin of the Democratic party, he was spotlighted at the Republican convention. Initially this was thought to be a major coup by the Republicans, but it may have backfired during the Matthews interview. Senator Miller became so enraged at the reporter, that he said he wished he could challenge Matthews to a duel. Unfortunately, many thought that the interview remarks detracted from the spirit of the keynote speech and the convention itself. Others, fed up with biased news coverage, cheered Miller's remarks and praised his feistiness. If this conversation would have taken place in the 1800s, it could have had a very different ending!

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ May 25, 2017 -> 08:45 AM) What about Sal Perez even warrants mentioning his name alongside the Hall of Fame? Here's a hint. Nothing. As of today, Molina is clearly #2 with Posey first (full-time catchers). Who would be #3 of this current generation of full-time catchers over the last 5-6 years? Personally, I'm not sure Perez will hold up physically to put up the offensive numbers he'd need, but he has the best combination of offense, defense and leadership after Posey. Molina, three years ago...I would have been 90% on board with him getting in. Mauer is no longer a catcher. Victor Martinez can only partially be considered one, most will think of him as A DH primarily, like Edgar Martinez, and occasional 1B. So who would you have third? Gary SANCHEZ? Carlos Santana? Fwiw, Perez will be the only player from those Royals 2014-16 editions to merit more than a handful of HoF votes. Wade Davis might actually be second, if he can continue pitching like this another 4-5 years, but doubtful his health holds up.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SteveDaines/stat...752083021340673 Hmmm...it doesn't work with an iPad.

About 37 percent of registered voters had already sent in absentee ballots by Wednesday night, when Gianforte was accused of "body-slamming" Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian, at a campaign event in Bozeman. Jacobs was asking Gianforte questions about the Congressional Budget Office's scoring of the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act when audio recorded by Jacobs captured a violent encounter. Had earlier heard numbers around 65-70%. That's much lower. If a voter who already cast an absentee ballot tries to show up at the polls Thursday, election workers' voting rolls will show the voter as already having voted. Oestreicher described Thursday morning what would happen if this occurred but an absentee ballot had been sent but not yet been received by the county. "It is theoretically possible, but not pragmatic or practical, that someone could present at the polling place to vote prior to their absentee ballot being received at the county election office. It is highly unlikely at this late stage in the pre-election process. This scenario, technically, could invalidate a yet-to-be-returned absentee ballot. Practically speaking, however, this would be nearly impossible for the county election officials to track at this juncture." http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-...0bf5b2fb26.html https://mobile.twitter.com/alexis_levinson?...02bb3560bb.html Buzzfeed witness “I heard the crash and saw his feet fly,” she told MSNBC. She later told CNN that right before the incident, Scanlon (Chief of Staff) had made some comments to Jacobs about not being happy with a previous Guardian story about Gianforte. “They are taking press they don’t like very personally.”

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20170525

Blue Cross out of exchange Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City announced Wednesday it will exit the Affordable Care Act exchange in 2018, Andy Marso and Bryan Lowry report. The decision affects about 67,000 Missourians plus many in Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/artic...l#storylink=cpy

I heard that jackass Gianforte is supposed to go on Fox News at 2 pm Eastern. Seems pretty ill-advised. Should have dealt with it in the morning. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/25...lt-charges.html Cancelled. Somehow I doubt he'll get the six months in jail. Unless there was a Dem sheriff who hadn't already donated to his campaign charging him with a felony.

In addition to Posey. Already under the assumption he makes it barring another catastrophic injury. He might be having his best offensive season ever this year, although few are noticing since the Giants suck.

Steak and ketchup...and he wears an American flag lapel pin 24 hours per day to prove he's patriotic, proud to be an American and listen to that god awful Lee Greenwood song over and over again (cue video of Egyptian/American hostage being released). Never eats arugula. That would be elitist.

Barron is on the trip? I just read where she/Melania had to wait outside for 29 minutes while Donald and the Pope were meeting. Funny the two best stories of the trip are her slapping his hand away twice in front of fifty cameras and the Pope joking about her overfeeding Trump...and all the memes about Trump never having read a single word of MLK from that gifted first edition set.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 25, 2017 -> 07:47 AM) lmao let me give you an NBC hot take I know Pence went up there to campaign...Trump recorded a robocall message. The spin is going to be that Gianforte had a 3-5 point lead and that all the rural mail in ballots from rural Gianforte voters were already sent in before this story broke...that it was too late to turn around an ad buy, and in fact the three main newspapers still have endorsements connected to ads running today for Gianforte. Have the feeling this will go to the Dems, but it will be very tight. Keep in mind Trump won there by a pretty significant margin, something like 20+ points. Otoh, nobody really likes Gianforte, he's actually the establishment Hillary of this race who already lost a bid for governor. At any rate, we'll see which model works better, the DCCC or Sanders/Ellison wing. http://www.omaha.com/news/politics/city-el...7182190462.html Sanders coming in probably backfired in Omaha, but nobody other than Obama or maybe Biden could have shifted that vote.

QUOTE (Reddy @ May 25, 2017 -> 07:35 AM) Isn't it so nice, that the Bernie wing creates a win/win scenario for itself? Lose and it's the DCCCs fault and the party should move left. Win and it has nothing to do with the DCCCs contributions and proves the party should move left. The reality is that it's not a one size fits all situation. In some red states, Bernie-ism plays. In some, like Georgia, it absolutely does not. The Dems that stand in the way of single payer are going to get run over...the lesson Of Obama's first election and Sanders is to get thousands of small donations instead of owing allegiance to Big Pharma and the insurance industry.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/europe/manch...k-uk/index.html UK/May to tell Trump to stop US intelligence leaks May's statement came a day after UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the leaks were "irritating," and that she had made it clear to the United States that it "should not happen again." Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham told the BBC earlier Thursday that the leaks were "arrogant." He added, "The cooperation between the US and the UK on intelligence matters is crucial for security around the world, so we can't... this can't see both sides pulling away, but that is why the Prime Minister, the government, are right to make this an issue at the summit today, and it's why I have taken a step of speaking out too, and making my concerns known."

Sal Perez and Molina are the only other catchers who are even close to being considered. Mauer is the interesting case with his split career...but he's probably not going to make it either. If his career ended in 2010 like Puckett, he gets in but not anymore since he became an average 1B/DH.

Mulvaney claimed the new budget was all about “compassion.” It’s not everybody whose heart bleeds so much for wealthy taxpayers that he’s prepared to feed them the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But Mulvaney used to be a leader in a House caucus so conservative that even the rest of the Republican majority thought they were sort of bananas. Now he’s definitely in the running for most awful cabinet member, even in a competition that includes Jeff Sessions. The goal of dismantling the social safety net, Mulvaney said, was to make recipients of federal aid “take charge of their own lives.” You could certainly do some of this by identifying, say, disabled Social Security recipients who might be capable of working and giving them the right training. But that presumes your goal is actually to make the programs better. “There are a number of things that could be done. But they’re very labor-intensive,” said Cristina Martin Firvida of the AARP. And the effort would probably have to be led by an administration that has made more than 54 nominations for the 500-plus top positions requiring Senate confirmation. The Trump budget — just one more carp, please — is apparently going to try to limit food stamp benefits to poor families with a lot of young children. Yes! The Department of Agriculture says it’s going to cap food stamps at six people per household. If another kid comes along, they’re out of luck. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/opinion/...;pgtype=article

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 25, 2017 -> 04:28 AM) It is also 3 months vs. 3 years. And fans don't make the trades. Q was lousy for 2 innings yesterday. If he hadn't beeen his ERA would be a run or more lower. What was Samardzija's ERA in 2015 when he got $90 million? Well, nobody accused the White Sox or Giants' front offices of always being right. It's actually amazing how much more respect Bochy has gotten compared to Sabean for that string of title runs. I wonder if Han could have gotten the same return for a Q deal as he surrendered to rent Chapman for a couple months. White Sox fans would take that deal in a heartbeat right now.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/05...op-news-videos/ Audio recording of incident....judge for yourself who was the aggressor. Three major MT newspapers withdrew their endorsements overnight, candidate charged with misdemeanor, judged not to merit felony charges by same sheriff who donated to Gianforte's campaign..Fox News reporter Acuna standing by The Guardian reporter's account of events. 65-70% of votes are already in before Election Day Thursday. Gianforte was believed to have a 3-5 point margin coming into the final week.