caulfield12

QUOTE (Donaldo @ May 16, 2017 -> 07:20 PM) Giolito was drafted out of high school, while Hansen was drafted out of college. I really don't read all that much into it. I suppose you can look at it like Tim Beckham was drafted the same year as Gordon Beckham and didn't hit his stride as a big leaguer until he was 26-27 years old. (Obviously, Hansen was more of a "project" and hard a difficult time even sticking in the OU rotation, compared to being a Golden Spikes winner.) Or that Giolito doesn't have nearly the same mileage on his arm (minus the TJ), nor the experience. Potential, always a dangerous word.

Even if that informant was executed/caught, there's no way the information comes out of Mossad because of how much Netanyahu hated Obama and desperately wants to work with a Republican administration on military/foreign policy and Palestinian issues. It's going to take the international media digging to the bottom of the story, which will be extremely dangerous in and of itself. Guess we'll have to wait and see this next week what, IF ANYTHING, Israel will say in public on the matter.

Schwarber with his 6th homer. (683 OPS, aka Avi Garcia 2014-2016 form) With that hitting pedigree, short of another catastrophic injury, have a hard time believing his value could fall much more. Can Happ really play CF? Guess we'll find out. Final note: Wish we had that young Reds' line-up 2-6, with Hamilton patrolling CF. Pretty exciting young offense...their problem obviously is pitching. Mesoraco looked like he was going to be an excellent player as well before all the setbacks.

QUOTE (reiks12 @ May 16, 2017 -> 07:07 PM) his number are much better I would like to see him go 7 here and there rather than 5 and 6 He probably could have gone 6 but they're being extra careful with pitch counts and all their young pitchers. It has really been noticeable with Kopech and Dunning...Hansen as well.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 16, 2017 -> 07:02 PM) I was able to do the Grand Canyon with my dad for the first time in March, about a month before he passed away. He'd never been there and when you go there, holy s***, it doesn't even look real when you're standing there. Did the South Dakota stuff as a family over ten years ago, also pretty cool. Alaska is definitely on my US list...still have to go there, ND and Montana (was less than ten miles from the border, but couldn't convince my friend to go to the Custer Battlefield). Glacier really sounds cool, it looks very similar to Nepal and Tibet, where the same ice loss is taking place over the last 30-40 years, maybe even at a faster pace than in the US. Mount Saint Helen's area is another excellent hiking/trail area.

Lopez righting the ship after struggling earlier in April. Unfortunately, those 93 pitches prevented him from starting the 6th (yet one more compelling reason we'll need an excellent bullpen to pair with those young starters early in their MLB careers). Funny stat note, Jacob May and Yoan Moncada almost have the same OPS. C Blair is actually leading (SSS).

The main question with Tatis (just like Delmonico) is whether he can stick at 3B. If not, his value is pretty limited.

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ May 16, 2017 -> 06:41 PM) Hmmm https://mobile.twitter.com/th3j35t3r/status...640351428108288 That goes right along with the Seth Rich was murdered to prevent from providing even more damaging information to WIKILEAKS and then Pizza Gate. Too many "-Gates" recently. Just in the span of a single week, ComeyFired-Gate, ClassifiedIsraeliInfo-Gate and Flynn'sAGoodGuy-Gate.

And, in the worst-case scenario, Pence is somehow tied to all the lies and cover-ups, making Paul Ryan the president. Talk about lesser of two evils. But yeah, Sessions...he gotta go. Just like William Sessions two+ decades ago as Director of the FBI. Not the luckiest name in politics these days. Supposedly the Dems are also closely looking into the option of recall votes/elections in 18 states to tip the balance of the US Senate back to the left, at least until the 2018 mid-terms, but that seems pretty far-fetched. It would, however, be pretty hilarious to see McConnell and Paul having to sweat it out in KY and many of the red Trump states that currently have the highest percentage of ObamaCare and Medicaid recipients.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 15, 2017 -> 04:05 PM) That is a long, depending on how badly the joint surface is damaged. Meanwhile, Tyler Flowers at .352 and 900 ops in 70+ at-bats.

Congress/McConnell have recently speculated about going it alone and basically ignoring Trump...but that won't work very effectively in today's media environment. During the days of Warren Harding or US Grant, sure. Got a chuckle out of this one from NY Times comments section. Memo states: "“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”" I'm sorry where is there a request to Comey to stop the investigation? http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/201...ublicans-215145 When will GOP Dump Trump? (Written before Comey/Flynn) And yet the stakes on the trail were different. Back then you only had to grit your teeth through the last few months of the election, hold on tight and hope for the best. Flash forward and Republicans actually hold all the levers of power. If it was hard to cross the party’s underdog nominee, the thought of breaking with the president of the United States with three and a half years left on the clock is exponentially more daunting. Moreover, the current trifecta may be a once-a-generation legislative opportunity, suggesting a heightened tolerance for Trump’s foibles. When you find yourself in the red zone on a decade’s worth of political goals, it takes a lot of lost yardage to force you to punt. There still may be more fallout from the Russia meeting, to be sure. For now it feels like a political bomb that didn’t quite go off, even if the audible ticks sent the smarter pols scrambling. But it’s nonetheless an instructive moment when it comes to discerning the pain threshold for the elected GOP. The criticisms may grow louder with each unforced error by the White House, but as long as the legislative dream is still alive it’s hard to imagine any sort of full-scale break. If that dream dies, however, it’s every man for himself.

Comey's description of the event make clear his understanding of the conversation was that the president was seeking to impede the investigation, according to people who have read the account or had it read to them, these people said. Comey felt the conversation was improper and decided to keep the details of the conversations away from the case agents working on the Russia probe. That paragraph alone is pretty damning from WaPo. A Constitutional crisis has officially arrived. The Founding Fathers consistently put country over Party, so the inherent weakness in the Constitution is imaging a time when the majority part in control would not do so. Free Advice to Trump aides: Quit While You Can https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/opinion/...col-left-region

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ May 15, 2017 -> 07:10 AM) I thought about it and it would just be soundbites of Hawk/Benneti/Stone saying his name lol I'll remember his homer and Harrelson going on and on about how he just missed another one (moonball to RF) in the same game.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/16/opinions/onl...rger/index.html All the President's friends worried---Gloria Borger But in another way, no, the President is not anywhere near a tipping point. In fact, he may be incapable of one. Because change does not come easily to Donald Trump. There is absolutely no sense among his friends, according to multiple sources, that he blames himself for any of his problems. It's his legal team or his communications team or his senior staff. The President, says one source, "seems to have lost confidence in everybody." Except himself. So he complains constantly, says one source, but he can never say that, yes, maybe he ought to take the presidential daily brief, um, daily. Or that he ought to require more substantive briefings before meeting with foreign officials. Or that freelancing is not a great idea in classified settings. "There's not enough substance to much of what he gets," says one ally who has gotten feedback from a foreign official who recently met with Trump. And that allows the President, this source says, to just go "off script and have his instincts take over and [he] goes with it." Consider: the Russians. "Is he absorbing what comes through the door?," this friend asks, "or what he sees on social media and TV?" In fact, this ally has told Trump "if you want to become a great President, turn off the TV." Again, these are friends -- people who want to see the President succeed. They all understand the need for staff changes -- and agree with Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner who believes, according to a source with knowledge, that the communications shop needs to be fixed. But they also say that replacing the entire staff would probably not do much to fix the most important thing: Trump himself.

Let's just hope that's the tip of the iceberg with Comey and he saves something for his public Senate hearing. Otoh, it would be nice to head off Trump's Mideast trip before he somehow sets off a war. No way he can stick to prepared speeches that whole time. It's not in his instincts to be boring..he has to do something to be the center of attention and make headlines. He probably believes he can still pull a Jimmy Carter peace envoy appearance out of the hat, but even better and bigger. Then again, with Comey's strong sense of ethics and honesty, one wonders why he is waiting to sink Trump if he has the ability to do so?

QUOTE (steveno89 @ May 16, 2017 -> 01:53 PM) Stevenson to me is a 4th outfielder at the major league level. He's a quality defender, with solid speed, but his bat offers ZERO power and and his hit tool is average. I'd much rather have Kieboom or Soto. Stevenson's career minor league .706 scares the heck out of me when translating to the next level. I view him as a slightly better Charlie Tilson. We already have this player. Adam Engel.

You can add the hilarious detail that Bannon supposedly ordered all the tv's at full blast volume so nobody could catch the details of what they were all yelling about in Spicer's office. At least Spicey had the sense not to send himself out. Self-preservation instincts. The scary thing is that McMaster and Mattis are two of the brightest minds left and the only remaining checks against Trump. Another irony is that Bannon was against firing Comey, the Kushners for it. Now Trump doesn't trust anyone's advice. Supposedly, Sessions and Wilbur Ross are also on the chopping block as well. There's also the story they basically want to outsource the media shop/press briefings to a Fox News production team, and I'm pretty sure they were serious about that one. When the World is Led by a Child https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/opinion/...col-left-region David Brooks is far from a liberal... http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/16/p...-tuesday-238448 Numerous Republicans demanded more information from the White House. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), a former U.S. Marine who served in Iraq, asked to see the transcript of Trump’s conversation with the Russian officials. “For the purpose of transparency, the White House should share a transcript of the meeting with the House and Senate intelligence committees,” Gallagher wrote in a series of tweets. “As an intelligence officer by training, I know firsthand the life and death implications of safeguarding classified information…Our allies and partners must have the utmost confidence that sensitive information they share with us will not be disclosed.” Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), a moderate Republican representing a swing district in the D.C. suburbs, called the reports "highly troubling" and demanded classified briefings on the conversation between Trump and two top Russian officials in the Oval Office last week. "We need to have immediate classified briefings on what occurred at this meeting so that Congress can at least know as much as Russian leaders and know the impact on our national security, our allies, and our men and women protecting our country," Comstock said.

Trading Schwarber at his lowest possible value is not something Epstein would contemplate for long.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 16, 2017 -> 10:21 AM) Do they always play minor leagues games this early in the morning? The disadvantage of travelling by bus vs. plane? We never did that twenty years ago. Apparently the SAL now schedules four game series that go Sat through Tuesday, and due to the unholy bus ride distances...have to give them an early chance to get out of town on Tues. Before, they'd just arrive in the middle of the morning and sleep in. Sometimes starting pitchers were held back or would leave early/separately but they probably stopped that due to liability. There's only one night game in the entire league today...so those teams must be closer together, geographically. Obviously, it kills crowds but Tuesday nights never were big draws and now they're used for school groups/ticket giveaways.

Jared and Ivanka are going in his place, instead. Along with Tillerson, Mattis and McMaster.

Dubuque Strikes Back at GOP Town Hall https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-lawmaker-ask...-131906645.html A GOP congressman asked why men should have to pay for maternity care, and this woman’s response is now resonating across the nation. Blum said he’d voted in favor of legislation that repeals and replaces major parts of the Affordable Care Act to “get rid of some of these crazy regulations that Obamacare puts on […] such as a 62-year-old male having to have pregnancy insurance.” In her letter to the newspaper, which was published Friday, Rank explained how the lawmaker’s comment had caused her to rhetorically ask herself “why should I pay for a bridge I don’t cross, a sidewalk I don’t walk on, a library book I don’t read?” “Why should I pay for a flower I won’t smell, a park I don’t visit, or art I can’t appreciate?” the retired special education teacher continued. “Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn’t vote for, a tax cut that doesn’t affect me, or a loophole I can’t take advantage of?” Rank ended her missive explaining why she did actually believe in people paying for all of those things ― by saying how it was all about “democracy,” “a civil society” and “the greater good.”

My Top Ten Tibet/Mount Everest Machu Picchu Serengeti/Kilimanjaro (Kenya/Tanzania) Angkor Wat Grand Canyon Badlands/Rushmore/Crazy Horse/Devil's Tower (NE Wyoming) Thailand/Philippines/Bali/Hawaii Zhangjiajie ("Avatar" mountains, Hunan Province) Switzerland Augusta National or Taj Mahal

The White House is playing word games here,” Greg Miller, the Washington Post national security correspondent who co-authored the report with Greg Jaffe, said on CNN. “If this was above board and not problematic in any way, why did the National Security Council, coming out of this meeting, feel it was necessary to contact the CIA director and the director of the National Security Agency and give them a heads-up on what Trump had just told the Russians?” https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-defends-sh...-120922617.html

He was trying to get Pelfrey the individual win...when his gut told Renteria to pull him when Calhoun came up as a LHB against a rhp (and even though it was still a shutout at that time after the catcher flew out) and considering the two walks earlier in the inning and the pitch count nearing 100.

32m Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump ...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism. 41m Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining.... Openly scheduled, but only covered by TASS.