caulfield12

Why does it matter if Madrigal plays 3B or LF or CF? You put “plus” defenders at any position (he’s the kind of dedicated practice player who will master any position, with the possible exception of SS, and even then, he’ll get the most out of his ability, positioning, etc.), you will end up with good results. Why not get Jimenez off the field and into a full-time DH role? Our outfield defense has been terrible, and that’s just one of many factors impacting the team record this year, but ALSO when you’re constructing a future playoff contender, you’d like to have 4-5 “plus” defenders at different positions on the field. We only have one now in Moncada...and two when Sanchez plays 3B.

Why are you so afraid of there being a better solution? The Tea Partiers are the ones who launched a whole election cycle based on getting rid of the ACA...and continued on in 2012 and 2014. They too, didn’t offer any solutions. Meanwhile, the Republican Party had months and months to formulate plans for what they could do to improve health care if they ever got into a position to do so and completely, utterly failed to deliver on what was promised to the American people. Thanks for the usual snark, though. Good usage of “scoffed.” If you weren’t so interested in insulting everyone or complaining about “being ganged up on” over and over again, you’d be a lot more fun. Actually, I would think that you would enjoy the sheer intellectual challenge of it all, instead of constantly arguing how it’s unfair. Apparently it’s justifiable to criticize others, but it doesn’t feel good when the shoe’s on the other foot, right? (Sounds exactly like a certain president.) By the way, I don’t HATE those who have different opinions...any more so than those who “attacked” the poster who was spouting Alex Jones Talking Points yesterday “hated” him. In fact, you might be the first person who has ever accused me of hating ANYONE (I’ve said a number of positive things about Trump and certainly never was firmly behind Clinton), but that’s okay. It’s not like anyone tells you to move to another country or follow the Cubs instead because their fanbase and owner are more traditional/conservative, lol.

Seems dumb when Bryant is your best player, whose best position happens to be 3B, Machado’s best position. Sure, they can push out or trade Addison Russell, sell low on him and replace him with a much worse defender...and then turn around and buy high on Machado when he seemed disinterested at best last year on the offensive front.

And yet offer no better solutions than to complain. Sounds a lot like the Tea Partiers...where, exactly, are they now?

Ummm...no. He’ll be one of those unique players who can play every position on the field, except for catcher and 1B.

Actually a lot more are going to Colombia, Thailand, South Korea...because cosmetic and dental surgery are becoming prohibitively expensive in the US. Not that this proves conclusively the American system is broken, it’s simply a function of supply and demand. But let’s just conveniently blame all the skyrocketing health care costs on illegal immigrants....that would be MUCH easier than actually addressing the problem/s.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-refers-immigrants-apos-animals-225539327.html For him to call immigrants animals is nothing new. In 2015, he used the word twice in an interview with The Washington Post, referring to an undocumented immigrant who had been arrested for fatally shooting a woman in San Francisco. (The man’s attorneys said the shooting was unintentional, and he was acquitted.) Last July in Ohio, Trump said “criminal aliens” were “animals” and then made a gruesome claim that they are murdering “young, beautiful” girls. Later that month, he said in New York that MS-13 “thugs” had “transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields” and “they are animals.” He referred to a New York City terrorism suspect, a legal permanent resident who came to the U.S. on a diversity visa, as an “animal” in November. In February, Trump referred to certain immigrants as “animals” who want people to suffer, and he accused Democrats of wanting to protect murderers. “I can’t get the Democrats ― and nobody has been able to for years ― to approve common-sense measures that, when we catch these animal killers, we can lock them up and throw away the keys.” Referring to subgroups as animals has been used to justify violence, including by Nazis during the Holocaust and by Hutu perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. Black people have been compared to animals throughout history and were treated like them through slavery and violence. Animal metaphors have similarly been used by conquerors and colonialists to dehumanize indigenous populations.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/17/politics/immigration-koch-brothers-libre-democrats/index.html By the way, the Koch Brothers are actually going in the opposite direction of the Trump administration on immigration reform and even supporting 5 Democrats...

Well, somehow the franchise STILL went up 14% in value from last year to this, at $1.5 billion (good for 14th in MLB). Because of all the cleared payroll or the trades for Moncada/Kopech/Jimenez/Cease/Giolito/Lopez/Dunning, it’s hard to say. Probably a bit of both...

Let me ask this...how do the 10-15% of Americans who describe themselves as evangelical/born-again Christian possibly square Trump administration directives for treating the poor and immigrants (especially women and children) with EVERYTHING in the New Testament that Jesus said? I just don’t get it. How can abortion be so much more important in driving voter behavior compared to the way we treat living/breathing human beings? Like this guy running for election in Georgia who wants to drive around the state in a bus “arresting” illegals to deport them...separating families, tearing apart husbands and wives, what kind of twisted heart do you have to have to be motivated to go around doing this and revel in thinking it’s in some way acting in a manner that exemplifies the Christian faith or belief system?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/17/us/new-york-man-restaurant-ice-threat/index.html Would Ivana, Melania or Trump’s mother have passed this “must speak English if you’re in America” test we now apply to public conversations? Have we now gotten to the point where we simply assume someone is an illegal/undocumented immigrant if they dare speak Spanish instead of English (and threaten to notify ICE)? Tomi Lahren got called out on exactly this earlier in the week but she missed the point entirely about her ancestors...that almost everyone who came to the US from the 1870’s through 1930’s barely spoke English and many families didn’t become fluent in English until the 3rd generations in the US (that often went to college/university as their economic situations improved.) https://www.yahoo.com/news/michael-cohens-efforts-build-trump-tower-moscow-went-longer-previously-acknowledged-232845349.html Michael Cohen’s efforts to build a Trump Tower complex in the heart of Moscow (tallest tower in Europe) went at least five months into the 2016 election cycle, contradicting earlier testimony it was completely dead in January, 2016.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republican-candidate-announces-apos-deportation-162752614.html And below we see the implications of Trump’s “animals” rhetoric...painting with a BROAD brush ALL Mexicans Williams was a former co-chair of President Donald Trump's campaign in Georgia. The senator describes himself as "anti-political correctness, anti-liberal, anti-establishment, and pro-Georgia." According to his emails, Williams is a big supporter of the federal 287 (g) immigration program. which allows local and state law enforcement to work together with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest undocumented immigrants based on criminal charges unrelated to immigration. The senator urged viewers to sign up for emails from deportationbus.com to receive the upcoming dates for the tour during the video. According to the video, the back of the bus reads “Danger! Murderers, rapists, kidnappers, child molesters and other criminals on board.” Right below is a “Follow me to Mexico” sign. “If you’re as tired as I am with politicians that do nothing but talk, and you want to see this bus filled with illegals, vote Michael Williams on May 22nd,” Williams said. Newsweek has reached out to Williams for comment about the tour.

Not to mention the fact that the Yankees also have Brandon Drury for the infield... https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2018&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0&team=4&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0 Btw, it’s a SAD SAD day when James Shields, Bruce Rondon and Aaron Bummer are the 3 best pitchers on the White Sox in terms of fWAR. Fulmer grades out much worse than Giolito, even.

http://time.com/5275168/trump-plan-lower-drug-prices/ Except that sounds exactly like a Democrat plan, right? I can't ever imagine a Republican doing such a thing...and all signs are pointing to "lots of talk/limited action" from the Trump administration so far. In fact, Novartis spent $1.2 just to get ONE meeting with Michael Cohen to make sure that never happens, that capitalism and the free market continue to reign, regardless of the costs to consumers. If Trump is willing to go against the insurance industry, doctors/AMA, Big Pharma, lobbyists....all these entrenched interests, and use the power of the presidency to actually CONTROL/LOWER/LIMIT costs to consumers, then he'll guarantee himself another 4 years. I just don't think he has the ability to do such a thing...or stay focused on one issue long enough. Stick to it-iveness is not exactly one of his greatest strengths. More than anything, he goes by t.v. ratings and how his policies play out in the media. But he would have to completely turn his back on his own party, and I'm not even sure many Democrats would be willing to embrace him for that trade-off.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/16/politics/cambridge-analytica-congress-wylie/index.html Meanwhile, race, voter suppression, Cambridge Analytica (targeting entity) back in the news. "Mr. Bannon sees cultural warfare as the means to create enduring change in American politics. It was for this reason Mr. Bannon engaged SCL (Cambridge Analytica's parent company), a foreign military contractor, to build an arsenal of informational weapons he could deploy on the American population," Wylie claimed, referring to Trump's former top political adviser Steve Bannon. Christopher Wylie swears in to a Senate Judiciary Committee Wylie did not provide specific evidence of voter suppression campaigns taking place in the US. But when asked by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, if one of Bannon's "goals was to suppress voting or discourage certain individuals in the US from voting," Wylie replied, "That was my understanding, yes." After the hearing, Wylie told CNN that although he did not take part in voter suppression activities, he alleged that African-Americans were particular targets of Cambridge Analytica's "voter disengagement tactics," which he said were used to "discourage or demobilize certain types of people from voting," and that campaigns and political action committees requested voter suppression from Cambridge Analytica.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/trump-voters/?utm_term=.02bf6783145e All the answers are here. It's up to the Democrats to deliver to these voters something more appealing than the DLC platform from 1993-2016. For the time being, it seems the progressive and moderate wings (of the Democratic Party) are willing to compromise in order to defeat Trump, but I'm not sure that means governing (afterwards) will be any easier than it is for the House of Representatives, currently being held hostage by the House Freedom Caucus. I'd honestly rather have Trump than either Pence or Ryan, fwiw.

Of course, Rabbit doesn't think like a parent or someone with a wife and family...he thinks like a 30 year old in good health, which is MOST DEFINITELY not the majority of people in America today https://www.kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/proposals-for-insurance-options-that-dont-comply-with-aca-rules-trade-offs-in-cost-and-regulation/ In 2018 the Trump Administration proposed a new draft regulation that would promote the sale of short-term, limited duration health insurance policies that offer less expensive coverage because they are not subject to ACA market rules. Short-term limited-duration health insurance policies (STLD), sometimes referred to as limited-duration non-renewable policies, are designed to provide temporary health coverage for people who are uninsured or are losing their existing coverage but expect to become eligible for other, more permanent coverage in the near future. Historically, people who have used these policies include graduating students losing coverage through their parents or their school, people with a short interval between jobs, or newly hired employee subject to a waiting period before they are eligible for coverage from their job. Because these policies are not intended to provide long-term protection (they generally cannot be renewed when their term ends), they are lightly regulated by states and are exempt from many of the standards generally applicable to individual health insurance policies. They also are specifically exempt under the ACA from federal standards for individual health insurance coverage, including the essential health benefits, guaranteed availability and prohibitions against pre-existing condition exclusions and health-status rating. These differences can make them considerably less expensive (for those healthy enough to qualify to buy them) than ACA compliant plans. STLDs are similar to major medical policies in that they typically cover both hospitalization and at least some outpatient medical services, but unlike ACA-compliant policies, they often have significant benefit and eligibility limitations. STLD policies often either exclude are have significant limitations on benefits for mental health and substance abuse, do not have coverage for maternity services, and have limited or no coverage for prescription drugs. Policies also generally have dollar limits on all benefits or specific benefits and may have deductibles and other cost sharing that is much higher than permitted in ACA-compliant plans. Insurers of STLD policies typically use medically underwriting, which means that they can turn down applicants with health problems or charge them higher premiums. Policies also exclude coverage for any benefits related to a preexisting health condition: a backstop for insurers in case a person with a health problem otherwise qualifies for coverage and seeks benefits. Because STLD policies are not renewable, people who become ill after their coverage begins are generally not able to qualify for a new policy when their coverage term ends. Due to their lower premiums, some people have been purchasing STLD policies instead of ACA compliant plans. This has happened even though STLD policies are not considered minimum essential coverage, which means that people who purchase them do not satisfy the ACA mandate to have health insurance and may be subject to a tax penalty. In 2016, CMS expressed concern about these policies being sold as a type of “primary health insurance” and issued regulations shortening the maximum coverage period under federal law for STLD policies from less than 12 months to less than three months and prescribing a disclosure that must be provided to new applicants. The intent of the regulation was to limit sale of these policies to situations involving a short gap in coverage and to discourage their use a substitute for primary health insurance coverage. The rule took effect for policies issued to individuals on or after January 1, 2017. In February 2018, the Trump Administration issued a new proposed regulation to reinstate the “less than 12 months” maximum coverage term for STLD policies. The preamble to the proposed regulation specified that this would provide more affordable consumer choice for health coverage. For more information about STLD policies, see this issue brief. Extending the coverage period for STLD policies back to just under a year is likely to make them a more attractive choice for healthier individuals concerned about the cost of ACA-compliant plans. This is particularly true beginning in 2019 when the individual mandate penalty ends and purchasers will no longer need to pay a penalty in addition to the premiums for these policies. Under the ACA framework, STLD plans may provide a lower-cost alternative source of health coverage for people in good health. With ACA policies as a backup, people who purchase STLD policies and develop a health problem would not be able to renew their short-term policy at the end of its term, but would be able to elect an ACA-compliant plan during the next open enrollment. It is possible, as one estimate concluded, that more healthy individual market participants may switch to short-term policies as a result. Such “adverse selection” would raise the average cost of covering remaining individuals in ACA-compliant plans, leading to further premium increases in those policies. For people with pre-existing conditions who do not qualify for subsidies, the rising cost of ACA-compliant coverage could challenge affordability, especially for people with pre-existing conditions who have incomes that make them ineligible for premium subsidies.

They're also waiting on Greg Bird to get healthy and for Gardner's contract to expire (this year)...Ellsbury, too.

Theo's legacy in Boston was those two World Series titles (and putting a large number of players in place for the 3rd)...but also a TON of bad/expensive moves in Free Agency. They were able to sign the exact right mix of 4-5 veterans on favorable contracts for their 3rd title, but they had some really bad seasons mixed in there, overall. The same thing's playing out in Chicago. Heyward and Darvish. We'll just have to wait and see what happens if they go "all in" with Machado or Harper. Let's revisit all of his big mistakes in BOSTON: Signing Julio Lugo (character issues, too), letting Damon go to the Yankees, Edgar Renteria, JD Drew, Carl Crawford, extending Josh Beckett (leading to the chicken and beer clubhouse fiasco that cost them a great manager in Francona), Dice-K and John Lackey were all terrible moves. He hasn't made THAT many mistakes in Chicago, YET. The ones that stand out the most so far are Edwin Jackson (even that wasn't a huge contract, $52 million), Miguel Montero, Heyward and now (possibly) Darvish. Of course, you also have the Quintana trade, Jeimer Candelario/Wilson and Avila, letting Christian Villanueva go and the increasingly controversial Torres/Chapman move.

Or let's just call something a DISASTER over and over and over again. That will only serve to make it MORE popular when you try to take it away. That's when people will scream and holler and their sad stories will end up bombarding us day after day in the national media. It's the exact SAME lesson the Democrats are learning about trying to undo some of the Trump tax cuts (or even bringing up the irresponsible nature of exploding the Federal Deficit even more and more for a future generation of Americans to deal with in 2025 or 2030).

This, of course, has absolutely NOTHING TO DO with Trump trying to completely sabotage the ACA for two years now...in a myriad of ways (such as cutting the enrollment period in half and creating utter chaos in the insurance industry in terms of looking for future policy certainty/predictability). He hasn't tried to hide it. He's admitted it, many many times. It's like someone is teaching your kid from K-10th grade...they suddenly change to a teacher who just sits there and teaches nothing (just babysitting) for two years and then parents wonder why his SAT/ACT score wasn't that great in the end? Which teacher are you going to blame for the final sub-par result?

So instead of complaining or totally throwing it out, wouldn't it be better TO FIX OR IMPROVE IT? https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/12/02/367837115/obamacare-glitch-puts-subsidies-out-of-reach-for-many-families Most Democrats will acknowledge its flaws, the controversial nature of the mandate (and penalties for not insuring)...the number of working poor (see story above) and especially those middle class families (independent contractors or small business owners) in the $50-100,000 income range hit hard by the law. We also would argue that pushing all the most expensive to insure people into the high/est risk pools...while taking away the money that was coming from the mandate, is simply going to redistribute the solution away from the government in the direction of MAKING EVERYONE STILL WITH INSURANCE PAY MORE...and having MORE AND MORE people coming into hospitals for emergencies without the ability to pay, CAUSING PREMIUMS to skyrocket even more to subsidize those who go without insurance. ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, COSTS ARE GOING UP. It's just a matter of redistribution from the upper middle class and rich via government policy or creating a regressive situation where the the middle class continues to be the one that bears the brunt of the very real financial pain. Or do you prefer the solution of taxing huge multinational corporations like they're doing in Seattle with Amazon...because the "negative externalities" (lack of affordable housing/increased homelessness) are taking a very real toll on the social fabric of that city? Shouldn't corporations that are making profits in the billions (and were just shielded by government tax policy) bear some of the responsibility for finding a solution?

He even tried to blame separating children from their parents (in the quasi-concentration camps) on Democrats. Of course! Or Obama. Or Clinton. Or it's all just fake news. Or it's McCabe/FBI/deep state conspiracy not to let him be the legitimate president, etc. Of course, he always blames Democrats but conveniently forgets that he has control of the House, Senate (barely) and SCOTUS. But he did FINALLY call the decidedly-non white WAFFLE HOUSE HERO, weeks later. After the media kept bringing it up, over and over again.

The same thing would happen if most of us who post at SoxTalk entered Ayn Rand chat and tried to argue for Bernie Sanders Socialism. The fact of the matter is that MOST of the mods here are to the center-right...except for Balta. I don't assume they agree (in fact, I was a bit surprised to see one saying they were de-registering as a Republican) with LOTS of things that Trump does, but they also (like most Americans) want to put country over party. They're smart enough to realize you can't win these online arguments, any more than Dems could have convinced Tea Partiers in 2012 or Gingrich acolytes in 1994 to change their positions. I can even see how "shaking things up" has had some positive effects on the country...but, I go back to "the greatest good for the greatest number of Americans" argument and I fail to see how having friends and relatives refuse to talk to each other, go to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, de-friending or blocking acquaintances on social media...how any of that is a GOOD/POSITIVE/CONSTRUCTIVE thing. Since he came into office, Trump's policies have been 90% aimed at his base...and deliberately undoing/vetoing/annulling/blocking everything his predecessor did while in office. Do you honest expect that we can go in that direction in our politics and not suffer the consequences or repercussions? That if the Dem's win in 2020 they'll just quietly reconcile with their past bitter enemies in Congress and "let bygones be bygones"? Maybe this bi-partisan effort to turn things away from McConnell and Schumer in the Senate (to Collins and Bennett) will actually work, but don't count on it. Some will argue that people putting their "REAL" beliefs out there without fear of repercussion or reprisal is a great or good thing...that political correctness deserves to die...we shall see. America has gotten through worse times, assassinations in 1968, mass riots in the 60's, Watergate, Vietnam. This too shall pass. MAYBE!

Let's ask Rabbit this: And I'm sure we won't get a response. How many of Trump's "core" supporters (those who agree with 95%+ of what he does, and would happily shout "lock her up" almost two years after an election)...would be able to distinguish that Trump is referring ONLY to MS-13 and NOT to all those from "non-white" countries seeking to gain entry into the US? Only violent cartel members and not just "any ordinary non-rapist" Mexican? What about his comments about "caravans" of thousands from Central and South America where the actual number was in the hundreds that reached the San Ysidro/US border crossing? Shithole African countries? Positive words for Norwegians...they should send more, why don't they? When has he ever said a single positive thing about ANY immigrants who were not from Asian countries (and, even here, he's more likely to cite Chinese or Indians taking away tech and IT jobs/working for lower salaries...fwiw, the Trump Administration did side with Asian groups in suing Harvard for "biased" admission processes that favored blacks and Hispanics over whites and Asians, but that was just as much about protecting whites from "political correctness/affirmative action.") In Trump's idea, apparently, the only good immigrants are Eastern European models AND/OR anyone from the finance industry willing to loan him money or co-partner on a real estate/golf/development project around the world.