caulfield12

Why? They draft Madrigal or Bohm, everything is set but 1b...and still control Sanchez through 2021, too. Plus Davidson, 2022.

http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2017/03/nick_madrigal_strives_for_grea.html This article encapsulates why Madrigal is the perfect choice...

If the Reds beat the Dodgers and Orioles hold on...#1.

If they weren’t dumping both Robertson and Frazier salaries...they would gotten a better deal. Otoh, Kahnle, Eaton and Q are worth a LOT less as of today. So there’s that.

Too bad for Trump the Iran situation is only going to exacerbate the potential for world petrol spikes...of course, this admin doesn’t realize that also affects jet fuel rates.

Now we’re officially in crazy land ... there’s no reason to cut Avi Garcia. Palka is likely just a better Coats.

Time to make Dave Duncan earn his consulting salary...

It’s 50% related to Cubs, lol...

This is all Lilian’s fault for saying we weren’t going to need pitching from outside the organization...

Casali grand slam just the second homer allowed by Kopech all season long. Alvarez can’t corral a chopper up the middle. Fourth hit of the inning. Bullpen up, Danish. Stolen base. Ironic that it’s Coats tonight, Bourjos was big part of last night’s game.

Jason Coats making life hard on Kopech. 2 rbi’s now, first homer allowed on the year to Coats as well. Almost had him for strike three. Still not out of it. 3 walks (total), bases loaded with just one out. 4 walks last time out. Having a much harder time second time through the lineup. Grand slam. Officially a complete disaster today for all aspects of the White Sox.

Two more hits, a flare to LF and seeing eye single up the middle through his legs and between the middle infielders. Out of the game for Kubat. 9 hits surrendered in 2 ip.

Two more hits, a flare to LF and seeing eye single up the middle through his legs and between the middle infielders. Out of the game for Kubat. 9 hits surrendered in 2 ip.

That’s a really good offense Cease is facing...not a huge number of xb hits, but all strung together. Wild pitches/passed ball, walks, seems a bit rattled. ERA blows up to 3.41, ouch. 6 er. 7 hits, 2 walks, no K’s. Still in, 49 pitches through 2. Rutherford in CF, Basabe in RF.

There’s now clear evidence that anti-poverty programs like welfare and Social Security work Surprise, surprise. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/theres-now-clear-evidence-anti-poverty-programs-like-welfare-social-security-work-194733608.html The research found that all programs except for the EITC “sharply” reduces deep poverty, which is defined as 50% below the poverty line, which is an income of $12,140 for an individual and $20,780 for a family of three. The EITC has a bigger impact for families around 150% of the poverty line, an income level often described as “working poor.” The researchers called the tax credit, along with SNAP, the “most effective” of the means-tested programs. For the elderly, Wu said the research found that Social Security benefits “single-handedly slashes poverty by 75%.” Social Security’s overall effect on all poverty is also enormous, responsible for by far the largest poverty reduction among all these programs, the study said. When it comes to alleviating deep poverty, Wu said, “many of the means-tested transfers (like SSI, SNAP, and housing assistance) play a substantially larger role than Social Security, which pays out more for those who put more in. Asked what he would emphasize for politicians and policymakers, given what the study has found, Wu pointed to the study’s bottom line. “Many of these government programs do have pronounced effects on poverty, especially if you look at groups that the programs are designed to target,” said Wu.

The Pirates with those three playoff flameouts and teardown are one cautionary tale...

Donnelly has voted 62% of the time with Trump...

Speaking of taxi services, the Chinese Uber had their second murdered passenger (first a teacher, now a flight attendant) in three years We are deeply saddened by and sorry about the tragedy that happened to Ms. Li. No words can express our deep remorse in the face of such an enormity,” Didi said in an updated statement today. “Our special task force is working closely with law enforcement agencies with the utmost effort. The murderer needs to be brought to justice; and Ms Li and her family deserve a just answer.” Directly referring to security concerns surrounding its platform, Didi said, “Please be assured we will review thoroughly all our business practices to prevent such an incident from happening again.” On Thursday evening, Didi issued a reward up to CNY1 million (USD157,600) for information leading to the perpetrator’s arrest and published the suspect’s name, identification number, phone number and photo. ... However, Didi stressed that the company has closely cooperated with police to conduct background screening of vehicle owners, to exclude criminal record holders, fugitives, drug addicts, and people with a history of mental illness sufferers. They can only take orders on the platform after they pass the review. Didi served 7.4 billion user trips last year while the number of daily fare orders exceeded 30 million with 40 million trips completed, according to data released by Didi Chuxing CEO Cheng Wei. The huge scale of orders also means great security challenges. In many cases, Didi not only has to bear legal responsibilities, but also should consider social and moral costs. As a travel platform, Didi cannot operate by using all of its own drivers like a taxi firm. Even if it is able to strictly control all drivers, it cannot guarantee that all drivers can comply with the law during the course of their work. In March of this year, Didi announced the launch of a security service based on the existing security system. However, this service only covered its Designated Driver and DiDi Express services, without including the car-sharing service. The lesson for Didi this time is that while continuously improving Designated Driving and DiDi Express security systems, it also need to constantly update security mechanisms for its ride-hitching service. http://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/didi-faces-security-challenges-after-murder-21-year-old-flight-attendant

“I think he'll be pitched a little bit differently when he gets to Triple-A," Hahn said. "There'll be a bit of a more veteran-type staff. Double-A tends to be primarily a prospect level. Lot of guys with real good stuff who are trying to harness that stuff, speaking in general terms. And in Triple-A, you see a few more veteran types who might keep hitters off-balance, get them to expand the zone a little bit more, are a little more on the finesse side of things or at the very least have some more big league experience. Those, they tend to approach or attack hitters a little bit differently. "I do think he'll be attacked a little bit differently once he does get to Charlotte, and that'd be beneficial for him."

Isn’t Mize the only clear choice at 1-1...with 5-7 following in any order?

He hasnt even had any setbacks or adversity to deal with... Kris Bryant, for example, had 68 AA games at age 22 and 70 AAA games and then debuted at 23. That’s still basically the AA All-Star Break for Jimenez to reach half a season of AA ball.

Frank Thomas played 109 games in AA...he’s nowhere close to that. Only 38 in his career so far. He’s also not even 21 1/2 yet.

Jimenez should be up to AAA with Zavala on June 20th or 21st. All-Star game for Southern League in Birmingham this year...Sox won’t move them up until then.

Uber drivers definitely aren’t in it for the money. A new working paper from researchers at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports that drivers for the ride-hailing company earn a pretax profit of only $3.37 an hour (or $661 a month) after expenses. Lyft drivers took home similarly paltry sums. As a result of this meager payout, 74 percent of drivers earn less than their state’s minimum wage. And 30 percent of drivers actually lose money once vehicle expenses are taken into account. Drivers earning the median amount of revenue make $0.59 per mile driven, but since average expenses work out to $0.30 per mile, the driver’s overall profit is only $0.29 for each mile. The conclusions are based on a survey of over 1,100 Uber drivers. Researchers analyzed drivers’ revenue, how many miles they drove and what type of car they used. They then compared that information with car insurance and maintenance costs from Edmunds and Kelly Blue Book and data on gas prices from the Environmental Protection Agency. http://observer.com/2018/03/uber-driver-profit-stanford-mit-study/ The Future of Work in the Uber Economy http://bostonreview.net/us/steven-hill-uber-economy-individual-security-accounts For example, suppose Donna is employed twenty hours a week by a hairdresser, contracts for 10 hours a week with TaskRabbit, and drives 10 shifts for Uber. She would earn 50 percent of her benefits from the hairdresser, 25 percent from TaskRabbit, and another percentage based on her wages driving for Uber. That would amount to earning over three-fourths of her full benefits (based on a forty-hour work week). Or suppose George contracts for 14 hours a week with Upwork, drives 10 shift for Lyft, makes 15 deliveries for Postmates and does seven gigs cleaning houses for Handy. He would earn a percentage of his benefits from each company, prorated to the number of hours worked or a percentage of his wages. How much would all of this cost? Surprisingly, implementing such a multiemployer safety net based on Individual Security Accounts would not be that expensive. We can make pretty decent estimates, including the amount of employers’ contributions for each worker, by looking at how much employers pay now for their regular employees, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates on a regular basis. Based on those numbers, a basic safety net for most 1099 workers (who tend to be services, sales, and office workers in the private sector) could be implemented if employers chipped in less than $2 per hour into each employee’s Individual Security Account. That minimum basket would be composed of worker supports that are already legally required for regular W-2 employees—in other words, Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, and injured workers compensation. If we wanted to make the safety net a bit more generous—to also include health insurance, long- and short-term disability insurance, and five paid sick days and five paid vacation days—employers would need to pay only about $2.27 per hour for service sector workers and $4.19 per hour for sales and office workers to pay for the entire safety net package. More expensive plans could be offered, depending on one’s ability to pay i.e. Gold, Silver and Bronze Plans, much like the Affordable Care Act’s setup for health care. We could also phase in certain benefits over time to get a program like this up and running, and then build on it over the years (that model reflects the history of Social Security, which initially in the 1930s had modest benefits. Over time, as it proved itself to be economically useful as well as popular, it was expanded). That’s a small amount of money for employers to pay into their employees’ ISAs to provide a safety net for millions of 1099 workers who currently have no benefits or job security. What it comes down to is this: there’s absolutely no reason why a business should be able to evade paying a couple dollars more per hour per worker to provide a safety net, just because that business hired a freelancer, temp, contractor or franchise. And regardless of how many employers a person works for, a worker should not be denied the civilized and modern-day necessity of having access to a support system she needs for herself and her family. The principle of this system is simple: the 1099/independent contractor loophole must be closed.

Pulled into 2nd pick (percentage points ahead of the Reds)...Baltimore clinging to 1st pick, but there's always this weekend to catch up.