caulfield12

Rutherford 2/2, RBI, .361 Basabe at 338, Adolfo at 329, Sheets at 290 Call and Fisher (AA) not exactly distinguishing themselves from the crowd.

At least Logan Morrison, despite the worst fwar in the entire game today...can return to his NYC bias beef over the home run derby when Gary Sanchez was selected over him. Priorities! Those MIN/NYY numbers are like the Sox in Anaheim, Seattle and Oakland back in the early 00’s. Acuna just hit his first homer, blast into the upper deck in Cincy...off Homer the Bailey.

Kanye West, Chance the Rapper and Abraham Lincoln Trump was asked about the rapper’s unsolicited praise of him on Twitter. “I have known Kanye a little bit. And I get along with Kanye,” the president said. “Kanye looks and he sees black unemployment at the lowest it’s been in the history of our country. He sees Hispanic unemployment at the lowest its been in the history of our country. He sees, by the way, female unemployment — women — the lowest it’s been now in almost 19 years. He sees that stuff, and he’s smart and he says, ’You know what? Trump is doing a much better job than the Democrats did.’” Trump was also asked about Chance the Rapper’s assertion that “black people don’t have to be Democrats.” “People don’t realize, you know, if you go back to the Civil War, it was the Republicans that really did the thing,” Trump said. “Lincoln was a Republican. I mean, somehow it changed over the years. And I will say I believe it’s changing back.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sounds-off-comey-cohen-kanye-freewheeling-fox-friends-interview-135144849.html?guccounter=1

AJ Pollock and Grandal should be two of our top FA acquisition targets...from that FG leaders page. And how is it possible for Corey Dickerson (many teams passed on) and Semien to be the top and 6th best defenders? Moncada, for what it’s worth, shows up as the #22 defensive player. Avi Garcia is back to being 179/180, fwiw. Engel is even worse, but not qualified anymore. Anderson, Sanchez, Abreu, Davidson and Castillo round out our top 6.

What about Pedroia for Madrigal? Seems more likely than Altuve...

What about the five million American workers who have lost their jobs due to robotics, automation and outsourcing? https://www.technologyreview.com/s/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/ Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence, according to Brynjolfsson, is a chart that only an economist could love. In economics, productivity—the amount of economic value created for a given unit of input, such as an hour of labor—is a crucial indicator of growth and wealth creation. It is a measure of progress. On the chart Brynjolfsson likes to show, separate lines represent productivity and total employment in the United States. For years after World War II, the two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. The pattern is clear: as businesses generated more value from their workers, the country as a whole became richer, which fueled more economic activity and created even more jobs. Then, beginning in 2000, the lines diverge; productivity continues to rise robustly, but employment suddenly wilts. By 2011, a significant gap appears between the two lines, showing economic growth with no parallel increase in job creation. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call it the “great decoupling.” And Brynjolfsson says he is confident that technology is behind both the healthy growth in productivity and the weak growth in jobs.

“Democrats are obstructing good (hopefully great) people wanting to give up a big portion of their life to work for our Government, hence, the American People. They are “slow walking” all of my nominations - hundreds of people. At this rate it would take 9 years for all approvals!” Thanks, Donald...glad you didn’t notice what happened to Merrick Garland or praise the Waffle House hero, either. That Ronny Jackson seemed like he would have been the best of the best, should have been voice approved without any objections.

http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=1977180783&sid=milb Collins homer for those who missed it...

In Seattle’s red-hot housing market, a group of millennial techies is using data skills to alter the look, and affordability, of their adopted city. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/26/seattle-housing-what-works-next-218058 “My generation is never going to have that.”

The Braves built around Glavine, Avery and Smoltz (trade with Tigers for Doyle Alexander), later Jason Schmidt...but they didnt take the next step until they added Greg Maddux.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-big-changes-coming-trump-tax-cuts-201857455.html Big businesses known as C corporations will enjoy a 40% reduction in the corporate tax rate, from 35% to 21%. Yahoo Finance and many other news outlets have reported extensively on what big companies are likely to do with the tax savings, with many buying back shares or raising dividends. Some companies, such as Apple, have committed to new investments. And dozens of companies have given employees one-time bonuses. The JCT research provides new insight on how the tax cuts will benefit smaller businesses. The effective tax rate for sole proprietorships—which account for about 73% of all businesses—will drop from 24.7% to 19.8%, according to the JCT. That’s a hefty 4.9 percentage points, a bigger decline than most individuals will see, since the effective tax rate for individuals is expected to fall from 29.1% in 2017 to 26.7% for 2018, or 2.4 percentage points. Most privately owned businesses will benefit from the tax cuts, but those owned by the wealthy will benefit the most. The JCT found that 44% of the net benefit of a new tax break for privately owned businesses will accrue to individuals with incomes of $1 million or more, while just 7.5% of the net gain will accrue to individuals with incomes of $100,000 or less. That skew is both deliberate and problematic. Slashing business taxes is supposed to leave companies with more money to invest in workers and facilities, and wealthier business owners obviously have more income to tax. But there’s no guarantee businesses will invest the windfall in ways that help ordinary people, and many Americans feel the tax cuts favor the wealthy over the working and middle class. If businesses really do amp up spending and hiring, maybe skeptical voters will start to feel they’re getting a bigger share of the tax cuts. But we’re still waiting for convincing signs of that.

Logical conclusion to draw here.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2771769-padres-144m-eric-hosmer-risk-backfiring-giving-credibility-to-mlb-tanking?src=rss Padres' $144M Eric Hosmer Risk Backfiring, Giving Credibility to MLB Tanking https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/04/25/cincinnati-reds-who-goes-see-worst-team-baseball-meet-them/543434002/ Who actually goes to see the worst team in baseball? Meet them...

Maybe on the MLB Pipeline one...but not the majority of well-respected ones, like Baseball America's or Law's list

Rutherford would need to hit at least 15-18 homers to get back on the "watch lists," although the high average and OBP is nice to see for the moment, compared to what we had to work with last season...plus, he has a not insignificant number of doubles, which is another positive sign.

https://sports.yahoo.com/will-baseball-gods-reward-marlins-playing-hard-153210559.html Will the baseball gods reward these Marlins for playing hard? Lots of lessons/analogies (minus Jeter and trading Eaton/Sale/Q last offseason vs. what Miami did this past offseason)

http://www.wnff.net/index.php?topic=34710.1125 Here are 46 pages of posts on the Giolito/Lopez/Dunning trade from Nationals' fans. Interesting reading. Of course, lots of obvious comments that Eaton hasn't been on the field enough for WASH, either. His (Lopez's) control seems to get worse and worse. I think the moves the Nats made to their development staff especially pitching wise sent some shockwaves especially when it looked like the guys the Nats traded away started to turn things around. Now, maybe it's not as shocking that those guys still look like they have a long ways to go, but that still doesn't cover up the fact that the system has been pretty low on pitching in general for a few years now. Re: Eaton for Giolito Lopez and Dunning « Reply #1130: April 02, 2018, 10:37:31 AM » This entire trade will be a referendum on Rizzo and the development staff's ability to project prospects. If you are someone who bought into the high rankings for Giolito and Lopez, then this trade was and is a massive overpay. But it looks like Rizzo and company had a much cooler view and so far it looks like they may be right. I was really against the trade at first but after seeing the pitchers not really impress so far I have moved from being negative on the trade to wait and see. Re: Eaton for Giolito Lopez and Dunning « Reply #1131: April 02, 2018, 10:51:08 AM » Giolito will be fine. he's a rotation regular. He's not going to be Stras 2.0, but he'll give Chicago 6 years of nice #3 results with a chance for more. No worse than a righty Gio.

Adolfo won't be a Top 100 player unless he can prove that he can play RF adequately in terms of retaining his "plus plus" arm...because he doesn't have much speed or fielding ability. Basabe could sneak into the 80-100 range, maybe 75.

If 2020 is not a competitive team for the White Sox, if not a playoff team (the Indians' foundation is already showing cracks)...then the rebuild has already started to go awry.

Well, there's no doubt Amazon and Wal-Mart enjoy unprecedented economies of scale. There's also no doubt they have been the bane of small and medium-sized business across Flyover Territory...wiping out many small towns in the Midwest/Heartland, Southwest, Rust Belt and Deep South/Appalachia. Of course, all of this is wrapped in the issue of tariffs and the unprecedented dumping of lots of cheaper Chinese-manufactured products onto the American market to allow the average consumer to afford (with credit, of course) a comparatively better life than would have been possible with 25-30% higher costs if all those same goods had been US-sourced.

Well, one thing's for sure...tomorrow's start for Giolito is going to be under a magnifying glass for all the armchair psychologists out there in viewing land.

Well, if you consider the fact that dealing Rodon wipes out one of your potential aces under team control through 2021...then the cost is probably going to be higher, simply because that means that Kopech, Lopez, Hansen, Cease and Dunning (and/or Giolito) pretty much all have to make it as effective major league starters AND avoid injury. The odds of that are slim and none, of course. Which means trading minor league outfielders and/or spending top dollars acquiring a FA pitcher on the open market.

Acuna with his first big league hit...Albies with his 7th HR. Jesus, he is damned fast and aggressive on the basepaths.

There's no way we can sell low on Rodon at this point...even though Happ seems like a decent bet, he's always going to be limited defensively, so he's going to have to hit like Schwarber to have much value. He does (still) have a 741 OPS, but, once again, the defensive limitations bite into the overall value significantly. Certainly, it would be a huge upgrade in CF (in terms of "offensive potential".) The Cubs would counteroffer...take Ben Zobrist and we'll give you X/Y/Z prospects to ditch that contract, lol.

Up to a 595 OPS. The inevitable two homer game... http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=1973348483&sid=milb Pretty impressive opposite field power stroke. Followed up by 4 strikeouts in 5 at-bats, 28 k’s and only 1 walk so far Five walks in last three games but still mired in the 180’s. Fernando Tatis Jr., SS, Padres (AA): Nobody is as aggressive with assignments as San Diego, and after what Tatis did last year, the Texas League seemed warranted, even for someone who will be 19 for the entire season. Development officials see Double-A as the true proving ground, and Tatis is showing he needs more seasoning. He has struck out 34 times in 96 at-bats and is slashing .177/.231/.333. Tatis is going to be a star. He’s just not Vlad Jr. (Jeff Passan, yahoo sports) Potential breakout game, 2 doubles and a homer (#4), BA back up close to .200 again LG LEVEL G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS GO/AO Minors 2018 TEX AA 25 101 19 20 40 6 1 4 12 7 0 35 0 0 .198 .261 .396 .657 1.60