caulfield12

Try to make it over to Nha Trang, Hue and Da Nang in Vietnam unless you're going the clockwise direction into Thailand for return. Angkor Wat is one of the coolest wonders of the world (takes a FULL two days) but, for my money, Machu Picchu is still the best.

You would think that 2% who's going to actually be paying HIGHER taxes would be a bit upset that almost all of the benefits of the new tax policies are flowing upwards to the Top 1%, and, more specifically, the Top 10% of that 1%. These 2-3%ers are SUPPOSEDLY the JOB CREATORS/FAMILY FARMERS/SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS AS WELL, are they not? Or these are "merely" white collar professionals who mostly work FOR someone else? So they can safely be overlooked by Trump, because the majority of them aren't likely to vote Democrat regardless?

QUOTE (Tony @ Jan 5, 2017 -> 08:40 PM) If that was the case, he'd already be on another roster. Good thread though, this is a topic where legit arguments can be made on both sides. Maybe...but they need to have at least one "veteran" offensive player, and he's the natural choice with Moncada one of the most hyped prospects in MILB the last decade and obviously a fellow Cuban. That has more intrinsic value to the Sox organization (as well as their collective ability to "recruit" their countrymen) than the return available on the current trade market (due to the unsigned players). June/July, it will be revisited. At any rate, there has to be a few veteran players to hold down the fort and provide some stability...and unless you're a huge fan of someone like Davidson (or Delmonico/Coats), there's not really any at-bats theoretically being taken away from capable replacements in our current system. With Frazier/Robertson/Cabrera all likely on the way out...you need to have at least one identifiable player, and you can certainly make the argument is he currently has more value to the White Sox than to other teams, with the outside possibility the White Sox could be competitive in 2018 and definitely in 2019, his final contract year.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/higher-incom...-163613852.html The 2% of upper middle class Americans who are going to be paying higher taxes under Trump... https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-calls-for-...-143034008.html This is rich...Trump upset the GOP is being set up to take the "blame" on the health care issue. Well, no, it's called assuming the responsibility to fix it if you're the actual party in power. The GOP made zero effort eight years ago to do anything but obstruct a system that was actually far more conservative than Mitt Romney's program in Massachusetts. We're seriously considering a major cut in SS and Medicare benefits to those earning $12-14,000 per year but completely content to give Tillerson a $180 million golden parachute. Good luck on that.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 4, 2017 -> 10:50 PM) Who knows what the future will hold, but at least Trump stood against the ethic's committee thing. Otoh, those were easy political points to score that didn't cost him anything. Remember, he's going to have to at least cooperate with the party beginning January 20th, and publicly slapping their wrists isn't going to sit well from an optics standpoint. Most members of Congress feel they can easily outlast the president, that he's just a temporary "anomaly" who will be around for at most 8 but likely only 4 years.

This Hawk/Benetti is at best 50/50...and might even favor Harrelson if we conducted a truly anonymous poll. It's definitely not some kind of "veto-proof" majority where 2/3rd's or 75% prefer Benetti. If that was the case, and they actually could defensibly argue the case that Harrelson was costing them money/ratings/ad buys, then he wouldn't be allowed to stay for another four years. Loyalty to the former broadcaster Hawk was...and not what he objectively IS today, would win out and JR would have a heart to heart with him about his chances of winning the Ford C. Frick broadcasting award actually decreasing the longer he holds on.

If Republicans were in charge of the executive branch: 1) No way does the FBI "flip flop" in the final 10-11 days happen so close to a presidential election, inconceivable 2) No way do they wait until AFTER the election in terms of the Russian hacking evidence (and "sanctions") https://www.yahoo.com/news/bernie-sanders-d...-215837024.html Here's an example of what we've devolved into. Sanders, rightly...points out that Trump long ago promised to defend all the government entitlement programs, and, not only that, accuses Huckabee of copying his idea. Reading the comments, instead of dealing with the issue of Trump's accountability...you simply get partisan attacks of Sanders. So why should the Democrats even bother to "objectively" tell the truth when it doesn't make the news/isn't memeworthy and doesn't end up with them retaining power? The Republicans would never have been so "soft" and "non-partisan" as Obama attempted to be with the FBI and Russian hacks issue. I honestly think nobody in the Democratic Party believed Trump could actually win until it was too late...but now there's nothing Obama can do as his entire legislative legacy is under attack. Obama has never been a fan of the Clintons and vice-versa. It's my belief he wanted to "censure" the Clintons while still believing she could not possibly "blow" the election.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 4, 2017 -> 08:51 PM) If the Sox and Moncada are confident about him playing a good center field (and I mean GOOD) there's a real argument to be made for Albies. But that is a big if with Moncada and even so I think I'd still rather have Torres and Meadows than Albies. So if Torres or Meadows are on the table the Braves are already playing catch up to the Yanks or Pirates deals. Not that Atlanta can't catch up, they have a mountain of top 100 tier talent, I just don't think they would want to. The hill to make up trade value ground on a headliner is steep even if the distance between two guys seems short. Are the Braves really interested in moving Acuna AND Allard on top of Albies? Probably not. I don't think they should be, personally. But that's what it's gonna take to overcome a motivated buyer in Pittsburgh or New York. Why would you want to move Albies to CF when he's already better than Anderson at SS? It makes more sense than putting Moncada in CF and keeping Albies on the infield...but there are a lot of moving pieces. The biggest unknown is how well Anderson would do in center. You tend to either have those first step and route instincts (as well as playing shallow or being more comfortable coming in) or you don't. No amount of practice and repetition can make up for it. The easiest thing to do is finding a natural CFer, unless the scouts believe the upside of a Torres or Albies just can't be passed up and they're confident in a transition to a different (and key) defensive position.

With the Mets and Nationals blocking them, acquiring Q primarily for his last two years doesn't 100% make sense. It's almost the same argument as the White Sox holding onto Q in the first place. You can certainly make an argument that the White Sox SHOULD be competing for at least the wild card in 2019 and definitely the AL Central Division in 2020. Except the Sox desperately need those prospects as much as the Braves logically should hold onto them and let them arrive together as a wave at the major league level. Plus, Q alone won't draw out any fans in Atlanta, the new stadium/marketing will have to hold down the fort the next two years while they're fighting for respectability and then for the post-season when Harper leaves the Nationals and/or the Mets' rotation breaks down and/or Harvey is gone.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 4, 2017 -> 08:09 PM) I would take a larger package around Meadows. I think I'd go with Torres based on his positional flexibility and athleticism. That said, we desperately need quality outfielders, so it's a hard choice. From my standpoint, Torres has the most helium and the bigger ceiling, but it's easy to get carried away with AFL results and regular season numbers are much more predictive.

I'm not sure when we should sacrifice anything in trade return unless we can get a true upgrade in CF. Seeing all these names like Mallex Smith, or Dalton Pompey (or similar), we could simply go out and "buy/trade for" Juan Lagares, Michael Taylor, Jarrod Dyson or a similar player as a placeholder. As the 4th/5th piece, I guess it's okay...but this is one of those situations where you hope to get two potential All-Stars out of a deal. And then you have to consider that cost/trade or flip value of those acquisitions versus giving playing time to Tilson or possibly Engel/May out there. But it's going to be incredibly important to have a strong defensive CFer to give all our young pitchers as much confidence as possible beginning in late May or early June. So back to Albies/Maitan/Newcomb....you need at least two of those three. The back end isn't as important as long as you get the first two guys you're targeting. Captain Obviously Fantastic. At the moment, with Meadows, he's the centerpiece...but you can't get him until the Pirates have decided they won't get fair value on McCutcheon, and even then they need to keep him as "insurance" for an injury to Marte/Polanco/McCutcheon unless they feel pretty darned confident they can get by putting Bell out in LF or RF and covering his anticipated defensive inadequacies with Marte/Polanco. For now, the Pirates aren't budging and the Astros believe they're still ahead of Texas and the Mariners. Until those two situations change, then any movement would have to come from the Braves raising their package or the Yankees deciding they are legitimately competing in 2017 instead of "retooling" and hoping for the best.

Here's the thing. I occasionally learn something new about the game from Hawk, and I probably appreciate his historical references more than most...certainly those 40 and over are probably more in this "camp" as opposed to the modern school of thinking on announcers. Living abroad for most of the past decade, I've listened to tons of broadcasts from major and minor league teams. Farmer and DJ, for example, are just as homerish as Harrelson, Farmer in particularly. DJ is always a bit more detached and critical. I've watched a former college dorm-mate (Brett Dolan) go on to get a top t.v. job with the Astros (then lose it, mostly through no fault of his own) and the thing is that Brett or Benetti or any of those guys, they're solid and professional and do their homework and know their stuff, but they just don't have the same amount of passion about the sport or their team because they're used to covering sports year-round in order to make a living (the first 10-15 years of most broadcasting careers). Maybe they're guys you hang out with and say..."Well, if only I'd chosen that path, was in the right place at the right time..." With Harrelson's knowledge and experience, there's honestly no way you can train or replicate it. That's why I've enjoyed him so much since the 1980's. As far the modern school of announcing, they're generalists, to a large extent. Maybe for young people, that's preferable...but not to my taste. As Thad Bosley noted, we're not going to come to a consensus about this, any more than if we were talking about artwork, music or movies. Everyone has their criteria in terms of what they want to get out of sitting down and watching a baseball game.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 4, 2017 -> 01:15 PM) That statistic is probably skewed because I presume the 1% impact as a percentage of their income could be significantly different. As a percent savings, it might be pretty significant. I still fully believe that the people who are the most tax screwed are most likely the upper middle class people or for the sake of this exercise, because the data is available, the 80-99%th percentile (134K - 615K by tax bracket), they also pay approximately 38% of total taxes). The 1% pays about 46^ of the taxes, but that is largley skewed by the fact that you are taking about huge mega dollars getting applied to a capital gains rate, so the effective rates at that level are much lower then the effective rates of the 80-99% percentile of income). More specifically, it is those who are in that percentile who are not self-employed who take even more of the brunt as their are just so few tax advantages. I'm just not sure how that group and Trump's typical voters in Wisconsin, MI, PA and Ohio have interests that are aligned. This latter group will be decimated by Ryan/Grover Norquist and Tom Price...and not so much by Trump's numerous conflicts of interest.

Two bonus picks... Independence Day remake After Earth Alice Through the Looking Glass Piranha 3DD The 3rd Human Centipede movie Fifty Shades of Grey Away with the Bullets for foreign films (China) Biggest guilty pleasure: Pacific Rim

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 4, 2017 -> 06:08 AM) I don't agree with one word of this post Relax Luke Cage. Do you honestly enjoy Benetti? It reminds me of Ventura replacing Ozzie. He won't embarrass the team or organization, but he's about as interesting as listening to paint dry.

Frankly, I'd rather listen to Harrelson hype all the young prospects than put up with Benetti questioning Stone over and over and not providing any of his own insight. Hawak can also tell you more from hanging around BP for a week of spring training than we'll get all season from some "voice" announcers.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/553f7588-be0f-...t%3A-which.html

What happened to Indiana? By the way, there's a really good article on the Hoosiers/State of IU basketball in the post-Knight years at ESPN by Eamon Brennan. Finally, seems like Nebraska shocks people every other year now. When they were in the Big 8, they never did anything. I only remember Tyronn Lue (Raytown/KC) and Andre Woolridge (eventually transferred to Iowa) being their big name players over like a 20-30 year time period. And Danny Nee was a punk.

Well, they've basically got three weeks to get something done before Sox Fest at the end of the month... Then, it gets a bit uncomfortable for both Jose and the club, but he's never been anything but the best teammate since 2012. He certainly understands the situation...and is probably quite excited to get an opportunity to play for a playoff-contending team with an offense that can consistently support him.

It feels like almost NOBODY liked Jared Leto in that role. Plus there were all the rumors going around about how he supposedly treated Margot Robbie (poorly) on the set, although that might have been a "media creation" to drum up some additional hype around the movie. I guess there was an additional fan group who felt tricked as the Joker was such a small part of the movie, compared to the pre-release vibe. One of those roles that, no matter what you do, you're always going to be compared to Heath Ledger and found wanting.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 11:12 AM) Ford canceled plans for huge plant in mexico. 700 jobs added in detroit. Nice development. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-isnt-ex...-192945024.html Ford isn't exactly caving in to Trump...

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 04:21 PM) They just ate most of Danks' $15 mill from last season and most of the $10 million given out to Latos,Rollins (both cut), and Jackson (missed over half the season). I wouldn't be shocked to see them kick in about $10 mill to move Melky because it is only for 1 year. Danks was almost forced because they were in first place and it felt like he could drag down the entire season. Melky, they have no compelling need to do anything one way or the other. No payroll crunch, etc. No rush to replace him with a better option, as the other two outfielders we roll out there will likely be much worse.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 10:27 AM) It really isn't though. We have seen the Dems rally behind winners like Fidel Castro, Che Guerva, and Iran in recent years. The whole Machiavelli thing is just disgusting though. But that is the overly simplisitic political system we have apparently put into place now. Che Guevara is just a brand for souvenir sales. Rallying around him? Who? Are we also rallying around Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix or Bob Marley? In all seriousness, there's no comparing a 45+ year battle of competing ideology with pawn/puppet states like Cuba, Iran and North Korea. And wanting to actually engage or open a dialogue with countries who have little realistic chance of doing harm to you is quite different from completely realigning the global political alliance system and throwing the entire civilized world into turmoil.How are they even close to comparable?

Not only Saunders, but Rasmus and Rajai Davis too. Sox typically abhor eating salary...and nobody other than Liriano/Coats you could even conceive of giving his playing time to. In the end, Melky at $4-6 million (Sox might send $2 with) for 2 months is much more palatable than a full season commitment, especially with how his 2015 season went.

Well, corrupt in the eyes of those who don't want to be scrutinized. In the end, it will only result in more media-driven investigations...which will then be ridiculed for being witch hunts aimed almost exclusively at poor Donald Trump and the GOP. Nobody can even agree that there is such an entity as a truly bipartisan committee anywhere in government these days.