caulfield12

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/opinions/tru...nion/index.html Trump’s judge pick had a very bad day (at the hands of a Republican)

QUOTE (SonofaRoache @ Dec 15, 2017 -> 06:51 PM) Yeah because they are gonna be so happy that we faked helped them so we could get them to consider us. Let's also pay the rent for poor families in Chicago to get elite talent to want to play on the Bulls. It’s called enlightened self-interest and corporate social responsibility. Every Fortune 500 company does the exact same thing. There’s a clearer connection between athletes and their home countries (see Cuba and White Sox) is 10x stronger than the generic idea of helping the inner cities and having that pay off.

I still think this is idiotic. There are better ways to think outside the box. If the White Sox wanted to be more strategic, they would reinvest some of JR’s money into rebuilding Puerto Rico, working with an unimpeachable non profit like Habitat for Humanity. Send some of the players and coaches down on a goodwill tour, especially anyone with family ties to PR. Or even a low interest loans/micro finance approach. https://www.lavidabaseball.com/puerto-rico-...nte-needs-help/ They could help to finance the restoration and completion of Roberto Clemente Sports City, for example. Hire Javy Vasquez, Roberto Alomar, Jose Valentin, Roberto Hernandez and one of the Molina’s (can also work with the catchers as a coach for part of the year) as Sox Ambassadors. Dennis Martinez probably has too many ties to Orioles, but he would be the best. They could even buy these two houses in San Juan that are currently worth way less than $840,000 combined (after the earthquake) in order to alleviate financial stress on the Clemente family. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/36-Calle...id/?view=public 36-B, adjoining property, also for sale. Make them the HQ of a new Sox Baseball Academy in PR. Invest less than $15 million, which has to be lower than the opportunity cost of surrendering Cease and Fulmer, you have X percentage higher probability of signing any Puerto Rican player and you also have an “in” with potential PR draft picks. In fact, Nolan Arenado’s mother is Puerto Rican...father is Cuban. Do all the things as outlined, we have a much better shot at Arenado than we do being the highest bidder for Machado.

What tangible links are there to Machado and his agent within the Sox organization? Just Renteria and some of their support staff as the pied piper to all Latin American talent?

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 15, 2017 -> 11:59 AM) First of all he's not an executive, he's an on-air talent, just like her, only more senior. Second, age shouldn't matter here. They're consenting adults. Third, the problem is that at no point is she saying stop. She's not even giving a hint that she doesn't like it. She's repeatedly asking him out to dinner or to go to a concert together. Not only is she not resisting, she's actively INVITING his communications. also, the "risk" you speak of is being falsely accused of harassment. If we're going this far with it, then I have to teach my sons to basically never talk to women unless it's recorded and/or you get a consent form signed, because at anytime a woman can claim that despite her actions, she really didn't want X (sex, a photo, talking in a flirty way, etc) This second part might be the direction things are going...just like another version of pre-nuptial agreements. Of course, NDA’s are on the way out, so not sure what someone with significant assets should do if women in cases like this can win financial awards via civil litigation. http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/entertainmen...ions/index.html Dustin Hoffman is taking more hits

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Dec 15, 2017 -> 04:24 PM) People from KC apparently http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=104407 Edit: I'm sorry, I meant the "baseball world." This is like Harrelson raving about the future Royals teams in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013...he was on their bandwagon four years early.

Is he sure those tweets were actually real and not Russian bots in Moldova? Were they bused in by George Soros operatives in the dead of night from Mississippi...on buses equipped with WiFi so that they could try to influence the Net Neutrality debate simultaneously, killing two birds with one stone? Two Separate Studies Show That The Vast Majority Of People Who Said They Support Ajit Pai's Plan... Were Fake from the fake-news dept The fact that the FCC comments for Ajit Pai's net neutrality repeal were stuffed with fake comments is nothing new at all. We first reported on it back in May, and reports of comments from totally fake people or long dead people continue to pop up. Even worse are multiple stories of people having their own identities used to file comments, often opposed to their own views. The FCC has consistently responded that it doesn't care. New York's Attorney General has been investigating this as fraud, and asked the FCC to delay its net neutrality repeal until after the investigation was complete -- a request the FCC completely ignored. And, as we just noted a little while ago, Schneiderman recently announced that he's found over 2 million fake comments. But it's easy to say "well, all these fake comments mean all the comments can be ignored." But it's important to look at the source of these fake comments and on which side they ended up. And just this week two new studies have come out, both taking a really deep dive into the fake comments. The Wall Street Journal did an investigation and reached out to 2,757 people who had supposedly commented. 72% of them said they had not posted the comments. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171214/...were-fake.shtml

If we can get to 100 pages about Jesse Chavez, SoxTalk should get some type of reward.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 15, 2017 -> 11:41 AM) This is actually a pretty perfect example of the "witch hunt" fear that people have on this issue. http://thebiglead.com/2017/12/15/espn-text...ohn-buccigross/ ESPN produced the entire text message exchanged between the two, and while the photos were sent, and he used terms like #dollface and #longlegs, it's absolutely clear she was flirting with him non-stop and in no way provided even a hint that she was uncomfortable with how they communicated. At the end of the day she's pissed that she didn't get her contract renewed so she's filing her claim. This is the dilemma men are in. You have a woman of consenting age actively flirting with you, showing no sign that she finds what you say improper/unprofessional/unwanted, and then 2 years later she can complain about it and in the current climate you're automatically deemed guilty of harassment. He was also nearly twice her age. This smacks of using your power/influence to get what you want...perception is just as important as reality in this environment. If they were both at the same level in the organization, it would be easier to agree. Then you have another overlapping cultural issue...the white exec flirting with a young African-American woman in a completely make-dominated industry. Once you reach a certain status/stature, you need to be increasingly cognizant of the risks you take when you flirt with a woman, especially when you have three younger children. Why does an older guy need to send a shirtless picture, anyway? It seems to happen all the time with politicians and pseudo-celebs.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Dec 15, 2017 -> 11:33 AM) Too early to be drinking, even in China. You apparently have forgotten the bullpen nightmares of 2006 and 2007. Just wait until we have to watch Nate Jones for a half season, if he doesn’t fall apart again. Count me skeptical about how easy it will be to put together a competent bullpen without spending a lot of money to do it. It’s easy to say Fulmer/López/Cease/Burdi/Stephens...someone has to make it and eventually stick. It’s just a lot easier said than done. Look at all the Cubs problems despite their abundant resources. If they didn’t get the Royals to bite on Soler, they would have been totally screwed this year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 15, 2017 -> 11:26 AM) I'll still offer them a trade of all the money back after ARod's opt out in exchange for them giving up the 2009 world series title. Do you think they take it? Nope, unless Rick Pitino was their manager that year. Looking at the Cubs being stuck with Heyward is scary...though. Unless you’re the Tigers and can magically dump Fielder, Kinsler, Verlander and Upton. Not so easy with Miggy and Victor Martinez, though. On the other hand, the Sox have made so many bad FA deals, one of them has to go right eventually. We’re also quite lucky not to be stuck with Alex Gordon’s deal. Back and forth with arguments and counter arguments. It’s so easy to be gun shy/risk averse, but that went out the window when you traded Eaton/Sale/Q and signed Robert.

Wouldn’t holding onto Kahnle have given them just as good a shot at signing Machado after 2018 (at least they’d have a legit closer) than trying to convince him now? Next offseason, Hahn’s going to have to get all of those weak spots covered (similar to the strategy of signing Cabrera, LaRoche and Robertson) right on top of each other...before he can get a commitment from a legit Top 5-10 FA. Or Kopech, Jimenez, Moncada, etc., are all going to have to play like monsters and the real Rodon is going to need to show up finally.

That’s the normal White Sox move. Bring in Donaldson or Turner a year or two late...stay out of the Arenado and Machado sweepstakes. Of course, Dunn and Robertson were big dollars at their respective positions, but not anywhere close to $300 million plus contracts. We shall see.

NY is a much bigger media market, and the Cubs completely own Chicago right now. This is more of a move you see when the results on the field push the window of competition up by one year...but a Heyward or Machado type doesn’t start the bandwagon, they join one that has already demonstrated a certain amount of success to push them over the top. (The same principle the M’s we’re trying to follow with Cano/Cruz, but they seemingly jumped the gun. In retrospect, their younger core players weren’t ready, and weren’t deep enough...especially with Felix fading.) IMO, it would make more sense if we knew we could rely on Rodon at all.

Trump judicial nominee struggles to answer basic legal questions at hearing http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/politics/jud...flub/index.html From the DeVos files...

Hahn loves to win the offseason, lol...maybe it’s just all PR spin, knowing there’s nothing to lose by throwing our hat in the ring. We don’t have any obvious in’s with Machado like we did with F.Garcia (Ozzie) or even Luis Robert, unless we’re going with this every Latino player would love to suit up for Renteria storyline.

We're going to have to do our "due diligence" on Machado vs. Nolan Arenado. And hopefully we pick the right one and don't have another FA bust with such a huge franchise-altering acquisition. There seems to be more risk with any player leaving Colorado, but I haven't looked closely at Arenado's splits (plus the whole NL to AL issue, maybe KW can try with CarGo first, haha). You put any line-up with those two, Luis Robert, Moncada, Abreu and Jimenez, that's as solid as it gets 1-5. Catcher is a hard area to improve. So that means one of the corner OF spots (2nd easiest to fill), Tim Anderson and DH (easiest spot to fill) are the biggest areas for potential improvement. Of course, the Sox playbook has always been to get three or four 2.0-2.5 WAR guys and hope they all succeed instead of investing all that money into one megastud player.

The TALENT is there. You've also got a VERY iffy Rodon, not knowing what to expect out of Giolito/Lopez/Fulmer (more growing pains), Shields and Covey (probably another veteran flier or rehab guy like Holland)...and potentially Michael Kopech in the second half. More importantly, you have no semblance of a bullpen...with Nate Jones potentially your closer. I know that thought alone will give Greg nightmares. It's like saying the Royals arrived in 2013. That's where the White Sox should be in 2019 with a great offseason of FA moves, in the same position (as KC in '13), about 10 games over .500 and just outside the playoff picture.

http://abc7chicago.com/video-11-year-old-g...police/2778119/ Disturbing video in Grand Rapids of 11-year-old handcuffed at gunpoint "makes me physically nauseous," police chief says.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alabam...4b01bdd7659f2ce I am hearing rumors that black voters from MS were encouraged to cross over into AL and vote. Anyone else hearing this? Anything to it? That might explain the 30% turnout higher than population percentage. Just reporting the rumor. This guy got completely destroyed over the span of 16 tweets, good stuff... Take it from voters, Democrats don't want a Bernie Sanders or a blue Donald Trump https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017...671001/?ref=yfp

Not with the Indians so much better positioned the next two years. It would take another DL Debacle from their starting rotation...and, even then, the rest of the AL is going to be so competitive that the Indians/Twins should be able to run up the win totals against the Tigers/Royals just as well as anyone. It would take some crazy luck to get us to anything above .500 next year without adding someone like Machado. Granted, it was NEVER the plan to be truly competitive until 2019 at the earliest, and more likely, 2020.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 14, 2017 -> 06:33 PM) Dude, it's XMas season. Only reason I'm on is procrastinating from grading. GOP "friends" I did notice Brett showed up recently. In China, we have one extra day for Christmas and one for New Year's, then a long three week holiday for Spring Festival/Chinese New Year's (this year, Feb 3 - 25)...our End of Semester exams are the week of January 22nd, so you can imagine how long a run that is to sustain classes from August 20th - Jan. 20th with only one week off at the beginning of October.

This Alabama election result really has some at SoxTalk so shook up, they've disappeared temporarily. That must be the same thought going through the head of every single Republican who doesn't want to face election defeat next November. Early retirement, like Paul Ryan. Of course, Ryan wants to take a run at wiping out "entitlement" programs like Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security first. Ooops...I misspoke, Social Security isn't actually an entitlement since every American pays their fair share into it, only to have it raided, so later Congresses can invariably talk about putting "ironclad lockboxes" around those funds that wouldn't have to be protected in the first place had the government been responsible with tax cuts and wars and having to fix all the problems that 2001-2008 created for Obama to deal with. That lockbox has been out there in the political lexicon since the 1980's, and we're still facing 15-25% SS cuts for those who will be retiring around the year 2030. If not NEXT year...if the Republican Party wants to totally destroy itself. They're not even dumb enough to do that. They will have to make it seem like the cutbacks are only to "blah/poor" people, not "hard working" middle class ones. They're already starting to bite into retirements of middle class folks with that tax bill. And if there's ANYONE in America who reliably votes, it's that group over 60 whenever you take anything away from them.

Head of Congressional Ethics Office Sued for Abusing Position, Accused of Assaulting Women https://www.yahoo.com/news/head-congression...-192711888.html I would say ironic, but why bother?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/politics/mar...vote/index.html Rubio out to gum up the tax bill over refundable child care credits in a page out of the Ivanka playbook. Lee, Corker, Collins, McCain...someone has to block it just because the bill itself, Trump and a generic GOP ballot are all in the 18-36% range in popularity. That’s poisonous. And the GOP insisting the Senate should wait so Scott Brown should get a vote on Obamacare...the day after he was elected, one of the big storylines is going to be the hypocrisy of going against the will of the Alabama people as two Trump candidates in a row were vanquished. That bill is going to particularly hurt Medicaid recipients in that state. If the GOP can block Merrick Garland for one full year and fight for Scott Brown’s immediate right to weigh in, the Dems should do the exact same thing. Trump in 2010: Obama was 'very smart' to delay ObamaCare vote until Scott Brown was seated President Trump said in 2010 that then-President Obama was "very smart" to seat then-newly elected Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) before holding the final votes on ObamaCare. Trump's statements have resurfaced because they contrast with the current Republican plan, which aims to pass the GOP tax cuts before Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who was elected on Tuesday, can be seated. During a 2010 interview with CNN that the network brought new attention to on Thursday, Trump said Obama "pulled back" on pushing for the vote on health care following the election of Brown — who defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in a Massachusetts special election upset in January 2010. "He said now, you know, we have to give Massachusetts their vote, which was a very smart thing for him to say," Trump told CNN at the time. "But that may kill his health-care plan. Boy, he has devoted an entire year, and all of his capital, to this one particular situation that a lot of people don't want," Trump said. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration...wn-before-final