caulfield12

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 10:11 AM) SS is invested in special Treasury bonds, not the stock market. Well, bonds are a risk averse form of investment...the point being the poor do receive something from the government already (to the earlier point about why doesn't the government just give away stock market portfolios to the poor, obviously being sarcastic or that the poor are 100% undeserving through their own doing.)

How about we have a poll, do you want Jose Abreu to start at 1b for the White Sox in 2018/19, or do you prefer he DH for the overall good of a young/developing team? I mean, we'd be better off spending this whole offseason preparing Avi Garcia to play there, in all likelihood. Don't even need to make an acquisition.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 10:05 AM) This is seriously all over the place. You are projecting future player slumps that will be solved by "cheap" offseason first basemen and Omar Vizquel It's crazy to deliberately play one of the worst 1b in all of baseball there....for the reasons of keeping him happy, so we can lose more games for draft position? And we can't acknowledge the benefits to Anderson and Moncada of having someone they could feel confident in throwing to? That the fewer errors on the infield, the better off our young pitchers will be? Didn't anyone watch the 2015/16/17 (Cubs, Royals, Indians) seasons to understand how defense/shifts are revolutionizing the game? As well as players who can play 3-4 different positions on the field. The main argument against is he won't be "as engaged" or hit as well in the DH position.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 09:21 AM) So an illegal mexican hates Muslims? I thought that was just us islamophobic Americans? Big history of so-calledMuslim hate crimes being hoaxes. not saying it doesn't happen, it does. but ffs, just because a muslim is a victim of a crime doesn't mean they were singled out because they were muslim. Statistically they will be robbed, beaten, involved in crashes and otherwise be victim of crimes and accidents just like everyone else. The supposed 'wave' of Islam backlash has never happened, not even after 9-11. You mean like the Bowling Green Massacre and other erroneous events listed by Kellyanne Conway? Great! So there's no need for a travel ban because Obama was so weak, and yet...there have been zero fatal terror attacks on U.S. soil since 1975 by immigrants from the seven Muslim-majority countries President Donald Trump targeted with immigration bans.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 09:49 AM) Come on...that was more Vizquel coaching Alexei. Elvis Andrus was a rough defender to start his career but really turned a corner when Vizquel was the backup infielder in Texas before he came over to the Sox. So having Vizquel as a coach or Belt as 1b everyday wouldn't help Anderson/Moncada as well....?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 09:18 AM) Oh come on What happened to Alexei's defense in 2010 when Vizquel was playing 3B next to him? You're telling me that whether you have Abreu or Brandon Belt over there, it makes no appreciable difference to the middle infielders?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 09:14 AM) Nice to know that Ibrahim is a mind reader. There is nobody more biased in this whole situation than him. No hate crime, no fund raising for him. With everything that has happened since 9-11 in this country, if your child was Muslim...and you got the phone call that an illegal immigrant was responsible, your first thought wouldn't be that there had to be some anti-Islam feelings behind it?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 08:30 AM) What is there to be lost by Abreu playing poor defense for the next two years, really? Anderson and Moncada's confidence will be affected to an extent defensively...thinking every off target throw will result in an error. Young pitchers won't be helped by pressure of additional high stress pitches/innings. Etc.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 08:04 AM) CF: How about a cheap 1B this offseason? soxtalk: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo CF: Ok, Michael Saunders it is Last time I checked, SoxTalk was not the Sox GM...lol. At any rate, do we really need a separate thread for Saunders? Is SoxTalk also content with Abreu's defense at 1b? If Delmonico and Hayes aren't going to be considerably better, they probably need to look outside the organization, unless you think Avi can make the transition successfully to 1B? And the fact of the matter is that Abreu and Avi both will likely be gone after 2019, yes? Now it's possible Sheets is ready to play there in 2020, but would you be willing to put Vegas odds on him starting at 1b Opening Day that season?

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jun 21, 2017 -> 05:51 AM) Idk I think I'd rather play who we have already. And a Melky deal could mean Delmonico comes up. They're not going to just throw him out there...he's played 24 career games in the outfield in the minors, and only 4 in LF. Also, won't move Avi. They've put guys like Hanson and WGsrcia out in CF for a few games, but it would be surprising if they brought him up to play LF everyday after playing so much 3b. Saunders had big offensive numbers and could get hot in a hurry. Leury might be traded...Delmonico' snot going anywhere, and he's not hitting 850-900+ and forcing a Melky trade. A 779 career guy in the minors translates to 725ish, and that's not good enough for a subpar defender on a corner. And he would still get to play LF for 30-45 games at the end of the season regardless.

Plus he had 48.1% in the runoff, only 1.9% from taking the seat outright...

Republican Senators plan to vote next Thursday on health care law..."discussion draft" out tomorrow apparently https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dems-hit-sec...-074901601.html "Debate" planned next Tuesday/Wed, as soon as CBO score comes out....vote Thurs or Friday depending on amendments attached. The ACA had open hearings for close to a year before the vote was held. Republicans proposed over 300 amendments to the ACA. In contrast, the GOP has closed hearings and will not even brief Democrats on the bill prior to debate.

Good time to pick up Michael Saunders for free and see if they can get him hot in June/July/August, then flip him. He'd have to play CF though, although perhaps they can find an early taker for Melky and clear a spot. Would have an obvious effect on Leury (could be traded), Engel and zwilly Garcia. Pretty shocking the Phillies even signed him, but he was really good most of last season offensively. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/06/phil...l-saunders.html

GOP leaders also plan to finalize tax bill behind closed doors (shocking!) https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-plans-...3--finance.html On Tuesday evening, Trump, who previously traveled to Georgia to appear with the Republican candidate, weighed in with four tweets highlighting Handel’s performance and one congratulating Ralph Norman in South Carolina. A text message sent to Trump supporters noted that Democrats “lose again (0-4). Total disarray. The MAGA Mandate is stronger than ever.” http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/21/d...n-handel-239790 Trump spikes the ball after GA election win...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/teens-slaying-le...-081230433.html Teen's slaying leaves doubt about motive in Muslim community...

A safer beat is Avi ends up NOT in the qualified Top 30 fWAR leaders...right now, back to #19 despite leading MLB outfielders in errors.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/technolo...s-kalanick.html Founder Travis Kalanick forced out at age 40 as CEO of Uber...

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jun 20, 2017 -> 11:08 PM) Poor people don't own stocks?? Somebody get them some stocks! American Stock Sharing (Act) has never been needed more. They do, it's called Social Security, the problem is that the rate of return is under inflation...but at least guaranteed not to disappear or be cut 10-15% until around 2030.

Greg, the last time Price won in that district, the spread was 23 points. This time it was under 6% with an inexperienced candidate lacking in charisma from outside the district. The Montana candidate was much worse in Quist. There are around 60 districts in the country that went GOP in 2016, that, on paper, should be much more competitive in 2018. South Carolina, of all places, the win last night was just 3%. Dems never come that close in any statewide race there, not unlike Kansas. And, as Reddy pointed out photographically, a deluge worked in favor of seniors (read Republican voters, white, older than 50) who voted early or earlier in the day...compared to those who had to work and then gave up fighting the weather. Probably not enough to win, but that and the Scalise shooting didn't help. All that said, Dems need better messaging/branding and better policy visions than just being anti-Trump. Same thing the GOP learned being anti Clinton (Bill) and anti-Obama. Of course, those are two of the most gifted politicians of their time/s. In fact, of the last 59 or 69 Congressional races in Georgia....only 1 of them has had a spread of LESS than 5 points, either way.

QUOTE (BamaDoc @ Jun 20, 2017 -> 09:17 PM) Hence the phantom 10 day dl and work on side MLB Player's Association says good luck with that, not for an impending free agent...

This was from Monday, before the Ossoff loss http://www.npr.org/2017/06/20/533617413/se...ontent=20170620 MARTIN: You wrote last week in an op-ed in The New York Times - and I'm quoting here - "too many in our party cling to an overly cautious centrist ideology." Do you think that applies specifically in this case to health care? SANDERS: Yes, I do. I mean, I think that Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, took us a step forward. It provided health insurance for over 20 million more Americans. That's no small thing. It did away with the obscenity of pre-existing conditions and a number of other essential health care benefits that are now guaranteed to the American people. So it made some real change. But, Rachel, at the end of the day, the American people in Congress have got to ask themselves a very simple question. Why are we the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a right? Why do we pay double per capita for health care compared to any other major country? Why do we pay the highest prices in the world by far for prescription drugs? My view is we should join the rest of the industrialized world and work toward a Medicare for all single-payer program. MARTIN: So how do you do that? Because at this moment, Democrats can't even get into the room to defend the Affordable Care Act. Is tacking so far to the left going to get you anywhere in this moment? SANDERS: It's not a question of tacking to the left. What we have right now is a Republican leadership which is very, very far to the right and way, way outside of the mainstream of where the American people are. This health care proposal passed in the House. I don't have the numbers in front of me but you've seen them. I mean, it is widely disapproved by the American people. The American people do not believe it makes sense to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the top 2 percent and throw 23 million Americans off of health care (the wealth gap in SF, for example is worse than in Rwanda, my interjected comment). That's not what the American people want. So what - I think what the Democrats have got to do - it's not a very radical idea - is actually listen to where the American people are. The American people, in fact, within - certainly within the Democratic ranks do want to move toward a single-payer system. You're seeing real progress in the California Legislature and in the New York state Legislature to do just that. The American people want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, 15 bucks an hour, want to spend a trillion dollars rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, pay equity for women, tackling climate change and transforming our energy system. These are not radical ideas. This is what the American people want.

Jon Ossoff’s Georgia special election loss shows Democrats could use a substantive agenda https://www.vox.com/2017/6/20/15839452/geor...s-ossoff-handel Still, it should be sobering to Democrats that a CBS News poll released Tuesday morning filled with devastatingly bad approval numbers for the Trump administration found that only 31 percent of voters thought a Democratic takeover of Congress would make their lives better. If your opponents are unpopular enough, it’s certainly possible to win elections this way. But especially for the party that has a more difficult time inspiring its supporters to turn out to vote, that’s an ominous sign. Right now on health care and many other issues, Democrats suffer from a cacophony of white papers and a paucity of unity around any kind of vision or story they want to paint of what is wrong with America today and what is the better country they want to build for the future. And until they do, they’re going to struggle to mobilize supporters in the way they need to win tough races.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 20, 2017 -> 09:39 PM) It is...and who cares! Just need him to hit .300 to see skinny Joe! Relation to cotton-eyed Joe or character from Deliverance?

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jun 14, 2017 -> 03:57 PM) I'm talking about straight production budget. I haven't read the article in it's entirety yet. I know the listed budget is $125M which isn't a lot for a movie like this but some people have been throwing around $200M+. The Mummy could be another Interstellar and by that I mean that this could be a rare case where the top talent (Nolan/Cruise) makes more than the studio. Keep in mind that Interstellar was a joint production. I think people need to careful and not just look at the domestic box office before they call things a flop. Look at WarCraft. Living in China, that's all you notice. It's the only reason Pacific Rim II gets greenlit. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transforme...ast_knight_2017 Final Transformers at 12%. At least one of my favorite reviewers, Owen Gleiberman, found some redeeming qualities.

9 errors for Garcia..isn't that tied with Anderson? That's crazy for a RF with half a season to go still.