caulfield12

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/06/taki...-white-sox.html Detailed analysis of Sox trade worthy assets Frazier to NY, Boston Robertson to Nats Leury or Carlos SANCHEZ to play SS for Orioles with Hardy out (depends on offers, obviously)

Now Iran is launching missiles at ISIS targets in Syria...first missile launches at another country in decade. Neil Buchanan: Is Trump Naive? Stupid? Evil? Or All of the Above? https://www.yahoo.com/news/neil-buchanan-tr...-140850746.html For example, the conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post recently offered an excellent critique of Trump's ill considered Muslim ban, concluding with this: One might conclude that the administration is too incompetent or lazy to make [its case in court]. We prefer a different theory: These orders have no national security or other justification, but rather are blatant appeals to prejudice that have no factual, rational basis. No lawyer in the world can defend that in court. In short, Rubin first considers whether the administration is incompetent or lazy, which are somewhat fuzzy concepts because incompetence can refer either to stupidity or ignorance, and laziness is most likely (at least in Trump's case) a version of willful ignorance, that is, evil. By saying that Trump has "no national security justification," Rubin means that Trump's argument is not actually "stupid." That is, there is no logical argument from Trump's people that says that A (the ban) causes B (less terrorism). They simply assert their conclusion, as opposed to offering a logically fallacious if-then argument. Why do they do that? Rubin reasonably concludes that Trump is evil because he is appealing to prejudice. He is so focused on getting to an evil outcome—discriminating against people on the basis of religion and national origin—that he will deny reality and not even bother with logical arguments.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 18, 2017 -> 08:31 PM) Yeah trumps ground game in those states was incredible. Nobody noticed the sarcasm, alas...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fairfa...fa4f_story.html https://hinterlandgazette.com/2017/06/darwi...ra-hussein.html http://heavy.com/news/2017/06/nabra-darwin...urder-virginia/ Human rights lawyer, Arsalan Iftikhar, told the Washington Post, “People are petrified, especially people who have young Muslim daughters.” Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam said, via the Post, “There is absolutely no place for this kind of violence in our Commonwealth. Every Virginian should feel safe and welcome in our communities, and no parent should ever have to experience such a heartbreaking tragedy. As the police investigation continues, I urge all Virginians to keep Nabra’s friends and family in their hearts.”

More concerned with playing word/semantics games about whether the President is being investigated or not. I have a strong feeling the Mayor of London will say something that Trump won't be able to refrain from responding to. Notice even CNN says "collides with" instead of intentionally runs down. CNN national terror analyst Peter Bergen said the neighborhood has a large Muslim population and the nearby mosque has a notorious reputation as a place where Islamist militants used to gather. "If you were interested in targeting a group of Muslims at a mosque that was notorious, this would be the mosque you would do it at. I think it's significant that they had the reputation historically of being one of the most militant mosques in London. And that reputation may be more historical than current," he said. Bergen added: "Ramadan, particularly in a country like the UK, where the days are very long in June, you know you're fasting from dawn to dusk and you're breaking the fast at night. ... Night comes pretty late in London this time of year. It wouldn't be odd that you would have large numbers of people breaking their fasts and praying at this time."

So two weeks of Democratic infighting nearly guaranteed if they lose despite spending nearly $30 million by the end of the campaign. The Sanders Wing will argue he was too plain vanilla, inoffensive and didn't fight hard enough for progressive issues so as not to offend mostly conservative constituents in that particular district. Hopefully the Obama "out of context" attack ads end up backfiring.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 18, 2017 -> 03:07 PM) You go where the jobs are. My parents did it. I did it. My kids should do it. The government shouldn't "owe" or "provide" any of this. It's not like we live in China where the government controls....Oh wait you do. (sorry couldn't resist) I can't believe I keep falling for your scenarios. Except the government provides less here than in the US...by far. How do you think they built up those surpluses over the last thirty years? The medical system used to be super cheap a decade ago, you can go to public hospitals, but multiply x 10 the amount of people going to the ER things like a common cold or cough. That said, just seeing a doctor is much cheaper, but a lot of costs are being passed through to customers via higher drug prices. You can have a kid for free, virtually, but have to be married for that child to exist as far as the government is concerned. There's next to no public retirement system, or elderly care (families tend to live with parents or at least extremely close proximity), there's no sending parents away to nursing homes except for the top 1%. People here pay much higher prices for imported luxury good due to ultra high protectionist tariffs. At any rate, the days of Mao's' "Iron Rice Bowl" are long gone. Fwiw, just as many starved in China as in Russia/Ukraine in the 1950's.

Happ should stick with sneaky fast FB.

Mixing in knuckle curve, eephus, lots of offspeed stuff vs. 90-91 mph FB. 1.31 era. Trade value!!!

Shields rather fortunate to lower ERA to 1.53....second lucky bounce in Sox favor this series.

GA-6 detailed analysis http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/18/g...f-handel-239650 https://www.yahoo.com/gma/rep-eric-swalwell...topstories.html Calif. Rep goes phone banking for Ossoff http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/18/politics/kfi...a-ad/index.html Conservative PAC uses extremely out of context quotes from Dreams of My Father to suppress African American vote in GA-6

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20170618 Enjoy. Lopez back from personal leave.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 18, 2017 -> 10:11 AM) Eh. Exact same reaction those receiving Medicaid in expansion states have to the proposed work requirements... Of course, actually monitoring and enforcing these rules will create yet another Federal bureaucracy, lol. Like the newly-proposed War on Drugs II coming out of Sessions' office.

Gosh danged Sabes makes it nearly impossible to talk about baseball anymore, lol. If Avi is hitting more fastballs, more contact/foul balls, pulling more balls for power...why would that be unsustainable in the sense that he couldn't be at least a .270-.280 hitter with 20-30 homers per year? Not a 5-6 war player, but 2-3, certainly with X amount of value to any MLB team. For example, he hit a rocket Friday that was caught...yet his average is still in the 330's. Everything normalizes over the course of 162 games, whether you believe in such a thing as good and bad luck. If he's hitting more line drives, and line drives lead to hits 60% of the time, what's the problem? If he has faster hands, less bulk, more fast twitch muscles and can get an additional 2-3 infield singles per month, that compensates for some of the BABIP discrepancy.

Medicaid overhaul faces tough test in Trump country ‘Around here, there ain’t no jobs,’ says one beneficiary about the prospect of having to work to qualify for benefits. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/18/m...-country-239655 Doesn't matter if we blame Dems or Republicans, what is the solution? Is forcing families to relocate for jobs that barely pay a liveable wage going to work as a practical solution? Why/why not? Next, does the government "owe" them better opportunities than currently available? Should those people be "doubly punished" when the incidences of health problems related to smoking, cardiovascular disease, poor diet/nutrition are already disproportionately occurring in poor/rural states that largely voted for Trump? Or is that fair since their health problems are largely self-induced? What is the cost to society when they have to find alternate daycare solutions to family members? Should the government provide "higher quality" childcare to those children in order to break the cycle of poverty, or is that a distortion that's unacceptable to most Americans (because they would have to subsidize the costs through higher taxes)?

The Intimidators can clinch the division and a postseason berth with a win tomorrow. The postseason trip would be the first for the franchise since 2009. Kannapolis concludes its seven-game homestand with the final game of a three-game series against West Virginia on Sunday at 2:05 p.m. Gates open at 1 p.m. Tickets are available by calling the F&M Bank Box Office at 704-932-3267 or by visiting IntimidatorsBaseball.com Btw, Kanny playing for 1st half division championship, playoff spot today.

QUOTE (ventura_abreu @ Jun 18, 2017 -> 09:00 AM) The three guys who we have tried as our regular center fielders (May, Garcia, and Hanson) have combined to hit .290. Hanson has played there just three times in his entire professional career. But Leury's been a revelation so far.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jun 18, 2017 -> 08:52 AM) Now that the Sox have corrected his mechanics, let's trade him to Detroit for Iglesias. Despite his horrible offense, still headed to 2+ war and basically almost an "average" MLB SS.

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Jun 18, 2017 -> 08:53 AM) That is disaster if true. Well, it all depends on whether he was trying to go all out and that's the best he could summon...obviously, 95-97 and even touching 98 a couple of times (but straight as an arrow) was what we came to expect last year, although there were a number of games where Sale or Rodon would let up off the gas and go 90-94 for nearly the entire time, sacrificing velocity for location.

Unless they're pretty sure Fulmer won't make it as a starter....that would be the only reason to bring him up in August or September. There's always Holmberg, Danish, Guerrero, Cooper and Adams to go to first. Lots of depth now.

Who is the more valuable asset right now, Eric Thames or Avi Garcia? fWAR gives Avi a slight advantage. Five year age advantage to Avi. Both under control through 2019. Thames arguably gets penalized even more for rough defense. Thames for being LH (see Lillian)? Do you go with the 20 homers over 10? It's as interestingbacdebatecas it was last month, albeit Thames has fallen off the early pace he set by quite a bit.

pplama7 hours ago I don’t see the Sox and Yanks coming together on a Quintana trade. Sox would want 2 of Frazier, Rutherford, Adams. The Yankees won’t give that up. If Mateo were performing well, he’d be a perfect secondary piece.. But he’s isn’t, and combining Rutherford with Fowler or Andujar won’t be enough for the Sox to bite. Random but knowledgeable internet fan #2 As a Yanks fan, I wouldn’t want them to get him if it cost any of the players you mentioned, besides Mateo which you mentioned as not being a real piece (I agree as far as a blue chip piece). Maybe Adams and Mateo with some other complementary pieces, but I don’t think that would get it done. And, I don’t think the Sox would, nor really should, accept an offer that doesn’t include at least one blue chip prospect. I just don’t think Quintana would be a great fit for the Yanks. He is a very good pitcher, and any team would be better with him on it, but I would rather the team hold onto those impact players for the future, especially in a year where he has looked rather mediocre, or for a player that I think would strive in NY. I think that the Astro’s are the best fit for him. He won’t feel like he needs to be the ace there, they have the prospects to get him (without sacrificing much of the future either since they have a great young core) and would increase their reputation as WS favorites significantly. Mlbtraderumors.com Quintana hovering just outside Top 30 in fWAR http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=...0&page=2_30

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hel...m=.3a216d5e2cb6 Help Wanted: Why Republicans Won't Agree to Work with the Trump Administration Potential candidates are watching Trump’s behavior and monitoring his treatment of senior officials. “Trump is becoming radioactive, and it’s accelerating,” said Bill Valdez, a former senior Energy Department official who is now president of the Senior Executives Association, which represents 6,000 top federal leaders. “He just threw Jeff Sessions under the bus,” Valdez said, referring to recent reports that the president is furious at the attorney general for recusing himself from the Russia investigation. “If you’re working with a boss who doesn’t have your back, you have no confidence in working with that individual.” .... Republicans have become so alarmed by the personnel shortfall that in the past week a coalition of conservatives complained to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. “We remain very concerned over the lack of secondary and tertiary executive-level appointments,” they said in a letter signed by 25 prominent conservatives called the Coalitions for America, describing their concern that the leadership vacuum will create “mischief and malfeasance” by civil servants loyal to Obama. The letter culminated weeks of private urging by top conservatives, said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, who helped lead the effort. “They’re sensitive about it, and they’re trying to do better.” Fitton said that some candidates have faced inexplicable delays on job offers. “People are waiting to hear back. Promises are made but not kept. People are left stranded. Positions are implied, and people are left hanging.” http://www.newsweek.com/trump-cutting-bone...-626796?ref=yfp Trump Is Cutting Into the Bone of American Leadership

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/c...urgery-20170617 Hickman returns with a flourish from TJS “I feel like my first three starts I have thrown the ball pretty well, especially considering I missed close to two years,” Hickman said. “I’m commanding the strike zone pretty well and getting guys out. That’s all I can ask for is putting up zeroes. “My changeup has come a long way. That was something I worked very hard on during my throwing program. It actually has become my second pitch and my strikeout pitch.” Hickman said his velocity has consistently been 90 to 93 miles per hour, which is down a tick from pre-surgery, but he threw 95 in spring training. Speaking of spring training, he was disappointed not to get assigned anywhere at its conclusion this year, with the White Sox intent the weather was warm and he was 100 percent ready to go before sending him earlier this month to low-Class A. http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=m...tching/2017/ALL

Does Donald Trump Believe in Tooth Fairies? http://www.newsweek.com/neil-buchanan-does...-626775?ref=yfp One might also note that even if one is obsessed with high-end tax cuts, the Kennedy bill reduced marginal income tax rates for the wealthiest Americans from 91 percent to 70 percent, whereas the top federal rate is now 39.6 percent. It just might be the case that the effects are different at lower rates. Indeed, research by the famed economist Thomas Piketty and his co-authors suggests that marginal tax rates in the 75-80 percent range for high-income earners are consistent with high economic growth. As a bonus, such rates would also begin to turn the tide against the growing inequality that has had such disastrous effects on the U.S. and the world. As an aside, those who are looking for economic policy suggestions that might increase the economy’s growth possibilities will find that it is liberal policies that are the most promising, as I wrote recently. In any case, the bottom line is that Trump and the Republicans (and their motivated supporters) are continuing to embrace a view of economics that was never widely accepted by economists and that has been debunked both theoretically and empirically many times over. We must reject their regressive policies.