caulfield12

I'd give Benetti two more years...otherwise, I might think about moving him to radio and retiring Farmer.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/preparing-white-...--politics.html Wouldn't it be easier to just name Medvedev as Secretary of State? Green again...theoretically.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 10, 2016 -> 05:10 PM) Could be...but I think that was just his bs excuse for not moving Bregman. If it is about 2017, I agree with someone else who said toss in Gonzalez for all we care. Fiers and McHugh are both on the roster, right? Obviously, McCullers is the big wild card with that staff living up to expectations. They could have gone with the likes of Rich Hill, Cashner or Volquez, for example.

Feels like the Pirates are better off trading Cutch eventually and reloading/bridging rather than making a go for broke move...the risks are too high for them, and Q doesn't sell seats by the nature of his quiet effectiveness. The Rockies and Astros are going to be forced "all in" sooner or later by nature of the divisions they are in, while a team like the Braves can still take a more measured or careful approach. Who will be the GM like Beane with Shark in 2014 that cracks? Verlander, Greinke, Archer and Gray continue to be the likely competition (for Q), and the first two are out of the realm of possibility for all but 6-8 teams in baseball that simply don't want to give up their minor league stockpile and can simply afford to buy talent. IMO Duffy becomes a threat as a cheaper mid year rental. Will be interesting to watch it all play out. I'm sure we will be holding our breaths every game where Q is above 100 pitches. Thankfully, pragmatism for Renteria will win the day, but it will frustrate Jose to no end. Thankfully, he's had five full seasons to get acclimated to no decisions/lack of run support and also can see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of a fresh start elsewhere. Have to hope and pray Q, Jones and Robertson stay healthy if we hold onto them into the regular season. Thankfully, the two biggest concerns in Sale and Eaton are already out the door, at least.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 10, 2016 -> 10:43 AM) That's already the law, SS deductions are capped around there. In order to boost the solvency of the program, you can lift that cap or cut benefits. Gop has decided to cut benefits and sneak in additional tax cuts for the wealthy. Their Obamacare repeal bill does the same. Enrich the rich, cat food for everyone else. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/give-poor-mo...-135858208.html This is timely. Results of at least 19 studies showing poor people don't act in the ways stereotypically portrayed when provided with money (via microloans/govnt transfers, etc.) Of course, this will never come close to changing anyone's minds due to perception or "Self Serving" bias. We see what we want to see with poor people. And that covers all races and creeds, but particularly minorities in the inner city areas. Not too long from now, 25% of those men eligible to work from 25-54 will have been displaced by automation/made redundant. Not a great trend for the American family. And nice to for once see them thoughtful policy comments and suggestions at the bottom of the article. these "expert studies" let's give money directly to recipients instead of inserting large bureaucracy driven products in between. For example, let's give everyone money for health care directly, in health insurance accounts and let them choose how to spend it. You yourself say that they will do so wisely. Same with housing payments, whatever. We will save gazillions by eliminating wasteful programs and government workers. Of course, you could just as easily say get rid of the health insurance industry, too. And the problem with school voucher or medical savings account problems isn't the idea itself...it's when the gap between what they pay out and what individuals need to come up with based on income levels is simply unrealistic or irrational for families. I can get a voucher for $10,000 to send my son to the best private school, but coming up with $40,000 myself when the cost is going to be $50,000 in total probably doesn't make sense. Heck, lots of families are already making the argument that the costs of a university education outside of particular areas like STEM are just not worth it in terms of helping their children pay for college/university. Finally, looking at microloan programs like Grameen, the biggest problem (in the third world) is for profit banks getting involved in copying the idea while simply jacking up the rates to usury levels. Of course, payday loans or cash for check schemes are the same issue for the working poor in America.

That's the one where nobody in America pays SS tax on income over $108,000 or $116,000...? This just sounds like political suicide. Since the market has blown up since the election, they'll probably revisit privatizing for workers under 30, conveniently overlooking what would have happened to all those accounts three years after the last GOP attempt by Bush in 2005.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/...l-security.html Is the GOP crazy enough to go after Social Security? Wanted to get that back up before Russian hackers protecting Trump attack SoxTalk servers again. Green. I hope.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 9, 2016 -> 10:47 AM) Honestly, a President even openly musing or trying to pre-justify prison camps for Muslims in the year 2016 should be grounds for impeachment. eta: or when he calls for the execution of people who were exonerated by DNA evidence years after their exoneration, which got surprisingly less coverage than EMAILS OMG EMAILS this year. As far as the first part goes, he has some cover if Europe splinters apart and the right takes over...and every country is essentially formulating their own policies regarding migrants/refugees. Especially if Merkel's govnt falls, France goes to the le Pens, Netherlands and Belgium, etc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald...4b058ce7aaaf3c0 The conflict with Trump Intl Hotel in DC...foreign countries wanting to book it to curry more favorable reception or treatment...and, most alarming, dealing with the GSA, which he would obviously be in a position to influence in their bidding/negotiation process with the government over his own leased property. This one ranks right up there. Supposedly he dumped all the stock related to the Dakota pipeline, but there's no way of knowing what his hedge finds are holding in their portfolios.

Anderson has much better hands and more whip or lag in his swing by far...compared to Avi, Beckham or Viciedo. Dayan could swing hard, but lacked the hand eye coordination. And he can turn on a fastball, rather than being a better offspeed hitter and trying to dial it up but always being in between due to the inability to cover a plus or high fastball. Eaton, for example, is projected to be at 3.6 war this year (not sure if that accounts for troubles in CF upcoming.) Wouldn't shock me if Tim beat that.

Candidates for office and then being the President and doing nothing to even acknowledge the possible conflicts are two clearly distinct issues...

The Braves aren't interested in Quintana? Pirates? Rangers? Wasn't there a rumor more teams would consider Q than Sale?

http://www.ew.com/gallery/best-movies-2016 Now have seen 8 of the Top 20...have some catching up to do. Movies like Moonlight...no chance to come to China, so have to make do with screeners for the Academy whenever they pop up online. On the plus side, though, will get to see The Great Wall with Matt Damon first. Really liked The Handmaiden, but it's definitely not a family movie. Still digesting The Lobster, so to speak. Might need another viewing. On to Sing Street, Ireland/UK music story.

As we all know, Hahn adoration lasted until around mid-May, 2015...when Eaton and Cabrera were looking liked they'd never played the game of baseball before. He and AJ Preller of the Padres "won" that offseason, along with the Red Sox. Last year, you had Frazier and then a ton of "small/under the radar" moves that looked like they could POSSIBLY work if everything went exactly right (which of course, it didn't, starting with DrakeGate). This time, we're not going to be able to start drawing many conclusions until around mid-season, 2018.

Have a feeling that Quintana might end up being traded in June/July instead. Perhaps Hahn/KW will set out to find takers for Frazier and Cabrera first. Maybe Jennings, with the right offer. It's also obvious they hope to see rebounds from Robertson, Abreu, Lawrie and Garcia before moving them, not to mention Petricka/Putnam. Jones could go either way. Most seem to prefer trading Robertson first, then building up Jones' value by installing him as closer sometime between June and the beginning of August. Probably would mean holding onto Jones into the 2017-18 offseason, but lots of variables there in terms of performance for both guys. Not to mention the upcoming decision about what to do with Burdi for 2017.

Tucker, the fifth overall pick in last year's draft, batted .276 with six home runs, 19 doubles and a .750 OPS and 31 stolen bases in 101 games with Quad Cities (before his promotion to Lancaster late in the season). Baseball America regarded Tucker as the industry's 35th-best prospect in its recent mid-season rankings. chron.com/sports He sucks, lol! But, because he has a pretty (and projectable) left-handed swing but limited power (so far), he's nearly untouchable.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/la_la_land LA LA LAND taking the early lead for Best Picture from this week's buzz...

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 08:49 PM) The sad fact is that there is so much insider trading done in the house and senate, except then they call it things like "lobbying". Just imagine how much money you would have made if you put all your money into big banks, the defense industry, private prison/detention center contractors and Amazon on November 7th... Amazon's yet another interesting example, because the tech companies tend to be more "liberal/Democrat" (especially the West Coast-based ones) and the Amazon Go logistics automation program promises to wipe out thousands of jobs in various industries. Starting with cashiers, but eventually spilling over into other areas of job responsibility. Not only that, but most tech companies are on record as wanting to continue the influx of tech workers on H1B visas from places like China and India. So is that good or bad in Trump's mind? Amazon might be the most successful company in the US, if not the world, right now. Shouldn't that be celebrated/touted? What about Google/Uber/Apple autonomous/self-driving cars that will replace drivers? Banned for displacing more workers? http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/08/media/trum...e-ep/index.html Trump is going to attempt to stay on as EXEC Producer of Celebrity Apprentice. SIGH. That agreement, first reported by Variety and confirmed by sources at NBC and the Trump campaign, means the president will have an interest in a show aired by a media company that also reports on his presidency -- a major conflict of interest for the network. "The Apprentice," which Trump hosted for 14 seasons, was created by Mark Burnett and is owned and produced by MGM. The 15th season, hosted by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, will air on NBC starting January 2. NBC Entertainment, NBC News and MGM all did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the decision to keep Trump as an executive producer. It is unclear how much Trump will be paid per episode. And I guess we're just supposed to take his spokesperson's claims that he has sold all of his individual stocks (but not necessarily any hedge funds) at face value? And who needs that stupid Daily National Security Briefing stuff...I'll just let those great/brilliant/amazing generals that I'm bringing on board sort all of that foreign policy stuff out. Except for the times when I start WW III with China over twitter.

http://nypost.com/2016/12/08/victor-cruz-b...cist-vandalism/ In other news, PEOTUS Donald J. Trump will next go to war with the NY Giants/Victor Cruz. Bet a house on it. He'll probably suggest it was an "inside job" perpetrated by minorities to make him look like the bad guy. It's one of the headline stories at ESPN.com as well, but can't seem to get that site to work right now.

Haha...Houston is funny. What next, Tucker for Quintana alone is a fair trade? The dude's 2 1/2 seasons away from the majors, in all likelihood. In some ways, you can really admire the way that Luhnow had a vision for turning that organization around and actually accomplished it one year earlier than expected. But they'll see, just like the Rangers, what happens when you don't have DOMINANT starting pitching in the post-season. Heck, the Rangers started Hamels and Darvish back to back against the Blue Jays, and that wasn't enough. The most competitive game was started by a more pedestrian #3 in Colby Lewis.

That year he went to the Astros, almost any team in baseball could have traded for Fowler for a couple of B and C prospects. His value was similar to Trumbo/Segura coming into 2016.

Greg, nobody would have banned you for that. We've just learned to accept that respect for the office of the presidency has gone out the window since Nixon. Remember all the "you lie/d!" stuff with the congressman confronting Obama? Calling Hillary or Trump "crooked" is nothing. I've sometimes called him PT Trump. Even Newt Gingrich, his close advisor (supposedly) says he's 1/3rd PT Barnum but hopefully more Harry Hopkins (FDR's close advisor).

QUOTE (QuickJones81 @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 09:10 PM) Missed my point. The point was that success in small samples should be taken with a grain of salt. Still plenty of opportunity to go in either direction. If you remove all the Trea Turner statistics against a pretty terrible/outlier of a Braves' team, he starts to look more like an ordinary mortal. His overall numbers being lifted largely through that opponent would cause me to pause in anointing him a superstar just yet. Same with Benintendi's initial success, or Moncada's struggles. Or you could look at someone like Byron Buxton, who struggled/failed repeatedly and has FINALLY just started to figure things out the last couple months of the 2016 season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 8, 2016 -> 08:52 PM) If they succeed during a call up, they are the next Gordon Beckham. If they fail, they suck. Oh Soxtalk. And even if you initially succeed, you can STILL end up "failing" or at least falling off significantly. Look at Puig and even Abreu for two examples. That's why I'm really hoping Tim Anderson continues to progress and doesn't have typical the sophomore slump. Game of adjustments...and he's made them every step along the way, SO FAR.

The last two or three months of the 2018 season will be key. How close are you to contending? Do you "jump start" the rush for competitiveness by spending into that huge 2018-19 market...or patiently wait it out another year and then really set yourself up even better for 2020-2022/23 (see the rush to sign Robertson two years ago)? Left unspoken is the obvious point that a huge name like Harper/Machado/Donaldson, etc., can basically be signed with a backloaded deal with money essentially being "borrowed" against the new broadcasting rights/t.v. deal. Then the question becomes for those running the team whether the franchise has MORE value with a huge marquee name added (thus securing an even better media rights deal), or whether they're better off allocating that money in the traditional White Sox way of contracts under 5 years and definitely under $100 million.