caulfield12

Should be closer to 9-11% for VFINX.

See Ventura, Robin after Dunn/Ozzie/KW 2011 debacle.

Trying to annoy Sports Guy and Rolls Tide lol. That last part was not my quote, btw.

According to the Financial Times, Chelsea have secured an investment of approximately $500 million from Ares Management/(Arougheti, the other billionaire involved in the Orioles' deal), a prominent US alternative asset manager. This injection is expected to be channelled into the club’s stadium improvements and to increase their stakes in other football teams. While the consortium comprising Clearlake Capital and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly have heavily invested in new players this summer, Chelsea’s on-field results have been less than commendable. Still the new owners, including Clearlake’s co-founder José Feliciano, are committed to further their investment and translate heavy spending into silverware with help of the Blues’ intrinsic value in the market. “We have bought an asset that is very coveted by many other potential buyers. “Ultimately, we are extremely aligned with that supporter and fan base because the best way to make our club more valuable is to win.” -José Feliciano; Source: Financial Times In a broader context, Ares Management has already raised $3.7 billion last year for investments in sports franchises, leagues, and media outlets. They have themselves injected the $500m via ‘preferred equity deal’, as per the FT’s report. Given Chelsea have yet to sign a new shirt sponsorship deal and plan on undertaking massive investments at Stamford Bridge, as well as BlueCo’s ambitions to expand the multl-club structure well beyond France and RC Strasbourg, successful rounds of investment are more than welcome. Just as long as Ares and co. don’t start using our assets as leverage in credit and capital markets ailing from high interest rates.

Here's the response to Tray. For once, be visionaries/leaders. Set a trend instead of following them. There is an unlikely tale about the brilliant Renaissance artist Michelangelo. He was asked about the difficulties that he must have encountered in sculpting his masterpiece David. But he replied with an unassuming and comical description of his creative process: It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David. I have heard a similar anecdote about an unnamed artist asked about sculpting an elephant: Just chip away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.

A three-year performer in the SEC, González has a profile without a signature carrying tool, but he’s above average at just about everything except for speed. He maintained an OPS better than .960 and wRC+ topping 125 in each of his three seasons at Ole Miss, with more walks than strikeouts. González had a 96th-percentile Hard Hit rate and a 70th-percentile Barrel rate. His batted ball profile was great in Oxford. He hit well against both fastballs and breaking balls, but a really impressive nugget was his ability to make a lot of contact on right-handed changeups. González also handled lefties (.948 OPS) just about as well as righties (.990 OPS), pulled the ball in the air well, and handled the velo of the SEC well. He should be a high-floor, quick mover through the system, and I think this is what intrigued the front office. https://www.southsidesox.com/2023/7/31/23804346/2023-draft-review-collegiate-draftees-picks-1-4-6-jacob-gonzalez-grant-taylor-seth-keener-harris Not having a single carrying tool in a game that's increasingly valuing speed/athleticism...it seems SEC/closer to the big leagues and left-handed were the main criteria relied upon here. And the funny thing is that the SEC, despite its sterling reputation for athletics, has only produced 2 Hall of Famers in Frank Thomas and Todd Helton.

Worse than Vaughn and Jordan Walker? Well, that doesn't fit the Getz checklist then...

You get what you deserve, Baltimore and Angelos. In all seriousness, don't see this ending well. He probably orders the GM to strip the team for parts...trading away their entire farm system to create a JR-esque Washington Generals clone team. $1.7+ billion purchasing price. Predatory capitalism at its finest. Got a great price without a premium for that farm system and unprecedented financial flexibility, at least. Less than 300 murders in 9 years, 11,000 cars stolen last year with 450 this year so far, 30 year lease on a 32 y/o stadium. So as soon as they won their 100th game, who didn't see this coming.

Rubenstein has said that he was once offered the opportunity to meet Mark Zuckerberg (and invest in Facebook) before he dropped out of Harvard but decided against it, and this is his single greatest investment regret.[15] Rubenstein also said that he turned down a 20% stake in Amazon during the very early years of the company. He told Amazon founder Jeff Bezos that if he got lucky and everything worked out he would at most be worth $300 million.[16] In 2018, he formed Declaration Capital, a family office focused on venture, growth, real estate, and family-owned businesses.[17][18] Mobile home parks controversy Rubenstein was publicly criticized for the work of The Carlyle Group of which he is the chairman, which owns a number of mobile home parks and has been pushing poor people out of their mobile homes by hiking up the rental price.[19] In an episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver pointed out that manufactured homes are not easy or cheap to relocate, and so poor residents on fixed incomes face eviction and homelessness as rent increases threaten to price them out of their mobile home parks.[20] wikipedia Billionaire David Rubenstein’s philanthropic efforts trash the Founding Fathers, even though his own business has made a fortune from deals that have profited off the less fortunate. Since 2013, Rubenstein, 72, who co-founded the private equity giant the Carlyle Group, has given millions to entities that repair and upgrade historical monuments and landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument as well as Monticello and Montpelier, the homes of US presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. But some say the restoration at the presidential homes has recast the presidents as sinister racists while downplaying their accomplishments. Recent visitors to Monticello and Montpelier have flooded Trip Advisor with complaints about how the former presidents have been virtually reduced to villainous slaveholders in lectures by the tour guides while books on anti-racism and critical race theory by Ibram X. Kendi and Ta-Nehisi Coates dominate the gift shops. Remarked Dan A. after his visit to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello: “Do your history homework before going, so you can appreciate this great American… the woke tour guide will leave you feeling like he started the Ku Klux Klan.” “They have demonized the founding fathers now,” wrote another recent visitor to Monticello. “Same thing with Madison’s home. I would stay away from places like this. It’s not worth the propaganda.” https://nypost.com/2022/07/30/woke-billionaire-who-trashed-the-founding-fathers-profited-off-eskimos-oil/ Somewhere I can see Balta enjoying this guy. But a quick dive into Rubenstein’s backstory shows he’s not so pure himself. He made his initial fortune in the 1980s by exploiting a tax loophole in Alaska allowing him to profit from deals made with Natives — and the Rubenstein family has been expanding their influence in the 49th state ever since. In 2014, Rubenstein’s then-wife helped elect a governor in Alaska who in turn opened up the state’s $80 billion Permanent Fund, a fraction of which is managed by the Carlyle Group, to special interests. Rubenstein’s daughter was appointed to the board of that fund last month. “Here’s a guy who has taken advantage of other people to climb to the top while he expects perfection from the Founding Fathers,” Dan f**an, a talk show host and journalist who covered Alaska for 25 years, told The Post. “Because of the Rubenstein family and how [his ex-wife] influenced the change in the state’s sovereign fund, the average Alaskan family has lost tens of thousands of dollars.” Balta maybe NOT SO MUCH enjoying this part of the backstory. https://nypost.com/2022/07/30/woke-billionaire-who-trashed-the-founding-fathers-profited-off-eskimos-oil/

Rod Allen with Detroit before the booth brawl with Mario Impemba.

https://global.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/38833715/2023-24-mlb-offseason-grades-free-agency-trade-analysis Twins get the much higher grade

Just need visionary private equity like in LA, lol...this is truly a situation where it's hard to imagine WORSE than the next 2-3 years are looking to disenchanted fans quite wary of JR/Hahn promises and PR/salesmanship.

Unless it's down to Adell OR Sheets...remember the premium Getz has set on defense, and trying to make Cease look as good as possible if they end up holding him into the regular season.

Aren't the Royals still outspending the other 4 Central teams aggregated together this offseason?

They were just referring to tv...play by play and analyst roles.

Came across this interesting factoid looking up what LaTroy Hawkins was doing now in terms of broadcasting/guest appearances... "Hawkins is the godfather of his Minnesota Twins teammate Pat Mahomes' son, Patrick II who is a quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.[103] Another godson of Hawkins's, Elijah Johnson, played college basketball for the University of Kansas Jayhawks.[64]

"Schriffen, who is biracial, becomes the second Black television play-by-play announcer (currently) in MLB, joining Seattle’s Dave Sims." source: wikipedia

2019 and 21 were clearly his peak.

They already had Suarez and Teoscar and let them go. Why would the Twins want to keep paying Polanco when they already have Julien, Brooks Lee, Lewis and Correa from second to third? They basically get DeSclafini free and healthier than any season since 2021 and a Top 70-80 prospect thrown into the bargain, plus another future Joe Ryan for all we know if everything goes well on the scouting/eval side. And Polanco's showing a lot of wear and tear and exhibiting increasing injury issues over the last season or two. Worth only 3.3 combined fWAR the last two seasons...negative defensive values even at second for three consecutive years. Usually thirty is the beginning of the steady decline these days...it has already started with him.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/yahoo-sports-am-caitlin-clark-is-in-a-league-of-her-own-125820434.html

https://sports.mynorthwest.com/1770173/espn-david-schoenfield-seattle-mariners-failing-to-capitalize-on-their-best-window/ This was from December…but fans still must be perplexed about what the heck the Mariners are doing. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/twins-land-two-top-30-prospects-mariners-trade-for-jorge-polanco/

Eddie Rosario and David Peralta (left-handed veteran bats), Jesse Winker, Jurickson Profar, Michael A. Taylor, Kevin Pillar, Kyle Lewis, Tommy Pham.

As a roster-building strategy, the Mariners have always targeted the cost-controlled contracts that come with young players like Woo and Miller. Those kinds of contracts — and the flexibility they afford the rest of the payroll — will take on a larger priority for the Mariners now. Which is why president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto hinted Tuesday that he’s unlikely to trade Woo or Miller in the Mariners’ ongoing pursuit of offensive upgrades — even as other teams are “constantly” inquiring about the Mariners’ young pitching depth. “It’s the appeal of the young guy … who has proven the ability to both compete at the major-league level and help neutralize the growing payrolls around the league,” Dipoto said at the MLB winter meetings. “That’s appealing. It’s hard to get to. And there’s a reason why we get so many phone calls, and there’s a reason why we love the guys the way we do. They’re good and they’ve performed since the day they stepped on a major-league field.” https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/analysis-why-mariners-are-unlikely-to-trade-away-bryan-woo-or-bryce-miller/#:~:text=That makes them a coveted,with uncertainty surrounding its finances. https://redbirdrants.com/posts/examining-bryan-woo-and-bryce-miller-as-trade-targets-for-the-cardinals-01hbxyp2apvq Argues for a trade of Gorman, Nootbaar and/or Donovan (not Walker) for Bryan Woo

Trading for Woo or Miller as the main piece for Cease doesn’t make any sense after trading Burger for pitching and leaving massive positional holes all over the roster… Just another signal the Sox never plan to pay for FA pitching again in the future. 6 years of control for a middle of the rotation starter simply isn’t worth it…if you think back to the Eaton trade, that was for two guys who had the tools to be #1/2 starters with Dunning more of a 3/4 or 4/5.

This is exactly what the Orioles hope to start doing with Hays Mullins Santander Mountcastle Mateo and Urias...turning vets into cost controlled prospects and reallocating the cost savings to other roster needs.