Don

From NWU:

"While we respect the NLRB process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it. Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students. Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student athletes."

I'll believe that student-athletes are simply students as soon as someone can skip a football or basketball game to meet with a project group or study for a final without repercussions.

Trout

Harper

McCutchen

Kershaw

Fernandez

Trout is the best player now and probably for the next 5-10 years. He was an obvious choice.

Harper has been phenomenal at his age regardless of how he's compared to Trout. Harper is going to develop into a 6 WAR .950 OPS bat type of guy.

Cutch is obvious. Crazy tools and the best all around player not named Trout.

Kershaw is also pretty obvious. I guess you can be concerned about the innings he's throw but he's one of the best pitchers in the last 50 years.

Last one was a tough choice between Cabrera, Goldy, Machado and others but Fernandez was unbelievable in his rookie year. He's going to be a top 5 pitcher in baseball for a while.

A fine list too, but I think I'd take Cano over Fernandez just because of the dearth of high-WAR players at 2B, and I'd take Machado over Harper because I have a man-crush on Machado. In all reality, I think Harper will be an elite player, but I can see Machado turning into a .300 hitter with 25 HRs and 40 doubles to go with elite defense and tremendous baseball instincts.

Trout

Kershaw

Cano

Machado (hopefully healthy)

McCutchen

If Pujols plays in 150+ games, and he hits 35 2B and 35 HR, his slugging percentage is going to be around .550.

 

if Pujols can hit to his career averages (43 2B, 41 HR, .321 BA / .410 OBP / .599 SLG) then we're in business.

While it's not out of the question, I don't think Pujols will replicate those career averages ever again. Basically, I'm hoping Pujols follows the Hank Aaron career arc. Aaron went from being an elite player for the first 15 or so years of his career to a very good player for basically the last ten years of his career. So while I don't expect Pujols to be a truly elite player again, I'm hoping he can average .290/.360/.525 or so for the next five or six years.

There are a lot of questions to be asked about Terminus. One, why is this place advertising for new members when everyone knows that resources are limited and strangers are also potential threats? Why, in the middle of the day, is there only one person outside? Why is everything unlocked with no visible security people? To me, all of these raise red flags, in that it seems that Terminus wants people just a little too much. They are the drunk lonely guy throwing Hail Marys from the bar stool of the zombie world.

55 degrees here right now! Feels like summer.

Snow is starting to melt but it is still about 18 inches deep. Supposed to be back in the 20s in a couple days.

They just announced that Lake Michigan was 93.3% ice covered which is a record. It really has been an insanely cold winter.

Yeah, I don't know how many other Midwesterners we have here, but I've spent 8 winters in the Kansas/Nebraska area, and this has easily been the coldest one. I'm used to it getting ridiculously cold, but only for short periods of time (2-3 days at a time) before returning to more average winter temps (i.e. High of 40, low of 20). But this winter has been a relentless hell beast. It seemed like we went from Mid-December until the end of February without ever seeing a day above 15 degrees, and plenty of those disgusting -20 with wind chill days. This March has pretty much been like a normal January, and I'm slowly becoming happier.

If he stays healthy, I don't think a .300/.370/.530 is too much of a stretch. I'm more worried about him staying healthy enough to play 145+ games.

So, I'm getting ready to move into a new place this April, and I've decided that I'm going with streaming services through my XBox instead of paying a ridiculous amount for cable. Have any of you ever run MLB.tv through your XBox? What was the quality like?

I'm also trying to decide what Internet speed I should go with for live streaming games. My options are 25Mbps or 50Mbps. I know that 50Mbps is obviously better, but is 25Mbps enough?

This looks like a solid move for us.

Worst case scenario: We gave up an up and down utility player that was out of options for some versatile pitching depth at AAA.

Best case scenario: We gave up that same utility guy for a a good major league pitcher.

We pretty much come out ahead either way, unless Andrew Romine suddenly becomes Michael Young.

Oh yea? I thought they were only in Chino (original) and Pomona.

There's one in Redlands too.

Watched American Hustle last night.  

 

Highly overrated, IMO.  It's barely a good movie.  The performances, in isolation, were excellent, though.  

 

It's funny because as I was watching it, the phrase that came to mind was "wannabe Scorsese."  But Wolf of Wall Street was also disappointing to me, so it's like I didn't get a real Scorsese movie this year like I was hoping for, either.  

 

Both films could have been better if the editing had been a little more precise.

I'll agree on American Hustle. The story was just kinda all over the place. It didn't help that the only likable character in the movie was Carmine.

I saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire last night for the first time. They did a fantastic job on that one. Great all around movie.

Did anyone else notice the Of Mice and Men sort of tone to that episode? Also, is Mika Amy Schumer's illegitimate daughter?

I get that. The school has to, and should, take a stance that protects the student. I guess the question I have is whether this is really something that's preventable. With stiff enough penalties and reaffirmation, I'm sure you could prevent the physical stuff, but could you realistically prevent the ostracization (which I would argue is more damaging)?

Obviously the physical violence is unacceptable, but I'm not quite sure where the line is on forced acceptance vs. natural social behavior. Basically, I get that this kid loves My Little Pony, and I think that's fine (I actually have a seven-year-old nephew that is a huge fan). The question I have is what are the reasons that this is frowned upon by peers? Are gender roles enforced so early by society that males are expected to shun others that do anything perceived as feminine? Are males naturally called to shunning those that are different based on some caveman-level survival instinct (i.e. You're either with us or against us)?

BTW, can we vote this thread into the HOF early?

I like that they have to rape you before installing the chips. That's solid.

Well, I mean they're already breaking into your home, so why not? At least they're being efficient. It'd take a lot more time if they had to take a break and run to Starbucks for a handy.

The t-shirt and "activism" aren't really suspicious, but why do all these dudes have Arabic names?

Islam is kind of a big deal in Malaysia.

I'm just waiting for Alex Jones to chime in.

This story has officially entered the Tyson Zone. If it went toward mainland Asia, somebody would have picked it up on radar for sure. If it went further south and west into the Indian Ocean, well there's really nothing out there within reach other than the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Therefore, if it landed anywhere (which is still pretty unlikely), Sri Lanka is my bet. What I don't understand though is why anyone would fly that thing further south into the Indian Ocean, as that's pretty much suicidal. And if you're down with crashing a plane, why reroute it first?

I think this is just his way of letting us know that he has a pool. Next thing you know, he'll be sharing his designs for attaching a machine gun to his Porsche.

Another good episode last Sunday. Looks like all are heading towards Terminus. I wonder if the gang that picked up Darryl could have been responsible for wiping out those campers that the Governor saw last season. Also wonder if it is the same gang that moved in the house Rick and Carl were holed up in. Also curious about Beth, and who decided to play mortician to the walkers

It's definitely the same group that came into the house where Rick, Carl, and Michonne were staying. The leader was the guy on the porch.

$83 per month and you are bitching about the cost?

Quite the opposite. I realize it's a great deal. It's more than I wanted to spend though, as I'm very poor at the moment.

Thanks guys. Finally got enrolled. $83/month with no primary care copay, and $25 specialist copay. Frankly, it's a bit more than I wanted to pay per month (though I totally get that it's a good deal), but it's the cheapest plan I saw with reasonably good coverage.

Quick question about the subsidies, as I haven't been able to find a reasonable answer anywhere. I know I should be able to qualify for an insurance subsidy, but do I have to pay the non-subsidized premium every month, then wait until tax season to be reimbursed, or do I have to pay what the premium would be after the average monthly subsidy? I.E. $200/month, with $1800 coming back to me next year, or $50/month straight up? I only ask because this will pretty much determine whether or not I sign up in the next two days.

I think we can pretty much rule out this being an act of organized terrorism or a hijacking. There would have been a claim of responsibility if it were a terrorist attack, and there would have been demands and a landing if it were a hijacking. So, we've got a few possibilities:

1.) A crazy person (not part of a terrorist organization) blew up the plane mid-flight, perhaps over-doing it a bit by bringing enough explosives to take out an aircraft carrier.

2.) One of the pilots just put the stick down for whatever reason (depression, religion, schizophrenia, hallucinogens).

3.) Pilot disorientation leading to a crash. Perhaps a loss of instruments in the middle of the night over the ocean.

4.) Sudden breakup due to some sort of mechanical or structural issue.

5.) Some sort of slow, unnoticeable fatal issue, such as the gradual depressurization scenario described earlier.

6.) Some country's Air Force shot the plane down without realizing it was a passenger jet, and is a bit embarrassed.

The biggest problem we have now though is all of the conflicting location possibilities. At this point, we're all reasonably confident that this plane is somewhere in a triangle between Madagascar, the Eastern Himilayas, and Fiji.