DCAngelsFan

Exactly - I really doubt Arte's gonna be impressed with Eppler telling him a trade of Bundy will make us less competitive next season, but 3 years from now, well, no, we'll still be worse ...

After 30 games, the front page is dominated by threads about trading for the future and jockeying for the #1 draft pick position in June ... Can't believe I bought the mlb.tv package this year - "best" move I made since buying into an airline stock in January ...

Returning young war hero reluctantly takes over Family business.

I have to say as a brand, I'm pretty happy with El Yucateco - they make some really solid habanero hot sauces.

Hmm, curiously, I'd also say the RFK assassination - I remember it clearly 'cause of the irony - I was probably trying to watch cartoons on tv when the Special Reports broke in - I remember calling out to my mom telling her "Someone shot Kennedy" - and from the other room, she kinda laughed and said "Oh, no, that happened years ago." I could see it right in front of me - but didn't want to correct her., 'cause I knew she liked him. I just turned the volume up so she could hear for herself, eventually. Kind of like the Challenger - we heard it at work, and I went to tell a couple of guys about it, and I - but I found I couldn't break in to their conversation to tell them. Finally, I just turned on someone's radio, turned it to the news station, and let them hear it themselves. That's one of those things that hit shockingly hard.

Have seen versions of this in this thread, and I've been saying it for years. There's no such things as "good enough" in these departments - you have to strive to be the best in finding, acquiring, and developing major-league talent, from every source. Not "good" or average, compared to other clubs, not "pretty good", but "The Best" - that takes a lot of money and risk-taking and creativity. And it can only start with "commitment" from the owner. (It also includes a commitment to staying out of player decisions.) And it includes internationals, the amateur draft, and finding under-valued guys in other systems we can trade for. We need to be creative - fund stat/analytics guys, kinesiologists, etc, to do research and look for competitive edges wherever they can found. And building a dominant pitching staff is hard - and nearly impossible via free agency - they're too expensive and are near the end of their careers when they hit the market. Perhaps the first order of business is to figure out how to build a front office that's (eventually) second to none - and if that's not Eppler, find the guy that can do it. (I like the idea of hiring the Dodgers front office - from beer guy to GM - but they're not going anywhere.) Sadly, even if Arte got religion and started *today*, it might take years to see results - that is, when Trout is lamenting never having gotten to a World Series ...

I tend to agree on Marsh - I think Upton is fading even faster than I'd hoped and we all know where Pujols is. Marsh is taking reps at 1B, but he's a plus outfielder, and that's where he needs to play. I think we need to keep him *and* Adams in the pipeline for next year and beyond, and not re-signing Simba lets us compete for 1 or even 2 SP's. But tbh, I'm kinda skeptical about the upcoming pitching FA class - Kluber will likely be a FA but his injury history, -shoulder injuries scare me in a pitcher. Bauer and Stroman - Bauer might want to come home (at premium dollars), Stroman I'm a little leery - his age and size make me think a breakdown is coming. Ray can't find the strike zone and is getting lit up. Realmuto is simply a luxury we can't afford. I want to keep Simba - and we might strike out on any high-ceiling FA pitchers - but I think we probably have to, reluctantly, let him go. Unless we decide to trade Fletcher/prospects for pitching.

Hmm, Bane had one miraculous draft - then he reverted to his mean in 2010, and reverted hard. He had a bit of a retrograde approach to evaluating hitters - when I saw his quote about when he's scouting a guy who took a walk, he was walking back to his car - he wanted "hitters" - I was pretty much over him then. But he's not the "villain" here - Dipoto, to include his couldn't-possibly-have-done-worse international players handling is probably the "star" of this shit show. Arte has a role, too - things like the Wells trade and Hamiton signings are obvious - but I'm not convinced he didn't under-resource the operations of the team, like scouting drafting and development. With all his money, the team shouldn't be badly out-performed in obtaining talent by teams like the Rays and the A's. And yet, here we are.

I have to say, you're kind of overlooking the fact that oxy, fentanyl, and other opiods *are* legal, when legally prescribed. And look at the result - many , many addicts are people who were prescribed (often unwisely) legal pain medications, became addicted, and only turned to illegal sources of supply after doctors cut them off. We're looking at some 60-70k overdose deaths a year - TS was hardly alone. CDC says 70% of overdose deaths were due to illegally-obtained drugs - which means 30% or 20,000 people - die from overdoses of legally obtained medication a year. Are you sure you want to increase the number of users - and addicts? Sometimes I wonder if you're right - heck just give it to people who want it - it would prevent a *lot* of crime and suffering as people rob and kill for these drugs (an elderly couple was killed in my area for her pain med scripts, because she had cancer, for example) but in the end, that doesn't change the physiology - as their tolerance to the drug increases, they take larger and larger doses, and eventually many will overdose and die. And I'm pretty confident the number of addicts - and number of overdoes - would increase exponentially if you made it *more* available or even gave it away to those who ask. (I'm sure some would view that as a "Modest Proposal" or at least some weird kind of Darwinism - but I don't think we're that heartless, yet.) Weed isn't addictive, nor toxic, so isn't really a part of this conversation. ps - it was "Hamsterdam" in the Wire. But that was a misnomer - the Dutch tolerate the use of soft drugs - but trafficking in hard drugs, such as opium, heroin, are prosecuted. The Dutch would never permit an open-air de facto legal place to sell heroin as was depicted in The Wire.

Glad you're back - I noticed your absence, stalked your profile awhile ago and saw you hadn't logged in since like June. I thought of asking - but figured it would be better not to know than to hear something I didn't want to hear, like your sex re-assignment surgery went wrong ... Oh, was I not supposed to mention that? Welcome back, glad you're well.

Gravity. All the crap from the rest of the country eventually ends up in Florida. It's the asshole of the North American continent... Rumors are, though, they picked up the infection in an Atlanta strip club. And *that* joke writes itself ...

I think that's true - he shown his talent, but there's some polish needed. But having made that non-move, they're going to leave him there awhile - bringing him up for game 7 wouldn't be a good look.

I got as far as:

We should've checked the label - clearly, he was past his expiration date before we left the store.

I always liked the story of Ronald Reagan, who called Cubs games using a telegraph feed. Once, the telegraph went down, and rather than just have dead air, he improvised, and made up foul-ball after foul-ball, until the feed came back.

Before this goes bad, I'd like to point out that "sou" is a reference to the French coin ("money"), and not short for, say, "soul", which would have entirely different meaning. Turns out, he's buried in Anaheim.

Maybe he throws a knuckleball? There was literally nothing I liked in that scouting video, and his stats bear that out - but someone who's paid to do this sees something worthwhile, so what do I know? Maybe he's just related to someone on the team?

I was operating under the assumption that they were using the quick tests - the 15-minute ID Now platform, for example. Some labs are taking 6-8 days to return results - this isn't tenable. The only way this can possibly work is if they can return results in minutes or hours, certainly not days - in 6 days, a carrier can infect the entire team.

So sorry, man - it's hard to lose someone under the best circumstances, but when something like this happens, when they die because people you trusted screwed up, it's hard not be be enraged. I can't tell you the number of mistakes, accidents, and errors that happened to my wife, just one disaster leading to the next, leading to months of terrible suffering, then finally, her death. Of course, no one ever admits they were mistakes, they just "happened", like spontaneously. My condolences to you and your family.

Dunno - but I just saw the National Wom'en's Soccer League play the first game of a tournament today - so I guess they have to answer the same question. As does, in fact, any non-critical activity which has the risk of exposure - whether it's working at a restaurant or playing professional sports - they have to answer the same question. I was tested the other day - and while I was grateful that I was negative, this is the text that came with: Yay. Uh, anyway, I'm listening to the podcast, and he just made an illogical leap - he said that if the positive test rate was, say, > 10% in a particular area, it means that there aren't enough tests in that area. What it *means* is that they're not testing *enough* in that area - that's not the same thing, at all. We had that issue here - the positivity rate in my zip code was nearing 40% - which is horrifying - but it wasn't because there was a lack of tests or lab testing capacity, (at least not in the last month or so) but because our DOH wouldn't change the standards for testing (they still technically haven't - people "need" a referral - but there are now drug stores and urgent care centers that just let you self-certify that you need a test, and they refer you. The state government failed on this score, calamitously.) As for "ethics", his argument is that players will consume tests, because they're engaging in non-essential activity - those tests they used could could have been used for other people (most of whom are *also* engaged in non-essential activities.) Get that? Unless you're a first responder, taking a test is unethical. It's his (implied) supposition at this point that they'll be creating a shortage. Further, both he and the host (Ben) implied they'd gone to drive-thru facilities to get tests for themselves (multiple times, I infer) - so, what "essential activity" were they engaged in that required them to get those tests? Weren't they also ethically wrong? I think his supposition here is a bit academic and weak.

360 HUBS 341 AngelsLakersFan 333 greginpsca 328 Junkballer 324 dcangelsfan 323 Capital_Dave 317 Slegnaac 316 Taylor 315 AO 307 Angelsjunky 302 joeybaseball 299 AD&B 295 JAHV76 278 Tank

There's the problem - "don't go out if you're sick" - basically, we're all dependent on the behavior of other people. Hong Kong has had 1100 cases, and 5 deaths - despite having nearly the population and density of NYC - which had 216,000 cases and 21,719 deaths. Why? Everyone wears masks. https://www.vox.com/2020/5/18/21262273/coronavirus-hong-kong-masks-deaths-new-york

Or 6 or 8? In close quarters, one will quickly become 5, and perhaps the entire team. The timing of this is pretty bad - the chances of the season being cancelled entirely just inched up - if any player or coach gets seriously ill, if another team has a cluster like this, before a deal is done? The it'll be over.

Bizarrely, I tried to view what he tweeted - and he has me blocked. I barely use twitter, almost never tweet anything - I wonder what I could possible have said to him? I probably told him, at some point, that he's "Full of sh#@"