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Grigori

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Everything posted by Grigori

  1. 70. Not because the Angels are any worse than last year, but because the Rangers, Astros and Mariners are better than last year. They have to play a lot of games against them.
  2. What's up with Trout and Pujols striking out so much against the Rangers tonight? I thought they were supposed to be good.
  3. How can anyone say the Angels offense is "on par" with the Rangers when the Angels have scored 32 fewer runs this year, and the Rangers offense is better than at the start of the season? And the difference between the Rangers 4.35 ERA and Angels 4.59 is significant. The Rangers have already added pitching and are getting Holland and, possibly, Lewis back before long. Darvish, Hamels, Holland, Lewis, Perez and Griffin are a lot for the Rangers to work with next year. My advice is to simply fill out the Angels roster the next two years as cheaply as possible, get a couple of good drafts, then trade off any players not needed in 2020 for players who can contribute then. That's how long it will take the Angels to recover from all their mistakes and be a contender again. Get rid of some of these expensive contracts, and save for 2020 or so. This is a rebuild from scratch.
  4. How long? This season. They've combined for 13 of our wins from starting pitchers so far. Lewis was 6-1 before he went on the DL. Darvish won two of his three starts before going back on the DL. Holland won five games before going on the DL. So, yes, it's a big deal. The Rangers are still without Kela, too. Choo, Betre and Chirinos are back, but the Rangers are still wining with significant players on the DL.
  5. I would not call those Astros AAA. They've gone 13-3 lately. I realize a lot of that was playing the Angels, but they are a good major-league team with a bright future.
  6. The Rangers rotation is currently without Darvish, Holland and Lewis, yet they still win. Just beat the Yankees last night The Rangers lost Choo, Chirinos and Griffin for parts of this season, too. Adrian Beltre was out a few games. Kela has been out almost all season long. I'm not sure it's the injuries is all I'm saying. Other teams survive massive injuries. Look what the Rangers went through last year with injuries, but they won the Division.
  7. My choice is not there... it's the Texas Rangers.
  8. Make fun of Josh Hamilton all you want. My Rangers turned the draft pick we got from the Angels when you signed him into Travis Demeritte. We currently have Hamilton for free and Travis? Check out his A+ stats this year: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t504&player_id=641513#/career/R/hitting/2016/ALL Looks like a good player. For CJ Wilson, we got Joey Gallo. Check this out: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t102&player_id=608336#/career/R/hitting/2016/ALL So, I like Josh Hamilton. He's been great for the Rangers, even when he went to the Angels. CJ was even better, but Travis looks like he's going to be a good player. Love those Angels. Keep sending us draft picks.
  9. Really odd that Angels fans are moping and whining about injuries. The Rangers have far more injuries and you don't see Rangers fans throwing in the towel. We're playing without our ace (Darvish), number three starting pitcher (Griffin), closer-of-the-future (Kela), two star outfielders (Choo and Hamilton) and our starting catcher (Chirinos). The only difference is our guys on the DL are more talented. Simmons? What's he batting now, .190? Please... cry me a river.
  10. Trump and Clinton appeal to people who don't pay any attention to policy. I like the idea of no social security or medicare tax. That would be a big help to those who pay most of their tax for social security and medicare, the poor and lower middle-class. Cruz replaces it with a business flat tax, that yes, would raise prices 5% according to the tax foundation, but with no social security and medicare tax is still a big help to lower-income individuals. Then, the 10% flat tax, high personal deductions and being able to fill out your income tax on a postcard would help everyone. It simplifies taxes, and helps exports. He allows exports to be deducted from the business flat tax, but applies them to imports. Individual savings are also all tax deductible. So, it increases savings, helps the working class spend more on things they need, and boosts exports. The tax foundation says it is the most pro-growth plan of all the candidates. That said, I think I detect a lot of jealousy in the article. Looking at a failed state like California, we just have to laugh with our great growth and employment opportunities in Texas. We're welcoming Toyota's US headquarters moving from California right now. The heat? I have a friend from India who waits until 5:30 after work to run because "It's too cold in the mornings in Texas." Where he's from it's a lot hotter. It's just what you are used to. I make it a rule to not run when it's 95 or above, but for some people that is not bad. One out of five people on welfare live in California. So, you beat us on that score. Not much else, and that's because California has turned up it's nose at conservative economic policy.
  11. AJ, they put all the OECD countries on a splatter graph, the X axis GDP growth and Y, the percent of GDP that is government spending. The more spending, the less economic growth. It was a 40-year study done during the Clinton administration. I've seen updates, and that still holds true today. There has been more studies done that show the same thing. It is simply a matter of economic FACT that the larger government is, the slow the economic growth is. Yes, Sweden is an outlier. Norway sometimes is, but not always. Denmark has high taxes and high government spending and very slow economic growth. Denmark fits the overall pattern of how a high spending government wrecks their chances of achieving significant economic growth. In Norway's case, they have tons of oil and gas, get all their electricity from dams on fiords, so don't need the oil and gas. They make huge profits on their oil and gas. That is why they are sometimes an exception to the general rule. So, I don't know what you are talking about. You are clueless, and have no real data to back you up. Big government means slow growth. As far as these billionaires go, countries that make a lot of money have a lot of billionaires. So what? The poor do better, too. Zimbabwe has few billionaires. Do you want to be like them? We have a lot of billionaires. Our poor are better off than the middle class in most of Europe. ​
  12. I saw a Republican debate. I started with Cruz saying his father used to wash dishes in his underwear for $100. Then Rubio said "That's nothing, my father was a bartender." Then Trump comes on. He says his daddy left him $300 million he used to make billions and billions. Then Rubio said if he just left it in an index fund he could have done that. Then Rubio dropped out of the race. I think he's going to start an investment fund or something.
  13. I figured you SoCal hippies would be out stumping for Cruz. Trump is for keeping marijuana a federal felony. You are aware that at any time the federal government can legally shut down the marijuana trade, including medical marijuana, with the laws on the federal books, right? No state can stop them. They just aren't doing anything about it, yet. Ted Cruz is for decriminalizing marijuana and leaving it up to states like Colorado or California to decide for themselves whatever marijuana laws they want. Cruz used to smoke it in college, too, like most of us. You elect Trump, he'll send his Gestapo after all the stoners in California.
  14. LOL, AJ. So predictable. Talking about compromise. We aren't going to compromise. If you don't like it, you have options. You can move to North Korea and live your dream, for example.
  15. First off, this is pure fiction. All you have to do to know it is totally false is go to Forbes list of richest Americans, add up the top 20's wealth and divide it by the trillions of dollars of wealth in this country. It's a very small percent. Second, China is minting more billionaires at a faster pace than the US. Their economy is growing at 6-7% per year, too. We can't even achieve 2% these days with the crushing burden of an oversized and overspending government. America devotes 39% of GDP to government and China only 29% at all levels. They are more capitalist than we are. Tens of millions of Chinese are moving out of the country where they lived in abject poverty into the cities where they are joining the middle class. It's a growing thriving country now, while ours is deteriorating under the thumb of the Obama government and atrocious economic policy designed by Pelosi and Reid. The point is, the creation of billionaires is an adjunct of a successful, vibrant, growing economy. 'If your economy is growing, like China's, billionaires are created, but everyone is benefitting. People like AJ want to envision the world as this stagnant pie of wealth you have to divide up among the people so everyone can eat. That is not how it works. You can make the pie bigger, and billionaires simply by aggregating wealth for investment help with that. No, it's not all "trickle down," but that does not hurt. A lot of it is creativity and hard work. The billionaire is not a drag on the economy, nor does the billionaire deny others opportunity to make money. AJ would do go do read Adam Smith, Bastiat and other great economists than to regurgitate this leftist garbage designed specifically to appeal to the greed and envy of people and make them feel dissatisfied. And, why do they do that? Power. They want to take money belonging to others and use it to increase their political power. That is not what investors in our economy do. They hire people, create jobs, expand the size of the pie, and give people opportunity to improve their own lives and expand the pie themselves without depending upon government... small investors and large investors alike. Every save and investor in our country does way more for America than the greedy politicians in DC selling envy. You can't eat envy. You can eat food you buy with a paying job that produces even more for others. The question is whether you want a job and create your own goals and opportunity, or do you want to be dependent on the idiots in Washington, DC, to make your life decisions? Economic freedom or economic dependence? I choose freedom.
  16. Gutsy move for them to report. With Pujols out for the season, you'd think they might give up. I can't see the Angels finishing higher than last place, if that.
  17. It would not be that difficult to create a system that can track the ball in 3D across the plate, automatically adjust to the height of the batter and so on. Such a system can do a perfect job of calling ball and strikes. There is no reason not to do it. Obviously, you still need an umpire at the plate to call foul tips and call plays made at the plate and so on, but the idea of an umpire calling balls a strikes when it is proven they aren't doing a very good job at all and a computerized system can do a good job, well.. it's total nonsense.
  18. Great post, AJ. If the teams with sustained success have something in common I think it is that they address every aspect of building a great team... scouting, player development, trades, free agency, coaching, international signings and so on. To be so good in all those aspects, they have to have great organizations from the bottom all the way to the top. Something they all seem to do is make course corrections during the season, something the Giants have been successful at doing. They always seem to have the resources to make those corrections. Because they have an "all-of-the-above" approach, if one thing goes wrong, something else always seems to go right to make up for it. I think the Angels problem has been to spend a lot on free agency with little emphasis on player development. As a consequence when a weakness arises they can only drain an already weak farm system or spend more money. There is no pipeline of good players coming up that helps them keep costs under control. It's pretty simple, really. Scott Servais was trying to fix all that, but about the time he and Dipoto were getting the ball rolling, they were chased away. That's a real problem--no long-term outlook, little organizational consistency and ownership commitment to sustainability. Maybe the groundwork Servais laid to get their Latin America efforts back on track will help--that is, if they don't gut those efforts.
  19. Look at it this way... y'all won't have as much trouble getting a good seat at the game next year.
  20. Keuchel can shut down the Yankees. In two starts this year they failed to score a run on him. It's just a matter of whether they can get him into that game. It's really presumptuous to think the Royals or Jays are so great the Rangers don't stand a chance against them. I'm not sure why not. I don't see anything about either team that makes them significantly better than the Rangers at this point in time. Cardinals or Pirates, or any NL team, either. They just aren't that great. Each series would be about 50-50, but sure, there is no reason to think the Rangers can dominate them, either. It's pretty easy to see that the Rangers are peaking and competitive with anybody. That said, it's a coin-flip situation.
  21. It's great, but the Rangers either need a win here or in the Wild Card, or an Astros loss, then 11 more wins. Just getting in the postseason isn't enough. Did that three times since 2010. This just makes four. Need to win the World Series. They have a shot, probably a better shot at it next year and, with the farm, ongoing. But, they at least have a chance at it this season.
  22. He's been a real adventure out there, hasn't he? It's either a no-hit left-fielder like Stubbs or a no-field left-fielder in Napoli for the Rangers right now. Well... Gallo, but he strikes out a lot. A whole lot. And he's not a very good outfielder, anyway, just better than Napoli. So, go with Stubbs and pinch hit for him with Napoli once, or give Napoli three at-bats to start the game and use Stubbs as the defensive replacement? There are some other options on the bench, but they aren't any better, really. Venable, Strausborger...Hamilton is still hobbling around and "hopes" he can bat soon without requiring a pinch-runner. Fielding is probably out of the question for Hamilton after having his knee cleaned up. I think the Rangers are just trying to get on the board early and hope the ball does not go towards Napoli. It's a very nice batting lineup now with him in it.
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