Brock Beauchamp

Hughes and Perkins should not be considered pieces in the 2017 team. If they surprise and return strong, yay! Err on the side of caution and pretend they don't exist going into the offseason.

My preseason prediction for Buxton was a .700 OPS. Struggle early in the season, gradually improve and post a respectable number at season's end. Well, he finished the season at .714. I didn't expect the horrific struggles, the multiple demotions, or the bonkers September, but he ended up in a pretty respectable place for the season. 1.6 fWAR in 331 PAs. That's "solid everyday player" material from a 22 year old who was so bad we started to question everything about him and the organization. On to next year. Buxton has gone from massive disappointment to promising young star in the course of a month. Hopefully he can take this September, gain some confidence, and focus on 2017 with the goal of becoming the elite player we all know he can be.

Which ad location?

This show is amazing in so many ways.

Levi, I think I badly stated my previous post. I believe the Libertarian Party is more grounded than the Green Party. The Libertarian Party is full of fiscal conservatives who are frustrated the Republican Party has sold them out on social issues. The Green Party has no such equivalent. Liberals have moved to center but haven't sold out half their ideals in the same way conservatives have in the past 40 years.

I was FINALLY able to watch the first episode. Wow. Watching more now.

He's a nonsensical turd who only appeals to those who want to sound smart but think little. I have no respect for the man.

I believe Libertarians are a bit of a special case. Their base isn't as fringe as their opposition in the Greens because the Democrats haven't sold out to social elements as the GOP has done. That doesn't excuse the base elements of the Libertarian Party and some of their idiotic ideas but it makes their potential for change much more realistic. They're fiscal conservatives without the social garbage. Remove the most radical elements of the Lib party and that's a pretty reasonable goal. I believe that the biggest problem with our system is that it forces third parties to radicalize. The Libertarian Party could be quite reasonable but if it doesn't go to an extreme, it's just the Republican Party with a twist and no one gives them the time of day. So we get obstructionist government policy that's largely nonsensical. In my opinion, what's worst about the Libertarian Party is that the GOP has adopted some of its worst principles while keeping the GOP's worst principles. It's a match made in hell. Ted Cruz is basically the poster child for the mish-mash of badly thought out Libertarian and Republican principles combined into one unholy mess. I've long bellieved that if the Libertarian Party moved away from a small government platform to a small federal government platform, they'd be far more successful. Don't block government at all levels, let states decide. If Minnesota wants to impose stronger taxes, so be it. If they want to strengthen healthcare, so be it. But blocking all government at all levels is a fool's errand and simply wrong. Pick your battles and leave the ideology at the door because ideology doesn't play in the real world.

It's frustrating but too early to draw a conclusion. 12 months ago, Sano was possibly the most promising young hitter in baseball. Did the Twins develop an amazing rookie? Did they fail to develop an amazing talent? It's easy to make a snap judgment. It's a lot harder to show patience and then declare a process is broken. I'm not saying you're impatient, I believe you are compared to most baseball fans, I'm only trying to illustrate a point.

Agreed on all counts. As I've said what seems like a million times in the past year, a two party system only works if both parties are viable options. While I disagree with most of the Libertarian platform, they are a viable option (provided Libertarians are smart enough to move to center a bit and ditch some of their most asinine and impossible ideals).

Yeah, I understand the sentiment that neither major party candidate is worthy of an endorsement but I couldn't endorse Johnson with a straight face after the past week. That world leader question was the slowest, fattest, juiciest softball a candidate could be offered and... he blanked. Truly unfortunate, as this country badly needs a fiscal conservative presence. Even if I don't agree with LIbertarians by and large, an actual real counter needs to exist.

I generally agree, which is why I don't short term trade. But there have been a few struggling stocks that I followed and I've hit on them far more often than not. It's a small gamble but I won't be throwing big money at it either way.

Ah, I thought he'd be back in early 2017, missing only a month or so. In that case, if I'm Ramos I take a one year deal at whatever I can get and run with it. I don't think Ramos needs to prove much to get a decent long term contract, just string together a solid second half of the 2017 season.

It shouldn't matter. I doubt the show is going to follow his comic book origin closely anyway. Now that I think about it, I can't even remember Cage's comic book origin even though I've read it a few times.

Oh, sure, if you have the stock, rumors are great. It gives you a reason to exit the stock. My point was that you can't accurately predict acquisition rumors.

I have zero faith in Twitter. The only reason their stock is up is acquisition rumors. Great if you bought in low and sell but not so great if the acquisition rumors never materialize into an actual acquisition. Twitter does not have a sustainable platform that will make them big money. Facebook had a strategy from day one and evolved their system to strengthen it. Twitter's format itself prevents monetization at even 1/10th that scale.

Normally I'd avoid banks as well but WF is down 20% on the year and 11% since the scandal. If they drop another few points, I will probably invest. They're a strong enough company where they'll get back at least five points, probably more, in relatively short order.

That's fair, Seth. I understand not wanting to cast a vote for Clinton and my only appeal to people who feel that way is "then don't cast a vote for Trump, either, because he is objectively worse in almost every way". It's unfortunate that Gary Johnson continues to swallow his own foot. This country could use a fiscal conservative voice and the Libs aren't going to get a better opportunity to leave a mark than 2016.

So far so good on Polaris. The stock is up 6% since I invested 10-ish days ago. I'm looking into Wells Fargo now. I was going to invest short-term into VW after the diesel fiasco but my wife complained about investing in such a deplorable company. Well, I could have flipped that investment +25% in two months had I gone ahead and done it (when I made the plea to invest, they were around $95/share). I think that's going to be my strategy for short-term investments, which I generally avoid... Find a company with strong peripherals currently amidst a crisis, wait for them to drop a significant amount, buy, and bail in 3-6 months. I'm not confident enough in my evaluations to dive deeper than that kind of low-hanging fruit when it comes to short-term investing.

Hot damn. I get to begin watching this in 5-6 hours. Can't wait.

Man, that debate looks better for Clinton by the day. She goaded Trump into saying some stupid things and now Trump is running with the ball... Unfortunately for him, he's running toward his own end zone. He absolutely refuses to let the Alicia Machado thing drop. The man is a buffoon who seems incapable of listening to anyone around him (who are surely screaming "STOP TALKING ABOUT MACHADO"). And Clinton hasn't even geared up for the gift-wrapped "that makes me smart" comment rebuttal, which is inevitably in the works as I type this sentence.

I think it's in both the Nats' and Ramos' best interests to offer and accept a QO. Given this injury, I'd be surprised if anyone offers Ramos much more than a 3/36 contract. And given how he'd make close to half that in a single season of a QO, I'd make that move. The Nats get a single season of an expensive catcher with upside and Ramos gets to reestablish value.

Watch this animation of crossover voting in Congress. It's frightening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEczkhfLwqM

It's a fair point, though maybe "ground swell" is a better term than "fringe". But what has happened is that the average partisan is drifting away from center and I think that's Levi's overall point. In a two party system, that can lead to some pretty disastrous results, mostly through inaction (provided neither party gains too much control). And I think that's what we're seeing right now.

I understand and agree with you that it should be legalized - a big reason why I joined the Libertarian Party in 1999 was its stance on drugs and gay rights so I was on board with this stuff years ago - but 54% is a pretty slim margin. Clinton will get there in time but, as I said, she's pretty slow to move on this kind of thing. Look how long it took her to move on gay marriage, despite the fact it was a no-brainer and inevitable well before she came around on the subject.