Brock Beauchamp

I'm not looking for an overpay, just a fair offer. And the fewer upside arms that are left on the market, I think the closer that offer comes to reality.

If you have a shot at Pomeranz, why would you be interested in Santana? Let's not pretend even for a moment the two pitchers are comparable. If anything, we should be happy Boston went ahead and pulled the trigger on this deal early so Pomeranz is off the market.

Their new logo was just released. It's "TP". This is clear proof they're trolling America, right? http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/15/15-trump-pence-logo.w529.h529.jpg

It's also important to remember that Colorado actually wanted Reyes because the GM of the Rockies is a lunatic. Almost everyone considered Reyes a drag on that deal... Except for Colorado.

That's a fair point but I don't know what else the community can do. It's not like this problem is new and it's not like it hasn't been known to exist for decades. I believe there's a net gain found in awareness. Some will turn against you but many will turn toward you... And without awareness, something the black community has failed to get for years, nothing changes. And Castile's death would have been a footnote without the past two years of protests. How do we know this? Because there are literally thousands of dead black men over the past few decades and we've never seen anything approaching this kind of media traction over police brutality... With one *very* notable exception: Rodney King. What followed the trial of King's murderers? The most violent and destructive riot of the past 40 years. What followed those riots? A drastic overhaul of the LAPD and its tactics. Awareness counts and without all that turmoil to keep King in the news, it's possible, probably even likely, nothing significant changes with the LAPD.

When the default position of the average American is ignorance, willful or otherwise, I don't think it matters. As I said earlier, when you're attempting to enact change a pissed off person nets the same result as an idle person.

And neither the Pirates nor the Royals won until they burned everything to the ground and rebuilt from the farm system. The Twins, talent-wise, were about a 75-78 win team last season. They had almost everything break right for them... But you're saying that were everything to break entirely super-duper right for them, they could have made the postseason. Luck is not a reason to push all your chips into the middle of the table. It's nearly a sure-fire way to lose over and over again until you're entirely broke. I was fine with Ryan's moves last season, I only think they should have happened a month before they did (or, once May happened, he should have been more aggressive with bullpen fixes from the either the waiver wire or the farm). But the 2015 Twins simply weren't a very good team. They were a mediocre, maybe slightly below mediocre, team that had a bunch of stuff go right for a month.

Why are we using extreme fringe cases to defend an argument? How many ambulances use the freeway in the first place? When's the last time you saw an ambulance on a TC freeway? I live in Minneapolis and work downtown. I spend 95% of my time inside the city limits of Minneapolis. I can't remember the last time I saw an ambulance on the freeway. I see or hear them on city streets several times a week, though. These protestors are blocking a dense metro area freeway. I just did a scan of the TC metro area in Google Maps and it's unlikely any ambulance will need to drive more than 4-5 miles to reach the nearest hospital. I'm sorry but if your best reason to not block a freeway is "Think of the ambulances!", you're not going to sway me at all.

My opinion is that there is a part of society that will react negatively, yes... But that's going to happen either way. Is negativity worse than indifference? It nets the same result. But I think the benefit lies in the big, quiet middle... The people who never paid attention because they didn't have to pay attention. These actions get the black community airtime to argue their grievances. There will be a large segment of society when, once presented that opinion, will reconsider their position (or, more likely, examine it for the first time). But there are concerns over how dangerous it is to block a freeway. I won't argue that. I wish I could think of a better way to get the community airtime without putting anyone in danger but I got nothin'.

That's my take as well. I don't necessarily agree with blocking freeways but mainly because it's kinda dangerous... But what else are protestors supposed to do? If they hide away in locations found convenient to the rest of the world, they'll be ignored because that's been the problem all along. We willfully ignore the voices of these people so they're forcing their voices into our daily lives. And given how long this has gone on, what recourse is left them? Less obtrusive measures have been tried for years to little or no effect.

Yep, rumor has it Mike Pence is the front-runner for the Trump ticket. Or, as I see it, "how to make an immensely dislikable ticket more vile in one simple step". There's no ****ing way Trump wins this thing. Whatever traction he had outside of white males is going to deteriorate with a social conservative on the ticket. Trump's sole saving grace was his waffling on religion, abortion, and other social issues. http://www.npr.org/2016/07/14/486032078/5-things-to-know-about-mike-pence

A compelling article about why people block freeways and what they represent to the black community. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/13/why-highways-have-become-the-center-of-civil-rights-protest/

One thing that has perplexed me for quite some time is the rush to trade on July 31st. Yes, I know teams are gauging what they want, leveraging other teams against each other to vie for the best deal but what is lost in doing so? What are the ramifications of waiting 10, 20, 30 games to pick up a player? Say you're the Mets. You're in contention but have a few holes that need patching. It's July 15th with, say, 14 games left until the deadline. You go out and snatch up a decent starting pitcher and a competent hitter. Hypothetically speaking, those two players are worth one win over the next 14 days. That's one win you just banked. That win could be the difference between not making the playoffs versus taking the second Wild Card. That win could be the difference between winning the division versus playing in the Wild Card game. That win could be the difference between winning the division and winning home field throughout the postseason. That win is worth a lot to a contending team. Has anyone ever done a statistical breakdown based on date of player acquisition? It's something I'd love to read if it exists.

Ah, yes. I forgot about Norris. Good point.

Give Murphy two months of playing time and then reevaluate. There's no need to make a decision today.

Suzuki isn't comparable to Lucroy but he has a few things going for him: 1. He's been red hot for seven weeks or so, sporting a 1.004 OPS since May 31st. That normally wouldn't bump his trade value at all (and it still won't move it much) except for the next point... 2. Unlike Lucroy, Suzuki is on an expiring deal. At the deadline, many teams aren't interested in 2017, they only care about the last two months of the season. To some teams, Lucroy will either be too expensive or too much of a risk given his age and concussion issues. So, "poor man's Lucroy". That doesn't mean the two players are comparable, it only means Lucroy is going to be too risky or too expensive for some teams, which may make Suzuki more appealing. If you're a fringe contender at the deadline, what's more appealing? Suzuki for a good A ball starter with a bit of upside or Lucroy at the price of a top 100, probably top 50, prospect (assuming you have one to give)? I suspect for many teams, the answer may be Suzuki.

Given how well Kurt has played for the past six weeks, I could easily see a team pursuing him as a "Poor Man's Lucroy". The return isn't going to be great but it won't be nothing, either.

I know I'm in the minority here but I still don't believe this is the case. Yes, the deck is stacked again Meyer. Yes, he's getting old in a hurry. But Meyer's problem isn't performance, it's health (and the Twins jerking him around left and right but that's another topic for a different thread). Maybe Meyer is a permanent injury risk. It happens. But some guys are injury risks until one day they're... Not. And vice versa is equally true. So I'm going to keep holding out hope that Meyer gets it together and stays on the field before I write him off entirely.

I haven't watched the second season. I finished the first season, said "meh", and then resolved myself to letting the show play out for awhile and then binge-watching it. But I heard it improves quite a bit in the second season.

The Clone Wars cartoon series is quite good, though it takes a little time to get rolling. It's also on Netflix.

But race *is* a large component of the problem. If we ignore race, how do we actually begin to resolve this specific problem? I don't view BLM as eschewing others' problems, I view it as a cry for help from a downtrodden community. While I haven't seen you use the #AllLivesMatter hashtag, that's a bigger problem than the #BlackLivesMatter hash. Why? Because ALM doesn't actually stand for anything. It's a dismissal of peoples' voices and a vote for the status quo. "Nothing to see here. Move along, move along. Oh, and shut up, blackie." So, whether you actually agree with BLM or not, it's best to stay the hell away from ALM and any terminology of that kind. It doesn't actually stand for anything, it only stands in protest. If you want real division, that's how you get it. ALM is not only about ignoring the woes of others, it's about shouting down their ideas. It's pretty much the worst. Whether you agree with BLM or not, it's hard to deny ALM is a hell of a lot worse. In a nutshell, All Lives Matter is the GOP and military veterans. "Should we post a meme thanking our vets twice a year? Should we bathe in the red, white, and blue whenever possible? Should we sing songs about our vets?" "YES!" "Should we fund healthcare improvements, treatment, and aid for vets in need?" "HELL NO!" No ideas, only platitudes. "All lives matter." Of course they do. And if you really believe it, do something about it or STFU. Not speaking to you specifically, diehard, just pointing out how problematic it is to distract and shout over someone with ideas when you have no plan whatsoever or intent to actually solve the problem. You may have ideas how to fix the problem, I have no idea, I'm only speaking in generalities.

My wife travelled Australia for something like nine months right around the year 2000. She said the level of racism in rural areas would make any decent American blush. It wasn't even a subtext of conversation much of the time; they just came out out and said terrible **** we stopped saying in the 1970s.

And it's a great point. We often talk about how volatile relievers are (excepting the elite guys) and use that as leverage to avoid signing anyone to more than a two year contract (and often, no more than one year). Ryan is notorious for offering one year deals to relievers only to have them reject the offer. But Ryan didn't only trade for the value of 1.5 seasons of Jepsen, he lauded the move because "he'll be here next year, too". Does. Not. Compute.

To be fair to my post, here were the paragraphs following the one you quoted: "The Twins didn't get super-lucky with him, I'm sure they had scouts out there with information on his early season struggles with Tampa. But they kinda got lucky because, injury considerations aside, Jepsen was a phenomenal pitcher down the stretch and Kevin Jepsen is not a phenomenal pitcher." The Twins got the best two months of Kevin Jepsen possible but there was no reason to expect him to implode the following season. He had a solid track record of something just north of mediocrity.

Yes, this. Europe is just starting to feel immigration "pain" and look what Britain did in response. They left. Well, they tried to leave anyway... Whether that happens is still very much up in the air.