ashbury

Also frustratingly infuriating.

"Well, there's your problem, son. How can you think and hit at the same time?" -- Yogi Berra

Maybe the Yankees were bluffing putting CC back in.

nOt tO wOrRy, i kEeP a cLoSe eYe oN tHeM.

Front office never had the courage to pull off the necessary transactions to push the team that last step. / ducking....

Being on the analytic side of the spectrum, this is hard for me to say, but defensive metrics still aren't capable of capturing what Buxton brings to the team. The win differential when he's in the lineup versus out may be a little fluky, but the ripple effect of his play in CF and moving Kep to right holds some magic.

I would not object. Because, crooked number.

What happened to the BUNTS we were promised?

Concur concur concur. You will get all kinds of surprises at various points in the process, particularly so when all the fees are finally laid out near the end. "This is completely standard," you will be told. Do some homework and find out what the typical fees are in your locality, so that you can negotiate, and if necessary walk out. Do NOT fall in love with the house. There will be another coming on the market next week, just like clockwork.

Regarding the mortgage, unless you expect to keep the house through most of the life of the mortgage, don't pay points to bring down the interest rate. Points are in effect a gamble the bank offers you - they are betting that events will cause you to sell early, you are betting that you'll stay long (usually more than half the life of the mortgage). The sales pitch they'll give you always is based on assuming you'll pay down the mortgage in year 30. If you're young and your career might prompt you to move, it's a bad bet, a waste of thousands of dollars that get rolled into the mortgage so that it seems painless. I don't know anymore if assumable mortgages are common. That could change the calculation, but I'd still advise not to pay points. Assumable is always good, in itself, but such mortgages are sometimes less available when in a rising interest environment, which we keep getting told we're on the cusp of. And there's no certainty that when you sell, the next buyer will be able to make use of it. I think we got assumable mortgages, and the next buyer never benefitted. Go for the shortest mortgage you can swing. That is useless/hostile advice for many, who are struggling just to get into a home at all. But if you look at amortization tables, you'll see why I at least suggest you think hard. The lower interest rate that comes with a 15-year loan means money in your pocket, and quicker financial security. See if your mortgage broker can be creative in this area. If you don't get a shorter mortgage, build into your plan to pay a little extra every month anyway. Make sure the loan allows this, in the sense that the extra above the agreed monthly payment actually goes to the principal and isn't just carried forward toward your next payment, but I've never seen a loan that didn't play fair in this regard. Despite all the mumbo-jumbo you will hear (from brokers who don't understand what they are selling all that well), a mortgage is computed exactly like your credit card - interest is computed based on balance at a certain time each month, it's added to the balance, and then all your payments during the month are applied - lather rinse repeat, 12 times a year, for X number of years. Discipline yourself to apply, say, half of any unexpected windfalls (job bonus, inheritance, even just a big gift) to paying down the mortgage, and use the other half for something fun or practical. I do not buy the argument that you are better off investing heavily while you still have a mortgage - the tax deduction is nice but doesn't erase the fact you are paying the bank money every month just for the use of their money. Maybe a true investment wizard could come out ahead, but you're paying taxes on profits then, so it's still pretty much a wash at best, and it may not be at best at all. It sounds like rube advice but I think everyone big from Warren Buffet on down will tell you this. It's the small timers who all have the complicated ideas. Speaking of amortization tables, I think it's invaluable to have an app on hand. A mortgage is dependent on 4 values: Principal, Monthly Payment, Interest Rate, and Length. If you know 3 of these values, the 4th can be computed (with formulas best handled by a program). I found it useful, for instance, to try to determine what interest rate I would need to negotiate in order to swing a given mortgage - it would tell me what was hopeless versus worth trying for. It was a source of quiet pleasure to tell the bank officer what my monthly payment was going to be, and have them say "how did you know that"? Hey, it's just math. Anyway, a Google search on "mortgage rate calculator" today brings up a rudimentary tool right there on the results screen. You might find an app better than that, letting you compute any of the 4 values from the other 3, and showing you amortization tables and total interest paid. Even better is if it lets you specify all 4 values, which might not technically add up correctly, showing you for instance the amortization table and total interest paid if you make larger than required monthly payments, which as I said above is eye-opening. You can do what-if scenarios with the app until you find a deal you are comfortable with. The better prepared you are, the less dependent you are on someone else's honesty - the big company actually providing the money is usually pretty honest but I'm less trusting with the individuals on the front lines who will tell you one thing and then sell you another. If the numbers they are giving you don't check out with what the app is telling you, then they are selling you something else. Of course, you have to know what size of down payment you can offer, to plan the mortgage meaningfully. The more down payment, the better, since some fees are based on the mortgage size and not selling price. But don't bleed yourself of every bit of available cash, because there are guaranteed to be unexpected expenses soon after you move in, no matter how carefully you get the place inspected or what kind of home warranty they give you. Water heaters and washers and ovens and even roofs have a nasty habit of going kerblooey shortly after you move in.

And at some point not too long after, he no longer is.

Yeah, before you get a ton of replies like this.

John Bonnes needs to add an award of some kind, in his periodic State of the Website summaries, for sentences like this.

There was also his stage whisper comment through gritted teeth during the press conference announcing his hiring. "Guys. I need some bullpen help."

I might have forgotten one, but my impression is that each of the moves was motivated to remove someone from the 25-man but who lacked minor-league options. In each case they brought up someone already on the 40 to replace him, thus no corresponding 40-man move was needed. To me, it's evidence that something is brewing, but that the FO truly doesn't know for sure which deal(s) will happen. So there being no incentive to commit to something this week, they are leaving things open. If they fill it to 38 with AA guys, and then 3 instead of 2 bluebirds fly in via acquisition, they have to waive someone. Yeah, I'm still an optimist. They just added Stashak today, so it's not as though they are saving their open 40-man slots for their old age. It may be overly cautious but I don't think it's mysterious. Just... uncertain.

Moderator's note: Can we please make our points without the derisive nicknames, my friend?

Ohhhhh... crudddddd... Just keep your thoughts to yourself until later tonight, please. No spoilers.

"Two truths throughout baseball history. No team ever made any money, and you never have too much pitching." -- Donald Fehr, paraphrased

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I could see a little small-ball piranha action being called for, with plenty of bunting.

In fairness, if the poster's trying to depict a trend, simple apples-to-oranges comparisons may not do the job either. I think his point is that there's been a recent downward trend for one, while the same period and even further back looks steady for the other. While the additional verbiage might help, a different approach than averages might be even better - I just don't know what, maybe a graph?

It felt like a loss, but didn't the Twins win yesterday? How much of a time-zone lag are we dealing with here?

While the thread is "what will it take," I do agree that questions surrounding the nebulous term "makeup" could reduce Stroman's trade value more than analytic tools would suggest. An extreme amount of due-diligence would be expected from my evaluation team, regarding this point. My manager unconsciously shaking his head while pondering how to answer my question might be enough of a veto. A corner outfielder should be the headliner of a trade if at all possible, and Larnach is a logical candidate. Almost certainly an arm has to be offered as well. Problem is that rebuilding teams want high-end pitching prospects, and if another contender is prepared to offer a top-rated arm, it may be necessary to follow suit, and in that case Larnach is almost too much to pair with that. I've been skeptical about loading up with corner position players in the draft as "safer" picks than pitchers, because when it comes time to trade... other teams will reply "we've got somebody of our own who is about that good." Luckily, Toronto might consider themselves a little thin in that department. I might try Larnach, Alcala, and Gordon, if my relationship with Toronto is cordial enough that it can withstand an offer being laughed at, and then try to go from there. I add Celestino instantly, which the tradevalues site then considers an overpay, and maybe ask for a lottery-pick prospect in return as well to rebalance things. Alcala may not be of interest to them, though - then we haggle over better arms and it starts getting painful. Or... that's where Giles comes into the conversation...

We find out, perhaps, who the real Bombas are.

Unless I have a good response lined up to the possible reply, "or, what?", I keep my tone different and more polite to my highers-up than to my direct-reports.