biggentleben

in 10 years (technically in 9, but anyway), I'll have 3 teen girls and a teen boy all at the same time. I've already underarm stink-away to two of them after sports. Another major thing to me...is there anything more useless than pure deodorant? It's cologne/perfume in stick form. I've had to ensure I had antiperspirant since I was probably 8-9.

Trout has been getting more publicity due to the success of the Eagles and 76ers...

I get it. She's been out too long now. She's a family friend, and I know her heart for helping/improving the state. The stuff Noem used was dirty politics crap (Steph's husband had a job working for a lobbying firm, so she MUST be completely in the pocket of that lobbying firm - nevermind that they never made a donation to her once), and it really bugged Stephanie because she was spending quite a bit of time in South Dakota due to health issues in her family, yet she never countered Noem with that publicly to confront the crappy politics being used in the race, now a hallmark of Noem's campaigning. She's in a different position now in her life with her son coming up on teenage years soon and really enjoying life working in academics at Augustana, but frankly, it was a sad sign of things to come in the state to watch that campaign play out.

Seriously, when will MLB get their stuff together in the social media landscape? On draft day, Trevor Bauer is the talk of the draft with his incredible analysis while multiple MLB staff members ripped into Bauer as a person and said the praise was unwarranted. Today, the Umpire's Union sends out a tweet condemning MLB for their one-game suspension of Manny Machado after he got upset with an ump and threw a bat. Alex Wood just challenged both MLB and the Umpire Union, saying that this is why players don't do social...the league can't even present a united message. Oy...

You just cannot make this stuff up: moments ago, @senatemajldr McConnell on #Reparations: "I don't want reparations for something that happened 150 years ago...we've tried to deal with the original sin of slavery by passing civil rights legislation and electing an African American president...." Essentially, a "What?! We gave you people a president!! Isn't that enough?!" I just cannot understand how this man holds such a powerful position in our political arena in this country today.

No, I meant Stephanie Herseth, but she's enjoying her new role and was very turned off by the way things were handled at the end of her political career in SD, much at the hands of Noem's team.

Has anyone else watched the final season of Jessica Jones? I really enjoyed the season overall, perhaps one of the best done without a tremendous villain to base the story around in any of the Netflix Marvel series, IMO.

I think that significantly mischaracterizes what happened with the McCain campaign. If he had his personal preference, his running mate would have been Joe Lieberman. No way Republicans elect a guy who is seen to be friendly with a Democrat, though, no matter how conservative Lieberman is considered to be. His campaign and the Republican National Committee really pushed McCain on him. By the end of the campaign, he and Palin were not on speaking terms.

This will hit a climax when this deal becomes the catalyst for the Yankees doing nothing else this season...or for the team losing international money and draft slots next year. B-Ref and Spotrac differ on contract info, but either way you look at it, the Yankees will have a tough time adding anyone else and remaining under the penalty point of the luxury tax. They're already over the tax point in both systems (Spotrac has them with $213.5M in obligations, B-Ref has it at $245M) with the penalty being at $206M. Spotrac was quite short on the Red Sox last year, not listing them in the penalty, yet they were, so where between those two numbers is accurate is anyone's guess, but picking up more salary could be something the Yankees simply cannot do this season if they're hoping to avoid the penalty. This also will affect next year's draft as, barring an extension, the Yankees have been seen as front-runners for Anthony Rendon, but they're already over the luxury tax for 2020 (also to be $206M), and that's with declining Encarnacion's option this offseason and allowing all of their free agents to walk (Didi, Sabathia, Gardner, Betances, Romine, Tulo, Kendrys, Maybin), and that seems like it'd be a surprise for them to do that. We could see the Yankees being pushed into a financial corner here to some degree by the system that baseball set up. I can only see Gregorius possibly getting a qualifying offer, and even then, he'd likely not net a monster deal coming off the injury he is (barring just going bananas the rest of the year, of course). That'd leave the Yankees (if they go over the penalty) losing $1M in international money for each qualifying offer free agent that they sign and also losing their 2nd and 4th highest draft picks. The Nationals went through that this year, but they ended up with compensation back for Harper to somewhat offset it.

That's been an assumption on Frazier for some time, but I believe the Yankees have an inflated idea of his value. When they approached the Pirates regarding Gerrit Cole, they wanted the Pirates to add in more to get JUST Frazier, whereas the Pirates weren't willing to take Frazier only for Cole (you could argue on whether they truly got more or not, but that was the discussion point).

I honestly wonder what this means for the health of a number of players on that roster. Luke Voit is going nowhere. The man has 105 games as a Yankee, and has a 155 OPS+ and 31 home runs over 443 plate appearances. However, opening up the Yankees B-Ref page could cause your browser to crash before you ever get to see the team statistics on the season, as they have 14 players currently with some sort of mention in the "Current Injuries" portion of the team page. Among those are Miguel Andujar and Greg Bird, two guys who were supposed to factor into the corners to open the year. Add in Kendrys Morales, who was acquired midseason and has already suffered a calf injury. Top it off with the fact that the team was initially going to use their DH spot for a rotating spot for an outfielder among their depth with Gardner, Hicks, Frazier, Judge, and Stanton. Instead, each has seen IL time this year, and Judge and Stanton are both actively on the IL with nagging injuries that have limited to a total of 23 games between them. E-wing can do some things, but he can't play the outfield...

Smokeless tobacco TO THIS DAY has been laced with incredibly harmful chemicals and even poisons. While each state has their own laws for local brewers, the testing required to sell nationally, both initially and ongoing, with alcohol ensures you are getting a reputable product that is what the label says that it is. You are literally gambling with your life every time you put a single dip in, let alone make it a habit. To give an idea, I had a college friend who went to work with Pinkerton Tobacco Company (who make Red Man), and he left there to create his own supplement company. Most know how minimally-regulated the supplement industry is, but he's stated before that it'd be easier for him to get a new flavor of Red Man on the market than to put a new type of protein supplement on the market. The tobacco lobby put in some incredibly loose regulations on their products for years, and while the products may be finding fewer and fewer spots that they can be used publicly, the regulations on what those products can contain have never been approached in all of the movement to limit/ban tobacco products.

I think Nate Silver said it best recently when he said that there is a huge mistrust right now for polls. What we saw in 2016 was within margin of error in every state, but the combination thereof was one of those things that was essentially a 94-97% chance that Clinton came away the winner. Most seem to forget that means that there is still 3-6% chance for the opposite to occur, no matter how accurate the polling, when they release numbers like that. In other words, polling didn't fail us. We saw an extreme case of the combination of multiple polling all heading to the far extreme. While the chances of that happening in our lifetime are as likely as someone watching the same pitcher throw a no-hitter and a perfect game, the impact was obviously felt much more, and therefore there are many who are in the same boat as you, struggling to trust polling numbers. I hope Trump strategists continue to be among them.

Klobuchar/Biden. Warren still has some intrigue to me. I know enough about both Biden and Klobuchar to know that I'd not vote for either. I'd either leave the office blank on my ballot or choose a third-part/independent candidate that best suits my feelings. Those are still "not Trump" votes, though I completely understand the thought process of "throwing away a vote" though I wholeheartedly disagree with the concept.

Presented that option, I'd certainly need to know my choices in alternative party candidates. I couldn't give either my vote right now for sure.

1. You just said "that a guy like Biden makes this part of his platform further illustrates how out of touch democrats are with the American people". I responded that the American people are very focused on abortion, responding to your comment directly. No reason to take umbrage with someone responding directly to your comments. 2. You discussed traditional moral values in a post regarding abortion. No assumption was made on your personal view, just the conflict of "traditional moral values" and typical stances of those who espouse those values. No redirect, no dodging, simply directly addressing what was directly stated in the post being replied to...

The same American people who were found through two different polling services to rank abortion as their top issue of voting influence in the 2020 election. Recent Republican-led actions on abortion at the state level have pushed the issue to a top issue on both sides of the aisle. Perhaps it is not Democrats who are unaware of the sway of the country at present. On "traditional moral values", I am quite certain traditional moral values include allowing the judgment of ultimate moral superiority to rest outside of oneself, so judging others' behaviors without knowing each individual case would certainly not fit with that. It's been a discussion point that has stymied hard-line anti-abortionists for decades. If you'd like to have a discussion on the actual Biblical implications on it, that's something I've studied in depth, but it's also not applicable to the argument at point.

The same "certain black person" that thought bringing out accusations of sexual harassment was a sign of "keeping a black man in his place". Terrible choice of an example to cite on racism.

Exactly this. I will guarantee that any farmer would rather have no subsidies and the ability to negotiate their price. Instead, their price is told to them by many forces with government hands, and therefore, they feel if the price is going to be determined by the government, reducing the amount of crop a farm will have should also be supplemented. That same mentality should also translate to an issue like abortion, and interestingly enough, in my conversations with "suburban Republicans" versus "rural Republicans", it's absolutely the rural group who understand the need to supplement social programs if restrictions are placed on abortion. However, that rural group can vote strong with electoral votes, but they don't vote strong with money, so their electoral vote is courted, but their nuanced opinion on such issues is often ignored at a national level.

Um....not even close. I'm talking about the better option to run for Senate in South Dakota.

Well, there is a better choice, but she's not running right now, and likely won't again, sadly.

I truly believe that if his actual financial status (owing roughly $400M that will come due while he would be in his second term if he wins in 2020 that he's never made a single payment toward) would influence one of the major points of sale that his voting base had in 2016 - a tremendous businessman that was going to use his business acumen to help the country. I've had discussions with people that have completely re-examined their position on Trump when finding out that he cannot get a loan in this country due to his previous bankruptcies. Investigations that can expose that could be something to really aid Democrats on the campaign trail in 2020.

Yes, and no. It's been seen across the country in other districts that the hands-on approach (not literal hands-on, obviously...) can be a huge sway for votes. South Dakota is unique in that there is a tremendously large amount of land in the state, but there are also some very distinctly different places to campaign. Sioux Falls is its own beast. The reservations are their own campaign conundrum. The western half of the state is incredibly spaced-out ranch land other than the Black Hills and reservation land (both their own distinct places as well). The eastern half is much more crop farmers and "industrial". It's a tactic that is used now, yes. However, it does not mean defeating that is impossible. It certainly did not help Noem's cause once it was revealed it was false. She had some strong discord from her own party in the state legislature this year in session. That's incredibly rare, and nearly unheard of in this state.

All this discussion assumes Kimbrel is essentially Braves Kimbrel or 2017 Kimbrel. He's been injured since joining Boston and not fully healthy for a season and postseason both since he was a Brave. His last season in Atlanta was 2014. In 2017, even though he had a brilliant regular season, Kimbrel was exhausted when he got to the postseason and made two appearances in the Red Sox loss to the Astros in the ALDS, allowing 5 base runners in 2 innings. Even though the Red Sox won the World Series last year, they really won it in spite of Kimbrel. He allowed 7 runs over 10 2/3 innings in the postseason, walking 16% of the hitters he faced.

Yes, you could do all three, and likely for 2-3 years, with Smith likely making the most and having the longest contract terms. The odds are all based on what the Twins see in the pitchers they have in-house, along with what they could acquire via trade. Remember that just two offseasons ago, the Twins did go "all-in" on relievers, bringing in 3 veteran relievers, much to the delight of the fan base. Those three relievers combined for a 3.81 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 8% BB, and 21.7% K over 137 innings. For that, the team paid over $21M. This past offseason, the team signed two pitchers that have appeared in the Twins bullpen this season (Mike Morin and Blake Parker), and at the end of the season, they will max out with less than $2.5M spent on those two arms and yet they've received 32 innings with a 2.81 ERA and 0.94 WHIP through roughly 2.25 months of the season. In other words, spending the big money on a bullpen isn't always the answer.