biggentleben

And scanning and mapping is done by what technology? It's the same satellite technology, with a different purpose. If you're considering utilizing drone tech, then you've got state drone laws to get through. And all of that is still going to have enough delay that my vehicle will not "know" there's a road washout ahead that just happened a few minutes ago...

If I were Google and GM, I'd be offended at being grouped with VW, who is a lot closer to Uber than most want to give credit.

Yes, I've followed the technology plenty as someone whose family farms and utilizes GPS technology significantly in that industry (as most do now). The average farmer has more screen time per day during planting season than a teenager...scary, but true. The technology has come a long ways over the last decade, but there absolutely still needs to be someone in the vehicle, and not someone who is passively in the vehicle either. Quite frankly, the GPS, depending on weather, software, and all sorts of variables, struggles to make a straight line through an open field at times. The intention of focusing satellite coverage for such technology by population density won't change anything around here for sure, as those same satellite outages and "blinks" that are seen by farmers now would be present in cars. No way could you drive from Sioux Falls to Fargo and expect no issues, let alone getting off interstate to go down gravel roads. Then you have the case of right now, when a road may be okay 10 minutes ago, but melting and culverts opening up around the area are leading to road washouts that are momentary. They've seen testing on farm equipment completely miss such patterns. I'd rather not have my vehicle drive me straight into a stream that is rushing over the road. So, yes, yes, my 14 year-old will definitely need to know how to drive, and absolutely my 4-7 year olds will also need to know.

Dan Winkler was the first one that came to mind...and then Dave Dravecky before that.

Except there are legal proceedings still ongoing. Those very well could engulf very important pieces of the Trump cabinet, campaign, and family. Right now, one major concern is that impeachment procedures would not be able to prove guilt enough to actually impeach.

A society will always benefit from encouragement of critical thinking and increased general knowledge base. Increased actual knowledge (not that garnered from Facebook) is vital to arguing falsehoods presented by those to sway the uneducated masses. Critical thinking skills are vital to challenge what is presented to ensure our leaders are presenting facts and not half-truths.

I think impeachment before 2020 is asking for death for the Democratic party in the 2020 election. There are many who are on the fence politically in this country at the moment - fed up with voting for a President who has delivered essentially nothing promised (and made life much, much worse for many of those he specifically targeted with promises), but also still very wary of the entire "swamp" of Washington. Wading (very intentional word choice) into impeachment proceedings will show that group on the fence that those in Washington are more concerned with proving a point than actually getting things done. Like Lev said...get Mueller on record, let the dozen active investigations that were handed over due to evidence obtained in the Mueller investigation work out (reportedly some of which would get Donald pretty bad once out of office as they refer back to actions before he was in office and would be prosecutable at a state level, so he may be "f'd" once he's out of office as well). Focus on pushing as much real policy in front of the Senate and in front of Trump as possible over the next 18 months. His inaction on that action by legislators will speak louder than anything furthering Mueller's report could do at this point.

Or, God forbid, universities would start showcasing themselves for their excellent faculty and academic reputation rather than the new buildings all over campus paid for with outrageous tuition dollars. Of course, one other thought here...no tuition and/or elimination of the student loan program would absolutely bankrupt any for-profit college, which is an aggressive force on Capital Hill now in lobbying.

The Michael Lewis podcast recently did an excellent look into some of these and found that essentially every student loan forgiveness program through the government is wrought with corruption from the student loan industry that makes it near-impossible for anyone to truly qualify. I've got more than 10 years of service in social work, more than 10 years of on-time payments on my loan, but because I called in one month in the midst of all of that and discussed a potential forbearance (one I didn't end up taking, simply discussed), it's notated on their records, and I'm ineligible for forgiveness. All sorts of little crap like that are all over the system of these forgiveness program, regardless of the field.

I'm not an Ann Coulter fan by any means, but her interview on Firing Line was very intriguing. She has some very good ideas on immigration (specifically some mentioned in this post regarding those who hire and the type of skills that are desired. We lament the continued disparity of classes, but if those who hire for menial labor jobs are able to hire very cheap labor by hiring undocumented labor and that undocumented labor force is then able to send billions of dollars out of the economy unchecked, that's a major angle that contributes to the "crisis" of the situation. If there was a "speed pass" at the gate for those with a certain skill base, would different people be coming to the country? What if the money they made would be taxed heavily if they transferred it out of country? I'm not sure the answer, which is why I ask. There are legitimate questions here. None of them have been approached by the current administration. Tweets that attack positions are not a position.

You should watch the most recent Firing Line episode that had Ann Coulter on. Completely independent, up-to-date stats have a majority of illegal immigrants in the country coming from overstayed visas that were originally obtained legally.

I miss Vin Scully broadcasts.....

Certainly, but more worried about the ability for a person to still have some human control over their decisions, and that's what so many against the technology are concerned about. Nowhere that's implemented the technology has required all calls to be made according to the technology.

With the system Byrnes tried out, it was a dual-colored light in centerfield that flashed for either a ball or strike (they actually changed which light indicated ball and which indicated strike now and then so fans wouldn't know for sure and couldn't just ride the ump by seeing the light). The umpire was under no obligation to call exactly what the light had flashed, but rarely did they go away from it. What you could absolutely do with the technology in the stadium is let the ump still make his/her calls but also have that indicator of a strike or ball given to them. If they choose to go against the system, you track that. Much like with defensive statistics, you could grade your umpires based on their times going against the system and what the "difficulty" of getting the pitch called accurately was. To put this in perspective of defense, if Buxton ranges halfway across the outfield and misses a play, it doesn't hurt his defensive rating as bad as when Eddie Rosario forgets it's game day and drops a liner right at him. The implementation of the system would not have to take away the human element as much as supplement that element.

Everyone does understand that "roboumps" are still going to be a program sent down to human umpires who are standing behind home plate, right? This is not eliminating an umpire behind the plate. If for some reason, the technology were to go out during the game, you still have the umpire behind the plate. When Eric Byrnes tried this out 2 years ago in one of the Indy Ball leagues, he said it was much more like getting confirmation of what he had already intended to call and then helping with the 1-2 pitches in the entirety of the game that were so close he just wasn't sure. Umpires very well may LIKE this, and it could really serve as more of a backup to what they're already seeing rather than a complete overhaul.

Had a sort of grand opening last week, and then had 20"+ of snow keep kids home for multiple days, so the progress has been slow in getting stuff on the site! I did, however, put up my second mock draft of the year, which would be of interest to many in here. The Twins first choice remained the same, but their second choice went and had a very good NHSI and may not make it down to them!

I've never been, but my wife has been heartbroken seeing this. She talked about someday taking our kids to tour churches of Europe, and Notre Dame would absolutely be among the top 5 coming into today. Just heartbreaking.

And this is the crux of Braves Twitter. Do you read Deadspin, Mark Bowman, or have your own sources? Because there is a varying opinion depending on each group. I fall into the latter. They signed the largest single-year contract value in team history this winter and looked to add plenty more. It didn't work for multiple reasons, but I also know that they're still actively pursuing deals in April. The pure revenue is not parsed out, simply reported as a big number to engage comments just like this. It's really not worth the argument.

'tis my old editorial grounds....

Less than 10 years ago, all the smart baseball minds were ripping teams for not keeping their own. Teams added a few things in the most recent CBA that make extensions a very wise financial choice, and now they’re coming left and right (David Bote got a long-term extension...David freaking Bote!), ad ownership is the devil for ever accepting a guy’s deal. Andrew Jones walked into John Schuerholz’s office and outlined the contract he wanted. JS called in team reps to draw up what Andrew was saying, and he signed it. His agent was not involved, and he actually sought different representation soon after due to being threatened of being dropped as a client by his old agency. Jones was already a 3-time Gold Glover and had just hit .300 for what would be the only time in his career. He would have easily garnered 10 years and $200 million at that time as a free agent, hitting free agency as young or younger than Bryce and Manny just did. Not one soul ripped him for the deal or the team for taking advantage of him. He signed with Scott Boras after leaving his previous agency and was able to get a very nice deal in free agency still.

Trout’s deal was a year before he hit. Altuve’s big deal was before he finished his first deal (which paid him much less though he’d accomplished more than Albies when signing his first deal). It happens quite a bit. Heck, on the Braves currently, Freddie Freeman was in the midst of a multi-year deal when they signed his current extension.

I’m a Braves fan. I live in the area of the Twins. Therefore, I have been chatting baseball (and other topics) with many around here for ~20 years online. I’ll continue to be a Braves fan, though I’ve put myself in the position of writing for multiple outlets that gave me great connections within the game, but also required my allegiance not be a focus in my writing. With those connections, I can tell you flat out that Liberty has been reinvesting heavily in the club. The scouting, training, and analytics departments have all been significantly beefed up since Anthopoulos cane on board. He also had the green light to be very aggressive in the trade market, and they were, including a monster offer with the Twins, but none of their targets would work in their price range, something both Anthopoulos and AJ Preller lamented this winter. Essentially, no club should ever seriously be talking a trade of player for prospects with both the Braves and the Cubs. If they are, I’ll guarantee the ask is significantly more in player value from the Braves just because “they could afford to lose it”. Even though deals weren’t made, I have on very good authority that lines are still open on a pair of their moves since the season began (not the Twins deal, which is off the table - for now). The Braves are certainly going to be aggressive in trading. Braves Twitter is well-known throughout the game and has been quite critical of not signing particular free agents, but that was never AA’s modus operandi in previous positions. He’s always pursued trades and locking up top players in house for the long term. The team, through a rebuild, has set team-record Opening Day and record End of Year payrolls 7 times combined since beginning the rebuild after 2014, so the team is spending as much or more on payroll as ever as well as dumping big money into other areas of the team. I’d love to see them dump big money into minor leaguers as well, but one thing I’m working on right now is something leaked to me by a FO financial person that said the way the bills have been set up in Congress, teams based in the USA would be violating the law their own league lobbied into existence. It’s why the one team who’s gone above and beyond standard practices is the one MLB team based in Canada.

We've all seen them, Mike. I've also seen all the BS about it being a small agent looking to make a quick buck. That's complete wash as the same agent represents some of the biggest stars in the game, including Craig Kimbrel. Ozzie came to the Braves, wanted an extension, wanted this length, wanted a particular amount. He's already talking about not playing to the end of the deal on the current terms, as is the team. This was a matter of locking down his future. Now that's done, he can play ball and earn his next deal, which will likely be before this one is done.

Or Acuna won Rookie of the Year, is widely viewed as a generational talent and had a second half last year that would be fitting on the 2017 Twins. Ozzie hit a bunch of home runs in the first half last year and got on the All-Star team in large part because of those home runs (as he had a rough OBP and was walking just 4% of the time. He then followed that with a .226/.282/.342 second half, along with going 3/15 in the postseason series. While Ozzie is a dynamic young player with explosive energy, he's also a guy who shattered his elbow just swinging the bat in 2015. They're best friends, from a similar part of the world, but they aren't equal players, and to pretend like they are is disingenuous at best.