drjim

This I especially agree with. That is why I certainly welcome the presence of Bernie to drive the national conversation in the direction he is taking it. Pull the options far out and then find something that works between here and there.

Part of the problem is the majority of his "policy" is too general to critique. Financial transaction tax would fall on the wrong people. Large enough institutions would take transactions offshore, and most effected would be retirement portfolios of middle to lower upper class individuals. A tax on "Wall Street speculation" is way too vague. Hard to imagine regulation strict enough that would capture this transaction in a way that prevent banks from skirting it with new or different transactions. Too big to fail, too big to exist is fine in theory, and I support, but the issue is more privatization of profits, socialism of risk, not size per se. What exactly would he do here? I have no problem with capping bank bonuses for senior level jobs, but that just seems it would limit future talent more than stop corruption. Credit card rate limits are fine if the goal is denying lower income people access to credit. Yes, let's audit the Fed. I agree. Do it yesterday. From his site: https://berniesanders.com/issues/reforming-wall-street/ I think Clinton basically agrees with his critiques of income inequality and banks, but I think she has a sense of what can actually politically can be accomplished. I fully support Bernie pushing these topics and making it tough for Clinton, and if there is an overall residual effect on Democrats that is a good thing, but it does have to be someone targeted. Merely skimming money off of banks and handing it over the health care and education complexes is not the answer. I'm certainly in favor of more education and better health care accessible to all, but more money is not the full answer. And again, the funding of this leaves something to be desired.

Bernies other huge draw is his attacks on banks and income inequality. The issue is that none of it adds up and will be destroyed if actually analyzed by an opposition. Part of why those general election polls look good now. Clinton could destroy him if came down to it, but that would be bad politics and really hurt the party. Her hope is mostly keep powder dry, not attack and keep the party together.

I never would say the Twins "needed" to do anything, but I do think it is a good use of resources to trade from a surplus to fill an area of need, especially when the replacement is as good as Buxton.

I agree that Murphy will regress on his babip, but while Yankee Stadium is more of a hitters park, that manifests more in home runs, especially to right field, and not actually in babip. I don't put a ton of weight to any sweeping conclusions based on sss, good or bad.

Of course the scarcity inflates the value of Murphy, that was kind of the point of the trade. And the Twins didn't get worse in CF, they cleared space for a far superior player.

Do you actually think that babip split is anything other than sss noise? I couldn't find 2015 info, but from 2012-2014 Target Field had a significantly higher babip for rh hitters.

Really? Change is going the wrong direction? Say more.

You are correct, those general election polls mean nothing. Sanders does well with under 30s because they are passionate but really have minimal life experience. That said, I do see the appeal of Sanders to the blue collar disenfranchised. I think it is very beneficial for our system to have people like him and Trump shake it up.

Unfortunately no more Kiley articles. He works for the Braves now.

The big question is whether the vast majority of support for Bush (and others that will soon drop out) will go to Rubio or if it will spread around. I don't think it is all that clear cut - I still don't see Rubio as all that viable of a candidate - at his core he is more war, less healthcare and more immigration.

If people are clearly better than Meyer obviously he won't make it. I think they would like to see Tonkin do well but if he doesn't they'll dfa him and not worry too much about it. I do think Nolasco and Milone are on the roster in some capacity. The underrated battle is that Duffey is far from guaranteed a spot, Nolasco and Milone could absolutely beat him out for the last rotation spots.

Agree on Burdi, don't think that is true for Meyer.

I think that was the only time he was forced to trade someone due to an ownership demand of cutting payroll.

Go here: http://www.1500espn.com/the-ride-with-reusse-ondemand/ Thursday link, Hour 1, starts around 19:45

I would have preferred a better lefty option, but I agree that with Perkins, Jepsen and May likely locked into the back of the pen, I would rather roll with the younger guys for the last couple of spots than sign a free agent. Of course, Fien and probably Nolasco are likely two of those spots out of camp. But there is enough depth to bump them after a couple of months.

Chargois would break camp ahead of Burdi, but we are likely looking at one (or more) of Meyer, Pressly, Rogers and/or Tonkin.

To the bigger point, Twins are certainly a boring team for a site like Fangraphs to cover. Not a lot of trades and an organization that isn't embarrassing or baffling so it isn't all that interesting to criticize, but certainly isn't aggressive or all that progressive either.

One interesting thing about the Twins in the mid to late aughts was that they were obliterating team k/bb marks. They were certainly late to shift that philosophy (which did serve them pretty well for a decade) to the new higher k league, and that combined with general atrophy of pitching up and down the organization. It was an ugly, ugly combination that lead to the last 5 years. It does take about 4 years to really rebuild a system. The first starters and relievers from the new model are starting to pop up.

But if you can work through that, lots of repressed animal sexuality in there.

Isn't everything a fundraising opportunity? Just not enough money in good, sound, drama free governance.

But if it looks like Clinton is likely going to win the Presidency and the Dems are going to retake the Senate, that would result in a much, much worse outcome.