gunnarthor

Yeah, I figure Bannon was more or less right - Kushner's money trail probably leads to something and Mueller has some pretty good money laundering lawyers on the case so ....

I look at it another way. The Pohlads have enough money to expand payroll greatly but until they do, we have enough history that shows us we're remain a low payroll team. The Pohlads don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Likewise, the GOP - despite their claims - have been very bad about lowering debt when they have the power. They just haven't done it. The early tax cuts and attempts to get rid of the ACA both show that they are willing to raise the debt for political purposes. Until they start doing the opposite, they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

That sounds fair. Let's see how Baddoo, Graterol, Kiriloff, Enlow, Miranda etc jump up the ranks after this season. That's a lot of high level talent but it is pretty far away.

So Nunes bombshell is a big dud. Probably the reason they released it on the Friday before the Super Bowl.

I like money too. But the problem, in my eyes, was that the tax cuts are really hurting my kids generations. We are increasing debt and removing people from health care. I didn't like that. I like money. Give me more. But I want my politicians worrying about other things as well, including other ways to save money like improving health care. My paycheck increased a small amount, I think I'll make about $600 bucks more this year or so. That's nice for me but it's not really a life changing amount and making it harder for my wife to get health care in the future if she leaves her job or my daughter to get birth control isn't worth the trade off.

Kind of a throw away line but in his latest mailbox, Jim Callis comps Lewis to the Nats Trea Turner. https://www.mlb.com/news/pipeline-inbox-yankees-farm-system-deep/c-265713138

I've reviewed some of your posts before replying. Your first post complained about "social justice mobs" and suggested Native Americans were split on the logo. Social justice mobs have remained a major theme in your posts. You had a strange post about Irish history. A "racism is subjective" post. Frankly, you haven't much opined on the logo except to say something like 'even if I did agree ... the social justice warriors ruined it.' And then these recent posts where you suggested that current perception doesn't matter, suggesting that the logo wasn't meant to be racist at some point. I was going to go into this more but it's really just about beating a dead horse now and it's time for that to stop. The logo was racist. The team moved too slowly to get rid of it. It was designed at its inception to belittle a group of people who lacked power in our society. It was a disgrace. Arguing against any of that is simply factually (and morally) wrong. Jon Taylor wrote a pretty good piece on this in SI. I'll quote a little of his article but the entire thing is worth a read. Emphasis added "For the last seven decades, Wahoo’s leering grin has stared out at fans from the caps, jerseys and shirts of both the Indians and their fans. He has changed somewhat over time—if you can believe it, the original incarnation of Wahoo was even more grotesque— .... There are two camps of thought on Wahoo. One is that the logo is a racist caricature that demeans an entire group of people who have been systematically oppressed for 400 years. The other consists of folks who insist that the logo isn’t racist because, well, they don’t think it is. But there is no argument here. Wahoo is racist, full stop. Wahoo represents what fans see as the comfortable, quiet past—one where offensive depictions of an entire race were looked upon as good clean fun. To defend Wahoo reveals how bone deep the prejudice against Native Americans is in this country. Supporting a caricature so hopelessly outdated proves how the average American either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about a historically marginalized populace. It’s simple, willful ignorance to claim Wahoo isn’t racist, but the logo still garners plenty of support among Indians fans." Any arguments against removing Wahoo are not valid. There is no "oh, it wasn't racist when he was first drawn" (yes, he was). "It wasn't intended to be racist." (yes, it was). "It's not racist, it's colorful history or tradition." (No, it's always been demeaning). You shouldn't now make statements like "yes, I know the logo was racist but that's not what I was talking about. I'm not complaining about that, glad it's gone. I'm just complaining about those damn social justice warriors changing the perception/context etc."

Everything is so messed up I barely even noticed that a US Congressman invited a holocaust denier to the State of the Union. Good grief. In a normal year, that would be the scandal we wouldn't stop hearing about and the guy would be out of office in no time. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/31/gaetz-florida-right-wing-troll-380577

Good point. Pohlads can save some money in the draft!

If you think context and intent are important than you owe it to yourself to educate yourself on Chief Wahoo. Doing so would unquestionably show you that Chief Wahoo was racist from the start. You haven't done that, instead you are lobbing attacks at people who you disagree with. I'm not sure why you thought Chief Wahoo is the hill to die on but it's probably time to get off that hill.

You've tried to make this point a few times. It's a version of "I don't see color" that we always get dragged down into. It's not worth it. You've been given many sources on why Wahoo is an ugly racist caricature. There's really not much left to be said. At this point you can pretend Wahoo isn't racist. You would be wrong. You can pretend only overly sensitive people would perceive him as racist. You would also be wrong. You can cling to romanticized stories that he is a tribute to a Native American player (even though that story was created to explain the name of the team, not the creation of the mascot). Or you can figure out why he's so offensive.

In good news for Buxton, Sano and company, Mookie Betts got over 10m in his first arb round. The Red Sox had offered 7.5. Betts has already had three huge seasons, which helps, but our young players are definitely going to benefit from the arb increases that are happening and, of course, next years insane free agency group. According to fangraphs, arbitration panels are "famously old school" so stats like WAR aren't relied upon. Instead, home runs and RBIs might push the needle. That could be good for Sano. And it might make us signing Darvish even less likely.

Can you see how these images are racist? If not, you have no doubt seen articles that are titled "Chief Wahoo, most racist logo in sports, is done"; "The Indians, MLB are too late in removing the racist Chief Wahoo"; "Cleveland Indians to abandon racist chief wahoo logo next year". Myself and others have linked articles by Joe Posnanski, a Cleveland native and probably the best sports writer in America. He has eloquently written about how racist Wahoo is. So you've been given this information but you apparently still don't know? You think people are trying to guilt" people to see that Wahoo is racist? Isn't the answer Wahoo is racist because it would be hard to create a more racist mascot? I'm not sure that's anyone else's fault. You've been given the tools and refused to learn. ("You" meaning the person you described in your post, not necessarily you, the writer of that post).

At this point, supporting the logo means not wanting the logo gone. They might claim that they support it for "tradition" or whatnot or that they can't "see" how it's racist. The excuse doesn't matter.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/02/01/mark-appel-phillies-pitcher-career-break Rough. He'll be trying to go to business school. Originally, he was drafted 8th overall and the Pirates could only give him a bonus of something like 1.5m or so. He held out and went #1 the next year and got something closer to 6m, IIRC. At the time, a lot of people said his agent, Scott Boras, was hurting him and he should take the Pirates money and cash in on free agency earlier. Looks like Boras was right and was looking out for his clients' best interests. Appel will be only the third #1 overall pick to not make the majors. Best of luck to him.

Solid list. If the Polanco we saw in August and Sept is real he belongs on the list. Not sure he's a .300 hitter/high on-base guy though. Hope he is. I think this will be a big year for him.

You don't need to get into the weeds on Chief Wahoo. There really shouldn't be a grey area here. He's unquestionably racist there is no arguing around that. Supporting the logo means either the person doesn't realize how racist it is or he does know and doesn't care. If it's the first one, then the person has remained willfully ignorant his whole life. If it's the second one, they are worse. Neither is a reason to keep the damn thing.

I think you're too pessimistic. For that to be the highwater mark it would basically mean that Trump stops doing Trump stuff. Admittedly, it's hard to top what he's done but he will. I believe Nate Silver had an article about gerrymandering and said that the Dems would have to win a national election by something like +3 to break even in the House. They are well ahead of that right now. Gerrymandering is bad but look in MN, Walz, Peterson and Nolan have all held down republican leaning districts. Lewis and Paulsen are strong pick up opportunities for Dems this cycle (well, Lewis is. Paulsen should be but he's pretty well liked by his voters.) I think a big wave will give the Dems the House back, barring some (what's the word for "opposite of a miracle"?)

Yeah, health in 2006 (and 09 and 10, too) was a big issue but that's the reality of low payroll teams. Frankly, I've always thought that the Twins decade from 01-10 with 6 division titles and one trip to the ALCS was more impressive than the Yankees one WS win in the same window.

I think you have to be a bit careful there. Sometimes it's correct - and needed - to say that those who support a racist mascot are racists. Sure, it's not nice but ignoring that obvious (although somewhat painful) connection means that we give equal weight to ideas that really don't deserve them or silence truth because it's not nice.

The right thing to do is to get rid of racist logos.

Yep. That said, I'm hoping he ends up a lot better than Milone or at least a healthier Milone for a few years ...

You know, if Gonsalves ends up having Tommy Milone's career, well, that's really not that bad. Milone had a pretty solid rookie year and, when healthy, had a few other moments.

I suspect it had to do with getting uniforms for next year and probably contracts with local providers/servicers. There's a lot of stuff out there that has contracted with the team that probably including using logos and such. But that's just a guess.

I think Cobb but I wouldn't be surprised if the Twins did get Garcia. We traded for him, he's a live body. He won't cost much. I could see us taking him and Cobb.