Turd Furgeson

Even further though, would you say he can be the Miguel Cabrera of this generation? That's a very tall order for any hitter to live up to, IMO. I think the strike out rates absolutely must come down if he is to have any chance of it. All the greatest hitters keep their strike out rates low enough to have a high batting average. He generates ridiculous bat speed so effortlessly that it would seem he can make some proper adjustments to both his approach and maybe his swing mechanics to take that step.

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/8/22/9189335/miguel-sano-superstar It is easy to prevaricate, caveat, and hedge your bets too much in the prospect trade, but I won't in this case. Small sample size be damned; Miguel Sano will be a superstar, the Miguel Cabrera of his generation. This is very high praise from Sickels who is a well respected prospect evaluator. What do people think, can Sano become one of those rare hitters that hits for average and power? I know his BABIP is way too high to be sustainable. He does have a very nice line drive rate though. Sickels is saying that the reason Sano is striking out too much right now is because he's waiting for his perfect pitch, yet the results show he's quite capable of handling multiple different pitches. As his approach matures, I do wonder if he can become that elite hitter like Cabrera that can hit for a high average and power.

It's more evidence that not all scouts are the same and that its very difficult to predict the future.

I don't see the comparison at all. That said, I don't really see Eddie improving all that much from here. He's not a very toolsy athlete, he can hit the ball but he doesn't have much power and his walk rate is abominable. That said his defense has been a nice surprise.

Thank you! You know, I've gone back and forth on whether it's really important that they know but I hate living a lie pretending to pray at every meal, going to church with them on Sundays when I am home visiting. I also think it probably is important that people are public about it if they do not believe because it will help to remove that negative stigma associated with the idea of not believing in a god.

I have a lot of respect for him to tell everyone he's an atheist. It's very difficult to tell people that, especially if they are religious because there is a negative stigma with the word. I still haven't told my parents I'm an atheist, they are deeply religious, I used to be and I know that it will be very hard for them to accept.

I haven't read all the posts in this thread so you'll have to excuse me but I've thought about this issue a lot over the years and had many worthwhile discussions on the topic which have formed my current view. First and foremost, I do not think morality is an objective thing. I think it is something that developed through our evolution, which helped us survive and it continues to be altered or evolve in its own way as we gain better understanding of what is fair and promotes equality as we see those things as moral. The scientific evidence strongly suggests that life begins at conception, in fact I might be so bold to say that it's silly to think otherwise. The moment a sperm fertilizes an egg, the genes and sex are set. http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/understanding-conception http://www.justfactsdaily.com/the-science-of-abortion-when-does-life-begin/ 1. Growth – As explained in the textbook Essentials of Human Development: A Life-Span View, “the zygote grows rapidly through cell division.” 2. Reproduction – Per Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia, zygotes sometimes form identical twins, which is an act of “asexual reproduction.” (Also, in this context, the word “reproduction” is more accurately understood as “reproductive potential” instead of “active reproduction.” For example, three-year-old humans are manifestly alive, but they can’t actively reproduce.) 3. Metabolism – As detailed in the medical text Human Gametes and Preimplantation Embryos: Assessment and Diagnosis, “At the zygote stage,” the human embryo metabolizes “carboxylic acids pyruvate and lactate as its preferred energy substrates.” 4. Response to stimuli – Collins English Dictionary defines a “stimulus” as “any drug, agent, electrical impulse, or other factor able to cause a response in an organism.” Experiments have shown that zygotes are responsive to such factors. For example, a 2005 paper in the journal Human Reproduction Update notes that a compound called platelet-activating factor “acts upon the zygote” by stimulating “metabolism,” “cell-cycle progression,” and “viability.” “The zygote and early embryo are living human organisms.” Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology Life begins at conception. So, in a Utopian society following the morality of the western world I would prefer that no abortion ever occur. We don't live in a Utopian society though. Contraception can fail, rapes do occur, women's lives can be endangered during pregnancy. Given that these things do happen, I believe that all first trimester abortions should be allowed and the only abortions that would be allowed after the first trimester would be ones where the woman's life is at risk. I also think contraception should be widely available to all men and women so that unwanted pregnancies can be more easily avoided. I am strongly against the idea of a woman needing to prove that she was raped in order to get an abortion, that's a very traumatic experience and I will not fault a woman for not immediately getting a rape kit after she's been raped. It's just much more reasonable to allow all first trimester abortions. It's particularly in the second and third trimesters anyway where the fetus/child/baby can really feel pain and the process becomes quite grotesque.

Rape is one of the most serious crimes and at the same time one of the most difficult crimes to prove. It's incredibly psychologically damaging and that makes it difficult for victims to come forward to the police right away, which would provide them their best chance to prosecute the guilty party(ies). From my understanding, rape occurs far more often than false rape allegations do. Rapes often go unreported because they are difficult to prove, victims are shamed by their peers and in the end it means reliving that painful experience often without reaching a conviction. Rape is a serious problem. Is this the best solution? I really don't know. Some people will get hurt by a change like this, but what about the potential for this to empower many actual rape victims to come forward knowing that at least some measure of justice can be served? I get it, seeing people wrongfully accused of a crime is heartbreaking to me, but you have to protect rape victims too somehow. I'm not sure there is a clean solution to this problem.

As Kab21 said, results matter when you look at the success of the farm system as a whole. If you're focusing on one or two individual prospects, you're probably not going to be very pleased. Pitching prospects are incredibly volatile, but we need them. The best way to develop some strong arms out of your farm system is to load your farm system with them. Plenty will fail, and some will succeed. If even one or two of them pan out to be a #1 or #2 starter, that is a huge success. Meyer was never a sure thing, in fact you're not going to find a sure thing pitching prospect. It's all about having the tools to potentially be a #1 or #2 starter. Meyer has those but he's a bit behind in the development in some respects and that's just the reality of baseball. From what I remember he had two strong pitches, and was developing a third, the changeup. That sounds like most every pitching prospect I can think of, I guess his third pitch just isn't coming along as quickly as they'd hoped.

I hear ya, and I don't mean to call your family members liars or anything it could have in the very least felt very real to them. Our subjective experiences are truly everything to us. The issue is just that this information isn't falsifiable since we don't have any evidence of this outside of the testimony of a few people. It also tends to violate Occam's Razor so there's naturally going to be a lot of skepticism. Carl Sagan would say that the more grand a claim was, the better the evidence needed to be to satisfy that claim.

The logical answer is that the hired hand wanted to sneak a quick peak and then went down stairs. You say that she looked to see anyone there, without knowing the specifics of how far the door opened, if it was possible for someone to hide behind the door in some way when she was looking etc. it's hard to judge the validity of such a thing. Just judging from what you've said, that sounds completely possible for a human being to recreate that incident. I think even atheists can fall victim to those circumstances where things can feel very real to them.

The natural world is filled with so many things we do not understand, and are very interesting all on their own! Like the discovery that everything in our galaxy is influenced by a supermassive black hole in its center, and that every known galaxy has a massive black hole in its center.

True Detective was a very entertaining, but flawed storytelling. As others have said, it started out really strong with interesting characters, great acting and layers and layers of plot. The problem is, the more layers of plot that you pile on, the more important it is to get the ending right. They failed to address many of the elements in their story that pulled me in, in the first place. Then, to have the creator of the show deny some of these elements entirely, was a slap in the face.

Fights break out in football and basketball because of trash talking. That's probably the closest example. It's not against the rules to trash talk, but people still get offended and can react. Anyway, it's not an apples to apples comparison. In basketball and football there's a lot of contact with your opponents. A lot of opportunities to get away with small things like holding, shoving what have you that are against the rules that the refs don't always see. It's generally not the same in baseball. I never advocate throwing a pitch at someone's head, sticking one in the lower part of their back if they've done something really offensive though, I don't necessarily disagree with.

He struck out 172 times in 411 ABs. Sano has some issues with contact but Gallo's are much worse. He probably has more power than Sano actually, but his bat control is suspect.

80 grade power is definitely rare. Though, it's not as rare as other tools being a legit 80. An 80 hit tool is something I don't remember seeing put on anyone in recent years. Or an 80 changeup, that's extremely rare in the minors. Guys with 80 grade power in recent years: Miguel Sano Javier Bias (not sure its consensus but seems to be thrown around a lot) Joey Gallo (may never make the majors) Bryce Harper Mike Stanton

Yes, that's it but it's a very big "it". The hit tool is the most transferable skill in baseball so you can't take it lightly when a guy like Sano, with all of the things he does really well struggles to make contact consistently in AA. No one questions the power. But they do question, how usable it will be based on the hit tool. He's still ranked in the top 15, I'd have ranked him in the top 10 but it's not a big deal.

Yeah, he's probably the best "true" shortstop prospect in terms of being a no doubter to stick to the position, though I think most every scout would put his glove behind Jose Iglesias and almost certainly behind Simmons. Lindor has a solid bat, he'll get a lot of hits but he has very little power. IDK, I'd probably rank him a few spots lower but not much.

I'm actually impressed that Miguel ended the season with a .230 batting average. It was hovering around .100 for about the first two weeks.

Sano's "low" ranking would probably have to do with some of the contact struggles he had in AA. It's a legitimate concern, because it will make or break his career. I also think Parks overvalues Lindor here, and probably a few of the pitching prospects. Most lists will have Sano either in the top 5 or top 10.

So the guy who lead baseball in OPS 10 times was doing it wrong? Ted Williams could have sold out for more home runs at a net loss to his offensive production, no question but he was a smarter hitter than that. As far as Ichiro goes, I've heard he can light it up in batting practice but I haven't really seen any of it so I don't know. But clearly there is a disconnect somewhere with Ichiro, I don't think he deliberately decided to not hit any home runs.

I think it has just as much to do with his failing to hit very well in AA and there are doubts about him sticking at 2B.

Huh? Mays certainly wasn't better from 20-22 I'm not sure how you could even argue that. Mickey Mantle is closer, he did lead the league in OPS his 20 year season but if you go by MVP voting, Trout finished second twice, and Mantle finished third and then 22nd. Trout had a fairly significant OPS advantage both seasons, but that's difficult to compare across such different eras. An argument could be made that Mantle was the most deserving of the MVP in his 20 year old season, but there's a lot of people who think Trout was the most deserving of the MVP year the past two seasons, you can count myself among them.

Stewart has the potential to be a #1 starter. He's a long ways from ready, but the talent is undeniable.

Never particularly liked Mayo compared to the others guys in the business. A number of the amatuer scouts have said they didn't like Franco's swing mechanics when they saw him.