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H. Right now, you’re outnumbered by more than 2 to 1 in that viewpoint. While it’s certainly possible the administration will do everything in its power to force as many back to work and off unemployment rolls, there’s simply no path back to profitability for some or even many of the major industries noted in your “treatise.” Part of the problem was signing off on a compensation system that provides many workers significantly more than they were making previously...for at least four months. Why would you realistically expect them to feel incentivized to go back to work after reading stories like the South Korean nightclub or about 1/3rd the Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo contracting the virus. When we burn through our essential workers and burn out most of our doctors and nurses, what happens then? But this is precisely what the administration wants...for everyone just to collectively throw their hands up in the air and agree with your point H. Why the hell not? What do we really know, after all this time? What’s to lose? How much worse can things actually get? They’ve pretty much given up on testing...and actually following guidelines that THEY created. To quote Reagan, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." Hmmm... The truly sad aspect is that hundreds of thousands will die when 90% of all this could have been prevented with a serious, coordinated and timely response (see Germany) in February or even early March. It should be noted, perhaps unsurprisingly, that Angela Merkel’s background is in science, not branding. So let’s just put it this way. Imagine it’s December 7th, 1941...can anyone imagine FDR informing 48 state governors that they were each responsible individually for coordinating the response with their respective state militias? We keep hearing this is a war...we’re on wartime footing, but it’s morphed into a political, economic and cultural war more-so than a health care battle. We can’t wish or hope it away, we have to science the hell out of it. Which is precisely when any chance at “winning” was lost to the virus, which doesn't discriminate and takes no side, besides looking for hosts to either kill or incubate inside of before multiplying/reproducing. Greg, I guess you are in your 30’s or more likely 40’s. They talk about the kids from the 80’s being the ME Generation. Remember that? There was a point in American history where more people were willing to put the good of the American people ahead of their own self-interests. “To ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” a quaint notion now seemingly dead and buried. Maybe the greatest, most enduring lesson from this whole situation will be the tremendous cost of refusing to work together, whether it’s with our neighbors, neighboring states or even our neighbors in the global community. If we continue to see every situation as “us vs. them,” we will never overcome the problem...because too many will look around, see others not following the rules and decide the risk is worth it. It’s a classic economics concept called opportunity cost. China and authoritarian states take that choice away from the people...believing they know best how to keep people safe. There’s certainly a consequence when people don’t or aren’t allowed to think for themselves. We saw it here in Wuhan with the poor initial response from local leaders. But how can we argue that our freedom-oriented system is any better when we’re constantly presented with these choices...yet we keep choosing to hurt others due to our wants outweighing the obvious needs of others? And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.”

I don't blame you for being skeptical, but this stuff about fake news gets old. People like Trump hide behind that when they won't take any responsibility for anything they do. And it doesn't do any good for yell "fake news" just because something makes you feel uncomfortable. And as a journalist, I have made mistakes, but I haven't made things up. Several things are for real: Tens of thousands of people have died, and the dying isn't over. And merely opening up will not change that. Not wearing a mask won't change it, either. This crisis is far from over. In my book, here are the main sources of fake news: Trump, Fox News, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, and many who complain about fake news the most. And unfortunately, there are many sick Nazi types in this society. What we need in a democratic society likes ours is a healthy debate. Chanting slogans doesn't help us decide what is real and what isn't. And this pandemic is real, very real.

I'd break it up into tiers. It's going to be college heavy at the top. Spencer Torkelson, Austin Martin, Asa Lacy, Nick Gonzales and Emerson Hancock are the likely top 5. Zac Veen is the top HS OF in the class. Max Meyer is the RHP from Minnesota and Reid Detmers the southpaw from Louisville. So those guys are probably all gone but you never know. College outfielders Garrett Mitchell and Heston Kjerstad, prep righties Jared Kelley and Mick Abel and prep hitters Robert Hassel, Austin Hendrick and Ed Howard seem to be the options along with Garrett Crochet and Cade Cavalli.

We only have the best administrators at Soxtalk.

i would like the administration here at soxtalk to start gaslighting us as well "the boards were down for an hour" "no, they weren't" -- "i don't trust the sox pitching, they are awful" "of all the people pitching for the sox, they are turning in the best performance" -- "greg keeps talking in the third person" "we are fairly sure that he is freely intermixing stories of another friend named greg"

Sun Times reports ownership and Paxson want to keep Boylen but the new regime wants him out. AK has the final say, though. Sickening that it’s even being reported.

Never forget

One theoretical advantage the Sox would have drafting Crochet vs. Fulmer is that there is a good chance they would be able to still trade Crochet for excellent value 1 year after drafting him. With Fulmer, the Sox basically had to have him develop because of how his timeline coincided with the Sox rebuild. With Crochet, the Sox would have the benefit of scouting him internally for a year or so and then turning him around in a deal if they don't like what they see enough to keep him. While the high school pitchers can be more tantalizing, I do think the college pitching route not only makes more sense because of the Sox timeline and the virus, but also, I like how it would kind of encourage the team to make a quick decision and either push him toward the big leagues or sell before he loses too much value.

Guys - in addition to social distancing, can we practice an economy of words when posting?

Sure they can be wrong and 15% is not nothing but not sure it is good to hope for the outlier. At 11 you need some risk if you want upside, that is not like a top5 pick but I'd want At least like a 50% chance to start. Sure he could be sale but more likely he is fulmer or if it is not quite as bad a good reliever. Now if he becomes a top5 closer that is a good result for a 11th pick but it could also be worse so I would prefer a safer starter floor.

Reiterating that Caulfield has been A+ in this thread

I'll say that the longer I'm around here, the more I appreciate long timers like you and fathom. fathom might complain a touch, but I also think he's one of the smartest baseball minds on the board. I love the diversity of content and thought you bring, even if its a tad scatter brained at times. The information you have brought here from the pandemic that has started in China has given us a pretty unique look at everything.

You Can’t Grab an Economy by the P#$&y, sorry! “When you see a virus like this one that does not respect county boundaries, this started out predominantly in Madison and Milwaukee; then we just had this outbreak in Brown County very recently in the meatpacking plants,” Roth explained. “The cases in Brown County in a span of two weeks surged over tenfold, from 60 to almost 800—” “Due to the meatpacking, though, that’s where Brown County got the flare,” WI Chief Justice Patience Roggensack interrupted to clarify. “It wasn’t just the regular folks in Brown County.” Perhaps Roggensack did not mean that the largely Latino workers in Brown County’s meatpacking plants—who have told reporters that they have been forced to work in proximity with one another, often without masks or hand sanitizer, and without being notified that their colleagues are infected—are not “regular folks” like the other residents of the state. Perhaps she merely meant that their line of work puts them at greater risk, and so the outbreaks in the meatpacking plants, seen as essential to the nation’s food supply, are not rationally related to the governor’s stay-at-home order, from which they would be exempt. Yet either way, Roggensack was drawing a line between “regular folks” and the workers who keep them fed, mobile, safe, and connected. And America’s leaders have treated those workers as largely expendable, praising their valor while disregarding their safety. ..... Although the full picture remains unclear, researchers have found that majority-black counties “account for more than half of coronavirus cases and nearly 60 percent of deaths.” The disproportionate burden that black and Latino Americans are bearing is in part a direct result of their overrepresentation in professions where they risk exposure, and of a racial gap in wealth and income that has left them more vulnerable to being laid off. Black and Latino workers are overrepresented among the essential, the unemployed, and the dead. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/ The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying The pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others.

Was just wondering if Trump actually contracted Covid if they would even publicly admit it...? He has been known to disappear for weeks at a time with only twitter blasts.

What are you arguing here? Where have I said Shaq is the best big of all time? Or even a good passing big? I've argued consistently that if you took 2000 Shaq, gave him a guy like 2016 Cavs Kyrie, and surrounded him with shooters, that team would compete for a title. I used the 2000 assist stats to show that Shaq - under the right circumstances - was a willing passer (ie, he'd be willing to pass out of double teams to open shooters). For me, this is less a referendum on Shaq, and instead an argument about whether you can build a contender in 2020 around a dominant big who doesn't shoot threes.