Jake

While I still wouldn't do it nearly so soon, I would think the soonest you see a managerial change is at the end of the upcoming homestand. A long road trip where you miss days of games while locked up in your hotel and then have a bunch of guys get sick probably isn't the time you can make final conclusions about what's going on. And if you thought he had to go before then, you shouldn't have started the season with him.

One thing's for sure. If we want to do another round or two of this rotation with no personnel changes, let's go ahead and demote Danks to 5. No matter what you do, Danks sucks. Noesi hasn't pitched well, but it's hard me to blame him when he's had about 12 days rest in between each outing. Let's go ahead and give the washed up, injured guy the we-don't-give-a-s*** treatment. Makes no sense to jerk around a pitcher who struggles with command like that, especially when it's all for the benefit of a guy who by all appearances is a lost cause and at the least would benefit much more from time off.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 3, 2015 -> 03:14 PM) Worst part is Sox brass think nothing is wrong at all. I think they are concerned with the record and the attendance. They may just not have an action in mind to fix at the drop of a hat. Good front offices tend to react much more slowly than fans, because sometimes fans overreact.

I wonder if Abreu is among the guys who have been sick

QUOTE (fathom @ May 3, 2015 -> 03:11 PM) If they didn't think they would be great, then the Robertson and Duke signings were insane It was just a gamble. If two of Danks, Noesi, and Rodon would be good starters, you'd be killing yourself for not having those bullpen pieces. If you can't manage a good 4-5 out of those guys, you weren't going to do much better than that if you knew it from the beginning.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 3, 2015 -> 03:09 PM) Can't believe Hahn went into this season with such an incompetent 4/5 It made sense to give Noesi another look and you had no choice but to hope something good happened w/ Danks. I'm sure he didn't like the idea of paying market price for starting pitchers in a season where we probably weren't going to be great anyway

We've gotta be close to cutting bait with Danks. I suppose we'd try him out of the pen first, but the end is nigh it seems.

QUOTE (Brian @ May 3, 2015 -> 10:48 AM) How does Torii hunter picking Floyd to win make him condone domestic abuse? It was his follow-up tweet about how what Floyd does out of the ring is none of Torii's business, which begs the question why a potentially gay teammate would bother him so much

QUOTE (Brian @ May 2, 2015 -> 07:43 PM) If he ran as an independent, would he actually get invited to the debates? Nope. Hell, in Ohio, the Democrat couldn't even debate the incumbent governor. There aren't a lot of avenues for access to these things without overwhelming demand.

Welp, that's why they call it institutional racism.

My only beef with Robin is that we're batting Abreu fourth on the false premise that putting more s***ty hitters in front of him will allow him to drive in more runs

Either way, I'm not going to blame the guy for what has happened to him. He may have self-inflicted one injury, but it's not his hand that forced him into retirement.

Also, no probable cause for arrest. Hope she knows what she's doing as I'd been given the impression there was no argument as to whether there was probable cause for the arrest, legally speaking.

One thing about this camera business is that we should be careful what we wish for. There are clearly some things to be gained from body cameras or cameras inside of police vans or jail cells. With that said, I'm not eager to sign away my right not to be videotaped. It is not a big leap to go from "we need cameras around police activity" to "we need cameras anywhere crimes may be committed."

One thing I always think about when you think about BPA is scarcity. You can have the BPA, full stop. Player X will produce this much value, which is more than any other individual player. Or you can have the BPA, considering positional scarcity. So maybe you think Mariota isn't going to be a star, but will be a solid-average QB. You think Leonard Williams will be a star. However, you think there are lots of DL available that will be successful, but maybe only a handful of QBs. Is Mariota the best player available, then? Both scenarios don't factor in the team's needs, just simple facts about which positions have deeper talent pools.

State's attorney finds that the death is a homicide, all 6 officers charged, one officer charged with second degree murder.

I don't think the team looks like one that is playing badly because of its manager. And it isn't really playing that badly, last two games excepted

QUOTE (Condor13 @ Apr 30, 2015 -> 10:10 PM) So he can ride the pine? He'd be our best option at 2B and 3B.

Don't forget re:Marshall trade that there was cash savings involved too, meaning you got FA players in addition to the draft pick

I assume the Bears didn't get rid of Brandon for no reason and were fully aware they unloaded an immensely talented and productive receiver. Marshall aside, White gives the offense something it hasn't had in a while, which is speed.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 30, 2015 -> 10:07 PM) I do question why Hahn made some quick fixes and then seemed to just neglect catcher spot and third base. Oh well, another month of bad playing and Samardzija will be on the trade market. Think OAK will give Semien back?

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 30, 2015 -> 10:05 PM) Doesn't help Eaton is having a horrific season and that Sale, Shark and Q have sucked. It sure doesn't. Like I said, I think we'll see some things even out and we'll play some stretches of exciting baseball.

I think a big issue with expectations vs. reality is that we have a team with below average defenders at all but two positions, but it's hard to wrap your head around that compared to batting averages, etc. The other thing is that there are only two fast players on the team and several plodders. In those "little things" areas of defense and baserunning, you're looking at a near-league-worst team. We have to be really good when it comes to hitting and pitching to overcome that and it doesn't look we have it in us to do that.

It's not a good team and never had much of a chance to be one. We'll make some good runs and finish around .500 unless we just punt at some point, which I doubt we do. We spent a lot of resources on a mediocre LF, solid DH, mid-rotation SP, and elite closer. That doesn't a good team make unless you had a decent club to begin with.

I honestly don't recall the full logic of it, but as I heard it explained they have very little liability - "they" being the police officers - for what happens in that van so long as you can't prove they intentionally created that situation, which seems doubtful unless someone fesses up. It is telling, though, that the commissioner has essentially already said they know that the injuries are the fault of the officers. Legally speaking, it seems like the big question is whether it was malice or negligence.