Jake

Is signing PK, Abreu, and Tanaka plus trading for Avi Garcia, Adam Eaton, and Matt Davidson enough to get an early season attendance boost?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 01:03 PM) Why are we naming winter storms now? To make The Weather Channel money

Outing her to the business partner was certainly the worst part -- luckily, we think (and I emphasize the uncertainty in this) that he seemed to have taken that information in stride. On the other hand, I almost feel that this is the most forgivable part. This was, like much of it, a person with good intentions doing something dumb out of ignorance. I can understand how Hannan didn't realize that he needed to out her lies to this businessperson without outing her transgender status. The more I think about it, the more I believe he could have convinced that guy that she was a fraud and that her name had been changed without making it clear that the former name was a male name. Much of the rest happens in the same vein, but was largely preventable. Many of the contentious points in the article, while plausibly benign and presumably of benign intention, were not presented in a manner that befits contentious points. The article that went to print, ultimately, was careless. The gendered pronouns late in the article were not horrible -- Hannan never referred to Essay Vanderbilt as "he" -- but he could have simply added a footnote or parenthetical comment that he isn't sure if Essay would have felt referring to her previous identity as "he" was appropriate. This is another case of editorial failure, as well, since one would hope these details would be picked up by an editor. The AP style book has recommendations on this. When the chills go up his spine, he could easily have made it clear that they weren't chills because "ew, it's not a girl!" but because this was the moment he realized Essay was a fraud. Instead, it is ambiguous. Why the hell didn't an editor do something about this? It would have been quite simple to clarify what exactly the significance of that moment was. Overall, it is a very good thing that this article has triggered a productive conversation about trans issues among a demographic that doesn't normally entertain these things. Trans people are quite clearly invisible, as we see in the article, but the article has in effect made their issues visible. This isn't without negative effects, obviously, since Essay's dignity indubitably suffered posthumously and possibly, the prying drove her more quickly to her death. Many people will fortify transphobic positions. Many others, who have not ever thought about these things, will now think about them. Caleb Hannan never realized the significance of outing someone. Now all of us do. I think all of us now would be much more judicious with that kind of knowledge and that's a good thing.

I recall one of our insiders suggesting that $20M/year was our upper limit

If Dayan posts a 107 wRC+, he'll be here for a while. That would be a logical step given how competitive he was against RHP last year, especially down the stretch. He was actually worse against LHP than RHP last year, whereas he had been absolutely otherworldly against lefties in the past.

FACE

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 08:17 AM) so what would it be? either an automatic one point or a two point try? like NFL Blitz on N64

Sources tell me that he has just tried Portillo's. He loves it and wants to sign with the Sox, but will weigh 300 pounds before ST begins

"still in the mix" means "they aren't telling me s*** beyond 'he didn't tell us to f*** off and we won't be telling our little minions like you more than that'"

Given the luxury tax issues the two big-money teams involved have, plus the debt the Ricketts people have, I don't see why the Sox can't be the team with the most money to swing around. Are we willing to do so? Who knows

LA has some obvious appeal to any person, and could easily have even greater appeal to someone like Masahiro. AFAIK, LA is the best baseball market for a person that hopes to run into people that speak Japanese to play in. Maybe it doesn't matter to him. Maybe it doesn't matter enough that there are other things ($$$?) that are more important

QUOTE (dayan024 @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 04:46 PM) Dodgers Nation ‏@DodgersNation 50s Wayne Graczyk of the Japan Times says on @MLBNetworkRadio he doesn't think Tanaka will necessarily take the highest bid. Makes sense - what's a few million to gamble for the right fit? Plus there are things like taxes to consider from location to location. And, of course, you may be taking the "smaller" offer if you take a huge 4 year deal over 7, or a deal with incentives/opt-outs/etc, but be doing so with the belief that taking it earns you more money.

I immediately take seriously any reporting that mentions the Sox, lol

Richard Sherman used PEDs - he claimed it was adderall, but the NFL drug policy prevents the NFL from specifying the offending substance, triggering every player to say they used adderall since it doesn't strike people like steroids do. The NFL can't correct them

QUOTE (dayan024 @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 04:37 PM) Chris Cotillo ‏@ChrisCotillo 2m Asked 2 agents where they think Tanaka will go. 1) Yankees, Cubs or Dodgers. 2) Yankees, Dodgers or Blue Jays. #speculation I like it when he says (as close as possible) who the source is and emphasizes that it is based on, well, nothing. This is the kind of thing that doesn't stir people into a frenzy

As someone earning a PhD in communication, I can tell you that Stanford is arguably the best such department around. Of course, I can also tell you that D1 football players can pretty much get their work done for them if they are willing to be proactive about it and do a little bit themselves. Schools like Stanford and pretty much all research schools are known for grade inflation too, FWIW

I really like Russell Wilson, but Seattle is so difficult to root for with assholes and cheaters like Carroll and Sherman everywhere

There has long been a story that Bonds decided to dope when he saw the limelight being taken from him by the McGwire and Sosa freakshow

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 19, 2014 -> 12:34 PM) All this said, I said the same think about Boston this past year. Boston always had a really good-looking rotation. IMO, the Yankees are so porous in the pitching staff that the whole thing can blow up in their face. Boston's questions were in their lineup. They were a more 2005 White Sox-like team that had a pitching staff that was predictably good but a lineup that needed some surprise performances.

I'm not convinced the Yankees are in a position to compete this year. I suppose. I wouldn't be placing my bets for them to be in the playoffs,though it isn't outside the realm of possibility

I like how the Sox are the only team not leaking anything

I'm not even sure what I'd think about this. Not so much the money, but holy hell you would have a team who has a fathomable W anywhere from 60 to 100. Who knows what they'd be capable of. A buttload of talent and almost no certainty

I think our scouts had agreed with the early scouting consensus that Teague was a Top 15 guy and we just didn't do a lot of work on him. When he was still there at 30, we knew we weren't getting a guy we had scouted much, but we assumed was an absolute steal

Stephen Krol didn't earn the degrees. Dr. V didn't earn the degrees. The legal record shows when Stephen Krol changed her name to Essay Vanderbilt. His research places Stephen Krol in various unremarkable places at times when Dr. V claims she was in D.C., among other places. In the end, Hannan concedes that there is unfortunately a great deal he doesn't know. While there are good reasons to doubt the Oracle product and much of anything with which Dr. V promoted herself, he can't be sure. He says that some third parties seem to think the physics argument is a good one. If non-physicists could have made all the clubs to date, it isn't insane to say a non-physicist made another good one. One of the most interesting thing the story does, in my opinion, is show that trans people are out there. You may not realize they are right in front of you. However, their insecurity due to society's inability to expect or understand them makes them want to recede into the shadows. It's not insane to interpret this article to be more of that transphobia, but I'm not incredibly convinced by those arguments right now.

I feel like if she had earned the degrees and such when she was living as a man, none of those details would have ever emerged. None of the story would have made sense if the reporter didn't "reveal" the name/gender change and sharing this information early on would have completely altered the story, as it was being told -- a largely chronological account of his research on Yar Golf. Had he know she was transgendered from the beginning, it is quite likely IMO that he would not have done the digging on her credentials in the first place. He would have simply assumed she had earned those credentials under a different name. While we will never really know, it seems her gender identity was a significant explanatory part of her mental/emotional demise. Living most of her early life as a lie, which is how she would have felt as a man, could easily have led to a lifelong struggle with a fluid identity. She probably felt like Dr. V is the kind of person she could have been if only she had been able to have been born into the right body. Having yet another disappointment, the reaffirmation that she was not Dr. V, could have been too much. Maybe it was mostly unrelated. Who knows. FWIW, I was not surprised at all that Dr. V was "revealed" to be a biological man as I was reading the article. We have a super-secretive person who claims to have been deeply embedded into the military, also be a Vanderbilt, was writing unintelligible gobbledygook in email correspondence, is 6'3" with a deep voice ... let's not act like it was completely outside the realm of possibility until the reporter said so outright.