NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 02:33 PM) Well, Obama's trying. What is Obama doing to change how districting is done?

QUOTE (brett05 @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 02:17 PM) bottom line is gerrymandering is how moth sides stay in power. It's bad for America. Totally agree there. But it's going to be really hard to change.

Also of note for the 2018 Midterms - control of the US house, and control of the state houses, means control over districting (gerrymandering - which both parties do all the time) in 2020. That's a big deal, because the biggest reason the US house has remained so red in the last decade is the 2010 census and redistricting efforts.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 01:48 PM) Its the traditional base of the Democrats. They've been winning those states for literally decades. Best case scenario they took those votes for granted, worst case scenario the coastal elites villanized them as part of the great virtue signalling fad of the last 4 or 5 years. Either way, they aren't part of the base anymore and will probably have to be won back. Not a hill the democrats should want to climb. It's an area in some swing. It was swinging more blue for a decade, now more red. Shifts happen. As more of the blue collar population in the rust belt moves right, more of the mountain west and southwest states are swinging more blue. They are certainly both trends. Trump's complete incompetence thus far already has him shedding support though, and that's a wild card that goes beyond the broader trends. That plus the history of Congressional elections after new Presidents are elected swinging opposite almost every time, means Trump is the one with the tough hill to climb in the short term. In the long term, the electoral map is shifting in a few different ways.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 01:19 PM) Democrats are going to be too busy telling each other how great they are and taking selfies at protests to bother asking people in the rust belt for their votes. They're gonna get rolled again and ask themselves how on earth it could have happened. "Trump was so evil, didn't you see us on TV and social media telling you so?" There was a moment of clarity for about 48 hours after the result of the election dropped where everyone seemed to understand that the identity politics and political correctness of the left alienated the traditional bedrock of their party. Now were back at it again, having a level 10 freakout over Trump resurrecting Obama's old policies. Protesting on the streets of cities like Seattle, the poster child for "I like people who aren't white to be on my TV, not in my neighborhood", accomplishes nothing. In a way it helps Trump, because nothing grinds the gears of the working poor more than bougie liberals LARPing as activists while ignoring issues that have been brooding in the belly of this country since the 70's. Um... 1. Obama won handily across the Rust Belt - twice. It wasn't a Dem failure, it was a Hillary Clinton failure, combined with a very unusual GOP candidate. It's the definition of a non-repeating event. 2. Obama never enacted a policy even remotely like this. There is nothing based in fact about your claim. He issued a statement urging US citizens to not visiting a certain list of countries, while in the throes of the Arab Spring. That is nothing like banning people FROM those countries from coming to the US. Or, if you are referring to the Iraq order, that was one country (not seven), and made no reference to religion (which is a key issue here), and also did not apply to legal residents but instead NEW applications for entry.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 01:26 PM) MLBTR says he required TJS for a torn UCL. Poor guy is right. Yeah I see now the Rays beat writer tweeted it. Torn UCL the day he was claimed? And he was injured in his debut game in MLB? Ouch. Sucks for Jason.

QUOTE (Sleepy Harold @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 01:09 PM) #Rays released Coats because he tore UCL (the day he was claimed) and needs Tommy John surgery. #WhiteSox and this is why Source?

Why is that post that was quoted, deleted? Did he actually tear his UCL? Any source on that? An outright release would certainly be very strange. DFA would make sense, but release would mean an APAC team (as someone mentioned) or an injury (as Sleepy Harold mentioned but then didn't?).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 11:44 AM) The midterm election is 2018 is going to be one of the most important in a long time for this country. Totally agree there.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 30, 2017 -> 11:09 AM) Cool, vote against it, they are still going to all be confirmed. And I have to be honest, I think most of them should be. Confirmation process isn't about whether the Senate likes them or not. The President should have wide latitude to nominate people and have them confirmed. The key is, if they are just complete disasters. So for people like DeVos (who is laughably unqualified) and Tillerson (who is unqualified AND has huge conflicts of interest), I'm all about blocking them. But many others, not so much.

We got video interviews with a number of folks. The interviews with Zack Collins, Lucas Giolito, Zack Burdi and Matt Davidson are now up on our YouTube channel. You can get to know these guys up close and a little more personal than a transcript. Interviews with Rick Hahn and Chris Getz are coming soon.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 28, 2017 -> 07:46 PM) Ditto goes for the Congresspeople but they're just confirming my opinion at this point. Not sure if this refers to me, as I've voted more R's than D's over the years, but... pretty sure you and I are friends on FB, and you are welcome to see what I said there in the past few days. This whole thing is abjectly disgusting. Glad a court put a stay on part of it, and hopefully we can slam the rest of it right back up Bannon's ass next week. I am seeing quite a few Republican politicians put words against it. What should happen though, is they legislate it away - something they absolutely have the power to do, if they choose to.

For the third year in a row, FutureSox has a writer credentialed with the press pool for SoxFest. Here's a quick vignette on Day 1, particularly the media session, and the impressions given by the front office. Brian is there again today at sessions and networking with folks. He's interviewed a number of players, prospects and front office and field staff, and those interviews will go up soon.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 27, 2017 -> 09:11 PM) #fakenews UPDATE: Handgate ends. As The Verge and the Washington Post report, the photo ABC broadcast wasn’t the one hung on the White House wall but an inserted still of the Getty image. Further, that still doesn’t have the same warp effect as the one Schwartz initially tweeted. Schwartz has also deleted some of her tweets. Blumpf redeemed. The whole issue was stupid anyway. Much as I detest Trump, the emotional reactions to his presence have brought out some embarrassingly bad stuff from some outlets. There's plenty of good reasons to dig into Trump's already disastrous Presidency, why fall into stupid s*** like the hands thing?

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jan 27, 2017 -> 01:08 PM) How long was Obama President when this was going on and how long has Trump been President with this going on? Blame Obama for not doing something to fix it not Trump It's really not Trump or Obama here anyway. This is Congress, nearly 100%. They can find the money for a wall that locals don't even want to fix a problem that barely exists, but they can't find a small fraction of that for emergency aid from Sandy, or fixing a broken water system. It's priorities for spending, and Congress controls that ultimately.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 27, 2017 -> 09:42 AM) How feasible is the possibility of Fisher returning to his original position of catcher? How hard is it for a catcher to come back from a torn labrum? This quote from Hostetler, shortly after Fisher was drafted, is why I ask: "We were actually debating about where to announce him at catcher, outfielder or first base," Hostetler said. "Probably let him try a little bit of all of them, maybe even catch a little bit." Given his repeating health issues, and that a torn labrum is far worse for an arm than TJS, I'd say the chances of him going back to catcher are very slim. Obviously if I'm wrong and he does go back behind the plate, and if he turns out to be good at it defensively, he'd be a MUCH more highly regarded prospect. With his offensive abilities, if it looked like he could be an average or even slightly below average major league catcher defensively, he's instantly a T100 guy. The fact that they haven't done that, tells you what they think the chances of that happening are.

Thanks everyone for the input so far. Canadian side does sound better for the Falls, and I am not sure we are going to spend a ton of time there anyway, maybe a half day. Acadia NP might be the only thing on our list that is already "must do". Looking like our main spots will be Niagara Falls, Stowe and it's stuff in Vermont, and Acadia / Bar Harbor in Maine. Probably.

FutureSox will have a writer in the press pool for SoxFest again this year - Brian (raBBit). If you're on the Twitter, we will have live tweets and all that good stuff.

Oh man, I missed all the fun with ban hammered! QUOTE (Tony @ Jan 26, 2017 -> 03:01 PM) Thoughts on the new Wall tax? I thought Mexico was going to pay for it. Haha, as if he'd have an answer for that.

Looking like an August road trip to New England this coming summer. My wife and I, and kids aged 8.5 and 5 at that time. Who has any recommendations on things to do, places to stay, etc.? All ideas are helpful! Also we will be stopping to see Niagara Falls on the way to or from, so any recommendations on that are also happily accepted. Go hive mind!

By the way, all the marching and yelling is good, but if you want to get the most bang for your buck, it's three simple things: 1. Get involved in community organzations 2. Vote 3. RUN FOR OFFICE I mean, look at the candidates being run out there. Look at the 2016 Illinois House and Senate races - in half of them, someone ran unopposed. Seriously - in a state that is the massive fiscal disaster that Illinois is, neither party can find enough candidates to run for the f***ing Congressional seats!

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 26, 2017 -> 10:33 AM) any actual legislation requires 60 votes. That's the good news. QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 26, 2017 -> 10:36 AM) Is there any way to veto or reverse an executive order? Do Congress or the Supreme Court have any power against them? The orders seem to override everything we learned about checks and balances as kids. Legislature can override an EO with legislation, but getting things through Congress that would go against a same-party President is unlikely. If the EO is actually illegal (like the whole torture thing for example) or unconstitutional, it can be challenged in court.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 25, 2017 -> 06:11 PM) I think there's a decent chance Victor Diaz starts the year in Kannapolis' rotation. He might. They did that with Robin Leyer too for a bit, very similar profile.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 25, 2017 -> 07:15 PM) JFC So let's see, a guy who is a German citizen and cannot vote...couldn't vote. But ethnic looking people did. JFC. Seriously, those of you who are telling me that I should have hope, that the Congressional Elections in 2018 and the election in 2020 won't be the same debacle...every single thing they do to restrict voting in response to this racist's lies should make you scream in anger because that's what's going to make you wrong. I haven't responded to most of the individual Holy s*** moments of this young Presidency. But I have to say, this story hit me hard. The combination of outright racism, lack of either honesty or memory (or both - scary either way), and the fact that he's driving policy based on 2nd hand anecdotes... somehow this particular vignette delivered it a little stronger. None are a surprise - just this was a striking illustration.

Here it is. 9 of the 30, and 6 of the top 10, are new to the system since our last list in July/August. The depth is better than it's been in over a decade. What are your thoughts here? Who should be higher or lower in your view?