Two-Gun Pete

Got a link that specifically references the timeline in the bolded? I'd read that there was a declination in efficacy over time, but I hadn't read anything that specifies a timeline to that end. Thanks in advance.

See, it isn't "just" fat, stoopid southerners from shithole red states, it can also be fat, stoopud northerners from blue states as well: Fat, anti-mask, anti vax politician on a ventilator I'm REAALLY trying to not derive schadenfreude from this, since he and others were anti mask/anti vax. Rather, I will hope for his recovery, and the well-being of all stricken by this.

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted here: The commies at Forbes talk about student loan forgiveness And here's another one: Educators getting into piles of debt

Going into the TDL, this club needed a RH setup guy, not a closer. So what did those morons do? They bought a closer. If this is true, then it was stoopid to zero in on a closer who can't pitch in any other role as your RH setup man at the TDL. I agreed that it was good to get someone who had some closing experience. But I also preferred someone who wasn't so mentally weak that he couldn't get the setup job done. I had hoped for the cheaper to acquire Yimi Garcia, who ended up in Houston. That said, here's hoping that this org didn't stoopidly overpay/buy high on a guy who can't get it done anymore. Here's hoping he can unfuck himself sooner, rather than later.

I just got done looking at the same thing. Thats odd. Now, as it pertains to the subject of this thread, I'm not about to call Vaughn's defense as "good," or "above average," just yet. I'd definitely call it "cromulent," and be satisfied that he's shown adaptability, versatility, and the ability to learn. He may yet become "above average" at some point, one might hope.

See, thats interesting. That would infer that the formulai for DRS & UZR are either flawed/outdated, or that most teams treat LF as a permanently-platooned role in a team. That a guy is "negative" by a metric that attempts to define players' defense relative to an "average" player's defense, but is above-average compared to his peers is telling. And, in no way is this to impugn Vaughn by any means. Rather, we'd have to figure out why most teams have LFers who are net negatives at defense nowadays. Maybe MLB teams see LF as a "second DH" by the way defense is valued there?

Not that defensive stats have any context until you have a few years' data, but where are you seeing "above average?" He's negative in both UZR and DRS at LF. He's also negative in both UZR and DRS at 1B as well: Vaughn on FG

All this shit started BEFORE the pandemic. This club had BOTH Puyol and Pique as centre halves. They still haven't replaced Puyol, and have allowed Pique to grow old without a proper partner or successor. In the MF, once upon a time, there were Xavier and Iniesta pulling the strings. These two made Fabregas redundant! And still, we're still waiting for this club to have done anything to properly replace them. Up front, they squandered the Neymar haul on a lazy Dembele, an unnecessary Griezman, and a misfit Coutinho; the latter of which never had a role in a club that already featured Messi. Bad and dumb front office decisions are familiar to most SOX fans. While the pandemic hurt La Liga, it was a decade of horrific mismanagement that led to this point for Barcelona. Messi should have been a one club man, full stop. But Bartomeu crapped his pants on this. Not exactly. Messi's goal haul would be more akin to the total runs scored over the course of the history of the SOX, not the HRs hit. The other difference is that Barcelona are regularly successful, akin to the Yankees, and Messi was more important to Barcelona than Ruth was to the Yankees. Other than that, youd be close.

And this is kinda where I was at the TDL as well. I thought it necessary to add a high leverage RP/someone with closing experience to backup Hendriks. However, I would have preferred a lower cost option than Kimbrel; I was actually hoping for Yimi Garcia. The trashstros got him for a AAAA pitcher and a AAA OFer outside their top 30 prospects who will require Rule 5 protection. So, one has to ask, is it better to be +Kimbrel, + Kimbrel's salary/contract, but - Heuer and - Madrigal, or Would it have been better to get Garcia/his contract for say, ReyLo and Adolfo (closest analogue to what the trashstros gave up I can think of right now), but still have Madrigal and Heuer? While I'm happy that the BP was improved by adding Kimbrel, I think I would have preferred to take on Garcia, and still have the other assets as well. We'll have to see.

Actually, ptatc said that he was using College Illinois. And yes, at one time, IL had the prepaid tuition plan, known as "College Illinois," in addition to Bright Start/Bright Directions. The prepaid tuition plan was the one that my previous post was referencing in replying to ptatc's earlier post. Good to hear. That said, it was completely untenable to continue the prepaid tuition plan; most other states have already shitcanned theirs years ago. In effect, they wanted to offer to contract holders "market rates" of return, while avoiding any measure of market risk/volatility, while having the taxpayers guarantee that other kids could go to school, regardless of how the underlying investments performed. If College tuition has increased by an average of ~8% over the past 2 decades, thats pretty much a "market rate" of return, if you're investing in large cap equities. But these prepaid tuition plans don't ever pass on any market losses to the contract holders over the time that they hold the contracts. Instead, the states and their taxpayers eat any losses, while guaranteeing that the tuition will be prepaid. (At an average return of ~8%, based on what tuition costs' inflation rate has been in recent decades.) At the same time, the state was forbidden from investing more aggressively inside these prepaid tuition plans, by rule. So on the one hand, tuition goes up by ~8%, and the plan has to pay that out. But OTOH, College Illinois couldn't ever invest aggressively enough to cover the costs incurred by redemptions. Instead, the taxpayers ate the difference. TLDR: Prepaid tuition plans were a pretty sweet deal for the contract holders. They were pretty much shit for the state of Illinois and for the taxpayers. If you're like ptatc and you've got one of these, don't ever let these go until your kid gets into school.

Good stuff, although I'd add that the state-specific tax benefits are for only certain 529 plans, not ALL of them. At least, in Illinois. 30 or so states have "their own" 529 plans, at least, as it pertains to deriving a state-specific tax benefit. Illinois is one such state. 6 or 7 states allow you to contribute to ANY 529 plan, and get their state tax benefits. And then you have states without any income taxes, so that wouldn't necessarily be reason to get a 529 plan if you lived where there are no state taxes. (Although there are a fuckton more reasons to do one than not, IMO.)

Morningstar on prepaid tuition plans From the article: ..."Take the cautionary tale of Illinois, a state besieged by budget woes. According to College Illinois, the state's prepaid tuition plan, new contracts have not been sold since 2017, and the plan has reached out to Illinois Governor Pritzker's office for emergency funds to help address the plan's unfunded liabilities. The plan reported that as of June 30, 2020, program assets totaled about $588.6 million, corresponding to a 63.4% funded ratio--an amount sufficient to cover payments only through fiscal year 2024." ..."the Illinois' prepaid tuition contracts are not backed by the full faith and credit of the state. (Not that it would be especially reassuring if it was, as Illinois' debt teeters on the verge of a junk rating.) Rather, the College Illinois prepaid tuition plan states it is backed by the moral obligation of the state..."

Whats happening in Barcelona is absolutely shocking. For the uninitiated, FC Barcelona are a soccer club that's been around for 120 or so years. And they're huge. Their valuation is routinely among the top 3-4 sports organizations in the world, up there with the Yankees and the Cowboys. Despite all of that, through years of horrific and moronic mismanagement, Leo Messi will have to leave their club. To put it into perspective, Messi has played in 1/3 of this club's trophies haul. 1/3rd, of a club thats been around for 120 years. Messi has scored, or assisted on one out of every 11 goals scored by this club in the entirety of its existence. 1 out of 11. Un-fucking real. And yet, its all over. This is truly astounding, and a fucking tragedy. Never ever give stupid front offices a break. As a fan, don't ever let up on front office types.

Haven't we seen this movie before? I mean, isn't Cease a bit of a bumslayer? And isn't he a bit shit against the good teams? Sure, he looked good. But grade on a curve: he wasn't exactly facing the best in the business.

The other thing that hurts the US Mens is that by not having Gold Cup in other countries, the US loses that aspect of preparation that comes with playing IMPORTANT away games. Constantly playing important games at home makes the players mentally weak, and I believe that that had a part in last WC qualifying failures. I dont give a fuck about the facilities, because as a fan, I'm not going to travel for GOLD cup, but I would for the WC. So yes, have it in Mexico and Canada. But also, Costa Rica and Honduras can jointly host as well. Or a Caribbean based gold cup, held quadrenally would be interesting. But a constant home setting, just to pump up as much cash as possible for CONCACAF is stoopud. Having it every 2 years is stoopud. And worrying about the US sending their B Team is a waste of time, when WC qualifying is roughly a trillion times more important to the program than the CONCACAF cash grab.

And yet, gold cup is held every two years, and every time in the US. Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner lined their pockets, in part by reformatting the CONCACAF championship to the gold cup, and holding it every time in the US, and every 2 years. By contrast, the euros are every 4 years, and the hosts rotate. If UEFA ran the Euros the same way as CONCACAF runs the gold cup, they'd have it every 2 years in the UK. Copa America is generally every 2 years, but they rotate hosting. Same with the CAF Cup of Nations. Having the federation cups biannually dilutes the quality of the competition. Some years, you'll have sides that won't bother to send their A team. (Such as the US, as we're going into WC qualifying.) Other years, the top players will ditch a Confederation cup, because they've come off a long season with their clubs. On balance, having it every 2 years, AND having it in the nation that can make the most cash for CONCACAF makes it a cash grab. Wasting your time watching a cash grab only reinforces CONCACAF's poor behavior, IMO.

The CONCACAF CASH GRAB Gold Cup usually invites one side from outside CONCACAF. However, since The Euros and Copa America are on this year, none of the interesting sides were available. Im guessing that FIFA kinda-sorta "forced" USSF to invite Qatar, given the pile of controversy surrounding the 2022 WC. Again, who gives a flying fuck? Why does anyone give a shit about the CONCACAF CASH GRAB gold cup? Especially in a WC qualifying year? Especially after the US shit their pants and missed out on the last WC? The Gold Cup is responsible for putting away a lot of corrupt FIFA officials for their graft. Its a non-competitive tournament that is ALWAYS hosted by the US, so as to maximize profit. It is a polished turd in the world of soccer. The World Cup is the prize, and should be the sole aim of USSF. If you want to squander time watching the gold cup final, focus on finding the player or two who should be worthy of supplementing the Europe-based players.

At this point, I think we're done. However, I'd like Ian Kennedy for the pen/spot starter. Does Adolfo or Rutherford get this done?

Meh, he's just a guy. But at the right price, I'd take a flier on him. He can't be worse than whats here already.

To add on to this, RF requires a stronger throwing arm than LF or CF. Similarly, 3B requires a stronger throwing arm than 1B. So, if a big hitter/mediocre fielder lacks a strong throwing arm, in the OF he'll more likely be put into LF rather than RF; if an IFer, he'll be put at 1st rather than 3rd. Also, in general, for RF and 3B, defense is more important than at LF or 1B (though NOT as important in the centre of the field, such as at CF, SS, 2B, or C). As an aside, congrats to 3 lions for how well you've done in the Euros.

This actually makes some sense for Seattle. They're only 1GB of the WC right now, and they do have a need for an IFer. Maybe this is why Escobar isn't already here?

Link from Twitter Found this on another board; I've never bothered to learn how to imbed tweets over here. Its the Twitter thread from where I saw the WSJ article. Its an interesting read. It gets more into the sources of the student debt crisis moreso whether or not there will be student debt forgiveness.

WJS Article on Student Debt Here's that liberal rag, the Wall Street Journal, on student debt. Its a good read, and gets into how the schools, the government, and lenders convinced themselves that allowing student debt to pile up was a good idea. It also gets into how guaranteeing student loans, without considering an ability to repay, contributed to the debt crisis. It also speaks to the inefficiency of colleges (as businesses) as well. So yeah, Marx would smile, since the WSJ is so liberal.

I'll grant you that Schwarber is an interesting thought. But, from where I sit, buying 2 bats is an extravagance. OTOH, buying 2 RPs just might be an absolute need. Looking at this bullpen, it looks like it has one dominant RP in Kopech, a great closer in Hendriks, and then a disgusting pile of puke that can't fucking find the fucking strike zone with a road map. By contrast, we can at least squint, and see Eloy/Robert/Grandal coming to the rescue of a struggling offense. But this pitching staff has got a strike-throwing allergy, and Katz has gotta come up with something other than "use sticky stuff to get a better grip."

Yeah, I'm not buying this. Great teams beat good ones. Great teams execute their pitches. Great teams get hits when their teams need them. Great teams make the plays when they need to be made. Missing the fucking plate with your foot is little leaguer shit. Bitching about the umps when the other team is royally kicking your ass is weak sauce. Wanna win? Make the fucking plays. Tag the plate. Don't fucking walk the yard. Get hits. Stop giving up homers every fucking game. Stop bitching at the umps. Stop letting good teams beat you. Then there won't be any "Murphy's Law," or whatever other excuse we can gin up.