Two-Gun Pete

Dunno about "satisfied," but I think this sort of offseason is what is likely to occur. I think Bauer and Springer are pipedreams; I think the offseason as you describe, coupled with average team health, average on field management, and a reasonable degree of progress from the extant roster should lead to the postseason in 2021.

The way they admitted new states into the union in the 19th Century was moronic, IMO. The thought process was more about land area, rather than living, breathing citizens that vote. And this is why we have similarly shaped/sized mostly-empty squares out west that have outsized influence. FFS, if Cook County were a state, it would be larger in population than half of the states in the union, IIRC. So, instead of giving California more representation, if it were up to me, I'd merge mostly empty states and states with shitty economies together. Make the Dakotas one state. Put Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming together as one state. Also, put the Federal Dependencies of Mississippi and Alabama together with Georgia. Then, partition Washington DC into its neighboring states, and partition West Virginia into its neighboring states. Admit Puerto Rico and the USVI into the union as one state. I figure the presidential election is really only down to a handful of states, so why not reduce the total number of states? Why have 50, if most of them aren't worth a damn? Why not merge all the low-population states and shithole states together?

Indeed. Thanks for your input.

Yeah, I agree with all of this. While I didn't have a problem with the pick when it happened, I made the moronic assumption that this org did all their homework on a guy who needed ALL of his tangibles and intangibles to be beyond dispute. Did they make this kid do the wonderlic, or did they take a look at him and ASSUME he was "smart?" I'm guessing the latter, as this org has a proclivity to leave things to chance more often than they should. I hope you & I are wrong about this kid, and that his miscues csn be overcome going forward.

Hey, I did congratulate him for finally learning what "cardio" meant. But mostly, I'm embarrassed for a 25 year old who has basically nothing but time to work on his body and access to the best in medicine, training, and fitness, and money to hire a personal trainer or 10, YET he had 25 pounds to lose. I'm also embarrassed for this org, in that they spent the 11th pick, and all that money in signing bonuses, then couldn't figure out a way to make the child accountable to stop shoveling Dominos Pizza down his fat piehole. Here's hoping the child keeps his cardio up, and his hands off the KFC.

I've always questioned Burger's heart, desire, dedication, and work ethic the second I saw how fucking fat he was when he was drafted. I've always wondered why the SOX let him off easy with respect to his workout regimen and nutrition; I've always suspected that his injuries could have been related to a lack of effort on his part in the gym. Congrats to him pulling off 25 pounds, but one has to wonder how/why a 21 year old with high round draft potential had to lose weight in the first place.

So, does anyone know if (credibly accused) Rapist Boston will return to do whatever it is that he does in the coaching staff?

Meh, Madrigal feels like the "subtle racism of lowered expectations," in that he's a small white guy, so OF COURSE he's "baseball smart," "good at defense," and "a grinder," right? I can forgive physical mistakes, given his injuries. But his moronic baserunning bothered me, TBH. If he's here in '21, I hope he gets his shit sorted. If he's traded this offseason, I won't lose too much sleep over it.

Sure, I get that it's "possible" to get a franchise QB later in the draft, but I think we've suffered enough in this town without a competent QB. I'd just rather not take a chance, and I'd also like to give Mack, Smith, and the rest of the defense a chance to win before their careers end.

Oh, I get this. But, this roster, as currently comprised, with THIS coach, and THAT GM will never ever compete for a championship. On the other hand, the defense is TOO GOOD for this team to be able to pick high enough to land the next franchise QB. At the same time, I don't believe that there is/are the right mix of FAs/trades/draftees available to turn this program around fast enough, before Mack, et al get too old. The idea of trading away all the decent players in the roster is NOT to achieve the optimum in trade value. The idea is to break free of being mired in mediocrity. The idea is to get out of the 5-11 to 9-7 blob. Better to get bad enough, NOW, so that this team can hit the reset button. (And before Mack, Goldman, Hicks, Smith, etc get too old and too injured to return anything in trade.) Its been 6 years with Pace. He's failed in his objective to win here. Its time to let him go. Similarly, Nagy, for all his positive traits and his compelling backstory, seems to want to be an OC moreso than a head coach. Let him go, and "be himself" calling plays elsewhere. The window to compete is clearly closed, so why try to prolong the suffering?

Yup. That's why there has to be a fire sale, IMO. The defense [by itself] isn't good enough to win the Super Bowl. OTOH, the defense [by itself] is TOO GOOD to be able to draft the next franchise QB. So, trade away Mack, Hicks, Goldman, Smith, Trevathan, Fuller, Jackson, Johnson, and let Robinson walk this offseason.

For every mistake Pace has made, him later having to paper over his mistakes with subsequent acquisitions takes away from other building that could have been done elsewhere in the roster. You mentioned Trubisky, which is evident. But having to later squander money on Foles means that he had less cap space to spend on the O-Line, or on other needs. Or Floyd failing meant that he later spent on Quin. Or stupidly drafting White meant that he later had to spend on Robinson. Or moronically overdrafting Shaheen meant that he later had to buy the desiccated remains of Jimmy Graham. That said, and while I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your post, IMO, the only cogent questions one has to ask are: 1. Can this roster, as currently comprised, win the Super Bowl? 2. Based on his cavalcade of sucktitude, can THIS GM make the right moves to get this team to the Super Bowl? To me, the answer to both questions is, "no." So, the only option is this offseason, Mack, Smith, Hicks, Goldman, Jackson, Fuller, Quin, Cohen, Whitehair, Foles, and anything else you can think of that has value, should probably be traded for picks. Then, fire everyone in the FO and the overstaffed coaching staff, and re-start. Better to rip off the band-ade NOW and get the rebuild started, than to watch this defense fail in this and future years because the rest of the team sucks. Because it is clear that this team will not win anything as currently made up. Honestly, what's the alternative? Who's gonna be the QB next season? Why let this defense get old and injured, when there's no prayer of this team competing? That's why I favor starting the fire-sale, and firing everyone.

At what point does the fire sale start? It seems apparent that this defense [by itself] cannot win a super bowl. So why not tank, trade everything away, fire everybody from the GM down, and hit the reset button?

So what? They've both sucked out loud, and this org has sucked at developing their young SPs. Why should we believe that Cease, and ONLY Cease will break the established trend of prospect failure?

Cool. And how many of those 28 starts have been good ones? More importantly, has Cease gotten better at baseball, or has he followed Fulmer, Rodon, and Lopez in getting worse at pitching since he's been here? But hey, if you want to give Cease a pass after his shitty performances, and after a cavalcade of failure to develop young SPs, thats up to you.

Yeah, I don't agree with this. I don't know of many TOR SPs that have shitty BB/9IP >5. I dont know of many TOR SPs with BB/9IP even at or above 4. I dont know of many TOR SPs with HR/9IP that are in the same zip code as those that Cease and Lopez have had. Why do posters fall all over themselves to excuse Cease's incompetence? (Posters have rightly criticized Lopez, but why is Cease Teflon on this?) Now, if you'd posted, "Cease and Lopez have the best potential to be COMPETENT SPs," you could have a valid argument. But any pipedreams of those two becoming TOR SPs left with their inabilities to avoid BBs and HRs, IMO.

And which bulb is the sharpest?

You're right. But this is the insidious nature of partisan media, particularly the shit Greg listens to/watches/reads: Its all designed to outrage and scare the mentally weak, rather than actually foster discussion/look at policy. And yes, "fucking" isn't censored here, but it is censored on another site im on. I just get so amped up at the impossibly stoopid shit that Greg listens to/watches/reads, and then parrots here. I feel bad for him, and for what this is doing to his life. Its actively making people like him stoopider.

There's no way a fat asshole who never gets exercise and never eats vegetables is gonna be alive and/or mentally competent in 4 years from now. Trump is definitely going to run some sort of grift over the next few years, and mouthbreathing morons will eat it up. Who cares, in all honesty?

Holy shit. Let me guess: you "read this" on some impossibly stoopid partisan website designed to scare the gullible and the stoopid. Setting aside that the stoopid shit you just posted would never, ever pass, how exactly would a $450k payout pass? For your edification, those assholes in congress couldn't even pass a meager $1200 payout to people that are hurting during this pandemic, yet you stupidly believe that a $450k payout to black people WOULD pass? I'm fvkcing embarrassed for you. Turn off the fvkcing TV, turn off social media (except for soxtalk), buy a fvkcing book/read it, and get some fvkcing exercise. What you've been reading online and watching on TV has been actively making you stoopider.

Ok, no offense, but the scrubs have BETTER depth at SP than the SOX do, full fvkcing stop. Darvish and Hendricks are every bit as good as Giolito and Keuchel. More importantly, Mills and Alzolay are flat-out better at baseball than walkathons Cease and Lopez. Seriously, WTF do posters fall all over themselves to give Cease a break? He fvkcing walks the yard, and gives up HR at a clip that is among the 10 worst in MLB. And Lopez is right there with Cease, in the 10 worst in BB/9 & HR/9. Sorry, but unless the SOX acquire 2 competent SPs this offseason, the SOX will be the team outside the playoffs in 2021, not the scrubs.

Thats too bad. Has he ever thought of stopping his org from making stoopud decisions (apart from Grandal/Keuchel) over and over again? Has he thought about firing his incompetent team president, and hiring someone with actual ability? Or modernizing his FO, so that they stop making stoopid decisions? I, for one get tired of seeing them make decisions that pretty much everyone with 2 working eyes and minimum of familiarity with the game can see will be moronic decisions? (EE, Mazara, Gio Gonzalez, now TLR, etc, ad nauseum...)

With respect to the bolded, here you go: Most and Least Federally Dependent States Also: Fact check: Blue high tax states fund red low-tax states All of the top 15 freeloading states are red, except for New Mexico, which is likely due to cash spent on Los Alamos national laboratory. That aside, its my view that we have made peace with others gaining access to another's labor already. Its merely a matter of how much access we are comfortable allowing, vs the relative benefits of doing so. I think we're closer in this view than apart, but posing "socialism" as "access to another's labor" (on absolute terms) isn't the best yardstick for it, IMO.

Hey, no worries. Its an American tradition for industrious blue states to allow freeloading red states to continue to freeload. And for red politicians to shit-talk blue states that bail out shithole southern red states over and over. That said, I read your previous argument about "socialized health care" to be some iteration of: "No one should have access to my labor, EVAR!" So, I used quotations to refer back to your point about others "having access to another's labor. " Apologies if I misread your argument, but "derr, all socialism bad " is intellectually dishonest; hereto fore, I hadn't detected that type of thought from you in this thread. As an aside, in the UK, some of their citizens are on NHS, while others buy private health insurance. Ultimately, I think this is where adding a public option to the ACA would come into the picture.

Meh, this isn't all that compelling an argument, TBH. There are always others getting access to another's labor: The "socialism" of publicly-funded kindergarten, primary, elementary, JR High, High Schools, and universities. The "socialism" of publicly-funded police, fire, and parks. The "socialism" of publicly-funded roads, bridges, airports, and seaports. The "socialism" of collectively-funded and publicly-funded armed forces, which have benefitted both you and I, as Veterans. (As an aside, I appreciate what you and ALL Vets have done to provide a blanket of freedom for others.) There's also the "socialism" of cutting taxes to deficit spend, thereby getting access to future generations' labor. Or the "socialism" of shithole southern red states, who get more in federal funds than they pay in, compared to supposedly "socialist" blue states and cities. So, on absolute terms, should another person get access to my labor? Those lazy, ill-industious shithole southern red states dip into my pocket every time theres a hurricane, then they boast about not having state income taxes. I think its more nuanced than "derrr, all socialism bad." I think its a better question to ask what DEGREE of "socialism" we're willing to accept in a supposedly-free society. YMMV.