Doomtints

Its not relevant because one of the parties in question had nothing to do with what happened earlier.

+1

For some context: - There are stands all around the white house now selling MAGA hats. The kids were tourists who stopped to buy some hats I am sure, they probably don't go around wearing those hats all the time. This doesn't mean they are not MAGAts, of course, I'm simply saying the hats don't matter. - CNN put out pieces blaming this on a Twitter user, but it was actually CNN who blew the story up. That same twitter user has been active for years. I know who it is, and no it's not a fake person ... it's just someone who is addicted to Twitter and is very passionately anti-Trump (as are many Twitter users -- in some ways the "resistance" only exists on Twitter which effectively means the resistance barely exists at all). - The context of there being an earlier confrontation not caught on the original video is not particularly relevant to what we see in the video. You see a man trying to defuse something and an ignorant teenager regardless of any earlier confrontation between other people. Being "ignorant" and being a teenager go together, mind you.

It's interesting that the "let them eat cake" president convinced those who he would cause the most harm to vote for him. Is it because he was a celebrity they saw on television? Did his myth overcome his mouth? It's amazing to me that a country built on revolution has decided to stop thinking. The least privileged people in our country willingly gave up any chance of getting ahead so that someone could enrich himself and his family. It's dumbfounding. Sure, there was a lot of propaganda but for propaganda to work it has to be tapping into something already there.

The Twins are rumored to be in the loop on these things every year but nothing has ever transpired from it. We don't need to spend any time thinking about this. If it happens, great, we can all be shocked at that time.

Among Twins fans, Polanco has generally been slightly underrated. I think he will be fine and will have a couple of very good years in his career.

Buxton was key to 2018. Now I'm not expecting quite so much, I'd be happy if he just gets on base.

Every year the Twins are put in the bucket of being in the running for some top tier free agent. It's never transpired. I think we can safely ignore this stuff.

Note that the "discard pile" in question consists of discarded players from teams who want to contend. The Twins are not picking up cast-offs from bad teams cutting salary. The Twins won't catch up to the contenders by taking their castoffs. The Twins were already in the middle tier but I suppose these moves can push them over 80 wins again (in theory).

It seems NFL officials really don't like the Saints since bountygate. Can't say I care. I wouldn't have thrown a flag either. The Vikings had the same sort of terrible officiating working against them in the 70s and 80s, which I think was more due to corruption than it was the Vikings doing anything wrong.

I don't think the Vikes could find better people than Zimmer and Spielman, to be quite honest. This is one of those "be careful what you wish for" moments. It's a shame they pulled the trigger on a QB when they did, but they were very close in 2017 so I can't blame them for grabbing the best that was available. There will be better QBs available this year, but now the window has closed.

A team that won't spend money can't do multiple 1-year deals. The money problem never goes away, but those players do, all while blocking the cheap players they could have been developing.

Baseball-Reference says the similar pitchers at his age were: Joe Mays Pete Redfern Carl Pavano That's all very optimistic. I look at him and see Ricky Nolasco. He pitched a lot in 2016-2017 so maybe the Twins think he was overworked and that's why he was down last year. Either way they are taking a gamble. If this is for depth, fine. If he is the new long reliever, fine (but a lefty for that? Hm.) If he blocks young starters who we need to figure out, then history is repeating itself....

Healthcare wasn't for profit until Nixon. The law was changed to allow health entities to make a profit so long as they offered HMOs for the masses too. I believe the HMO stipulation has long since expired, however, so companies no longer have to offer them as an option (though they seem to be coming back since Obamacare).

Actually I didn't say the climate different at the stadiums at all (though I could have, as it is). Both stadiums are close to the lake and both are cooler than further inland, though Progressive gets much more humid. It is brutally windy in Wrigley. Until the dead of summer it is freezing in that stadium. As for the comments that 1-2 hours won't make a difference: 1) The difference between the northern and southern boundary of Chicago is equivalent to driving halfway to Duluth from the middle of the Twin Cities. 2) The difference between one edge of the Chicago metro area would that full drive to Duluth. Is the climate in Duluth different from the Twin Cities? 3) I studied meteorology in college, and areas around bodies of water and mountains can have drastic climate differences over very small distances. You may notice a very big body of water next to Chicago. The areas around the lake have a much milder climate than the Twin Cities both in the winter and in the summer. The microclimate around downtown is windier (and it feels much colder) in the winter, yes. It's also much cooler in the summer (unless you're on the rivers, where it's brutally humid). If you are going to quote "official" weather figures from the Chicago area, note they are probably coming from O'Hare airport which is in the suburbs west of Chicago.... not near the lake. We just got about 5 inches of snowfall last night and going outside is the first it has felt like the Twin Cities winter weather that I remember in about three years.

The Twins front office working on a banker's holiday? Never.

Remember for a minute that Chicago is massive. When you enter the Chicago metropolitan area you are still 2-3 hours from downtown. When you enter the CITY of Chicago, you're still an hour from downtown. Where the baseball stadiums are and where the affluent people live is a much milder climate than it is an hour to the south and an hour to the west.

I was between projects last year so I bought some insurance on the exchange. I won't name the company. I knew it was not a great plan when I bought it, but I am completely surprised by how bad it really was. It was pricey ($600+/mo for me and my daughter). I was sick a couple of times, so there were doctors visits and tests run. Nothing major. Much to my surprise, this company paid absolutely nothing on my behalf. Zip. Zero. Nada. They took my monthly payments and provided zero to me. So what did this insurance company do for me? They allowed me access to their negotiated rates with healthcare providers. Yes, this knocked down what I owed considerably, but it got incredibly annoying seeing statement after statement that read like this: - Amount billed: $437 - Negotiated amount: $187 - We paid for you: $0 - You owe: $187 This is how EVERY statement read. Now, we hear a lot of politics about how insurance companies cannot afford to stay in the exchanges. HOW? This company literally spent NOTHING on me, I was pure profit to them!

Chicago has a milder climate than MN, it's both warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Most of the winter is in the 30s and most of the summer is in the 60s-70s. Every winter has some colder snaps (in the teens, generally) but they only last a couple of weeks at a time, and of course there are some weeks in the 80s (which seem brutal when you're not used to it). Those cities on the east coast are very mild too.

I don't think the Twins market is unique in this regard, is it? Access journalism is the world we live in.

The pundits who predict it will be May are probably right. There hasn't been an effort to sign anybody.

Yes. Although I wrote otherwise, I meant to write WIN a superbowl. I don't care much if they just get there.

The Vikings have never won more than two playoff games in any season. With three playoff games required to make the super bowl now, we may never see them get there. Maybe it's for the better. I expect them to lose the big games now, and if they ever won it all I would probably be so shocked my heart would explode and that would be my last day on earth.

The triple constraints are important to understand for any organizational effort. They are: 1) Cost - In this case, player salaries 2) Time - The 2019 season 3) Scope - What do they want to accomplish? (This has to be more granular than "win the division") Stakeholders typically pick one constraint as the most important. We know which one that is for the Twins. This is called the triple constraint because changing one will always affect at least one of the others. In the case of the Twins, a cost constraint limits the scope of what they can do. There are still things the Twins can do on the scope side if the cost side sucks, but they have to focus on small things. Improving defense across the board. Improving OPS at certain positions. Higher OBP at three positions, more lefties, whatever. The Twins have to figure out exactly what they want to do, because that time constraint isn't changing. Note that punting on the year doesn't help. The primary constraint for this organization (cost) will still be there next year and the year after. There's no point in punting, they have to be creative to make it work with what they've got. This organization has to focus on small improvements and hope everything aligns the right way at the right time at some point down the road, and yes be very careful with 1-year deals as they will shoot themselves in the foot unless they decide to change that cost constraint. The only issue with long deals is the cost constraint takes them off the table, they're not actually "bad." Give credit to Ryan for understanding this, but keep the demerits by his name for not executing on it. And you didn't REALLY believe it when Pohlad said Ryan was mistaken in this, right?

I would be mildly surprised if HIldenberger is on the short leash some are predicting. I think he gets the year to sort things out, barring a 9.00 ERA after a few months of course. But hey, I don't understand anything about this team anymore, so....