jjfanec

And our MVP hitter and best young hitter were both in prolonged slumps. Yes if Yelich and Hiura hit like last year this team will struggle. If they hit close to normal and so do Wong and Cain and honestly Garcia and Narvaez for that matter - this lineup will be much improved. Literally everyone seemed hit below their career averages. This lineup depends on Yelich being an all-star and Hiura being close to it. That isn't out of the question and feel quite possible. If Garcia and Narvaez bounce back then all the sudden this lineup will be solid.

Have to agree. Adding Turners bat, getting Cain back, and just having Yelich, Hiura, and Narvaez revert back closer to their norms makes the offensive outlook much brighter to me. Completely agree. All those pieces in place with the bullpen we have and Woodruff, Burnes at the top gives me optimism. No idea the likelihood on Turner at this point but if we could at a veteran starter to provide depth and insurance I would be pretty pumped going into the year.

Turner is almost a perfect fit for the Brewers. He fills a huge hole at 3b and fits what we need on offense as a great OBP guy. He and Wong would allow for Yelich and Huira to be hitting with guys on base. The back end of the lineup with Garcia, Cain, Narvaez, and Arcia would not be bad at all. You also have depth with Urias, Pina, Robertson, Voglebach.

The race between the Twins and White Sox is going to be fun this year. Twins will hit a ton and their rotation should be good enough. White Sox have a ton of talent

Me too. The brewers off season has been incredibly boring so watching the Cubs lose talent and not replace it has been fun.

Zach don't call me Kyle Davies Totally forgot about him. So Hendricks and Davies as your 1 and 2 isnt awful. Mills and his 4.48 era isnt a great number 3. And then a rookie who was solid not spectacular in the minors as your number 4. They will need a lot of veteran fliers to fill out the rotation because Mills and Alzolay are more likely to struggle than to succeed.

I really dont want this to be true at all. Makes no sense to trade young, controllable starting pitching. Burnes has a chance to see his value sky rocket

who on earth is going to be pitching for the Cubs this year? Hendricks and Mills and what else?

Agreed. Reminds me of Packer fans wanting to move Rodgers. Our team isnt amazing but the division is weak and we have some really good pieces. Burnes and Woodruff are really exciting. Obviously we need more after that. Lindblom and Hauser feel like 4/5 guys in a rotation. Lauer is the wild card. The bullpen has two really good arms and solid guys after that. The lineup still has Yelich, Hiura, Cain but obviously needs help. It is more likely we win the division than trade Yelich

If I recall correctly you work in schools too. Something that's popped in my head is wondering if schools will try to get to thanksgiving then shutdown til at least after New Year? Nobody has every told me that, just a scenario I've thought of in my head so I was curious if you or anyone else has heard that idea talked about? Assuming a downward trend doesn't start by then, that is. That is what a lot of colleges are already doing but the college break is longer. Not sure on elementary and high school. My hometown's school (small town in northwest WI) had to go all online recently because they couldnt get enough teachers. I am guessing this will be happening more and more.

That was the first packer game i ever attended! Vikings missed a short field goal late to give the packers a shot. So fun

As someone who has had numerous family members with covid who are older, and now have it myself, I would say there has been zero pressure to go to the hospital. In fact they are steering you away from the hospital unless you show warning signs of severe symptoms. To imply hospitals are putting people in the ICU and other rooms who dont need to be there - without any proof - does not seem fair to the hospitals and the doctors and nurses who are on the frontlines of this. I have been incredibly impressed with the professionalism of all the people i have interacted with who walked my parents and now me through everything.

So many factors but in August and September here are things that seemed to ramp up 1. School 2. Church gatherings 3. Weddings 4. More indoor eating and drinking as it got colder. Bars were open all summer but in some locations people could eat outside 5. Events to gather together to watch like sports All of these are large events often done indoors. Not saying these are the for sure reason it has spiked just a lot of things that have similar factors - numerous people, hard to enforce distancing, masks often not worn at least not properly, and indoors

Thanks for your thoughts. I think it is good to see where someone is coming from. I do think even people who may say lockdowns are good think covid will run it course. For some lockdowns make sense to slow the spread to ease the flow of people to hospitals. For some lockdown makes sense to slow the spread in order limit casualties until a vaccine is ready. For some a lockdown makes sense to limit the spread until we understand the virus better and what other steps we can take. For some mandatory lockdowns make sense because some people simply are not going to do something unless they have to, and while they might still gather with others it will vastly limit super-spreader events. You can disagree with any or all of those reason but I dont think most people think lockdowns are good but the virus will just go away and we wont have to worry about it anymore

This are really good things for me to remember. After reading this I should probably go delete some of posts or at least edit them. Or else I will just keep them there and let people read your post and then mine and see the mistakes I have made!

No it isn't, but that's not what I said anyway. I said there are businesses that 100% are done if they are forced closed for 2 months again. That's just a fact. Mandates or not, yes some will fail, but others won't. You remove their fighting chance with a government-mandated closure. I can't stress this to you enough, as an employee of a F500 retailer, seeing brick and mortar sales fall to literal 0 overnight and stay there for weeks is crippling. It directly led to mass layoff. You can bandage bleeding and adapt to a reduced guidance, what you cannot do is handle a literal 0. This is exactly what I'm saying though. Without a VAST majority of voluntary participants, the measures are minimally effective at best. My point is continually being misconstrued into "people are dying and you would rather grab a burger," when my point is that people are dying regardless of getting the burger because they are finding another place to transmit. Publicly accepting death isn't a viable option for public leaders so they can't say it, they have to enact something or they aren't doing anything. For the lockdown to work it had to be swift, forced, and early. Half-hearted stuff eight months too late is just a waste of time and, in my opinion, going to do a lot of harm for little to no benefit. Frankly, I think banning dining and such this late in the game is just kind of a joke. We're about to enter winter, which we have not dealt with at all in a Covid world. Millions of people are about to be home from work and school and hosting Covid superspreader parties. I get your tension. I dont think you are being heartless if you feel like you are getting that vibe from me. I dont have time to sort through all your past posts but would you simply let things stay open completely, be open with mandatory restrictions, have voluntary restrictions in place, or something else? I think we had a pretty strict, not half-hearted lockdown in wisconsin pretty early on but that got lifted by our supreme court right? Or would have you deemed that unhelpful at that point?

I get no comparison works perfectly but the post was a reply to someone who said lockdowns dont work to stop the spread. Melbourne's numbers sure seem to show that lockdowns work. Maybe I should not have included the Wisconsin comparison I have read most your posts and you seem to know a lot on the topic. A lot more than me.

This post is so good. I couldnt agree more. I was going to bold what I really loved but honestly I would have just bolded it all.

Can you provide studies that show this data from reputable sources? We'd all like to see the backing of this claim. Keep waiting. For people who need facts on how lockdowns work look at Australia. The federated state of Victoria where Melbourne is has been in a long lockdown - just ended yesterday actually. Melbourne alone is almost the same size as Wisconsin. They just posted a day with ZERO new cases! They have had 50 or less daily for almost two months. Wisconsin had 5,000 plus yesterday. Lockdowns are not fun. Lockdowns have economic impacts. Lockdowns definitely slow the spread of covid. All three can be true Here is an article on Melboure - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54654646

It is a false narrative to say opening things back up will automatically save businesses. After places were opened up this summer many still were struggling to see people come back. Many people dont feel comfortable attending indoor gathers. Look at churches. There are many churches that are open but much of the congregation simply hasnt come back. I know numerous churches that were making people reserve spots to help with occupancy but quite doing it because they were never close to their max number. Another example is my son's flag football league. Last year we had 8 teams for 2 grades. Each team had 12 kids. So roughly 100 kids. This year the league had to be 3 grades and only had 16 kids! There are other businesses that are not opening not because the government says they cant but because they dont think they will get enough business to justify costs - look at how little money movies are making each week. Theaters dont foot that whole bill but they are losing money just the same. They are open. People just arent coming. It would be the exact same way with musicals and some concerts - although I think some bands draw a crowd who wouldnt care. Businesses will also have to figure out how to function with massive amounts of employees out sick at a given time. Right now they cannot find subs for schools in my area and half the schools are virtual. Imagine the insane level of shortage there would be if all schools were in session with that many more staff having to miss time due exposure to covid. That doesnt even begin to factor in the intense pressure this would put under and already overwhelmed medical field. I completely understand where you are coming from and I feel just terrible for businesses right now, but simply put during a pandemic businesses are going to struggle with and without government restrictions on what we people can do. If you are a health official looking at the spread and looking at the lack of hospital beds and looking at how many people are not willing to do things as simple as wear masks and socially distance what would you propose?

Had to get tested today and it felt like the whole city of milwaukee was getting tested. They did awesome moving us through but from anecdotal and hard evidence it seems obvious this inst going away any time soon in Wisconsin

Dad and uncle got it (both who have said and lived like they were not worried about getting it). Then they gave to my mom who visited family and exposed them. Leading to kids from that family having to stay home from school, missing other events, and obviously maybe also getting covid. This is the type of example that shows why the motto - I am fine if I get it - just doesnt add up. It is just so easy to give to other people and at best it messes up their lives and at worst gets them sick with a potential of death

Well that is really unfortunate. Is there any prevailing theories about why the death rate remains so low? Often with this many cases per day the death numbers go way up but Wisconsin's have stayed under 20 a day for the most part. Is it that we are see more young people get it? Is it too soon to see the increase in death rate?

And yet you ARE minimizing, while again citing the talking point of the week that is being used by those that wish to continue to try and downplay the severity of this pandemic which they have so badly misjudged since day 1. So, let's actually put things in perspective: U.S. Flu Deaths by Year: 2010: 37,000 2011: 12,000 2012: 43,000 2013: 38,000 2014: 51,000 2015: 23,000 2016: 38,000 2017: 61,000 2018: 34,000 2019: 22,000 https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html As a reminder, 2020 U.S. COVID Deaths: 212,000 and counting. For additional perspective, the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic resulted in 12,469 U.S. deaths in 2009. https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/estimates_2009_h1n1.htm So, not even factoring in the current absurdly bad spike in cases/hospitalizations as of yet, you're at 3.5x the deaths of a 'really bad' flu season. Additionally, has anyone seen current estimates of what the death toll would currently be if the restrictions that were actually put in place hadn't been, and if we had treated this pandemic with the modest indifference that a flu season is? People were making the 'it's just the flu' argument waaaaay back in March, and the continued question in my mind is how much did the quarantine, etc (which again were met with complaining and hostility even way back then) actually help suppress the current numbers? And, obviously, how much better would the numbers be if people had actually done the minimal stuff that was asked of them over the past few months? Such a great post. When our president says up to 100,000 people die a year from the flu but that number hasnt been over 61,000 we see how easily misinformation is flying around. If the numbers keep up as they are for covid-19 we are looking 250,000 or so deaths by the end of the year. That is more than all the flu deaths from 2014-2019. They are simply not comparable. I sympathize with people worrying about the economic fallout. That is a real discussion that needs to be had, but the way flu numbers are being used is disingenuous.

I dont disagree. They have played a very easy schedule. They have had a ton of injuries. I have no idea how good the 49ers are but I just dont think there is anyway to fairly evaluate them right now. I also dont know if I have ever seen an offense with this many injuries this early in the season.