1992casey

I wouldn't be surprised if Carter ultimately signed for less than his arby value. But the Brewers didn't have the luxury of trying to do that without letting the rest of the teams into the bidding. In the meantime, they signed Thames, which made the idea of non-tendering Chris and re-signing him moot.

Since this deviates so far from the current credit card discussion, a separate post is warranted. I've always regarded semi drivers to be good drivers. But I encountered a couple of huge exceptions yesterday. Semi #1 decided to make a right turn on red — while two long lines of cars were going through a green light. We all had to come to a quick stop to accommodate him while he used both lanes to make his turn. And it wasn't as if the light had just turned green. Several cars had gone through the green light when he decided to do this. A mile later, I encountered semi #2. This one turned left on a red light while a number of us were starting to take advantage of a green arrow. It wasn't like he was rolling on a yellow light. He was at a complete stop, and the light for his direction was red. To ice the cake, later in the evening, there was an SUV driver who decided he didn't want to be in the left turn lane. The light was green and traffic was moving. He cut me off as I was moving forward, and he almost hit the vehicle who was in the intersection waiting to turn left from the opposite direction. At least I could stop, and the vehicle behind me didn't rear-end me. The vehicle in the intersection had no option except to sit there.

I think people are hesitant to use credit cards because they're afraid that they'll lack self-control. They'll use cards to buy things they can't pay for otherwise. Ideally, "can't pay for otherwise" should only mean that the cash isn't in one's pocket. People should be able to pay somewhere between immediately and the deadline for avoiding interest. Patrick brings up a good point about debit cards not offering rewards. I don't want one because checking accounts have a finite amount of money, while credit cards are more flexible. Also, the debit card doesn't lend itself to easily keeping track of one's purchases. The old-fashioned equivalent would be writing a check and failing to record it in the register. That said, I should probably get one as an emergency means to get cash. I don't want my rewards to be too complicated. I say no when stores offer their cards at the checkout. But I buckled recently when I was offered a full Visa card rather than a store card. The problem with that card is that the rewards aren't that useful. They have to be built up in $10 increments, don't become available until the time of the statement, and expire after a year. Also, they can only be redeemed at that store, which I don't patronize all that often. The only real upsides are that I get 3% on all purchases at that store and that I got an extra $50 in rewards for charging $250 in the card's first 90 days. Other rewards are only 1%. So I charged a car repair to get the $50. In the future, that card will be used for that store only or if I encounter an emergency. My preference is cash rewards that I can simply apply toward my balance. After looking around at a few websites, it appears that the going rate for cash is 1.5% unless you pay an annual fee. I have three cards from the same company that offer that. I'm not sure how I got three cards because it was so long ago. But since it's cash that can be redeemed immediately, I don't think it matters if my rewards are divided up between those cards. I did pick up an Amazon Visa recently on the recommendation of a friend. The rewards have the "complications" of only being available at statement time and only being redeemable on Amazon. But I get 3% on all Amazon purchases. And I get 2% at gas stations, restaurants, office supply stores, and drug stores. Rewards are 1% everywhere else, which isn't enough. I spend enough money on Amazon that it's easy to redeem the points. Limiting the use of the card to Amazon and the places with 2% rewards gives me enough points to be useful while not giving me more than I can realistically redeem. What percentage is considered a good reward these days? Is 1.5% good enough for most situations, provided that it's cash that can be redeemed almost immediately?

Yeah, I use credit cards for almost everything, although I don't pay them down daily. Two or three times a month isn't unusual, though. I'll also pay right after I charge something comparatively large. And I choose the card I use in a particular situation based on the type of rewards it offers. The one place I always pay cash is Woodman's, but that's because they don't take credit cards. They'd get more of my business if they did. I pay cash in restaurants if several of us are splitting the bill, otherwise it's the card. And I pay cash for parking at Brewers games, usually in exact change. I think I last wrote a check about three years ago. I have a couple of checks stashed somewhere in the house. I should probably get some just in case they might come in handy. I refuse to carry loyalty cards. I enter my phone number, or I have the cashier look me up. And I refuse to sign up for store credit cards. All these merchants want to get into my pants, and I'm not going to let them. I lug enough stuff around as it is. I have a high level of patience for older people, in part because my parents were old before they died and I know what older people are up against. My dad was pretty good at the checkout drill, though. He'd have his cards and/or cash ready, and his coupons would be organized. What slowed him down was general mobility and his walker. What I can't deal with is people who can help what they're doing. Digging into the purse after the bill is rung up or talking on the phone while checking out unnecessarily show things down. FVBrewerFan has a good point when he says that checkout is inconsistent from place to place. You try to be organized, but it's not unusual that something trips you up. The first thing I generally ask is if the chip reader is functional. I shouldn't have to do that. If the thing doesn't work, it should be plugged up with a piece of plastic or cardboard that directs people to swipe. Along with that, at some places you can swipe or insert right away. At others, you have to wait for the right time. If you're too early, the cashier has to do a reset, and you start again.

Would you consider that they got rid of 1st round pick compensation a big deal? I should probably rephrase what I stated and say that nothing appears to be earth-shattering. Changes are more in the way of interesting tweaks. Draft pick compensation would be one of them.

The Athletics are in a large market, and apparently, there's evidence that ownership isn't adequately putting revenue sharing money back into the team. The Marlins have also gotten into hot water over their revenue sharing money. Not long ago, Florida's finances were monitored by MLB and the Players Association for a three-year period. There's some information on this the A's situation in the Random News thread posted by ewitkows. Outside of this and the international spending cap, there doesn't appear to be anything earth-shattering in this CBA. Much of the language isn't drafted yet; details will become available in the next few days.

My guess is extra money goes to debt service. In an in-game interview this past season, Mark indicated that the team would likely look at paying down some debt. Also, it would seem that this is a good time to spend the money that's going into the concession renovation.

Yeah, non-tendered was inaccurate. I'll change the topic title.

The two worst times to drive IMO are Sunday mornings and commute times. Sunday mornings because the church crowd has absolutely no idea how to drive. Commute times because everyone is either in a rush or on their cell phones. I can manage Sunday mornings because traffic tends to be lighter than it is later in the day. When traffic is light, it's easy enough to work around amateurs, those who are too slow or too fast, etc. I think a good chunk of the church crowd stays on the road past church time, though, and they likely contribute to the amateur situation later on in the day. Commute time isn't pretty, but at least it's predictable. I've found that it doesn't pay to try to rush because it isn't going to get you anywhere. But you don't want to take that to the extreme either. It annoys me when traffic decides to move and the driver ahead of me doesn't. I hate that this time of year the snowbirds migrate here from cooler climates. When they're driving around, 50mph roads start moving 40, 45 move 35, etc. The trick to me is to adapt to the situation. If you're driving on the highways around Chicago, you have to be more assertive/aggressive than you might otherwise. But that doesn't mean that you have to go to the extreme and pick up on the worst behaviors, such as intentionally cutting people off. On two-lane rural roads, taking a chill pill is in order. The reason many Illinois drivers stick out like sore thumbs in Wisconsin and Indiana is that they don't adapt. The level of aggressiveness that they display in Illinois is neither necessary nor appropriate once they leave the state. Drove from Ames, IA to Waukesha yesterday afternoon. Traffic was not too bad until I hit Madison at around 5pm. At times traffic basically came to a halt on I-94 between Madison and Waukesha. Yeah, that sucks. You can pretty much expect stop-and-go on that stretch when you're headed eastbound on a Sunday afternoon. There really aren't any alternate routes available until you're east of Waukesha. By that time, you're so burnt out that it's easier to opt for the backed up freeway rather than taking city streets and dealing with traffic lights.

I really dislike driving on weekends. You end up sharing the road with a bunch of amateurs. You can expect to see stuff like: [list-sp] Drivers going way too slow in the left lanes. Drivers who mistakenly get into a turn lane and then try to get out of it. Drivers who decide to turn from a forward lane. Drivers who occupy both the forward lane and the turn lane to make their turns (sans signaling). Drivers who slow to a crawl and inspect the toll lanes like they're dishes on a smorgasbord. Drivers who slow down for open road tolling. Drivers who crawl out at a green light and speed up to all of 22mph in a 35mph zone… while leaving 15-plus car lengths between them and the vehicle ahead of them. Drivers who get to about 300 feet from an intersection, realize they need to turn, then change two lanes to do it. Drivers who park in a no parking zone that's supposed to be a turn lane. Heck, it's Sunday, right?[/list-sp]

Yeah, I think Toby's right. The only real reason I see for optioning a player in spring training is that if an injury occurs, he goes to the minor league disabled list instead of accruing major league service time.

That's a good question. We know that teams utilize the 15-day DL during spring training, although there's no roster implication until Opening Day. The main reason for doing that is that a player can come off sooner. I don't recall players going to the 60-day DL during spring training, but I guess it can happen. Prince will certainly be going back as soon as he can and as soon as the Rangers can use his roster spot.

Here's the McCalvy article: Brewers, Counsell agree on 3-year extension

Getting beyond the thing about player usage, here's a Stearns quote from the article reilly posted.

[cite]The Beer Barrel Polka[/cite] (Roll out the Barrel) is a great fit, though. Organs are the instrument of choice at baseball parks, and polkas are routinely played on them. And if there were such a thing as a "state dance," the polka would be Wisconsin's. Add in the fact that the song itself fits in so well with "Brewers," and you have a winner. It's not such a great fit at Lambeau Field, though, unless they've changed the presentation since last year. Lambeau has a strange recorded version that completely changes the rhythm and makes it so it's not a polka at all. "Awkward" seems to be the best way to describe it.

You have to change the time manually in your profile. Here's a shortcut: ucp.php?i=174 Check or uncheck "Summer Time/DST is in effect." If you want to take the long way in, hit the User Control Panel link in the top navigation bar, then choose "Board Preferenes" from the sidebar. We have control over the times users see when they're logged out. However, members are in charge of what happens when they're logged in.

I don't know how one would make an apology any better. In a sense, they're all "generic." From what I've seen at a distance, this incident seems pretty out of character for Keon. I don't see any reason not to accept it.

I won't be a story until it's more unique. 8 of the 14 expansion teams haven't won a championship. And 6 of those were 60's/70's expansion teams.What's also notable is that only two expansion teams — the Mets and the Royals — have appeared in more than two World Series. Here's how the expansion teams have fared in the Series, ordered by their first appearance in the Fall Classic. [pre][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space][space][/space]First First Most Recent Most Recent Team (appearances) W-L Appearance Win Appearance Win Mets (5) 2-3 1969 1969 2015 1986 Royals (4) 2-2 1980 1985 2015 2015 Pilots / Brewers (1) 0-1 1982 .. 1982 .. Padres (2) 0-2 1984 .. 1998 .. Blue Jays (2) 2-0 1992 1992 1993 1993 Marlins (2) 2-0 1997 1997 2003 2003 Diamondbacks (1) 1-0 2001 2001 2001 2001 Angels (1) 1-0 2002 2002 2002 2002 Colt .45s / Astros (1) 0-1 2005 .. 2005 .. Rockies (1) 0-1 2007 .. 2007 .. Devil Rays / Rays (1) 0-1 2008 .. 2008 .. Senators / Rangers (2) 0-2 2010 .. 2011 .. Expos / Nationals (0) 0-0 .. .. .. .. Mariners (0) 0-0 .. .. .. ..[/pre]

It was funny when the guy got booed.

Just to add to the confusion, Baseball reference shows Wily's service time as of January, 2016, but it has updated his free agent status to show that he isn't eligible until 2019.

According to the ump, the rain will pass and they'll be able to play.

Yeah, I question bringing Chapman back out. That doesn't mean I don't like it, though.

There certainly seems to be a disproportionate number of Cubs fans in the park. Maybe MadThinker88 can shed some light on that. Could it be that there weren't enough season ticket holders to get first dibs on tickets?

FWIW, the last time the Indians won the Series, Bob Hope was part of the ownership group, and Bill Veeck was the principal owner.

It ain't over until it's over.