nate82

Then I suggest going for one of the bigger banks like JPMorgan Chase. They just increased their dividend share to .80 cents per share for the 3rd quarter of this year. Another large bank that pays a nice dividend is Wells Fargo beyond that the only other safe bet would be Apple. You might be late on the wave but the ETF AMLP has some nice dividend stocks which pays about .20 cents a share. These are all energy companies in this ETF.

I think the most likely scenario is the Brewers go 2-1, the Cubs go 1-3, the Cardinals go 2-1, the Dodgers go 2-1 and the Rockies go 3-1. The Cardinals could sweep the Cubs but they have to win Friday's game as that is the toughest pitching match up the Cardinals will face. I like the Cardinals versus Hamels and Montgomery on Sat and Sun. The Cubs have the toughest schedule of all of the teams. The Cubs have Williams today, Wainwright Friday, Mikolas Saturday, and Flaherty on Sunday. If the Cubs win the division they deserve it because that is a brutal 4 game stretch of some pretty good pitching. The Cubs bullpen also looks like it is on life support or has already died. If they have to pitch any more innings I don't see how the Cubs can get through a Wild Card game without using one of their starters as a reliever. By far the Brewers have the easiest path the rest of the way. The Rockies will be next only because the Nationals and the Phillies bullpen are laughable. The Dodgers have Bumgarner tomorrow but after that the pitching match ups favor the Dodgers. It is possible that the Cubs go 0-4 and will have to play either the Cardinals, Dodgers, or Rockies at home. There could be a game 163 on Monday if the Dodgers or Rockies are tied with the Cardinals but that would mean the Rockies would have to go 2-2 and the Dodgers going 2-1. Both the Rockies and the Dodgers can still be eliminated from playoff contention for a wild card spot. The Dodgers would have to go 1-2 and the Cardinals going 3-0 or going 0-3 and the Cardinals going 2-1 to be eliminated. The Rockies would have to go 1-3 and the Cardinals go 3-0 or going 0-4 and the Cardinals going 2-1 to be eliminated. Both the Rockies and Dodgers would need to win 2 games to be guaranteed at least a game 163 if the Cardinals go 3-0. Basically for the Cardinals to make the playoffs they have to go 3-0 and the Dodgers losing at least 1 game and the Rockies have to lose 2 games. Next Monday could be crazy if the Rockies and Dodgers are tied and the Cardinals somehow go 3-0 against the Cubs. You would have a 1 game playoff between the Rockies and Dodgers and then you could also have a 1 game playoff between the Cardinals and whoever loses the NL West. The Dodgers, Rockies and Cardinals could all be tied up on Monday. It is very unlikely this scenario happens but wow this is going to be an interesting end of the year for baseball especially in the NL. You could have two one game playoff games before the playoffs even start.

So why not just use wRC+ instead of WAR for positional players?

If you go for data scientist or something similar you already have some skills needed for those jobs. SAS is a good skill to have it is similar to R and Python is another program you would need to learn. I use datacamp to study up on Python and R. https://www.datacamp.com You have to pay to use it but it is fairly cheap and the courses are pretty good.

Wasn't Montgomery supposed to be the Brewers GM after Melvin stepped down. I thought that was the original plan before they hired Stearns.

I don't think the secondary is terrible they are ok if they are not being left alone on an island. If the D-Line would get a push a little bit that would help the secondary a bit. Right now the D-Line is just getting pushed around and I think they haven't even pressured a QB once this year by hitting the QB or stopping the run in the backfield.

109 wRC+ since the all star game. Braun has not been a problem for the 2nd half of the season. All of the 109 wRC+ is from the month of August. July he had a wRC+ of 55 and in the month of September he has a wRC+ of 83. August's wRC+ can be mostly explained with his increased babip for that month. While Braun hasn't been bad for the whole of the 2nd half he is bad right now. He should not be starting a single game going forward he is a bench bat and nothing more right now. LF or RF needs to be a platoon of Granderson/Santana/Broxton. Braun needs to be on the bench as he is reverting back to his first half performance. August looks to be an outlier and he is closer to what he is doing now than what he did in August.

If Cain is not in the lineup Santana needs to be starting and Braun needs to be on the bench. The only time Braun should be starting is if the Brewers have clinched and the Cubs have clinched the division. Right now Braun and Thames shouldn't even been on the roster as they are doing nothing.

Braun please retire you suck.

Can Braun just retire already so Counsell won't bat him 3rd.

For Gray I wouldn't offer the Yankees anything of value. If they are willing to take someone like Wilkerson or Zagurski. Anything more than that is an overpay.

I would prefer a 96 game season with 24 4 game series. The 4 game series would occur on Fri-Mon. A total of 24 weeks of baseball starting on the first Friday of April. This year baseball would end two weeks earlier if my math in my head adds up correctly. For the All-star break it could be a week so add another week to the schedule and the season would end this week I believe. Perfect for TV only having to cover 4 games a week versus about 5-6 each week. More rest time for the players also which is a plus as players will be fresher and should result in better baseball later in the year.

Chacin/Davies start hopefully giving the Brewers 3-4 innings Guerra for 1 inning Hader 2 innings Knebel 1 inning Cedeno against LHB and Burnes/Woodruff against RHB 1 inning JJ to finish the game.

Badgers out of the top 10 now for sure probably going to drop to 17-25.

This team is not a national championship contender.

Badgers just stinking it up today. If they somehow win this game I don't see how they will still be ranked in the top 9. Probably will drop to 10th if they win but if they lose expect the Badgers to drop far.

That ball was no where near a meatball not sure what you were looking at but that ball was on the edge of the strike zone and up. At best Thames could have popped out on that pitch.

Not to go to political but the war in Afghanistan is almost old enough where kids of the parents who fought in the war are now being deployed there.

The Brewers don't have enough to get that pitcher. Trading away your depth for one player is not a good idea. The only way the Brewers are going to get something is by either doing a trade like Hiura, Burnes/Peralta and Ray for someone or trading Aguilar for someone. It is just not worth trading that much value for one guy who is only going to pitch every five days. I would rather gamble on someone like Eovaldi, Corbin, or Harvey than trade away a package that includes Hiura and Ray.

The NFL is letting these plays go at least this is what they have told the refs and it makes sense as the league has gone rub and pick happy. If you are going to run a rub play and the defender runs into another player trying to cover someone else there will be no flag. So that wasn't an illegal contact as long as the defender is going to cover another player which it looked like he was. There is going to be more roughing the passer calls this year. So that should make up for the rub plays causing PI or illegal contact.

If the Cubs lose and the Brewers win today that puts the Brewers at 1.5 games back. If the Brewers win the next series against the Cubs that puts us at a .5 game back from the Cubs. This should make for a very interesting last few weeks of September.

Right now 4 of the top 5 players in the NL MVP race are in the NL Central. If you are going by WAR it is Carpenter, Cain, Goldschmidt, Baez, and Yelich. So if we go by the top 5 players in WAR we have the following slash lines (ave/OBP/SLG): Carpenter: .272 / .388 /.565 Cain: .308 /.401 /.433 Goldschmidt: .300 /.403 /.561 Baez: .295 /.326 /.568 Yelich: .314 /.379 /.553 Here are my rankings as of today: 1. Goldschmidt 2. Yelich 3. Baez 4. Carpenter 5. Cain Cain goes lower because he is not hitting for enough power which I believe knocks him down some and I don't think he will get many 1st and 2nd place votes to win the MVP race. From there you have the next 4 players who are really good. Carpenter has cooled off a bit he was extremely hot from June - August. September hasn't been all that kind to him compared to those three months. I think Carpenter will get a few first and 2nd place votes. Next up we have Baez who is having his worst month of the season right now and not surprisingly the Cubs are struggling a bit. If Baez catches on fire and propels the Cubs to win the NL Central he wins the MVP race if he doesn't he will finish 2nd or 3rd. Now Yelich is in the same boat as Baez if he can get the Brewers and they win the NL Central he wins the MVP race. Yelich though is hot at the right time while Baez is cold right now. Should be interesting going down the stretch but Baez has the lead for winning the NL MVP. My MVP goes to Goldschmidt but I don't think he will get the votes to win it as I believe it is up to Yelich and Baez at this point. The only way Goldschmidt wins the NL MVP is if he goes on an absolute Bonds like freak show in September which he is doing with a .476 /.560 /.857 slash line in 6 games so far in September. The Dbacks also need to make the playoffs I still don't get this reasoning and it doesn't look like they will as they will have to win the NL West to make it. I believe the Cardinals will wake up again and take that final wild card spot with the Brewers or the Cubs taking the #1 wild card spot. Ultimately I think Baez wins the NL MVP with Yelich or Goldschmidt coming in a close second. I just don't see either Yelich or Goldschmidt getting enough 1st and 2nd place votes to pass up Baez. Carpenter is going to get a few 1st and 2nd place votes and that is what will help Baez win the NL MVP race.

My thoughts on possible targets and cost: Patrick Corbin (29 years old) 10% chance of happening contract: 6-years $114m Dallas Keuchel (31 years old) 25% chance of happening contract: 5-years $110m Nathan Eovaldi (29 years old) 40% chance of happening contract: 3-years $27m Gio Gonzalez (33 years old) 35% chance of happening contract:1-year $6m Matt Harvey (30 years old) 70% chance of happening contract: 2-years $16m Wade Miley (32 years old) 25% chance of happening contract: 2-years $17m The Brewers tried to acquire Harvey twice so far this year and it wouldn't surprise me if they go after him in the off season. Expect Harvey to be linked to the Brewers a lot this off season. Another player to be linked to the Brewers heavily will be Corbin but like Darvish I don't think the Brewers will get him. The Angels, Yankees, Dbacks, and the Mariners will all be linked to Corbin also. The Yankees need another starter and Corbin would fit in perfectly as the teams #2 or #3 pitcher. If the Yankees don't get Kershaw or decide not to go after Harper or Machado as their biggest need is starting pitching. Between all of them I would prefer Eovaldi or Harvey on a deal similar to what Chacin signed last year. The Brewers would have to trade Schoop and Thames this off season to sign someone.

I have been playing the beta a little bit on the PC and it is OK. Feels more like a mix of BF3 and Fortnite. The airplanes suck they feel like they are flying bricks but then again I am more a flight sim person so that maybe the problem there. I am expecting the 109 to be fast and nimble by using its superior roll rate and the Spitfire to also be fast but to be more nimble by using its superior turn rate compared to the 109. In the current beta the 109 performs like a spitfire and the Spitfire performs like I don't know a brink with an engine attached to it maybe. All of the planes are slow and don't really move all that well. Probably will be fixed later on. Tanks are balanced nicely but infantry AT weapons are way to powerful and have way to much ammo. The maps play more like BF3 which is nice with some base building elements mixed in. This game would fit in more along with a battlefield bad company than in the normal battlefield gameplay. I believe EA missed the mark on this one as the gameplay is more battlefield bad company than it is the normal battlefield gameplay (a little bit more realistic).

The only open date for the Nationals is next Thursday it is that date or a 10/1 game if the game gets rained out tomorrow. There are no other open dates for the Cubs and the Nationals to play on other than those two dates.