JosephC

And yet, billionaire owners can partner up with gambling organizations and make a few more million on top of their billions. Please enlighten me as to what the penalty would be for an owner if he was caught filling out a NCAA bracket on the team's property?

Rodgers can flap his gums all he wants. I don't see him retiring until the door is hitting his rear end on the way out. Farve was going to retire the last 3-5 years when he was with the Packers, then was going to retire after his one year with the Jets, then was going to retire after his first year with the Vikings....and then did retire when his completion percentage slipped to 60%, his TD/INT ratio dropped to 11/19, his record as a starter went to 5-8 and nobody in the league wanted him anymore. If Rodgers was Andrew Luck then we wouldn't have seen him in the last 10 years. I'd put chances at 90+% that he falls in the Favre/Brady/Manning group and will continue to play as long as he is able.

Doing a search over at Fangraphs, there are 114 pitchers who have thrown at least 200 innings in 2021 + 2022. In terms of xFIP, Houser's 4.45 places him #94 on the list. In terms of SIERA, Houser's 4.87 places him #111 on that list. MLB front offices look at these types of advanced metrics these days instead of looking at the more traditional stats when making deals for established players. Houser's advanced metrics aren't just below average, they are pretty bad when compared to the rest of the league. I'd bet pretty much every front office sees him as a potential inning-eater and nothing really beyond that. My guess on a return would be one lottery ticket prospect and one organizational filler prospect. I'd be surprised if they could get a top 15 player off of any team's prospect list during the off-season. Now if they got into the regular season and a couple team's rotations got wiped out by injury, maybe the Brewers could get more for Houser at that time. Think of it this way. Let's say the Brewers needed a starting pitcher. What would you give up for Brad Keller? In the 2021 + 2022 timeframe, Keller has a 4.46 xFIP (95th) and a 4.70 SIERA (107th). So what would you give up for Keller? Robert Gasser? Jeferson Quero? Robert Moore? Carlos Rodriguez (the pitcher)? Zavier Warren? Adam Seminaris? Those are Brewer prospects #5, #10, #15, #20, #25, #30 on Fangraph's most recent top Brewer prospects list. What you would give up for Keller is probably not so different from what other teams would give up for Houser. And yes, there is a difference in service time, but we aren't talking about annual 3 WAR players here. Houser's average bWAR/fWAR over the last two season is 0.9 WAR, so when you look at his arbitration salary, it's not like an extra year adds a whole lot of extra value.

Doing a search over at Fangraphs, there are 114 pitchers who have thrown at least 200 innings in 2021 + 2022. In terms of xFIP, Houser's 4.45 places him #94 on the list. In terms of SIERA, Houser's 4.87 places him #111 on that list. MLB front offices look at these types of advanced metrics these days instead of looking at the more traditional stats when making deals for established players. Houser's advanced metrics aren't just below average, they are pretty bad when compared to the rest of the league. I'd bet pretty much every front office sees him as a potential inning-eater and nothing really beyond that. My guess on a return would be one lottery ticket prospect and one organizational filler prospect. I'd be surprised if they could get a top 15 player off of any team's prospect list during the off-season. Now if they got into the regular season and a couple team's rotations got wiped out by injury, maybe the Brewers could get more for Houser at that time. Think of it this way. Let's say the Brewers needed a starting pitcher. What would you give up for Brad Keller? In the 2021 + 2022 timeframe, Keller has a 4.46 xFIP (95th) and a 4.70 SIERA (107th). So what would you give up for Keller? Robert Gasser? Jeferson Quero? Robert Moore? Carlos Rodriguez (the pitcher)? Zavier Warren? Adam Seminaris? Those are Brewer prospects #5, #10, #15, #20, #25, #30 on Fangraph's most recent top Brewer prospects list. What you would give up for Keller is probably not so different from what other teams would give up for Houser. And yes, there is a difference in service time, but we aren't talking about annual 3 WAR players here. Houser's average bWAR/fWAR over the last two season is 0.9 WAR, so when you look at his arbitration salary, it's not like an extra year adds a whole lot of extra value.

Drury has 6 MLB seasons plus 1 day. Lifetime 3.6 fWAR and 2.1 bWAR. 2022 he was 3.0 fWAR and 2.6 bWAR. So for the 5 years prior to 2022, he was a 0.6 fWAR player (basically 0.1 WAR per season, or at replacement level) and a -0.5 bWAR player (below replacement level).

Hey Clancy- What do you think of this deal? Phillies get- RHP-Corbin Burnes OF-Tyrone Taylor Brewers get- RHP-Connor Brogden RHP-Andrew Painter RHP-Mick Abel RHP-Griff McGarry LHP-Erik Miller 2B-Hao Yu Lee

Phillies get: RHSP-Corbin Burnes (from Milwaukee) OF-Christian Yelich (from Milwaukee) Brewers get: DH-Nick Castellanos (from Philadelphia) C-Danny Jansen (from Toronto) LHRP-Erik Miller (from Philadelphia) Blue Jays get: RHRP-Connor Brodgon (from Philadelphia) OF-Garrett Mitchell (from Milwaukee) No way do I see the Brewers moving Burnes in a Yelich swap, and then including Mitchell on top of it. But for someone looking for what a Yelich deal could look like, this is the best I can do. At least Milwaukee gets a proven big bat coming off ONE bad season who could be a serious bounce-back candidate and a good controllable catcher for the next few seasons. Castellanos due 20 million over each of the next four years for 80 million total, Yelich guaranteed another 162.5 million, so the Brewers save over 80 million in the swap.

So I'm just going to steal this from the Baseball Trade Values site. Bottom five contracts in terms of surplus value (and there is a pretty sizable gap between #5 and #6) are Strasburg, Rendon, Yelich, Stanton and Bryant. The Brewers are not going to trade Burnes or any prospect(s) to get rid of Yelich. The only realistic way of getting Yelich off the roster is to take one of these bad contracts back. It would make perfect sense for the Angels to do a Rendon/Yelich swap. But Yelich has 162.5 million left on his deal and it's more spread out (no more than 26 million in a single season and part of that is deferred), whereas Rendon has 152 million left on his deal and that's all crammed into 4 seasons. Imagine saving 10 million in the long-term but actually losing 12+ million in "payroll space" each of the next 4 years, and in the swap you pick up a player who probably projects at a lower WAR than Yelich does. Stanton has a full no-trade clause and...well, he's not likely to waive that to go from the Yankees to Milwaukee. Oh, that no-trade clause was in effect when he was with the Marlins...didn't stop him from going to the Yankees when he got the chance. The remainder of Bryant's contract is actually very similar to Yelich, but he has that messed up foot that probably makes him a bigger risk than Yelich going forward. Has Strasburg retired yet? Looking likely that his contract will go down in history as being even worse than the Chris Davis deal, and that is saying something! Don't see any scenario at this point that moves Yelich off of the Brewer's roster.

People put a lot in the no trade clause. For some reason I don't see Yelich killing any deal that would send him to a California team outside of the A's. Really think Yelich would rather play for the Brewers instead of the Yankees or Mets? How about the Astros, Red Sox, Braves, Phillies? He'd have to be head-over-heels in love with finishing 7th every year, or has no real interest in having a good chance of winning a World Series, or be a complete no-brain MLBPA lackey that MAY ask him to put his "below average contract in a big market" concept ahead of his own self-interest (which is the one realistic possibility that I can see, but even don't think that is likely since Yelich doesn't appear to be a star-level player anymore).

People put a lot in the no trade clause. For some reason I don't see Yelich killing any deal that would send him to a California team outside of the A's. Really think Yelich would rather play for the Brewers instead of the Yankees or Mets? How about the Astros, Red Sox, Braves, Phillies? He'd have to be head-over-heels in love with finishing 7th every year, or has no real interest in having a good chance of winning a World Series, or be a complete no-brain MLBPA lackey that MAY ask him to put his "below average contract in a big market" concept ahead of his own self-interest (which is the one realistic possibility that I can see, but even don't think that is likely since Yelich doesn't appear to be a star-level player anymore).

Those who assume that Perkins is depth behind guys like Frelick might have a big surprise coming in March. This move scream warm body to keep the top prospects in the minors through May in order to play the Super Two game.

How much can the Brewers spend? Probably not nearly enough. 2022 opening day payrolls- Yankees = 245 million Phillies = 228 million Padres = 211 million Astros = 174 million So if the goal is to finish about 7th in a 30 team league and claim that to be a big success, the Brewers can likely spend enough for that. But if you want to run with the big boys, might as well forget about that until MLB and MLBPA fixes the CBA or the owner decides he wants to spend like the Padres spend.

How much can the Brewers spend? Probably not nearly enough. 2022 opening day payrolls- Yankees = 245 million Phillies = 228 million Padres = 211 million Astros = 174 million So if the goal is to finish about 7th in a 30 team league and claim that to be a big success, the Brewers can likely spend enough for that. But if you want to run with the big boys, might as well forget about that until MLB and MLBPA fixes the CBA or the owner decides he wants to spend like the Padres spend.

Gotta go full pie and order the whole wheat crust.

Back in the late 70's Rocky's was a true deep dish pizza but certainly the definition of deep dish has changed and I don't really even consider Rocky's to be a deep dish pizza at all anymore. I would never try to compare it to a Chicago style deep dish because that is an entirely different animal. I really like the Chicago-style deep dish pizza after I get about half the sauce scrapped off. But I have never found a decent Chicago-style deep dish pizza in the western half of Dane County. Recommendations are welcome. I'm to the point where I have started looking at youtube videos for recipes because I am pretty near trying to make my own from scratch!

Unfortunately I think this will all go away in a week, but the media and public really needs to continue to turn the screws on some of these brokerage firms. My goodness, how crooked do you have to be to get Ted Cruz, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, CNN and Fox News all on the same page!?!??! https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/01/29/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-gamestop-stock-cpt-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/business-markets-investing/

Compared to Jets, it certainly looks closer to a "real" Detroit style as the sauce has just been dropped in "gobs" on the top. It does look like Pizza Hut got the bottom "crispy" part of the crust right. My gut feeling is Jets would probably be the better tasting pizza, but who knows? Truth be told I was a bit disappointed with the Jets I ordered the other night. Taste was good, but the pizza only filled about 3/4 of the box which made me feel cheated...and it was a big deal as I wanted to make 3 meals out of it (still got three meals out of it, but they were pretty light).

I just ordered a Jet's pizza. It is a bit different than Rocky's as they prepare the crust so it becomes crispy when it's baked. So about the same thickness as Rocky's, but the bottom of Rocky's crust is softer while the bottom layer of Jet's crust is more crispy/crunchy. I think I prefer Rocky's whole wheat crust, but I'd take the Jet's crust if it's being compared to Rocky's normal white crust. The other thing with Jet's is they run the cheese right to the end of the pizza so it caramelizes against the baking pan. Seems like lots of people really love this. Jet's offers an 8-corner pizza which I've had before and it looks like they just throw two small pizzas in the same box. But if you like the caramelized cheese on the edge, the 8-corner pizza results in every piece being a corner piece so the customer gets two edges on every slice. Jet's is pretty good but I'd probably still lean Rocky's just because I think their actual toppings are still the best among the chains. I've a sausage, mushroom, onion guy and I think Rocky's has the best sausage, mushrooms and onions of all the chains. They get a lot of complaints about the "doughy" crust and I agree with that but that problem seems to be minimalized if the customer gets a whole pie and orders it on the whole wheat crust. I'd go as far as saying that Rocky's whole wheat crust is a necessity. But a note to anyone who wants to try Jet's because they want to try a real Detroit-style pizza. While Jet's has the Detroit style crust, they do not put the sauce on top as is standard with Detroit style pizza (just like the deep dish Chicago style). Also, many traditional Detroit style joints put the sauce on top but don't spread it evenly, they just put 4 or 5 big gobs of sauce on there so the customer can spread it how they like and have the option to easily remove excess sauce if it's too much for them. Personally, I like this because I really like a Chicago style every now and then but sometimes the amount of sauce can just be overwhelming. It's nice to be able to remove some of the sauce without having to dig back through it to reclaim some of the toppings to put back on the pizza. Jet's is good, definitely worth a try to see if you like it. I very much doubt there would be many people out there who are so turned off by it that it would immediately find it's way in the garbage can.

Not really typical in biotech either unless you are talking the CEO, COO, Senior VP level of management. Most of the publicly traded biotech companies offer stock purchase programs where employees can buy at a discount, but it's not typical that the rank-and-file workers take part of their pay in stock options. I do have one friend that is working for a startup and gets about 10% of his pay in company stock, but that's a major risk for him. If a big company swoops in and buys the company for twice of what it's worth, then he'll make out like a bandit. If they just pay what the stock is worth, then he gets all his paid but obviously delayed and loses out in the long run. If the company goes belly-up, then 10% of what he should have been paid just vanishes. But that is a unique case with a startup, it's not typical of the business as a whole.

They do. It's called Personal Finance. Here is the course description from my local high school- Personal finance is one of the most useful classes you can take in order to prepare for your future! It is proven that poor financial decisions can lead to an accumulated debt spiral that will prevent you from saving and planning for a secure financial future. Learn to manage your personal financial affairs through real life applications. Areas of study include investing, banking, taxes, credit, acquiring insurance and loans, budgeting, and successful employment skills. Technology is infused throughout this course, with applications ranging from personal money management to preparation of income tax forms to evaluating investment options. Have to disagree with the concept that a Personal Finance course is much more valuable than an AP Chemistry course.

I've got the Europe version of Strategic Command. Reasonably easy to play wargame. I think events are a bit too "canned" in this game. I don't care for how Denmark and Norway are automatically taken as the game goes. Also, if you don't attack the Russians, they'll declare war on you by 1942, which is ahistorical. I play a lot of War in the Pacific - Admirals Edition. A truly monster wargame. I have an opponent in Australia and Austria for both my games. Probably the best Pacific War game out there. Thanks for taking the time to reply. One of the things that interest me about Strategic Command: WWII World At War is that is the triggering of certain events AND the fact that some scenarios play out contradicting history...I can understand why that is a big turnoff for many but it seems like it would add to replay value which is something I'm interested in. I'll have to check out some video for the War in the Pacific game and see if I might be interested in switching and getting that one instead. Thanks again.

Anybody ever play Strategic Command WWII : World at War? https://www.slitherine.com/game/strategic-command-wwii-world-at-war I'm thinking about getting this as I have a bunch of vacation time coming up. I'm not much of a gamer, but have always wanted to try one of these strategic turned-based war games. Interested in this one because it doesn't seem to be so objective-driven, but pretty much opens up the world and allows the player to strategize on the global stage. Being able to play as the Allied Powers or the Axis Powers seems like a pretty cool feature that would add a lot to replay value. Any comments on this game or any other strategic war games would be appreciated.

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/1565927|0/Toshiro-Mifune-100th-Birthday-Tribute-4-1.html There are 10 must-see movies right there. The Kurosawa/Mifune combination represents one of the true pinnacles of film-making.

Back in the day T-Jo's pizzas were all softer, thin crust and baked in a traditional pizza oven. If you like the meats, expect plenty of grease (my attitude has always been...if you don't like the grease, order a salad).

Get the whole wheat crust when ordering from Rocky's. IMO it's essential. Makes a world of difference. The regular crust does seem undercooked and "doughy" which is a turn off for me and is the one real big knock on Rocky's IMO. But I think they have the best sausage, onions, mushrooms and most flavorful cheese out of all the larger pizza chains. Hands down would take them over Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa Johns. I haven't lived in La Crosse in nearly 30 years, but back in the day, T-Jo's on the north side was my favorite pizza place. I see they have a website and are still in business.