tmwiese55

Lockdown absolutely work in terms of limiting the spread. Its essentially what stopped all the initial outbreaks and the lifting of them which has led to the increases all over the world now. A disease spread by human interaction will slow spread if you massively reduce human interaction. It's the discussion on if there is better alternatives or hybrid type ways that are less harmful to the economy, mindsets, etc. But of course everyone has to be so extreme on it all. The business failing aspect is exactly what the federal govt programs should be addressing, but of course they just continue to fight with each other.

The reason for the longer time off for B1G is their concern on the heart issue so they wanted to monitor it, combined with they wanted time to get people's conditioning back up to speed instead of rushing out there and risking further injury. Supposedly the timing of his would allow him back for Michigan, we'll see. Where that poor planning comes in is not having any off weeks planned because they started so late. If they'd have started late Sept like SEC they could've planned in 1-2 weeks for nearly inevitable game cancellations.

Can definitely still win with Vandenboom this week. But that Michigan game will likely be an L or at the least a very uphill battle.

For sure, the historical context of everything and a sport obsessed with numbers is the big hurdle. However, baseball is at a bit of a crossroads here in general to adjust and in a way modernize. Sometimes change can be needed for the long term good even if it's difficult in the moment. But first thing to come up solutions is the 3TO issue going on which I knew many here have discussed.. I think the last couple rounds of the playoffs has shown having runners on base and stuff happening leads to more exciting play than a HR contest. Some outside the box seemingly drastic ideas might be needed on that too

Yea I'm not a huge fan of expanded playoffs as baseball is supposed to be the one like you say that shows the best teams over the long haul. Yet somehow each time they've done it I've ended up liking it after the fact. Changing from 162 down to 150 or 154 isn't going to change much on the regular season vibe of now. Not sure I'd call it a money grab in this case as it would just be an attempt to make up for lost money of the hundreds of lost games. Heck they might lose money unless they do a huge expansion of playoffs (which I couldn't get behind). If you expanded playoffs a bunch while leaving the 162 games yet it would be shameless money grab and it for sure would have the other negative effects Ron just said. A small playoff change though you might just move up that good September stuff you mention up a bit quicker. A really small tweak that would bring in money is make the Division series 7 games instead of 5. Another could be still have 5 teams but a 3 game series somehow for the WCs. Yea if you get to 16 teams its a mess though. Regardless, I wasn't really even meaning to get into what we'd prefer or like. Though I guess it's not a bad dead time discussion to have. Heck I guess as Brewers fans we actually should think a bigger playoff and more of a crapshoot format helps our chances vs big markets (even if we know it's not what we think is right). I just meant on wondering if this all could lead to it.

Anyone think this all could finally lead to the shortening of the season for good? They've been set 162 for so long but I think even the most diehards could get behind that being trimmed down a bit. Basically, say they do some kind of 130-140 season next year and realize it's better and then meet in the middle at about 150 games going forward. I would assume some kind of playoff change to make up for lost revenue as well.

I fully agree that's what WAS should do, that's been my whole logic on chasing Beal too. But I'm skeptical if that's actually what they will do. They seem a team content to chase the 8. But they do have a new GM so maybe that will change. Wall's contract is a killer to competing the next few years (while Beal is this good) so why not fully own it and go full tank to plan on 2024ish. Heck, if Wall can put up some good stats on a bad team maybe you can trade him later to get out of some of that deal too. They own all their own picks. Add ours this year, full tank for top 3 next year and the year after. The hope whatever picks they get back from us or whoever they trade Beal to end up top 15 somehow. Like you said, can flip Bledsoe for a protected first to someone like Orlando as well. Problem is I think they're too stubborn/dumb to do this unless Beal forces their hand. I'm also surprised Beal has been such a good trooper for them. It's been widely reported he and Wall don't get along, the team has been bad for years, future is bad due to Wall. Seems like the perfect situation to push your way out and be justified in doing so, I've been surprised by it.

I'm all for doing whatever you can to get Beal before moving onto other options. The offer said here wasn't enough and since the Bucks have almost no good assets all you can do is keep adding in #1 picks and pick swaps until they say yes. I'm not sure how many that will be and even if it still would be enough. Maybe if some years out picks were left completely unprotected they'd go for it on the gamble that if Giannis leaves those picks could be really good. What they'd really need is Giannis to do some recruiting and get Beal to tell them this is where he wants to go and force their hand, of course I don't see that happening. If I'm philly though I'm trying to bring in Beal. Basically decide who to keep Embiid/Simmons and trade the other for Beal. They need to balance their roster out and he's as good of a fit there as he is in MKE. No way we can beat an offer that has either of those guys in it, heck WAS might end up giving Phi extra in the deal.

I think Ersan can be used if they pick up his option. But it can't be used to make the trade and then the team just decline the option to save money. Of course I could be wrong here but that's the way I understand it.

Yes, good point on the NTs. Who'd have though say 5 years ago they'd be that strong at NT/DL. Typically been a touch area to recruit. Watson seems like a bigger bruiser type back to me which is why I made the guess they'd go for the speed guy at some point, as long as he proves he's not a fumbler. After so many years of HR hitters at the spot I think it'll be tough going back to a bruiser. But of course maybe Watson surprises and does have some of that in him, hope so.

Well first game is only a few days away. Predictions for game 1 and season? Assuming they go on as generally planned. I'll go with an easy win in game 1, not 45-0 type thing but a solid easy not in doubt win. If I had to pick I'd go ILL +23.5, though I think I've seen it fall now to a lower number. Season, lose one regular season game. Lose to OSU in the B1G like normal. Bold guesses, the freshman RB Berger eventually takes over at RB similar to Taylor as a frosh. Defense is quite good helped by a very solid D Line up front. Seems D all over the country so far is worse in this situation, so keep in mind it's a bit relative. I'd guess Mertz takes the job and never looks back, but I'd also guess everyone thinks that, but overall that the O is still the lesser side of the ball for them.

I actually just came back to edit my post and to say the logic of the argument. Not the act itself. So yea, I agree with what you're saying. The fact that this act affects others is the key point. Just like DD affects others. Eating a bunch of bad food to get unhealthy only affects you.

Ah, tough for them, I guess yea it's likely to show up more and more all over the place. This will be a very odd recruiting period due to this rule, so many HS teams not playing, no visites, offers just based on rankings/highlights, no camps, etc. Really no idea how it's all going to go. Let's get them in UW as preferred walk on types. Hopefully they come out ok with some other teams otherwise, even if they drop to say MAC level it's still a free ride scholarship. Northern Illinois could be a nice safe close option.

Yes, at this point it's too widespread for any reliable contact tracing, which is also why its tough to say there is nothing knowingly tied to xyz so that's fine, at this point its almost impossible to know where someone would have gotten it. To the other big topic. It's just not logical to use the argument that its my choice my risk etc when this is something that's contagious. It's the equivalent logic (not activity)of saying what's the big deal if I drink and drive, my choice. Snappers point is also correct that it's very likely many of the folks who've passed probably did some kind of behaviour to be at risk. After all, we can't sit at home forever. But that's where the greater good comes if everyone would collectively do it it goes down for everyone. Plus, then the people being more compliant could actually do stuff again sooner safely (everyone could). It would reduce the numbers cycling around so people going to needed works like schools, groceries, etc are at less risk, and of course the medical workers who eventually have to work on them. Believe it or not, there still is a lot of people complying and taking it seriously. And yea I'm with you on things like schools and certain works that just have to be done in person and I don't blame anyone for trying to make school happens. the idea would be to reduce the things outside of those essential activities to keep the numbers/risk as low as is reasonably feasible. Instead we're trying to take the leap of 'well we're doing these essential type things, so who cares might as well do everything. The big one to be skeptical throughout all this is bars/restaurants, that's not something that's needed. It's absolutely brutal for the owners and people who worked there though, so I feel for the industry and I get why the pressure to get it going again. So many are going to go out of business, and many more would have if not for opening up. And I'm one that likes sitting and BSing in the bar, especially with sports going on, as much as anybody. But this is what should've been addressed in the stimulus bills, these small businesses are the ones who should've been taken care of.

Along with saving lots of lives in the process while you buy time for the vaccines and therapeutics.

Seems these schools could be operating similar to what I said a week or two back for my friend who is a little kid teacher where it's essentially 'we don't wanna know' situation and they're just not testing or making kids get tested. I went to the dentist today and I know the technician decently well over the years so I asked what her kids are doing. She said they were in person to start then were forced to 2 weeks remote for the whole school because "all the teachers kept getting it", obviously hyperbole but those were her words. And now they're starting back up in person again, which with the current numbers seems you might as well have delayed it. But, I guess if a bunch of teachers already got it and you're not testing kids... To reilly's healthcare post. My friend in the hospital just gave me an update a few days ago on a lot of stuff she can't believe is happening on their policies. First, they're no longer testing patients unless symptomatic. Employees can't proactively get themselves tested. Since they now don't test the patients, if an exposure gets found out after the fact the employee is made aware and told to quarantine for two weeks outside of work, but still to come to work. There was more too. Very surprising as you'd think they'd be so much more thorough there, of course it's just one place and could be just some bad decisions by their administration, so who knows how that compares to other places. I know we talked about it on here recently, but to me it just seems so logical to proactively test patients and employees, especially since they have the capabilities to do it so quickly and easy right there. I mean, they're running the screening tests for the UW athletes but you don't do it for their employees. Testing like we're doing for athletes, tv/movies etc should be applied to many more areas of essential workers.

You also might get lucky the team he chooses to go to doesn't have cap space so you do get something back to help facilitate. Seems unlikely since many teams are planning specifically for that offseason as Giannis not the only possible big player in the market, but it could happen. The whole financial landscape of the league is largely up in the air right now and a lot can change. There could be some very dicey union negotiations on the horizon. Generally speaking the owners/players work together will in the NBA at least, but there is a lot to be sorted.

Agree with snapper. Take your last swing for the fences. I'd definitely take his not signing now as a bad sign and that he's likely to move on. But that also doesn't mean for sure the moves you can make won't change his mind. Say, at the time of his extension decision he's not convinced but then we pull off getting a good lead G type lke say a McCollum and also a shooter like Bogdonovic. Well, that changes things. Or say nothing big happens in offseason but you somehow pull off Beal at the deadline, that changes things. Top of my head though I don't know the timing on all this stuff this offseason since it's all messed up. Normally, all the offseason moves would have been done and then Giannis' deadline would be close to the start of the season.

Ah, I still think his memory was correct haha but just assumed that was a private school. Like I did when it was said in the article.

https://wisconsin.rivals.com/news/recruiting-anniversary-josh-oglesby Good summary I found. Didn't remember he got hurt his HS senior year. Milwaukee St. Francis so you're right on private school. I don't recall if he played basketball. But I'm pretty sure Joe Thomas did play basketball and his team made the state tournament his senior year. But yea this say Josh was No 1 OT and top 10 overall. Perhaps the final ranking he got moved down due to the injury, idk. I also just checked and he's now OL coach as San Jose state, good for him. I've only ever heard good things about him as a person. I remembered he'd gone into coaching soon after, maybe grad assistant at UW for a year or two but can't remember for sure.

Yes Oglesby was one of their highest rated recruits ever and ranked super high like that, he dealt with injuries his whole career though. But found a way to get out there and be pretty good his last couple years. Think of the combined money a team, or even just OL, like that has made. I think UW uses this a lot in OL recruiting where they just lay out the contracts their OLs have made. During shutdown they aired the UW/MSU B1G title game when we had Wilson and I figured there was probably a billion dollars of salary on that field. Remember Cousins was the QB and Bell as RB for MSU. For Dike: good if they made a 4 star. I don't recall the timelines for sure but it's different to give a a guy 4 star after its all over than to call them a 4 star when they're young and get the hype train going, which is what happens if you get LSU/UGA offers early in the process. If they got it right from the beginning good for them. Just saying guys up here don't get near the attention as the south. Which is very good for UW and likely a big factor in their success.

So those reports are all made up, ok we'll disagree. I had no preconceived notion on the topic, my notion is literally these reports. My crazy conspiracy is simply that I believe the dozens of reports by countless reputable media outlets on this over the last few months, and this one yesterday seemed to be pretty clear. And that I think it shouldn't be happening. And I don't want it to happen with the vaccine. Even if the science actually never gets compromised in anyway, having stuff like this happen undermines the public perception, which I don't want and helps lead to the mass not listening we have going on now. If that's crazy nonsense conspiracy to you so be it. I don't know how you'd disagree with me that if it's happening it shouldn't and that you wouldn't want it in the vaccine process. So it comes to whether you believe the countless reports, I do, you don't. Like I said, agree to disagree. Perhaps your possible preconceived notion on media bias is a factor too to consider. Essentially your saying that either sources in the CDC are lying in these leaks or that the media itself is literally making it up. Yes that opening statement was too broad and could be read to be the actual research etc was compromised, and was clarified right away. What's missed was that I think it was in response to someone saying how we can't believe the science people because of the contradictions they keep making, they say one thing then roll it back, then say another, then eventually say it etc. I was saying don't hold that against the science in general, because they're dealing with this in there now.

I get your point but that's not what i'm saying. And I wasn't saying to not trust their studies. I was saying to not hold the back and forth in their communications against the science, the comms are getting all messed up right now by politics. I'm saying to trust the science, keep the politics out, and there is plenty of evidence the politics has been interfering with what they're being allowed to say, or they get scolded and then change what they say. This makes them look bad. I don't see how that's controversial at all and its supported by tons of info. It's not a preconceived notion I had this is happening, it's been reported over and over and this today shows how/why. I guess if your take is all this info is made up, then we'll just agree to disagree on the topic. I appreciate your contributions here. I get that CDC isn't involved and its a different group. I'm saying what has been happening there can't happen with the vaccine as well or the problem you and I both fear of people not trusting the vaccine is going to be higher than it needs to be. Reports like I just showed, and the dozens that have happened the whole time, if they come out saying the same thing is happening with the vaccine will undermine the public confidence. They need to stay out of it so there isn't people involved leaking info that we've been pressured to do this this and this, etc. And of course, the media can't grasp at straws type BS either to get clicks if it's not happening.

Generally agree with Snapper points here. We have to be aware and take everything seriously but there is a middle ground to be able to get out and still live and do stuff. While being cautious while you do them. With how much people are back to work/school etc micro analyzing tiny things like ToT is probably a blip on the radar. Similar to at the beginning with taking nets out of basketball hoops. Remember a few weeks ago when I was called a conspiracy theorist and this was made up, in spite of report after report on the topic. This is relevant to the recent vaccine undermining talk, this type of thing can't happen with the vaccine. It has to be political free and left to the scientists on the best route. https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-pandemics-public-health-new-york-e321f4c9098b4db4dd6b1eda76a5179e

Yea at some point you kind of feel bad for Kershaw/Dodgers. They've done so much right in running that team and keep blowing it and/or getting cheated in the playoffs. I hate the big markets as much as the next guy, but they deserve 1. They also home grew a ton of the team so it's not as 'evil' so to speak. Of course they add big moves too but the biggest part of their success is drafting/developing and then keeping the right young guys. I guess the Jansen collapse is theoretically good for trying to get them to pay up for Hader, but I know they have internal options too. For Choi, didn't see it mentioned in the posts here but what was option situation? I'd assume they could've just let him sit in AAA all year right? Although they might have given him their word they wouldn't or something. Tough to blame the team as Thames was doing just fine as the lefty in the platoon and you had him under a few million contract, so can't just cut him. I guess the shrewd move would've been to try and trade Thames since he'd get more back and it would save money. But grand scheme Choi is just a mid level borderline starter, obviously that's better than what we trotted out this year though.