crickets

Well this afternoon I cashed out of bitcoin and ethereum. Wife and I had discussed what we could do with the money and she said she was set on building a pimped out pool. The bitcoins alone will easily pay for that and all the ethereum will pay for the kids college funds. Holding onto my IOTA and Cardano for now. Not sure where its all going to go, but with what we cashed out with, couldn't be happier.

There is no way to directly buy IOTA with US Dollars. You need to buy a cryptocurrency like Ethereum or bitcoin first. This tutorial is essentially how I bought my bitcoins and ETH through Coinbase, which you can buy with linking to a credit card or paypal I think now. Ethereum transactions are much faster than bitcoins if you don't feel like waiting around for hours. So you would basically buy the $500 in Ethereum, once you have that verified in your Coinbase account, you need to setup a Binance account which allows you to purchase IOTA. You transfer your ETH coins to binance, then they have exchanges where you can convert ETH to BNB(Binance Coins used for trading and converting) then BNB to IOTA. So basically USD -> ETH(Coinbase) -> BNB(Binance) -> IOTA(Binance). If you do this, I am warning you that you need to read up on the procedures and risks for transferring and obtaining coins. There are alot of stories of where people are sending to different exchanges and mistyped something and lost everything. It would be like sending $500 to a paypal address and mistyping their email, you will lose it and no way to retrieve it back. I spent alot of time learning about this process, its not simple by any means. At this time, IOTA is like most cryptocurrencies in their infancy where its difficult to buy, but once they reach solid ground, exchanges like Coinbase will pick them up and that's where Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoins took off as anyone can open a coinbase account and buy them in a few minutes and sell them to cash out with a click of a button. Info on IOTA: https://coincentral.com/what-is-iota-cryptocurrency-coin/ Best of luck, but warning you to read up first and be very careful when you need to transfer the funds around.

This has been a ridiculous run, a few years ago for work I bought 10 bitcoins as the network I maintain got hit with a crypto virus and one frickin folder on our network wasn't being backed up(which I am extremely grateful for at this time) and it would have required a few years of labor work to bring it back, work ended up paying 2 bitcoins to decrypt the files, price at that time was $212. I bought 10 more personally just to have in case something happened again. One of my developers was very knowledegable about cryptocurrencies in general and explained to me how everything works and got me very interested. When the recent fork came in a couple months ago, I received 10 bitcoin cash(about $1,500 each as of last week) as a part of it for free, each bitcoin you owned you received one bitcoin cash for free if you had your coins in an offline wallet. I just cashed half those in for USD around $7,500 and the other half of those in to IOTA coins last week around $4 each, for about 1900 coins. The IOTA is harder to buy as you need to setup a binance account and trade the BitCoinCash for BNB then buy the IOTA. If IOTA gets in with Coinbase on their exchange which is where I have my ETH, it will explode just as ETH and Litecoins did. IOTA has doubled already in the past couple months. If it crashes hard, so be it, I've cashed in a bunch of profit already and the IOTA were free and all profit. I'm holding my ETH and Bitcoins for a long time and hoping IOTA explodes, if it does, I will be asking Mark A if I can buy into the Crew for sure.

The Cubs wouldn't trade either of these guys straight up for Braun. To get them both, we'd need to pay all of Braun's remaining salary and throw in Miller Park (which the Cubs pretty much own already anyway). Even that's probably not enough. And did you read the next two sentences.... "Cubs would need to overpay to make this happen. Would compete for championship with a solid core for the next 4 years."

With Braun and his 10/5 rights about to take effect next month I took a stab at breaking down need and top talent in other teams farm systems: Stearns needs a top 50 prospect back and I bet he’s requesting a top 25 in return which he should. I am hoping that with his one change to his list that maybe one of the teams on his list make a play for him like the Dodgers or Giants before the time comes up, knowing that there is another team out there that he can go to. On No Trade List 2016, one change from last year: Dodgers – Have a need in LF, they are sending out Toles, Gutierrez and Van Slyke and they have a deep farm system. Top 100 Prospects: Bellinger #10 likely off limits, P Yadier Alvarez #46, OF Verdugo #58, 2B Calhoun #78, P Buehler #89 Giants – Need in LF with Parker and Marrero, so so farm system P Beede #84, Inf Arroy #85 Diamondbacks – Tomas in LF, not a good LF’r, not a good farm system Marlins – No real need in OF, not a good farm system Angels – Have a need in LF but not enough in the farm system Padres – Good Farm system, No chance Teams with a need and a good farm system - He would need to approve: Cubs – Babe Ruth, I mean Schwarber has a career slash line of 240/356/483 and he’s not a good defender by any means. Likely a DH or 1B on any other team. They can likely move people around to LF if need be, but if they are calling, I’d be for a Schwarber and Eloy Jimenez return for Braun and stash Schwarber at 1B, Thames in LF for the time being. Cubs would need to overpay to make this happen. Would compete for championship with a solid core for the next 4 years. Astros – Aoki in LF, good farm system that would need to be headlined by Martes or Paulino Blue Jays – Steve Pearce in LF, interesting pieces at the top of their system in Vlad Jr, Sean Reid-Foley and Rowdy Tellez. His wife has ties to Toronto. A’s – Who knows with Billy Beane. Matt Joyce in RF and a decent farm system INF Barreto #49, P Puk #66, P Holmes #81, 3B Chapman #96, P Montas #98. Another West Coast City. Nationals – Werth in LF on last year of contract, they have a 2 year window until most hit FA. Have OF Robles at #5 and P Fedde #57, not sure how much more they want to dish out considering they gave up half their farm for Adam Eaton. Used to be on his approved trade list. Rangers - Have DeShields, Profar, Gallo, Rua in LF. They need a back of a bullpen the most at this point. We can always part with Knebel and Feliz in a package. Their system has been gutted the last couple years but they still have some good talent still, probably need Mendez in return. No Chance in my mind whether they don’t have a window in the next couple years, need in OF or don’t have a farm system: Atlanta Braves White Sox Reds Indians Rockies Tigers Twins Mets Yankees Orioles Phillies Pirates Cardinals Red Sox Royals Mariners Rays

I thought I read in the offseason that he got caught stealing a pen from walgreens in order to sign the contract, thus the reason for not signing it.

We will have the best idea if we regret not moving Braun at last years deadline by the end of the year. Still too early to tell as he could still be moved and could possibly bring back a nice return at the deadline or before his 10/5 rights come up if one of the 6 teams bites off his no trade list. SF left fielders started the season 0-21 for what it's worth.

Anyone want to speculate on the PTBNL for Thornburg? May 6th will be 6 months so it will have to be announced in the next month. I am guessing another pitcher and looking at their lower levels, Denyi Reyes looks like someone that would interest Stearns. 20 Years old and has remarkable control. In the past 2 years he's thrown 88 strikeouts compared to just 7 walks in 109 innings. Won't over power, but has control of 3 pitches in FB, CH and CB. http://www.soxprospects.com/players/reyes-denyi.htm

And to look like he's never played the position before, which is what he's looked like the first 2 games, is not an lol for a professional The camera's showed Counsell after a number of Villar's lack of plays or being out of position and he had that look like *** is he doing out there. I think its something to monitor

Extremely early, but Villar looks very lost at 2nd base. I wouldn't think a transition from SS to 2nd would be that difficult especially when he was playing there last year and all spring training. Hopefully he isn't putting too much pressure on himself knowing he turned down several million dollars guaranteed...

I think the only way this happens is if he suffers a season ending injury before he can be stashed on the DL

Well, does anyone know what time Wily is scheduled to pitch today?

Per Craig Counsell, please rename this thread the Position Player Unit, he wants to get away from calling it the bench

I bet Lucroy has some say if the Rangers are scouting the Brewers pitchers, any idea who Luc liked better out of Guerra, Peralta and Nelson?

Wily's got 2 pitches for a starter that has a hard time getting out lefties. Unless he's got that 3rd pitch working this year, right now or can get lefties out, I'd be fine with a solid High A Pitcher and lotto ticket. Someone like Brett Martin and a lotto or a Pedro Payano and Joe Palumbo deal would be nice in my mind.