BrewerFan

This also reminds me of a discussion we had regarding IFA money. Should we be spending 10M on the IFA infrastructure and signings or add that one FA each year. Who was the guy this year we almost all thought they should sign? Yoan Moncada. Nobody is trading Made, Pena, Uribe and Chourio(this last year during his rookie season) for 1 year of Yoan Moncada playing 3rd. Now, if Nestor Cortes had had a normal Nestor Cortes like season, this trade would look even more ridiculous(still don't like giving up Quintana, but we've established...I'm wrong about trades this year). But we got a 2.2 WAR upgrade for the league minimium. https://stathead.com/baseball/versus-finder.cgi?player_id2=moncad000joh&year_min=2025&player_id1=durbin000cal&seasons_type=forall&request=1&utm_id=durbica01&utm_source=br&utm_medium=sr_xsite&utm_campaign=2023_01_wdgt_player_comparison

My keyboard and mouse are... acting weird making it difficult to type. I hadn't really finished my thought, but the economics aren't so different that what Bando did with Molly was justified. He wanted him to take a paycut and really, just didn't want him back. They were cutting spending after several big signings(for the period) like Higuera, Stubbs, maybe Wegmen, IDR all of them, but it was 5 maybe 6 guys who were making good money(Pleasac was making a couple M which... it's almost like 1M then is equal 10 in today's money. BUT... the important part here is the part in bold. They are making an investment in more than just scouting and signing draft picks, they're really invested in the infastructure of developing the players and they're all in on maxing out their bonus money/IFA money. I did wonder if maybe trading pick #33 was because they were going to be close to 20M and that was just more than they wanted to spend... but you watch Priester pitch and... nope, I was wrong. I thought Civale was just a deal to move him for the first player with a comparable salary and maybe it was and they're that lucky, but I suspect it's as much do to with a VERY deep pro personnel department that is a step ahead of most everyone else. You wonder who is looking at Priester and saying, 'nah, we can fix that, go give up a borderline top 100 prospect, the 33rd pick and a pitcher for this 1st rd bust, or looking at Vaughn and think he's worth taking a shot at trying to get him to be more selective. Another thing about Attanasio, he's got a reputation for giving younger guys a chance, he pays them above market rate and he's loyal...and since Lohse, he's stayed out of the decision making(or his well intentioned meddling is a better way to put it perhaps). But right up there with extending young players, I'd be making sure our scouts and those pitching coaches and Charlie Moore are being compensated well enough as I'd be poaching them if I were any other organization.

They let arguably the most popular player in Brewers history go(not counting Braves player or even Aaron as "Brewers" players) go in Molitor over less than 800K. And they made the offers. I don't know that they did this ever, even when they were bad, but if they were going cheap in the first round signing a guy like Payne(which they still need to pay 75%)... just to save money, not to spend money later, that'd be a problem. They're just weren't able to spend above their bonus this year or last, but not due to lack of effort. And even those bad teams, I wouldn't even say they didn't go after high upside players, but they put so much on the backs of prep pitchers. Huge risk/reward there. Gold, Neugebauer, Sheets, Rogers, Jones, the list is loong. There was no real Latin American program. I don't know how they signed Teddy Higuera, but take the LA players out of the equation here and this is a good, not great team and the future... it looks...alright. That LA system seems like it gives the Brewers more room to work in the draft...if that makes sense. They can take a couple chances...and they're working out great. And yet...they STILL find these guys who hit WALK OFF HOME RUNS... like it's nothing. Just pick up a LFer who takes the first 100m closer deep...things like that!

I said this for the last month. 'Great, Vaughn's up... rally's over.' And then he gets an RBI double with 2 strikes or he hits a 3-run bomb. Some players, being on good teams keeps them more dialed in vs being on historically bad team last year... now a just awful team. I'd imagine it's an entirely different approach. That could explain some of the improvement in swing choices. Maybe he just figured it out later. Maybe we just happened to get him when he was on a Geoff Jenkins like burner. The upshot is, Hoskins should be back and next year... hopefully Wilkens, Adams will be healthy to provide some depth. If Vaughn can keep up his plate discipline, that's better than anyone we could have added.

Adams has the higher walk rate, the higher projected walk rate by Steamer, he hits for much more power. And...AGAIN, he's not a prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system. So we're going to have to trade quite a bit to give up a guy who's 4th-to 6th(again, in every ranking I've seen) in a top 10 systems top 10. And Adams has played primarily 3rd base until Wilken bumped him off it and he's stolen 30 and 28 bags the last two years. So I'm not real concerned with his glove at 1sts and I certainly think it's ridiculous to say "Morgan gets on base without getting hit," which is more sustainable while ignoring who walks more. There's also the power and that's not even comparable. No, not really. Diaz is likely gone. It's strange you think he's this perfect fit, but you wouldn't think Tampa Bay would? You think they'll choose a 33 year old making 12M, a player who has been part of trade rumors for a couple years or do you think they'd go with the guy who can play both corner OF spots, where they have an 83 OPS+ and a 90 OPS+. It's not like Tampa Bay is overflowing with talent there... so 4 spots in the lineup for him to play. I don't think there are a lot of bodies blocking him. I'm more than happy to take a walk rate over ~20% for a K rate of ~26% ... especially when it comes with massive power. In any event, skepticsm is fine. That's probably why we've drafted a 1B and 3B in the first rd the last two years(a 3rd if you include Ebel, though he's on a different time line from the two College bats we took). Just throwing him into a group of prospects with Carlos Rodriguez, Yoho, Tyler Black... who is definitely undervaluing him. Carlos Rodriguez really isn't a highly rated prospect. Tyler Black is a LHed hitting 1B/DH and maybe Corner OF. Lockridge is a RHed hitting 70 grade speed CFer and can play all 3 OF spots. I don't see Black being passed over for Lockridge. I also didn't like trading Quintana... not sure that means you could have just swapped Black in or... how this really pertains to what I was saying. I didn't like that deal. I also said I didn't like the deal for Priester and I didn't like getting Vaughn back. So I'm gonna trust Arnold as he seems to be doing fine. But sure... trading an 18 year old SS didn't feel necessary. They may have think much higher of Lockridge than we have. Right... and I agree he'd be a nice addition. I'm just not sure why the Braves will be looking to move off him. And Durbin doesn't need to play SS. We've still have Turang and Ortiz. I don't think Alvarez is viewed as someone who can do more than just fill in at short with his defense, but... I'd also like him. I think he'll be much more expensive than Castro however. I suspect you'd have to give up a fairly substantial package to acquire him and... by this time next year, we're going to have a whole lot of players pushing for playing time across the IF. But if Yoho, Carlos Rodriguez and Tyler Black gets it done, I would be thrilled. No, it's not, but when talking about trading for prospects, I think it makes sense to try and view it from the other teams perspective. Also looking at if that trade is necessary given in-house options. And yes, there's plenty of make believe... and this is generally how we talk about them. For instance, when people were talking about a "Yelich like trade," and suggesting we give up a Made or Pena for Abrams or Henderson. That was certainly an appealing idea... but it was pointed out Washington didn't seem like they were in a position to trade away their young, controllable SS. I believe we've long been interested in Ramirez. I think that's a trade we'd have made work... but he seems happy there. But sure, that's a player I'd be happy giving up one of the 18-year-olds in Appleton for.

Yeah, I was thinking about 1B and how they(Vaughn and Adams...Jesus...I still wasn't clear when I clarified) would split the time there at 1B, basically just thinking about how much credence I'd put in Vaughns 3-4 week stretch now and then I went back and added Ortiz. So I definitely meant Ortiz would play SS, just misspoke. We brought Back Betancourt to play 1B after his Gold Glove caliber 2011 season, right? Talking about Ortiz playing SS on NEXT years team would be... up there with that! LOL...so yes, that was a mistake.

I didn't see others had replied, but...he kept arguing. Well... they're a top 5 farm system by most mid-season rankings. #2 by Kiley and Bleacher Report, #4 by Fangraphs... If you're talking about Carlos Rodriguez, sure. I don't know what you mean about "the worth of pitchers that are strictly relievers in the minor... that no one reads AA or A pitcher to be named later." I have no idea what that means? They have maybe one guy in their top 30 who is a "strictly reliever," and that's Yoho and his change and similarities to Devin William and just the movement on that Change has him worth a LOT more than a PTBNL. Alverez would be a great addition, but I think Durbin will eventually be that utility guy. I don't think we'd trade what it costs to get him. He was a top 100 prospect and he may have lost some value but the Braves are a team that's going to be competing next year. With the injuries to Albies, Riley, and just lack of offensive ability at SS...where the Braves started playing him more and he held his own. I think he'll have a big role for ATL. Beyond that, I think Durbin is our future Utility player. He can play 2B, 3B, Turang can play SS. Wilken likely takes over at 3B. He was probably close to getting a callup this year, leading AA in OPS by a wide margin(ahead of Luke Adams who was 2nd) and hitting 18HRs, again, far and away the league leader prior to his injury, again ahead of Adams. His AAA promotion was even leaked. So Wilken spends a couple months in AAA, he hits, he gets called up this Sept as a power bat off the bench. He's got more upside than Durbin and Durbin doesn't have the power. His best role is as a utility player. I like Tre Morgan as well... but again, he's not going to be cheap. I don't know that we're going to give up the prospect capital to add a 1B when we have multiple guys ready to take over 1B in the next year. Luke Adams... athletic, big 1B who has been playing 3B. Big time power, he's young, walks a ton, hits for power and gets on base. Burke, hitting over .300, Fischer is a guy who'll move fast... he's either a 3B or 1B. Someone will have to DH. Maybe that's Yelich, it'd be nice if a couple of those guys lived up to their projection and could be .240./400/.500 guys like Adams/Wilken or .275/.375/.500 guys like Fischer or a .300/.370./.430 guy like Burke. But... as we know, that seldom happens. Bitonti is not far behind. He seems like a .220/.350/.500 and 30 HR type bat, but Corner OF/1B. Either way, LOTS of power bats. The Willingness to include Wilken so easiyly AND put him in a group with Yoho, Black and Carlos Rodriguez should be a pretty good sign that we're underrating our power. Wilken was leading the Southern League by...again, a lot in OPS and HRs. More when you take out the guy he who was #2 was also a Brewers prospect. .392 OBP, .550 SLG and 18 HRs(Adams=.241/..422/.477 and a 900 OPS with 11 HRs). You really want to trade Wilken or give up a bunch when...both those problems could be solved by June. 1-Frelick-RF 2-Chourio-LF 3-Yelich-DH 4-Contreras-C 5-Turang-SS 6-Vaughn/Adams 1B 7-Mitchell-CF(for however long, then Perkins, a switch hitter and hell, maybe Lara by the end of next year/) 8-Wilken-3B 9-Durbin Bench Jansen, Tyler Black(1B/Corner OF), Ortiz(He'll probably start most game at 1B if he can get his OPS back to 700), Lockridge(CF/LF/RF), and I'm thinking Siegler(C, 3B, OF) or Adams rotating in at DH/1B/LF I'm not real confident in Lockridge, but I was been strongly disliked and hated the Priester trade, the Vaughn trade, absolutely dumbfounded that we had to give up Quintana and Cortes for a AAAA type prospect, but...just means he'll become PCA with a better OBP.

Carols Rodriguez has no value in a trade at this point. Do you think that may be why you want to trade him for everyone? You realize that? He's a guy with a ERA well over 4 in AAA. We've needed guys who could throw a couple innings or protection numerous times and if we had any confidence in him, we'd have gone with him rather than having to add a guy to the 40 man and use an option. You're not getting a guy with a 60 grade bat and a potential GG 1B... and a guy who can competently play in the OF for that. He's a top 4-6 prospect in the Rays system. They have a top 10 system. He profiles VERY much like a Rays player...a guy who can hit, a little unorthodox for a 1B without great power. They need 1B/DH/Corner OF. I'd expect them to move Yandy Diaz this year as that's how the Rays operate. An older hitter, 12M, final year of his deal... probably not a QO guy(but could be)...Aranda is a 1B/2B/3B guy, not Morgan, but if they move Morgan, they're not giving him away for our scraps. If we could deal Carlos Rodriguez for anyone who was useful in any role... I suspect we'd have done so. He's a guy we trade for another teams scraps if we find a lefty who's flamed out and has something we think we can turn around. He's not the guy you trade for a top ~5 prospect(minus the '25 draft, he's up to 4th in the system, I'd imagine he drops to 5-8 after they had a very deep draft) in a good system. Are you giving up Mike Boeve or...hell, Brock Wilken for pitcher who looks like he MIGHT crack a bad MLB rotation at some point, but more serves as the long man on a bad team.

Brother... what in the world are you talking about? They have... power hitters ALL over and at EVERY position of the minors. They have mower power in the minors, more HIGH level, top ranked power hitters since.. at least that ~2004 system that had Prince, Weeks, Hart and company... The difference here is they are 3-4 deep at those positions? 1B-Adams(2nd in AA in OPS behind teammate Wilken), Burke, Bitonti-HUGE power(leading the league in HRs). Ernesto Martinez.. Boeve may be more of a "slap hitter," but he's really just a hitter with average power. 2B-Pena, Murray, Adamczewski SS-Made, Pratt-Others, but who cares. Not quite slap hitters. 3B-Wilken-I think he's STILL leading AA in HRs and OPS and Adams was 2nd, Fischer the first rd pick who was a 1st rd pick because of his power, another 1st rd pick Ebel... picked because of his power. C-Qureo, certainly not a "slap hitter," but a defensive stud. Dinges... just a great pure hitter at this level, though the defense is a question...despite elite pop times. I missed so many, but saying that's what our farm system is... you should read up on our farm system a bit more man.

I mean... when you just run up endless debt, that's going to happen. And then the next discussion is who is responsible for this... and the answer is of course everyone, but who is MORE responsible. then we may go to more recent policy decisions that are making that worse...and then it gets into politics and I do that enough elsewhere. If there's a side of the discussion you want to have beyond that or a solution or suggestion... I'm eager to hear it. The person I know who manages 1.5B is not a Crypto fan. So if you want to explain to me how that's a hedge against our fiat currency, I'd be interested in hearing your take on that. I did just buy a lot of ETH, but... I really did it without knowing why other than Tom Lee. That was the extent of my rationale. It was 2800 and I've seen people saying they think 15-20K in 18-20 months, so I pulled the trigger. Just the share of my investments that are speculative. That's what I consider crypto at this point. I also bought a little over 1BTC when it was not far off ATHs. That's about as big of a chunk as I feel comfortable leaving up to speculative investments(that and I own FUBO as I think it'll pop when Disney completes the takeover which is inevitable). It's hard for me to explain a rationale for investing in Crypto. I can read it's revenue, margins or any fundamentals. It's basically just this agreement or belief that.... we're all going to keep buying this. Gold has intrinsic value. We're just assigning value to Crypto, right? And I get we're assigning a LOT of value to it, but... that's been my issue hereto-now in any event.

Oooh.... I took a spanking last night...(and the earnings reports did poorly🫢). Seriously though... SMCI... I know they're run poorly, but they're so cheap and expectations were so low...and George lived down to them again! Also, AMD... they actually had a good Quarter. I picked them up after liberation day, so ~84 to 180 to 165, I'll live. They at least have massive tailwinds for Q3 and Q4, so I'll hold. SMCI was sold last night before it dropped under 50. As soon as I saw the EPS and then margins which are 9%? For the demand they should be in? Anyway, both are getting beat up, but AMD had a lot of write offs as they haven't gotten their export license for China, BUT... they are still loading up on the MI300 for China(I think it's MI300). MI355 ramping and they're raising prices in Q3 due to demand and they have the MI400 coming out which compares favorably to the B200 for inference...kinda. The only concern is Trump talking about Semiconductor tariffs coming this week. That's... kinda baffling. May not make much sense to some to hold NVDA and AMD, but AI CapEx is expected to reach 1 TRILLION by 2028. If they would have had China sales for last Quarter, their growth would have been closer to 30% in DC revenue and... they'd be looking at 200 a share. Still have about 20X NVDA as AMD just due to the splits, but I like both. And of course AVGO slots in between the two.

Of course it's partially because of the rookie class around him... if you had Paul Skenes, Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio(or Imanaga...and hell, even Ortiz had 3.1 WAR last year). But even in spite of a down class, as of right now, he should not be in the running. He should be 3rd or 4th on the team. He's obviously the most exciting, talented and , but that's not the criteria. This is obviously selfish. He seems like a great dude and I'm rooting for him to make about 30M less(or more if he career continues along anything close to this trajectory)... but I'm a Brewers fan first and...I want to see 6 more years of Mis in Milwaukee(At least).

It's really kinda silly that Misi is the favorite at the moment. Or even runner up. Collins and Durbin should both easily clear him...at the moment. Baldwin should be the obvious favorite. I'd say the Brewers vote will split the field, but... it's like Durbin, Collins, Patrick, Logan Henderson may end up in the conversation. He's been as good as Misiorowski for conventional ROY criteria. Just being SUPER talented shouldn't win you the award. You had a guy last year who was 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA and he barely got any votes. Chourio puts up a 4WAR season and he doesn't get 1 first place vote. A rookie pitcher starts 7 games, throws really hard(and he's...really good) and he's gonna win it? And of course it'll only cost us, we won't get a pick. It feels like it shouldn't really matter. If you have a guy finish top 2... you get a pick. I guess all I can hope is that they ramp up the contract extension talks and... it cost us more down the line, but we still sign him for 8 years. I think with this pitcher development, his mentality and eagerness to learn and he's pretty fiery, they're goin to improve the command and he's going to be damn near unhittable.

If only they could develop a pitcher or 2...

That AA team could be a LOT of fun next year. I know if didn't work out great in 2008, but I remember having LaPorta, Salome, Green, Brantley, Gamel, Taylor Green, LoCain, Nomar's brother(though Normah should have played in Milwaukee in stead of Bahston)...I think Maldanado was on that team... among others. So what's the AA team look like potentially? 1B-Burke 2B-Pena SS-Made 3B-Fischer C-Dinges LF-Adamscewski CF-Payne(by some point) RF-Bitonti DH-IDK, Adams, Boeve... neither since they'll be in AAA probably, but I'm kinda reaching after LF. Utility-Dickinson(maybe optimistic). I don't really care who or what they round it out with, there are going to be 5-6 guys at AAA like Pratt, Wilken, Boeve, Adams, Murray...and I suppose Quero starts in AAA again given this has been a bit of a lost-season after a completely lost-season. But I still think he's got a bright future. He's also still young for a well rounded catcher. Just has to get right and sting together a couple good months of health. We may reach a point where Quero and Dinges end up like Salome and Lucroy where the more touted catcher gets passed up for the most steady one.

LOL...it really does. The Henderson's dropping Logan off in front of the guys! Momma Henderson- "Good lucky Honey! Love you! And make sure you tuck in your jersey!" Logan-"GAWD....stop it Mom, you're embarrassing me in front of Christian and Brandon! And get me some Ranch Sunflower Seeds before the game....I HATE those stupid plain ones." Papa Henderson- "Hey, don't talk to your Mother like that! Your Uniform would still be dirty if not for her."

I actually said to my Dad he'll start through the Cubs series and he'll go on the IL with a Calf Strain or something. They won't say it's his arm or oblique because they won't want to scare people, but... something to just let him rest and get him ready for the stretch. BUT... he did take a good shot off the leg. If he's limping or something... that could impact everything. So maybe this is legit. Still hyper-cautious, but an actual bruised and sore leg? Either way, when people were "fine" with giving up Henderson for 2 months of Suarez... the few that were, how many other teams have the luxury of bringing up a guy like Henderson to fill in? Also, selfishly, I wouldn't be bothered if a couple other NL rookies REALLY start just getting hot and Mis slides down the ROY list!

So you're alright with just winning in the regular season and never contending for a World Series? Sorry I have higher standards that you! I'd have traded Made and Pena for that Ship!

I'm annoyed with the Cortes/Quintana trade. Why the Brewers would trade Quintana, a kid that just turned 18, a kid that was the top prospect in the same class as Pena and Made, which I understand doesn't make him as good as either, but you got back who? A fast 28-year-old OFer who... hasn't done much. An above average starting pitcher wasn't enough for him(especially considering what the Padres throw around in trades). Quintana is exactly the type of prospect I don't like just throwing into a trade. He just turned 18 3 months ago, he's a switch hitting SS with a 50 overall grade. In all likelihood, he won't end up becoming an impact player, but if he were in HS, he'd barely be old for the Sr class and eligible for next years draft. I wonder if he had just played a HS season, what he'd have done? Bet he gets picked pretty highly. and he's still be pretty young for the class. You got a prospect who seems like a defensive OFer who is a AAAA player and you had to give him up? I'd guess Quintana was on his way to LowA with Made and Pena getting the move up here shortly. And it's not that I wouldn't want to trade Quintana, he was just valued as...what? Nothing. I'd have rather traded the Quintana who is starting for us, thrown Nestor into the rotation. I imagine we'd have been able to get another OFer in that deal. And then we paid for it. That seems insane. But, that said. -I'm counting the trades we've made this year. We made them "before the deadline." So-Priester-Also hated that trade at the time. Just found out he went to school with a friend of mine's sister. Irrespective of that, he's been throwing like a #2. A++ -Andrew Vaughn For the first week he came up, I said, "well, this rally is over." Zero faith. I thought he may run into a couple but hit .210 if he got hot. He's been a MVP caliber player if you extrapolate what he's done during the time he's been here, and the swings have been great. A+++++(two more pluses than Priester because we didn't have to give up the 33rd pick, a really good young CFer and a pitcher. Danny Jansen -I think he has a .770 OPS since June 1st. We gave up a guy who was blocked, but a nice player. Big time protection against Contreras getting hurt AND gives Contreras time off. Plus, Contreras just had a 5 hit game. .632./.650/1.211 and a 1.861 OP. I Mena, I'd like to see more walks. .632 BA and only a .650 OBP? Kinda weak. But, we gave up very little. So; B+ Shelby Miller+Jordan Montgomery I wanted a high leverage reliever to slot in ahead of Mears. I do not think that's what Miller is, but I think he is a good reliever. We only had to give up money in the form of Montgomery. I hope he hangs out in the Brewers clubhouse as I'd like to see him rehab with the Brewers and maybe sign a 1./10M deal next year. The Brewers liked him, he'd be a good lefty and I think he has good stuff and we all know TJ tends to add 1-3 MPH...generally 1-2, but I'm going to be optimistic. I would still prefer 3./60 and more likely 3./75 for Woody, he's a veteran leader, but it's not the place for that. Only took on money A- Would have liked Duran, that would have cost Henderson+a guy like Wilken+. If not Hendo and Quero. Too much. Cortes+Quintanta--- FFFFF Cortes should have been kept and we could have added any number of OFers for cheap Quintana has a big first half next year and he's knocking on the top 100. If nothing else, you got VERY little trade value for both players. I would hae thought either player was an overpay, we gave up both. F Overall, my priority was NOT giving up a big haul as despite what Twitter says, we're a EXTREMELY WELL run organization. A reason I like posting here, the posters get it. We ALL understand that Jesus Made could VERY easily play 40 games for the Brewers over 2 years and be so bad that he's DFAed or traded to a team that sees his prospect ranking and wants to try and rehab him. So he could be a huge bust. We all understand that risk is acceptable when you see the surplus value that you get in the ONE in 20 chance that he becomes an MVP candidate as a SHing SS. That's worth maybe 200M for the Brewers, more if you can sign him like chourio. So would I have loved Naylor at 1B/DH? Yes, O'Hearn? Sure. I REALLY would have loved Duran/Bautista/Helsley and the package the As gave up was great(not for Made). But the prices were prohibitive and while we didn't improve our chances and now a series vs the Pads may be a bit more difficult...and while Suarez didn't go for a ton, he DID go for roughly what I'd equate to Luke Adams/Brice Wlken, Letson and Knoth. Maybe more as Seattle may be one of the few teams with a deeper farm system. Just hope Hoskins can come back and hit for some pop. Chourio needs to get back and stay hot. Contreras getting hot would be HUGE and Logan Henderson and Shelby Miller to the pen makes that Pen so much tougher. Overall A- A for the players B-For not getting that final bat A for not overpaying with a future core player.

That's... exactly what I'm thinking. I also think AMD ( as well as AVGO, SMCI, VRT) are going to see big returns also as will... but that's just because of the scope of the investment. Projected to be 1T a year by 2030). At 270B, AMD can get to 1T much easier than NVDA at ~4.5T(I know it dropped today, but when it hit it's ATH) will hit 13T. But... it does still have a massive runway. It's clearly the 1500 hundred pound Gorilla in the room... Nvidia really is just... an incredible story. And I think we did the right thing by allowing them to sell the H20 and...I'm hearing the B20 may be approved next year to China. Far better to keep China dependent on Nvidia, the Cuda platform. Better than Huawei developing GPUs that can compete for now. **I also read a story that there are at least 5 companies now specializing in fixing H100 GPUs or even the H200 NVL. Now if there is that type of demand in China for GPUs that were never legal to sell there... As for the Quantum stocks, I suspect they'll see 5-7 again, but there's plenty of time to get back in on those.

Not May, but yeah, when we came out with tariffs at the highest level since 1922, higher than the Smoot-Hawley tariffs that caused the market to crash in less than 2 1/2 days of trading. I'm lucky, I've got a friend who manages over 1B for one of the largest investment firms in the Country, but even then, he said he had no idea how low things could go. Said he was holding personally, they'd been hedging in the fund before that so they didn't get hit as hard, but nobody knew what was going to happen with those... asinine tariffs. I mean, we still don't completely know as it takes years to work out a trade deal, so even the trade "deals" we're getting are just... broad outlines like we're trying to do with China... the one Country we ACTUALLY needed to deal with due to their trade practices, but the EU, Canada, Japan, Mexico? It was all nonsense. What Trump DID do... which I love as someone who's invested heavily in AI in my brokerage account, was lift export restrictions for Nvidia(and AMD) on Saudi Arabia, Qatar... and China. Not sure if that's good for the Country, but it's good for me. I bought QBTS and RGTI for I THINK 77 cents and RGTI for 1.50, but as I said... held for, IDK, 7-8 months and then when Google came out with their Quantum "breakthrough," and it went up, set that stop loss. It was +/-15-20% a day. Again, all speculative(and then I bought SLI, LAC, TTI and several others that were of little value). But when Jensen came out and said we were 20 years away from Quantum being viable and it tanked the sector, my stop losses triggered.] If I had any actual faith in it, I'd have held, but being as they were still operating at a loss and QBTS had just the one large client, I didn't hold. But, can't complain too bad. That was set up for my Sisters kids, so they got a nice head start and they're not even starting school yet. Moved it into SMH, TSM and AMZN. My biggest regret is spending years investing in rental properties and let my Roth sit in index funds. Oh, and Ethereum. That's one I'm investing in heavily right now. Hoping Tom Lee ends up being right about that one.

Yeah... well, I did the Math. After I decided to sell the rental properties I owned a couple years ago, I was 5 trades in stocks that, 5 that I'd invested some money into... away from being a billionaire if I could go and live late '23 to '24 over again! No options. Hindsight often makes us feel stupid. For instance, I bought a few thousand shares of QBTS under 1 dollar. That was for my Nephew, Niece and Nephew(obviously not a 529, I don't like being limited to index funds). And it took off. But it was a speculative play, so I didn't want to risk it just going up on hype due to Google's announcements, I kept setting stop losses. It hit 5, I set it at 4, hit 8, set it at 6. Well, it triggered looong before it topped out at 20(I trigged before it topped out at 10.50 that first leg). In fairness, that wasn't really investing, it was gambling, so I should count it as a win, but I still kick myself for not buying more and holding it. I was pretty lucky though, I put most of what I made in NVDA. Irresponsible, but initially my plan was to wait until I figured out the capital gains... which because I didn't reinvest in another property, I had all that depreciation to repay. Anyway, when it came to "liberation day," I bought mostly AVGO, AMD and then added to AMZN(always add to AMZN... tomorrow I will be putting what cash I have into AMZN. They're STILL in their growing phase. As soon as they ease up a bit on the capex... they're going to grow even more than they have. They're guiding for ~180 BILLION next Quarter. They'll be at 1T in revenue within a couple years. Even this earnings report was strong... they beat expectations, just lower margins for AWS... and they lagged behind Azure and Google Coud which grew 32% and 39%. For the time being, that is good news for NVDA, but long-term, when they slow spending, it's going to take off. The "nobody ever got fired buying IBM," is going to turn into "nobody ever got fired buying AMZN."

I don't think a team can trade more than 250K per trade in IFA bonus room... And I don't think you're getting back a pick and 1.5 in IFA bonus room for Wilken even if it was legal. But you also want to move Frelick to 3B... so you kinda march to the beat of our own Drummer Harold. You KNOW they're not moving Frelick to 3B at this point in the year. If this was ST, MAYBE. Murphy did talk about how shocked we'd be...before injuries hit. Not with the best record in the league. That'd be foolish.

No, he's not. 1-Again, Suarez is a RENTAL. You do get that right? So he has a bad series and he's gone. Kwan is here for 4 post-season runs(OR 3 and they trade him in ~2 years and recoup some of their prospect capital). 2-Suarez strikes out a LOT. Led the league 3 times in the last 3-4 years before this year. What happens in the playoffs? You get more or LESS pitchers with high K rates? Kwan is another guy who doesn't strike out, has very good speed, is hitting for more(but not a ton) of power and is FAR more likely in a tight game to get a runner in than Suarez. The entire argument for Suarez is that despite the poor BA, OBP and only being a rental, he's a bigger upgrade than the Gold Glover who hits, gets on base at a much higher clip because...we're hoping Suarez can win a game with a HR. Kwan impacts the game in all facets positively. 3-You can also move Collins to 2B and Turang to SS, right? You still have VERY good defense with a GG OFer where as Suarez is a poor defender at 3B. Then just the facts based on their performance. Lets compare recent performance;

You're going to have to explain how you arrive at that for me.