Snake Diggity

Who is Houston’s best catching prospect now that Diaz has graduated and Lee has been traded? Miguel Palma? Garret fucking Guillemette?! Diaz and Lee were pretty much all Houston had in their system at catcher. There may be some dude in the DSL who breaks out in 4-5 years but as of now their farm is really barren at C in terms of prospects who project to have actual MLB value. This is the mentality poorly run franchises have. Most likely this is a nothing trade; Graveman will be a barely above replacement level RP on a free agent level salary for 1.5 years and Lee will be a decent backup C. But trades like this add up and if you do enough of them you end up needlessly closing your window.

I assume you are an adult who is eligible to vote. So yes, you have an actual role in setting the minimum wage. It’s people who hold your opinion who have put politicians in place who have kept the minimum wage below the threshold that would allow those workers the dignity of making enough to save enough to avoid poverty once they are too old to work. You call it “unskilled labor”. I would argue that any job that hasn’t been replaced by a machine requires skills. Of course some skills are in higher demand than others and not all jobs should pay equally, but no worker should be denied a living wage.

He most likely wouldn’t be worth a shit. But every time he makes contact the ball has a chance of leaving the yard; that’s probably worth having him on the bench for pinch hitting scenarios that present a favorable matchup.

Put another way, yes, people who work full time for their entire able-bodied adult lives shouldn’t be automatically condemned to spending their old age in poverty no matter what job they do. It’s basic dignity and should be part of the definition of a living wage.

I think it’s pretty fucked up that you think restaurant workers don’t deserve to be able to make a wage high enough to be able to save enough to avoid poverty in old age, and your opinion shows a disgusting lack of respect for workers in general.

A lot of good takes in this thread. I saw it last night, thought it was good not great which meant I left the theater disappointed. The Lincoln comp works for me, but not sure why. And I agree it would have been better as a series. Acting was great across the board. I disagree that leaving out a scene showing aftermath at Hiroshima was smart. I felt like it would have driven home the real internal conflict Oppie was facing. Especially if it were paired with scene of soldiers coming home who otherwise would have almost certainly died. Also, I liked the score/soundtrack. I thought it was well done and enhanced the dramatic impact of almost every scene. There were a couple times it made it harder for me to understand the dialogue but that’s because my hearing sucks. I felt like it was trying to tell 2 stories (Oppie’s journey in creating the bomb, and Oppie falling victim to the red scare), and that took away from the overall effectiveness of either story.

I wasn’t countering his point you dipshit. I was saying it was partially valid. Your attitude about restaurant workers is an indictment of your character and is an example of why we are losing the dignity of work in this country.

Quero is a lot more highly thought of than Lee. Equivalent Astros package would have been closer to Gilbert and Arrighetti.

For middle/upper-middle class workers, it’s financial literacy. For lower/lower-middle class workers, it’s stagnant wages. It’s virtually impossible to save anything if you’re making $16/hr flipping burgers living on your own in Austin. And it’s impossible to save anything making $40/hr as an electrician in south Texas if you don’t know how to save or that you should be saving at all.

That might happen but more often will be the “Rural Conservative Caucus” wielding their power in the House to avoid voting on funding education and healthcare so they can investigate allegations that the president is a cyborg-alien-pedophile.

Texas and Florida have become havens for conservatives from blue states. Combine that with Mexicans-Americans and Cuban-Americans voting with the GOP more than expected and I will be very surprised if either of those states is competitive in the next decade. But your point stands: NC, WI, OH, AZ, GA, and maybe IA could all be competitive or going blue for the foreseeable future, and if even half of those are reliably blue, the GOP is toast, as they’ll never win the presidency and they’ll never control the senate.

I quit watching after it started off with two people in their EARLY THIRTIES talking about how fucked they are. If you’re younger than 35, you will be fine to retire in your 60s if you immediately start consistently saving 10% of your income and keep working steadily. Even people into their early 40s should have plenty of time to save enough to retire by 70 with even a modicum of discipline. But yes, there’s a shitload of people who are over 50 and have diddly and don’t know how in trouble they are. Luckily it is extremely likely that there will be jobs available, that even olds can do, that will help those people stay out of poverty. Not ideal but imho the retirement “crisis” pales in comparison to the education crisis and the healthcare crisis and probably also the climate crisis

He said he can’t give any of that info in an open hearing but would be happy to provide the info behind closed doors.

He said he has seen the ship but not the beings.

If Houston doesn’t acquire a bat and doesn’t feel the need to carry a 3rd catcher, I think Singleton should be the 13th position player on the playoff roster as a lefthanded bench bat who represents a real HR threat every time he comes up. And how dope of a storyline would it be for him to hit a game winning extra inning HR in the Series.

10 grand would probably buy any material possession I have outside of my homes, car, or wedding ring. I have no valuable/meaningful family heirlooms and there’s nothing my parents have that I really want (that I can think of) other than my wedding ring, which my grandfather wore for over 60 years before he died and I inherited it. I really like my guitar and a couple of pieces of art that my aunt made. My brothers gave me a mandolin that I cherish even though I rarely play it. I have a couple of guayabera shirts I inherited from the grandfather that somebody would have to drastically overpay for to get them from me. But 10 grand would win the whole lot except the ring. That would require life-changing money upward of 6 figures. Maybe not a “material possession”, but I have a video of my daughter and me when she was 1 year old, just sharing a mundane but precious moment listening to some music together. It is my favorite thing in the world. There is probably no amount of money you could offer me to erase that video from existence or get me to commit to never watching it again.

Just a quick warning if any of y’all are looking to build/remodel in Austin; avoid Blue Haven Pools. Had a guy come out to give me a quote on an extensive remodel, he seemed knowledgeable enough and the back of the envelope numbers he was giving me seemed high but reasonable enough to try to get a firm quote. He said he’d get me a final quote with full details in 3 days. A week went by, no response, I followed up, no response. 2 weeks went by, followed up again, he responded that he would have it next day. Another 2 weeks went by, followed up again, no response. So fuck those guys.

Both Gage and Mushinski have looked really good. Houston should keep at least one of them up for the rest of the season, and leave Martinez down as a rested experienced pen arm as insurance against other injuries.

I am hoping we are all missing something and that Elon Musk’s real motive is to genuinely improve society and that he succeeds. Not because I like Elon Musk; no, it’s pretty clear to me that he’s just a giant piece of shit. But I hope we’re all wrong, because if we are right, what an indictment of society that a person like that was allowed to accumulate that many resources and wield that much influence. Fucking hell.

The first 3 paragraphs is the author smelling his own farts. The 4th paragraph might be right, but it might be wrong. The 5th paragraph shows the author is pretty ignorant of demographics and immigration trends.

Collating rumors, Astros have had discussions about trading for: SP: Cease, Verlander, Stroman, Lorenzen OF: Robert, Jimenez, Bellinger RP: Pierce Johnson (was traded to ATL yesterday)

Life has existed on other planets at some point: virtual certainty Intelligent life has existed on other planets at some point: extremely likely Life exists on other planets right now: extremely likely Intelligent life exists on other planets right now: very likely Intelligent life has visited or communicated with humanity at some point: possible Intelligent life has visited earth and left behind evidence: maybe Intelligent life visited earth and left behind evidence that humanity discovered and recognizes as such: unlikely Intelligent life visited earth and left behind technology that humanity possesses and understands: very unlikely Humans have an alien spacecraft in their possession that they know is an alien spacecraft: extremely unlikely Humans are actively communicating with alien civilizations in a way they understand: virtually impossible to believe

Clifford, Baez, Loperfido, and Dezenzo should have extremely high prices on them this week. Houston should not trade any of those guys unless it’s for a non-rental star player. Hopefully teams shopping rentals are interested in guys like Lee, Arrighetti, Leon, and Melton.

Oh, the pool is being “heated”, brother. My guess is that the water is around 93. Refreshing.

Gotta add to this already. Just went out there and she’s sweatin like a mf trying to move this 36” umbrella to angle the shade over the pool. I’m like “wtf are you doing”, she goes “this will help cool down the water”. LMFAOoooo except it’s my life.