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Snake Diggity

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Everything posted by Snake Diggity

  1. I think the Chinese, Turks, and Indians would determine how long any worldwide war would last if this conflict spreads. All 3 have no love for Russia/Iran, but they would all be tempted to foster/extend any conflict to further their own agendas. But I really don’t think any of them are stupid enough to take it far enough to ever have their militaries directly engaged against the West. It sure feels like there’s no way out for Putin/Russia. Thats the scary part. The ultimate outcome of this doesn’t really seem in question to me, but how long it takes to get there and how much damage is done along the way is what remains to be seen.
  2. The Rays adding Caballero from Seattle probably takes away the possibility of the Pena-for-Arozarena rumor that was posted here a few weeks ago.
  3. It kind of sounds like he did listen to y’all.
  4. I can promise you my wife will never make the ā€œmistakeā€ of accidentally saving $35,000. Yep, rage. Wife wants to be the boss but not pay any of the cost.
  5. It will be, at best, far less popular than it is now. At worst, it won’t exist. Theres a lot of unsustainable trends: NIL costs skyrocketing Injury fears skyrocketing Aging fanbase Transfer portal mercenaries Attendance costs skyrocketing (stadium construction/maintenance, concession staffing, etc. all passed on to fans) TV revenue declining If it does survive, there will only be between 20 and 65 teams actually competing, likely all in the SEC and B1G. Young people do not give a fuck about sports the way previous generations have.
  6. I talk to my boss once a week for about 20 minutes. It’s perfect.
  7. Rent houses can be an excellent way to generate wealth. If you’re flush with cash, under 50, and can buy in a market where the rent will cover the note (increasingly difficult), they’re amazing supplements to standard 401k and cash savings. But if you don’t have cash to cover renter turnover, repairs, etc., or if you’re close to retirement age, or if you are in a market where rents are lower relative to mortgages, they’re a terrible idea. But for me, someone who bought 4 homes in good markets when I was between the age of 27 and 33 and when rates were near zero, they have been the best investments I’ve made, even if they come with an occasional headache that stocks or other investments dont have. To the OP’s question, I much prefer to use a management company than manage myself. Not only do they reduce the headache of finding and dealing with renters, they also have a long list of contractors they already deal with. Paying for expertise is worth it. They also put another layer between the owner and the renter which can be very valuable. The key is finding a management company who will keep your place rented with renters who pay their rent and don’t destroy your property. Renter turnover will kill your cash flow. So will renters who don’t pay.
  8. My 5 and 8 year old still believed this year. It will not surprise me at all if this was the last year for the older one. My goal was to make it to 8, so I’m satisfied if this is the last year both believe. 8 gives them 5 good years (starting at age 4) where they’re old enough to know what’s going on and remember later in life but young enough not to get made fun of at school. Once my youngest turns 10 we will talk openly about Santa not being real and have a heart to heart to make sure they understand why we ā€œtrickedā€ them. We don’t really build up Santa that much because of all the implications of inequality and religion, but we’ve done enough to give them the Christmas magic. I’m really gonna miss it.
  9. Find someone to create a weekly <2 min video collating the best of surly content for that week, get it on Tik Tok insta Twitter and YouTube. Content generation may be down but there’s enough to make a great weekly video that algorithms would filter to the young demo and get more of them to engage.
  10. There’s no way Abreu would be offered a $40M/2yr contract if he were a free agent. His contract is at least $10M underwater. He might be a good hitter in 2024-2025, but he is unlikely to be worth his contract. I don’t think he was hurt at the beginning of last season, I think he just sucked. But if he’s healthy he might be very good which would be a boon for Houston given the sunk cost.
  11. Houston has a mature roster with 7 guys making >$15M in 2024 and another 3 making $10-15M. Crane hasn’t been cheap and they currently have the 6th highest projected 2024 payroll in the league. Unfortunately the last 4 seasons has decimated the farm system such that they also can’t make big trades (without getting extremely creative/risky). They were ā€œaggressiveā€ last year and made 3 bad deals, 2 of which (Abreu and Montero) are still on their books and preventing them from making additional moves that require adding 2nd or 3rd tier contracts. We should be happy Crane and Bagwell aren’t rushing out to give Josh Hader $100M+ or some stupid shit like that. I believe Dana Brown will make at least 1 significant move before opening day. But even if he doesn’t, Caratini will be one of the best backup C in the league and Houston’s roster is on par with any team in the AL; they’re the current odds favorite to win the pennant and go back to the World Series.
  12. My kids are close to getting old enough to start traveling. We are committed to Disney World in 2024 but I think starting in 2025 we will be able to do one trip abroad each year, and I have Europe at the top of my list. I have traveled quite a bit, but it was mostly solo and 15+ years ago. I have a long standing fantasy to visit the places shown in the last 2 episodes of Band of Brothers, which is Bavaria and Austria. I have never been there but my hope is that the natural beauty will be enough to entertain me, the wife, and 2 girls between 10 and 15. Would love any pointers.
  13. My girls are still elementary aged but goddam I’m dreading their teenage years. Legitimately worried we might not all make it thru unscathed. Sanity and reason doesn’t seem to prevail at all during those times and love doesn’t seem to be enough. And I’ve already failed enough as a parent that they’ll have plenty of reasons to hate me by that point (and plenty of reasons for me to blame myself for any negative outcomes they experience). I’m their hero and confidant and generally their favorite person right now and the thought of the other shoe dropping is terrifying.
  14. So a roster close to this: 2B Altuve 3B Bregman DH Alvarez LF Arozarena RF Tucker 1B Abreu C Diaz CF McCormick SS Dubon Bench: Kessinger, Caratini, Singleton, Meyers SP: Verlander, Brown, Javier, Yariel Rodriguez, Urquidy, France RP: Pressly, Abreu, Shawn Armstrong, Montero, Coleman/Garcia, Whitley/McCullers With Cowser, Baumler, and Povich added to the farm. Rotation is suspect. Bullpen is high ceiling but high risk. Lineup is one of the best and deepest in MLB history. Farm would move from well below average to slightly below average.
  15. Ha. Yeah I guess whenever somebody constantly acts like a condescending dickhead I assume they are taking things pretty seriously. But thanks for clarifying that you’re a condescending dickhead to people because that’s just how you entertain yourself. Cool.
  16. If all the shit you said is true, then he’s not badass. Simple as that. Btw you take yourself way too seriously.
  17. If Evan Stewart is badass and we can afford him, go get him if he wants to be here. Let Ewers and/or Manning and Cook speak up if they think Stewart will fuck shit up. Is he a worse influence than Ramonce Taylor?
  18. Dang some of yall had it rough, tip of the cap for coming up out. I grew up middle middle class but often felt deprived because most of the kids I went to school with were wealthier than us (or at least appeared that way); my mom grew up lower lower middle class and my dad grew up upper upper middle class. I am currently upper middle class. Anyway, I hang my childhood hardship hat on 2 things: we didn’t have air conditioning in our home until I was 10 years old, and we only had 1 TV channel (2-3 when the weather was extremely good) until around the same time. We also had a party line telephone, so sometimes I would be talking to a girl and the neighbor several miles down the road would pick up and tell me she needed to use the phone.
  19. Assuming Sark had his ideal roster mix this season, this is what 2024 currently projects to vs 2023: QB: Out: Murphy; In: Owens RB: Out: Brooks, Robinson; In: Gibson, Clark WR: Out: Worthy, Mitchell, Whittington, Cain, Neyor; In: Golden, TBD, Wingo, Livingstone, Dubose TE: Out: Sanders; In: Washington OL: Out: Jones, TBD, Goram-Welch; In: Baker, Cruz, Kibble DL: Out: Sweat, Murphy, Collins, TBD; In: Umeozulu, January, Hills, Robinson LB: Out: Ford, Bush; In: Simmons, Smith DB: Out: Barron, Thompson, Catalon, Allen, LTG, Brice; In: Black, Filsaime, Mack, Hampton, JJR, Wilson ST: Out: Sanborn; In: Kern That would have Trill Carter, David Gbenda, Ryan Watts, and Kitan Crawford all returning as guys who walked on Sr day.
  20. Just wanna chime in to say fucking fuck Allstate. Had 4 policies for over a decade, no claims, no late payments, never even shopped/negotiated rates. Roof damaged in hail storm in September. Allstate adjuster denies 90% of claim. 50+ emails back and forth, dozens of hours of my time, and a conversation with a local attorney later, I tell the adjuster ā€œpay me for replacing the roof today or I am filing suit tomorrowā€. The money was in my account 6 hours later. Once everything gets resolved completely, I’m switching carriers, don’t care how much higher my premiums and deductibles are. Fuck those motherfuckers.
  21. You sound poor, lazy, and stupid.
  22. To believe what you do, you have to believe Shohei Ohtani is either stupid or naive. The ā€œevidenceā€ you pointed to is a rumor that the Giants offered a ā€œnearly identicalā€ deal to Ohtani, which means major deferrals. Not very convincing. The bottom line to this deferral business is that the agents and players aren’t that stupid. They’re not going to give up tons of money. Altuve is represented by Scott Boras; I’m sure he’s begging the Astros to defer a shitload of money on some lowball Altuve extension. The idea of Altuve accepting some deal that significantly reduces his tax hit thru deferrals is not realistic. And it’s even less realistic for Bregman, who is also represented by Boras.
  23. Another thing I just learned is that apparently Ohtani can avoid CA income tax on the deferred money if he lives elsewhere when it is paid out.
  24. Where is there anything other than pure rumor that Ohtani was offered $600M+ with no deferrals? To me $460M/10yrs seems pretty close to what his other offers likely were. Balanced against the additional endorsement income that comes with being in LA and I feel pretty confident that Ohtani took the most financially lucrative deal he was offered. There’s a huge factor here in assuming the discount rate the CBT uses to calculate the present value of the payments is aligned with reality, so sure, if you think Ohtani was going to earn 20% investment income on whatever he would have been paid in real time then it looks very stupid.
  25. People are blowing the impact of potential deferrals way out of proportion. The net effect of the Ohtani situation is that he signed a $460M/10yr contract; it’s not like he gave the Dodgers a discount or won’t have a huge impact on their CBT amount. Houston may utilize some deferrals in an Altuve extension but it’s not a magic pill to get players to take a big discount or dramatically circumvent the CBT. In Altuve’s case I think a more effective/likely tool is to structure his extension with an extra year on it with a significant buyout so the amount gets spread over a longer period, lowering the CBT AAV. If Altuve says he wants to play thru age 39 and asks for $150M/5yrs, give him $155M/6yrs with the last year being a player option with his choice of a buyout. Bregman is not going to take a discount, whether thru deferrals or otherwise. With a year to his standard he will command $200M+ easy. Houston is not extending or re-signing him.
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