Winter Leagues: Jose Osuna Hits His Third Home Run of the Winter

1. Could Osuna run a little harder on his home run trot? Seems like he has a little attitude. Just sayin’

   • If he can SLG over .500 for the Pirates we’ll live with an attitude.

2. Looks like Suchy is having problems. Maybe this is like Spring training for him. He missed allot of this past year due to injury.

3. Not being political here but how safe is Venezuela nowadays? Has it settled down from the past few years?

   • It has the worlds largest oil reserves and can not provide food and medical care for its people. What do you think?

     • They had the same scenario when Chavez was the dictator but the fear of him led to a certain-type of order within the country.
       The chaos started when he died and fiefdoms jockeyed for position and money, often leading to kidnappings and worse.
       I was wondering if that situation had died down.

       • Interesting conversation. I believe what you see in Venezuela is the propagation of ideological warfare between the left and right with the leftists being those who espouse the direction of the country under Chavez and the right being – I think – the globalist financial system like the IMF and American interests who, under Chavez, were locked out of Venezuela’s oil and banking industry. Without a foothold in either sector, the U.S. and the big banks could not “have” any of Venezuela’s riches, which Chavez used to help the poor, build a million homes for people and subsidize education and many other programs in the country. There has been a constant willingness of “western” economies to interfere in Latin America and this is just another good example that stretches back 100 years or more.

         Here is an interesting conversation between a Neo-Liberal Harvard economist and a former top advisor to Chavez and now Maduro. Interestingly, this interview (in English) took place on Aljazeera TV. You don’t get interviews like this on American TV on topics like this.

         http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/venezuela-worst-economic-crisis-wrong-170501063130120.html

         Check it out and you can see what the trouble is about. This is a proxy war between western banks and the people of Venezuela. The banks would love Venezuela to come crawling to the IMF the way Greece did and they’d own their entire country lock, stock and barrel. This is about greed and riches and a country’s right to self-determination.

         ——————————————
         “Woulds’t thou (Goldman-Sachs) like all this treasure for thy very own?”
         -Wabbit

         • Silly Wabbit, most of the people of Venezuela would love to throw the leftists out, but they can’t do it politically as the left has too many guns. Ask Cervelli what he thinks of his leftist government.

           • Piraddict,

             Thanks for the comment, but I don’t think it is that easy. And I would very much be interested in what Cervelli thinks. Being a wealthy, noteworthy man, this would be an amazing article for P2 to pursue.

             I personally know the daughter of a Venezuelan general who was trained at the infamous “School of the Americas.” This is basically where the American military trains its insurgents in the Latin American world. She was in Caracas and her father was a fighter pilot and high up in the air force there. He was in the palace I believe in 1992 defending Perez against Chavez’ revolution.

             I think it is oversimplifying and possibly wrong to say that “most people in Venezuela would love to throw the leftists out.” What most people want is a stable economy and democracy.

             Problems arise when someone like Chavez gets in and is immediately branded a “terrorist” for – I think – simply having all that oil and not sharing it with the global economies the way – say – the Saudis do. When all of the terrorists of the 9/11 plot were found to be Saudi nationals, nobody attacked Saudi Arabia… because we (U.S.) already own that oil.

             Venezuelan prosperity was undermined at the peak of oil prices when the Saudis flooded the market with supply and thus, crippled the Venezuelan economy.

             This, in my view, is a bit of dirty pool and not a little of the United States trying to gain hegemony over Venezuela’s natural resources. It is much more complex than one might think.

             Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Venezuelan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempts

             ———————————
             Wabbit

             • Hello Wabbit,
               My knowledge of Venezuela includes time spent there pre-coup, so I am familiar with both the poverty and corruption that was there. I actually had a passport stolen in Caracas once, had a time getting out of the country.
               I think you make a mistake to conflate the “globalist financial system and the IMF with the right. In my experience there are more leftists than rightists on Wall Street ( it is in NYC after all) and the IMF is part of the Statist “cultural elite”, hardly a conservative institution.
               As a committed socialists Chavez and Maduro have used expropriated oil investments of others and borrowed money to do some “social spending” on the poor and to line the pockets of the “drug lord” gang leaders who now essentially run the country. The “social spending” has ” improved” the lives of the recipients and essentially functioned as the bribes they were intended to be. So yes the socialists will receive some loyal votes, but not the majority I think if the elections could somehow be free, fair and without threat of violent retribution.
               As to whether the social spending will do any long term good, almost certainly not. Socialism can always be made to look good, until it runs out of other peoples money. The 150 or so year record of socialism when implemented is an unblemished history of cultural failure. Venezuela is just one of the most recent examples. A countries real wealth source of wealth is it’s ability to create value added to either it’s own natural resources or to the goods obtained through trade. Look at examples such as Japan, South Korea, or even Communist China since Deng(which as far as current economic policies is arguably more of a free enterprise place than the USA. Still a lousy place to live due to leftist political tyranny though.)
               If you are going to limit the range of argument that you consider to from the far left to the neo liberal you will preclude the possibility of actually finding the most exciting insights to be found. Why not consider reading some libertarian literature? One place to start would be in France of the early 1800s with an essay called “The Law” by F. Bastiat. You can find it on the Internet.

         • Wabbit, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your
           outstanding post… one of the finest I have ever seen on the
           Internet.

           It’s amazing the way that so many of the good American people (who consider themselves to be well educated) are so easily propagandized/brainwashed. The Venezuelan
           people are better off now than they have EVER been.

           Viva Chavez!

           • Thank you Kevin.
             I wish more Americans would get their news from less corporate owned television.

             I think Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” which airs on PBS is likely to give Americans a much broader view of world geopolitic.

             I think Americans need to stop watching corporate news and start reading newspapers where the “money isn’t.”

             Associated Press reporters don’t “make sh*t up” like you see on Fox all the time. And if you want to read some of the best of journalism, check out our old friend McClatchy. McClatchy newspapers are some of the most credible and thourough news organizations in the world.

             In general: don’t watch TV for information. READ a real newspaper.

             -Wabbit

             • Wabbit, Thanks for the excellent posts, almost thought it was lunch and I was at work reading the web sites that are not government / msm sanctioned.

         • In a weird way, the political climate of Venezuela now is somewhat similar to Colombia after Pablo Escobar died. Both Chavez and Escobar committed terribly atrocious crimes to both attain and remain in control of the populace of their whole nation, mostly by fear and terror, but at the same time both sympathized, understood the plight and aided the poorest and most disenfranchised of their respective countries.

           • jimmyz

             Not a bad comparison. But you might want to think about the people Perez killed too. I think another good parallel is the situation with Cuba.

             Natural resources were always at the bottom of the United States’ animosity with Castro. In the U.S. war for Empire in this hemisphere, Castro claimed Cuba for Cubans. SO, the natural U.S. response was to brand him a terrorist and try to kill him for the next 60 years.

             When the United States government is trying to kill you, you tend to try to keep control. Castro, like Chavez, nationalized his natural resources. Chavez locked out the IMF and the WorldBank and US interests from their oil wealth.

             The same enmity ensued against each leader. Evo Morales in Bolivia is the first president from the indigenous (you would call it “indian”) population and his country has faced the same kinds of economic battles between rich neo-liberals who want the gas wealth and the indigenous poor who want a sustainable country.

             There have been attempts to rip Bolivia in two, with the neo liberals taking over the important gas lands and leaving the leftists to the less commodifyable eastern part of the country…

             Same as it ever was. Read Howard Zinn and you’ll know.

             -Wabbit

             • Correction Rabbit: the natural gas is located in the eastern part of Bolivia and the people around Santa Cruz (which is also a nice agricultural area) would rather not have the wealth under their ground expropriated by Evo Morales and his “indigenous” supporters from the Andres mountain areas in the western ( not eastern) part of the country. The people around Santa Cruz favor self determination, and who can blame them for that?

               • Piraddict…
                 East, west… point still stands. I like this conversation and appreciate your viewpoints though I disagree with some of what you say.

                 You do seem to be able to speak for the people generally in both Bolivia and Venezuela. We are talking about limited democracies at the least and full fledged ones (Bolivia) at best.

                 But the thing we are talking about is the same. We just come to it from opposite sides of the argument, I think. We are talking about the use of a country’s natural resources and the geopolitic around it.

                 Morales (read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales) is involved in a similar situation that existed in Venezuela but is more interested in a “mixed” economy and is vocally against neo-liberal forces in his country.

                 From your prior post, I cannot fathom how you would call the IMF and the World Bank “leftist.” Morales and Chavez and others are what I would call leftist. They are clearly at diametric odds with the IMF and World Bank. To suggest that Wall Street is full of leftists, you must be looking down at the occupy movement. Because Goldman-Sachs is NOT definitely NOT leftist.

                 Perhaps you misidentify the term neo-liberal, which does not carry a connotation that the word “liberal” does in this country. I would say the word neo-liberal is closer to “fascism” than left leaning politics or socialism.

                 As to your point about socialism, I think you see it as a dirty word instead of what it is… Simply a different method of counting money than, say, capitalism.

                 If socialism is such a failure, I suppose England is a failure. Some socialist principals, such as insurance, work very well for the greater good. The problem is that there is clearly a war for global wealth and hegemony… a kind of new imperialism… where global financial institutions will rape and steal anything they can.

                 I think what the IMF and World Bank do, often in connection with oil and gas interests, is gain possession of resources through immense debt, impoverishing debtor nations and ruining any social construct.

                 A bunch of economists from the Chicago school of thought got to run their fascist plan in Chile after the US backed a coup there… 1973 I think… and they destroyed the country and a few people got really rich.
                 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

                 I get that you are a right leaning libertarian. I am a left leaning independent. But we can probably agree on this: where there are riches to be had, greed will win out. Latin America has always been in the crosshairs of US corporate greed. I think the United States, rather than trying to destabilize the democracy in Bolivia and other countries for profit, ought to recognize the rights of these countries to self determination and work with them to support their growth and prosperity. The US ought to try to foster peace, rather than hegemony in Latin America.

                 -Wabbit

                 • Hello Wabbit,

                   I think we’d have to have a long discussion before we might understand each other. In my prior post I said:

                   “I think you make a mistake to conflate the “globalist financial system” and the IMF with the Right. In my experience there are more leftists than rightists on Wall Street ( it is in NYC after all) and the IMF is part of the Statist “cultural elite”, hardly a conservative institution

                   ”
                   People like yourself with a left leaning mental framework seem to have a bipolar view of the world, with leftists (communists, etc) on the left of a linear spectrum and fascists on the right. I don’t see the political world that way. If you took that linear spectrum and wrapped it around like a circle, stapling the two ends together so that the leftists and fascists are “kissing cousins” that is more like how the real political world is. Both leftists and fascists want a strong Government to rule society, extracting wealth from the productive people and redistributing the wealth to people they favor. I am on that circle as far away from both the leftists and fascists as I can possibly get.
                   I didn’t say that the IMF and the global elites (generally people who go to places like Davos) are necessarily leftists. I said the are not part of the Right. Not Right does not equal Left. A person on the Right generally favors limited government, as limited as possible, and therefore opposes both the left and the Statists (you call them fascists) like the IMF/World Bank/ …
                   Regarding Wall Street I am referring to the law firms and financial firms like Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley etc that dominate the street. If you could poll the employees they would vote predominately Democrat, not Republican, like the rest of NYC. Ask yourself, which party have the recent Senators/Governors that have come out of Goldman belonged to? It is a misconception to think of Wall Street as a “Republican bastion”. It is a bastion of self interest and greed, but mostly populated by a majority of Democrats.
                   Yes, I do see England as a failure, though frankly I have only spent about ten days there. Without the financial inflows to London that come from the global financial system and global elites supporting the real estate market I think the country would be “in the toilet”.
                   We do agree on the nefarious role of the global financial institutions though. Global money printing will eventually lead to catastrophic inflation, to the detriment of ordinary people everywhere.
                   Don’t think you have a good perspective on Chile. When I visited a few years ago it looked to be in very good shape. Their fully funded social security system, invested in stocks like the Canadians or Australians, us vastly superior to our US model. They have been run by “center/left governments under Michelle Batchelot (sp?), a former communist on the wrong side of that 1973 revolution for some time now, so I don’t see what you have to complain about. (Though I think they just had an election, I don’t remember who won.)
                   I somewhat agree with your last paragraph in that I think the US should be hands off on Latin America. In the days of fighting communism (Soviet Union) the US government had their political interests there. But now I think the US is mostly apathetic towards Latin America. As long as no foreign power starts to establish a foreign base there I don’t see the US intervening. But watch China’s involvement with Ecuador, or owning the Panama Canal though, that could lead to something.

         • This is without doubt the most foolish post I have ever read on this subject. Chavez destroyed the country, while he lined his pockets and his Swiss bank accounts. Ask Cerveli if you want to hear the truth.

           • No offense, friend but you are out of your league here.
             Wabbit knows of that which he speaks whereas you appear
             to be one of the brainwashed.

             Chavez did NOT destroy the country. He aided the poor
             and downtrodden at the modest expense of the wealthy.
             Or, IOW, the way it should be.

             Swiss bank accounts??? Prove it! And how many
             rich Americans have off-shore accounts? What does that
             say about our beloved country?

             And when did Cervelli become a world class economist?
             Remember two things: 1. With his wages earned in baseball, he has effectively become a part of the “1%” in
             Venezuela so of course he wants to keep as much of his
             money as he can.; 2. Every year, Cervelli has to renew his Visa. I don’t think the State Department would look
             too kindly upon the application of a Chavez/Maduro
             supporter. So what should he say?

             Sometimes, there are none so blind as those who will
             not see. And again… no offense.

4. Does the Stanton trade open up a trade for Frazier from yankees. Their outfield is full, they want Cole not sure what triple A pitcher’s they have but Coles homerun problem worries me for his value later

   • Would be cool to have Meadows and Frazier. I remember reading an article in SI before the draft about them playing against each other in high school.

   • Judge and Stanton. The new Maris and Mantle!

   • I don’t know if they would consider having him play CF instead of Ellsbury and/or Gardner. I know he played CF early on in the minors and has continued to play about 10-20 games there as he progressed but not sure if he is good enough to be a regular CF in the majors

   • I had Todd Frazier on my mind; wrong one.

   • More likely, it moves Judge to the DH role, and Frazier plays RF.

5. Ok but where does he lodge himself when the team takes over on defense?

   • If Osuna continues to hit for average and power, some MLB team will find a place for him in the lineup.

     Are the Pirates destined to lose the 2017 Intl Pool of $2.2 mil? They have not done anything yet, and the only guys left are long shots. Juan Carlos Negret can hit, good BB/K ratio, and stole 23 bases in 50 games in the DSL. Juan Contreras was a big time pitching signing for the Braves but did not impress at GCL. Get him cheap enough at age 18 and maybe he turns out to be a decent MLB Prospect.

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