Brayden Turns Pro

Yesterday afternoon Brayden Drake got a call that few receive. I have no idea what was said, but it must have been something along the lines of, "Brayden, this is Wayne Decker with the San Diego Padres. We'd like for you to join our organization..."

The Padres took BD in the 12th round of the draft yesterday opening the door to a pro career for a guy that worked his way from a "small" (to quote Jesse Wilson) Missouri high school to a standout career at a solid D-1 baseball school.

His immediate destination is unknown, but thought to be Eugene, Oregon.

It remains to be seen whether we he will continue to play 3rd base or be moved to another position - something he is open to. I think the coaches will find the same thing Coach Darnell (high school) and Coach Guttin (MSU) found: whatever it takes, get his bat in the lineup. The bonuses that come with the bat are that he is very good in the field and an even better guy to have on the team - because other players respect him and he lead quietly by example.

My wife was of course pumped because she can't think of anywhere she'd rather go see him play than in San Diego someday.

Joplin Globe Article

Local TV Story

More Drama with Chrysler

I've got little time to be blogging this morning, but an article I was sent yesterday describes the major legal problem with the way Chrysler (and GM to follow) are structuring their "bankruptcy" proceedings). The bottom line is that what they're doing is illegal, but the government is sanctioning it so no one is going to stop it. The linked article was written before Justice Ginsberg decided to allow the sale of Chrysler to Fiat to proceed (denying the challenge of the Indiana pension funds).

Here's the short version of the long story. The pension funds - and other senior bond holders (who are considered "secured") - are legally entitled to receive 100% of their investment back before unsecured (or junior) investors like stock holders or unions get anything. But in the Chrysler deal, these senior bond holders are getting about $0.27 on the dollar while the unsecured UAW gets about double that amount.

Beyond wrong, this flies in the face of an underlying principle in corporate finance. You can be anti-capitalism all you want, but trust me if people stop buying bonds to back your favorite companies (like Apple) it'll be bad for all of us because they can't operate effectively without that capital.

Just one other thing. Remember the speech the President gave when the Chrysler - Fiat deal was announced? The one where he chastised a few bond holder groups for playing hardball and trying get more than they were entitled to. He was talking about the senior bond holders that were entitled to get 100% and were asking for somewhere in the neighborhood of 50%.

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In The News

The end of May and beginning of June is always busy and I find it difficult to keep up with blogging. That's not to say I've got nothing to say, just less time to sit down and post it.

A few editorial comments from the last few weeks:

- Headline: GM goes bankrupt. Comment: Didn't see that coming!

- Headline: NASA completes work on Hubble. Comments: I'll be the first to say that I find the history of the the space program fascinating. Guys like Alan Shepherd and John Glenn are (semi-)modern cowboys that rode rockets into space back when that was a new thing. Sometime after we ended the moon program it kind of lost me. I don't really think we're getting much out of the billions we're putting into the program at this point. Recently NASA completed a big reno (yes, I watch HGTV with my wife) on the Hubble telescope. They played it up like this was crazy dangerous. Maybe it was, but I'm skeptical. I have a tendency to think they are trying to keep people interested as they transition out of the shuttle program into whatever is next - they don't want their funding cut in other words.

- Headline: Obama says Iran has legitimate nuclear interests. Comments: Really? What world did he wake up in the day he said that? Thinking like that will get us all killed.

- Headline: Obamas go for date night in NYC. Comments: Too easy. I'll leave this alone. Don't get me started on what a waste of taxpayer dollars this is.

- Headline: Queen of England not invited to D-Day ceremony. Comments: I'm sure the invite just got lost in the mail. I'm sure that the 4 heads of state who were invited had no reason to not invite her. She only served during the war. I mean they're all decorated war vets too...wait, never mind.

- Headline: I'm going to be a dad! Comments: Yes, you read that right. We found out in late April and decided to wait until Britt could go to the doctor before we told anyone. The grandparents (all 6 of them) are really excited and so are we. The doctor said Baby Claborn (gender not known yet) should be available for comment on or about 12/25/09.