John Lackey and the Red Sox Post Mortem

Before John Lackey was relegated to the permanent disabled list for 2012 with Tommy John surgery, I was hoping he would be traded to the Twins.  Not that I think he is the crafty veteran the Twins pitching staff needs as a leader, but I was imagining I could have a dozen or so home starts to show Lackey what I think of him.  My plan was to bring a half dozen signs, sit as close as possible behind the Twins dugout and be in his line of sight each time he came off the field.

1^st Inning – “Hey, Lackey!  Wanna beer?”

2^nd Inning – “Was that last pitch a spitball or chicken grease?”

3^rd Inning – “Lackey is named ‘Hoss’ cuz of his teeth.”

4^th Inning – “Lackey’s Ex survived 2 cancers:  breast & clubhouse”

5^th Inning – “I Hate John Lackey.” (I need to think of something more clever)

6^th Inning – “Made 6 signs cuz Lackey can’t go 7.”

Extra (when Gardenhire pulls Lackey after 5 1/3) – “See?  I told you!”

Obviously, there has been a never-ending stream of what the Red Sox need to do to improve the team for next year.  There have been more bad ideas than good, like blowing up the team and starting fresh or trading away prospects like Ryan Kalish and Will Middlebrooks for more established players.  I believe team chemistry stems from playing together for a long time.  Players who knew each other in the minors can reconnect in the majors and that builds unity.  One of the problems of the 2011 team was there were too many new parts.  However, I agree there are some players that need to go away.  After the jump, I give my take on many of the players on the roster.

The Dirty Dozen: SitRep 10-12-11



Today marks the second full year of having my Dirty Dozen IRA account with Sharebuilder.  All in all, I’m pleased with the progress of my portfolio, but there are still changes I would like to make.  I will probably make my next moves tomorrow, or Day 1 of my third year with the portfolio.

Paychex, Inc. (PAYX) announced its next quarterly dividend with additional good news.  They will be increasing the dividend payout by $.01 a share.  The ex-dividend date is 10/28/11 and the pay date is 11/15/11.  Factoring in the shares I could receive with reinvestment, this equates to over $5.00 in additional dividend revenue over the next four quarters.  The stock has performed well since the announcement and reached the best profit level since I first purchased shares mid-January of this year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) continues to see its stock price increase and achieves new 52-week High prices just about every other day.  If the stock price can keep from growing by $.95 by November 1, I will receive another full share and have another $.33 in cushion for the next quarter.  If the stock continues to grow like it is, I won’t be able to get a full share every quarter, which really isn’t a bad thing in the long-term.

In other good news, Mattel (MAT) reached its highest profit level in the near full year I have owned the stock.  Similarly, Polaris Industries (PII) has reached its highest profit level.  A. Schulman Inc. (SHLM) has also achieved its highest profit level, but only since the August retool.

Asshole Driver 001

This is a picture of an inappropriate bubble blower I saw in Las Vegas, but I had an idea to put the image to good use.  I'm going to print about a dozen of these and keep them in my glove compartment.  Every insensitive jerk who has parked across two spaces or whips past me to take a spot in a parking lot will get one of these tucked under his windshield wiper.

What made me think of this was a run-in I had with an asshole driver, who, surprisingly, was not sporting a Wisconsin license plate.  I had turned onto the street pictured below and was heading toward the highway.

As you can see, the street is a simple two lane road, the area by the curbs designated for parking.  On the right side of the picture, there are some warehouses and the curb sides are used to unload flatbeds.  There were no trucks or cars parked on that day I can tell you!

I looked into my rear view mirror and saw a cherry red blur whip out of sight.  Fortunately, I was able to get a second look as a mini-van sped past me - on my right!  It was like he was using the shoulder to pass me on a highway.  My shock lasted mere moments as I laid into my horn and flipped the offender the bird through the windshield.

Results Were Mixed

I had a very slow start to my bowling play the other night.  Like a pitcher who can’t get a good feel on the ball to throw his off-speed pitches, I couldn’t seem to find the right angle to throw my hook.  I left a lot of slop on the right side of the lanes and had the hardest time cleaning it up.  I was able to get three marks through 17 frames before going to Plan B, which had me go back to my roots and throw a straight ball.  I was able to set a new single game high score for the season in the third game.

Handicap at start of play:  59

Game 1

9 -,S8 -, 8 1, 0 7, 7 2, X, 9 -, 7 2, 8 -, 8 1 = a bag of shit (95)

Game 2

9 -, 9 -, 8 /, X, 9 -, 9 -, S8 1, X, X, 9 / 8 = 151

Game 3

9 /, 8 1, 9 /, 8 -, X, X, X, 7 -, 8 /, X 8 / = 174

Series Total:  420

Series Avg.:  140

Season Avg.:  135

The Dirty Dozen: SitRep 10-08-11

For someone who claimed he wouldn't recommend people follow his stock market advice, I’m certainly speaking a lot about it of late.  I like the system I’ve worked out from the couple years of study and trial and error and I like patting myself on the back.

I acted on the tactic I spelled out a couple weeks ago regarding selling a portion of my A. Schulman (SHLM) stake to purchase more shares of Paychex (PAYX).  I sold more shares of the former and purchased less than the latter so that I could get the proper position of a new dividend stock.  I’ve abandoned my plans to repurchase shares of Boston Beer (SAM) as I am more focused on collecting dividends.  Plus, SAM suffers from a roller coaster of price fluctuations that is hard to stomach.  I was able to find a small cap stock that filled in my First Month of Quarter dividend group (M1Q).  I now have four stocks for each month of the quarter.

Hot Topic, Inc. (HOTT) is a specialty retailer for teenager clothing.  I asked my daughter about the store and she turned up her nose.  Hot Topic seems to have a lot of clothes for the Emo/Skater demographic.  Be that as it may, the dividend is $.07 per share and the minimum shares I needed to cover the 52-week High price were 125.  The ex-dividend date is 10/14/11 and the dividend payout will be on 10/31/11.  I sold 70 shares of SHLM, purchased 20 of PAYX, and used the remainder for HOTT.  My moves improved my estimated yearly dividends by almost $20.