1984Echoes

Maybe it's me but, damaged goods (could be just semantics...) means that you're getting pretty much zero value in the upcoming year... I'm interested in someone recovering value (after an injury year or an underperforming year... like Candy or Boyd in 2023); not interested in damaged goods (Boyd in 2022...). At least based on my definition, Candy is not damaged goods, he's a recovery play after a subpar year. Per Chas's first point - if the Tiger's believe he can get back to a 1-2 WAR player than her is worth tendering at $7 mill - I preferred to tender him. Per Chas's other points that there may be other issues that made them more willing to offer less than the tender and were open to losing him if he didn't accept... I think this is where you may be calling it a "damaged goods" situation... I don't believe the Tigers viewed Candy as "damaged goods" in either definition... I'm under the belief that the Tigers did not want to take the "risk" or put a premium cost (the Arb number) on the recovery play, the risk being that he has another bad year or cannot get back to higher than a 0.5-ish WAR... so if he wouldn't agree to $5 mill (just guessing) with the Tigers they were non-tendering. It basically gets us to the exact same spot... I just think there are different reasons for ending up at that spot than what you and Chas are surmising...

And here ya' go: https://theathletic.com/3959712/2022/12/02/killian-hayes-pistons-mavericks-overtime/ But... actually... I'm one of those who is not yet ready to give up on the kid... Still only 21 and that's just way too early to give up on him... I just hate giving up on players until they've proven to me that they just can't cut it and it takes me forever to give up on a guy who I think has talent. It's why I obsess over trading away or giving up on Middleton's and Dinwiddie's and Christian Wood's and stuff... It's even why I couldn't give up on Drummond and his 10-cent head... I'm just wait and see on Killian to see what he is when he fully matures.

Except the next headline is (will be): "Snowden just conscripted into the Russian Army and has been sent to Kherson province to help stem recent Ukrainian advances towards Crimea..."

And the 1980's interest rate levels (very high) and resulting recession were requirements to kill off the stagnation malaise the country had been mired in since Nixon...

They're not at the top of the draft so I don't know if anything will fall to us other than a lottery ticket reliever. Here's to hoping Harris can be as effective as AL AVILA in the Rule V draft...

Also a high degree of likelihood IMO.

I believe this has a high degree of likelihood. I don't know about the 4 Wins... but even at 3.5-ish (close enough to the 4) he'll get that contract. And it won't be us.

I don't agree with this. If he's this bad, you don't even negotiate/ offer, you just non-tender. What purpose does making an offer knowing he wouldn't accept it serve? It's pointless IMO. Don't like the guy? Let him go. There's no reason to make farce offers/ negotiations...

If they believed he was damaged goods then why did they try to negotiate a 2023 contract with him? You don't negotiate with damaged goods. You just walk away.

This I believe to be true... They may have even believed he had the potential to get back to a 2 +/- Win player but didn't want to shoulder the burden of proof... As evidenced by their offer, their non-tender, and the actual signing value of his Nats contract...

The Tigers DID offer him a 2023 contract (or were open to...) just at below his Arb number (unknown what the #/ offer was exactly...) and therefore Candy refused and we non-tendered...

I prefer to look back at 2021 for Candelario. When he was good.

Yeah, that's better... "So-called evidence" is sort of like "But I have Alternative Facts"....

Not messed up. Not as long as inflation is an issue: Strong jobs report = persistent inflation = potential for more interest rate hikes = stock market down. If inflation were not an issue, then: Strong jobs report = strong economy/ more spending/ more profits = stock market up. It's almost like an algebraic or algorithmic statement.

Yeah I gotcha.... And even if I had hard proof in my hands and put it right in front of the face of a certain few people they'd still say "I don't believe it... I only believe in my own narrative and your hard evidence doesn't fit my narrative so...".

Specifically since, the guys who were going to win those elections, at the top (not the representative Iraqi "Congress"), would be the Shia... who had a serious axe to grind against the Sunni, and who are constantly arguing against/ thwarting the Kurds... not to mention the inherent corruption at the top... It bode very ill towards reconciliation or a coming together of the country and, especially with the Shia-hell-bent-for-revenge against the Sunni... an ABSOLUTE KNOWN that the country would descend into civil war. And the Bush Administration/ Rumsfeld/ etc. played DIRECTLY into their hands. Like I said, I have no idea if my plan was any better... but a few SIMPLE measures that were not taken, IMO, would have changed the outcome considerably (tripartite Presidency, enforced revenue sharing, NOT disbanding the Sunni Army, US control for at least a few years to try and get these measures to take hold). Maybe they descend anyways... but I'd rather put them in the best position to succeed rather than the best position to civil war.... Just my 2 cents.

Probably not the best article to quote... But it's also not hard to Google and still find info - not widely published or announced - where the US is working hand-in-hand with the Ukrainian government to step-by-step plan/ process/ supply the war effort against Russia. But ALSO that the US is behind-the-scenes advising the military AND pressing Zelensky to be open to negotiations, including getting Zelensky to drop the "no-negotiations-with-Russia-while-Putin-is-still-in-power" stance that he had announced. To Romad's point: Putin just announced that he will start negotiating once the US recognizes the territory that Putin WANTS to steal from Ukraine: the 4 provinces, and not before. Total non-starter. Also... I NEVER said the US was negotiating without Ukraine. I said the US is pressing, quietly, on both sides to give-in a little and start negotiating. But NOTHING gets done without Ukraine's consent. And since Russia is the belligerent and the laughably obtuse... I don't see anything happening soon. Ukraine needs to keep taking back their stolen territory before Russia will take them seriously. Push Russian forces back in all 4 provinces, and now endangering Russia's hold on Crimea, would do it. We're not there yet. Ukraine is not there yet. And, completely, understandably, unwilling to negotiate until they achieve more battlefield success, a reasonable assumption. And not until Putin quits fucking around and starts to take them seriously.

The simple solution was to NOT allow the Shia to demand an immediate handover of the government to them, but rather, to instead enforce a MacArthur Plan (as in General MacArthur dictatorship over Japan for 7 years) whereby the US maintained control over Iraq for at least a few years and... Enforced a tripartite provisional government on Iraq with an equal say from each of the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish regions, including a Tri-Presidential office (2 of 3 votes to win on any position/ law/ etc...), an equal sharing of oil revenues between the 3 regions (Sunni are currently shut out since they have no oil), an agreement to rebuild Sunni areas as they were the areas most devastated by the US takeover (I know Sunnis/ Saddam were the cause of all angst prior to the US but gotta put them back together again, for the people, not the old political/ repressive establishment), NOT just disband the Sunni military forces (this was the cause of, first, Al-Queda in Iraq consisting of all fired Sunni officers and military personnel, and then ISIS which also was initially comprised of 95% of these fired Sunni officers and military... all done at the demands of the Shia... just... STUPID!!!) but instead start an immediate integration program to have equal representation from all 3 regions in a representative military. I don't know if this succeeds any better, or worse, than actual history. But I am firm in my belief that I had the correct plan, to put the country in its best possible position to succeed, rather than just giving in COMPLETELY to Shia demands... who had an OBVIOUS axe to grind with the Sunni... Just my 2 cents.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-war-biden-prepared-meet-082353083.html

Yeah... exactly. I don't see this as Avila-esque. I see this as no different than any other team that looks for a back-ender that can pitch in AAA, start, long-relieve, whatever based on circumstances, to fill out a rotation. A recovery play for rotation depth, and we, along with every other team, pretty much does the same. Per Edman's post, it looks like Harris has had some success with this. Avila not so much. Teheran, Fiers, etc... no different than this Boyd signing. Fiers was his one good job and pretty much miss on all the rest. Hoping Harris is better at this than Avila by taking a shot with Boyd... And it's after he's already made his health recovery last year and got back to pitching in MLB. And for just 1 year. I can live with it, and expected exactly this type of signing and probably one more recovery project signing for rotation depth... I don't see this move as deserving of any angst... IMO.

Not necessarily... But even if so... OK, trade us Lawrence for one of our 1sts then...

Or... (And this won't happen but just speculating...) Jax finishes with the worst record and then holds an auction for the #1 pick going to the highest bidder...

Even so... Biden pressed Zelensky into dropping the "Refuse to negotiate with Putin" stance that he was holding... about a month or so ago... This was one of the under-the-radar diplomacy moves Biden/ U.S. were making that I had alluded to earlier...

After the way the game started... Yeah.

Well I guess I played my part then...