Tiger337

Only at the bank.

"Have a good one" is definitely an annoying expression, but it is well intentioned, so I don't care. Please sounds like begging. I don't like it and don't use it regularly. I do thank people all the time and that includes clerks. I thank clerks mostly because they have low paying often undesirable jobs and I want to show that I appreciate their effort.

Also, **** the Yankees.

I think it started with Branch Rickey. If that is true, I can believe that there was some sophisticated math involved. The scouts wouldn't have to know the math in order to use it.

I have the same reflex habit. It's just an expression that doesn't really mean anything specific. "My pleasure" sounds fake to me because I usually am pretty sure that they got zero pleasure out of whatever they did for me. I know it's just an generational thing like you said though.

yes, make 50 the average and 10 the standard deviation because 50 sounds like average between 0 and 100 and 10 is a round number. On a bell curve, 68% fall between 40 and 60, so that's thats where most of the players fall. 95% fall between 50 and 70, so 70 is really good 99% fall between 20 and 80, so 80 suggests a very rare player and this is why there are so few 80s. A couple of problems with this are: (1) the scouting scale is not a measurement. It is a categorical variable where players are placed into buckets rather than a assigned a number like 47 or 47.3. The most precise numbers are usually in steps of 80, 75, 70, 65, 60., etc. (2) The distribution of talent is not normal. It is skewed with more individuals clustered around lower numbers and fewer at the high end.

You can't expect them to pay all that money for Valdez and Verlander and give us nice uniforms too.

XBT% is the percentage of times they took at extra base on a single or two extra bases on a double. That's the stat that they were raving about all last year. That's good but they also made a lot of outs on the bases. Overall, they were successful running the bases, but it wasn't historic.

I agree they are not an F (the writer probably just looked at stolen bases), but I also think their baserunning achievements were overrated last year. They led MLB in extra bases taken on hits which is great, but they also led the league in OOB (runner put out making a baserunning play). https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2025-baserunning-batting.shtml They were good though - 2nd in MLB in run scoring percentage (percentage of times a baserunner eventually scores a run). That seems like a stat with a lot of luck in it, but still a good sign.

I wouldn't take the opinion of any writer seriously for something like this.

I have long believed that professional sports is filled with narcissistic "alpha males" and that I wouldn't enjoying hanging out with most of them on a regular basis. They are not my friends though, so it doesn't matter. They are great entertainers.

About 40% of undocumented immigrants came here legally, but their work or student visa expired. I understand the overstay is still illegal, but these aren't rapists and drug dealers. In fact, only a small percentage of undocumented immigrants are serious criminals. I don't think many would protest if they quietly removed that small percentage. That does not require invading cities and disrupting and endangering the lives of everbody in the city

Yes, people accused marothformvp and Stan and Archie of being trolls in the past, but I don't think they were capable of being better. MAGAholic has always been prickly in this forum, but he was once a reasonable poster. Now, he has made a a conscious effort to agitate people with every post he makes and is deliberately just being a trouble maker. That is why he is the first person I put on ignore in a couple of years.

One of the students in the program in whch I work wrote a good article at WBUR about the dangers of AI potentially taking away our civil liberties: https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2026/02/25/ice-ai-surveillance-cell-phone-video-license-plate-readers-sarah-young-goldberg

FanGraphs projects them to finish 16th in the league in runs scored. There were more gains to made on the pitching side and I am not upset that they didn't acquire a hitter, but I am not going to pretend that they don't have potential weaknesses in their line-up. On the positive side, FanGraphs projects them to finish second in run prevention. Great pitching and average offense is typically a successful mix.

Sure, they never expected us to descend towards authoritarianism and to turn on our allies, but as far as personal behavior goes, they were right on target. Amereicans are loud, arrogant, self-absorbed, shallow, ignorant and unserious people. In that respect, we got exactly what we deserved.

We are living up to the ugly American stereotype for sure.

Newsom seems childish to me. I am really hoping somebody more serious emerges. I'm not going to hold my breath.

It will mostly likely be ok. What is certain is that nothing that happens in the first week of spring training has any bearing on the season at all, unless someone gets hurt.

They have the WBC tournament this year, so we might see more minor leaguers playing in spring training than usual.

not bold enough.

yes

They are just as capable of keeping up with the demands of playing every day as they have ever been. They have more off days now and no scheduled double headers for other reasons other than capability. One of them is having a strong union. The reason for bigger pitching staffs is that teams have figured out that having more fresh pitchers allows their best pitchers to throw at maximum effort and get maximum results. Then when they get tired, they have plenty of fresh arms to fill in the innings at the end of the game. Pitchers could pitch just as many innings as they use to, if they were not pitching at maximum effort on every pitch.

The players have more leverage now.

Some have said that. I wouldn't make that claim but I don't think it's outrageous to say that Avila deserves a good deal credit for the roster and I don't think there is an accurate way to say how much