gehringer_2

I have no complaint about how much players make, if what they do generates the income, then they are entitled to it. What I object to is my team not being able to compete on a level playing field. What the argument misses is that more 'socialism' among the owners *is* good for competition. In today's baseball world, whether you believe more competition is good for the fans comes down to whether you live in a have or a have-not city.

If there is a driver this time around, I think it would be a schism within ownership between those are demanding to have the playing field leveled vs the Dodgers/Yankees/Mets. In that collision the players would be more or less just be caught in the middle. I don't have any particular insight into how PO'd the majority of owners are at the way the Dodgers and couple others have been throwing money around, but I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature around the issue is rising, in part because of the on-going failures to thrive at so many RSNs. When a dozen or so teams are going to be asked to negotiate away income they thought they could count on, it can't make them happy to see LA drop $60M on a 4 WAR player. So while I don't know if the strain between owners is high or not, it's easy enough to see the reasons it might be growing. One way that could play out in terms of the actual contract issues is that the players want the number of years of arb control cut, and I can't see any way the mid market and below teams would ever agree to that without a big increase in revenue sharing. So there is one possible three way dance.

Once the Dodgers sign Skubal at the end of the season, they'll have more AAV to 3 players:Tucker, Ohtani and Skubal; than the total payroll of maybe 20 teams.

whatever slight probability remained that Skubal re-signs with the Tigers just evaporated with the Tucker signing.

NBA rule book sucks.

Good point. It's another element in a general trend toward intellectual passivity. We watch too much, generate too little, construct intellectual shelters when we need the outside constantly storming our brain's ramparts. I think it's all very damaging. We are getting to be like bored dogs that chew on the carpet or lick their paws out of lack of intellectual stimulation. Our brains evolved as problem solving machines to help keep us alive, and we are starving them for anything to do and so leaving the lizard brain in control as the higher functions atrophy.

If you don't think you have too much starting pitching, you probably don't have enough.

I think ASP has shown a fine level of offensive potential for an NHL defenseman. The question for ASP is can he become a more effective defensive defenseman. At 20, we know he can get stronger so it's reasonable to expect more upside on his ability to handle opponents that are out-muscling him right now, but it might be another 2 yrs before he reaches his ceiling in that regard.

I think we are headed for Yugoslavia. The level of support Trump is finding in the US public for cruel, hateful, murderous policies both at home and abroad has me as doubtful about the future of this country as I have ever been. This public is far, far worse than the one that took 10yrs to realize Vietnam was wrong. Sliding rapidly into irredeemable IMV. the one accomplishment of the Christian Right has been to finally reveal the Anti-Christ for us. It's them.

LOL - I suppose based on the Tigers international player track record that is probably true, but I'd call that a bug, not a feature. 🇻🇪 🇩🇴 🇲🇽

I don't think it has to be a matter of replacement - all the entertainment/social interaction sites can remain profitable - I don't think that precludes the rise of new high trust sources. There already are some actually. Ironically, I think NPR, and public radio locally, which have found that public support is strong after being cut off the government trough, is in much better shape to concentrate on the quality of their journalism now that they can stop arguing internally about the risk to the government $ on every story they do.

would an international signing be more likely to be a young prospect than a 30 yr old MiLB retread? Certainly less shame in that! 😉

the center of the this system looks like it has just parked itself somewhere around London Ontario and made itself comfortable there.

They are moving US personnel out of harm's way in Qatar, which could be the prelude to a strike, or just a feint to make Iran fear a strike. Is the admin's strategy going to be that we drop a few bombs for each protester they kill on the street? I guess that could get their attention based on how good the targeting is. If it just makes showy explosions that just make life harder for everyday people, it could be pretty pointless. I'd be pleasantly surprised if we have intelligence assets in Iran good enough hit the targets that could make such a plan effective.

I'm surprised and sad to hear that public administration in MN seems to have lapsed so badly. When I lived there I was always impressed that they seemed to run a sound good operation. I always got the impression that MN liberalism had a strongly realist view of human behavior - I guess either that was a mirage or it just got lost somewhere.

our 2 hr forecasted snow flurry is now up to about 9 hrs.

yup. I don't think I've ever seen them send plows out in A^2 before the snow stops. They'll go out and salt if it's wet and is going to start to freeze in place, but I guess they really hate to have to go back and plow anywhere twice.

ah - should have looked closer!

LOL. yes. We had brother and sister Elkhounds and we had to work on the male, who was a year older, to at least wait until his sister was done eating before trying to finish anything she left.

I figure Eugenio for 2 more productive years tops So he did really well to score a $65M AAV. 🙄

Love it. So I have a theory that not until all current forms of on-line and electronic communication have become completely polluted, fake dominated and devalued, will the demand for new systems of thoroughly vetted and reliable information become high enough that new forms that guarantee high levels of verifiability get created and adopted.

actually, I'm not sure who besides Melton is the right comparison because Keider was still pitching pretty regularly in a swing role after Morton arrived. He still got 6 starts overall in Aug and Sept plus some long relief appearance.

Finnegan was great. But what if he had brought in Finnegan but not Morton. There is your win/win! ⚾ I'll freely admit I'm biased here because I HATE seeing my team sign old over the hill pitchers. I hated when DD did it, I hate it when Harris does it. Just strikes me as letting your hope (that you get something when the odds are you won't) win out over keeping your head in the real world and making a better move.

Paddock had three starts they won in August, and got shelled twice but with a 6.4 ERA they moved him to the BP, where he raised his ERA to 8 in Sept. That meant they had to backfill starts with pitchers that were otherwise off the end of the rotation. With Morton the swing was even worse. They won 2 of Charlie's August starts as he put up a 4.6 ERA (not too terrible), but then lost all 4 of his Sept starts as his ERA ballooned to over 12. Paddock did start game 162 and gave up 4 runs in 5 IP in a loss. So part of your explanation is that two players arrived in August, but they both performed worse in Sept, with Morton becoming completely unplayable. Logic dictates that the effect of a cause does have to come after it, but not necessarily *immediately* after it.

This is why we are in so much more trouble that just electing an malevolent man-child as president, we also voted hard for his enablers. Voters get what they deserve generally. Unfortunately that leaves the other 250 million to suffer the collateral damage.