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I usually smoke my bacon. Either that or the bacon factory smokes it for me.

I just checked out of the library ”Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II”. I am interested to see exactly how they transitioned from a warfaring shogun-oriented society to a peaceful western democracy.

Interesting—how are you weighting Reference vs Fangraphs? Is it different for pitchers versus position players? Also, are you using FG WAR for pitchers, or RA9-WAR at all? Sees to me it should be the former to match up with Reference, although RA9-WAR is much more results-oriented, which factors into Hall voting more than a WAR figure used more to project future performance.

Yes, the RFK admission was embarrassing, wasn’t it?

Good one overall, although I’m not sure I can agree that “good ideas tend to win elections” as much as we might like. Trump brought a lot of bad ideas the his campaign that a substantial majority of people disagreed with, but ended up winning mainly because of the weak candidacy of his opponent. Personality and popularity has always mattered when it comes to elections, and perhaps that’s even truer now. I do agree with your opening thought. Winning parties have no incentive to change their approach based on high third-party vote counts, because for them, the winning has validated everything they campaigned on. Same as when a candidate wins an election by the thinnest of margins, then claims a broad mandate to do everything they ever wanted for themself and their benefactors that is antithetical to the losing party’s voters. Just by logic, we can see that how many votes the losers end up with matters not a whit, so the whole idea of sending a message with a third party vote crumbles. Winners win and just do what they want anyway, because they believe they have earned that right. So when it comes down to it, voting for a third party candidate you already know is going to lose is an exercise in futility and, depending on how much you want to brag about your political savvy for voting third party in the first place, vainglory. I’s your right to do so at any time, and no one can prevent you from doing so. It’s just that there are times when the effect of your protest vote on the entire body politic, and body social, matters more than others, which should inform a voter’s decision on voting third party versus holding your nose and voting for the lesser of two evils.

I think Taylor has a claim for Michigan, at least for the Detroit area.

Or Burr Ridge.

It’s funny whenever you hear that someone everybody dislikes or disdains or whatever turns out to be the nicest guy. I interviewed John Sterling, erstwhile radio PxP for the Yankees, for a blog once and even though people would say how they despised him and the way he said “thuhhhh … Yankeeeeeeees … win!”, he could not have been a nicer fella to me during the interview. Very engaged in the whole thing, even though it was a crap blog. I was very impressed by what a mensch he was with me.

OK, I’ll bite: 67.5 what?

Point taken.

Randy Johnson

I mean, it's OK to talk about when the Trump regime loses and falls out of power, and that they will be brought up on Nuremberg-like charges and there will be trials and convictions and punishments and all that. Nothing wrong with talking about it. Just remember that they already know that's a possibility, if not probability, and they can hear us talking about it, and if we think they have no choice but to allow themselves to lose a free and fair election so we can set those events in motion, we're delulu.

Didn't Auschwitz hold 100,000 people, too?

So much for ICE efforts in Minneapolis winding up ...

From the Department of No Sh*t, Sherlock:

Ewwww.

I did not realize that many northern Michigan counties are more than 50% Amish!

Which city would be named most for the US?

Yes, it is all about the money for the MAGA elite and their executive class running dogs, and it's all about a skewed interperetation of Christianity for the people supporting them with their votes and wallets.

Unfortunately, there is a far longer tradition of hate toward minorities in America than practically anywhere else in the world.

Just another data point as proof that once all the immigrants have been rounded up and emptied out of the prison camps one way or another, and they need dissidents and apostates to fill them back up, your whiteness will not save you.

Hope he saved up some money. He's gonna need it.

Sop making sense, you're ruining the piling on. 😁 I don't believe many position players were convinced the Tigers are a franchise on a serious comeback earlier this offseason, not would they believe we would spend the money when it comes time to. (Heck, most posters here didn't believe Chris Ilitch/Scott Harris would ever spend any money.) Players are probably more open to the idea of coming here now after our having signed Valdez and Verlander. I think it's going to take at least another year of proving it, and moving on to at least the ALCS, before the best of them seriously consider agreeing to commit their remaining prime production years here. As for the city itself, anyone without interest in winning an argument would agree that it's clear that as a destination place to live, Detroit is nowhere on a par with New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, or Boston. We can probably add to that Miami (especially for Latin players), Anaheim (proximity to LA, mainstream cultural center), Seattle (team history, coolness factor), or Phoenix or Atlanta (close to home). Vegas will be up there, too, once they have their team. Other things like years and money being equal, a young player with lots of money, especially if he's single, would simply not choose Detroit as a place to live over any of these other cities. I have no evidence to present the court on this. I'm just leaning on my experience having lived a life in the United States.

You posted "'ever' was the wrong word" as I was crafting the follow-on response, which is why I didn't see that before posting. Also, to be clear, we had been talking largely about position players like Bregman and Bichette and, in prior years, Soto (!) and Ohtani (!!), which I thought at the time to be true, and still believe it would have been true had Harris pursued any of those top position player free agents, which I believe he did not do. I have said it's always going to be more challenging to sign top position players than top pitchers, partially because we have a known, proven pitcher whisperer heading up that staff, and also because of the perception that Comerica is harder on hitters, particularly RHH, than most parks. I still believe this to be true. Yes, dramatically overpaying players like Victor and Prince and Justin Upton may get certain of them to want to come to Detroit or stay in Detroit (Miggy). Dombrowski /Mike Ilitch did that, with mixed success and a negative impact on the franchise's fortunes over the following decade. But you know what else will get players to want to come here? Being a proven, consistent playoff team, winning a pennant, winning a ring. Once we establish ourselves as that team, then the Tigers will become a destination more top free agent hitters will consider on a par with other elite teams.