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We have literally nothing on the payroll after 2027 except Colt Keith.

My recent thought has been that signing Skubal to a long-term deal would go a long way toward signaling to the market that we are serious about contending, which would make us a more attractive destination. If we let Skubal walk next year, that may not hurt our position with free agents all that much, depending in large part how this season goes and what our roster looks like next winter. If we trade Skubal for minor leaguers this winter, however, I believe that would be an unmitigated disaster in terms of our ability to attract top talent to the team, because that would likely be seen as an active move toward pulling back on competing this season after making the playoffs the past two seasons. IOW, it would look like we're going into another rebuild. Fair or not, I do believe that would be the perception.

Nope. Couldn't do it.

Surely you have heard about the paramount hostile takeover bid to keep Netflix from purchasing Warner Brothers Discovery, and that Trump himself is ready to put his tiny ugly thumb on the scale for paramount. I subscribing to a TV business newsletter, and I saw this post within it, which I thought was fascinating. I wouldn't say I am cynical, but I do think of myself as fairly savvy. But I did not have a clear idea of just how much social media traffic is bought, frequently by nefarious forces seeking to, frankly, destroy America as we know it. Here is an object lesson in that, right here. ***** THE DETAILS OF A SECRET CONSERVATIVE MEDIA EFFORT TO SINK THE NETFLIX BID FOR WARNER BROS. STUDIOS AND STREAMING One advantage of having a substantial readership is that I have readers from every industry and political belief. And I hear from them on a regular basis. My reader emails can top 250-300 a day. More if I am writing something that resonates strongly with some people. However, those emails also include a lot of tips and that has led to me breaking a number of stories over the past couple of years. And today’s exclusive started with a reader email I received on Friday. It came from someone who is a moderately popular conservative influencer, but also someone who has a strong sense of what he will and won’t for the cause. He had just received a unsolicited pitch from someone he didn’t know. A bland Gmail address and a name he had never heard before. But the subject of the email got his attention: I initially wasn’t sure if the pitch was legitimate, but he was able to connect me with two other conservative influencers who didn’t want to talk to me at length. But they did confirm they received the pitch and forwarded me their emails, which were identical to the one above. None of these influencers wanted to be publicly identified - for obvious reasons. But they are all relatively well-known influencers and it seems unlikely they would concoct some story to cause trouble. One of the three had responded to the pitch and had received an offer letter and contract back for approval. I’m not going to share that here, because it is filled with personably identifiable information. But this offer could make someone thousands of dollars pretty quickly, which makes me suspect that whomever is doing it is willing to pour resources into the efforts. I reached out to email address on the pitches and didn’t receive a response. I’m not going to speculate on who might be behind this or which influencers might have made a deal. Because honestly, it can be hard to determine sometimes if influencers are being bought or just jumping in to ride the engagement train of other accounts. But I will note that I saw a lot of thought-provoking tweets over the weekend on X. And I can’t help suspecting that not all of the opinions being shared by the various conservative influencers and media types were entirely sincere:

Of all the maps I have posted thus far, this has to be the saddest. Ukraine Between Two Octobers (2012-2025)

Here's an interesting campaign poster with a pretty cool map. Here's where the "black belt" is regarded to exist today:

I like where I am at, so, green. I hear Des Moines is an up and coming, which I like, and NoVA could work as well. Heck, I could even be talked into going back to Columbus.

The Supreme Court sure is acting as though they don't expect anyone else to be president throughout 2029 and beyond.

Well, at least he would at least have a third of the country, including probably two-thirds of all white people of modest education and means, rejecting what their lyin' eyes are telling them, and then people can gainsay each other about what the truth actually is, which is Trump's sweet spot for dividing the people against each other.

We appear to agree that if we trade Skubal, we won’t be able to attract top free agents, so I’m not clear on what if any disagreement you’re seeking to highlight? I will opine that being the rich man’s Rays would be far better than being the team that tears down and goes on a rebuild just as they’re on a playoff run, which would be asinine. At least the Rays have nine playoff and two World Series appearances to show for that strategy.

I still don’t understand why they don’t simply lie about the number. Who could stop them or make them pay for it?

That’s funny, but seriously, no.

Why do I have to choose between the two? We can have both, and I’m pretty sure we will. But if you’re suggesting that we would be able to trade one remaining year of Skubal for a package that’s the equivalent of Clark and McGonigle and Rainer—i.e., Skubal for three top 40 prospects—then all due respect, that question is just laughable on his face.

I’d be frankly shocked if we missed the playoffs, but if we did, I would definitely blame something else besides not trading Skubal. I promise you I won’t go back on that one.

Yeah, a lot of times it strikes me less as the Hall of Fame and more as the Hall of Guys I Like. Honestly, I don’t mind Kent going in. I thought for a while he’s had a credible case at least for discussion. What I can’t believe is Carlos Delgado getting nine votes. What?! Carlos Delgado?! Why, because he finish his career as a Met? He has no rings, no MVPs, only two all-star appearances, and a whole bunch of meh seasons. He came perilously close to being enshrined in the Harold Baines wing of the Hall of Fame. Thank god good sense prevailed among enough voters. Carlos Delgado shouldn’t be able to enter the Hall of Fame without having to buy a ticket.

At least they didn’t let Mattingly and Murphy in, after both were rejected 15 times by the writers and even a couple times by various veterans committees.

Not if they all suck. Then control doesn't mean anything.

I had to laugh at that "18 years of control" remark. We will not be in control of any player for 18 years running if we trade Skubal, trade anyone else, or do anything, frankly. There is no more reserve clause and you can't keep the same guy for eighteen years. It's a misleading remark at best, and just as likely an ignorant one. I know, I know, that's not how Olney meant it. He meant, like, getting three guys back with six years of control left each. Three times six equals eighteen. I get it. But how does that make any sense? That's like a major law firm saying in an ad, "we have over 500 attorneys on staff with a combined 9,000 years of experience." Nine thousand years experience, huh? Practicing law going all the way back to the days of the Çatalhöyük? Yeah? You don't say. I mean, come on, how much sense does that really make? 😂

“Chad”. Cute. 😉

That’s what they get for tying their fortunes to him. Live by the Trump, die by the Trump? We’ll see. I think they are explicitly gambling that fascism will win out in the end, after which they will help the Trump family rule with an iron fist, with the capricious power of life and death over us the people, for decades, and that they will get a whole big … thing of … riches … especially after they electronically drain all the assets liberals have in their banks and brokerages and then cast lots to divide it among themselves they way the Romans did in Mark 15:24.

I don’t see Olney saying anything in his video that people here haven’t said over and over, and there are a lot of things he is not saying, such as the impact of trading Skubal on the resulting attractiveness of Detroit to free agents. I guess Olney foresees several non-contending rebuilding seasons for the Tigers instead, and obviously, that works just fine for him. Not for nothing, I don’t see any stories from top writers like Olney about how the Braves should trade Ronald Acuna Jr for a huge prospect haul this winter before he leaves the Braves next winter and they get nothing but a comp pick which would be such a self-own and Alex Anthopoulos should get fired if he doesn’t make a trade this winter. Apparently, writers don’t want to help Acuna escape Atlanta the way they seem to want to help Skubal escape Detroit. Speaking just for me, I’m caring less about keeping Skubal only to lose him after next year than I would be about losing the opportunity to make strides in the playoffs this year. I would rather we take our best swing at a ring this year with Skubal in house and take a chance on falling short, than I would be trading Skubal, going through another rebuild, and hoping it all pays out in 2029. If you agree with me, then I guess I’m speaking for you, too.

To me, the difference is between having a chance to go deep in October with Skubal versus struggling to make the playoffs or to even hit the .500 mark without Skubal. I would rather hammer Harris after Skubal leaves next winter than after he leaves this winter.

And the thing about this is that Olney and everyone else has figured out that there is no longer any price to pay for being wrong on wild predictions such as this. Once Skubal starts the season with Detroit, it's not as though Olney's going to get roasted for predicting Skubal would get traded. It will have been long forgotten by then and we'll just move on to the next media cycle. I don't think it used to be like that, and I'm wondering whether the reason is, back before the Internet, in the three-network era, this kind of prediction might have been the only one made, with a person's name attached to it. Making a public prediction like that in, say, 1985 would have been considered a Big Hairy Deal. Now, here in the online era, there are literally thousands of people predicting Skubal is going to get traded. Olney is merely one of them, and no one will remember even tomorrow that he predicted that today. But it was enough to have us contemplate it for an hour or so.

Gets Buster Olney into the public conversation.

See what's happening here? If he crimes right out in the open, it normalizes it so much no one is truly horrified by the crimes anymore. It just becomes part of the landscape. That may be a new concept to us, but Russia figured this **** out 800 years ago.