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lol "misleading"

And, at the same time, blame only Harris for the collapse of ‘25.

Not trying to talk you into accepting being deaf in one ear, but both Colbert and Brian Wilson are/were deaf in one ear, and they both use music professionally. You probably know better than anyone that’s why almost everything The Beach Boys recorded was in mono.

Dishonesty is one of my big two irritations. Unfairness is the other. It’s more than just a living for some people. It’s a game, too. Coming up with new and inventive innovations is a reward in itself, even for something like Internet scams.

That’s a good question. I think there are ripple effects that go beyond what that signing in isolation would mean to the business’s bottom line, one of which is how attractive Detroit might look as a destination if we commit to the best pitcher in the game today. There might be a model for that, but I wouldn’t know how to model that myself. Speaking as a man who negotiated for a living, I have a strong feeling it would help us anttract other talent. As for the $40 million a season—I’m certain Harris would leap at the chance to sign Skubal for $40 million a season for four years. Even $50 million a season for four years. I know I would.

This is a lot fairer as a characterization. Not sure I would say the way the ball bounces in October is entirely Harris’s responsibility, any more than we can say he was personally responsible for winning those wild card series. He’s really not either way. But setting us up to have a better chance to go deeper into the playoffs definitely is his task, and he will be judged on the results. Harris’s biggest job now is figuring out whether what we have in house now is enough, or whether we need reinforcements from outside. Practically everyone seems convinced the answer can only be outside help, and we did get back of the bullpen help to help us there. Me, based on his track record so far, I’m willing to trust him going into the season if he believes we are already positioned to go back to the playoffs now, based on what the front office knows about their own players versus the field. If we have a healthy roster that severely underperforms and misses out even with Skubal in the fold, I will stand up and boo with the rest of the crowd.

As long as there is no requirement to spend the money on payroll—how could that effectively be proven, anyway?—at least half of the luxury tax will always be a transfer from the biggest spending teams directly into the pockets of the teams that are purposefully not spending. Who wouldn’t want to buy a business where the competition is compelled to give you money as a reward for not spending to improve your product?

I don't agree at all, and nothing personal, but this might be the worst characterization of his tenure anybody here has made.

I'm not in love with him and he's neither a close friend nor family member, so I have no personal stake in Scott Harris. The idea I'm pushing back on is the conclusion people have already appeared to have drawn that because Harris has not signed or traded for the biggest names in the game by now, that he's never going to do so for whatever reason. And we're not the only ones who say or imply this. Stavenhagen says this, too. Have you heard the annoyed tone he has whenever he mentions Scott Harris's name on his podcast? That strikes me as wholly unprofessional, but only because i am applying the standards of journalists to him. I also aw something along these lines from at least one of the writers at MLBTR as well. They have a professional interest at hand, though, so that may be part of their frustration with him. Harris came in on Day One and laid out a long term vision to fix the franchise he was inheriting. He was never going to be done by now. The rot was so deep, it was always going to take more than three years. We are not at the end of the process. We are more like smack of the middle of it. We haven't even gotten the top prospects onto the team yet and people look like they are already giving up on the playoffs this year, and even more gobsmackingly, are clamoring for the trade of our generational talent for whatever we can get back in return. Not everybody here. Other posters have been very careful to articulate they like him more than not, but to a person, they express also impatience at the lack of big headline moves as of this date. But it's January 1, for crying out loud. We have no idea what this team is going to look like in mid-February, let alone March 26. I can understand grousing on March 26 if we do nothing between now and then. But he has also guided us to two playoff appearances in his first three years which, if anyone would have predicted this in August 2022, they'd have been laughed off the forum. I regard that as proof of concept and has earned him continued leeway to spool out the plan. That's what I'm going to do. But I can also see why you think I look incredibly thin-skinned with my responses as well. I appreciate the feedback.

I would find it interesting if he signs or trades for names, too. I mean, other than Kenley Jansen, right?

Sounds like "no" to me! 😉

The structure of the deal—3/54, opt-outs after each season, versus an industry estimate that he would get 6/150—tells me he did not get the offer he wanted from the any of the teams he would have liked. IOW, another Murikami situation.

Not for nothing, players were also a lot freer with their words to the media a quarter century ago. Given the strong contingents that surround players now, including agents, publicity people, and personal managers, they get a lot more advice to shut the hell up when a microphone gets shoved in their face. Plus, players today grew up being on video all the time throughout their lives, so they are more used to managing their behavior and understanding the negatives of being too free with what they say. Papi's generation did not.

That's progress for the Dems, who half a year ago looked like they had exact zero chance for the Senate.

So what? Maybe RFK is trying to get everyone else to swear off vaccines and doctors and go all in on holistic alternative medicine and eat food scraped directly off the highway, but Trump is damn sure going to have the best of traditional doctors, medicine, and treatments available to him at all times. I'm starting to think Trump won't drop dead any time before age 90, and even so, no matter when he does, no matter how old he is, no matter how he dies, an entire ecosystem of murder conspiracies is going to spring up to cloud the circumstances his death for decades afterwards.

Looks like everyone is worried they're going to miss the playoffs! When's daddy coming home?

Anyone in particular on your wish list?

That’s fine. Three years is too long for some people to give him. Get him out of there, next man up. We’re gonna die soon so come on hop to it already. I get it. I’m willing to give him more time to let the plan unspool.

I don't think it's that simple, but it's a reasonable take if you think it is. As for the bat: we might already have the bats in house. yeah, I know prospects fail all the time yada yada, but since the guy got us to the LDS two years in a row by surprise, I am giving Harris all the latitude that has earned him to continue to bring his plan to fruition. And if the plan calls for leaning on the talent we have in house, plus strategic pickups from the market, to get us back into the playoffs and hopefully to the next level in 2026, then I'm on board. If it utterly fails and we miss the playoffs this year in such a way that it's obvious it's due to his inertia, then I will join in the chorus of boos.

That would be only in the third tier of Wexner's crimes.

Not for nothing, someone becoming a pillar of the community makes it exponentially more difficult to go after that person for their crimes, even those crimes with obvious evidentiary trails.

It went beyond mere questioning why years ago. https://www.abc.net.au/religion/why-do-american-white-evangelicals-support-putin/13846702 While many white evangelical leaders oppose Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, televangelist Pat Robertson recently said Putin was “compelled by God” to invade the country in order to precipitate the coming apocalypse. In 2015, Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham, leader of post-war American evangelicalism) visited Putin and Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in Moscow and told the Russian press that “millions of Americans would like [Putin] to come and run for president of the United States”. Though Putin had just invaded Crimea, in 2014 Graham nonetheless applauded his efforts to protect children from “homosexual propaganda”; Graham moreover held that the importance of protecting Christianity was sufficient “justification” for Putin’s decision to strafe Syrian cities by way of support for Bashar al-Assad’s bloody civil war.

I get why you're dismissive of the analogy, but people who can't see what you term to be objective physical evidence of dark matter can reasonably doubt or even reject its existence entirely, particularly if all they have to go on is your word for it—not at all unlike your view of the existence of god.

I am frankly surprised no one has started one of these yet. I myself am less interested in the horse race aspect of it, although this would be a good thread to put all the poll updates we're going to be inundated with. I will lead with this one table I see, indicating how competitive districts are considered to be by the Cook Political Report. This table is not an indication of how the 2026 election is specifically likely to go based on polling, but rather, how Cook rates the basic competitiveness of the districts based on their description below. https://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/house-race-ratings About CPR House Race Ratings The CPR House Race Ratings assess the competitiveness of all 435 House elections. Competitiveness is determined by several factors, including the district's political makeup, the candidates' strengths and weaknesses, the political environment in the state and nationally, and interviews with candidates and campaign professionals. When sourcing the CPR Race Ratings, please refer to our terms of use. To inquire about API access and licensing, please submit a request.

I can’t see dark matter but I believe it exists.