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To me, the Cardinals are almost the perfect franchise: the clearly most popular team in a smallish market, one that drafts, develops and trades right on, as you say, a reasonable budget (generally clustering around 10th in Baseball), and which almost always makes the playoffs (15 of the last 22 seasons), goes to the Series here and there (four times since then), and wins the occasional ring (twice). I wish I didn't hate them as much as I do. 😉

As it turns out, in the years 1996 through 2000, 59.0% of all hitters Yankee pitchers faced were RHB, versus 56.2% for the AL in total. So early Jeter's Yankees faced a higher percentage of RH hitters than normal. (h/t BR) Yankees AL RHB LHB % RHB RHB LHB % RHB 1996 3817 2472 60.7% 50197 39537 55.9% 1997 4083 2196 65.0% 51248 36869 58.2% 1998 3502 2598 57.4% 49019 39099 55.6% 1999 3401 2832 54.6% 49145 39383 55.5% 2000 3567 2689 57.0% 49679 39270 55.9% TOT 18370 12787 59.0% 249288 194158 56.2%

The Rays are an exceptional example. In a small market where they draw flies no matter how the team performs and that they're probably going to leave anyway, they have nothing to lose by trying out things. Oakland, too, for much of the past decade. Maybe there's something there.

The difference with the Tigers is that there was no talentless prior administration anyone was taking over from. It was the same talentless administration that was in place for the early 2000s tanking period as well. Front office, scouting, minor leagues, international--all the same. The only practical difference was the guy at the top of the org chart. When he left, the next guy down Peter Principled his way into the top job, bringing the exact same way of doing things that we'd had over a decade before.

The extortionate pricing may be in part why, during my days as a media client, many of the vendors who invited us to suite games laid out only boiled hot dogs, one-ounce bags of Lays, and Miller Lite. I remember Diamandis (Car and Driver, Road & Track) use to spring for really nice spreads with dogs, brats, sliders, chicken tenders, several brands of beer, even liquor. But no matter what, every suite experience culminates in the dessert cart. Mmmmm …

We may find out how old Pujols really is when it’s time for him to claim his MLBPA pension.

It can be easy to forget now how much greater acceptance there is of the more advanced fielding stats now, but at the time Jeter started, those were just a twinkle in Bill James’s eye, so baseball people were leaning almost exclusively on traditional fielding stats. In his early years, Jeter was frequently among the league leaders in fielding percentage, putouts, and of course, games played. So back then a lot of baseball people looked at those stats, as well as his acrobatic highlights (which he had to generate to make up for his poor positioning and lack of jump, which almost no one recognized about him back then), and concluded yeah, Jeter’s a great shortstop. Tellingly, though, he was almost never in the top ten in assists or double plays turned.

Fox News viewers' minds.

I’ve seen the lottery described two different ways. In one version Baseball wants to limit it to three teams in the first round while Players want eight teams. In another version every non-playoff team makes the lottery (which makes sense to me), but Players want the lottery picks to go eight rounds while Baseball wants to limit it to three rounds. I seen both enough where I’m not clear which one is right.

They also overrated Pete Rose (#34) by at least twenty spots.

And obviously the only Christian person in the CCCP, which is why Jesus chose him to lead.

You know who else had five rings for the Yankees? Joe Collins. Apparently you can deny five World Series rings.

This tells you everything you need to know about ESPN, in placing Jeter some sixty slots above his true level: "Overrated or not, you can't deny the five World Series rings." You don't say.

ESPN leaks.

Have the russophile right wing media like Fox and their fellow travelers alarmed their viewers with visions of nuclear retaliation if we don't give Putin what he wants?

If Jeter is not listed yet, then he’s either too high or too low. He ranks 94th in lifetime WAR and tied for 79th in JAWS, so he qualifies for the Top 50 in neither career nor peak. The higher they list him, the more credibility ESPN leaks.

I just meant you’re the guy with more inside dope than all the rest of us combined, is all. You know actual stuff. As President of the United States, if you can’t win them over by force of personality, win them over by force.I would think in a situation like this she could rely on the former more than the latter. There’s no way to know for sure, of course, but I’m thinking her success level right now would have been at least the equal of Biden’s. Can you imagine having the other guy in the White House at this moment? Holy shit, the mind boggles.

Not to seem dismissive of your authority on the subject, but I had seen in multiple sources that Putin did not want Hillary to be President specifically because she was such a tough-minded adversary at State, and that she had the ear of all the major European allies. I believe one of the places I’d seen that was in one of the first books released early during the Trump admin. Not true?

We will not stand for the normalizing of Rudy Giuliani.

I think Hillary would have responded in similar fashion, with the same or even better cooperation from allies. Given her tenure at State, this kind of situation seems right up her alley.

Maybe Putin is believing his own press that says Biden is weak and is making America a laughingstock. If so, catching him flat-footed on that is working for us here.

The irony … it burns … So, like, wasn’t the whole idea behind crypto to free money from the yoke of oppressive government stewardship and the tyranny of their stabilizing influence on fiat currency?

lol this is going in the opposite direction of what I was saying so I don't know why you'd think I'd like this.

Too convoluted. I would prefer direct election of presidents.

Had no idea. Will take that under consideration on future posts.