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“Maybe.” I’m with you on that,

Red hats didn’t vote for or against any policy. They have no actual policy imperatives, outside of generalized cruelty to people of color. They didn’t for tariffs or foreign policy or regulatory reform or any of that, not really. That’s not what red hats voted for. They voted for their idol. They are idolators. Simple as that.

Just in time for me to take a nine-day trip out of the country! Yay! 🤪

I may be a third category: good-rule follower and bad-rule breaker. I assess, admittedly IMO, whether the rule I am being asked to follow makes sense in the moment, or is more of a control mechanism. I’m enough of a “bad-rule breaker” that, if I come to an intersection where I stop for a red light and I see there is literally no one in sight to the left or right of me, I’ll just drive through it. I would never blow through a red light without slowing down or even stopping, but I’m not going to stay stopped for practically no reason, either. I also acknowledge I would be marginally better off always following rules whatever the reason or circumstance.

Do you have a particular trade in mind that could have filled this bill, or is trading lesser prospects for solid major leaguers more a whiteboard strategy?

And what team wouldn't be all in on giving us real pitching or hitting help for a lesser prospect in return? 😉

After winning a pennant and thisclose to winning a ring, I have trouble seeing Bichette leaving Toronto—unless they don't really want him.

I also believe he will get more aggressive to sign players when we are farther along the development curve as a team, which probably won't be until McGongle and Clark are up for good, at minimum, and maybe Briceno as well.

How about you go talk to your boss's boss and tell him/her they can't do the thing you don't want them to do? 😏

Is Miggy Trump's great friend? It absolutely would not surprise me in the least. Venezuela is a member in good standing of the United nations, a sovereign nation that is supposed to be in charge of its own affairs. They are now a United States possession. This is nothing but flat out imperialism. The Soviet Union was right about us the whole time. It's one thing if a coalition of nations were to work together to remove a citizen-murdering despot from power. That is eminently defensible. It's another matter when the biggest baddest mother****ing country on the planet overthrows a government just to drill, steal, and sell off the oil, which is precisely what Trump said today we are doing. Notice how he didn't say boo about fighting drug trafficking during the press conf today? If Trump wants to give the rest of the world a real hot foot, he can put that ex-Honduran president he absolved of drug trafficking in charge of Venezuela now. Think he won't? Keep on eye on Kalshi, it might just show up there as a prop bet. I'm sorry, I want to be happy as the next guy that Maduro is out, but I would have wanted that to happen the right way, through the people of Venezuela, and not through the military adventurism of the United States. This was more than merely the brazen and craven act of a convicted felon dictator. It's also a huge middle finger to the rest of the world, except for Russia and China, for reasons romad1 has already articulated.

I don't know, Barney Rubble must have been considered a snack to be able to keep that stone hottie Betty in the fold.

Right, I get that much since Harris hasn't actually signed anyone to an actual six-year deal yet. But everyone here acknowledges that he tried to do so by offering Bregman the biggest contract of any team—one exceeding what Ben Clemens and the readers of FG projected for him—even if people enjoyed hammering Harris when Bregman turned it down to sign for less money and fewer years elsewhere.

I don't think of Torres as a "signing", per se. We gave Torres a qualifying offer possibly hoping he would turn it down and we would get the sandwich pick. Instead, Torres ended up being one of a record-breaking four players to take the offer, possibly because none of those guys wanted to sign a low-dollar multi-year deal going right in the teeth of a lockout.

How does making a six-year offer not prove that Ilitch/Harris are willing to sign players to long-term contracts? Isn’t that the point you were making earlier?

I’ve been wondering whether he’ll Gazafy Caracas.

Ask a Gen Z parent.

Get your affairs in order, Señor Pereira.

What, and he’s leaving three generations of the Maduro family alone? He’s not as good at the despotic dictator thing as he thinks.

I agree, several other posters do share that view. Numerous other posters have raked Harris for failing to sign the very biggest of free agents, or to successfully trade second-tier prospects for established big league contributors.

That’s true, we had prickly personalities on that team back them even as youngsters coming up through the system. Of course, I also believe players in general from that generation were more prickly in general than players are today. I blame lead in the drinking water and on the school walls. 😏 I meant only to liken that team and this to each other as being teams built into winners from within, nothing more than that.

Say your piece.

Bregman was and probably still is looking for a Big Six team, or perhaps a team near his home in Albuquerque, which would put D’backs, Rangers, and Astros in the mix. (Maybe not Astros much.) I also think he had a minimum number in mind—I don’t know, maybe 8/240 or something?—and when he didn’t, he pivoted to Plan B which was short-term/high AAV with opt out after year 1. Red Sox gave him that. Tigers offered him opt out after year 2 instead. You do the math. Funny thing: Harris offered Bregman 6/171.5, versus the FanGraphs crowdsourcing estimates that he would get 6/162, and yet Harris gets 100% of the blame for Bregman going to RHH-friendly Fenway instead. Take that for what you will.

I think it did. That and reducing the minor leagues to four levels from six.

I’m willing to give both those guys one more year. I am actually more optimistic—or less pessimistic, take your pick—about Sweeney than I am about Jung.

I agree that Harris probably didn’t expect this team to be in the playoffs in Year 2 and 3 of his tenure still carrying a high percentage of Avila signs. That puts a lot more pressure on him as he spools out his vision a s planned, and probably forced him to make a signing going into Year 4 that he wouldn’t have expected to, that of a Kenley Jansen to shore up the back of the pen. I wouldn’t agree with the thing you didn’t say here but has been implied, that failing to sign a Schwarber or a Tucker or a Bichette, or even extending Skubal this winter, would constitute gross dereliction of responsibility by Harris. We may or may not have enough pieces in house right now to make the next move in October. No one here thinks we definitely do, and I myself can’t be sure either way, but Harris is privy to information we don’t have, so until he takes his shot and fails due to provable incompetence, I’m giving him the leeway to prove it.