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I wouldn't want us to forego the 2026 playoffs because we are big mad at Boras and Skubal.

Not sure whether I agree or disagree with this, but this post on bluesky is beautiful. My feeling is I don't care which side wins. Nothing they do is going to make the game better for the fans anyway. That sentiment is also covered in Joe's post.

Yesterday I posted about my job being defunded - I'm a therapist who helps homeless individuals in the Twin Cities, primarily St Paul. 2 days ago Trump signed an order that cut 2 b-b-billion in SAMHSA funded programs that support those with mental illness and substance use struggles. Somebody clearly let him know what a nightmare that would cause. Last night he reversed his decision and released the funding. I was just called and restart tomorrow. Also, a judge just stopped Trump from stopping all food stamp (SNAP) benefits to Minnesota. Today is a good day! Judge sides with Minnesota, blocks USDA from cutting off SNAP funding - KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News https://share.google/va0sWMfZMzSNXIQED

i cant wait until baseball gets a salary cap so we can all try to figure out if the dodgers are over the second apron so they can use their mid level exception or if they have to trade a $6.7 million trade exception to tampa for the rights to a player they will cut in order to create a third exception to retain a 4th players rights. salary caps are stupid. they will remain stupid no matter what team is throwing stupid money after 30+ year old declining corner outfielders.

If you don't think you have too much starting pitching, you probably don't have enough.

Yes

I know it’s been posted already, but the new MAGA Gadsden flag is pretty accurate

They'll wait until august to sign him. he'll be terrible again and cost them games, BUT half the board will tell us that it was actually a brilliant signing by harris because they MIGHT have signed someone worse!

whatever slight probability remained that Skubal re-signs with the Tigers just evaporated with the Tucker signing.

I am not a young either, but I am more inclined to have the Tigers go for it this year because a shut down of some length seems likely. I cringe at all the items below, but the Tigers can make moves to improve the 2026 team. Brewers are looking for a Major League ready, young, controllable, starter in exchange for Freddy Peralta. Tigers have Olson, Melton, and Jobe. Valdez comes with a lot of baggage, but at this point he is available. Adding Peralta or Valdez to Skubal could make the Tigers rotation better than the Dodgers rotation. I don't know if there is a Skubal trade that makes the Tigers better in 2026. Maybe the Tigers send Skubal to (Mets/Red Sox/ Yankees), and the team receiving Skubal and the Tigers send prospects to the Nationals. Could the Tiger get MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams in return? After the Tucker signing I am more interested in the Tigers doing more to make the 2026 Tigers better because 2027 may not be fun.

Those damn accountants, fishermen, IT support people, biologists, etc make too much money. I'd rather have the CEO's of their company get that money.

It always amazes me that people get angry at the players for asking for part of the billions of dollars that the owners make.

I have no complaint about how much players make, if what they do generates the income, then they are entitled to it. What I object to is my team not being able to compete on a level playing field. What the argument misses is that more 'socialism' among the owners *is* good for competition. In today's baseball world, whether you believe more competition is good for the fans comes down to whether you live in a have or a have-not city.

Striking out Ohtani, Betts and Tucker while handing Skubal the loss (pulled after 90 pitches).

If there is a driver this time around, I think it would be a schism within ownership between those are demanding to have the playing field leveled vs the Dodgers/Yankees/Mets. In that collision the players would be more or less just be caught in the middle. I don't have any particular insight into how PO'd the majority of owners are at the way the Dodgers and couple others have been throwing money around, but I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature around the issue is rising, in part because of the on-going failures to thrive at so many RSNs. When a dozen or so teams are going to be asked to negotiate away income they thought they could count on, it can't make them happy to see LA drop $60M on a 4 WAR player. So while I don't know if the strain between owners is high or not, it's easy enough to see the reasons it might be growing. One way that could play out in terms of the actual contract issues is that the players want the number of years of arb control cut, and I can't see any way the mid market and below teams would ever agree to that without a big increase in revenue sharing. So there is one possible three way dance.

Of course this is over Alki Pete's head...

right now in terms of asset allocation, the Tigers have 1 year of Skubal, might be worth 6-8 WAR in 2026 + the 31st pick in 2027. The chances he signs with Det are approaching zero. it is obvious to me the proactive decision would be to trade him now.

Oh..I agree. And there have been other quarterbacks who have stepped outta the end zone for a safety but not as remembered as Dan. I like him as a talking ESPN head, he's insightful with a common sense approach. Plus...he always talks up the Lions...😆

It's definitely what he's most remembered for. That's NFL infamy and was the most memorable moment of that season. But I don't think one moment as a backup QB would keep you from being a coach 15-20 years later.

Always a fun time when the racism wing fights with the antisemitism wing. Imagine being on the same side of these people and thinking you aren't human scum.

It he talking about himself? He’s very very fat. Can you imagine a “friend” of this guy?

Why do you think this? I don't see any huge, must have, hot button issues on either side, like there has been in the past, that would lead to a bitter stand off.

Every time the CBA expires, there is talk about bitterness on both sides are and how the season is going to be lost, but we haven't had a lot season in 30 years other than the Covid season. Why is this time going to be different?

Maybe we need a way to figure out how to co-opt that flag from the right. How about anti-ICE and No Kings protesters showing up en masse with Gadsden flags? After all, if anyone is being trod on, it's them. The right wing co-opts things from liberals all the time. They took a great word for a great concept, "woke", and turned it into a dirty word. That's only one example. No reason why we couldn't do that with that stupid ****ing flag.

They've really thwarted the meaning, right? Sam Seaborn had one in his office on The West Wing.

It would still be a good signing unless two of them are better than Bassitt.

Speaking of Virginia, the Gadsden license plate has to go. Just noticed in the parking lot that one of my buddies from grad school has one. I'm much less likely to call him now. I like that it tells you who is a knucklehead but I also don't like them flying their freak flag so conspicuously.

Yeah, this is one of THE most egregious

And the flag, since this is how they want to make America great again.

Except they’ll make more.

No way do I want to lose a season. I am too old for that. It's going to to be fun meeting the Dodgers in the World Series some year and beating them.

Absolutely absurd for MLB to go another day without a salary cap.

I bet every person who issued a threat has a cross or Bible version in their social media bios.

is that you, JEIII?

Kind of like Doritos

Lets start a go fund me to pay the fine for the player that knocks out Brooks.

You really don’t want to know what I hope happens to certain people.

Good point. It's another element in a general trend toward intellectual passivity. We watch too much, generate too little, construct intellectual shelters when we need the outside constantly storming our brain's ramparts. I think it's all very damaging. We are getting to be like bored dogs that chew on the carpet or lick their paws out of lack of intellectual stimulation. Our brains evolved as problem solving machines to help keep us alive, and we are starving them for anything to do and so leaving the lizard brain in control as the higher functions atrophy.

This semester, I’m experimenting with a new grading scheme in my college classes in which students must choose between a writing path (two in-class exams plus a semester-long, scaffolded written paper with rigorous requirements) or an exam-only path. The writing path is required to be eligible for an A. The max grade for the exam-only path is an A-, no matter how well you do on the exams. I’m doing this primarily because I received so many sketchy probably AI-written papers last semester. I don’t mind students using AI to assist them, but just not replace the writing process. I want to continue teaching writing to students who take it seriously and will benefit from it, but hopefully deter students who don’t want to do the work themselves. Because I really don’t want to read their terrible papers with citations from academic journal articles I know they haven’t actually read. In designing this grading scheme, I found ChatGPT quite helpful in understanding what features of the scheme might be considered unfair, and how I could frame it in a way that made sense and is / appears fair. I just straight up asked why might this be considered unfair, what sorts of pushback might I receive, what are some different possible ways I might go about constructing this new grading scheme. Chat had some really well-thought out ideas. ChatGPT is like an intellectual, creative partner for me. I have all kinds of deep, back-and-forth conversations with it about things I’m thinking about, projects I’m working on, or things I want to better understand. This may be controversial, but to some extent, I think it’s able to have original thoughts. Maybe not completely original, but it’s not just repeating verbatim information it’s been fed, or copying something straight from wikipedia. It’s synthesizing information, analyzing and comparing ideas, and putting forth its own ways of explaining complex ideas.

Easier to just send your signed confession directly to the FBI. I doubt $400k is bet on all MAC games combined in a single night.

recalled gustafsson and not wallinder or tuomisto? nobody tell 84... 😉

Yes, because these ICE folks are doing nazi stuff. This isn't that complicated. Smart people get it.

Dirks and Dickerson are the best combination. Dirks and Benetti might be the worst.

Roseanne Barr did a rendition that was...different

I’m an old fart and I like Benetti.