1776

Who says Harris isn’t working the market! The Tigers are in agreement with catcher Brian Serven on a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball (X link). Serven, a PRIME client, will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee. Serven, 29, joins the fourth organization of his career. A fifth-round pick of the Rockies in 2016, he got to the big leagues six years later. The Arizona State product appeared in 62 games as a rookie, hitting .203/.261/.332 in a backup role. He only made 11 appearances the following season, spending the bulk of the year in Triple-A on optional assignment. Colorado placed him on waivers last winter. 😉

Twice in the past month, Donald Trump has singled out companies known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), blaming them for high drug prices. “We’re going to knock out the middleman,” Trump told reporters in a press conference on Monday. He noted that “the horrible middleman…makes more money frankly than the drug companies, and they don’t do anything except they’re a middleman.” The comments came after he made similar remarks in a “Meet the Press” interview earlier this month following a dinner with pharma executives and RFK Jr. CVS Health was down 5.6% late Monday, UnitedHealth dropped 4.2% and Cigna declined 3%. The three insurance companies own the country’s three largest PBMs and collectively manage roughly 80% of U.S. prescriptions. These three stocks were already sharply down over the past month amid widespread public anger with the insurance industry, prompted in part by a debate about their role in society in the wake of the fatal shooting of a UnitedHealth Group executive. wsj

Tony LaRussa is also 80 years of age. LaRussa is showing his age more these days but several years ago you’d never have guessed they were the same age.

… and they are numerous.

Regarding UNH: Down @ $80 in the last 30 days. Up $23 over the last six months. Peaked at $625 on November 11th at $625. I watch this stock frequently because it is a top holding in one of the funds I hold and has been for quite some time. The realized capital gain in the fund has moved up a bit recently. I know managers buy and sell often at the end of the calendar year, although this particular fund has a fiscal year end in January. I’m guessing/hoping the fund manager has taken some profits out of this holding. With RFK Jr. in play, healthcare stocks in general have come under a lot of scrutiny for a couple of months now. Morningstar has cautioned on this sector since RFK’s name dropped. just thinking out loud…

Carson Kelly to Cubs on a two year deal. I’m still a Kelly fan.

This is a beautiful thing…. A federal appeals court rejected Nasdaq’s years long push to set racial and gender targets for the boards of its listed companies, dealing a major blow to one of most prominent efforts to promote diversity in corporate America. The New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had erred in 2021 when it approved two Nasdaq listing rules focused on boardroom diversity. WSJ

Max Fried to the Yankees. DALLAS — After his big-league debut in 2019, Max Fried enjoyed an extended run better than any other Atlanta Bravespitcher since John Smoltz, the last of the team’s “Big Three” Hall of Fame pitchers to leave the franchise nearly two decades ago. Now it’s Fried’s turn to leave the franchise that turned him into a star. On Tuesday, Fried signed an eight-year, $218 million deal with the New York Yankees, a league source confirmed to the The Athletic. The deal, first reported by ESPN, is the most lucrative ever for a left-handed pitcher and the fourth largest pitching contract overall. The move comes after the Yankees’ failed pursuit of Juan Soto. Prior to agreeing with the Yankees, The Athletic’sKen Rosenthal reported that the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays both had interest in the southpaw.

"The home run became glorified with Babe Ruth. Starting with him, batters have been thinking in terms of how far they could hit the ball, not how often." -Rogers Hornby

The Rays have the 4th best winning percentage in MLB over the last five years. https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/mlb-teams-most-regular-season-wins-last-5-years

Alex Cobb Exp Date: 7/31/25

Law enforcement has arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which occurred in New York City last Wednesday outside of a Manhattan hotel. Luigi Mangione, 26, of Towson, Md., was stopped in Altoona, Pa., on Monday. The detained suspect had with him a handwritten manifesto that criticized the health care industry for prioritizing profits, according to law enforcement. Carrying a fake New Jersey ID, Mangione was on a Greyhound bus before he walked into a McDonald’s in the morning, where he was recognized by an individual who alerted police. The man had in his possession a gun similar to the one used in Thompson’s murder, sources told ABC News. New York Police Department detectives are en route to Pennsylvania where they are questioning the suspect, whose recovered ID matches one used by the assassin hours before the shooting, authorities said. Police have obtained writings critical of the insurance industry and a computer from the suspect, the Associated Press reported, and have not charged Mangione. NR

Agreed. At least some bonus curly fries!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. By HALEY STRACK December 5, 2024 5:36 PM A federal judge rejected aerospace company Boeing’s guilty plea deal in connection to multiple fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in part because of the deal’s diversity, equity, and inclusion provision that would have subjected an independent monitor of Boeing’s operations to DEI requirements. Boeing entered a plea deal with the government in July following a Department of Justice investigation into two fatal wrecks that claimed the lives of 346 individuals. Negotiated in the terms of the deal was an up to $487 million fine and an agreement that would require a DOJ-selected independent monitor to oversee Boeing’s safety procedures for at least three years. The DOJ said in the deal that it would honor its “commitment to diversity and inclusion” when selecting a monitor, a provision about which U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor asked to be briefed by the agency and Boeing in October. In his Wednesday ruling, Judge O’Connor cited concerns with a 2021 Biden administration order that would seemingly “encourage consideration of race in hiring” at federal agencies. “In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency,” O’Connor wrote. The agreement is “not in the public interest,” the judge added, echoing criticisms made by relatives of the victims killed in the two plane crashes. “Judge O’Connor’s emphatic rejection of the plea deal is an important victory,” Paul Cassell, a lawyer for some of the victims’ families, said in response to the ruling. “Judge O’Connor has recognized that this was a cozy deal between [the DOJ and Boeing] that failed to focus on the overriding concerns: holding Boeing accountable for its deadly crime and ensuring that nothing like this happens again in the future.” Aviation giant Boeing “knowingly and willfully” conspired to defraud the U.S. by concealing pertinent information about the 737 MAX’s software systems, according to DOJ prosecutors. The two fatal crashes, a 2018 Lion Air flight and a 2019 Ethiopian Airlines flight, “exposed fraudulent and deceptive conduct by employees of one of the world’s leading commercial airplane manufacturers,” then-acting assistant attorney general David P. Burns of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in 2021. NR

1968 World Series All things considered, Horton throwing a strike to Freehan and Freehan’s ability to prevent Brock from touching home plate is my Tigers all time choice.

I’d like to see JV close his career out in Detroit. I’d guess he would be open to the idea but I’m afraid money and years would be an issue for both sides.

If you’re referring to the “Classic” they rolled out about 25-30 years ago, I’d suggest it was the customers that decided there was no room for the new formula.

WSJ has published multiple pieces this year on insurers bilking Medicare out of billions of dollars. The piece below is a good summation of the situation. https://www.risehealth.org/insights-articles/wsj-investigation-medicare-advantage-plans-were-paid-billions-for-diseases-patients-never-had/

If the Rays do eventually end up in Nashville, I would bet there would be a good chance Cleveland would move to the AL East and Nashville (Rays) would land in the AL Central. The southern most team in the AL East would be Baltimore at that point.

The Rays schedule has been revised to accommodate the move to Steinbrenner Field and the weather impacts that will come with the move. Brutal second half. https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/10144785-rays-to-play-47-of-first-59-games-in-2025-mlb-season-at-home-after-schedule-changes.amp.html

I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, none. That anyone could be forced to adopt a child would be news to me.

Understanding your concerns, has adoption ever entered the conversation?

No, this is a misnomer. Planned Parenthood. Have a read. https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-planned-parenthoods-2021-22-annual-report/

Good move by the commission chair person. https://www.wfla.com/sports/rays/rays-must-decide-fate-of-stadium-deal-by-dec-1-pinellas-commission-chair-says/amp/

No point. Just curious.