RatkoVarda

2/2 Bibi and his pro-war faction are happy to oblige Hamas invitation to more death

1/2 reminder that US TV news sucks; this is a great basic outline of what is going on

SSS, and pitching is never the strength of AFL, but Bigbie has 1 K in 7 games; 1 K per week is pretty good at any level

GQP does not stand for anything; they are the party of no; they are destroyers; when asked to build anything, do anything, they can't because "government is bad"

and they are paying $37MM to Madison Bumgarner to not pitch for them this year and next.

Not sure why LAD always choke in the playoffs after dominating everyone in the regular season, but these are 2 weird things Dave Roberts said. You HAVE to be reactionary; and you CANNOT think past G3. Then two homers later you’re down 4-0. I had some guys ready. Obviously I can’t predict the future. I try not to be reactionary and get ahead of things. I just can’t predict the future. The way he was throwing the baseball, I didn’t expect that. Listen, I have to manage this like there are two more games after it. Pepiot, he’s a bulk guy, we’ve seen it all season long, and if I’m going to get through this series, I need to think past Game 3.

I assume the Tigers will go after FAs they want to go after, regardless of who their agent is

the Brewers are probably moving on from Corbin Burnes instead, but trading for Adames this winter and extending him is another way to go. player price would be high but he is coming off a bit of a down year. defensively that would work, with Rogers-Adames-Baez-Meadows up the middle most days, then you can tolerate some lesser gloves on the corners.

tale of 2 teams. Os traded 3 top 25 guys from a loaded system for garbage pitcher they hope would turn around. Flaherty was bad for STL and the Os had him in the BP in September. With their system, they could have made a huge swing for literally any pitcher. The Rangers told their players, coaches and fans, they were going for it and got Max. Maybe he comes back from IL by WS, but he made sure they got a WC spot. Edit: I'll add the Rangers made the first deadline trade, getting Chapman early. That worked out OK for regular season, not so much in playoffs. They called up Carter early, which "unnecessarily" started his clock. And of course they actually spend real money on free agents. That's how it's done.

Skubal, Mize, Rogers only locks. No on Meadows, Wingenter. ? on Alexander. Baddoo and Turnbull traded IMO.

Cronenworth could be had for very little player capital as Padres need to move salary. Could easily do worse. Might be able to do better.

Trump's limitless stupidity may save us all yet; as Chutkan considers the "gag order" in DC, a lowly NY judge issues his own after Trump attacks his clerk. Obviously need to eventually issue one in every case, though Loose Cannon will let him rant freely.

when you have good TV and radio guys, they become part of the fabric of the team's identity - Harwell, Dickerson, Kell, Kaline. the Bally broadcast is just awful - seems aimed at casual fans with lots of things to distract from the actual game at least they tried a lot of guys this year, so that's good

LAD payroll is pretty clean (even if they do sign Ohtani) but Muncy and Michael Busch look to be the exact same player, so maybe they do move on from the older guy with a lot more injury risk

one big picture thing to keep in mind is what's happening in SF with Harris's old friends. Zaidi fired Kapler and admitted he is next if he cannot figure out how to improve the team. does this sound familiar? constant platooning by Kapler met with jeers when it does not work; frequent dumpster diving on the waiver wire with constant churn at the end of the roster; making a few attempts to land a big fish FA but always falling short; no impactful trades. Ilitch will, I assume, have a lot of patience, more than SF (or Boston where Bloom got axed in part because he did not want to make a mistake and trade the wrong prospects), but next year's free agents will only be more expensive than last year's free agents.

that dude needs a 3rd plane real bad

best buddy with HS Kim so assumption is he's joining SD, who need CFer, not sure how they fit him in budget though

Pederson is a horrible fit because he's primarily a DH; excellent strawman to use to explain why they should not spend.

Lorenzen did not make WC round roster for Philly

sweet 6 innings from Jobe then Flores, but 2 BBs? Unacceptable!

no one wants to sign a FA who doesn't work out. but how about Cory Seager, Marcus Simien, Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray? if the Rangers don't sign those guys, they are finishing in 3rd place, dreaming about one day being relevant

3 of those are coming off injury, 1 has 100 solid innings, and 1 will be in bullpen

Harris came out and said he is not negotiating with ERod pre-opt out. He's gone; and they won't lift a finger to dissuade him.

Bader, JH Lee, Bellinger, Hader, Montgomery, Snell, Yamamoto, Nola, Merrifield, Ursula - all could help in various degrees