mtutiger

FWIW, people around the org and local media think the new stadium / facilities are the best in baseball and are a draw as well. (I dont know personally, it may just be that standard "everything's bigger (better) in Texas mentality that everyone projects here lol)

We are compounding old bad decisions with good decisions by offering federal grants to railroads to improve grade crossings and through State DOTs doing analysis and inventory of grade crossings to optimize which are the most dangerous and require being made grade separated or which ones should be upgraded to being signalized. And the railroads themselves do kick in dollars as well to upgrade intersections. But lets be practical. Over 200,000 grade crossings in the United States, 90,000 private and some subset which are equipped only with passive warning devices (ie. crossbucks and/or stop signs). Let's say that there's a need to signalize 120,000 crossings (estimated from FRA numbers), with an the average cost to signalize a grade crossing in the United States of $400,000. That math gets you to $48,000,000,000. Again, all good in theory, but with that price tag, who is paying for it? The government? The railroads? We can be idealistic all we want, but practically, getting to an end goal like that is going to have to be an incremental thing.

The keycard / points of egress discussion is kinda like mental health and shouldn't be taken as a serious proposition until we actually see the appetite to fork over the money to the thousands of school districts who would need to update their buidlings / property in order to meet that standard. It's just not gonna happen, it's all about taking a knee and running out the clock on the discussion (at least until the next high profile shooting anyway)

That was pretty much the Uvalde playbook....

What editor thought this was a good idea? Jesus

And cut funding for mental health....

And as mentioned earlier, $500 million dollars last offseason won them eight more games. Eight. Even with the acquisitions this offseason, their modal outcome is still probably fourth place.

Isn't part of the problem that there's a finite number of options who are realistic short-term improvements as well? Chas has beat this drum a lot and he's spot on about it, it's easier said than done to land guys on one year deals. Brandon Drury and Jean Segura are both people who would have been short-term improvement options but ultimately got multi-year deals. Michael Conforto and Mitch Haniger, who are even a step beyond those guys, got multiple years. You even have a guy like Jurickson Profar still out on the market because he wants multiple years as well. Old friend Tucker Barnhart, somehow, got a multi-year deal. I understand the lack of patience that fans have, but it's not just that he has more patience, it's also that trying to gain 25 more wins in one offseason is really ****ing hard, and I don't think it's a realistic proposition on free agency alone. It requires advancement from the rest of the roster. There aren't really any shortcuts around that.

I don't see Hernandez, Ibanez or Knapp as guarantees to make the 2023 roster out of camp.

Totally, he was never coming here.... just speaking more to the general bent of "they need to spend more!!!" without thinking about things like injuries or how that can impact a team's thinking long term. Another example from last offseason would be Trevor Story... as rough a year as Javy had last year, could you imagine where they'd be if they would have signed him and entered this year with him on the rack? Concerns about his elbow no doubt was part of the calculus for teams in the market for a SS.

In some cases spending big may not have been smart as well. Carlos Correa, every Tiger fans favorite free agent is a good example, especially after the revelations about injury concerns.... the deal he ultimately signed (6 years, heavily incentive laden) makes sense for a team that looks like a legitimate competitor in 2023-2024, but for a team like the Tigers where a lot of luck would be required to compete within the next two years, it doesn't seem wise to sign a guy with injury concerns and who could potentially see a decline in production during the years where the team may be competitive in the future

We also need to be realistic about what money can actually achieve on a year-to-year basis. The Texas Rangers are a good example.... they handed out over $500 million in contracts last offseason and, as a result, went from 60 to 68 wins. They handed out even more money this offseason.... maybe it works in the end, but there's a decent chance that it doesn't (there's at least three of those contracts that are likely to age horribly). Particularly if they don't have a good hit rate on their younger core players coming up through the system. But even in their case, spending all the money that they are spending, it comes down to players in their system, that will make or break their chances. No different than the Tigers.... had the Tigers signed a pu pu platter of Jean Segura, Brandon Drury and Wil Myers, it really wouldn't change the fact that they need better production from people already on the roster and in their system to make that next step. I look at their current situation as the inverse of last offseason.... people saw the overachievement of the 2021 team and made assumptions about what was possible in 2022. This offseason, people look at the underachievement of the 2022 team and are making assumptions about what is possible in 2023. However 2023 plays out, I am not going to assume that we should just "copy-paste" each players stats from 2022 and presume they will all produce the same way. Feels like we see a lot of people do that with this team.

I don't see where Grossman fits on this roster at all.... not sure that depth is the right word given that the talent they currently possess is largely either unproven or below average, but to the extent that they have options for particular parts of their roster, outfield is one. And I don't know why they'd bring him in if he's going to take ABs away from younger players (Baddoo, Carpenter, Meadows Jr.), or that he is even a better option at this point.

This all sounds good in theory, but there are a lot of short line railroads in this country that feed the larger Class Is, and while they may not turn huge profits, they are absolutely vital in allowing customers to get their products from Point A to B. And they are often serving rural communities, the same ones we often discuss as having been left behind. Granted a lot of these railroads have been swallowed up by larger holding companies (Genesee&Wyoming, Watco), but nonetheless, the above statement, taken to its logical limit, could potentially leave a lot of rail customers behind in underserved communities. I do agree with the general view that railroads need to do a better job advancing safety, but there are real economic consequences to lines shutting down as well.... hence why the FRA, beyond oversight, offers grants for safety and operations as well.

As far as the actual derailment is concerned, the NTSB has a pretty good track record with investigations and will get it sorted out. Not too concerned with them. If I was a resident, though, I'd be wary of taking any offers of assistance from NS. I doubt any of that comes without strings attached.

Positive train control, I assume you are referring to... it took five years beyond the initial mandate (2015) for all of the Class I's to come into compliance as well. It was badly overdue technology and will save lives, but the time that it took to implement shows the flaws of a freight rail system made up of disperate private entities (with a couple of exceptions)... unless the government fully funds the changes, they will drag their heels in implementing... In the policy space, FRA and State DOTs almost universally push railroads to signalize as much as possible. But there are over 200,000 grade crossings in the United States across all different classes of railroads, not all of whom operate at the same scale or profit as the Class I's like NS, CSX, BNSF or UP. And they can be really complicated and costly projects, both from a design perspective as well as ancillary needs, such as traffic control, materials, ability to supply electric to a given location (which is a particular issue in the part of the country I live in, particularly as you go west). Another issue is that a lot of grade crossings are private (upwards of 90,000)... it's theoretically possible that a large industry using a private grade crossing could signalize, but how about private landowners/ranchers who's entrance/egress points require crossing a rail? And in those instances, it's hard to see the railroads paying on their own for those upgrades Not making excuses, but as someone who, professionally, has done some grade crossing design and has done some additional research on them within my state, just giving some perspectives. It’s a more complicated subject than it is given credit for.

It's hard for me to tell if the outrage was performative of whether people are just addicted to getting riled up over the dumbest things.

Yeah, getting someone like Wisler on a minor league deal w/ invite to ST is pretty solid.... wouldn't at all be surprised if he makes the team.

Speaking of Lunacy, some of the reactions to Rihanna's halftime performance....

Such a well thought out and compelling response.

Gonna go ahead and bump this.... applying Screwball logic, this would suggest that Elon Musk "censored" O'Sullivan.

And by no means are those two guys sitting in that luxury box "elite", nosiree....

Happy ERod day to those who celebrate....

OK