mtutiger

Pretty unsurprising reaction. But again, the party is nominating and running many candidates that are, at best, unclear as to whether they would respect the popular outcome of elections. Michigan, PA, Arizona all have slates of these candidates. I have little problem with calling that out at all. What I took from last night is that it's time to stop walking on eggshells about it and just be honest that this is what is happening. The cries of politics are inevitable, but even then, how do you avoid politics when anti-democratic ideology overtakes much of one of the two parties? It's inherently political at this point, for better or worse.

That's one big difference between 2016 and more recent elections: the amount you hear about culture wars. Then, you heard it more from the D side. Now, aside from inflation, it's basically all you hear about from Rs. Very little by way of ideas or policy... and I suspect that is by design.

What I think is being lost here in some of the interpretations of this speech is that the hardcore MAGA crowd (which, btw, isn't half the country when you look at the surveys, more like 30-35%) isn't really the intended audience. It's intended for the other 65-70% who, despite maybe having policy differences (perhaps even massive ones) don't like the politics that the MAGA crowd advances and wants to move on from it. This is a big reason why it isn't "Deplorables" imo... Biden did go to great lengths to distinguish who exactly he was talking to and how it didn't include mainstream Rs. My biggest problem with it was that he transitioned some into stumping in the second half and talking about political accomplishments. Would have preferred he left that out to focus on the broader topic.

Ahh, the folks who constantly call half the country "Marxists" now care about unity?

Correct. And I will stand behind what I said at the time about Lange even as he has struggled of late.

It was 80/20 Neto over Jung according to whoever leaked to Cody, iirc.

They have always had a problem with RCV, to be honest. No system for electing candidates is going to be perfect, but looking at how the election turned out, and how even exhausted ballots (ie. voters who voted for Begich and then left 2nd Choice blank) wouldn't have changed the outcome, it is by no means clear that Palin would have won election under a conventional FPTP primary system.

I suspect Bennett will win in the end, but this is one of the rare cases this cycle of the GOP nominating a decent candidate who actually fits the ideals of the state and the result here is likely a reflection of that. O'Dea's views on abortion, which are far less extreme than most GOP candidates running this cycle, probably helps elevate other issues as well.

It came from a leaked comment to Cody Stavenhagen from someone inside the org, discussed in his Turning the Corner Podcast this week.

I can't remember if he said it on the podcast, but was the leak contemporaneous or was it something that he learned more recenetly? It sounded to me like it was something that came out after Al's firing, but he never really said it either way. I do think that matters because, again, the interregnum period between GM's is a perfect time to saddle the fired/outgoing GM with blame and grievances and can also be self-serving as well, thinking in terms of guys who may be worried about their own jobs.

lol

The rumors about Jung are the kind of thing that are catnip for this fanbase. Especially with Avila gone... My own sense is that Al Avila drafting players, as bad as his drafts were, doesn't inherently mean each individual player he drafted is worthless. And as a fan of this team, I like following the development of these players and seeing what comes of it. For better or worse. Doesn't mean that I don't think his successor will give us more to look at or be excited about, obviously.

I do think Trump and his allies are, at best, unconcerned about causing riots. Having said that, if the trend line leading up to 2022 looks less ideal now in terms of polling and other factors (ie. how money is being allocated to certain campaigns) for the GOP, imagine how much worse it would be with riots. Many suburban voters weren't fans of riots when they happened in 2020, they weren't fans of the Jan 6 Riot, and I would imagine they would equally dislike widespread riots regarding Donald Trump's legal challenges.

The job that Cody and the other beat writers do is important and insightful, but whenever someone talks to a member of the media, particularly anonymously, it's important to remember that there can be an agenda associated with it. This probably applies even more to the conversation about Zach Neto (and the supposed 80/20 split within the draft room)... somebody who lost out on that argument internally has plenty of incentive to leak (and perhaps embellish)... particularly with Al Avila having been canned.

There aren't gonna be riots.

Have to look at the market within the context of who is available in this upcoming offseason.. and while Correa has a few advantages over TT, it's really hard for me to see him getting more than TT

As an aside, the discussion about Paredes that Cody had on the podcast was fair, but the discussion about Grossman's "resurgence" being a big deal was kinda BS. They made a huge deal about his big couple of games, but then qualified his cooling off in the past couple of games as "those things just happen in baseball". Like, c'mon. The discussion about whether a player was getting the help he needed was a better angle of the discussion, but then again, the guy who built this front office is gone. And along with it one envisions that positive changes could come from that in the analytics and performance science spaces of the org. I would be more angry if Al were still here, but am willing to be patient to see who they hire to fix the mess and what they do.

Yup. And when he goes cold again (and he will)... it will go quiet again.

Big moment for Joe here.

lol

Not that anyone says that the offensive performance in the macro is acceptable, but the old line about how "Miguel is still the best hitter in the lineup" needs to be retired at this point. Even in terms of the DH position, with as bad as the roster is, the ideal thing would be to platoon Carpenter/Haase. But obviously, the contract complicates things greatly

Bryan Holiday is pretty good... not quite Alex, but pretty good

It was not. Completely voluntary on his part