mtutiger

It looks like a salary dump for the Twins. Yanks are picking up $50mil of Donaldson's contract per Heyman Still, seems like a trade perfectly designed for both fanbases to hate

Bizarre...

Not at all, although Minnesota is still pretty weak at the moment in the starting rotation department

I would have to imagine China has concerns about their relationships in Europe and how they are being impacted by this conflict. Their response in general has been incoherent... on one hand amplifying a lot of the Russian propaganda on social media, on the other hand (AFAIK) not doing much in terms of physical or financial aid for Russia since the beginning of the invasion. Which probably reflects them trying to calibrate where to go from here.

Yes, and it is really frustrating in a situation like this where "owning the libs" starts to mean taking sides against the United States. I'm not even saying that the Administration is above criticism (I think they've handled this well but criticism that is lodged in order to improve the response or correct whatever problems arise is welcome)... but when it goes beyond that and into spreading Russian propaganda about biolabs, you are abetting the enemy and are not being patriotic. Full stop.

Its a start lol

They really need bullpen help as well. I know people don't love giving free agent contracts to bullpen arms, but this team has a lot of question marks out there. I'm open to the idea that guys like Lange/Funkhouser can graduate to reliability status, but even so, its the Achilles heel of this team

I tend to be in the starter and reliever camp. The OF is more potential than established at this point, but pitching depth is a necessity if they have any designs on competing this year.

Seems like a big deal

The dictators dilemma in a nutshell

Exactly the right approach

👀

Haha!... the local sports talkers in DFW practically had him penciled into the Rangers rotation as soon as the lockout ended

Quite a position for Israel, of all countries, to take

I'm fine with them not getting Rodon... that is too much money Grienke is polarizing bc of his velocity loss, but I'd still consider him for a #5 slot. May command too much money tho

And let's be honest: there are plenty of examples in history of a much larger military inserting itself into a conflict with a smaller country and not prevailing. Vietnam and Afghanistan (x2) are the ones that come to mind. Russia definitely can still win the military conflict part of this war, but it wouldn't be unprecedented if they didn't.

Morale matters a lot in war, and Ukraine is winning by a significant amount on that front. Both Russia and The West underestimated their desire to fight and die for their country while, on the flip side, it's not clear how many Russian soldiers knew of the objectives ahead of time or actually want to be in this conflict. Until that changes, it seems hard to RUS to meet its objectives. I suspect that the carpet bombing and threats of chemical weapons are meant to try to cause cracks in morale. We will see

The age thing would seem to be big as it seems like convention wisdom that the younger generation does not watch their news as much as the older generations do

Depends on his asking price is.... he's great to have as a long relief option, but I suspect he may be asking for more than relief money.... either way, they would ideally have someone else as a 5th starter (ie. one of the Andersons, Pineida, etc.)

The thing that I wonder is, on top of all the companies pulling out of Russia, what impacts Russia placing bans on popular apps/business (such as Instagram) will have on the population. The Russian people must obviously notice when they pick up their phone and can no longer send, recieve or view content. Or that they cannot buy products from stores they are used to. When you really sit down and think about it, you realize how much of an impact just not having access can upend someone's life. Propaganda can probably help ameliorate the effects, but I doubt it can wipe the effects away entirely.