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Also, I just noticed this X post by CBS got ratioed as f***. Like, 6 to 1.

CBS News, if not completely gone, is definitely wandering through the desert.

And when he goes, the conspiracy stories about how the Democrats engineered his murder will run rampant, and he will be a martyr, and it won’t even matter how he will have actually died.

I don’t know, maybe? I would think a batter can “meet the ball” almost as effectively on a 95 as on an 85, and Newton says the ball would come off the bat harder which should increase the chances of a hit. I would also think a batter could be more successful connecting with a pitch swinging from his heels if it’s coming in straight at 85 than at 95 since he has marginally more time to size up where the pitch is going to end up. OTOH, the decision to swing hard on 95 might be a function of, I have no time to figure out where it’s actually going anyway, so I might as well swing hard as I can and hope for the best. So I guess talking it through, I could see it going both ways.

Well, if the squeaky clean Trump government is investigating ActBlue, no way they're not guilty, amirite?

You misspelled "teh".

Would you be willing to substantially overpay in prospect capital in trades, and in years for free agents? There's no right answer here, just asking what your tolerance level is. Can we agree that it would take a substantial overpay to get certain players to come to Detroit, versus what the Yankees and Mets and Dodgers and Giants and Red Sox and Cubs could sign the same player for?

I think the bigger problem is the clear incentive to maximum velo and spin to obtain swing and miss. Nearly every pitcher chases it understanding that the probability of injury is very high, but they believe the gamble that they can stay healthy long enough to make enough in career earnings to create generational wealth for themselves and their family is worth it. That's why they do it even knowing that they might fail—but in their minds, they believe they can be the exception.

Hitters don't have to adapt any more. They have to go for The Big Fly, always.

Can't pardon a guy unless he's arrested first. That will clear the docket and make him nice and free to do his king's bidding.

Yes, teh leftists. That's why Trump won and America is falling apart. 🙄

Violent and scary is the America they want. That's what they think the "Great" part is.

I'm in the middle of rewatching Larry Sanders, one episode each weekday lunch. I'm in the middle of season five and I have got Chair Company on the docket next.

Hey, look, we're wearing him down! 😂

This is a defensible position—certainly far more defensible than batting eight guys in a batting order! 😉 It wouldn't kill me to have games end in ties—they already do that in the NPB in Japan, calling a game a tie after 12 innings, and I saw one while I was there. Maybe it's because it was September and playoff positions were basically already determined, but I knew by the end of the tenth that, based on the way the players on the field looked to be phoning it in, the game was definitely going to end up in a tie. I don't love super long extra inning games, and I gotta be honest, with the advent of the zombie runner, I don't miss those. I would say, though, that if Baseball truly believes in the integrity of the zombie runner rule, they should use it during the playoffs. If they table the rule during the playoffs, though, that tells me they don't really believe in the integrity of the rule, that instead they believe that no zombie runner is "real baseball". Otherwise, they wouldn't be making that change. Pick a lane, Baseball.

Starting with the tenth inning? I have long believed the tenth inning should be played straight, and the zombie runner starting in the eleventh inning.

If the Democrats do not use this and other posts like to hammer home the point that Trump wants to be an actual King, then they will be guilty of campaigning malfeasance.

Those MAGA women all knew what the gendered double standards baked into the ideology were—they simply hoped against hope that those double standards wouldn’t apply to them. You know, the same way oligarchs know what the law is, but also know the law doesn’t apply to them.

I am wondering whether there’s something more to all these Republicans suddenly threatening to retire mid-term than just they think they’re gonna get smoked in the election. There’s money to follow somewhere here and I’m interested in finding out what that is. The proposed ban on insider trading that might well pass very easily could be part of it, since no MAGA* in their right mind would voluntarily abandon that gravy train. * This is not to say only the MAGAs in Congress engage in this, but as soon as they started hammering Pelosi on it, I knew that was telling us what one of their primary goals of getting elected was.

I don’t like any rule changes that upset the basic integrity of the game. Not all rules changes do this, but some do. The Golden At Bat would upset the basic integrity of the game, if a team can just bat any guy out of order any time during the game. I think that’s a bad rule change. One recent rule change, the pitch timer, actually supports the integrity of the game since it enforces the already-existing time limit between pitches. Some recent rule changes, such as slightly larger bases and the three-batter-minimum rule, I think affect the integrity of the game some, but not enough to matter so much. Others, such as the elimination of throwing pitches during intentional walks, I think do upset the integrity of the game since, in this example, there are well known instances of batters reaching out and putting pitches intended to be balls into play. I didn’t and still don’t like the infield shift rule. I think that undermines the integrity of managerial fiat during the game, since the solution to it could have been teams figuring out how to staff their rosters to hit around shifts and keep defenses honest by hitting more the other way. I think that could have and should have been the solution. Instead, Baseball chose to continue to encourage hitters to pull every single at bat because Chicks Dig The Long Ball, and The Long Ball generates beaucoup revenue. The business trumped the integrity in that instance. (Business usually Trumps integrity, doesn’t it?) Which brings us to this proposed rule. I definitely believe Jayson Stark’s (who else?) hair is on fire about the whole doubles things. Doubles are +15% more prevalent than they were in the 40s through 70s, and about the same rate as in the 80s and into the 90s. So they had already been at an historic high in the past 30 years. If reduced doubles is a problem at all, the problem is not that hitters suck now and need special help. The problem is that fair territory in the newer ballparks is way smaller than it used to be. That’s also why there are way fewer triples, and why there will never be another .400 hitter. The alters configuration of the parks have led to these changes in outcomes. But, also, Jayson Stark (again, who else?) is engaging in not a little intellectual dishonesty by pointing out how a 2016 line drive over a 35-year-old Granderson’s head was a double while a similar 2025 line drive was caught by a 23-year-old Angel Martinez, and oh my god, isn’t that awful? As if that should be the object lesson we need to accept to make this change. Basically, in historic terms, there is no doubles problem, and triples have been shrinking ever since they decided to bring outfield fences closer than 500 feet, so that part is definitely never going to change back to what it was during the dead ball. If Baseball were to put an actual line in the outfield that restricts where outfielders can play, I think I would be offended to see it. I believe the bigger problem they have to solve is not where outfielders should and should not position themselves, but how batters can put more balls in play in the first place, instead of striking out so damn much. Fix that, and the doubles “problem” will fix itself.

I'm sure there are plenty of those on the shelf at Walmart. All he's got to do is go there and pick one up ... easy pease ... 😉

Touché, turtle.

I agree although having two such pitchers is kind of a rare luxury. I think if we had one, they would get the majority of high-leverage closing situations. The only time they would not is if they are not available for some reason. But as long as we have a bullpen the level of what it was in 2025, there would probably be more mixing and matching.

There's nothing to trust. Crypto is not actual real money. You can't pay a mortgage with it or buy groceries with it or use it to pay your taxes to the government. You can only use crypto for criminal transactions like buying narcotics in traffickable quantiies or artwork stolen from the Louvre. For all the claims about its potential to revolutionize commerce and spending, crypto is worthless until you convert back to real money.

Paper bag test.