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I'm talking about the Trump government. Who are you talking about?

It's not a nationwide scandal because Trump is employing a strategy that can be alternately called "the fire hose" and "shock and awe": flood us with so much terrible stuff on so many fronts all at once that we can't possibly unite to focus on what to fight back on or even object to. There are too many things in too many areas going on for us to unite and push back on any single one. And any time there is traction on any one issue, they merely introduce a new outrage into the system, and we all chase that like dogs after a squirrel. And so our attentions are fragmented and nothing controls for very long, because with every new outrage—and there will be at least one new outrage every day—we leave the old outrages behind, no more attention is paid to them, and the regime can complete their work on those. And this strategy totally working, because it has always worked. That's why it's not stupid, even as its unconstitutional and (for the moment) illegal.

Hey, man, he's letting them eat cake. Get over it. 😏

They couldn't give less of a shirt about infrastructure projects. Letting everything go to seed keeps our money in their pocket and reduces our morale. Driving down the quality of everything and getting us used to it is a goal, because the less we have, the less we'll demand.

Nope. Red state red hats will not band together with their neighbors and rise up against MAGA overreach by the government. They will simply turn on each other to eliminate local rivals, and then look for opportunities to plunder what's left behind. That's how it has always worked throughout history. It may be unconstitutional and technically illegal, but what it's not is stupid. They know what they're doing, and they have help architecting the whole thing from benefactors who have 800+ years experience in doing the same thing.

This has always been the end goal: controlling ordinary, everyday people utterly and completely. What they are allowed to do, what they are not allowed to do, and just as importantly, what they must be compelled to do. The new regime can't achieve its goals without knowing exactly what each and everyone else of us are doing at all times, and they can't do that without ubiquitous surveillance. And not just electronic surveillance, either, although that will be a large part of it. They will also rely heavily on the word of snitches on the inside of various institutions: local and state government, media, academia, civic institutions, unions, private employers, charities, utilities, social media forums, all of it. They are already pushing for that inside the government today—my guess is that media will be next. Nothing will be too small for them to root out we they call Marxists, which will eventually encompass anyone who did not vote for Trump, and that includes most of us.

I think that’s true of a lot of players, maybe even most players, especially since so many of them come from the south, the west, and Latin America. It’s totally unfair, that completely sucks, but that’s the reality we have to work within. Short of a complete renaissance for the city of Detroit that makes it a cool place that everyone wants to come to, there are two ways to get players to want to play for the Tigers: pay way more than anyone else, and/or establish a great organizational culture that leads to winning. Harris is working on the latter now, but that’s still going to take time to really take hold, more than just two and a half years. We’re seeing some really good progress on that front, and if he succeeds—and nothing is guaranteed, of course, but if he does—then maybe we won’t to have to pay so much more to get players to want to come here. And as for that part, Ilitch has shown with the Javy and Eduardo contracts that if he is convinced the team is on the verge of winning, he’ll spend. No reason to believe that he will welsh on that idea now, other than the self-defeating fatalistic thinking that has characterized being a Tigers fan for the last decade or so.

All true. I think the original point stands that a pitcher has more of an outsized impact on a game than any of the other positions, by a factor of multiples, and that a pitcher is not worth only one-fifth of an everyday player because he pitches in only one-fifth of the games.

Yes, you have a nice day too!

And even if you have the best position player in the world, you still have eight other positions you have to fill to help win the other eight-ninths of the games you play. One player can’t win 162 games all by himself for you.

Where did he say that?

I don’t believe the contribution of a position player to a game is the same as the contribution of a pitcher to a game, in terms of winning. I think a pitcher has way more impact on winning across 30 games than any position player does across the same 30 games.

I’m not so sure the Tigers have so much talent of a chance to sign Bregman. I think the only way we get him is that we are literally the last team standing.

I wanted Miggy‘s contract to come off the books so we could put a better bat in his slot.

This is not the same as Presley would block a trade to 29 other teams and accept a trade only to the Cubs. I read this as meaning that of the three teams named that showed interest—Cubs, Tigers, or Blue Jays—the only possible trade partner remaining would be the Cubs.

That was speculative specific to the question you had ask, not a declarative statement by me.

Move Paredes to second and put Bregman at third (although it would certainly be better for them to put Bregman at second instead), and Altuve sucks at second now. His idea, not mine.

I agree with this, although I doubt that would entail Harris and Baby Doc hamstring the team in years 3-5 just so we can win in years 1 and 2. That would be more of a Dombrowski/Papa Doc move. Plus, Harris is already on record as not wanting to block Jace Jung. If Bregman wants to come here on a one-year prove-it pillow deal, I'd guess Harris/Ilitch would be all over that.

So does Altuve, who has said he will move to left field specifically if the Astros sign Bregman, and now that the Astros have traded both Tucker and Pressly, they have the payroll flexibility to sign him. My not-so-bold prediction now is that Bregman ends up back in Houston.

How do I know what, exactly? I can answer when I know what you're asking.

lol slamming Harris for manipulating the fan base into thinking we actually wanted to trade for Pressly when all Harris really wants to do is work with Baby Doc to drive the payroll down to zero and destroy the franchise for good. 😉 I've read multiple stories about this and I see nothing indicating the Pressly wanted to go to only the Cubs and not to any of the other 29 teams. I saw where the Blue Jays had interest but a lot of players don't want to go to Toronto, either. So yeah, I agree we're not being singled out, but the fact is he didn't want to come to Detroit, and that's all the headline says.

I don't understand what's so misleading in the headline. The Astros and the Tigers talked trade, Pressly rejected it, as is his right. What are you seeing that I'm not? In any event, I'm not hanging my hat on some writer's "bold prediction" which, practically by definition, has nothing of substance to validate it.

Only because there is literally nothing else from anyone else they would sign for? That's especially true of a right-handed hitter in Comerica.

What, you missed Trump's proclamation that the country must now be spelled with a "u"?