chasfh

Wouldn't we have to actively plan to be up against the tax in five years in order to make this pay out for us? Otherwise it would look weird for us to give Dingler a substantial premium on the expected payout for his arb years—which is what it would take to get him to sign on the line that is dotted—and then not follow through on the overall spending to get up against the tax that would make that premium arb payout worth it. Are you aware of any successful real-world examples of this strategy that you can share?

I think Harris will at least kick the ties on Cease. The main problem with Cease is, even though he strikes out guys at a clip closer to Skubal than to literally the rest of the entire staff, he's also wild around the plate.

Yes, but there's more. It's also that when Trump appears dumb, and the non-supporters and non-supporter media point that out, the red hats take personal offense at it. Trump has successfully conflated all criticism of him with criticism of everyone who supports him. He has said to the red hats, in so many words, "they hate me because they hate you" (an idea his machine stole directly from John 15:18). This extends to their logical conclusion that the attempt by a wack job to shoot Trump is a manifestation of Biden voters wanting to murder Trump voters. It won't be long until red hats conclude, "we have to kill them before they kill us." We are not there yet. But we are not as far away from it as naive non-red hats think.

I'll give you credit for stepping up with trade possibilities. There are any number of guys here who would have said, it's not MY job to come up with the trade it's Harris's he should just DO IT unless he totally SUCKS which he DOES! So kudos to you on that. I will say that your return packages contain either pitchers who will be nearly as good as Skubal possibly as soon as next year, or players at positions we already have logjams at (infield, catcher). So I'm not sure what that means for our own top prospects, unless your idea also includes liquidating our own guys for Hunter Brown or Andrew Abbott or some other controllable Cy Young-level guy. So let me set that part aside and ask you this: if we were to trade Skubal for any of these packages, would you be happy for the Tigers to take a step back and miss the playoffs next year, and perhaps the year after, for the promise of a string of playoff appearances anchored by controllable players starting in 2028? Would missing the playoffs for the next two years after making it to the LDS the last two years be an acceptable tradeoff for you to make?

Dingler's already under control for the next five seasons, so, what kind of extension do you want to see?

I do pay for Spotrac, but the only reason is because I got a gift card for re-upping with my TV provider, and unlike most Internet services with subscription-based options, they accept it. I regard gift cards like that as free money, so I use the few gift cards I do get for the kinds of things I would never ever buy with my own earned money. Lately it’s been Internet subscriptions like Spotrac and MLB Trade Rumors, another website that accepts gift cards as payment. I am getting another gift card in the mail soon, so I will probably re-up with them, because why not, it’s free money.

I wouldn’t say I have different views of him now than I did during the criminal administration he was part of, but I will say I miss the days when it was he who was the apotheosis of evil.

He knew. He absolutely knew.

There is no actual thinking. There is only primal response.

When JD finally does leave his family and take up with Kirk, it will be hailed by MAGA as a match made in literal Heaven.

Please tell us the trade you want to see. Where are we trading Skubal to, and which of their guys are we getting back?

There is only one guy I can think of who would gladly empty out the top of the farm system for one year of a Cy Young winner who would likely leave the following year, and that guy doesn’t work here anymore.

If we trade Skubal, our trajectory will go backward, not forward. I can hardly imagine the ****storm that would rain down on Harris if he were to trade Skubal and we miss the playoffs next year.

I don't know why you even try.

Right, although. consider carefully what it is I am saying. I am not saying that communist states routinely practiced open democracy. They did not. What I am saying is that the concept of communism is not mutually exclusive from the concept of democracy. It is possible to practice both of them simultaneously, which means communism would have to work hard in the marketplace of ideas to win votes. This is something Trumpian corporate socialism cannot do, which is why they are working feverishly to strangle democracy in its bed.

That makes sense, since 68% of Illinois' population lives in the nine-county Illinois portion of the Chicago–Naperville–Elgin Metropolitan Statistical Area.

I believe they do promote themselves as "The #1 news team on Comedy Central".

It would have to be substantially more than one dollar more.

I don't even know that extending a catcher after his rookie season would be a good idea, unless he were at least Bill Freehan-level or higher, and we're talking maybe among top twenty in history. And even so, too many bad things can happen to catchers along the way, much more than any other position.

I would not extend him any time soon.

I could be talked into this. He just walked away from three years and almost 60 million, so anyone who seriously wants to sign him will need to pay way, way more than this. It will probably have to be higher than his 5/102 deal the Mets signed him to. What are the chances he will want to come to Detroit over the Dodgers or Mets or Yankees or Red Sox or Giants or Cubs?

It occurred to me maybe a year or so ago that as reprehensible as MTG and her views are, she is not the bridge troll that Lauren Boebert is. Of course, that's a super low bar.

Chicago has been run by Democrats since well before I arrived here in 1996, and it has improved immensely in the past 30 years, with crime in particular having gone down by over half, and it wasn't even bad here when I arrived. So, now I know by firsthand experience that you have no idea what you are posting from your bubble about.