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I agree with your last part. But honestly, I don't think Joe not pardoning Hunter is driving them crazy. I think they expect that of Joe. Those at Fox News, at least, know Biden enough that they would be genuinely surprised if he acted out like Trump would. Instead, their simple strategy will be to willfully ignore that part of the story, which shouldn't be hard to pull off since rank and file viewers aren't going to question them about it, anyway.

Whether the requirement is six months, or a year, or two or three, and however narrowly or broadly the term "service" is defined, the main problem with it will be the inequities built into the system, in part related to exemptions for those who grow up in the upper 1% or so and cushy comfortable assignments for those in the next couple or so percent; and in part related to unfair distribution of punishment for those who go AWOL where harshness correlates to poverty level and class. That would likely lead to public confidence in the system collapsing at some point.

If Eduardo were to drop out of baseball and get counseling for his myriad problems, I would applaud him for his integrity. But as long as he's living life and conducting his affairs while projecting himself as a mentally healthy and competent person, he's fully responsible for his actions deserving of all the reasonable criticism coming to him, and he doesn't earn any speculative sympathy in my book. I respond only to what I know I have seen him do. I don't hate the guy since he neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg, and I wish him all the best as I would anybody I don't know personally.

I understand that Eduardo Rodriguez is a sensitive soul who hurts sometimes, but that doesn’t mitigate the fact that he ****ed over the team in a wholly unprofessional manner on multiple occasions, so he was a d*** as well.

If it’s about putting a competent team on the field and keeping their best players, then is firing Hinch enough? He’s not the guy bringing the players into the organization, right? At that point you ‘d have to fire Harris as well, clean out the front office he put together, and start with a fresh philosophy. You down?

Don’t look now, but Justyn-Henry Malloy has an .889 OPS.

I never said Harris was not at all responsible. I in fact have said on more than one occasion that as PBO he is responsible whether it’s his actual fault or not. I also don’t know where you got the idea I have "undying faith" in him, unless you’re just trolling, in which case, OK.

I agree that Harris had to accept responsibility for the trade not happening, and I remember him standing up and doing so at the time. I’m just not clear on what Harris did or did not do, irrespective of anything Eduardo did, that cost the deal? Was everybody totally in for the deal and at the last second Harris botched it all on his own? Is that your understanding of it?

I think Harris did everything he had to do to make that deal happen and Eduardo pulled the rug out from under it. The Dodgers basically confirmed as much.

There are a lot of people advocating for Skubal to be traded so we can get something anything for him before he inevitably leaves on the Boras Express. Are you one of them? I myself am not close to there yet.

Is it undying faith you think I have? Have I not articulate my thoughts about him and his tenure precisely enough?

You’re right he did sell Lorenzen and got Hao-You Lee who I saw Jack a bomb in Erie last week. Lorenzen wasn’t a top trade chip though so assuming Flaherty can stay healthy (😬), we should see something even better for him.

Am I not, though? Maybe I'm not interpreting it all properly, but it looks to me as though many, if not most, of the posters here are complaining loudly about how we are not winning and competing for a ring, or at least playoffs, with this team as currently constructed, with the players we have on the team right now, as though Harris has had plenty of time, we should be all done remaking the team by now, and we should expect to be playing baseball in October instead of golf, and anything less than that is a failure. I don't see it that way at all. I thought at the beginning of the season we would have a puncher's chance to make the playoffs, but I can see now that I too overrated their progress at the time. The difference with me, I think, is that I've come around to the idea that the organization was just not as far along as I'd hoped, while others seem to believe we have the horses right now and that it's the coaching that's failing us.

I feel pretty confident there will not be a tank-type rebuild under Harris. Otherwise, I think we would be seeing that right now, because given the early stage of development we're now realizing the org is at, now would probably be the time to go all in on such a strategy.

I don't think we have enough of a team to mortgage the future and go for anything yet. We're not done cooking yet. I think if we can somehow stumble into the playoffs with the green, young team we have now, that will be nice. But I feel confident we're not going to liquidate the top of our farm system so we can win 86 this year and cross our fingers that's enough.

Meaning, is it worth our selling a guy like Flaherty? If that's what you mean, we haven't seen Harris sell yet, so I think he deserves the chance to show us what he can do when he does.

I think "tanking" is more than just a synonym for rebuilding, which is what I think you're describing. I do think there are teams who deliberately put teams on the field they hope will get them a higher draft pick, because really, if you're trying your hardest but you're already going to lose 92 anyway, what's the difference whether you lose 102, as long as you get a better player out of it? People may think tanking is what I myself am advocating, and perhaps I may not be able to convince anyone I'm not no matter how nuanced (a dirty word) I am while describing the idea, but I'm just describing what I believe some organizations have done and maybe are even doing now. When talking about thirty different orgs, I believe the odds are high that some of them will tank. As for Avila: maybe it was as simple as, he thought he could build a winner the way teams could in the 1990s. Maybe he was just a man stuck in an era.

I think Chris has already shown us he is willing to spend after 2021, but that was when they thought they were ready to compete right then and there. The 2022 season showed us we were not what Al Avila convinced us we were, and there's no reason to throw money at a rotting core just to get you closer to the playoff spot you're most probably not gonna get anyway. I'm pretty sure Harris made no overtures toward J.D. Martinez, and I believe it's because J.D. is just not a fit for a team that's not mostly cooked and ready to compete. The playoffs this was was always going to be a nice-to-have, not ours to lose. Besides, I'd be surprised if J.D., in his waning years, would come to a team not ready to compete, anyway. After all, free agents do have agency, which is merely a schmancy nouveau term for having a choice. Hinch isn't the only one who doesn't want a full-time DH. Harris didn't want a full-time DH either, and most teams don't want or use a full-time DH. Hinch is not a lone wolf villain in that regard. They had to bring up Malloy not because he was ready, but because Carpenter is out, Why are we not playing Malloy at 3B or in the OF instead of DH? I think we already know why. If you think we should have brought up someone with a glove instead, I'd love to hear who people think that should have been.

That's true, and also, if someone starts publicly bad-mouthing other executives, active or retired, living or dead, in their organization or not, people are not going to trust or respect them.

I think if we have a wild card spot in hand at the deadline, or at least a 50% chance to get one, we might hang onto him. If all we have is a mathematical chance, I don’t think that will be enough to justify holding onto him. We simply don’t have the basis of team in a position to consistently contend. Harris is going to have to get us there before we start buying at the deadline.

Given how Ilitch was willing to spend after 2021 when Avila convinced him that we were ready to win, I really doubt that he is instructing Harris to keep payroll low first, and make everything else subservient to that imperative.

I’m not completely sure what you’re trying to get across here, but I do think neither Harris nor anyone else in the organization believes that this is the end of the rebuild and we are ready to compete for a ring now. Until we get to that point, the rebuild is on.

Unless Flaherty falls apart or gets hurt, I think Harris will be able to flip him for near-major-league-ready position player(s), and at the risk of disappointment, I assume he will be successful until he shows me he won’t be. I am confident it will not be an Avila return.

And I don’t think they have any plans to tank in the way we think of teams tanking. If they trade Skubal, then that’s tanking. If they trade Flaherty, I would say that’s not tanking. I do think they are putting together enough of a team to try to be .500 at least.

If Avila may have done things behind the scenes, I have no idea what those things might have been that have been carried over by this regime. Anything I might speculate would be just that.