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That should pretty much sew up the bat**** pseudo-leftist vote.

I'm not arguing we should not trade Skubal. I think we should for a truly redonkulous offer. I'm speculating that top teams might be less willing to back up the Brinks for him if they have questions as to whether he can help them in October this year, which is the main reason they'd want him.

I think someone else mentioned this before here, but one of the factors that might reduce the possibility of trading Skubal is his innings load. He is a max-effort fireballer with two surgeries on his elbow who is already at 116.2 innings this year. His max all-time was 149.1 in 2021, which may have helped lead to his second trip to the table the following season. At the rate he's going, that puts him at 195 innings for 32 starts. Add to that the probability of adding another 30 to 40 innings in October at the highest stress levels imaginable, and I could see top teams being a bit skittish about the prospect of emptying out the top of their farm systems in the hopes that he helps get them a ring this year. Yes, it's true that Skubal would be under control for three postseasons, but no one would trade for him this July just so they could put him on the shelf until next year.

The other kind meaning bad players we do know what to do with? 😉 This is Avila's strategy is stick first-glove optional player acquisitions coming home to roost. And too many of those stick-firsts were either stick-optional or stick-none. (Yes, I acknowledge Malloy is Harris's pickup.)

We don't have a random baseball thread—who knows, maybe we should, just too lazy to start one now—so I don't know where else to put this. I've been doing some research for a thing and I did not realize this was ever a problem.

I didn't see it, but I'm going to guess that they spend a lot more time these days on interviews with players and all the preparatory and otherwise time-wasting nonsense in between contestants.

Which is why I said "if" and not "when".

If Hao-Yu Lee continues his rapid ascent and Tork doesn't recover in time, Colt Keith is moving to first.

Yes, there is no evidence. 😉😜

My lovely wife, God bless her, came up with a potential scenario: what if the 20-year-old kid was a terminal cancer victim, so he was going to die anyway, and the Trump people convinced him that they would set up his family for life if he would just take shots at the President and let himself be killed, all in the service of ramping up enough sympathy votes for Trump to win the election? Of course, this is a plot from one of the procedurals she watches. 😁 But that also got me thinking: even if there were proof positive that this happened, how could the media report it without looking unhinged themselves? Who would believe something so completely far-fetched? Definitely not the red hats, and they love love love conspiracy theories, just not against their guy. So couldn't the Trump campaign actually make something like this totally happen and be 100% assured they would get away with it? I mean, if he can rape preteen girls and get away with it, which to all appearances he did, this one would be a piece of cake, would it not? 🤔

Notice how the Trump wing lovefest is unfolding unfettered and absent any counter-programming by the Democrats? I can assure you there will not be a lack of Republican counter-programming when the Democrats go to Chicago next month.

Vance now has the official blessing, and he is a celebrity in his own right. That might be enough.

What would I do without you? 😁 I was just winging it based on the kids' age of 18, and figuring it's going to take at least until age 23 or 24 before they become solid contributors on a first division team.

Good call, I had kind of thought about it but skated past it, but it did not take as long as I thought it might to break it out, so here is is: College 296 Played MLB 208 Percent 70.3% Debut Lag Number Percent Rookie? 0 3 1.4% 2024 1 21 10.1% 2025 2 44 21.2% 2026 3 86 41.3% 2027 4 31 14.9% 2028 5 13 6.3% 2029 6 4 1.9% 2030 7 3 1.4% 2031 8 1 0.5% 2032 9 1 0.5% 2033 10 1 0.5% 2034 11 0 0.0% 2035 Average: 3.02 seasons High School 268 Played MLB 147 Percent 54.9% Debut Lag Number Percent Rookie? 0 0 0.0% 2024 1 1 0.7% 2025 2 2 1.4% 2026 3 28 19.0% 2027 4 39 26.5% 2028 5 49 33.3% 2029 6 14 9.5% 2030 7 8 5.4% 2031 8 2 1.4% 2032 9 1 0.7% 2033 10 2 1.4% 2034 11 1 0.7% 2035 Average: 4.67 seasons Yes, big difference between college and high school, as we might expect, but ETA for high schoolers is still predominantly 2027 to 2029, while college it's more like 2026 to 2028. That poor ****er who took 11 years to get to the bigs? Michael Kelly, pitcher. Still there, now with the A's, and having a pretty darn decent year, albeit with fairly ****ty peripherals. Still, maybe the star of Moneyball II: The Wreckening??

Will she? Vance is pretty articulate.

I've already been predicting that Vance will be the nominee in 2028, and that if Trump loses and Project 2025 goes down with him, the whole thing will be resurrected as Project 2029 under Vance. One way or another, America will go full-on fascist. If not this year, then in four years; if not this year or four years, then eight years. It may take a couple of cycles, but it will happen. All the fascist regimes of the 20th century started out as democracies. It is fate borne of hubris.

So, just for kicks, I married the 1st Round draft info on Reference with the Lahman People database to determine, of all the first round draft picks from 2010 through 2022, how many had made the majors through 2023, and how many seasons did it take? Again, this is everyone drafted in the first rounds only. Here's how it looks: Kids Drafted 566 Played MLB 355 Percent 62.7% Debut Lag Number Percent Rookie? 0 3 0.8% 2024 1 22 6.2% 2025 2 47 13.2% 2026 3 115 32.4% 2027 4 71 20.0% 2028 5 62 17.5% 2029 6 17 4.8% 2030 7 9 2.5% 2031 8 3 0.8% 2032 9 2 0.6% 2033 10 3 0.8% 2034 11 1 0.3% 2035 Average: 3.67 seasons Here's how to read this: There were 566 kids drafted in the first round between 2010 and 2022, including supplemental first rounds. Of those, 355 have debuted in the majors, which is almost 63%. Debut lag is how many seasons it took before they made the majors. Three players made the majors with "zero debut lag"—that is, the very year they were drafted (Garrett Crochet, Chris Sale, Brandon Finnegan). That's 0.8% of all players chosen. A player drafted this year with zero draft lag would debut this season, 2024. Twenty-two players made the majors with a one-year debut lag. That's 6.2% of all players chosen. A player drafted this year with zero draft lag would debut next season, 2025. You get the idea. The most common debut lag is three years (2027) with 32.4%; second most common is four years (2028) at exactly 20.0%; third most common is five years (2029) at 17.5%. So, nearly 70% of first-rounders who make the majors do so at three to five years after they were drafted. Another 13.2% make it in two years. The implication for our first rounder Bryce Rainer, such as it is, is that if he makes the majors, he's most likely to make his debut between 2027 and 2029, and if he is more exceptional, he could make it in 2026. How fast Bryce Rainer makes the majors could set a good benchmark for how solid the developmental team in the Harris administration is. Or Max Clark or Kevin McGonigle, for what that's worth. If they could make it in two, that is an outstanding job. If it takes at least five, well ... tl;dr: I think we both may be right, in that Rainer should make the majors certainly by 2029, hopefully by 2028; and 2030 is probably when we can hope/expect him to start contributing as a solid first-division regular.

I'm not sure it's as easy as all that. Do umpires even see the framing in the moment? Are they positive they can tell the difference between a catcher "illegally" framing versus just the catcher trying to get a better grip on a tricky moving pitch? Could the umpire potentially call an illegal framing on a pitch the catcher doesn't actually move, or moves within the allowable distance from the catch, whatever that might be? How can they be sure the catcher illegally framed a pitch unless technology helps confirm that—ironically, the same technology some pundits are assuming will do away with framing altogether? Seems like there may be a lot of worms in the can.

Yes, I think it's reasonable to plan to the assumption that it will take until age 24 for any or all of these kids to contribute at a playoff-worthy level. Flexibility for unexpectedly good results could push that timetable forward, of course, but even so, I would regard anything sooner that that as gravy.

Some of it look just so ridiculously obvious that I'm surprised some umpires don't punish the catcher by calling a ball just for trying to make him look stupid.

No, but I saw the story about the guy who took a hooker with him to a Dodgers game so he could drive in the HOV lane on the way there.

You misspelled "angar".

I agree with this for the most part. There are times when it is appropriate to trade prospects for established players who can put you over the top and/or take you into November. This is not one of those times.

So, are we still firing hitting coaches during the break?

He's not, but framing is technically a tactic of deception, and some people can be deceived despite their best efforts to avoid it. Also, people frequently make judgments based on factors beyond merely the evidence in front of them, some of those factors are personal, and sadly, that include calling balls and strikes.