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This has gotten scant attention here, but the effect of the overturning of the Chevron Deference is that the expertise of scientists will no longer be privileged in court cases, and judges and panels can simply set them aside as irrelevant to whatever legal doctrine is deemed more convenient and beneficial to whoever is in charge at every level of government. This is as bad as an under-the-radar ruling can get.

wt

- Trump is looking more presidential than ever …

Tough way to lose. Dodgers are a pretty good team.

Ohtani got that pitch up in the zone to smoke because the home plate umpire did not give us that first pitch strike, and I wonder whether it had anything to do with Jake jawing at him after striking out on that legitimately in-the-zone pitch.

Damn it they are just singling us to death here

Yes, I too am "down", as you kids apparently like to say, with both the idea that the COVID season was an impediment to development, and that four years should be enough for a top flight talent to have gotten past it. And lest we forget, when we drafted Matt Manning, it was with the idea that he was a top flight talent. But he has proven that can't strike guys out, and now he can't seem to keep from walking guys. That's a bad combination that's not going to play in a major league bullpen, and I'm not sure we have room for a garbage-time guy only. We just had one of those added to our bullpen this week. Manning is still cheap this year so he's still worth working on, but he starts to get more expensive starting next year. Probably not a lot more—I wouldn't think an arbitrator would give him much more than three bills, if even that—so maybe we give him one more shot at it next year. But really, the hourglass is running out fast on this guy.

I wonder whether putting Franco on the restricted list is the MLB way of suspending him, or are they somehow two different things?

Match-up to watch: Shohei Ohtani is 0-for-3 with a strikeout against Skubal.

You also win with both pitchers and hitters, and not just pitchers.

Minor leaguers don't return prospects in trade. They return lottery tickets.

Urshela will return almost nothing in any trade he headlines. Not only is Kelly not on the list, but catcher shows up on the list only at #24 and #25, the Rockies catchers. Maybe catchers don't generally draw a lot of attention at the deadlines because good teams might already tend to have their catcher situations figured out. You know which contender is surprisingly soft at catcher? The Orioles. Adley Rutschmann Is still on track for a 5 or 6 win season, but he's hitting only .235/.305/.365 at catcher, albeit with plus D, while he's raking .364/.412/.612 at DH. I don't know whether this means they will make any moves, but I did find this to be surprising.

Yes, and an organization that's super deep in prospects is simply going to have to pay more than an organization with average depth would.

Chafin is way down the list and Skubal is a courtesy mention at #50 of 50. Chafin could sweeten a deal that Flaherty headlines. Remember that Greg Pappas guy who popped in here and said he’d offer that underwhelming Mayo+ package for Skubal? Mayo+ might be what it takes for them to get Flaherty, assuming they want to win a ring this year versus continuing to count the unhatched chickens while dreaming about the late 2020’s.

Catcher is one of the more interesting decisions we will have to make this winter. First of all, I think it’s unlikely that Carson Kelly will accept only one year. He already got two years from us coming into 2023, so with a season like he’s had, he will stand pat on years at the very least. Guys value the security of knowing they’ll have a job, so years (and total dollars) are more important than AAV. As a result, I’m less concerned about what the salary will be than what the guaranteed years will be. Kelly might take two guaranteed with a team option for a third or more, and he shouldn’t have any trouble getting it. Is he the guy Harris will want to start for us in 2026 when he’s age 31-32? That seems doubtful. On the other hand, Jake Rogers: I realize I’d said hard no on an extension for him, and I still believe that. There’s no reason to pull that particular trigger on a catcher without a stick who’s 29 and under control until 2027. But I am very intrigued by the difference between how Reference values him versus how FanGraphs values him. Last year Reference said Jake was an 0.7 WAR catcher with slightly above average defense, but Fangraphs thought he was a 2.5 WAR player with amazing catcher skills. And even this year, Reference has Jake at 0.1 and Fangraphs has him at 0.9. Savant agrees with the idea that Jake has elite catcher skills. I’ve long preferred FG over Ref when it comes to wins, so I’m coming around to the glove-first value of Jake. The complicating factor is that hitting is a big need for this team going forward, and I’m not sure we can afford to punt on catcher hitting to the tune of 75 or so wRC+. But, important flip side, catcher skills are super important for helping pitchers achieve their results as well. Ultimately, I do think we’re going to arb rather than extension with Jake for sure, and we may try to get Carson to accept another 1+1 contract for more money, which I think will be a stretch, so maybe we bite the bullet on a guaranteed two. But really, that second one is rather dependent on Dillon Dingler, isn’t it? Because if his stick keeps up, we may take a flyer on some combination of Jake and Dingler next year. Fascinating.

The down side is just how long it’s taking. Especially Manning, who’s been here since age 18 in 2016. That’s eight years ago, he’s now 26, and I think we are past the point we can blame the COVID season, and he hasn’t thrown 90 innings at any level since 2021. We have to start wondering whether this is his peak, or even past it.

Tigers were 7-3 coming into today's game. How have they been doing it? Hint: it's not the pitching.

Ohhhhh boy …

Do you have access to SiriusXM? If you do, go to channel 849 on the phone app and listen to the game there. It's a marginally enough better experience that you will notice.

Are you sure that’s not the radio station running all those ads? I tried to watch the TV postgame show after one of the games last week. After last pitch they went to commercial for three minutes. Then they came back with a tease for 20 seconds or so, then another three minutes of commercials. Then it was 30 seconds of tease, then yet another three minutes of commercials. I bailed.

I was just wondering when was the last time we faced a position player pitching? Maybe Jake Bauers when we crushed the Brewers? Now it's Garbage Time with Shelby Miller.

Who are you people and what have you done with the Detroit Tigers?

An Avila is actually helping us win. That's a refreshing change.

Why did I think he’d already been named? It’s official now.