chasfh

He’s going to have to prove he can hit some first.

Not a lick. Not even at Cape Cod.

You forgot “inexplicably”.

That’s Tork’s only hope anymore.

So, total hypothetical: say an org has the 1-1 pick, and their shortstop is the worst shortstop in the majors who's backed up by nothing but bad-to-below-average shortstops in the system; and they also have an established, perhaps All-Star first baseman locked up for the next few years; and there's a great college shortstop available who's maybe the second or third best guy in the whole draft, but the consensus is that there's a high school first baseman slugger who projects to be the best player in the draft ... the org still takes the first baseman because he's the best available? Honest question because I want to understand how immutable this truism is.

OK. I accept that your belief—or knowledge, based on experience—is that major league teams take the best available player for each draft pick, irrespective of the player's position as it relates to the state of the organization's system at the time, and thus do not acquire players based on organizational positional needs. IOW, strictly best available remaining, period. I further grant that you are in a far better position than I to know that based on your access to inside information, versus my gleaning of information I have read as an outsider through the years. Have I articulated this accurately? Either way, I'll still bet a dollar that Harris doesn't take Kurtz if he's available.

And how expected.

Some here laughed at me on the old board years ago when I suggested this kind of power grab on behalf of a Trump would happen.

I don't think I would like a first base-only prospect in the system, and I would bet you a dollar that Harris will not bring one in for his first round pick, which would basically tell everyone, including the market, that Tork is done here, and unless there's something they see inside that's unfixable, I would think it's almost job #1 to fix him.

It is true that when you listen to the debate versus watching it, Biden doesn't seem to do as poorly.

Good thing the DC suburbs are there, then!

Just remember, though, that we’re not voting just for the man at the top of the ticket. We’re also voting for everyone he brings into the job with him. Maybe that’s something the Democrats should spend some time highlighting.

This is my wife’s political humor. People like it when she’s topical.

Doesn’t not even on the margins? Literally zero votes changed?

Freezing while formulating the thought in the first place, which is what Biden appeared to do, is not the same as stuttering.

Perusing this data, it looks like Biden split his two pre-debate projections in 2020 by +4 and -4, while Trump outperformed his pre-debate projection last night by +12. Not real comforting.

It's one thing to stutter where you have the thought and struggle to get it out—it's another to have an actual brain freeze where you can't get the thought out because it's not there. That's what happened in the big freeze early on, and that's the TikTokable moment that will be endlessly replayed at least until November.

And the $64 question is, which do voters believe is which?

Is Krediler at the top of that depth chart?

And this is why Republicans want to expel all immigrants, pronto.

This is exactly right. Anyone who put as much thought into it as the Biden debate prep team are assumed to have done knew EXACTLY all the wacky things was going to say, and it's as though the Biden team didn't game plan for any of that.

So I woke up and it was NOT all a crazy fever dream. Goddammit.

I don't think Harris doesn't care about results. Results affect the business, and as president he's responsible for the business. That's Business 101.

I don't that's true. Drafting another college first base bat-first guy who profiles almost exactly like Tork tells everyone Tork is done here, and it's about something other than simply sending a despondent Tork boo-hoo-hooing to some psychoanalyst's couch. It's about ignoring positions of actual need by choosing a college bat-first guy at a position we can put half a dozen guys at already and leaving positions we need filled quickly—shortstop, catcher, probably second base—open and vulnerable, all while paying $5.7 million for the privilege. It's also about signaling to the marketplace that Tork is now in the bargain bin so come and get it, pennies on the dollar. Is that how we want to dispose of him? Besides, Avila took what he thought was best available talent all the time and look what he achieved by the time he'd left: a top-of-the-system riddled with outfielders, first basemen, and pitchers of various stripes. In any event, I doubt bat-only first basemen are on Scott Harris's first dance card. I doubt Kurtz would profile as the best available talent on Harris's spreadsheet before a crooked-number round. You can have a good laugh on me if I'm wrong.

The Democrats are going to be in complete disarray for at least the next week.