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MAGA counterpoint: prison is supposed to be hard.

I think they believe that is totally fiscally responsible, because they can imagine the lazy vermin who would have eaten that food otherwise.

It’s all this, plus another aspect is that he is still working his ass off to get better so he can pitch. I can imagine the idea that players coming back from injury work have to harder at their job than healthy players on active rosters typically do.

I could see Skubal being the kind of guy who might not relish the white hot spotlight of New York or Los Angeles, but I would also think he would play in either spot if they offered the most money, because all three organizations have a chance to win a ring in any given year. And since he’s going to get good and paid no matter where he ends up, the best chance of winning rings is ultimately what he’s going to want in a new contract.

Believe me when I tell you that Alex Cobb is not happy with his circumstances at the moment.

A treat for those who enjoy watching strikeout after strikeout after strikeout …

Will Vest is The Man.

I can’t tell which you’re trying to say here—is it ****, ****, or ****? Either way, get a room full of testosterone-addled sports-freaky adults together and you’re gonna get a fair amount of cussing. EDIT: Whoa, I had to go back and filter that final surprisingly uncensored word myself! 😂

Man, we needed Vierling to step up right there didn't we?

Good thing the profanity filter works, huh? 😁

****ing A.

Yeah I'd be surprised if the Tigers offered Skubal years like that. I could see possibly fewer years and higher dollars, like, 6/300, but not eight or nine or ten years.

Can you imagine what it was like playing in Dallas in the first third of the 20th century when it was all day games and heavy wool uniforms?

Thank you for educating me on the concept of “working the phones.” If Harris “works the phones” with multiple teams regarding Skubal, I promise you that will become public in short order. I predict Harris will not “work the phones” to move Skubal this winter.

I wouldn’t call what is happening a collapse just yet, but this is how collapses typically start.

Oh my god, what just happened? What’s that pentagonal thing Riley just walked on?

I thought that story sounded familiar—it’s from two years ago.

While it is possible that Harris will trade Skubal before his time here is up, the only way we would put Skubal “up for auction” is if we have a complete collapse this season and next and we become sellers at next year’s deadline. The chances that Harris publicizes an auction for Skubal this winter is zero, +/- 0, and that goes double if we make the playoffs as currently projected. If we do end up trading him this winter—which would catch the media and public complete unaware—then in addition to multiple Pipeline-numbered prospects, the package would also have to include one major league starting pitcher, someone who projected to take a spot in next year’s rotation, as well as one hitter we can plug into the big league lineup on opening day next year. No way does Harris take five or six or however many lottery tickets alone for the guy who will be sporting back-to-back Cy Youngs.

I'm not pointing it out because I worry about it. I couldn't give less of a **** as long as we're winning. But I'm pretty sure Harris takes it into account when considering a player to sign or trade for.

I think it has been quite some time since teams have routinely given all of their DH at bats to overpaid superannuated sluggers. Here is a quick table I put together from Fangraphs data for 2024, showing how many total DH PAs each team had, how many they gave to their top DH, and at percent of the teams total that made up: Only 13 of the 30 teams gave more than half of their DH plate appearances to one guy, and 12 other teams gave fewer than a third to their top DH. Here's another way of looking at it: a total of 361 different hitters DH'ed for their team. Here is a list of all the players who "half-qualified" for a batting title (i.e., minimum 251 plate appearances) and got more than 50% of their team's DH plate trips: You don't have to count, I'll just tell you: only sixteen of the half-qualified hitters who DH'ed at any point of the season received as many as half the DH at bats their team logged last season. We can conclude that while there were some old, slow-footed, overpaid sluggers on these lists (hello, J.D., my old friend!), most of these guys were still under 30.

Looks like his changeup ain't changing.

Sonic’s Rendezvous played a dance at my high school in, I wanna say, 1977. Pretty unforgettable, in that I still remember it.