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I think we all can figure out who the “massive resources” are coming from and what kind of “election integrity” they’re talking about.

This is the first thing I’m reading after waking up this morning, so I almost got a woody because for a split second I thought you posted “facing an indictment”.

Oh my god I just looked up Justin Thompson’s card and he had such a weird 1997. He had 7.7 bWAR, which is in Cy Young territory, but he did not get a single vote. I looked up his Fangraphs card, and his RA9-WAR is 7.1. RA9 is the WAR based solely on results. But his fWAR, the one based on underlying factors, is only 4.9. That’s because he had a really low BABIP that year. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that kind of spread between the two numbers.

I think we have enough latent talent in the organization right now that I feel confident they can take another year to figure out who can stick and who can go, and at whichever positions they fall short, they can backfill through the marketplace. I think I have a handle on what their plan is, and I like the approach. I'm an old man, but I think I have another year for them to work through the process. Besides: they just might surprise us all this year with what they have.

I'm not opposed to March Madness pools, I'm not opposed to weekly poker games with friends, and I'm not opposed to gross, seedy, ugly gambling oases like Nevada—not even the cowboy casinos in Laughlin. What I am opposed to is a freewheeling barely-regulated gambling syndicate which is set free to seek out ordinary people minding their own business and lures them into gambling with things like implied promises of big wins and hit-of-the-dope first bets, promotions designed by AI data-crunching to get them to put as much of their money into gambling as possible, preferably all of it, I would assume. Now, I'm not naive—GAMBLOR has been let out of its cave, and there's not much chance of ever locking him back up. But If it were up to me, if gambling had to remain legal and freely available as it is today, I would outlaw any and all marketing activities related to gambling, with the possible exception of advertising destination trips to Vegas and the like, ads in which the gambling is only implied. I think if people want to gamble, they should have to seek it out on their own accord, not be subjected to being lured in. But that won't happen, because there's way too much money that the crooked politicians at the local, state, and federal levels can get from the organized crime-adjacent gambling empires for them to be concerned about something as boring and stupid as public mental health policy. Who needs a concerned government to get involved? Just say no! That's my piece and I am willing to just leave it here and say no more, unless, of course, people want to keep talking about it, in which case I'll be happy to oblige.

"Pole"? Is that what the kids are calling it these days? Oh, wait ... you mean that pole ... that's very different.

I say 2026 because I figure Jobe played only as high as a sniff of AA last year, so I figure he's going to start at AA and maybe some AAA this year, and then start at AAA with maybe a mid- to late-season callup next year. So by the time Spring 2026 rolls around, he'll be a solid #2 to Tarik Skubal, who will be the reigning two-time Cy Young winner with a World Series MVP ring and under control for two more years after that. (Hey, a boy can dream, can't he?) Now, I could be all wet on Jobe's timeline, and maybe they will feel in short order that he is so advanced, they can't keep him down any longer. So i can't reject out-of-hand the idea that we will see him in Detroit sometime this season. We don't know how this front office will handle young hotshot advancement because we haven't seen them get that opportunity yet. But I do think they will make ultra-certain that when it's time, he will be stepping into a situation in which he will succeed, and not be thrown in over his head while we cross our fingers and wish upon a star. We don't need a repeat of the TORK! callup debacle. As for J.D.: no room for him at the inn.

In 2026? yes.

It would be cool if they could somehow revive the Bicentennial Minute that CBS ran literally every night for two years leading up to the date itself. It ran at 7:59PM, I think, and consisted of a famous personality, usually a CBS series regular, reading a few paragraphs about what happened 200 years ago that day, accompanied by contemporaneous art of the incident from the period. Shell Oil sponsored it the whole time. They could restart it again this July 4. They could call it the Semiquincentennial Minute. Rolls right off the tongue. Here's one:

It's also fun to see what a player development department that knows what the hell it is doing can do with raw talent basically anyone can pick.

Fire Harris. Hire Avila. He was right all along. 😏

Then it's not free. You paid for it. I do get MLB.TV, but as an add-on to my DTV Extra Innings package, neither of which kicks in until Opening Day.

This is definitely the right place for this.

Not for me it’s not. When I choose a game I see this:

If you’re in Illinois, how are you seeing the game? I don’t see Tigers on MLB Network

I wonder whether Ken Buck has an urgent health thing? He is at that age, and frankly, he doesn't look particularity good for his age.

OK, that's new, because this is 2020: I was in West Palm this past weekend, and my wife wanted to have breakfast at the Breakers, and I swear there were at least four women we saw walking around there with this same look. It is a definite thing. Maybe they're blind to how bad it looks—or, maybe the look is a signifier of middle-aged-and-up willingly-beta women desperately trying to find and/or keep an ostentatious rich daddy, because that's what their entire worth is wrapped up in. How that relates to Noem's situation, I'm not exactly sure. But based on her reported affair with Corey Lewandownski, she may be looking to graduate from her second-rate insurance-company-owning husband to someone more yachty and clubby.

Now shine my shoes, uncle.

I believe it was the 48,000 hours of J6 video the Republicans were demanding to be released, because 47,000 hours of it was exnorative of their fellow travelers. I don't recall anyone on that side wanting the Biden interview to be released, since it was already cherry-picked to their satisfaction. But then, I don't read every letter of news ever published, either, so I could definitely be wrong.