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I think it’s at least 50/50 she knew there were undercover officers on the removal list.

They’re not really going to dismantle it, are they? They’re simply going to ignore the court order and keep shoveling people into it, aren’t they? Isn’t that their jam?

You may have to find a way to metabolize your rage about this topic, because it’s not going to stop here, and it’s not going to get better as long as these jabronies are in charge. Otherwise, you may start to develop stress illnesses. I get that this is a topic that’s hard to be zen about, but you gotta try, especially since you’re at a tipping point age.

Pursuant to the map just above, I dug a bit into the Pew study on relgiious belief and found this interesting table below. In it, 28% of Christians believe in reincarnation. The entire idea of reincarnation is, at least implicitly, rejected by the Bible. And yet, this. It just goes to show that for a high percentage of people, their claim to being Christian is a cultural or political identity, and not a spiritual or religious identity. It also suggests that to them, their bible is merely a totem and not an actual guide, something to be wielded by too many of them as nothing more than a cudgel against their enemies. And that’s why this thread is in the Political Forum. 😉

The protester in the head garb who was escorted out of the room is a candidate for governor? Who is she?

The remainder of the season after the deadline date is, practically by definition, a small sample size.

I honestly have no idea what you're on about with the 5th catcher prospect thing, but the three players in the example you provided are helping us win now, this season, more than the three guys Harris did not pick up would have with their subsequent performances for their new teams.

Maybe those other teams held firm on certain non-starter prospects from the Tigers before caving on their asks in the waning minutes of the deadline period. I'm not inclined to look up individual trades, I'm just saying that's pretty likely. I'm happy with how Harris did at the deadline.

I don't understand the pearl-clutching response to one single protester at a random town hall, and though it exposes the rot and disease within the Democratic Party. Unless that woman is the chair of the DNC. Then you have my attention.

Didn't we call this one back in 2021?

And yet in all three cases, the player Harris did pick up is doing better to varying degrees than the player the article complained about his not getting instead. Plus, we ended up keeping our top prospects in the process, which we would not have had we traded for any of these three guys, let alone all of them. Sounds to me like Harris is winning. So, what is it you want here? Do you want Harris to pick up the best players in trade, guys who best fit our system, who will help us win games? Or do you want Harris to get his name in lights and win baseball news cycles by picking up the biggest and brightest names of the moment? You can answer "both" if you like, and that's a fair thing to want, although if you were to, I will pre-reply to you here that I myself care only about the first thing.

By definition, top tier free agents have agency. A lot of them didn't haven't wanted to come here, and some may still be prejudiced against the Tigers because of perception issues. Harris offered the most money to Bregman, and the guy still turned us down and went someplace else. When that happens, what're ya gonna do. But, also, if Harris thought we were not yet in the right position to blow our wad on a player asking for 10/500 or whatever top tier players command, or to liquidate the top of our system for proven veterans Dave Dombrowski-style, then I would agree with him on that. And yet, for all of Harris's perceived deficiencies, he has built a roster that has the best record in the American League. Speaking only for myself, I am happy with that.

I think Bobby has improved a lot over the past few years. I think his main problem was low volume and high speed when he first started. He's definitely fixed the volume problem, although he is still a fast talker. But he is definitely informative and a good communicator of his thoughts. He must be from a large family where he had to talk fast to say what he needed to before someone talked over him. That's pretty common. Or so I've heard ... 😏

Maeda had a bunch of decent to good starts all the way into June last year. Once it became clear in July he didn't have it anymore, he was pushed to the bullpen to fill in with garbage time, basically out of harm's way. He got one more month this year to see whether he could turn it around. he couldn't and got let go. That seems pretty reasonable to me. Shelby Miller went from July 1 to the end of last season with a 3.03 ERA, 3.67 FIP, only two blown saves, and a 24/6 K/BB ratio in his last 29+ innings. That doesn't sound ineffective to me. Brebbia started out good this year, first nine appearances with a 1.00 ERA, 9/5 K/BB ratio, 3.67 FIP, no blown saves. He got hurt and then was given his chances to turn it around. After a month when it became apparent he'd lost it, he was released. That seems pretty reasonable. In none of these cases does it seem to me that Harris irrationally kept running pitching out there hoping against hope he could save face on their signings while refusing to acknowledge they were failing. There must be some other guy you're thinking of that did that.

Mental health issues + guns = way more mass shootings than mental health issues - guns.

If Bobby were to become Benetti's main partner for the rest of Jason's tenure here, I would tune in to him a lot more.

No experience is actually a bonus, because they will not be tainted by precedent or qualms.

We are normalizing all this. In six months this kind of thing won't even rate any comment. I'm convinced it's an explicit part of the plan.

I'm not even sure the issue is lack and depth of qualifications. I am starting to wonder whether he is an active agent for a foreign power hostile to American interests. It's not as though he would have to hide that in this regime.

I thought you were talking about the pridefulness of signing veterans to high dollar contracts and forcing them onto the field to save face for themselves, running them out there time after time when it is beyond any doubt they are absolutely done. I don't know of any instances where Harris has done this. The only one I can think of is Miguel Cabrera, which I'm sure you'll agree is a special case. I see the Nick Maton thing as being different because (1) he was young enough to give him a fair number of chances to turn things around, and (2) we were just coming off the Al Avila Reign of Error so we did not have anyone better we could replace him with so readily. Also, we tried Maton at third base for 53 games. That doesn't seem like an inordinate amount of games to try him there to see if they could unlock the potential they saw.

I'm not sure either Players or Baseball would want to have to amp up the travel so much.

Future Hall of Famer based on 3/4 of a rookie season is a big swing. He might make it, since Ted Williams, Albert Pujols, and Frank Robinson all had rookie seasons with similar terrific offensive output at a young age. OTOH, so did Jimmy Williams, Kris Bryant, Alvin Davis, Charlie Hollocher, Ryan Braun, Johnny Pesky, and Jason Heyward.

The xBA on that McKinstry line drive was .790. When you are down 5-0 with two outs in the sixth inning and you can’t get hits even on batted balls like that, you know it’s over.

Also, can I tell you how much I like Benetti and Scales together? They are now my favorite combo on TV. Scales brings his all-business radio veneer to the TV booth and that helps keep Benetti’s worst impulses in check. But also, you can tell Scales and Benetti really like each other, and the volume of joking between them I think is at the appropriate level.