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Golden Globes is foreign press, right? Voters might have a different standard, based on the cultural currency of their individual countries, versus that of the Academy. Just spitballing on that one, though.

Shouldn’t Ronny Jackson tweet be featured by @ConSelfOwns?

Congratulations.

OTOH, corruption abhors a vacuum,.

I think we should give them high fives for this because in some cases, the thing you’re supposed to do isn’t the thing most people would do.

I gotta believe that the more Republicans lean into the crazy, the more their voters on the left side of their margins peel off. I can’t imagine many traditional conservatives, moderates, or declared never-Trumpers are watching the way they are shitting the bed in Congress this month and concluding yes, that’s the party I’ve wanted all along, I’m back in. I believe the only way they can grow their voter base that way is to unearth even more crazy people who haven’t been dug up yet, and I just don’t think there are enough of those out there to win national majorities in elections. In the meantime, Biden and the Democrats have to keep talking to the still-uncommitted and vacillating middle, get them on board, and keep them there as long as the Republican Party is shoving its collective head ever further up its own ass.

I tend toward Fangraphs for both pitching and defensive metrics if for no other reason than they are far more transparent about what makes up their components, plus they are frequently adjusting them for new information. I particularly like FG’s distinction between a pitcher’s WAR, which is totally FIP-based and more forward-looking, and their RA9-WAR, which teases out the luck of BABIP and inherited runners and is more results-oriented, lining up better with ERA. In my poster presentation about multiple rookie seasons last year, I used RA9-WAR for pitchers for this exact reason. Same with the fielding: Fangraphs are continually tweaking their stats with the discovery of new information from sources like Statcast and BIS and explaining it in exhaustive, even eye-glazing, detail. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I definitely believe that FG’s defensive numbers are more accurate than B-Ref’s, but given the stasis of the latter’s data coupled with the paucity of their detail and, frankly, transparency, that’s why I tend toward the former. All this reminds me: I’ve got to get more conversant about Baseballpro’s WARP, DRA, etc. Maybe that should have been my New Year’s resolution instead of my pointless resolution to try to be nicer to people. 😜

Yes, but it’s not hardened Republicans they would want to convince.

Here's a thought: what if there is a little political jujitsu going on here, in which (1) the Biden camp is trying to bait the Republicans into hammering him on this, which would shine a bright light on their hypocrisy after defending Trump on his own massive breach all this time; and/or (2) Biden is intending to embarrass the Trump camp by demonstrating to the country exactly how someone should cooperate with authorities when they get caught on this kind of thing, in exactly the way Trump did not? IOW, what if the Biden camp ... I won't say manufactured this, but rather, allowed this to become public for either or both of these purposes? After all, the scope of their breach is much smaller, and also, the Biden lawyers proactively alerted authorities, whereas the Archives had to contact Trump, who refused to cooperate, and then had to chase the documents down. If the Republicans are smart, they won't touch this with a 10 foot pole. Here's hoping they run right toward it ... 🤞🏼

I think this part might depend on whether you believe either or both of two things: That Correa's drop in fWAR from 6.2 to 4.4 represents a permanent shift downward in his baserunning and defense, because that is where the entire drop came from. His hitting was at basically flat in 2022 versus 2021. That a marginal win on the free agent market is worth the $7MM or $8MM that many analyses have concluded (see Fangraphs). If Correa is a five-win player, that would make his acquisition off the market worth $35MM to $40MM, which is right in line with his 2023 salary. If he's better than that, it's a bonus; if he repeats his 2023 performance, or worse, he falls short to whatever degree.

If Statcast is to be believed, Vierling has a bad jump and a great arm, which I believe suits him best for our smallish right field. His poor jump is also why he probably won't see much, if any, time in center. I would think Meadows would see some time in left when he is not DHing, perhaps splitting that with Baddoo if Akil makes it our of camp, and would see right field when Vierling is sitting against certain right handers. Maton played a few games at shortstop for the Phillies in 2021 and did poorly there, although it has been his primary position in the minors even into last year. Unless he absolutely dazzles in Lakeland while Baez collapses, I have trouble seeing Nick pushing Javy over to second. It's probably more likely Nick wins the second base job and pushes Schoop over the third which, really, I have trouble seeing even that. I think we are going to work Nick at third base for the most part to give him every chance to win that job, unless we pick up a more experienced third baseman in the interim which will allow us to stash Nick in Toledo for depth. We are not signing Correa. Not this winter, not ever.

If we’re playing a game today, maybe.

And now Silk is fundraising off it. That could definitely have been scripted. Or maybe already was.

Here’s a handy new investigation for this Congress to pursue.

I agree the objections in 2020 were in bad faith. Even if the 2016 Democratic objections were also based in bad faith, that does not excuse the 2020 republicans, and the sheer scale of the bad faith is what puts democracy on the hot seat in a way the 2016 objections did not.

You're right, it's not their fault per se. It's the system's fault, or more exactly, the fault of people who could make the decision but do not because they fear the system rolling over on top of them instead. And I agree that a member of Congress objecting to electoral votes during counting is not a crime. That's almost certainly not what the recommendation to pursue the four named congressional reps was for. Otherwise, they would have referred 147 reps to Justice, not four.

Because I felt like replying to someone else's post about Trayce Thompson. I'll bring it again in the future if I feel like it, too.

I don't think we need to give anyone a chance to act for us to reasonably conclude that they're gonna get away with it all, and the only thing they will have learned from this is what they need to do better next time, as well as what not to do, so how are we gonna stop them next time, since there won't be any precedent set by punishing them this time? And I'm being serious here, because the killers are in the House, so ... what? They're going to censure several sitting House members, expel them, indict them, and imprison them? That's basically the only way to get the message across that you simply can't fuck with our democracy like this, but do we really think that's gonna happen? Or is the lesson to simply beat them at the ballot box and everything will work out in the end?

Their only desire is to drain Washington of democracy, competence, and good government.

I don't care that he's not in the organization now, but god damn, man, he could have helped at the time when no one else was doing squat, 31 or not.

I have wondered about the Trayce Thompson situation because the whole thing was just so weird. Released by the Padres on May 14, signed by the worst-hitting-team-in-baseball Tigers on May 19, killing it in Toledo for a month (.299/.352/.639 in 25 games ) after killing it in El Paso (.316/.385/.860 in 16 games), and instead of being promoted to Detroit, gets sold by the worst-hitting-team-in-baseball Tigers to the Dodgers on June 20, for whom he goes on to crush it for the rest of the season (.268/.364/.537 in 70 games). It makes zero sense. What gave with that?

Right because to your point, one doesn’t have to be technically or technologically competent to blast a house from a tank or shoot a whole town of civilians into an open mass grave. Also to your point: if Ukraine does end up winning, we better keep them very close …

These are the same guys who because famous doing bad lip reading of NFL players like Peyton Manning at press conferences maybe six to eight years ago.

The public is tried of it as of now. Hopefully nothing new happens that re-energizes the right-leaning middle for the spat.