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If he didn't intend to speak to people outside of Philly, then I don't know why he wouldn't have done a simple spot buy in just Philly?

Yeah, this is not going to end well ...

It also depends on the kind of business you have and where you have it, doesn't it? If you have a business that's high touch like, say, an insurance agency or a beauty salon, then you definitely have a vested interest in treating your employees well enough to retain them for years. To a fast food franchisee or car wash, employees are fungible so who cares how they're treated, because treat them well or treat them not well, they're going to be gone at the first other opportunity.

Do you mean money well-spent nationally?

Flipside argument: Sheila fired Quinn and Patricia because they were someone else's hires, not hers, so she took no heat for hiring them in the first place; so she might be more reluctant to fire Holmes and Campbell and thus will give them a lot a lot more rope, because they are her hires, she's responsible for that, and she will give them as much time as she can get away with hoping they will succeed.

Dusty Baker did not have a Hall of Fame career, but he probably will qualify as a manager, especially if the Astros win a ring for him.

Maybe, at least in its current form.

This is why red hats hate the media: Did CNN report that Trump had died? Nope. Does it matter? Nope.

By way of reminder, Trump is an overt litmus test for this campaign. His campaign-stealing is the #1 trait hundreds of candidates are embracing, and they are actively vying for his endorsements by clamoring to show up at his rallies. So please, let’s not pretend he is simply a retired statesman trying to live his life in peace and privacy.

I don’t have 31 minutes to kill and I am just going off the YouTube cover. Is the point all about how Americans are being wrongfully prevented from entering public spaces because they are not vaccinated or masked up? I haven’t been required to show proof of vax since I went to a play a year or so ago, and masks are becoming so passé in the age of mass vaccination and herd immunity (remember that phrase) that Illinois just recently dropped the requirement for healthcare facilitates. https://abc7chicago.com/illinois-governor-jb-pritzker-mask-mandate-healthcare-covid-cdc-guidelines-today/12341273/ I’m guessing we won’t be required to wear masks again on a widespread basis until the next pandemic.

Pretty sure that ran nationally. My buddy in Boston pinged me to ask whether we’d seen it as well. They apparently have a bunch of money left to spend, plus it might possibly help Democrats in local races. The thinking might be, If they can on a national basis saddle Oz with being the goof that’s representative of the Republican Party, that might be worth a few votes on the margins for Democrats in other states.

A lot of things fell out of the sky and hit him in the head. They are called defensive linemen.

Then vote Trump! That’s the only book he’s ever read! 😉

At some point there’s going to be a reconciliation. It might take years and thousands or even millions may die, but it will happen. Maybe in 2030, 2040, beyond? That’s when we will see a Hands Across America again. Whoever comes through this will be eager for that kind of thing to happen.

Not that we pay attention to that stuff in Detroit, but Philadelphia also has their team playing in the MLS finals tomorrow night, too.

Also, seeing Christmas ads during the World Series is fucking bonkers.

JV needed this game for his legacy. If he got shelled again everybody would remember that about him. Not that it would affect his Hall of Fame credentials even one iota, but nobody wants that hung on his legacy.

Fascinating, thanks for posting. It reads as though there is a difference between discussing a minor league deal with a veteran—a guy with six-plus years and wants a lot of details ironed out about whether they get an NRI, getting added to the 26-man or 40-man by a certain date, what happens if they don’t break camp, when they otherwise might get called up, how much they get paid if they’re optioned back, keeping other teams informed of their availability, whether they need Foreign Inquiry language in case NPB or KBO come knocking, etc—versus talking with a guy who is young organizational filler and doesn’t have any real options available to him, so he just has take the deal put in front of him or the team will just move on to the next guy on the list. In the first case it seems like the conversation might go on for a few hours, perhaps across a few days; in the latter, it looks like it takes the couple of minutes the team needs to email a standard contract to the young player and then wait on the yes or no.

That sounds pretty good. How do they rank versus other teams?

Probably. How does it work?

MLBTR has separate transaction types in their database for "minor league signings" and "signings" which, I would assume by process of elimination, is major league signings. Let me know if you disagree.

There may be something to the loss aversion idea, too. A lot of us have hypothesized how badly he wanted to front-burner minor leaguers picked up in trades for All-Stars to the majors so they could prove he was right the whole time. Bad trait for a general manager in a major sport to have.

That makes sense. Do you know the process of how MiFAs are signed, in relation to my hypothesis?

If you agree that Job #1 of a rebuilding regime is to pull out all the stops to acquire players to rebuild the system, then let's take a look at the data. Using Spotrac as the source for International free agents, since Al Avila took over, the Tigers signed 37 total AFAs. The average team signed 49. The Tigers signed substantially fewer. I realize you've already said you don't trust Spotrac to be complete, so if you have a better, more complete source I can look at, I'd be obliged if you'd share that with me. As for other transactions type, I hope you trust MLB Transactions Tracker, because that's what I am going to use for the rest. Trades: Al Avila's Tigers made 47 trades since he took the job on August 4, 2015; the average team made 83 during that time. Waiver claims: Avila's front office made 16 waiver claims; the average team made 28. Free agent signings: Avila's team signed 32 free agents; the average team signed 36. Minor league contracts: This is the one area in which the Tigers exceeded the average. Avila signed 151 minor league free agents. The average team signed 115. Why did Avila focus so much on minor league free agents? Can't know for sure. Could it be partly because it's a relatively easy, frictionless transaction? No having to scout and take chances on a 16-year-old from a foreign land; no having to deal with another team negotiating against you; no having to beat other teams on a waiver claim; no having to negotiate a major league deal with an agent; and if it doesn't work out, you're on the hook for a mere two weeks minimum salary (if he is released during spring training or the season; before that there is zero termination pay). Given so much of this kind of high-touch, labor-intensive work is not associated with it, I assume it's not much more involved than looking up a list of MiFAs, sending a bunch of emails offering to sign them to a minor league contract, and executing the contracts of any of them who accept. Maybe @Edman85 or @microline133 could weigh in on this? Even if it does take more work than that, the point is this: a team in rebuilding mode should be burning up the phones and scouring the wires looking for players from every source available, and such a team should be among those making the most deals in each transaction class. The Orioles were such a team. So were the Mariners. Those teams are now ready to compete. The Tigers have to practically start all over. Maybe Al Avila did work hard at his job, but it was either at something other than pulling out all the stops to acquire players, or else his concept of working hard to acquire players fell short of what's required to do it successfully. One thing I am pretty certain of is that Al Avila worked to the best of his capabilities.

Also, it's close to home for him.