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Willi? More like Won'ti, amirite?

I've been singing this song since the Cubs broke through with this strategy in 2015.

So had you heard that this hot nonsense was being promoted out there on the socials?

Nothing there?

Small "d". Nice touch.

There are these: https://observers.france24.com/en/europe/20220506-russian-attacks-on-farms-and-silos-deliberately-trying-to-destroy-the-ukrainian-economy https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/05/europe/russia-ukraine-grain-theft-cmd-intl/index.html And there's also this, from just a couple hours ago: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-attack-destroys-warehouses-major-ukrainian-commodity-terminal-governor-2022-06-07/ But I find this one the most interesting: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-russia-ready-facilitate-unfettered-grains-supply-ukraine-2022-05-30/ Basically because Russia is positioning itself in this story to be the hero by saving the world's food economy from the attempt by [Biden/Democrats/socialists/communists/Antifa/BLM/etc.] to destroy it, or whatever.

Right—only Reuters ran anything on it. I see nothing on CNN, the alphabet networks, or anywhere else. They're basically ignoring far as I can tell, which really does feed the conspiracy story.

I go to this one sweet-treat confectionery here in the city pretty regularly during the summers. Their product is delicious. I talk a lot to the man and the woman who own it, just chit-chatting about this and that, frequently about their business which, honestly, is about the only thing the man is interested in talking about. I'd always suspected the guy is a little Trumpy, based on comments here and there the past few years, but I hadn't thought much about it. Until yesterday, anyway. Yesterday, I asked him how's his business going this year, and was he thinking about opening a second location? Yes indeed, he said, he was actually looking down south and out west, because they have to close shop here during the winter months, and they want a 12-month-a-year business, which makes all kinds of sense, of course. One of the places he mentioned was California, specifically San Francisco and Malibu. I replied, wow, sounds expensive, and he said, yeah, especially with "everything that's going on now", like with all the food processing plants exploding. Yeah, I hear y ... ... wait, what? Oh, yeah, he says. Google it. Someone with an agenda is blowing up food processing plants in this country. They want to create an artificial food shortage for whatever their agenda is wink wink. Oh. OK. I backed out of that conversation soon as I could and went home with my sweet treat. I hadn't heard anything like this before, so once I got home, I DuckDuckGoed this idea. (I don't want Google knowing I search for stuff like that.) Predictably, it was a bunch of websites I'd never heard of: 100PercentFedUp.com. FoodStorageMoms.com. USSAnews.com. StillnessInTheStorm.com. ConsPatriots.com. (That last one is especially rich, and aptly-named.) Garbage sites, one and all. The only mainstream site I saw even mention it was Reuters, who did a fact-check article on this topic. So I checked that out, and they basically reported that processing plant fires and explosions are already fairly common; that there's no evidence of an increase in processing plant mishaps; that many of the plants are small mom-and-pops which don't affect the food supply hardly at all; and that there's no evidence that any of the mishaps were premeditated or planned. BUT: there was definitely an increase in social media chatter about food processing plant fires and explosions. Lately, whenever I hear about any new conspiracy like this one, I have taken to asking myself: How does this conspiracy story help Russia? You know, because we've learned through our own national intelligence services that they are behind so many of these stories. We know, of course, that Russia wants to promote chaos in America in general. That's a given. But it's not as though they themselves approach it chaotically and throw random shit on whatever wall just to see what sticks. They're pretty good about picking their spots and creating a plausible (or at least plausible-enough) story to deflect from their own malfeasance. In this case, this one was really easy to figure out. Both Russia and Ukraine are among the top exporters of wheat, corn, and barley in the world. UKR is top five in all these; RUS is #10 in corn but #1 in wheat. Point is, both countries have contributed a lot to the world's basic food supply in recent years. But now Russia is in the process of basically destroying Ukraine, which is putting a virtual halt to UKR's grain exports, Plus, since RUS is spending so much time and treasure to destroy UKR, their own exports of grain are dramatically decreasing as well. This is what's creating a shortage in the world food supply, with its increasing prices and diminished access. But no way is Russia is just going to sit back and take the (rightful) blame for all this. So I think it's very likely that the made-up stories about deliberate destruction of American food processing plants by [Biden/Democrats/socialists/communists/Antifa/BLM/etc.] is their attempt to shift blame for the food shortages from themselves, where it rightly belongs, to their biggest enemies and detractors, which is basically the rest of us. Does it make sense that [Biden/Democrats/socialists/communists/Antifa/BLM/etc.] would destroy American food processing just to choke off the food supply to the world? Not to you and me, it doesn't. But to the right-wing people of the United States who hate what America has become, hate even more where they imagine it is going, and hate most of all the people in America who are not them, it makes all the sense in the world. If you remember even one thing from this post, let it be this: Whenever you hear any new conspiracy story, ask yourself: How does this conspiracy story help Russia? Once you ask this, it probably won't take very long for you to get to your answer.

This kid ... sorry, I mean "man" ... is definitely going to shoot and kill more people. Hell, maybe he already has.

Yeah, I definitely do not want to trade this guy for prospects just yet.

Fair question.

This sounds good on paper, and Chris Licht figured out pretty quickly how to fix Colbert's then-new CBS show. I hope they follow through on this. 1 big thing ... Scoop: CNN evaluating partisan talent Photo: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images CNN's new boss Chris Licht is evaluating whether personalities and programming that grew polarizing during the Trump era can adapt to the network's new priority to be less partisan. Why it matters: If talent cannot adjust to a less partisan tone and strategy, they could be ousted, three sources familiar with the matter tell Axios. Details: Licht wants to give personalities who may appear polarizing a chance to prove they're willing to uphold the network's values so that they don't tarnish CNN's journalism brand. For on-air talent, that includes engaging in respectful interviews that don't feel like PR stunts. For producers and bookers, that includes making programming decisions that are focused on nuance, not noise. Between the lines: CNN's tone became more partisan and combative during the Trump era and under the leadership of former CNN president Jeff Zucker. Some on-air personalities, like Jim Acosta and Brian Stelter, have become the face of the network's liberal shift. Licht doesn't want to necessarily shy away from personality programming, especially in prime time, but he wants to ensure that partisan voices don't dominate in a way that harms CNN, a source notes. CNN did not comment. Catch up quick: Licht and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav haven't been shy about their goal of dialing back on partisan and alarmist programming in favor of traditional journalism. Last week, Licht told employees in a memo that the network has added a "Breaking News” guideline to its stylebook, to address overuse of the breaking news banner across its network and cable news. “We are truth-tellers, focused on informing, not alarming our viewers,” he said in the note obtained by Axios. Go deeper.

I was at the Roger Clemens-Kerry Wood game when Clemens was going for his 300th win. I could've sold my tickets for $400 the pair. I wasn't about to miss a legend getting his 300th win, though. That was the Hee-Seop Choi ambulance game. He was never the same again. https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-7-2003-hee-seop-chois-injury-overshadows-wood-clemens-pitching-duel-at-wrigley/

The inability to fix Javy Baez is a prime example of Scott Coolbaugh's failure as the hitting coach—as though averaging 2.8 runs per game weren't enough.

It's not considered Detroit-style deep dish, but Pequod's in Chicago is probably the closest I have ever seen from anyone not claiming to make Detroit-style deep dish. It's round, the sauce is different, but otherwise, it's pretty darn close.

Technically right. Can’t fire the owner, though.

Seems ripe for the “bad apples” defense.

Here’s the last post of this thread—slow start, good recovery. Wordle 353 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

If this same circumstances were happening 20 or more years ago, everybody would be hammering Girardi unanimously as being at fault, since he was handed all this firepower on the roster and he’d’ve considered to be blowing it, and hardly anyone would even know who the Phillies GM is. Baseball used to be seen the manager’s game—heck, in the early professional game it was, since there were no general managers at all. Now we recognize baseball is the general manager’s game. tl;dr: I agree.

The Pizza Wars are over, and Detroit-style pizza has won.

Going after Democrats for anything is the telltale sign that the Republicans are going to do the exact same thing.

How much you wanna bet that picture is from 2018?

I think the Texas AG will be genuinely surprised at what he finds, and will then immediately bury it.

You got me going with this one ... I downloaded all the Statcast rankings for every pitchers between 2015 and 2022, and ran a correlation analysis on those pitchers who registered rankings of at least 1 in two consecutive seasons, to see what the correlation from year to year of these metrics are. I got those downloads from this page: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/percentile-rankings?type=pitcher&year=2022&team=, changing only the year in the URL. This took me maybe a little over an hour to do. Here are the results: I've put the columns for the last three seasons in italics because they all involved a less-than-162-game full season, and the average correlation I calculated to the right reflects only those full columns that contemplate full seasons. As we could have already guessed, the outcome-based metrics like barrel percentage, hard hit percentage and exit velocity have among the lowest correlations. I would assume they are better-correlated to hitters. In that respect, I think of these in the same vein I think of BABIP. Other pitcher-stat outcomes, like the x-stats (for expected pitcher stats based on hitters' quality of contact), are generally correlated more highly, but still no more than moderately so for pitchers, because there's always some luck involved that could muck it up. The top three correlated metrics are obviously the best-correlated since they contemplate only the flight of the ball, before it gets to the bat. The big three metrics here with outcomes pitchers can more or less control—strikeouts, walks, swing and miss—are really well-correlated from year to year. Alex Lange has deep red numbers for both strikeout rate and chase rate, which I believe is pretty well-correlated to whiff rate (they don't have the exact same metrics on the cards versus the league tables, for who knows what reason). He has a sky-blue number for walk percentage, which is why I say: if he could change the color of that number to white, or even better, into the pink, he could be the same kind of process stud that the best closers in the game are. It can be done: Jose Berrios went from a 4 BB_percent percentile in 2016 to averaging 64 across the following six seasons. Tyler Glasnow was a 2 in 2017 and a 12 in 2018; he then went to 78, 43, and 56. Lance Lynn had a 22 in 2017 and 15 in 2018 before he clocked rates of 73, 66, and 70 the following three seasons. Those are rare instances, for sure, but it does demonstrate that the better pitchers can make that move from being a bases-on-balls sieve to tightening down that part of their game and going on to terrific success. It's true: we cannot predict with any certainty how Alex Lange will end up. But if he's pitching like this for the next two months and we trade him, then speaking only for myself, I will be 100% convinced that we would never be able to trust this front office to assemble a roster that consistently wins year after year, at least without trashing our farm system to do it.

No one is saying Lange is a sure thing. I have already said on this very page, twice, that he could fall apart this year. I'll say it once again: he could fall apart this year. That said, I will go on record with this: I think that if he is still performing at the same level on August 2 that he is now, he should be considered untouchable, and if I were forced to make a choice between trading one of either Alex Lange or Will Vest, then in that scenario, bye bye Will Vest. That said, I would be shocked if even this incompetent front office traded either Lange or Vest for even younger prospects that, as buddha said, might become as good in several years as those two are now. Or, more probably, not.