chasfh

They better not be protecting him for another team.

I saw plenty of Tucker Barnhart when he came to Wrigley Field with the Reds. That was enough for me.

Man, Alan Trammell is definitely looking a little rough.

Well, it was also a shitty throw by Skubal.

Jesus, what the hell did we just let happen? Why is Nick Gordon on third?

And obviously not a Python fan to boot! 😅

What was it Jesus said? “There’s no pleasing some people.”

Tell you what: it won't be just Michigan. I could see 100 or more races being held up for days, weeks, months over this. Maybe they don't even seat dozens of reps come next January 3. Who knows at this point what kind of mess we've allowed ourselves to get into. 1 big scoop: Some counties might refuse to certify primary elections Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios Michigan election officials tell Axios that they expect some counties will refuse to certify election results this year. Why it matters: Election officials say it could bring chaos that will stress courts and potentially undercut the legitimacy of elections and elected officials. How it works: Elections are complete only once county and statewide boards certify the results. If a local board were to refuse certification, they would be sued by winning candidates in that county. A court would then order them to certify. If they wait until after the canvassing period and fail to certify, Michigan would move the county's canvass to the state. Context: Republicans across Michigan have replaced canvassers who pushed back against baseless fraud claims in 2020 to certify results for President Joe Biden. It's unclear whether new GOP canvassers will uphold their oaths or be influenced by election conspiracy theories. Wayne County's newest GOP canvasser declined to say whether he would certify the results of the 2022 and 2024 elections when asked by the Free Press. What they're saying: "Voters should be wary of attempts to sow seeds of doubt in the integrity of Michigan elections, which are proven among the most secure and accurate in the country, by election canvassers who illegally refuse to fulfill their duty under the law," a spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office tells Axios. "Any attempts will be futile as we are confident courts would swiftly enforce the law and block or overturn any attempts to illegally deny certification." "Our office will ensure that regardless of who wins or loses an election, the will of the people will rule the day.” Flashback: Wayne County's stalled certification of the 2020 election became a national story after hours of deadlock. It ultimately certified the election because of a since-ousted Republican member. The big picture: Michigan could be one of a handful of states where certain counties force the election process to the courts. A Republican-led board in New Mexico's rural Otero County refused to certify its primary election results over conspiracy-fueled distrust of Dominion voting machines.

Well, this is healthy ...

Changed my mind. It's great. 😏

Late merge FTW! 🦆🦆🦆

The best part is that 1,500 years ago, he would have been four feet nine.

Flip side of this, though, is that Soto has been much better since June 19: 10.1 innings in 11 games, 14 strikeouts vs only three walks, 0.87 ERA, 1.86 FIP, and, if it matters, six saves. So if we can luck dealing with an organization that's into recency and doesn't dig too deeply behind the numbers, maybe we could unlock a decent get for him. Maybe the Phillies, who are on the bubble.

Three walks in 3-2/3 is not good.

Violence doesn't count unless it's perpetrated on the streets by BLM and Antifa, and according to their media, with zero evidence presented, that's exactly what we are awash in.

I'd be very surprised (and delighted) if we got even this good an offer for Soto.

Hader's not the Crew's #1 reliever anymore, but he does have an extra year of control that Taylor Rogers does not. It'll be interesting to see what the Padres see in Hader that the Brewers are missing. Apparently that extra year is more important to the Padres than the Brewers. Off the bat, this looks like a pretty decent swap for both sides.

It's pretty well reported how big a hockey fan Baby Doc is, to the point in which he plays in an adult league. No reporting on what the level of his baseball fandom is, but I gotta believe if he were as much a fan of baseball as he is of hockey, we'd be hearing a lot more about that in reporting about him. You might be right in that it's all the same to him, in that he regards his Detroit Tigers business unit in the same way he regards his real estate or parking business units, but that would be the wrong way to look at a business unit like the Tigers, since they have a public profile—practically a public trust—unlike any other of his other business units, including the pizza. The owner of a major sports franchise should not be treating their team in that way, in which profit trumps quality, because it is a de facto betrayal of that public trust. Now, I don't know for certain whether this situation applies to Baby Doc's ownership of the Tigers, but if we were to learn that he's not even an honest fan of his own team, let alone a fan of baseball itself, and as such he won't do the investment necessary to maintain that public trust and reward our fandom with honest efforts to put a quality product on the field, simply because he's still making a profit off the awful stewardship of the franchise—then why bother being a fan of the team at all? I myself am not at that point quite yet, but man, even the idea coming up at all ...

Maybe it's a case of, given how much money teams make from sources off the field and that are fixed—e.g., advertising, local and national broadcast. licensing, merchandising, digital—any marginal revenue they might make off investing in the product to get better would be so marginal that for owners who aren't particularly concerned about whether the team wins on the field, it doesn't make sense to them to do so. This could be especially true of teams that make up a relatively minor line item for the overall business, such as the Detroit Tigers (estimated revenue ~$268MM) in relation to all of LCE (estimated revenue ~$8,500MM). I add "might" because, as the reporting goes, they just put a quarter billion dollars into players to field a quality product, and instead they just got worse.

If the owner of our favorite baseball team isn't a baseball fan himself, then what are we doing here?

And that year would have been 2020.

I do wonder whether Avila’s front office and Hinch’s staff are on the same page, even if Avila did hire Hinch. Avila still has guys from the old managerial regime doing special scouting assignments for him, e.g., Leyland and Chadd and Pleis doing that one trip to the high school showcase just prior to the draft, and it’s pretty well known that Leyland still hangs around in the role of Avila Whisperer. Leyland’s baseball methods are not only very different from those Hinch subscribes to, they downright clash with each other. So the organization might be disintegrating within because of, or at least parallel to, Machiavellian moves being made behind the scenes by people jockeying for positions of influence. I don’t know that this is the case, but it is plausible enough to speculate on.

It is true to not everyone, even those born into a tycoon’s family, is cut out to be a top-level executive. To be successful at it, a TLE has to occasionally make hard decisions for the good of the business that affect people’s livelihoods and even reputations; sometimes, they make brutal decisions that cost the jobs or investments of thousands of people all at once; and still others make unethical decisions that are wildly profitable for them that necessarily impoverish or even destroy others. To be successful at being a TLE, you have to be comfortable making decisions like those, or at least be able to live with them. Maybe Baby Doc ins’t exactly that guy. No idea, just building on the topic.

I also believe it’s already been said that no coaches are getting fired during the season, since there’s nobody else waiting in the wings who’s any better anyway.

It might also be that when a high-profile business unit is still turning a profit regardless of how terrible they’re performing, it does not create much of an incentive to clean house.