Frayed Knot

Not sure that there's anything in all that that, on the surface, qualifies as "insulting".

I haven't seen anything even remotely specific about what's being offered or countered. Either I'm not searching very hard or these talks are being unusually tight-lipped.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Oh great, Traxx is anti-masker Maybe Trax is just slow to grasp their effectiveness. Bah-dum-ching!

He's probably great-grand-father MacKenzie by now.

I dunno. He was often good [120 OPS+ thru his age 21-28 prime] without ever really being great [2nd ROY, then a couple of back of ballots MVP votes but never top 15] Played 16 seasons but in fully half of those he failed to top 110 games played including just one full (147 GP) season after age 28 Was a good fielder in the front half of his career but a fried shoulder forced him across the diamond at an age where his 105-ish OPS+ figures were even less special and at times was a defensively liability there. .277/.341/.475; 116 OPS+, 270 HRs Doesn't smell HoF-ish to me.

It was widely assumed that 2021 was to be his Swan song season (he sat out the truncated 2020 campaign) but I guess just made it official now. Born in NC but grew up in Virginia, went to UVA, was the first ever draft pick of the Nats where he played his entire career and holds probably every WAS offensive record. Looked like he was close to toast at several points but kept at least partially bouncing back and made some contributions to their WS run. So basically he's Ed Kranepool as the homeboy does good example ... only much, much better.

I think it's likely as simple as Rubin being told in confidence at the time, with the agreement that he was Not allowed to repeat it, and now feels free to say so because he's only commenting on what has (just now) become public knowledge, particularly since today's testimony included admission of cocaine use as a NYM.

Don Fehr and his Lieutenants were adamant for a time that they would Never agree to players being subject to PED testing, comparing it at one point as a personal right akin to forbidding players from smoking cigarettes in the off-season. But as time went on word started to leak out that a significant number of players wanted PEDs out of the game but felt intimidated against saying so to the union often due to their lesser service time and/or lack of star status. It was thought that Fehr et al were more interested in protecting the Bonds / Clemens wing of the party with their bigger contracts and more veteran status and so the 'little guys' either weren't speaking up or weren't being listened to. Eventually that changed but it took a while. So I can certainly see the same type of pressure being applied towards newer players who might not want the DH from those aging stars most likely to benefit from a universal DH -- 'Hey, don't fuck with my job rookie'. And, sure, the union bosses work for the union just like corporate boards work for the stockholders ... but they're going to listen to the big stockholders more. I suspect the pro-DH wing of players is smaller and so, unlike the PED question, there is less likely to be a 'silent majority' here. But I still find it easy to believe that there is/was pressure to keep the employment of Pujols and Miggy Cabrera types going and their contracts on the books.

Although let's not act as if Manfred is doing all this unilaterally. The owners/execs have been increasingly leaning this way for years now - probably looking at the prices they're paying pitchers and getting fraidy-scared of allowing them out of bubble-wrap any more than they have to. And we know the union has long touted this as creating an extra job (which it doesn't) and a high-paying one at that (less true than it once was). Plus, caters to the established veterans of their group and, as their long-time anti-PED testing stance showed, union bosses have shown they're more than willing to dismiss what the younger rank and file thinks in order to protect the big boys in the room.

I think we still need to fight it. Will it change anything? Almost certainly not. But it would help to keep reminding them that we're neither happy nor accepting of it. Say a trend where anti-DH banners are a regular sight in NL parks. Banners get seen by other fans, by execs in their suites, and by TV cameras. Keeping them humorous and clever would make more of an impact IMO rather than simple vented outrage, maybe like those Hunter Pence signs from a few years ago. FMan's remark that 'You can't spell DUH! without DH' put this idea in my head. Come up with a few more and the idea will start to catch on, both at CitiField and elsewhere and pretty soon you'll have the Alice's Restaurant anti-DH Movement and all you have to do is sing it next time it comes around on the gee-tar

=metsmarathon post_id=85765 time=1644589059 user_id=83] the arguments in favor of the dh just never rang true for me, in that pitchers were bad hitters and got hurt doing hitter things.

Chad ochoseis wrote: =Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=85737 time=1644533310 user_id=119] Loving calling the runner the Manfred Mann! Brilliant idea, but not mine. Frayed Knot came up with it, IIRC.

So THIS is the one thing that they agree on in the talks?!? This decision, like the sessions themselves, not only fails to produce progress but it produces the opposite of progress.

=MFS62 post_id=85650 time=1644343951 user_id=60] I remember when they were both MFY prospects and writers were wondering if they had kept the wrong one (Bernie) when they traded Gerald.

Among other things that this stoppage has done is left MLB without a steroid policy. No testing is going on now for the first time in nearly two decades, and they'll have to either agree to reinstate the prior one or add negotiating a new one to their list of tasks.

And, of course, having a good farm system is a means towards a specific end -- the improvement of the ML club -- not the goal itself. The trades of those draft picks may or may not work out in the long run but several of those mentioned, the older ones in particular but also most likely Kelenic, would no longer be prospects at this point so wouldn't have affected this year's ranking anyway. The bigger problem is the top-heaviness of the list. Having some top-50 guys is great but if those guys don't blossom then the rebuilding process takes that much longer as you're relying on guys not yet drafted to replace them or hoping there are some late-bloomers from among the lesser lights.

Edgy MD wrote: His pension is gonna be HUGE. A statement which is just a couple of deleted/rearranged letters from inviting the old 'That's what she said' line.

I saw FRANTASTIC and assumed it was about Fran Healy so I panicked and voted against it.

Back to the topic at hand: "Major League Baseball on Thursday requested the immediate assistance of a federal mediator to help resolve the sport's lockout ... potentially inserting the presence of a neutral party to end a work stoppage now in its third month. The league reached out to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a governmental agency that attempts to help resolve labor disputes, sources said. Mediation is not mandatory, and the MLB Players Association would need to agree to the involvement of a third party." https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33210033/major-league-baseball-looks-federal-mediator-help-end-sport-lockoutJeff Passan - ESPN.com

"He wears a big pair of underwear"

That's why some sites also make a 'Best Under 25' list for each team regardless of what level they play at. It's probably a better evaluation.

https://twitter.com/KaplanSportsBiz/status/1488172262444306438 The Nats/Lerner family are essentially playing catch-up here as Ted Leonsis, owner of the Capitals & Wizards in the same city, already has a sports book in his arena. By coincidence, HBO's REAL SPORTS show this month has a segment on the relation between sports and gambling. When asked about his or the team's responsibility for any problem gamblers who might (will!) develop on account of this equivalent of bringing the brewery to alcoholics, Leonsis passed the buck to Caeser's, the licensed franchise in whatever that building is called this month, saying that they are the ones responsible for monitoring the bettors for signs of problems. Only problem is, the way sports books deal with addicted gamblers is to actively seek to keep them addicted. Regular "clients" are assigned an account manager (or some such title) whose job it is to contact guys who have stopped placing bets and offer them a 'freebie' which, they hope, is enough to get the fish hooked again. And it often works.

Jasmine, daughter of Shawon, Duston has been named Director of Minor League operations for the Chicago White Sox.

All sideburns HoF

Howard's problem, despite a heckuva prime, is that he both got started late -- half season at age 25, 1st full season (and MVP) at 26 -- and then petered out early -- essentially was a sub-par player after age 31. From 2006 thru '11 he was .274/.370/.559 // 939 (139 OPS+) with an MVP, four Top-5 MVPs, and a WS title. He's one of those first half career HoF'ers whose second half failed to maintain: Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Andruw Jones, and hell, maybe David Wright too. Speaking of 1st basemen - who do you like? A, B, or C YrsPABAOBASLGHRRBIOPS+T-10 MVP 148,029.268.360.5094091,2981262, no wins 178,553.296.384.4361621,0711283, one win 136,531.258.343.5153821,1941254, one win Player A is Mark Teixeira, a one and done last night at a shockingly low (to me anyway) 1.5%. C is R. Howard, also a one and done. B is Keef Keith, of course, was a fielder at that position like no other, but Teixeira was real damn good. Howard = not good at all.