The Enemy of My Enemy

It's not often that I agree with the National Review, but we are of like minds on this. We've written about this before and it remains just as ridiculous now as it was then.

MLB is making no friends for itself with this policy. How long before Congress (which clearly has nothing better to do) steps in and demands change?

Get Well Soon

Danny Farquhar.

This Seems Pretty Fishy

If Miami fans (both of them) thought that finally seeing the last of extortionist thief Jeffrey Loria was a great thing, they should guess again. New ownership, including the allegedly universally beloved Derek Jeter, has reached a new low in deceitful, greedy behavior.

This kind of behavior should result in someone being tarred and feathered. Instead, I'm sure that Bruce Sherman, Derek Jeter, and of course Jeffrey the Destroyer Loria will walk away with millions. Which they clearly need.

Ain't free market capitalism great?

Something I Noticed Watching Tonight's White Sox Game

This Jose Berrios kid is pretty good.

Tank Battle

Here is a good article that I missed earlier. Call it tanking or call it rebuilding, there is nothing wrong with what these teams are doing. People will say that you should always put your best team on the field and always try to win, but when the best team that you can put on the field is aging crap and what's more, aging crap featuring immature, divisive jerks, the best path for a team is to tear it down and bring in new players that at least have the promise of something more special.

This should be stunningly obvious, but not every team has the resources of the Yankees or Red Sox. It's the job of management to see when the window is closing on a team and move accordingly. I would bet that teams like this, this, and this would have loved to have the team building options available to them that teams do today. But remember, those were the Good Old Days, when baseball was perfect.

What I'm Listening To

Three Swings is a terrific podcast that I just discovered today. Here is the summary:

Long suffering baseball fan Rhea Butcher reinvents America's pastime with radically sensible thoughts on baseball, history, culture, gender, race, and more. For baseball diehards and novices alike, Rhea breaks down the week in MLB news, analyzes the culture of American sports, and explores forgotten chapters in baseball history from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League to the Negro Leagues and beyond. Plus in-depth interviews with comedians, baseball insiders, and hometown fans. And maybe even some fantasy tips! New Episodes Every Wednesday.

You can find Rhea here, here, here, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check her out!

Continuing to Reward Failure

Here is the box score for today's White Sox/Blue Jays game. Who was credited as the "winning" pitcher? The guy who allowed the other team to take the lead, of course.

The concepts of "winning" and "losing" pitchers are kind of silly ones in this day and age, but if you're going to continue the practice, MLB, could you at least change the rules to make it more reflective of the way the game is actually played? I made a modest proposal for this years ago.

Today's Reading Assignment

Really good piece here about where the Sox are right now and how they've gotten there. There is no guarantee that what Williams, Hahn, and the rest of the organization is going to pay off, but I have been 100% behind the attempt. Given the choice of the hope of talented young prospects or watching this I'm going to go with the young people every time.

By the way, Rany, I know how you feel. I despised the Royals in the 1970s and 1980s and took a lot of silly pleasure in writing about what a bad organization the Royals were. But a some funny things happened. First of all, I got a little older. When I did so, I realized that wasting so much energy on a rival team is silly and childish. And second, I actually liked the players that the Royals were coming up with, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain and the like. And so when this happened, I was rooting for them.

Watching young people do exciting new things is a beautiful thing. Especially when the alternative is watching the old guard crash and burn..