So the offseason is upon us, I figure a new grill would be appropriate.
What I have seen in limited Twitter scrolling is that Kolton Wong and Corey Kluber have had options declined. Speculation is that the market will be saturated. what that means to me is that clubs that are in the hunt for 2021 and 2022 should be aggressively shopping for bargains. But you know, that’s just me.
A list of losses:
2020 #Athletics Marcus Semien, Tommy La Stella, Jake Lamb, Robbie Grossman, Mike Fiers, Mike Minor, Liam Hendriks, Yusmeiro Petit, Joakim Soria & T.J. McFarland have all become free agents today. Safe to assume most will likely not be returning in 2021.
— Athletics Farm (@AthleticsFarm) October 28, 2020
I was going to start by thinking about what we need. But I guess that depends on what Fisher is trying to do. So I’ll think happy thoughts and say we are actually trying to win.
-We need to rebuild the bullpen
-A true #1 starter. Even if somehow Puk is healthy and starting and Jesus takes the next step we need someone for a game 1 that will go 5-6 innings.
-A 2B (begin the LaStella debate)
What else?
A shortstop
A lefty hitting outfielder (Seth Brown/Luis Barerra?)
I read (I think it was in SuSlu’s gloomy mailbag) That they have plans for Seth. But I dont see that bat of renown holding up over a full season up here.
Even in better circumstances, there is no way this team would ever go out and get a “true #1 starter” on the open market.
That’s true, and same with a true #1 closer, a power hitting OF, or an established quality SS. Reducing the options to serviceable parts, upside reclamations, and career bests from youngsters.
I will pay to see this team play next year and be glad for the opportunity.
HAPPY THOUGHTS!
I mean…they got Lester. So there is a very narrow scope where they can, but 99% agree.
“The most dangerous people around the president are overconfident idiots,” said Jared Kushner to Bob Woodward…
If anyone should know …
I agree with Jared Kushner
While the obvious irony of that quote is of course hilarious, I’m not sure where he’s getting:
What was written at the time (also WaPo) was:
Kolton Wong is interesting. Lefty, league average bat, good defense. 30. might be looking for too many years.
If nothing else will make laStella cheaper. I am not a fan of lastella or being cheap. I think this is the year the A’s have to invest. Probably better for building a stadium too.
I agree on the investment strategy. But no one has ever become rich by betting that Fisher will spend money on the team.
Well, except Beane.
Beane has become rich by hedging against chance Fisher will invest in the team.
that’s the other michael lewis book
He’s a contrarian investor!
Buttigieg is going for something, I don’t know where he fits though, UN sec?. I don’t think its defense, treasury, HHS or HUD, needs to be high profile.
I think his ask is state.
Refreshing to see qualified people attached to the positions. Obviously some are really dumb, but they are thinking UN ambassador for pete too
Please don’t appoint Meg Whitman to anything, unless the goal is to wreck it.
I’m hoping, probably in vain, that floating names like Whitman and Kasich now is just pandering for never-trumper votes, and not a real sign of who he would pick. Obama already tried including republicans in his cabinet in an attempt at bipartisanship, and it accomplished nothing.
Would make an exception here for Susan Collins. Toomey, Tillis, and Burr are also welcome to leave applications with the receptionist.
Any one of them would make a great Secretary of Keeping It Real.
“Quibi CEO” seems like a self-disqualifying description.
Maybe Meg Whitman was Q.
Only relevant / interesting for ptbnl: Meg Whitman and Abby Vieregg are cousins
Oh my!
I will say that when I worked at HP, I found that Whitman was the best CEO the company had had for quite a while. Whether that says more about the company or her, I’ll leave you to be the judge.
Transportation.
not on my list.
Baaaahahahaha
All evidence shows he cannot, but man, just shut up already
The idea that Biden is “vehemently supported” by The Intercept is the funniest thing I have read in a while.
is this gonna be about glenn? ’cause i came here to talk about glenn.
I will not censor you from posting about Glenn.
he’s really having a moment.
YEEEESSSSSSS!!!
Ouch
“we are a bunch of assholes, but that guy, that guy is an Asshole”
“grown person throwing a tantrum” is a pretty on point description of Glenn’s usual state.
that’s a good smackdown.
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
It’s odd, although I couldn’t blame Blake Snell for thinking “I would take my chances playing for Tony La Russa rather than a robot like Kevin Cash”.
I wish Tony the best but it feels like chances this goes badly are about 50x more likely than success.
I may have to get the full MLB package just to watch Sox games and see his interactions with Anderson all season long.
They should bring back the early 80s unis/hats.
2020 is so weird it comes after 2021.
Probably college too (Green, choice, murray etc)
Matt Chapman is pretty good.
olson was supplemental? does that count?
Full Fuson interview.
So if we were to have an FK pool for Election Day, what neutral source is best for calls? I’m thinking something like “Pick the Electoral Vote totals as of noon on Weds Nov 4: Biden, Trump, Undecided.” According to…?
We should also handicap the final outcome on 1/20/21, but that has more than three choices.
538?
but also, fuck that pool. i got deep viscerals (and flashbacks) just reading that idea.
Like Emma G, if I can’t dance gamble and screw I don’t want to be part of your revolution.
i just see screwing as the kind of dancing where you can yell jackpot.
and that saves me time for a nice swim tuesday evening.
I don’t want to be too much of an optimist, but my mom told me that my bernie bro parents are voting biden. First dem since 84. If marge worked for the carter administration by voting for him twice, my parents were in the nader cabinet.
Shudder.
I have no idea what is going to happen. I do know the DOE labs are being asked about their crisis plans in case of insurgency.
And as much as I want to believe that there are depths to which the US body politic won’t sink, after the last 4 years I’m not sure where they are any more.
Insurgency by whom?
the police
Trumpers have control of them
oh shit.
did sting go the way of johnny rotten??
Who have you got?
I don’t believe in jinxes. I have a prediction based on tinkering with the cook political report’s tool.
Mine looks pretty big, will talk about it later
Yes, any FKer who commented in any wild card games thread since 2014 can’t play the jinx card now.
Yeah, it looks good, and I have hope and everything, but even if it’s true… 64 fucking million people will have voted for Trump. That’s more assholes than the total population of all but 20 countries in the world. That’s one percent of the total world’s population.
Jeebus that’s disturbing when you put it that way.
There are a lot of
DicksRichards in this country.Not a single of ten most common male names prefers Biden.
Anyway you slice it, this is a persistent problem, that will not go away even with a resounding election victory.
American men are not OK, and won’t be for a while I suspect.
Well, what can I say – I’m glad I got to know you guys.
There isn’t a group of more victim complexed people than American men, yesterday while sitting about a block from GM’s house I had a very liberal man explain to me why the USPS is the worst
There should probably be a “white” in there.
GM lives in a white house?
Rabbitholed hard on this channel. Think this one is my fave. Or maybe this one.
it’s like a z-trip set but with adobe premier.
Those are cool – I haven’t been through a lot more years but one that I did like was 1986. And AV, loved the z-trip follow-up. Which brings me back to Umphrey’s McGee, who Soaker brought up as electronica and I tried to counter that. What I failed to mention was that at one point they were known for their mashups, and these reminded me of them. Here’s one of Their Best, and I’ve been lucky enough to see them do it live.
i respect their effort but that music does not have my tastes in mind!
In part 2 he actually made me like Rush for a hot minute.
they used his remix of tom sawyer in small soldiers. not worth seeking out because it goes on longer than that hot minute.
I get that – know your audience! Not that I’ll probably ever sway you, but this Lemmy & Ween one or this with Rage & Beasties might have been better bait for you. Whatever, it’s been fun for me to go back to some of these mashups, and to realize that while they used to be something UM was known for I think after putting out Zonkey, the mashup album, they’ve pretty much stopped doing them.
those are definitely more enjoyable.
for me, the whole concept of mashups is a 1-time-pony. sure, i’ll chuckle. but am i ever going back to that song for either a good dance or a second chuckle? not likely. probably why they work when you see them live. and maybe why the band moved on.
Definitely what makes them more fun when they pop up in the middle of a show.
Anyone know how to buy something from mexico when they will only ship to latin america?
This sounds like a question you should only ask under attorney-client privilege.
It’s hard not to look at this and think there are some good short term, cheap deals to be had
Sounds a little racist TBH Mark.
Yeah, people that complain about being called racist because of their opinions…
Looking at his Twitter feed, it is nonstop far-right Trumpist propaganda, COVID truthering, and talking about how awful California is. But he’s the victim when A’s fans yell at him online.
why do A’s fans care about a former cardinal and angel?
He can go on GG’s new podcast to talk about A’s fans censoring him.
“The [Hitler] quotes are used for their content and relevance to the topic addressed in the presentation,” the spokesman for the state police said, somehow thinking that makes it better.
I like this way of framing both the Conways: “A grifter always recognizes when the jig is up, after all, like a rat fleeing a sinking ship.”
I did not know they were introduced by Ann Coulter, and that George was instrumental to the Linda Tripp and Paula Jones stories.
knew the first part. also, AC’s a total deadhead.
(kellyanne’s only musical link is cover model for iron maiden.)
Don’t let the demure Times prose and sober detail fool you, this horrifying story kept me awake all night.
Weird piece. The first third is a fairly standard (albeit with some crazy new details like the flagpole guy) Trump’s an idiot who can’t be educated or reined in story. It seems to mostly be Mattis/Kelly stuff, and a lot of it is about how Trump wouldn’t listen to them about troop withdrawals. The second third is about how he is now surrounded by people like Barr and has people like Ron Johnson pulling shit for him in Congress, but the subtext there is that it mostly been a flop for him politically. Then we get kind of a tabletop exercise of vague bad stuff that right wing nuts might do, encouraged by Trump, with the idea being that somehow they will be able to prevent enough states from certifying results to throw the election to the House.
I dunno. My take is that Trump is a total piece of shit and a wounded animal who is capable of trying almost anything if he thinks it might keep him in power, but that his ability to actually do any of it at this point is pretty limited. The worst-case scenario stuff is something that it is good for officials (some of whom are, I’m guessing, top FBI types) to game out, but that have a pretty low probability of spiraling out of control in the way Trump might enjoy. The corollary of Trump now being surrounded by loyalists and yes men is that he is fundamentally quite isolated within the federal administrative and law enforcement bureaucracy, let alone the states and cities where the voting and counting happens.
Bottom line, I’m very worried about Trump’s capacity for doing damage to the country on the way out if he loses, and I think we are going to be dealing with the rise of Trumpian right wing violence for years, but the more lurid versions of this that imply some sort of brownshirt coup aren’t realistic enough to stress me out further.
On the other hand…
Holy FK – this all will not end well
a campaign 4 days out doesn’t warrant secret service protection?
Presumably neither Biden nor Harris was in that bus.
ah.
Um.
don’t worry. i’m sure the president will tamp down the fever and take care of the local party reps.
There has to be a bottom at some point
Those guys in the trucks and the police are what I am afraid of.
Now this is just embarrassing.
Trump will declare victory 11/4 despite the tally, then baiting his mob into action seems likely. How widespread, and how much it escalates are unknown, but the fact that these ostensibly serious powerful men are worried definitely rattled me (more).
He monologues like a Bond villain.
WELL TODAY BOND VILLAINS WON.
Yeah, that story is crazy. Just completely brazen.
I think there are still five votes on the Supreme Court to kill this suit, but only because the challenge is coming after so many people actually voted using this process.
District judge tossed it for lack of standing and on the merits (for the already cast votes anyway).
5th can’t hear it tonight to shut down the vote by tomorrow one would think.
I wouldn’t put anything past that court but yeah timing seems tough.
Totally ridiculous to be filing an appeal at almost 10 pm the night before Election Day to shut down a voting method that starts the next morning. Lawyers who would file something like that are scumbags.
Looks like Harris county is keeping the built out structure for tomorrow and closing the tents. The injunction is question is moot
Cert denied anyway
So some number of voters gets successfully thwarted through the losing, meritless suit which cost the GOP basically nothing.
could be the difference in the senate.
Oh, glory days…
And the GOP response
Sam Fuld!
honestly, cora is fine
it’s
a
lutheran
university.
Vince and Shooty living their best lives.
Before hand and wong were declined, non tendered, I though at least one would get one, but after its clear there is some kind of collusion that is suppressing the market
It’s the invisible Hand of the market (to steal a good line).
They must really think the fix is in to not offer Hendriks. He should be guaranteed a big contract somewhere.
Once the Clevelands declined Hands’ option at $10M (really $9M, excluding the buyout), there was no way we were going to give Hendriks twice that.
He’s really afraid of getting the Mussolini/Ceacescu treatment, isn’t he.
Hitler retreating to the bunker
I expect other federal properties will also suddenly discover they need National Guard reinforcements.
Normal stuff
According to this site (can’t vouch for how credible it is), MLB’s current plan calls for Fresno to move from the PCL to the Cal League, which would become Low A ball. The Midwest and Northwest Leagues would move up to High A.
makes sense given the airport situation (no offense Ace and WAC). But population amenities and history wise, I don’t know
None taken. I think it is a very nice airport-it just needs direct flights going to a few more MLB cities-which it cannot get.
History wise it makes sense. Fresno was always a Cal league city (we will exempt the half season in like 1908 of the Raisin eaters from this..). Population wise it doesnt make a lot of sense, but those people also arent always the best at coming out to the game so what are you gonna do?
I do wonder what that does to the ownership group and the existence of the franchise. Related-I think it is crap that there isnt any double-A ball on this side of the country and that should be fixed.
Whoever owns the Fresno Grizzlies bought a AAA franchise. No way it’s as simple as “we’re redesignating your franchise as Low-A”. The team’s ballpark lease with the City of Fresno would also be based on the assumption that the team is in AAA. So that proposal has to amount to contracting the Fresno franchise out of existence with financial consideration both to the Grizzlies’ ownership and the City.
I wonder how things have changed since the time that MiLB tried to buy out Bing Russell and the Portland Mavericks.
The “just having a bit of fun” line is so revolting … every high school bully’s defense.
Totally normal
GAH.
not the blocking. (i give that an ASSHOLES.)
but a perfectly capable media outlet *still* illustrating stories about CA yesterday with a photo taken in FLA a year ago. “oh but we captioned it.” yeah, after the click through, if you even look at the caption.
journalism has every tool to get things right *and* be convincing. and yet.
Is Raw Story a capable media outlet? I have no information either way, but they come off as a little sketchy to me.
capable in the sense of able to source an image and pay for it.
even if they’re a click-bait business aimed at left bias.
Also, HEADLINE: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, BODY: Riverside
I believe the preferred term is Vanilla Isis.
{rimshot}
JBJ hasn’t been this relevant in years!
Fun fact: Bon Jovi and Trump were both among the bidders to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014.
(Does not contradict what you said.)
There’s a rollicking good GQ article from a few years ago about this saga. A key player was Michael Caputo, better known of late for batshit insanity even by today’s standards.
https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-shady-scheme-to-buy-nfl-buffalo-bills
It’s in the bag! Biden with a clean sweep of Dixville Notch, 5 to 0!
538-0 was my estimate earlier
steph curry in a lincoln project ad is something.
Good I needed a chuckle
Ok, I’m going with science not fear and predicting a Too Big to Rig landslide for Biden. By noon PST tomorrow, the Electoral Vote totals from “called” races will be:
Biden 317
Trump 184
Undecided 37
Seems reasonable at the Presidential level. A lot of results are going to have to wait because of the rules about counting mailed ballots. Nevada’s law is: if the date on the postmark is legible, a ballot mailed today can be counted if received as late as next Tuesday; if the date is illegible, the ballot is assumed to have been mailed today if it’s received by Friday. Realistically on close races there’s going to be doubt for 48 hours or so as to how many ballots are still in the hands of USPS. I don’t see that affecting Trump-Biden that much, but local things like State Assembly and Senate will be up in the air.
There’s a *possibility* that Nevada’s Democrats will have 2/3 supermajorities in both the Assembly and Senate, as well as the governorship, which would at least help fend off the consequences of a Trump re-election and/or continued GOP control of the US Senate for the next couple years.
Objective, insightful thread here on America’s political geography at the end of the Trump term. The future is the GOP finally adapting to the changed country or (more likely) digging in behind the court majorities it traded the country for.
It’s finally here, the day we’ve all been waiting for … Happy NFL trade deadline everyone.
Fun fact I learned text banking: Jenny is a whore’s name!
Jennybel?
what’s your text banking snide comment-back ratio? i wrote many, only sent one. if i were banking today i’d send them all (since it’s not like you can get fired on your last day on the job).
I’ve never sent one!! I’ve thought about it though, for a few. What cracks me up is when they send something really nasty, and I reply “Thanks for letting me know, have a great day” and then they reply something like “You have a blessed day too!”
i wonder if they think it’s a bot that first time and that nobody will read whatever nastiness they send. but then they find out it’s a human and that you have their phone number.
one time Pam from here texted me from a campaign number, “Hi This is Pam with Warren for america, Can you blah blah blah”
I texted back something that I had already told her personally to try to figure out if it was our pam. She texted me from her real phone after that. It was fun
That is hilarious!
i saw her on a training video for vote save america.
I *may* have text banked Terrell Davis in Georgia yesterday. He asked to be opted out.
Hope everyone is doing ok. Currently, I am feeling the same type of nerves as I would if I knew there was an A’s playoff game later in the day.
My thought is to block anything from Twitter for the next 24 hours. This will likely be the greatest day of distortion, exaggeration and disinformation since Mr. Gore invented the Internet.
I’m cautiously hopeful that things will be more definitive early than many expect, and that the tales of distortion will seem (more) ridiculous in the face of a Democratic tide.
As one of you said the other day, if Biden wins Florida it is probably over.
But how many election days have we all sat around hoping for good news from Florida and been disappointed?
If Florida was our only hope I’d be really terrified; other paths like GA, rust belt, and even OH or TX are credible enough that I haven’t yet opened the whiskey bottle yet today.
North Carolina for the win.
I’d have to look back at the thread but IIRC Hillary’s early collapse in North Carolina was the first thing that sent you into the panic 4 years ago.
Could be. That plus Virginia being too close plus the Florida panhandle coming in huge all blur together and I don’t really care to revisit it at the moment.
There’s definitely too much unqualified optimism/overconfidence early in that 2016 thread. It then turns on a dime.
was trying to remember, I got a sinking feeling after knowing KNOWING fla was gonna turn blue and it wasn’t called. It might have been NC or the no result in VA that made me turn away
Yeah, I don’t remember the specifics either, just feeling confident early in the day, results started coming in at 4 or 5, already nervous by 5:30, feeling physically ill by 7.
It’s not the only, or even best hope, but is the main way things would be definitive early.
I have very little alcohol in the house. We have two more days of nice fall weather forecast before winter hits on Friday, and I want to be able to do 25 miles of stomping off frustration and anger in the mountains tomorrow.
I have a 2015 bottle of The Bruery’s “Black Tuesday” … 750ml of appropriately-named 20% Russian Imperial Stout should get me through the first wave at least.
I have heard good things about GA today.
After the outrageous voter suppression there in 2018 the locals spent two very serious years preparing for today.
Yes but how many heads were on the beast you were riding? If it’s fewer than seven it’s hardly an insult at all.
Results from deep-red Douglas County in 2016:
Trump 62.45
Clinton 30.32
Third parties 4.17
NOTA 3.06
Soaker’s 2020 prediction:
Trump 57.5
Biden 32.5
Third parties 4
NOTA 6
Fun fact of the day: For the first time one of my fellow voters is Helen Mirren. She doesn’t mention her vote for President in that, but she supports Patricia Ackerman who is the Democrat who will lose to Mark Amodei in the Nevada 2nd. She must live up in Glenbrook which is the ultra-exclusive gated community.
Seems weird that NOTA would go up in a year without a senate or governor race on the ballot to draw out Republicans who refuse to make a presidential choice. Are there some big local races they’ll come out for?
My thought is that some moderate Republicans and some independents who took a chance on Trump in 2016 because he couldn’t be worse than Hillary Clinton won’t vote for Trump this time. So I added 2 percent to Biden and 3 percent to NOTA.
There’s nothing of any consequence on our ballot other than Trump-Biden. I don’t think I saw a single ad for any of the statewide Questions. The mildly interesting one, which is still a techniciality like the others though, would replace this in our state Constitution
with this:
That time every two years when I remember how messed up it is that Indiana and Kentucky close polls at 6 pm local.
It’s too much to hope for McConnell to go down. Makes me wish George Soros was a powerful as they say.
LOL Man Utd “defending”
what am i failing to understand about offsides??
if everybody’s on home-half of field or something?
Yup, you can’t be offside in your own half. The picture in that thread is hilarious … the deepest United defender is half way into the other half.
Somebody had a lot of money on first goal