GregAlso

So the Houston Astros, the cheatingist team in baseball, playing in the biggest game of the season, don't cheat.  Yet at that same exact time, in the same exact game, Yu Darvish suddenly started tipping his pitches.  Really??
I feel like the Simpson's Superintendent Chalmers, seeing a fire in Principal Skinner's kitchen, and hearing Skinner tell them that no, it's not a fire.  What he is really seeing is Aurora Borealis.
‘Aurora Borealis. At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your kitchen?' 
'Yes!’
 

Hinch issues an apology and Luhnow distances himself and blames everyone else. A tale of two people for sure. 

Hinch issues an apology and Luhnow distances himself and blames everyone else. A tale of two people for sure. 

Hinch issues an apology and Luhnow distances himself and blames everyone else. A tale of two people for sure. 

Punishment is historic but I wish it had gone further. Hinch seems like he was against it but not willing to report his own players. Tough spot to be in, but he didn’t have the strength of character to do much but be passive aggressive. I mean breaking two monitors instead of talking to Luhnow or MLB is weak. I think he will be hired by someone after the suspension or a year later at most.

Luhnow is a jerk and deserves all he gets. The culture he created and supported was destined to create this. I think it’ll take him longer to get back. The caveat here is that his knowledge is gonna be highly prized by someone. Don’t think he ever makes GM again though. 

Cora is done. I think he gets lifetime suspension from baseball. He designed the system in Houston. He is most culpable. He will have culpability in Boston and that is gonna be all it takes to come down hard on him. Boston’s cheating happened after being caught, after a warning, and in 2018. Since Houston sounds like it was only proved in 2017 and they got this much Boston is gonna be hammered and Cora even more so for both situations. He gone!

Question is how could they not? Even if they weren’t cheating in 2019 bit now this is hanging over them and all the questions and firings. They are human still, even if crappy ones, and this has to have an effect. 

Forcing Luhnow to step down isn't enough.
 
 
 
They should be forced to replace him with DiPoto.

It's ironic that this is the 100th anniversary year of the Black Sox being suspended (late September 1920), although the official ban from Landis was in 1921. 

There are gains to be made in analytics in the areas of torture, tax evasion, racketeering, embezzlement, insider trading, identity theft, and money laundering.  Luhnow's skills are prized, and he won't be out of work long.

Punishment is historic but I wish it had gone further. Hinch seems like he was against it but not willing to report his own players. Tough spot to be in, but he didn’t have the strength of character to do much but be passive aggressive. I mean breaking two monitors instead of talking to Luhnow or MLB is weak. I think he will be hired by someone after the suspension or a year later at most.

Luhnow is a jerk and deserves all he gets. The culture he created and supported was destined to create this. I think it’ll take him longer to get back. The caveat here is that his knowledge is gonna be highly prized by someone. Don’t think he ever makes GM again though. 

Cora is done. I think he gets lifetime suspension from baseball. He designed the system in Houston. He is most culpable. He will have culpability in Boston and that is gonna be all it takes to come down hard on him. Boston’s cheating happened after being caught, after a warning, and in 2018. Since Houston sounds like it was only proved in 2017 and they got this much Boston is gonna be hammered and Cora even more so for both situations. He gone!

They had two in the past three seasons, and one was a guy who had a grade 1 sprain before he signed. 
 
EDIT: 3. Forgot JC Ramírez. 

Ohtani is better than a lot of those guys. If you want to say "more reliably good," then my answer would be "maybe." 

It was behaving linearly until 2016. Many teams were behaving in a way that wasn’t optimal. Statisticians knew that wasn’t right but teams were behaving as they always behaved. But now teams are catching on and the markets starting to reflect that. 

The value of a win has always been and will continue to be generally linear. What teams are learning is that the associated risk factors and opportunity costs are not. 
 
A 4 war player is twice as valuable as a 2 war player when the stats are already on the books, but before the games are played that 2 war player is far more likely to play at a level that adds nothing to the team above what a ‘free’ player already on the roster might provide.

I don’t think the Angels feel this way. 
 
Assuming they end up just a little over the luxury tax, and with expiring contracts that will keep them from going over several years in a row, the luxury tax hit is minimal compared to their true cash flow. 
 
They would rather have a $200M payroll that is at $210M per the tax than a $210M payroll that is at $200M, per the tax. 

Just can’t see how Manfred doesn’t take the Red Sox cheating personally and come down hard on them. 

Just can’t see how Manfred doesn’t take the Red Sox cheating personally and come down hard on them. 

Do you remember how angry everyone got when the Angels DFA’d Cesar Puello?

These scandals are showing the importance of real journalism, it seems.  Sounds like MLB wanted to handle some of it on the down low.  Understandably so.  Now they now they need to crack down and I believe they will. The Astros allegations are outrageous.  The Red Sox had already been warned.  They are both gonna get smacked. But especially the Astros.
Also....  I'm  now a Mike Fiers fan.  

Arrogant- having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities:
🤔 hmm, what did I say that had anything to do with me or my abilities? 
 
I challenged someone who is talking, without knowledge or any info except his own pessimism, to look at facts. I challenged a person who is just spouting non-sense to look at what professionals and experts are saying about our team. The same experts that predicted we wouldn’t be good in the past and were right. These same experts are predicting different things about our offense now, nearly unanimously. Any one expert could be wrong but when they are all basically in agreement that is not likely to be wrong at all. 
 
I challenged someone, who has already responded with the fact he doesn’t care what any experts say he believes what he believes. “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” This is what i see happening and so to break through that you demand he investigate. He didn’t and will never because he enjoys being a pessimist. He claims to be a realist but so do most pessimists. 
 
I am confident in the answers I suggested he look into. Maybe that’s what you’re calling arrogance. Confidence and truth are what I’m projecting, not sure what you’re seeing. 

After Maddon said this at the winter meetings, Eppler sort of doused water on it with something like “Joe is very enthusiastic but we are a long way from having this discussion.”
I think it’s fair to wonder if Ohtani can do more eventually, but it’s going to be gradual. They are going to start conservatively and maybe see as they go along how much they can push the envelope. 
 
It’s not realistic to have this conversation in the winter after he just finished TJ rehab. He has to actually go out and play and see what happens, and then they can decide when he’s ready for more. 

Based on anyone who can really project next year’s stats we have a top 5 offense. I triple dog dare you to pull up any of the publicly available projection systems, even ZiPs which is notoriously conservative, and find one where your prediction is even close. I mean where we are even 9th in the league in offense. Seriously try that. When you fail, because you will, Come back and apologize for your stupidity. Then strive to be a more realistic person, which I know is a lot to ask of you. 

Yes you can put someone on ignore.  He is a good one to start with for sure.  

I will work on this later today, but yes there's a way to ignore members posts just like muting someone on Twitter and unfollowing someone on Facebook.