GAME05

If you tell your kids about how great the 80s were, it's the same as your grandparents telling you about the 1940s.

If they've re-opened any hiking trails through the burnt-out areas, definitely go hiking. It's so strange walking through right after a fire, like you're walking through a world in the 1940 before color was invented.

Boy the amount of flopping and crying that's going to come from one single team next year...

Even though they're probably going to have a pretty bad team, I think I'm more excited for this season than the past many. I don't know much about the non-Herro guys we got and I can't remember when I've been this anxious to see a draft pick play. Oh my goodness I had to look it up and the last particularly exciting draft pick was Thon Maker a decade ago. I really liked that guy even though he was the worst rebounder I've ever seen. But it does feel like we have the makings, even if it's not a complete team yet. Like we've just completely restocked our role-player squad. Now all we need is to trade for that guy Giannis in Miami and we'll be set!

Just watched the trailer because of these comments. Normally talking animals is an immediate no from me, but it looks like I'd be in the wrong to not see it. So the shepherd dying doesn't put a pall over the rest of what's clearly supposed to be a feel-good movie?

I used to have a house that was on a military flightpath. I've yet to meet the man who doesn't always look up in the sky to see them because it's so awesome.

Only increasing in size and heat of individual fires, but the total number of fires is way way down. More development, more clearing land for agriculture and to a smaller degree some amount of activism which protests against controlled burns because of CO2 emissions (like Australia). Also fewer resources in a lot of places to set regular burns. I suspect arson is way up, too, along with idiots who don't control a campfire. I suspect encroachment, development and management or lack thereof has contributed to a lot of the change in numbers which have also only been computer-modeled past 30 years ago. I'll work big fires like that every now and again as a part of my job. It's an odd combination of fun, danger and exhaustion. One of the people killed in a recent one (Montana?) used to work for us. I'd met her before at a training and she was really impressive.

I don't think the Brewers are about to give Contreras $30m and that Quero isn't a surefire starter after the injury. I'd like for them to target someone like Hunter Goodman from the Rockies for maybe Drohan+Henderson or Jett++ assuming they want an MLB-ready return (they'd probably need more). Plus if Milwaukee even has $30m, I see them opting for extensions of current guys or even overpaying to extend a guy like Made mostly on the good chance of max-length contracts becoming a thing with the CBA. I think the Brewers are going to really crave some HRs in the lineup next year especially with losing Bauers. Smallball is great in the regular season but consistent contact is tough against postseason SPs. Even if Frelick returns to form he's not that guy, so something has to be done in RF. There doesn't seem to be a prospect in waiting here but I'm not sure who'd be a good target. I don't know if I see them wanting to give substantial ABs to both a rookie 1b and a rookie 3b in the lineup. That's a lot of risk for a contending team. I could definitely see bringing in another version of Renfroe for some security. Maybe one of Barger or Clement from Toronto. The back-end SP depth is great this year but we can't keep that up next year and just have to roll the dice with someone. It also makes for good trade fodder. I also don't see Jett here next year since he's a bit blocked and suffers from that problem of "If you play every position you have no position". Probably also enough prospect depth to start trading from that 5-10 range without sacrificing the future roster.

Add: --Pretty decent SP --Catcher --RF

>With a hitter this gifted, though, a faster track is always possible. It was noted a 55 Hit tool and 50 Power/Run. Not bad by any stretch at all, but how do average numbers translate to "gifted"? Or does his new approach translate to better overall grades which are just late to being adjusted? I know that sounds snarky and I don't mean it to be but instead a sincere question of how these gifts really translate to MLB success as opposed to just being a good MiLB player. I didn't know he'd moved to the OF. I'm guessing he can't play CF or he'd have been there in the first place. So a low-Power-for-a-corner-OF bat (without the size to grow into) and he has a great eye yet only a 50 Run grade. And will be nothing special defensively in a corner. If anything this article has me a lot lower on the guy than I had been and it's hard for me to see him as much more than a LF/RF/2b backup player. If you guys are high on him that's more likely to mean I'm not seeing something, but I'm not understanding the excitement.

I didn't realize you could trade guys on the IL.

Getting into the particular sport early isn't really a requirement for greatness. Many if not most top-level athletes did the multi-sport thing and only got into their particular one late. There's a thought that they've come to be so good because they pull from the movements of the other sports, plus it helps them think more creatively when they play. Plus focus on only one sport when really young can cause burnout. It's not getting the seven-year-olds into soccer academies early that matters as much as the 14-year-old future greats deciding to focus on soccer.

There's no real wonder why the US isn't better at soccer when the thread for the biggest tournament in the world which only happens every four years is a mere six pages long.

I have friends in Mongolia you can stay with. Not joking.

What do I know, but I fully expect Herro to stay. Hometown kid helps sell tickets (presumably) and is our best shot at being at least a watchable team during a stretch where we won't have a high draft pick. At best maybe he's a deadline pick to New Orleans to get our pick back.

Just holding onto Bauers represents our "go for it" move since he'd otherwise be gone were we out of contention. Am I wrong to have the impression that any of the 1b prospects we have are all more on a 2028 timeline? If so, why not just pay Vaughn for next year and do what we can with what we've got to fill any platoon/backup hole? Can Yelich play 1b? I've had that thought, too, because of Quero's injury. Looks like there's 2-3 guys around rank 20-30 who'd be great. Guys like Adamczewski/Adams/Wilken are pretty blocked. Is it crazy to trade prospects for prospects?

So is this equivalent to the Bulls having to play a game without Michael Jordan? Pardon my ignorance, but what level of "Crap, this means we're going to lose" should I have?

I think it would scare me to death just being a passenger. As a driver I'd probably kill somebody. Or of course I'd get stuck in a London roundabout all day not able to get out and wish we'd have just gone to WallyWorld again.

I went to Gdansk and Lithuania last year. Gdansk I think would be good for slightly older kids with the shipbuilding and all the WWII history. Outer banks of Lithuania is pretty and reminiscent of Wisconsin but with just a bit more ocean. Lots of nature-stuff there. Not entirely sure what kids would do in Vilnius, though I also never looked that up. edit: Gdansk has a terrific museum on the Polish Resistance and memorial to the shipbuilders killed by the Soviets. I didn't have a chance to see the spot where the Germans first started WWII, but there's a sailed ship museum there, as well, which looked really interesting. Also an outdoor opera house tucked into the woods. Lituania's outer banks was a Viking settlement and a tourist spot for biking and enjoying the nature reserve there. Vilnius is such a beautiful city. Museum of Occupation was very good and there's an Illusions museum I'd guess the kids would like but I didn't see. Oh, also near Gdansk is the largest castle in Europe, though I most enjoyed sitting near it and just looking at it with some food and beer in my hands.

And doesn't Brown only have two more years left on his contract? Wouldn't make any sense to hold onto him. Plus once they get Brown I'm presuming they'd no longer be burdened with that 1:1 tax apron trading rule and more picks could come from him than they could with Giannis. If Herro/Brown are next-traded, could we expect the Bucks to start trading for some bad contracts and getting picks with that, too? I wonder if a secondary benefit from all of this is that Ryan Rollins will be asked to take way more shots and we'll get to see just where his ceiling is. I didn't see enough games last year, so I'm not sure how to think of him. Is he a possible future star or more like a "Military 8" because of the lack of talent around him?

Yesterday I got home and looked up the long highlights of the US-Aus match. We won 2-0 so I was of course happy and excited. Only after I watched did I notice that the video was from a couple years ago, so I queued up the recent one and got to watch that, too. It was like getting to watch the Packers win different playoff games twice in the same day.

I wouldn't eat it, but I can see it. Cranberries in sauerkraut is kind of a Russian thing, so raisins in coleslaw seems like a natural transition. But people put fruit in regular salad, which seems like basically the same thing and equally off-putting.

I'm largely just addicted to all the "people discover America" videos. Just awesome. Saw a Korean guy in Mexico waiving around a Mexican flag and getting mobbed by everyone who also put a sombrero on him and everyone with the biggest smiles having an amazing time. No, obviously not the US, but whatever. I hear the US is a really good team. Not my sport but it's always still worth watching.

This is awesome! Good for him securing a rich future and good for us securing a long-term star defensive CF. Kinda cancels out our reason to keep Perkins around as a defensive sub. Hard to see Frelick leaving so shortly after, especially with Lockridge still out. But I won't hold my breath for him next season.

I'm never much for trading prospects, but I could see a need to trade prospect depth for other prospects. I'd go for trading Jett for a catching prospect like Briceno or a SP prospect.