Pogačar had one slight bobble in the Carrefour when he was about to drop Wout and never put him in difficulty again, wild

Wout!

STOP PULLING WOUT

someone needed to pay more attention to Bronn’s scenes in Game of Thrones and where it got him in the end

Someone finally decided to suck Pogačar’s wheel!

Pogačar ending up in a race scenario where it’s in everyone’s best interests in G1 to pull for him in hilarious stuff

WHO IS ACTUALLY IN THE FRONT GROUP CALL THE RACE PHIL

this is the most insane middle section of a bike race I can ever remember

swing change after working with his college coach that has caused him to be late on any sort of velocity

I enjoyed the part of that deal that involved dunking on the Phillies, thought people were overblowing the bad defensive fit, and disliked basically every other part of it. And I think that’s all playing out

The Mets have a lot of players who probably aren’t very good on significant money screwing up their ability to build a functional roster, and some of that still isn’t Stearns, but some of it now is. Benge and Tong also look like they got massively worse in the last 6 months which complicates things

have never seen something more emblematic of a sports franchise

Really sharp analysis at @baseballprospectus.com by @seidler.bsky.social on how the ABS system is changing the strike zone to the benefit of some players. And, as a short person, I appreciate the work here of Jarrett, a tall person. (y lunes en español) www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

not sure the last time I’ve see a pitcher induce so many baffled hitter freeze takes as McLean but it’s been a hot minute

Freddy Couples lighting it up as a super-senior early until his back starts hurting is the true tradition unlike any other

One reason Altuve might get an outsized benefit is that catchers seem more reluctant to challenge pitches at the top of the zone, which would make sense because those would involve the glove getting more in front of their face.

I *suspect* there are going to be knock on effects on Judge in particular, but Altuve is the only guy I feel comfortable calling after two weeks (in large part because we've got 15 years of a ridiculous strike zone being consistently called for him in a way that isn't true for Judge et al)

it turns out multiple things can be true about a player! It's completely incontrovertible and uncontroversial that the top of Altuve's strike zone has been set absurdly high for years. FanGraphs did annual GIF posts during the Obama administration of the funniest called high strikes against him

This is good stuff and should probably lead to some kind of re-appraisal of Altuve's career.

for his entire career, Jose Altuve has had to fight off an unfairly high strike zone. Until the ABS zone redefinition, that is. On the smallest hitter in the majors suddenly finding himself in a fair fight up in the zone @baseballprospectus.com www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

Moreno is clearly going to be one of the best catchers at challenging as a skill and Alvarez is clearly going to be one of the worst, and this game lays out how and why pretty starkly

is there any explanation for Peterson starting over Myers at this point that doesn't involve him being the 95th pitcher selected to the 2025 ASG

it should be most embarrassing to the league office but it's also wildly embarrassing to the "reporters" being used by the Pirates (and in one case doing so by retracting) to maybe get an extra draft pick eventually

90 mph middle middle 0-2 fastball when the target is at the eyes after two shake offs is usually something that gets you DFA’d

hello friends, i come bearing gifts!! tomorrow is a very important holiday in my culture (josh hader’s birthday) and i have been sad about not being able to do the pitching donations due “the IL”. so for 48 hours, i am offering free stickers in exchange for donations to covenant house or BEAR!

have made this point repeatedly over the years but something from @mikeduncan.bsky.social's work always sticks with me: there are exceptions, but the majority of people just continue with their normal boring lives mostly uninterrupted through most of the most unsettled times in history

one of the funniest baseball articles I've read in some time @mattsnydercbs.bsky.social www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/gia...

Worth noting: the 2027 class has ~11-12 real names, and 2028 is a little deeper but mostly with questionable role players. the Atlanta picks should be in *at best* #11-12 in both of those years

how sure are we that Seixas isn't going to be Pogi's biggest rival in July exactly?

one year in Flanders everyone is going to stop pulling for Pogačar in small groups between the hills (it will not be this year)

Piggybacking onto this, franchise mode was pretty clearly so much better 15-20 years ago than it is now and the reason is pretty clearly competition. And this is true for most big franchise sports games, unfortunately, which have turned into annual loot box pack grifts above all

bingooooooo

As an account of moderate size I’ve tried having more positive baseball convos in quote posts but the flip side is every time I do that I’m exposing your posts to the aforementioned context stripping hall monitor crew who sits on here looking for something to be mad about. Tough balance.

Descriptive being interpreted as prescriptive

I think the primary problem this website has as a posting grounds is that way too many of the posters who take discussion or analysis of an issue as advocacy for the position being discussed or analyzed ended up not just being here but feeling empowered to be hall monitors

I tried to figure out why non-Top 101 prospect Cooper Pratt is getting an extension in line with top 20 prospects—and why he’s the first Scott Boras client to sign a long term deal as a rookie or pre-rookie www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/ar... @baseballprospectus.com

apparently discussing a pet theory in my friend of like 15 year’s mentions on a niche social media site implies some sort of convenience malice now. Why is every extremely online Mariners fan like this

it is personally annoying that MLB contracts are becoming NFL level fake numbers but on the other hand it’s good for @jon-becker.com’s career so who can say if it’s good or bad

I think a very common misconception about this stuff is that people amortize it as a total AAV when nearly all of the marginal cost is in the later arb and FA buyout. You should be thinking about the Emerson deal as more like 4/85 or 5/90 than 8/95

based off my research, of the six debut-or-close extensions which are far enough out to call, they break down as: huge team win: Evan Longoria small team win: Luis Robert Jr. neutralish: Eloy Jimenez small team loss: none huge team loss: Scott Kingery, Jonathan Singleton, Evan White

this dance is kind of embarrassing to everyone imo!

really liked this one from @seidler.bsky.social on Cooper Pratt's extension, how and why it's unusual, and thinking from Milwaukee's perspective on why they might have gone for it:

A Cooper Sharp Extension? by Jarrett Seidler (@seidler.bsky.social) www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/ar...

the parts of the Griffin thing you aren't supposed to say in favor of incredulously reporting the team leaks is that they had significant incentive to simultaneously game both extension talks and PPI not just for the two direct reasons but because of how extensions affect PPI

As others have noted this is honestly a very tricky question, but the question itself was a huge red siren: nobody fights harder for Native Americans on the Court than Gorsuch (one of his quirks) and if he is invoking this as an example, the Government is toast.

I tried to figure out why non-Top 101 prospect Cooper Pratt is getting an extension in line with top 20 prospects—and why he’s the first Scott Boras client to sign a long term deal as a rookie or pre-rookie www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/ar... @baseballprospectus.com

the Mets had to make the Nimmo/Semien trade given just how catastrophic the Nimmo contract and defensive roadblock was going to be, but watching completely washed Marcus Semien putter around the field is not a fun experience

I mean, you'd have to decide on the framework in said hypothetical law. But also creating these legal frameworks is not difficult, they already exist for the purpose of things like taxes and elections and so forth

yes Alito had to raise this as a potential middle ground almost entirely on his own because the solicitor general couldn't argue it for political reasons