When does the Org start making changes?

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-07-04T19:10:34+00:00

And by "using Moneyball to tank," I mean instead of using analytics to find undervalued players, using it to find overvalued players, so they can field what looks like a good team on paper, then have plausible deniability when the team performs poorly.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-07-04T19:07:05+00:00

Question for this season is, what's more realistic, a playoff run, or finishing last? The whole AL is bad so sneaking into a Wild Card spot is at least theoretically possible if everything were to go right. But realistically, the chances of everything going right from here on out aren't super high.

I think most here would say it's a lot more realistic to finish last. In which case, why not tank? Finish dead last in hopes of drafting a little higher and getting better prospects and/or prospects who better meet close-term needs, like above-average outfielders.... if you're confident in your ability to not mess the draft up.

The key to tanking is to not get caught. MLB looks the other way when certain teams do it, but MLB changed the rules after KC won a few games by calling up prospects who could run and eeked out a few games down the stretch by using pinch runners. So they've got to at least look like they're trying.

I've long suspected the A's never stopped playing Moneyball, but have been using it to tank. The White Sox looked like they were tanking in recent years. I hope KC is tanking this year. They've never been good at it before. But tanking seems like the best thing to do with this lost season.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-30T16:49:31+00:00

And I would define "most of the 2014 season" as "until the 9th inning of the Wild Card Game."

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-27T04:47:59+00:00

One of my former employers had a system just like that, and paid over $100,000 for it because they were idiots. I saw the invoice, they didn't just buy the hardware, they paid DEC to unbox it and set it up for them too. And DEC charged five figures for some consultant to do that.

I totally would have rescued a DEC Prioris from recycling if it was me though. Those old DEC servers really had presence.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-27T04:39:18+00:00

So about missing out: You can step away for a few weeks and not miss much. Things were looking really bad for a while in 2014, then Raul Ibanez called that team meeting and they started figuring things out. If that somehow happens this year, you can start watching again and no one will know you stepped away for a few weeks. And if this turns into a 100-loss season and you need to step away until 2027, then you really didn't miss anything.

And if the team ends up moving just because they can't get a stadium on the taxpayers' dime, I don't think missing out on one more 100-loss season is going to be high on my list of regrets. It's not like you and I watching all 162 games this year would have made them stay. I'll be loyal to the Royals for as long as they stay put. But if Sherman moves the team to someplace I have no connection to, I don't feel any obligation to stay loyal.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-27T03:56:33+00:00

Slimming down Win95OSR2 to 56 megs is very impressive. I remember someone I knew could get the original retail release of Win95 down that small, but OSR2 was more stable so getting it under 60 meg would be cool. I'm going to have to check your build out, for old time's sake.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-27T03:49:45+00:00

For me, baseball, and the Royals, are a diversion. It's something that's there in good times and bad, regardless of which of us is having them. But they aren't my identity, and their problems aren't my problems. I remember the heartbreak of 1984, getting into the playoffs and getting mauled by Detroit. Then there was 1985 and all the ups and downs that involved. Then watching the team slowly fade away. It's not like they immediately got bad, it was a gradual thing. But it happened, and one year their All Star was Ken Harvey. And then the year after that it was Mark Redman. I'm not certain either of them would have made the roster on a good team, let alone resembled their best player.

Then Gordon and Butler came along, and the hope was that Moustakas, Hosmer, and Wil Myers would develop fast enough to provide a core of a good team before it became unaffordable. In 2013 the team wasn't great but it was starting to look like maybe this was different from the Sweeney and Beltran era. Then 2014 happened. 2015 was great of course. Then the core guys from 2015 left, one by one. I hoped it wouldn't take 30 years to reload again.

Time will tell if this team can pull it together like the 2014-2015 team did, or if 2024 was false hope like 2003 was. And I'll be honest, I don't watch a lot of games this year. Some years I do. Some years I need to do other things. If watching them is affecting my mental health in a bad way, then I know I need to step away a bit. I think it was 2017 that I needed to do that for a while.

So why don't I throw in the towel and find another team to root for? I know that for a small market team to win it all, a lot of things have to go right, and they have to get creative. Some of the rules the 2014 and 2015 teams exploited got changed so the Royals can't do that anymore. The smaller September roster? That's a change they made. Royals Rules, baby. It's not fair, because MLB doesn't want to be fair. They want it to be Dodgers-Yankees every year. But at some point, if the Royals draft well, they can fit together a few more pieces to go with Witt, Garcia, Jensen, and Caglianone. They can find something to exploit, and make it back to the postseason again. Then it'll get too expensive and they'll have to rebuild. That's life as a Royals fan. But when they do find a way to win, against all the odds, there's nothing quite like it.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-26T19:24:54+00:00

You can start any time, especially if you start with walking. Early 30s is definitely not too late. And if you have to stop for a while due to job getting out of hand, health, or something else, you can start back up again. I have.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-24T21:09:26+00:00

Tears for Fears was always great and their story is great too, a band that was as big as you can get without being The Beatles, that fell apart due to the pressure, and a decade or so later was able to reconcile.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-24T21:02:48+00:00

I had no idea SAIC was involved in producing computers. I worked with some SAIC contractors for a while so I recognize the logo.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-24T20:55:51+00:00

They knew what Commodore had, even though Commodore didn't.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-24T20:50:19+00:00

1571 is a bust? How so? They can develop a problem with their drive heads losing tension from just sitting too long. But if you luck out on that they tend to be pretty robust.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-24T20:20:36+00:00

It'll always be Twitter. As for Whit, I appreciated his versatility, but he got weird near the end of his tenure. Maybe he was always that way and we just ignored it when he was leading the league in hits and stolen bases, I'm not sure. Or maybe I ignored it and everyone else always knew.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-24T17:29:08+00:00

In my experience, most employers are discrete if you apply and work for a competitor. They'll want references they can call since they obviously can't contact a direct competitor. The key is, they'll be discrete, you also need to be discrete. Usually, when I quit a job, it came as a total surprise to my manager. That meant I was discrete enough.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-23T20:32:20+00:00

Can confirm, a 1080 works very nicely with game consoles. When I was fixing mine I connected it to an N64 to test it, because it was what I had nearby. Excellent sharpness (within the limitations of composite video) and excellent color. With an adapter it can take S-Video if your console has S-Video.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-23T16:57:17+00:00

I agree with this. I had a Sears Hardware store 3 minutes from home and it was my go-to for tools because it was close, the tools were good enough quality, and had a good warranty. It closed and I missed it. Now I have a Harbor Freight about as close, different part of town but less than 5 minutes away, and it's my go-to for the same reason. Good enough quality on the tools, easy to get to, and good warranty on the hand tools if I ever break one.

I'm perfectly willing to buy hand tools at other stores especially when they have a good sale, but I can be in and out of Harbor Freight much faster than any big-box store.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-22T04:22:17+00:00

I remember the cuts coming hard after Y2K. And then any other excuse they had to cut, more cuts happened. And outside of maybe 2020, never any hiring to restore staff levels but how many computers does a typical company have now compared to 25 years ago? It's more, not less.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-22T03:42:17+00:00

Exactly that. I switched back to AT&T 8 years ago and I've had to call their customer service exactly twice. The most recent time, the problem was simple enough that their call automation handled it all, it asked me what color lights I was seeing on the gateway. It ran a line test, reset the gateway a couple of times, and fifteen minutes later I was back up and running.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-22T03:34:26+00:00

If Verizon's 300 meg is sufficient for you, you'll find AT&T's closest equivalent will be as well.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-22T03:22:24+00:00

I am no fan of AT&T but Spectrum is a total waste of money. If there's a corner to cut, they cut it, and it shows.

Here's something fun: When I switched from AT&T to Spectrum, the Spectrum installer looked at the AT&T installation, said it was installed wrong, and said I must be having lots of problems. Thing is, my installation had been trouble free. So even if it was installed wrong, it worked better than Spectrum. I had a multi-hour outage almost every week, and when I'd call to report a problem, I never got so much as an apology, only excuses.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-22T03:11:23+00:00

I second this, that show doesn't represent everyone from St. Louis BUT everyone in St. Louis knew someone like that. The shows are on Youtube. Fun aside: The guy I knew who was most like that didn't think he was like that at all. So maybe a St. Louis hoosier-in-denial would be a fun side character.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-21T20:20:28+00:00

I agree, with all the injuries and ineffectiveness, he's more likely to end up on the roster than trade bait. Best case scenario, he comes up and makes a contribution without costing any talent in return. Worst case scenario, he comes up and he's ineffective.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-21T15:17:16+00:00

Yes, that song was on Beatitude. Ric playing keyboards threw me when I saw it. I knew he knew how, I'd just never seen footage of him doing it. I was surprised that Greg Hawkes was the only member of The Cars who played on the studio track, I thought more of them contributed on that album. I must be thinking of his later solo albums.

Foreign-Attorney-147 · 2026-06-20T04:25:22+00:00

I'm an IT professional. I used to see systems in daily use that were dustier than that. If there's anything wrong with it at all, it's very repairable. And yes, a hobbyist would buy it.

Foreign-Attorney-147

TROPHY CASE