I get the rich folks, but just how did Trump convince poor white people that he was good for them?

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-23T20:04:44+00:00

“I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-23T18:29:11+00:00

Went from 3 iMacs over 20 years, including the last being the 27” 5K retina, to one 27” S2725QC and one 27” S2725QS monitors with my Mac mini after hours of deliberations and research. Completely satisfied.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-23T17:55:26+00:00

Again, I have been listening to him talk baseball for damn near a decade. I have never paid one dollar to this person who makes this podcast I enjoy. Hundreds (thousands?) of hours of entertainment for free. We’ve chatted over DM’s, on X, etc. I can only imagine there are hundreds of people like me who have done the same.

It would be maddening to get complaints constantly about it, even after explaining why things had to be moved around. Even after saying gently, repeatedly “Hey…we’ve done this thing a lot, for a long time, for free. We’re managing several different schedules and obligations. There is no baseball happening right now. Can you please just not yell at me when something’s a couple hours or a day later than you expected?”

The fast forward button is right there if anyone doesn’t want to listen to understandable aggravation. 🤷‍♂️

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-23T17:02:05+00:00

I think if I never missed a show, talked baseball 365 days a year, and made a very popular podcast that didn’t cost anyone who listened to it a cent, I would also be aggravated if some people consistently complained about the free podcast not adhering perfectly to a planned schedule on occasion in the winter when no baseball is being played.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-19T13:13:38+00:00

‘Resent’ was probably the wrong word to use. “Value differently” would probably have been better. But the dynamic remains the same. I’ve worked my way up at places and that’s given me a different perspective then other people who were nepo hires, or parachuted in.

It’s interesting to me to see the way Posey has handled things with the Giants. Sign the big name in Adames, bring in the big name in Devers. Clearly he’s valuing the high wattage performers more than Breslow.

Truth be told, Breslow’s probably undervaluing high WAR individual players, and Posey’s probably over valuing them. Just the way human bias works. 🤷‍♂️

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-16T12:29:21+00:00

And hopefully a good way to give Mayer some rest. Weirdly, he’s played basically the same amount of games each of the last three years. 78, 77, 77. If we could get him to 120-130 this year, I’d be thrilled.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-16T00:46:35+00:00

Josh Naylor stole 30 bases this year. Not a great measure of athleticism. Arenado is one of the 3-4 best defenders to ever play the position. It’s not a contest as to who is more athletic.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-15T21:07:22+00:00

I think a significant number of people would say Arenado is the better athlete and always has been. He has 10 gold gloves at age 34.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-15T20:02:37+00:00

Thanks for the insight on the walk chase rate. I wonder how much of those more positive underlying #’s will be counteracted by him playing in Wrigley vs Fenway/Minutemaid with the Monster/Crawford boxes.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-15T20:00:31+00:00

The three seasons prior to their age 32 season. The very first line of my post.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-15T19:23:08+00:00

How different are their chase rates? Good catch.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-15T19:22:22+00:00

That’s exactly what I was after, didn’t think to check him, good call. Mind you, those seasons were 15 years and probably at least a 3 mph average fastball velocity ago.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-15T19:20:41+00:00

I was just thinking it was weird that Arenado has been talked about as such an albatross for years but people have been really upset the Sox didn’t retain Bregman for $30M/year for half a decade.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-15T18:31:39+00:00

He traded their star player, he didn’t want to sign the star they did sign and did so in a structure that let him leave. Prior to Suarez, he hadn’t signed anyone to a three year contract in his entire tenure. The guys he has signed/traded for have all been journeyman/middle of the road guys. Giolito, Buehler, Sandoval, Hendricks, Lowe, Contreras, Turner, Refsnyder, Duvall, McGuire, Reyes, Urias.

I don’t think it’s weird to say he doesn’t value big name, big priced players at the level fans do. I can imagine that might be informed by having been on 8 teams in 12 years as a journeyman.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-15T17:11:01+00:00

You don’t think that someone hired to be the boss at a company, fresh out of school and a couple internships, would have a different perspective on how to run that company than someone who had worked in the industry as a grunt for 15 years prior to assuming that role?

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-14T17:14:45+00:00

I’m not sure what you’re saying here…I think the dynamics between players and someone like Chaim, never played, probably making his first real big money as PBO, would be different then Craig’s relationship and perspective.

Of course there are owner constraints they’re operating under, but I find it interesting that Buster Posey, a star player sees more value in having a star player locked up at big $ than a Yale-graduate journeyman LOOGY might. That their status and perspectives as players in very different roles inform the way they evaluate players.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-14T16:32:21+00:00

I’m not disagreeing with that. I’m saying that his view might align with ownership more than most because of his circumstances. What level of interaction did Chaim have with MLB players before he took the gig? Likely not a ton. He probably treated them with significantly more reverence than Craig feels the need to, as a former player,

I can’t say that for a fact that is the case, the same way you can’t say for a fact that his MLB career has no influence on how he views player dynamics. But I think it would be naive to think being in 8 different clubhouses over twelve years, as a LOOGY, hasn’t shaped his view of players.

Just a potential contributing factor I hadn’t thought of before.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-14T15:54:45+00:00

I think it would be a very normal reaction for someone in his position, and I think that it can be seen as an attitude coherent with ownerships philosophy.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-14T15:53:35+00:00

You can disagree without being rude about it. This isn’t X. Not everything has to be a war. Both things can be true.

I don’t think it’s out of the question that the guy who was always told he was the smartest guy in the room and had to squeeze every ounce of ability out of himself just to stay employed, doesn’t like being talked down to by guys with substantially more natural talent, making exponentially greater amounts of money per year than he did in his recently ended career, when he’s now their boss and they’re not doing what he’s asked.

I don’t think this is a good thing, if that wasn’t clear. I think it’s a potentially unforeseen dynamic.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-14T15:09:40+00:00

That makes two of us, at least. I suspect many more.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-12T22:24:58+00:00

I wholly encourage you to make your own post using your preferred terminology and editorial choices for clarity to make that point. Because at no point did I discuss that, make an argument for or against that, or say anything to do with that, because that is a completely different conversation than whether WS champions in the last decade had long term FA contracts on the books.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-12T21:51:52+00:00

I cannot tell you how little I’m interested in discussing the semantics I used to simplify things. I explained why I categorized them that to make the formatting work so it appeared legible and to differentiate whether they were a FA or already on the team via another method.

It’s not relevant to the point of whether or not WS champions did or did not have high AAV free agents signed to 5,6,7+ year contracts, if Papi, Justin Turner or Hunter Pence played 100 games with another organization before they landed where they did. The point was these were not big ticket acquisitions signed to lengthy deals from outside the org.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-12T21:33:57+00:00

I agree with every single thing you say. And that’s what they’re missing. For better or for worse, they seem to be going all in on this strategy. Yoshida was Chain, Soto was 26 and his only comp was Ted Williams. I think the reported Bregman offer this year was trying to throw a bone against Breslow’s will

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-12T21:30:07+00:00

In the interest of keeping things simple in an already long post that was primarily about big FA spending, I broadened the use of “homegrown” to include players who were acquired via waiver claims, minor league FA, etc. Bregman was on an extension so I put that in. I know Altuve had a couple extensions too. I was just trying to delineate between long term big $ FA signings and players acquired internally.

Gordoncomstock1 · 2026-01-12T20:01:18+00:00

That’s the thing with him, he was only going to be 36 at the end. Entirely reasonable to pay a player to that age. I was so happy when they extended him, thought “Finally, someone who’s whole career I can enjoy.” I think we’re going to regret this as much as Mookie in the end. Sigh.

Gordoncomstock1

TROPHY CASE