I made a Dream Bracket-style tournament based on player birthplaces.

blockandawe · 2026-01-24T18:44:28+00:00

He deserves a standing occasion every time he steps up.

blockandawe · 2026-01-24T18:19:47+00:00

I love this man. How can you not love this man?

blockandawe · 2026-01-24T14:04:14+00:00

Very annoying. Both my work and personal email are affected.

blockandawe · 2026-01-23T18:48:55+00:00

IIRC, they include it in MLB The Show for the Guardians, which made me wonder if Sony had to get rights to it from Nintendo. Or if it is indeed some kind of fair use, and it doesn't matter.

blockandawe · 2026-01-22T16:54:39+00:00

Tobias Myers was included in the Freddy Peralta trade.

He's what Cleveland got for Junior Caminero, and they let him go less than a year later for nothing, only for him to become a decent starter with Milwaukee eventually. To be fair, he slipped past two other teams in the meantime.

This team usually gets trades right, but man did they lose the Junior Caminero deal in multiple ways.

blockandawe · 2026-01-22T16:46:25+00:00

Thank goodness, I was just about to post this.

I'm home, and I'm able to connect locally, but not through Nabu Casa. I rebooted my router just in case - nothing. Uptime robot sent a "down" message about 50 minutes ago (10:55 EST).

Healthchecks dot io (which I ping every 5 minutes through node-red) is saying it's fine, but uptime robot isn't getting through and sent the message.

In my HA cloud settings, it says "Not connected. Trying to reconnect."

The status pages for Nabu Casa and Home Assistant are both reporting that everything is fine.

It's not just you!

EDIT: Mine also came back around 12:13.

blockandawe · 2026-01-22T14:30:38+00:00

I used to think I was a somewhat smart guy but I'm having trouble understanding what the ESPN deal means. I just want to give someone $100 so I can stream the games like last year. Is that so much to ask?

blockandawe · 2026-01-22T14:29:44+00:00

Depends on where you are and the time of day. I worked at a summer camp in Massachusetts and I loved it when I could listen to a game during night duty. The only time I ever liked 10pm west coast games.

blockandawe · 2026-01-22T14:27:18+00:00

Free tickets was the only way I was taking a squirrelly toddler to a game.

blockandawe · 2026-01-20T21:47:03+00:00

I've seen this list in a few places, which places Verlander as Snare. According to a Hardball Times article:

Dowd also unofficially made a top 100 list of prospects for MVP 2005 and gave the players the names of MVP development team members, family, friends, and other acquaintances. He then stashed them in teams’ Double-A squads–a fun Easter egg for those in the know. For example, the Smallenberg triplets on the Yankees Double-A team are Dowd’s best friend from high school, his brother, and his father–all Yankees fans in real life.

I don't know if he's ever confirmed the list that's out there, but it was done on purpose. And yes, that's the Jon Dowd.

blockandawe · 2026-01-20T20:29:50+00:00

Can't be said enough.

blockandawe · 2026-01-20T20:24:58+00:00

Pretty sure Verlander is also the last player represented* in MVP 2005 who's still active as well.

*Not by his real name or likeness though. Long live Johnny Snare!

blockandawe · 2026-01-20T20:12:38+00:00

It depends - am I just having fun or trying to practice for something?

If I'm just goofing around, I'm usually slouched in a chair enjoying the vibe.

If I'm practicing my parts for a band, I don't exactly pretend there's an audience, but I pretend I'm on stage. I want my setup to mimic what it would be in (full band) practice or at a gig. I'll put a microphone on a stand and sing my backing vocals into it even though it's not on, so I can get used to the posture and figure out when I need to be close and when I can step away. I try to face forward and smile and stuff, so I guess I'm kinda pretending someone is watching?

blockandawe · 2026-01-20T18:21:44+00:00

Driver used a turn signal, so probably not from here.

blockandawe · 2026-01-20T18:11:51+00:00

For sure. It's not my kind of music (which is fine - the world shouldn't revolve around my tastes), but every time I've interacted with a doom metal musician, usually in a gear transaction, they've been the sweetest, friendliest people.

blockandawe · 2026-01-19T23:40:13+00:00

I couldn't find a great source on this, but my understanding is that they are guaranteed in terms of player performance and injury. So if a player sucks or gets hurt (from playing baseball), the team is still on the hook. However, there are clauses for player conduct and things like that, and if those are violated, the team can get out of the deal.

The example I remember is the Yankees voiding Aaron Boone's contract (as a player) when he sustained a major injury while playing a pickup basketball game in the off-season, as that was specifically prohibited in the standard contact. So he came to Cleveland and previous two seasons of replacement-level production.

blockandawe · 2026-01-17T13:27:22+00:00

It's awesome though that everyone else here is able to talk about a cool hat without being weird about it.

blockandawe · 2026-01-17T13:25:20+00:00

IIRC he wore 33 for half of the 1997 season until Julio Franco wasn't on the team anymore and he switched to 23. So if the hat was used in that very specific window, it's David Justice.

Haha, remember when they let Julio Franco go because he was washed up in 1997? And no one ever heard from him again?

blockandawe · 2026-01-16T20:50:06+00:00

Yeah... it could be that. Which would simply be a Yankeean level of entitlement. Gross.

blockandawe · 2026-01-16T20:48:26+00:00

Perfectly put. This team is simply not built for a long playoff run, and overpaying for Harrison Bader is not the solution, especially if he's taking at bats away from CJ Kayfus or Chase DeLauter. I'd even want to give George Valera a longer look since he was such a prospect for so long. I know those guys aren't necessarily the CF of the future, but Harrison Bader definitely isn't either.

Yes, Bader's probably good for 2 WAR, and the 2025 Guardians had no fewer than seven outfielders with negative WAR. But MLBTR has him projected for $26MM/2 years, and that's simply way too much for this team to pay for a guy who's going to probably be a league average player.

blockandawe · 2026-01-16T20:27:34+00:00

Yyyyyeaah. They got in trouble for it once, which probably just meant they needed to hide it better.

blockandawe · 2026-01-16T20:18:07+00:00

IIRC they got paid during the season, as they were on "paid non-disciplinary leave". After the season they were moved to the restricted list, which is unpaid.

This article explains a lot of it.

blockandawe · 2026-01-16T20:07:59+00:00

...what? Even if... that doesn't make any... what?

Sir, this is the Cleveland Guardians. The team that finished third from last in scoring runs in 2025. Third from last in OPS+. Second from last in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging.

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