keith

→ May 2, 2024
→ By keith
→ 3 Comments

Klawchat 5/2/24.

Keith Law: Really don’t mind if you sit this one out. Klawchat.

Brett: Is Ralphy Velasquez a guy, or could be a GUY?
Keith Law: The bat looks like a GUY, but he’s only playing first base now and that raises the bar significantly (versus catching).

Matt: How excited should I be about Wichrowski?
Keith Law: Great arm, up to 96-97 with a really sharp slider (maybe a sweeper, I hate that term), no pitch for lefties – it’s FB, SL, cutter, and the cutter isn’t great – so right now it’s a relief profile. Arm action seems fine to start; maybe he can learn a splitter or split-change to give him that extra pitch he needs for LHB?

Josh: Is Matt Wilkinson an actual prospect or just old for his level?
Keith Law: He’s definitely old for his level, and his season line is a bit skewed by one incredible start (6 IP, 15 K!). I’d rather say we just don’t know, and that he should at least be in high A now, given the results. LHB are striking out half the time they face him, which is a pretty good starting point.

Zirinsky: Hey there Keith. Thanks for doing these chats. I’m curious: how would you handle what’s going on on various college campuses (protests, etc.) if you were an administrator at one of them where there was a lot of activity?
Keith Law: I can tell you what I wouldn’t do: send in large groups of heavily armed police and hope I didn’t just create another Kent State. It’d be nice if they learned a single lesson from past protests. There’s also a great piece in the Atlantic today about how some of these same schools have touted their ‘activist’ credentials and talked up freedom of expression … and now they’re zip-tying professors and expelling students.

Dallas: Hi Keith- hope you are having a great day and I throughly enjoy your work. My question is regarding the development of the Pirates position players. We are in year 5 of the Cherington Era and several bats (Suwinski, Davis, Cruz, etc) are struggling mightily. Is there hope these guys can turn it around, or is the outlook as bleak as it appears?
Keith Law: Suwinski was never a ‘guy’ like the other two as a prospect; last year looked like a pretty big fluke. The others were very highly-rated prospects, for totally different reasons, but I think it’s fair to ask the question – and note that some of this goes back to the previous regime, as well. They really haven’t developed a hitter into an offensive star since Reynolds, who they got in a trade when he was 22 and already reasonably developed. Davis fits their mold of guys who can hit the ball hard, but don’t do it often enough. Cruz is unique among their guys in that it’s about approach and his unusual size, rather than too much weak contact.

Justin: Is there anything in Cade Povich’s arsenal thats actually improved from last year, or is this just a small sample stellar chunk where his true talent hasn’t really improved?
Keith Law: He’s working a lot more with a cutter now, and that probably explains a lot of the improvement, along with some good luck on BIP.

Justin: Over or under 60 wins for Oakland?
Keith Law: Over.

SamG: Cam Collier appears to have a nice start to the season. Obviously small sample size. Do you expect he plays the entire season in Dayton, or do you expect a promotion to AA if he continues to play well?
Keith Law: He’s 19; I hope they leave him in Dayton all year, or close to it. He’s performing very well overall, but obviously there’s some aggressiveness there early in counts that pitchers will exploit at some point.

J: Was Theo Gillen close to making your Draft top 50?
Keith Law: No, but he should have been, and he’ll be on the update in the top 30 or so.

Dana: Austin Wells isn’t terrible behind the plate! Not a Gold Glover, but somewhere between below average and average. Are you willing to issue a formal mea culpa on that one?
Keith Law: He is way worse than you are saying. Already a ton of balls getting past him. Also hard eye roll at “formal mea culpa.” The fuck does that even mean?

Matt K: Thank you for chatting, Keith. As a Brewer fan, very excited for the kids they already have up in the majors, and the ones to come. Do you think Sal Frelick will be able to start elevating more to get his ISO into a more helpful area – sorta what Tyler Black has seemed to?
Keith Law: Don’t think Frelick’s ever going to be a high ISO guy – could be a high average, high doubles type.

Matt: Should Drew Thorpe get called up to the majors soon, or is keeping him as far away as possible from Chicago best for his development (and general wellbeing)?
Woody: Are CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore making the leap this year? And where do you think Abrams’s long-term defensive home is? Second base?
Keith Law: Thorpe: No idea why he’s in AA. I would get him to AAA and see what happens there with his below-average FB. He’s not missing a ton of bats in AA right now, but he’s too good of a pitcher (in terms of feel, mixing pitches, command) for that level. I wouldn’t call him up tot he majors now or soon.
Keith Law: Abrams: He was on my breakouts list, so of course I hope this is real. I thought we’d see more hard contact, and we are, even though his top-end contact quality hasn’t changed.

Gore: I want to believe, and there are some things here I think are sustainable, like the improved strike-throwing, and at least some of the reduction in hard contact allowed. He’s such a good athlete that I figured at some point he’d get that delivery consistent enough to be a low walk guy.

Justin: Do we have any idea what’s up with River Ryan? Any chance this injury results in him having high quality bullets left in September for the big league club?
Keith Law: He was supposed to be out 4-6 weeks, I think. I am assuming we’ll see him rehabbing very soon, based on that timetable. I would not anticipate him pitching in the majors this year.

Guest: Alex Bohm has been hitting really well but his defense has surprised me. I am not saying he’s even average but his turnaround from where he was at his lowest has been a surprise to even get to the point where he is at now. What do you make of his defense?
Keith Law: I think he’s at least a 50 (average) defender now. He started to show a lot of this last year, and so far this year he’s been that guy more consistently.

Braydon: Brody Brecht has been much better his last two starts. Can his final few starts of the year improve his draft stock significantly?
Keith Law: I don’t think “significantly,” but maybe slightly. He’s probably the fourth college starter taken after Burns, Smith, Yesavage. Word is the Angels would just take Yesavage and rush him to the big leagues. If that’s true those three arms all go in the top ten, and then we may not see another pitcher taken until the back half of the round.

JT: How does Kurtz compare to recent bat first 1B draftees such as Vaughn and Torkelson?
Keith Law: He reminds me a lot of Vaughn, but he’s a LHB, and I think he has better bat speed right now than Vaughn did. Still a worrisome profile. Was very glad to see Kurtz come back from the injury and get way more aggressive – when I saw him this year and even last year I worried he was taking to take, happy to walk, rather than looking to do damage in advantageous counts.
Keith Law: Torkelson was a different profile – nowhere near as disciplined as the other two, more raw power, decent argument he was power over hit. I ranked him highly, so I don’t want to make it sound like I didn’t like him or think he was a good pick, but I didn’t think he was a great athlete and thought he was a guy who’d have to hit from day one because he may not make adjustments that easily.
Keith Law: Vaughn, BTW, may be one of the biggest busts in the last 20 years. That guy dominated in the Pac-12 for three years – the Pac-12 used to be a major college conference, kids – and there was nothing about the swing to make you doubt he’d at least hit for average with high OBPs. The White Sox definitely rushed him, but at some point he needs to make an adjustment, too.

Jibraun: I know it’s only been a month, but is it too early to think Goldschmidt is in age-related decline? He looks like he has lost bat speed, and he is compensating by cheating fastball and guessing.
Keith Law: I think that’s exactly what’s happening. He does seem to have lost bat speed. Father Time is undefeated.

Jordan Walker: What is going on? Why can’tI hit in the majors? A piece in the Athletic thinks hitting too low in the lineup is partially to blame. That can’t be true?
Keith Law: I don’t agree with that premise, and I think “can’t hit” is too strong. He hits the ball extremely hard, and he makes plenty of contact on pitches in the zone. I think there are some minor swing decision issues, and he hit the ball on the ground too often in the majors this year, but man, give the guy more than a month. It feels like they’re scrambling.

Aaron C.: It’s been 30 days. Small sample size caveats duly noted. Have you heard any indication that Jacob Wilson has been eating his Wheaties or hitting the weight room or otherwise gotten stronger? Am I trying to read too much into his hot start at Midland? WHO CAN SAY
Keith Law: Haha. I will say he’s doing all the damage at Midland, a crazy hitter’s park.

Jake: Surprised by the amazing start by Imonaga?
Keith Law: No. He’s a good pitcher doing really well in a small sample. I would be surprised if he did this all year, yes.

Jake: Any thoughts on Sasaki as a prospect or is it too soon?
Keith Law: No idea. He’s too far off the radar for me to worry about.

Louise: I re-read your piece on the Cubs signing Imanaga. Would you say you are feeling better about this concern?

“My main concern is that he cuts himself off in his landing and spins off his front heel, giving right-handed hitters too good of a look at the ball, which is how they tagged him for 13 of the 17 homers he allowed last season in NPB. Getting him even slightly more online plus using the splitter more to right-handers could be a remedy if that turns out to be an issue for him against MLB hitters.”
https://theathletic.com/5191790/2024/01/10/shota-imanaga-chicago-cubs-…
Keith Law: No, because we’re still looking at a tiny sample, and if you think he’s going to maintain a sub-5% HR/flyball rate or a 90% strand rate, well, good luck. He’s a solid major-league starter. When the weather warms up, will all those flyballs stay in the park?

Aaron C.: There’s a popular prompt that asks which pro athlete would you wish had a 100% healthy career. The best answer is usually Bo Jackson, of course. Since you’ve started scouting who is the guy(s) you most wish had been blessed with better health?
Keith Law: How about Byron Buxton?

Aaron C.: Whatcha got in the current weeknight dinner rotation? Looking to appease my beloved, but often ungrateful family.
Keith Law: Spring means more salads, for sure. My wife and I split cooking duties, so I cook about half of the nights, and I try to do at least one pasta dish a week. Sometimes it’s pasta alla vodka, sometimes pasta with fresh pesto (it’s warm enough now for the basil plants to survive outdoors), sometimes a pasta dish I made up with sun-dried tomatoes, white beans, and parmiggiano broth.
Keith Law: oh and pizza – once my travel dies down in 2-3 weeks I’ll get the Ooni rocking again.

mike: Do the BlueJays move on from Bo and Vladdy?? Right now their value is very low but Something sure isn’t working with both guys – and they have looked ordinary for quite some time.
Keith Law: I wouldn’t sell low, if that’s your question.

Ian: What are your thoughts on Marcelo Mayer’s start to the season? It looks like he is healthy and mashing. It felt like a bit of his shine wore off last year with the injuries.
Keith Law: I agree with your last two sentences. I think there was an overreaction to him not performing when he wasn’t 100% healthy. That said, in a limited sample, he’s doing all of his damage off fastballs, and he’s struggling against breaking stuff, especially sliders. Worth monitoring, although I am not backing off my top-10 overall ranking for him.

The Master Without Margarita: Roddery Munoz is obviously not this good, but can he be actually decent?
Keith Law: He walked a man an inning in AAA before they called him up. He walked 15% of guys last year across the Nats’ system. I do not believe he has suddenly found the strike zone on the bus from Jacksonville to Miami.

Tim: Tyler Freeman looks good under the hood – strong plate skills, good contact rates, consistently hitting the ball hard – but the results are dreadful to this point. Do you think the results eventually catch up to the process?
Keith Law: Until this year it’s been all groundballs – I mean, you can see a parallel to Walker, until you look at the two players’ bodies. If Freeman is actually lifting the ball more, he can probably end up an average regular somewhere. I have my doubts that this is really him.

Tim: Is Zac Veen back? Still a chance of an above-average regular here?
Keith Law: This is now his third partial year in AA. I wouldn’t get overly excited about a hot four weeks in a level where he played in 2023 and 2022.

Oscar W: Yoelqui “would be ranked lower as ‘bagodonuts” Céspedes is now playing independent baseball in Fargo ND. Surprised he’s out of affiliate baseball so quick? A lot of Cuban prospects are older but why such a high bust rate (Tomas, Rusney, Yoan L, etc). Even the successes are not as bright Yoenis/Moncada.
Keith Law: I give the White Sox a ton of credit for just moving on. He wasn’t happening, ever, so why waste the time and roster spot on him?

Sean: Have heard some buzz on low-A arms Santiago Suarez and Charlee Soto as early season breakouts. Do you see both as long-term starters? Either with mid or top of rotation potential?
Keith Law: Both have TOR potential, with low probability. Suarez > Soto, I think.

harry coffeeboat: keith – huge fan! what do you know about that palmquist guy from colorado? is it possible he finally becomes a legit rockies starter?
Keith Law: I think that’s a no-doubt reliever with his arm slot.

Mart: How was your trip to Pittsburgh to see WVU dominate the panthers
Keith Law: Great! Caught up with three of my old classmates from Tepper, and we got an absolutely perfect day for baseball. Plus I had a great lunch at Areppita’s downtown – I stayed right near there so I walked everywhere, including to/from PNC.

Guest: Thoughts on loperfido as a prospect?
Keith Law: Right here: https://theathletic.com/5263881/2024/02/14/astros-2024-top-prospects-k…

Guest: Do you consider cam fisher a legit prospect?
Keith Law: He’s 23 and striking out over a third of the time in the hitter’s paradise of Asheville. It’s power without hit.

Andy: How do you feel about Iowa’s strategy on high school baseball, with it not starting until May. It means you’re more likely to get more of the season in, but does it hurt when it comes to recruiting/scouting?
Keith Law: The real prospects end up playing for local travel teams or in the league Perfect Game runs out there, so they get seen anyway. I have mixed feelings; if the real purpose is to benefit the players, then starting later is clearly better, because you can’t bank on decent weather there until about now and you don’t want kids playing in cold and/or damp conditions.

Sedona: Have you watched Ranger Suarez’s starts this year? Do you think he’s turned the corner and perhaps the best 3 in the game or better?
Keith Law: He’s a 2 on just about any team.

CW Tampa Tarpons: Have you had a chance to watch Leo De Vries, and if so, what’s your first impression?
Keith Law: Got a look at him in spring training: https://theathletic.com/5352531/2024/03/19/scouting-mlb-breakout-games…

Sedona: We’re always looking for the next breakout Ace from the DSL in the Fantasy Dynasty Community. Who do you think has a chance to be the next Eury? Have you heard anything about Jeter Martinez?
Keith Law: I saw him in the spring … great arm, chance for a starter, didn’t love the delivery.

CW Tampa Tarpons: Any chance Justin Crawford makes it to the bigs this year, or is 2025 and beyond more realistic?
Keith Law: Zero chance. He’s in high A and is only 20.

Xander: You were the high man on Wilyer Abreu and that’s looking quite savvy at the moment – what kind of player does he settle in as? His continued BB% and K% improvement is really encouraging, is this a 4-5 WAR guy or more like 3 WAR?
Keith Law: I’d take the 4+ WAR.

PJ: Is Hayden Wesneski’s future as a 2-3 inning guy (like a Scot Shields type) or can he be a long-term starter.
Keith Law: I think he’s more of a bulk guy, but can make some spot starts.

andy: gimme a mlb floor and ceiling comp for charlie condon
Keith Law: I don’t really do player comps unless they are blindingly obvious to me. He’s got a chance to be a superstar – it’s 30 homer power with hard, hard contact and a strong eye. Probably ends up in RF.

Tripp: Possibly odd question about Caminero. Love the opposite field power, but he hits a lot of balls to right. Is him being routinely late a potential cause of concern? Could big time velocity be an issue for him?
Keith Law: Not that I’ve seen or heard.

Sedona: We see an uptick in young pitchers learning the splitter. Tanner Houck looks like an ace so far. Is this real?
Keith Law: I think so. I was always down on him as a starter because he had no weapon for LHB, and the lower arm slot gave those guys too much of a look at the ball. The splitter directly addresses that issue. I’ve been a splitter advocate forever, since I was with Toronto – I know of no actual evidence it increases injury risk, and if a guy can throw it, it’s a great alternative to a changeup (and straight changeups are losing popularity).

Justin Y: Will Warren looks like he can pitch, do you have the same concerns you had prior to this season?
Keith Law: I don’t know what you mean when you say he “looks like he can pitch.” Are you saying he has good control? He does. Command? Less so, but sure. My main concern on him going back to forever is that left-handed batters whack him around, and they’re doing so again (.500 SLG).

Bobby: Any of the international free agents looking better or worse to you than expected?
Keith Law: Most of them haven’t even played yet.

Josh: Any new thoughts on Andy Pages? He’s been solid in the bigs so far. Know you liked him in the past and was worried about the injury last year. Just wondering if there’s anything in his MLB performance that has you excited.
Keith Law: I overreacted to the shoulder injury. That’s my mistake. I’m buying, fully. Above-average regular.

Kevin W: Do you feel any different physically at 50 than 40?
Keith Law: Yes. Certainly slower to bounce back from exercise. I’ve got some compression in a disc in my lower back that’s probably age-related, but it’s become a chronic thing. And I need glasses more and more.

Brett: Which Dodgers OF are you higher on as of now, Josue De Paula or Zyhir Hope?
Keith Law: De Paula, same as in February.

Kevin W: How is the college application process going with your daughter?
Keith Law: She picked a school a few weeks ago, so it’s all done, and I think she’s more relieved than anything else. The New York Times has a great story from yesterday on what a shitshow it’s been this year.

Mike Trout: I’m seeing (bad faith) comparisons drawn between things like the college protests and the insurrection or Noem’s puppy killing and the treatment of the Biden dogs. How do we convince people that these things are not at all the same?
Keith Law: I am not sanguine about convincing people who are already convinced. I agree those are bad-faith comparisons, but people offering them aren’t coming from a place of critical thinking.

Adam D.: With Reggie Crawford at Double-A, am I crazy to think he could be a bullpen option for the Giants this summer?
Keith Law: They sure as hell seem to want him that way. At this rate he won’t be built up to start until 2029.

A Salty Scientist: In recent years lots of prospects have really struggled with the MLB transition. One hypothesis I’ve seen is that the reduction of minor league teams has bled out some of the veteran AAAA types that increase the challenge for top prospects. Not sure that I buy that, but curious if you have any thoughts.
Keith Law: I agree, and I’ve been saying so (based on feedback from scouts) since 2021. Mike Elias made very similar, pointed comments on it last week when they sent Holliday down. I also think that the rise of pitching labs & pitch design has made major-league pitching stronger than ever – and if you can make those adjustments, you don’t stay in the minors long, so the caliber of pitching down there hasn’t advanced as quickly.

Jimmy: Is ’Change Shapes’ more the in wheelhouse for Lauren Mayberry’s solo stuff?
Keith Law: I like it more than the first two singles.

A Salty Scientist: A formal mea culpa has to come from the Vatican, otherwise it’s just a sparkling apology. (not sorry)
Keith Law: I’ll allow it.

Rob: Christopher Morel is (unfortunately) floundering at 3B this season, both at the plate and in the field. If you were Jed, when would Matt Shaw start his decade long dominance at 3B for the Cubs?
Keith Law: I’m a Shaw believer but he has cooled off the last two weeks and I wouldn’t rush him to fill a need.
Keith Law: Meaning you don’t call a guy up from AA when he’s not hitting that well overall.

Frank: Why isnt Skenes in the majors? This seems like pure service time manipulation at this point.
Keith Law: It’s not service-time manipulation; that date already passed. That’s not a fair criticism. I think Skenes belongs in the majors, but I don’t think there’s a nefarious reason why he’s not.

John: Is Konnor Griffin to the Nats possible (I know it is early). Does he fit what Ciolek and Haas like? I hope they can get him to 10 similar to House in 2021. Thank you.
Keith Law: I’d be surprised. I don’t think that’s their type of player.

Tim: What’s up with Corbin? Sophomore slump or something more?
Keith Law: Last I looked he wasn’t making anywhere near as much hard contact as last year. Could be a fluke, could be he’s fighting some small injury we don’t know about.

Steve: I name you President of a small market team tomorrow (in a city with great food, just so we can keep you). What are the 3 things you are going to push the owner to spend on that will give him the most return on his spendings?
Keith Law: People. A full scouting staff, amateur and pro. Plenty of coaches and instructors in player development. The same for R&D, even though those employees are the most expensive. I do not believe you can McKinsey your way to a championship.

Steve: Question on Nolan McLean. As much as it’s 70 power, it looks like it’s a 30 hit tool. Do you think letting him continue to hit hurts his potential development on the mound, or do you keep letting him go until he fails enough to come to that conclusion on his own?
Keith Law: I don’t think it’s hurting him to hit a little because I think he’s going to end up in the bullpen anyway.

Steve: Hi Keith – process question for you. Given SSS, how do you go about updating your thoughts on prospects who start off hot or cold? If you see crazy stats (either way) for someone, do you call the team and ask, try to get in and see them, or just ignore until June/July?
Keith Law: There’s a reason I haven’t done that yet. I’ll probably update the pro list later in May or early in June, depending on travel. But right now it would be overreaction theatre, or it would just be me repeating stuff I said in February.

Tracy: I just finished reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. While it was certainly imaginative and well thought out, I found it long and plodding; it did not grab my attention and I had a hard time finishing it. Just my opinion. Anyway, I’ve always wanted to ask: is there an author whose prose style you enjoy so much that it doesn’t matter what the story is?
Keith Law: Ann Patchett.

CK: Do you find writing to be therapeutic, or not really because it is your job?
Keith Law: I love writing. Doesn’t matter what it’s about. And the more I write the better I tend to feel.

Chris P: I see JJ Wetherholt is back to hitting very well, but has he still been off the diamond or are they getting him reps at short?
Keith Law: I saw him stand at short on Tuesday at PNC Park. He should only be DHing. He hit pretty well for a guy with one leg, though.
Keith Law: That’s all for this week – thank you all for your questions and your readership. I’ll do another one at least when I update my draft rankings in a couple of weeks. Stay safe.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: klawchat

→ April 30, 2024
→ By keith
→ 1 Comment

Music update, April 2024.

Whew; April was loaded, and took me more time than usual because I had to sort through so many songs I’d saved and listened to a bunch of albums from April and from my March backlog. I also have had the Libertines’ All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade on repeat for much of the month. Anyway, here’s my April playlist, and you can access the Spotify list here if you can’t see the widget below.

The Mysterines – Sink Ya Teeth. I’ve been a Mysterines fan since some of their earliest singles, including “Gasoline,” “Bet Your Pretty Face,” and “I Win Every Time,” but their debut album, Reeling, left me a little disappointed, as they eschewed some of their uptempo hard-rock sound for slower, broodier material. This is their best song since 2021, at the very least, ahead of that debut album and their other singles “Stray” and “Begin Again.” Their second album, Afraid of Tomorrows, comes out on June 7^th.

Geese – The Bonecracker Acetates. What a great opening guitar riff from one of my favorite bands going. These NYC experimental rockers love to play with genres and forms, and they aren’t afraid to stretch a song out to play with its structure, but this time around they play it straight, maintaining the blues-rock vibe throughout its nearly 5-minute run time.

Fontaines D.C. – Starburster. I became a much bigger Fontaines D.C. after seeing them open up for the Arctic Monkeys in September; they’re incredible live, and despite being just as loud as you’d expect, the music came across as more textured and melodic, while lead singer Grian Chatten had great presence. This song is pretty accessible as their stuff goes, although I’m not sure if we needed to hear Chatten inhaling like some sort of inverted death-metal growl, though.

RINSE & Hatchie – Kiss Me (Kill Me). RINSE is Joe Agius, and he’s also Hatchie’s husband; they’ve collaborated before on “Back Into Your Arms.” This song has some of the dream-pop stylings of Hatchie’s solo work, but there’s more shoegazey guitars in the background here, and I think it complements Hatchie’s voice – which I’ve always thought was a bit thin to be mixed in the front of her songs – extremely well. I assume the B-side is called “Hold Me (Thrill Me).”

GIFT – Wish Me Away. I loved “Gumball Garden” from this NYC-based psychedelic-rock band in 2022, and they’ve returned now with what appears to be their first new song since that last album Momentary Presence.

Swim Deep – First Song. I don’t think I’d heard anything from Swim Deep before, but the shoegaze revival brought them to my ears and is probably a good thing for their pockets – this is straight-up shoegaze right out of my college years.

Pond – (I’m) Stung. So many bands draw from rock of the 1970s, particularly the psychedelic rock of the early part of that decade, but Pond manages to sound like they’re in the 1970s and just dropped by our era via the Tardis.

Mdou Moctar – Imouhar. Funeral for Justice will be out on Friday, May 3^rd, his long-awaited follow-up to Afrique Victime, which put the Tuareg guitarist/singer on the global map.

Altin Gün – Vallahi Yok. The Anatolian rock stars return with a two-sided single, along with “Kirik Cam.” Their signature sound blends psychedelia with traditional Turkish music; if I didn’t know who the band was, I’d say this sounds like a perfect song to get stoned to, if you’re into that sort of thing.

STONE – My Feelings Go. This might be STONE’s most melodic track yet, which cuts both ways – it’s bordering on emo, without the harder punk edge of some of their previous tracks.

Phosphorescent – Revelator. First Kacey Musgraves, now Phosphorescent? Am I going soft in my old age? This song is just gorgeous, a lush alt-country number that reminds me of the better Jason Isbell stuff.

Parsnip – The Babble. Behold is now out, and it’s full of little pop gems with a subtle edge to them, like this, “The Light,” “Duality,” and “Turn to Love.”

Griff – Pillow in My Arms. Griff released her latest EP, ver2igo vol. 2, earlier this month, and will be touring the U.S. in the fall. “Miss Me Too” is definitely the best song of the four on the record, but I’m really waiting for a full-length release from the British singer-songwriter, who has put out some of my favorite pop songs of the last five years (“One Night,” “Black Hole,” “Head on Fire”).

Sløtface – Tired Old Dog. Sløtface has been a solo project of Haley Shea since June of 2022, after which she put out an EP and a few singles that sounded like she’d changed the band’s sound or just kind of lost interest; their earliest work was funny, edgy, and rooted in classic punk. Her first album since the lineup change, Film Buff, is due out in September, and this second single is definitely her best work since at least 2020’s Sorry for the Late Reply.

Spiritual Cramp feat. White Reaper – Whatever You Say Man. This is apparently one half of a split 7” between White Reaper, the world’s greatest American band, and the San Francisco punk band Spiritual Cramp. It doesn’t sound exactly like either of their sounds, but it leans more towards Spiritual Cramp.

Bob Vylan – Reign. Vylan’s latest album, Humble as the Sun, is a righteously angry affair that blends alternative rock and traditional hip-hop in a way that makes them into a single sound, rather than, say, the rap-metal hybrid that terrorized the populace in the early aughts.

Les Savy Fav – Limo Scene. Oui, LSF, this Chicago noise-rock band’s first new album in 14 years, will be out on May 10^th, with this the second single from the record.

BODEGA – Cultural Consumer III. So there are indeed three tracks by this name on BODEGA’s latest album, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, but the other two suck. This one’s chorus is really catchy, and the lyrics paint an interesting picture of consumerism run amok.

Jamie xx & Honey Dijon – Baddy on the Floor. It’s an average track for Jamie xx, not his best, but I’d say better than “Kill Dem,” which I assume will also be on whatever album he’s planning. I wasn’t familiar with Honey Dijon (the DC, not the salad dressing), but she’s apparently pretty well-regarded in American DJ circles.

Belle & Sebastian – What Happened to You, Son? Another new track from the Scottish indie popsters, this one left on the cutting floor from their Late Developers sessions.

The Folk Implosion – Moonlit Kind. They’re never going to match “Natural One,” but I’m glad Barlow & Davis are back at all. They returned after a 19-year hiatus in 2022, put out a four-song EP last April, and now we have this new track, heralding Walk Thru Me, their first full-length album with John Davis since 1999’s One Part Lullaby. It’s due out on June 28^th.

A Certain Ratio – Keep It Real. ACR were part of the first wave of post-punk bands in the UK, contemporaries of Wire, Gang of Four, Siouxie & the Banshees, and PiL, but never achieved the commercial or critical success of those bands. Their earliest sound incorporated more funk and dance influences than their peers, but not enough to latch on to the second, new wave that followed, where they were overshadowed by Joy Division and the Cure (and inferior to other commercially unsuccessful bands like The Sound or Josef K). ACR reunited in 2020 after a twelve-year hiatus, and they sound quite a bit like they did in their 1978-1982 peak.

Lionlimb feat. Angel Olson – Dream of You. Lionlimb is Stewart Bronaugh, who has also played in Olsen’s backing band, along with Joshua Jaeger, and their newest album Limbo comes out on the 24^th. I’m not a huge fan of Olsen’s solo work, but this track has a trippy Portishead vibe that grabbed me on first listen.

Ezra Collective – Ajala. Ezra Collective won last year’s Mercury Prize, which, to be honest, was the first I’d heard of them, but they remind me quite a bit of Ozomatli and that’s good enough to put them here, even if that represents a pretty low bar for my taste in jazz.

Yannis & the Yaw feat. Tony Allen – Walk Through Fire. That’s Yannis Phillippakis of Foals, and Tony Allen was a legendary Nigerian drummer who’d worked as Fela Kuti’s musical director for over a decade. The two recorded some material in the late 2010s, but Allen died in 2020 before they could finish the project; Phillippakis completed the few tracks they had begun and is releasing this five-song EP, Lagos Paris London, due out August 30^th.

Wheel – Disciple. Charismatic Leaders, the third album from this Finnish-American prog-metal band, drops on Friday the third; despite numerous lineup changes, their sound has been pretty consistent over the last five-odd years.

Alcest – Flamme Jumelle. Alcest will release Les Chants de l’aurore, their first new album in five years, on June 21^st; based on the two tracks we’ve heard so far, it sounds like they’ve gone back towards the straight shoegaze sound of Shelter, or at least most of the way there, with no sign of the black-metal trappings of their earliest work or the blackgaze sound of Spiritual Instinct. For the record, I like pretty much all of it.

Crypt Sermon – Heavy is the Crown of Bone. The latest LP from these Philly-based doom metal artists, The Stygian Rose, drops on June 14^th; I love this track, which is heavy and crunchy and draws heavily on classic doom acts (Sabbath, Candlemass, Cathedral) but also some NWOBHM as well.

High on Fire – Lamsbread. High on Fire dropped their ninth album, Cometh the Storm, on April 19^th; everyone describes them as sludge metal or stoner metal (including Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Metallum), but there’s too much thrash in here to lump them into those groups. I assume it’s just because Matt Pike is a co-founder of actual stoner metal band Sleep.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2024 in music, indie, jazz, metal, Music, progressive metal, shoegaze

→ April 28, 2024
→ By keith
→ 19 Comments

Stick to baseball, 4/28/24.

Nothing this week from me at the Athletic, but I need to write up a couple of minor-league games I’ve been to so there will be something in the next few days.

I reviewed the board game Ancient Knowledge over at Paste; it’s pretty clever, but I found the title and theme didn’t connect to the game play at all.

I’ll be back on Stadium on Monday at 2 pm ET on Diamond Dreams and on their new collectibles show at 2:30 for one segment, all to talk about prospects. You can watch via the app or if you subscribe to Roku, Youtube, or some other sites; I have figured out that the shows re-air all week, but you can’t just watch an archived version.

I also sent out a fresh edition of my free email newsletter on Saturday, talking about … death. Wait, that’s only the cat.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: ProPublica explores how a lack of funding and organization at a VA clinic in Chico, California, led to two preventable shootings, including one where a veteran shot and killed her own mother. If you want to support our troops, instead of just standing and clapping at a ballgame, vote for candidates who’ll fully fund the VA and its indispensable resources for our veterans.

Climate change is driving us towards a “coffee apocalypse” as the growing regions for the plant shrink and the plant itself tries to migrate to higher altitudes.

A tech bro wants to “ethnically cleanse” San Francisco, in his own words. Balaji Srinivasan has worked at Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and the genetic testing firm Counsyl (which he co-founded). He sounds insane.

A prosecutor in Texas has asked the courts to clear the conviction of a woman he helped put on death row. Melissa Lucio’s two-year-old daughter died after falling down a flight of stairs, but she was convicted of capital murder and spent 16 years behind bars.

The LA Times’s Michael Hiltzik excoriates the cash grab in Nevada, where state legislators are trying to hand hundreds of millions in taxpayer money to the Oakland A’s’ billionaire owner in a climate of increasing voter resistance.

Another relief agency has accused Israel of targeting its vehicles: the International Development and Relief Foundation says that the IDF deliberately bombed its trucks delivering water to Gazans.

Columbia barred a student protester who said that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” from its campus. Khymani James was active in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia. This seems like a pretty simple case of someone crossing the line and the university responding appropriately – in contrast to the preponderance of stories about protests on campuses across the country.

A Jewish student at Columbia wrote on Mehdi Hasan’s new site Zeteo that the news coverage of antisemitism on campuses is inaccurate and distracts from actual threats, like outside groups that dox Jewish students.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch wrote in praise of the student journalists covering the protests and the university responses at Columbia and beyond.
Will the “cancel culture” pundits say anything about USC’s decision to cancel its Muslim-American valedictorian’s commencement speech? Don’t hold your breath, writes Arwa Mahdawi in the Guardian.

Transphobes have latched on to the dubious “Cass Report” as further evidence of … I don’t even know, it’s all just bigotry and trans panic, but the interesting bit here is that Dr. Hilary Cass herself is already distancing herself from the report’s conclusions, saying HRT and puberty blockers should be made available to trans teens. The same newsletter reports on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) saying that he wants to “end” trans and gender non-conforming teachers in the state.

Tennessee Republicans passed a law arming teachers over loud opposition from parents and students. How long until the first “friendly fire” death in a Tennessee school?

However, the state GOP’s attempt to ram through a school voucher bill and strip funding from the state’s already poor public schools failed.

The risk of cardiomyopathy to young men from mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 actually decreases after the third dose, although the risk is always higher from even a single infection with the virus.

Jay Bhattacharya has been a major purveyor of disinformation around COVID, from masks to vaccines to other public-health efforts, and he’s built a huge following. Now he’s about to get a big cash windfall from a large right-wing foundation. The grift is profitable.

A new firm that includes disinformation reporter Ben Collins as as CEO bought the Onion from the turkey vultures at G/O Media.

Iowa universities are closing their DEI programs after Republicans there passed a bill banning such endeavors.

Measles cases are rising in the U.S. and it’s a big, underreported problem.

The PEN literary awards’ annual ceremony has been cancelled after a large number of authors requested that their works be removed from consideration.

2023 ended with a surge in book bans, according to PEN America, but the children’s publishing world has responded by flooding the market with new titles representing diverse perspectives.

The Atlantic has an appreciation of John Sterling (tied, a bit tenuously, to AI). My confession: Even when I was an ardent Yankees fan, I didn’t care for Sterling’s style, which always seemed to put himself front and center over the game he was calling.

The Guardian interviewed Lauren Mayberry on going solo and the misogyny she experienced online.

Also in the Guardian, a profile of two professors teaching the Gullah language, one of the only creole tongues based on English, including Harvard’s Sunn m’Cheaux (who is a great follow on Threads). Gullah is still spoken on some of the islands off the coast of South Carolina, and you may be familiar with it if you’ve read Pat Conroy’s book The Water is Wide.

There’s finally been some movement to pass legislation banning deepfake nudes, with over 20 states doing so or at least considering bills to do so, and the impetus is teenage girls who often find themselves the targets.

A former model decided to listen to some online wellness influencers rather than her doctors, choosing an all-juice diet to try to treat her stage 3 cancer. She nearly died before doctors convinced her to go the medicine route – but only after she kept refusing for several days while in intensive care.

Time flowed five times slower right after the Big Bang. Imagine all the extra board games you could have played!

Some light reading: Here’s the complete genome for SARS-CoV-2.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baseball, book banning, coffee, death penalty, gaza, iowa, Languages, links, longreads, nevada, physics, stick to baseball, tennessee, texas, trans rights, vaccines

→ April 25, 2024
→ By keith
→ 1 Comment

Trio.

If the card game Trio were brand-new, I’d call it the game of the year. It is out in a brand-new English edition, though, and I can’t recommend it any more highly. It’s right up there with Scout, Love Letter, Coup, and Super Mega Lucky Box as smaller games you can play any time with any mix of people, kids included, or throw in a bag or suitcase for when you travel. I just played it with my niece (nearly 12) and nephew (8) the other day, and after six plays, when I had to leave for a game, they roped my parents into playing several more times.

Trio was originally published in Japan as nana (??), one of the Japanese words for 7, and both names ultimately make sense given how you win the game. The full deck contains 36 cards numbered 1 through 12, three of each, with the actual cards used varying by player count – for four or five players, you use the whole deck, but you’ll remove the 12s for three players, for example. All cards in the game are either dealt to players or placed face-down on the table.

You win Trio by doing one of three things: collecting three sets of cards of the same numbers; collecting two sets of cards where the sum or difference is 7 (so, 11s and 4s, or 2s and 5s); or collecting the set of three 7s. The catch is how you reveal cards – you can only ask another player to reveal their lowest card or their highest card, or do the same for yourself, or reveal one card from the table. You take two such actions, and if the two revealed cards match, you may take a third as well. If not, all cards return to their players’ hands or to the table, face-down. If you complete a set, you take those cards and your turn ends. The game continues until one player achieves one of the three winning conditions.

Thus Trio is a game of memory: you need to pay attention every turn to what’s revealed, and also to what’s not revealed. If a player shows their lowest card is a 4, they’re also telling you that they don’t have any 1s, 2s, or 3s, thus limiting where those cards can be. Other players may reveal the cards you need to complete a set over several turns, so if you can remember where those cards are, you can ‘steal’ a set without doing the work. I’ve been dealt all three of a number, which I was only able to play once it was the lowest rank in my hand. (That is, if my hand was 2-3-4-4-4-10-12, I couldn’t play the 4s until I’d either lost the 2 and 3 or the 10 and 12.) If you’ve got an eidetic memory, well, Trio might be a little too easy for you.

You can play a whole game inside of ten minutes, probably more like five once you’re rolling, and it plays well with anywhere from three to five people. Two players can play, but it’s not as fun for strategic reasons – you only have to remember your opponent’s high/low cards and the table cards – and social ones. And the box is tiny, so it is highly portable. I’m all in on this one – I played it a few times in person at Gen Con, a few times online, and then a whole slew of times this week. It’s fun, like board games are supposed to be.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: boardgames, card games, family games, highly recommended

→ April 24, 2024
→ By keith
→ Leave a Comment

Furnace: Interbellum.

Furnace remains one of my favorite engine-building games – if anything, I’ve come to like it more and more the more I’ve played it. The rules are short, and I think very straightforward, especially if you’ve played any sort of engine-builders before (like Gizmos), while you can play the game in an hour even with four people, and in a half hour or even a little less with two people if they know the game already. It even has a useful ‘dummy’ player called the Agent to use in two-player games that at least creates a little competition for token placements. The expansion Furnace: Interbellum came out in 2022, and it is a mixed bag of added features I really like along with some extra complexity that I think the game doesn’t need. (You can get it on Amazon but it’s cheaper on specialty sites like Boardtopia.)

Interbellum does have enough good stuff to justify getting it, and although it doesn’t strictly contain modules, you can definitely pick and choose what to include. There’s really one piece here I didn’t care for, and you can very easily omit it from your games – the business school cards and manager tiles. Furnace’s main market for acquiring cards has a row of 6-8 Company cards, depending on your player count, on which players will place their bidding tokens in the auction round. You can add two or three business-school cards to the end of that market, and in each round, you place a manager tile on each of those cards. Players may place bidding tokens on those as well; if they win the auction, they get the manager token, and if they lose, they get compensation as usual, although with the b-school cards they get to choose among two options. You keep the manager token for just one round, adding it to any Company or starter card in your production line to do things like repeat the card’s actions or take a conversion action for free. It’s a lot of extra cognitive work to incorporate these into the game – you lose the simplicity of bid on cards, add cards to your production line, gather resources, and fire up the engine – but it doesn’t make the game more enjoyable.

Interbellum adds a variable bidding token that I also didn’t find that useful, and if you don’t use the added b-school cards you probably can’t use this token anyway. The token can be worth any value you’d like, but you must pay the value in coal – if you want to bid 6, for example, you have to pay 6 coal tokens when placing the bid. (The game’s standard tokens are valued 1 through 4.) It’s good to have a use for extra coal, as it’s pretty easy to end up with more coal than you can ever use, but this overcomplicates the elegant auction aspect of the game.

Now for the good stuff, starting with the addition of tokens for a fifth player – which, to be clear, I haven’t tried, but I’m on board with it in principle. The game also adds new Capitalist cards, the starting powers given to players to make it slightly asymmetrical, including one that replaces the most powerful Capitalist card from the base game, which gives its owner an extra value-2 bidding token. The new version of this card requires that the player place that token during a regular bidding turn, rather than giving them an extra fifth bidding turn after everyone else has gone. It also adds some new starter cards and a whole extra deck of 24 new Company cards, with instructions on how to integrate them with the base game’s deck (you remove 24 cards from it based on the background images). These cards bring a slew of new conversion and sale possibilities for turning your resources into other resources or into coins, which are the game’s victory points, along with immediate powers marked by a lightning symbol that occur either on purchase or on upgrade. This is good complexity – it works within the confines of the original game, making it more involved but not more difficult.

The expansion also adds a solo mode that gives the Agent coins over the course of the game, allowing it to win cards if it has the highest bid token or take compensation if it has a lower one. There are multiple Agent personalities, such as the Coal Baron, that change how it places its bid tokens and how it receives coins. I completely get it for the solo mode, but found it didn’t work well enough to be competitive in the two-player mode, and unlike the instructions for everything in the original game, the instructions on the Agent cards are quite confusing – and I can see from the discussion forums on BoardGameGeek that I’m not the only one who thought this.

I don’t buy or even trade for many expansions, because I have too many games anyway and there are very few games I play often enough to justify getting them. Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and Wingspan are obvious exceptions, but if it doesn’t enhance the original I’m probably not interested. Furnace: Interbellum does do that, and you could probably get it all in the original box if you ditch the insert, especially all of the new cards. You’re also paying for some stuff that, in my opinion, makes a great game a little too complicated for its own good.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: board game expansions, boardgames

→ April 20, 2024
→ By keith
→ 10 Comments

Stick to baseball, 4/20/24.

I updated my ranking of the top prospects for this year’s draft, going to 50 names but not without some difficulty; and posted a scouting notebook covering a half-dozen prospects in the class I saw over the previous ten days. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday.

As I mentioned in my chat the other day, the Athletic spiked my podcast and cut the daily baseball show to three a week, so I’m no longer doing any regular podcasts for them. I did make a guest appearance on the Windup on Friday, talking draft and prospect stuff.

I am now appearing weekly on the Stadium streaming channel, on the 2 pm show Diamond Dreams, which is entirely about prospects, with occasional appearances on their roundup show The Rally. You can get the app here. Right now, it doesn’t appear that shows are archived, but I’m looking into it.

Once this is done, I’m hoping to get another edition of my free email newsletter out this weekend, before I head back to Chicago for the next show.

Taylor Swift is on Threads now – but I was there first. I’m on Bluesky, too. I ended up re-verified on Twitter, which makes me eligible for a cut of ad revenues around my tweets; I’m going to donate all of it to the Trevor Project. My first and only payout so far was $16.64, which I’ve already donated.

And now, pop an edible (if it’s legal where you are) and enjoy the links…

Before I get to the longreads, this seems like the story of the week: The Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal in McKesson v. Doe, which held that authorities may hold a protest’s organizer(s) liable if any attendee of the protest commits an illegal act. The decision effectively ends the right to assembly in at least three states. This should have been front-page news across the country.
An editorial in Haaretz argues that Netanyahu’s policies, from his brutal assault on Gaza and assassination of Iranian leaders, are endangering the long-term survival of Israel.
The billionaire co-founder of Cloudflare wanted to build an 11,000 square foot mansion in Park City over the opposition of residents. First he tried to slip a bill through the state legislature to allow the construction, but it failed. When the local paper ran stories critical of him, he bought it and installed his buddy as editor in chief.
Brandy Zarozny of NBC News reported from the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association conference, where speakers urged attendees to seize voting machines and investigate absurd conspiracy theories.
The New York Times reports on how Senate candidate Dave McCormick, a Republican running against Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey (D), appears to have fabricated details of his upbringing to downplay his privileged upbringing.
PressWatchers interviewed Chris Quinn of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, who has made waves for his willingness to cover former President Trump accurately and for calling out the blatant bothsidesism happening across so-called mainstream media.
Candace Buckner of the Washington Post had a measured take on the outrage over Gregg Doyel’s odd treatment of Caitlin Clark. I’m with her: the story isn’t a non-troversy, but the level of vitriol here is out of proportion to the infraction.
Former federal prosecutor Terra Morehead will be disbarred in the wake of revelations that she helped a Kansas City cop frame an innocent man who then served 23 years in prison. Morehead was also a Wyandotte County prosecutor, and has been implicated in numerous incidents of prosecutorial misconduct.
USC announced that their valedictorian will not be allowed to speak at commencement this year as the university caved to anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian sentiment, including threats against the ceremony and school.
A St. Louis cop who was working undercover among protesters in the city in 2017 was badly beaten by his own colleagues; a judge just awarded him $23.5 million in compensation, which, ultimately, will be covered by taxpayers.
More fallout from Uri Berliner’s unverified column attacking NPR: The network suspended him, after which he resigned, presumably to start a Substack where he’ll rail against DEI and vaccines; while NPR’s Steve Inskeep wrote a detailed takedown of Berliner’s column, pointing out just how little fire there was behind the smoke. I’ll repeat what I’ve said before: Berliner’s argument that NPR didn’t give enough credence to the failed lab-leak hypothesis was a tell. Slate’s Alicia Montgomery, a former NPR staffer herself, has a much stronger critique of the problems at the network.
Louisiana Republicans voted to end mandatory lunch breaks for child workers, cut unemployment benefits, and reduce worker’s compensation.
Ocean acidification and climate change are causing a fourth mass bleaching episode in the world’s coral reefs. Coral reefs are essential to the marine ecosystem – including a lot of the fish we eat.
There are 806 billionaires in the United States. Their wealth exceeds that of the lower half of Americans’ total wealth combined, by a lot.
The great Phil Plait wrote about the declining odds that there is a ninth planet in our solar system, given how much of space we’ve checked without finding it. This is the subject of the fantastic deduction board game The Search for Planet X.
The Sundance Film Festival’s organizers are playing the sports stadium handout game, courting bids from cities to host the influential festival starting in 2027.
Kari Lake (R ), running for Senate in Arizona after voters there rejected her in the race for Governor in 2022, called on sheriffs to enforce the state’s 1864 abortion ban. That same territorial law also banned interracial marriage and set the age of consent for girls at 10.
Tennessee Rep. Scott Cepicky (R) confessed in a leaked conversation that his aim with a school-voucher bill is to “throw the whole freaking (public education) system in the trash.”
Dr. Allison Neitzel has become a target of anti-vaxx trolls for her pro-vaccine and pro-science activism; she responded on her newsletter with the wonderfully titled missive “I Will Continue to Piss Off Men.” If you want to read more about what amounts to harassment campaign against her from the soi-disant “journalist” Paul Thacker, you can go here. Thacker seems to focus on women in the pro-science movement, and I think it’s fair to ask if he’s really just a misogynist.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anti-science, arizona, astronomy, climate change, colleges, education, gaza, kansas, links, longreads, louisiana, misinformation, missouri, pennsylvania, police, stick to baseball, tennessee, utah, vaccines

→ April 19, 2024
→ By keith
→ 3 Comments

All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade.

I was lukewarm on the Libertines in their brief, drug-addled heyday, and largely oblivious to the drama around their self-titled second album, which looked for a decade like it might be their last, as the band broke up and Pete Doherty was in and out of rehab (and legal trouble). The likely lads returned in 2015 with a third album, Anthem for Doomed Youth, which had one great song (“Gunga Din”) but a lot of tepid material that couldn’t come close to the energy of their first two records. Even if you didn’t love their songs, those albums crackled with the thrill of a band that always felt like it was teetering on the edge of disaster – much like Oasis did at its peak, and in both cases it seemed to fuel greater creativity as well.

Over the last twenty years I’ve come to appreciate the Libertines even more. “Time for Heroes” has long been my favorite of their songs, and “Can’t Stand Me Now” is another banger that also has one of the best album intro passages I can remember hearing, but, taken together, their 2003-04 output feels like they captured a specific moment in British music history. They came along just a few years after the implosion of Britpop, owing something to that genre’s melodic instincts, but their playing was messier, almost dirtier, and they paired it with wry, witty lyrics, bringing some obvious Stones influence along with elements of punk and even …

The Libertines returned just this month with their fourth album, their first in nine years, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, and I think it’s the best thing they’ve ever done. It’s certainly the most interesting new album I’ve heard this year, mixing in styles and sounds we haven’t heard from Carl Barât and Doherty before with that same reckless energy that made their first two LPs so exciting. (I’m not ignoring Cowboy Carter, which was nothing if not interesting, but I was shocked by how un-catchy much of that album is.) All Quiet is the album that they should have come back with in 2015. It’s a statement record, and just happens to be full of incredible hooks.

The album opens with one of the lead singles, the incredibly catchy “Run Run Run,” with its winking earworm chorus: “You’d better run, run, run/Faster than the past” might just refer to the band’s own sordid history, one would think. It’s a strong choice to start the record, setting the stage for the mostly uptempo songs to come while still sounding very much like the Libertines right from the introductory drum line. It’s one of four tracks on the record that connect this album to the first two, along with “Oh Shit, “I Have a Friend,” and “Be Young,” all of which are, to use the technical term, bangers.

Those tracks buy some goodwill for the lads to experiment a little, and fortunately this time around the experiments mostly land. “The Night of the Hunter” interpolates a bit of “Swan Lake,” of all things, while managing to sound like it came from the soundtrack to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. “Oh Shit” starts with a guitar lick that sounds so familiar – an inverted version of the main riff from “Boys Don’t Cry?” – and never takes its foot off the gas. “Shiver” is not a cover of the Coldplay song, but instead is a swirling, psychedelic track that’s unique in their catalog for its melding of that ‘70s psychedelia with some of the 1990s Britpop that paved the way for their initial success, and hearing the lads sing about “Reasons to stay alive/Not to die at 25” should certainly bring to mind the unlikeliness of this band still being intact twenty years on.

I couldn’t totally get on board with the closer, “Songs They Never Play on the Radio,” although the fact that the Libertines utilized a backing chorus on several tracks also marks some of the band’s progression into this older, wiser status. “Man With the Melody” is just a miss, one where I can’t even see the vision in what feels like a throwaway track in both music and lyrics, and “Baron’s Claw” also kills some of the momentum built up by the prior two tracks. “Merry Old England,” however, shows the Libertines slowing down the tempo while still managing to incorporate a strong hook, with some of their best lyrics ever, appropriating the language of the xenophobic right – even stealing a headline from The Sun about “illegals” – to cover the plight of migrants coming to England in search of a better life, only to receive “a B&B and vouchers for three square.”

The Libertines have now scored their second #1 album in the UK with All Quiet…, after their self-titled sophomore album did the same in 2004, but their commercial success has been limited to Britain and they’ve barely made a dent in the U.S. It contributes to an underrating of the band’s importance in music history, as they were critical in the resurgence of rock music after the death of Britpop in the late 1990s ushered in an era of more commercial pop and less rock-oriented indie pop acts like Coldplay and Travis. Without the Libertines, do we get the Arctic Monkeys, who have a very similar sound but cleaner production and playing, and take Doherty & Barât’s witty lyrical style to another level? Or Franz Ferdinand, the Wombats, Jamie T, the Rills, or Sports Team? The Libertines’ original two albums were part of a brief revival of garage-rock – often mislabeled as post-punk because they kind of played fast – that opened the doors for multiple waves of Brit-rock after their initial breakup. Let’s hope that this album gets them their due beyond the shores of merry old England.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2024 in music, british music, garage rock, highly recommended, indie, Music

→ April 18, 2024
→ By keith
→ 7 Comments

Klawchat 4/18/24.

My top 50 draft prospects ranking is now up for subscribers to The Athletic.

Keith Law: I need to lighten my load. Klawchat.

Hogie: You said during spring training that you didn’t think James Wood was ready for the majors. Have you changed your mind at all given his start in Rochester?
Keith Law: No, because it’s April 18th. It’s a minuscule sample.

Guest: have you seen Cade McGee at Texas Tech. Saw him the other night against Arkansas. Good power, looks athletic, been hit by a pitch 20 times this year which has, along with 31 walks really helped his OBP which is around .500
Keith Law: I haven’t seen Texas Tech, but McGee isn’t showing much power or hard contact in games. I also don’t view high HBP totals as a particularly valuable skill.

JD: Is Pages ready to stick at the major league level or do you anticipate this will be a short stay for him and that he needs more time at AAA?
Keith Law: He was really good in the 50 games he did play last year and this year around the shoulder injury, with what looked like a more advanced approach than he’d had in 2022. “Short stay” is really about team needs, but if they’re willing to give him the time to adjust I think he can have a positive WAR this year.

Taylor Swift: Will you be listening to the Tortured Poets Department tonight?
Keith Law: I didn’t know that album was coming out tonight. (I knew it was coming out at some point.)

J: 18 year-old Nelson Rada is at AA for the Angels for no discernible reason. Why is Nelson Rada at AA? Why skip High-A? Why?
Keith Law: I have no idea.

Lucas: If I remember correctly, Jordan Westburg was seen as a little bit of a gutsy pick in 2020 because there were some swing and miss issues at Mississippi State. How has he gotten better in a relatively short period of time?
Keith Law: He was a COVID year pick, and was off to a good start at MSU. It’s quite possible he’d already started making that adjustment and we didn’t see it in enough of a sample because the world ended.

Drew: As a Cleveland fan, it seems like there’s separation between Condon and everyone else. How worried should I be they’ll cut a deal with a lesser player in a draft that seems weak for overslot guys later?
Keith Law: Very.

Guest: What should we make of Jackson Hollidays slow start at the plate?
Keith Law: Nothing.

Mike: Mike Trout is good at baseball.
Keith Law: He is. But go look at what he did in his first call-up.

BC: With Morel playing improved defense at third recently, is there still a path to the Cubs for Matt Shaw this year?
Keith Law: Improved defense? He’s already at -2 OAA and it’s not even May. Come on.

Nervous Flyball Pitcher: Matthew Etzel showed up in your Orioles prospect honorable mentions – so far he’s had a handful of multi-hit games (admittedly aided by miserable MiLB infield defense), but do you have any read on his CF play?
Keith Law: No idea, haven’t seen him or much minor league stuff yet while I focus on the draft.

Derek: Hi Keith, been following your work for years and why I paid for ESPN and now the Athletic. Surprised to see you venture to more in front of the camera with Stadium. I’ll admit I haven’t had a chance to watch your show yet and didn’t seem like I could go back and watch it. Curious what made you decide to work with Stadium? Will it impact any of your writing with the Athletic?
Keith Law: They approached me. It won’t affect my writing – they’re two separate deals.

Heston Kjerstad: Would I be a better piece in the O’s lineup right now than, say, O’Hearn or Mountcastle?
Keith Law: I think so.

Jason: Does DL hall profile more as a reliever long term?
Keith Law: It’s a real risk. I’m surprised that his issue has been lots of contact versus him just not throwing strikes.

J: Brandon McCarthy was talking about the Pirates’ handling of Skenes thus far at AAA, saying, “what are we doing?” Jared Jones was pulled by the Pirates after 59 pitches and 5 innings. At what point do teams stop ‘building’ pitchers up, and let them pitch? Not overworking young arms is one thing; this feels preposterous, counter-productive, and not based in anything but fear. Sorry if the actual question got lost in the shuffle, but I suppose it’s: When will this stop?
Keith Law: I really think we have enough evidence to say that limiting pitch counts reduces the incidence of shoulder injuries, but that limiting them to this extent doesn’t reduce the incidence entirely and it doesn’t reduce the incidence of UCL tears. I haven’t asked any Pirates people what’s going on, but I have the same question from afar. Let them pitch reasonable workloads and respond accordingly if they report pain or discomfort or fatigue (or if pitch data shows it).

Gordon: Didn’t think Michael Busch would be this good this quick. Does he really have this much power or is he still a 20 hr guy?
Keith Law: Still think he’s a 20 homer guy … I mean, maybe he’s a 24 homer guy, there’s always a range around those estimates, but I wouldn’t overreact to a hot start. He’s a good player. If he’s a superstar, I’d be surprised.

Justin: Obviously baseball is a very dangerous workplace as far as injuries go. If any of our workplaces caused ligament surgeries every day, I’m not sure they’d still exist. What is it about baseball and sports in general that make it ethical to continue subjecting people to activities that are clearly awful for the human body? Informed consent?
Keith Law: The potential for seven- or eight-figure salaries.

J: Matt Shaw crushing AA (SSS and all that). Odds he makes the bigs this season? Before September?
Keith Law: I said before the season I thought he’d be up to play third base at some point – I still think more like midyear, and that they’ll push Shaw to AAA first.

Garrett: What’s your take on how CJ Abrams has looked so far?
Keith Law: Also a SSS, but I’m at least happy to see that he’s doing what I said he’d do and making much harder contact. There’s something sustainable here.

RL: Do you think lack of sticky stuff is contributing to arm injuries as some pitchers have said?
Keith Law: I’ve seen no evidence to back that up. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong – I just can’t support or debunk it.

Jacob: Thoughts on Rangers calling up Leiter?
Keith Law: I think he can help in some role – the arm action was cleaner in the spring and his body looked better. Only faced 57 batters in AAA but he at least was way more in the zone.

Steve: M’s seem to have been very aggressive with Clase. Have you heard of any adjustments that he has made that might allow him to stick, or is he destined to K too much?
Keith Law: I don’t believe he’s changed anything. Contact is going to be a chronic issue for him.

Mario: In your piece you noted that the draft class isn’t great after the second tier. Would this make teams less likely to try and spread out money and pick signability players in the top 10
Keith Law: Yes, it’s a terrible year to do that. Your best hope for an over-slot guy at your second pick is going to be a high school pitcher, and while I’m fine with teams taking those guys with later picks, I wouldn’t take a lesser player in the top 10 this year just to go get a better HS arm.

MagicOriole: What do you attribute Colton Cowser’s hot start to? Has he changed much from your prospect evaluation?
Keith Law: A .500 BABIP.

Rick: With all the recent call ups, who’s gonna be your mid-season Top Prospect?
Keith Law: It almost has to be Ethan Salas. He’s the top guy still in the minors, and if I did a live update now he’d be #1.

Nate: From a Stros fan…how much longer do you think it’ll take Jim crane to realize Jeff Bagwell doesn’t, in fact know baseball half as well as he thinks he does?
Keith Law: They have to fail at some point. Or I guess maybe waste another $50 million.

Mike: Think Christian Scott’s strong start indicates hes a potential number 2?
Keith Law: I don’t think his strong start indicates anything different from what we thought about him three weeks ago.

JR: Did you read Shogun? Are you watching/planning to watch the FX series airing right now? I’ve never read, but am really enjoying the show.
Keith Law: Never read. I know my parents liked the 1980s miniseries. They watched all of those like the Thorn Birds.

Jake: Any reason why there are so few HS guys you are high on compared to other years? Is Covid why they didn’t develop or is it just a fluke?
Keith Law: They’re just not out there this year, unfortunately. I don’t think there’s a reason – COVID didn’t hurt the 2023 HS class, for example. Just a down year for HS bats. The result will probably be some of them get drafted higher than area scouts expect – I hear more sandwich/second on Carter Johnson, for example, but I bet he sneaks into the late first.

Caleb: SSS alert! But Masyn Winn has performed better-than-advertised at the plate so far, especially taking the ball the other way. Change in approach that might lead to better numbers, or just SSS?
Keith Law: SSS but he’s also hitting the ball quite a bit harder this year, and making some better swing decisions than he did in his callup. That last bit is more in line with the hitter he was in the minors.

Chris: The Red Sox haven’t drafted a pitcher in the first round since 2017 and their farm system certainly reflects that. Could they finally do it this year?
Keith Law: Sure, I am not aware of any rule that prevents them from doing so.

Julie: Thank you for not sounding the alarm on Holliday. He’s less than two years out of high school playing 2nd base every day for a contender. The lineup he’s in is stacked. The O’s can afford for him to go through some growing pains, because the other guys will cover him. He will figure it out in the next few weeks and people will forget his slow start.
Keith Law: And maybe they send him back down at some point. He’ll be fine.

Refugee: Do you think the ball is juiced this year?
Keith Law: I think something is up in the college ranks. Either the ball is different, or the bats are.

I’m Joey Callo…C-allo: Any idea why Atlanta has decided to platoon Jared Kelenic. He didn’t show a platoon split in his breakout year last year and at 24 it seems a little early to pigeon-hole him that way.
Keith Law: He does have a platoon split for his career, and I think between Atlanta trying to win now and the hope that they can develop him into at least a good part-time player, platooning him in the short term is fine.

Kevin: Tanner Houck has added a solid splitter to his arsenal. Any chance he can be a mid rotation starter with this 3 pitch mix?
Keith Law: If that splitter really is the weapon he’s never had for LHB, then yes. That’s always been my main argument against him being a starter.

Alex: Among Braves pitching prospects, Owen Murphy is looking good so far and Hurston Waldrep is struggling. Anything about either of them in the early going that you’d take as grounds for optimism or concern?
Keith Law: It’s two outings for each guy.

Brent: Hey Klaw! Hope you’re enjoying the season more than this ChiSox fan. Boardgame question, have you played Memoir ’44? From the company that made Ticket to Ride. Love history and boardgames. Able to recommend?
Keith Law: Never played it.

Joe: Anything interesting going on with your gardening this year?
Keith Law: We tried to get an early start with our little greenhouse but the weather here has been so bad until this week that I think a lot of our efforts were wasted because we couldn’t transplant, either for cold or for torrential rains. We’re trying mostly to grow stuff that we will definitely eat – right now it’s peas, green beans, radishes, beets (ok that’s just me and my wife), mixed lettuce.

Bill: Gabe Arias for Real ?
Keith Law: Do I think a player with a .417 BABIP is for real? No, sir, I do not.

Sam Roberts: Is Cam Caminiti still a R1 in a better draft year?
Keith Law: I think he’s a first-round bonus guy. That could come after the actual first round ends, but in a strong year maybe he ends up a comp pick.

Tom: What do you about Tegan Kuhns (Gettysburg (PA))?
Keith Law: He’s on the list I posted today.

Bill: Since you’ll be in Chicago weekly….will you be checking out any Northwoods league Games ?
Keith Law: I doubt it. They’re not close to Chicago.

RH: Do you think top college hitters this year will try to force their way to the Angels so they can debut faster?
Keith Law: No, players just don’t have that kind of control over where they’re drafted. I do think the Angels will take whichever guy left on the board could be rushed to the majors this year.

Patrick: Do you see a six-man rotation coming into vogue, in an effort to minimize potential SP injuries?
Keith Law: I don’t see or know of any evidence that it would work. Do guys just exert more effort then because they’ve had the extra day to rest? The one factor for UCL tears which there is some actual research is throwing as hard as you can, as often as you can. In other words, if your personal max velocity is 94, and you sit 93-94 all the time, while personal max velocity is 98 but I sit 95-96 all the time, I might have a little lower risk of a UCL tear than you do.

Yinka Double Dare: How many messages will you send to Montverde begging them to be open on Mondays since that’s when you’re already in the city within a mile or so of them?
Keith Law: As much as I love that place, there are plenty of other places I need to try too.

Andrew: Not a prospect question, but I don’t see/hear anyone complaining about the netting around the ballpark. What happened?
Keith Law: They’re busy complaining about DEI or trans people or some other non-issue.

Chris P: Hey Klaw, do you see Gage Jump being a starter in the pros and if so, could he likely go in the 2nd round?
Keith Law: He could go in the second round but I don’t think there’s any chance he can start with that delivery.

John: My son (15) just started playing baseball but loves pitching, doesn’t throw hard so he throws off speed mostly is the idea that curveballs shouldn’t be thrown out-dated or does the data support that? I can’t find reliable information and just want what is best for him
Keith Law: That was an old hypothesis that I don’t think has held up under scrutiny.

James: Jackson Merrill looks better than expected at CF right now. Think he’ll stick there and ever be better than average with the glove?
Keith Law: Yes, he’s a good enough athlete and runner and smart enough kid that he could end up above-average out there. I’ve been pleasantly surprised how quickly he seems to have taken to it.

JR: Any thoughts on current state of college athletics, with unlimited transfers and unregulated NIL money? Has the impact hit college baseball yet? College Basketball/Football players are essentially one year free agents now, lol. On a macrolevel it’s great for the players, on a microlevel, it’s tough to be a fan of school (especially a mid-major school like mine) when the rosters practically turn over every year.
Keith Law: Yes, we see a ton of transfers, especially for players’ draft years, and I say hell yeah. The NCAA exploited players for decades. It’s about time that the players regain some control here.

Jake: SSS and all, but have you heard/seen anything about Marco Luciano changing his approach? A 19% walks rate and a .069 ISO don’t look like the Marco we’ve seen in the past.
Keith Law: tiny sample and it’s the PCL with the ABS half the time.

Jake: A few years ago the Braves got Strider in the 4th round. How did he last that long, especially in what seems like a weakish draft. Any similar hi ceiling, low floor guys this year?
Keith Law: That’s a bit revisionist. Strider blew out and missed 2019, then threw 12 innings in 2020 before the season ended. He was barely seen. As for similar guys … honestly, if I thought there was a Strider type in this draft I’d have had him on the rankings today in the top 20.

Trav: In the limited time I’ve watched Luciano play short, he’s looked awfully… not great. It was surprising how much the Giants publicly positioned him as their plan there before the season. How long can that possibly go on?
Keith Law: The sooner they move him, the better for his development.

Ryan: Druw Jones has struck out 23 times in 40 PAs this year – is he cooked?
Keith Law: 5 Ks two games ago, too. I’m very concerned – maybe the shoulder is still messed up, maybe he’s pressing, but I don’t think you could find anyone who thought he’d struggle like this in low A. I’d consider getting him out of there when the rookie leagues start up on May 4th. Let him go back to the complex, hope he rakes against worse competition, and get him the time with your coaches at the facility. But yeah, this is terrifying.

John: If a team thinks that the 2025 draft is better than this one, would they consider intentionally not signing a pick to get a comp pick in 2025? Pick 31 in 2025 > pick 30 in 2024? Too risky?
Keith Law: I get this question almost every year, and my answer is always the same: Absolutely not. It’s the worst idea imaginable, not least because you just increase the chance that someone else is making that pick next year instead of you.

Jackie: Say something positive about the Rockies. Anything.
Keith Law: Sterlin Thompson can really hit.

Chris P: Who are some of the bigger helium guys so far that are shooting up draft lists?
Keith Law: I’d look at the top 50 today but Lindsey is probably the biggest such name. Tyson Lewis too.

JJ: Marcelo Mayer, Kyle Teel, Roman Anthony — which one’s the star, which one’s OK, and which one’s the bust?
Keith Law: I think Mayer and Anthony are stars and Teel is a solid regular.

RoyalBlue: Is Salvy Perez a HOFer?
Keith Law: No.

KMac: 100+ velo is looking more like a curse than a gift. Can you see FOs shying away from 80 grade fastballs in the draft (possibly accepting 6’6”+ relievers)? Or potentially avoiding extensions for this group of talent?
Keith Law: I think teams will start valuing very hard throwing teenagers differently.

Section 34: Seriously, Kjerstad over O’Hearn (1.044 OPS) or Mountcastle (.867 OPS)? Why would a team bench an MLB player who’s performing. We’re not talking about Austin Hays or Ramon Urias.
Keith Law: Could do it for those guys too. Do you think ROH is a 1000 OPS guy (ignoring how much OPS sucks as a stat)? I don’t.

CVD: When a guy like James Wood is dominating AAA at 21 yrs old, and hitting lefties as well, playing good defense, etc- what else does he have to do to get called up? Just keep doing it for another month?
Keith Law: It’s two weeks. You have to read the calendar.

Kris: Noah Schultz, the next Ryan Anderson or someone that can fill a 4/5 SP role.
Keith Law: If healthy, a high-end starter. High injury risk.

Mike: Going to a game in Charlotte this weekend. Any good places to eat there that you like?
Keith Law: Amelie’s for breakfast/lunch/pastries. Inizio pizza. Customshop for fine dining. I rarely stay in Charlotte when I’m down that way – I fly in there a lot but then drive somewhere else.

Chip: Gun to your head, odds the A’s build a ballpark in Vegas and actually move there?
Keith Law: 25%.

Ernest: I stopped following sports for 10 years and have gotten back into it this year and noticed a pitch called the sweeper. Is this a new pitch or did the slider go through a rebranding?
Keith Law: It’s a variation of a slider. And it doesn’t sweep, which is why I think the name is stupid. My stepdaughters agree that the Yankees’ name for it, the whirlybird, is a much better choice.

Danny: Does 50% strikeout rate in only 50 PA show Roderick Arias is not ready for full season ball?
Keith Law: Not in ~ten games.

Jake: Although he seems cooked now, how do you scout a soft thrower like Kyle Hendricks who has had a remarkable career for a guy out of Dartmouth that barely touched 90 at his peak?
Keith Law: I find those guys incredibly difficult to identify – most guys with that stuff won’t even be big-league starters, or maybe just 5th starters. Did anyone foresee Hendricks having this kind of elite command? The Rangers didn’t. I honestly don’t think the Cubs did either.

Danny: You were on Corbin Caroll during his draft year- how does he compare to Caldwell? Caldwell is even smaller right?
Keith Law: Caldwell is smaller and not as strong. Carroll had more power at teh same age.

Ben: Keith – do you celebrate Thanksgiving?
Keith Law: How does one “celebrate” Thanksgiving? Do I cook a meal and eat it? Yes. I do that a lot of days.

Kris: Salas over Caminero? How close is that one?
Keith Law: It’s not that close.

Heather: Why does the media treat Robert Kennedy as anything other than a crackpot? If you actually remember his dad, you’re almost in your 70s. The vast majority of voters in this country weren’t around for the Kennedy Dynasty. Even Teddy died 15 years ago. Robert Jr. isn’t Yogi Berra; he’s Dale.
Keith Law: The mainstream media is beshitting itself in this election cycle. It’s embarrassment after embarrassment.

Greg: Any early indications on who the cardinals are looking at for pick 7?
Keith Law: Way too soon.

Dan: Do you think a version of Whitey Ball could work today? As a St. Louis kid it was so much fun watching those sliding pits waiting for someone to run.
Keith Law: No, it wouldn’t generate enough runs.

Rob: Do you see Jacob Berry as anything but a bust at this point
Keith Law: I think he’s a bust. What a bad pick that was.

HH: You say trans people are a “non issue” but what have they ever done to prevent foul balls from hitting spectators?;
Keith Law: Fair point!

Mario: In regards to the commenters question about college programs, coaches and universities are free to invest in creating programs where players feel valued, cared for, and want to stay. There’s no rules against it, as it turns out.
Keith Law: Yep. You don’t see a lot of guys transfer out of LSU or Wake Forest.

Patrick: With the time you will spend in Chicago–or really, any of your ‘frequent’ travel spots, do you try to work in an Alinea-type visit?
Keith Law: Those long tasting-menu places aren’t really my cup of tea. I can’t speak to Alinea’s food specifically but I don’t think they’re worth the time or expense.

Ridley: Have you had a chance to check out Polyphia, and, if so, what do ya think? They were originally tagged as “progressive metal,” although “every genre at once” is a better descriptor for the last two albums.
Keith Law: I haven’t but that sounds interesting.

RoyalBlue: Agree on OPS. What’s your go to metric to measure offensive production?
Keith Law: In the majors I prefer to look at wRC+. For prospects I’m less interested in total production than in how they’re getting there.

The Second of the Two Jakes: I’m pretty sure Whitey wouldn’t play Whitey-ball in today’s environment. He built his approach for the low HR context of his day.
Keith Law: I’m not sure. I know he tried to replicate a lot of that with the Angels when HR were exploding. The game had passed him by at that point.
Keith Law: OK, I need to wrap this up a few minutes early today but wanted to get one of these on the books with the draft rankings today. Thanks as always for reading – and to those of you who watched our show on Stadium on Monday. I don’t know if you can watch archived episodes but I’ll ask this week when I’m there. It’s live at 2 pm ET on the Stadium app if you have the time. Stay safe!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: klawchat

→ April 13, 2024
→ By keith
→ 26 Comments

Stick to baseball, 4/13/24.

I’ve got some new content coming up this week, with a new draft ranking due to run on Thursday and a draft scouting blog probably running Monday or Tuesday.

Over at Paste, I reviewed the collectible card game Star Wars: Unlimited – Spark of Rebellion, which I enjoyed even though I’m not generally a fan of deckbuilders.

I sent out a new edition of my free email newsletter, detailing a rather ridiculous dinner I had at the bar at The Publican, an acclaimed Chicago restaurant where, to say the least, one does not belch as loudly as one can.

I’m going to be on a new TV show, Diamond Dreams starting on Monday, April 15^th, on the streaming channel Stadium. The show is a half-hour look at prospects around the minors and for the draft, and will be followed by a show on collectibles where I’ll also offer some comments on the prospects they’re discussing. You can watch via the app on pretty much any platform.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: How Elon Musk convinced MAGA partisans that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was a treatment for COVID-19 – which it absolutely is not – and set off four years of online misinformation around the pandemic.

Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote in the New York Times about how “colorblindness” has been hijacked by the white-grievance movement, in direct opposition to the original intent of the term, which meant ending racial discrimination against people of color.

Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about how the Key Bridge disaster demonstrated the importance of immigrants to our society.

A hardcore conservative group is making it harder for Idaho school districts to renovate or upgrade their facilities.

There’s a big scam going around that has tricked a number of content creators into ceding control of their Facebook pages. It starts with what seems to be an invitation to appear on a big podcast, which of course is very appealing to most people trying to build their online audience.

Over half a million Arizonans signed a petition to put codifying abortion rights on the ballot this November. It’s part of a Democratic strategy to drive voters to the polls in purple states – and also, by the way, a basic human right. This comes on the heels of the GOP-packed Arizona Supreme Court reinstating the state’s 1864 abortion ban – yes, a law that predates Arizona’s statehood by almost 50 years.

The Guardian revealed that Boise State Professor Scott Yenor ran Action Idaho, an extreme right-wing site that attacked LGBTQ+ rights and accused Republicans of being insufficiently conservative. Yenor now also works for the Claremont Institute and just a month ago wrote a piece for the Federalist that said DEI had to die for Western civilization to survive.

ProPublica explains how authorities are trying to crack down on gift-card crime rings, where consumers often end up buying gift cards that appear new but that have already been drained of value by crooks.

Maria Bustillos writes in The Nation about the rise of journalist-owned news outlets amidst the ongoing bloodletting in the industry.

David Chang’s Momofuku company is trying to trademark the generic term “chili crunch” to describe a staple Chinese condiment best known as chili crisp – and they’re suing smaller firms to try to have their way.

Why is Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R – and not the former pitcher) doing the bidding of Elon Musk by suing Media Matters for reporting on Twitter’s failure to police hate on their site?

Voters in Enid, Oklahoma, removed Judd Blevins (R) from the city council after his ties to white supremacist groups were exposed.

The BBC has a first-person narrative from a woman who found deepfakes of herself online – and eventually learned it was a close friend of hers who made them.

This Twitter thread has some solid details on the IDF’s attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza that killed seven WCK volunteers. I don’t know why those seven deaths should lead to more calls for a cease-fire when the 30,000+ Palestinian deaths before that haven’t … of course I do, let’s not kid ourselves.

Marisa Kabas of The Handbasket reposted a piece from the Kansas Reflector critical of Meta’s ad policy around climate change, and moments later, Meta removed all links to both sites from Facebook and Threads. After an outcry, Meta reversed the decision and blamed a “security error,” but, come on.

Landfills emit far more methane than previously believed, more bad news for the planet as methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Before voters wisely rejected a stadium tax proposal to replace the two perfectly fine sports facilities outside of Kansas City, the KC Studio had a sensible op ed on what a waste tearing down Kaufmann Stadium would be.

Former SCOTUS justice Steven Breyer wants everyone to get along, like his former colleagues on the high court, even though some of those colleagues are busy destroying Americans’ basic civil rights, writes Elie Mystal of The Nation.

The BBC reports on exploitation of workers in Brazil who harvest the common ingredient carnauba wax, bordering on slavery.

Cleveland Plain-Dealer editor Chris Quinn explains why the paper treats Donald Trump differently from other politicians & candidates. Hint: It’s because he lies.

The Atlantic’s David Graham describes the “Trump two-step:” say something outrageous, claim that’s not really what he said or meant, and then quietly embrace the original statement.

The New Republic’s Greg Sargent details just how entrenched election denial, January 6^th denialism, and other insane conspiracy theories are within the Republican party right now.

Mehdi Hasan wrote in the Guardian that Justice Sonja Sotomayor needs to retire from the Supreme Court so President Biden can appoint a replacement, avoiding the possibility that Trump would get to appoint a fourth justice and give the court a 7-2 majority that would likely last decades. I’m not sure if I agree, but he at least offers a solid argument.

Fox News and several right-wing podcasters, including beanie-wearing Tim Pool, are now facing a lawsuit from a man they all falsely identified as a mass shooter. The man’s lawyer previously represented two Sandy Hook parents in their lawsuit against Alex Jones for his false claims that that mass shooting didn’t happen. Fuck ’em up, Socrates.

The Tampa Bay Times published a rare editorial pointing out that public subsidies for sports stadiums don’t work out for taxpayers, as the Rays try once again to soak Floridians for a new facility.

Here’s a great summary and index of economic research showing how consistently these sports stadium deals fail to live up to economic promises. If you’re writing about the topic, or know a journalist who is, this is invaluable, because the pro-stadium forces will always trot out fabricated numbers from consultants who give them what they want.

The PEN America awards are in a bit of a shambles after a number of high-profile authors withdrew their works from consideration or declined prizes in protest of the organization’s perceived bias towards Israel. The authors include Lorrie Moore, who just won the National Book Critics Circle’s Fiction award for I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home.

A senior editor at NPR wrote a bad-faith, error-filled critique of the public radio outlet on Bari Weiss’s blog. NPR responded, defending its hiring practices and its philosophy. You can find many takedowns of Uri Berliner’s original piece, but one fact that got me was that he accused NPR of downplaying or ignoring the lab-leak theory behind COVID-19’s origins, even when the evidence in favor of a zoonotic spillover kept mounting.

WFLA has the story of a young boy with autism who can no longer receive health services because Florida kicked him off Medicaid. We need more stories like this, showing everyday people getting badly hurt by state policies that cut funding for essential services like health care, education, and even school lunches for underprivileged people.

A former youth minister at a Baptist church in Bixby, Oklahoma, has been charged with sexual exploitation of a minor as well as possession and distribution of child pornography. No drag queens were involved.

Chicago police killed Dexter Reed during a traffic stop where he fired first, injuring one officer, after which the cops fired 96 rounds in less than a minute. The Sun-Times reports that the five officers involved in the incident have been investigated a total of 41 times since 2019, and that the area where they stopped Reed has a disproportionate number of traffic stops. The cops have said they pulled Reed over because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

The brightest cosmic explosion scientists have ever seen has now led to new questions about how some of the universe’s heaviest metals are formed. The supernova occurred about 2.4 billion years ago in a galaxy far, far away, producing a huge burst of gamma rays but none of the elements like gold or platinum that scientists expected to find.

Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride is running to be our at-large Representative, vying to become the first trans person elected to Congress. She’s one of at least three Democrats hoping to win the primary, which is tantamount to winning the election in our very blue state. Full disclosure: I’ve met Sen. McBride and we often see each other at our local Brew Haha coffee shop.

Is social media really driving a surge in mental illness among teenagers, as Jonathan Haidt claims in his new book? The evidence is mixed at best, according to this review in Nature.

Eric Hovde, who is running for Senate in Wisconsin as a Republican, is now facing backlash over his comments from a previous campaign where he called for cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits, attacked single mothers, said alcohol should never have been legalized, questioned whether farmers work hard, and lots of other great stuff.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: abortion, arizona, chicago, climate change, delaware, Economics, election denial, florida, gaza, idaho, links, longreads, Media, mental illness, misinformation, missouri, physics, police, scotus, social media, stick to baseball, wisconsin

→ April 5, 2024
→ By keith
→ 1 Comment

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.

I’m about as big a fan of Ann Patchett as you’ll find – I’ve read every one of her novels, including the Pulitzer Prize contender Tom Lake, made a pilgrimage to her bookstore Parnassus Books before the pandemic, and was even scheduled to do a talk and signing there in May 2020 that obviously never happened. Somehow in all my fandom, I’d never read any of her nonfiction, even though that’s where she got her start; I just loved her fiction so much that I couldn’t imagine reading her voice in a different milieu.

My wife recently got me a copy of Patchett’s 2013 essay collection This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and, yeah, of course it’s great, because Patchett could write about a ham sandwich and make it interesting. It’s her first essay collection and includes works published from 1996 through 2012, including her essay “The Getaway Car,” which was also published as a separate book. That essay alone was worth the time spent reading the whole book, as it’s one of the best pieces I’ve ever read on writing as a craft and a career, although the book has many, many other highlights across a range of subjects.

One of the most frequent topics is her marriages – the current one, yes, which in her telling is a happy marriage, but also her first, brief marriage, which ended barely a year in and which turned her off the institution for some time. She married young and unwisely (I can relate), but to her credit, realized it early and got out, a history she describes in “The Sacrament of Divorce,” which makes what was probably a painful period in her life wryly funny. Karl, her current husband of many years (and partner of 11 years prior to that), comes up often in the book, both directly as in the title essay and “The Paris Match” (the story of a fight), but also in the two stories about their dog Rose, “This Dog’s Life” and “Dog Without End,” the latter about Rose’s death. Karl certainly comes off far better than husband #1, at the very least. Also, the stories of women throwing themselves at him after his own divorce are hilarious, as if they came from a bad made-for-Netflix film.

“The Wall,” one of the longest essays in the collection, tells of her abortive plan to go through the Los Angeles Police Academy and write a book about it. Patchett’s father was an LA cop for a long time, and derisive of the people who led the department during the aftermath of the assault on Rodney King and subsequent acquittal of the four cops who beat him. Patchett took and passed the test, but didn’t go into the academy, in part for fear of taking up a spot that would have gone to someone who really wanted to become a police officer, but the essay itself also shows us quite a bit about her relationship with her father without her ever addressing the topic head on. It’s a masterful piece of writing, with a bit of a humblebrag mixed in.

Two essays deal with Truth & Beauty, Patchett’s memoir of her friendship with the late author Lucy Grealy, whom she met when they were both 21. Grealy had cancer of the jaw as a child and was left disfigured by surgery to remove part of her jawbone; her own memoir, Autobiography of a Face, told of her life with the emotional and physical consequences of the cancer and surgery, and was met with wide critical acclaim. One of those essays here is about an attack on the book by religious zealots in/around Clemson, South Carolina, when that university assigned the book to its incoming first-year class. An alum named Ken Wingate, who was a lawyer, a member of the state’s Commission on Higher Education, and a Presbyterian Bible teacher, said the book was pornographic and launched a campaign to get the requirement removed. Ain’t a damn thing changed, folks: Orange County, Florida, banned two of her books, including her greatest novel Bel Canto, from its schools.

There’s some filler in here, like her intro to the edition of Best American Short Stories that she oversaw, and an essay from Gourmet called “Do Not Disturb” about what amounted to a staycation in the Bel Air hotel in Los Angeles, but they’re short and unobtrusive amongst the gems that litter the collection, not least of which is “The Getaway Car.” If someone told me right now they wanted to be a writer of any stripe, I would tell them to go read this essay. I don’t think it tells you how to write or how to be a better writer, nor does it try to dissuade the reader from writing (a cynical response I hear too often from journalists – our industry is a mess, but the world needs journalists, period). And, not to put words in Patchett’s mouth, she doesn’t seem to have that sort of concrete advice. She offers no dictums like “write every day” or “write what you know” or any of the other bromides that you hear from writers; if anything, she writes for the reason that I write – because she has to. She does describe a more arduous writing and editing process than I imagined for her, given how beautiful and lyrical her writing is; I just figured this was how she wrote, and how she speaks (which we get an example of in “Fact vs. Fiction,” a convocation address she gave at Miami of Ohio). It’s an essay about her life in writing, how she saw herself as a future writer, how her career unfolded, how she had to work at a lot of things unrelated to writing – including building her relationships in the writing world – to get to be a writer as a full-time profession. It’s a marvelous piece of storytelling that, if you have a writing bone in your body, will make you want to grab a notebook and start. What more could you want from an essay about writing? This is the Story of a Happy Marriage does indeed have that story in it, but more than that, it is the story of a brilliant writer over the first forty-odd years of her life, and it is beautifully told even in its disparate pieces.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ann patchett, essays, highly recommended, non-fiction, writing

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