With the trade deadline approaching, I’ve had a bit more Insider content than usual this week, including breakdowns of the Ryan Madson/Sean Doolittle trade, the David Robertson/Tommy Kahnle/Todd Frazier trade, and the Tyler O’Neill-Marco Gonzales trade. I also had a long post covering lots of prospects I’ve scouted in the last few weeks, including players from the Phillies, Nationals, Orioles, Red Sox, Atlanta, and Cleveland systems. I held a Klawchat on Friday.
My latest boardgame review for Paste covers the asymmetrical game Not Alone, which pits one player against anywhere from one to six opponents who work together, although we found the game really doesn’t work with just two players and is only slightly better with three.
Thanks to everyone who’s already bought Smart Baseball. I’ve got just a couple of additional book signings coming up:
* Chicago, Standard Club, July 28th, 11:30 am – this is a ticketed luncheon event
* Chicago, Volumes, July 28th, 7:30 pm
* GenCon (Indianapolis), August 17th-20th
And now, the links…
- The President is mobilizing for war against the rule of law. He’s talking about overturning core pillars of our democracy, and as far as I can tell, the vast majority of Republicans back him.
- The Administration also spent taxpayer money collected to encourage ACA enrollment on ads opposing the law.
- A scientist who was reassigned out of his job in the Interior Department – which he says was because he worked on and spoke up about climate change – published an editorial ‘blowing the whistle’ on the Administration’s anti-science machinations. He’s also filed complaints under the Whistleblower Protection Act.
- Reuters is publishing a long investigative report on how Philip Morris is marketing tobacco in the developing world in violation of international agreements.
- I didn’t link to the New York piece on climate change that went viral last week, because it felt a bit like alarmism-porn to me, but I was pleased to see that climate scientists had some serious criticisms of the piece too.
- That original article – the most-read post in New York‘s history – also prompted this response from the New York Times, looking at how Y2K preparations might also help us work to prepare for or combat climate change. The author, Farhad Manjoo, argues that the New York was right to present worst-case scenarios, because that’s the only way to spur skeptics and do-nothings to act.
- Police in Alaska are fighting a law that would ban sexual contact between an officer and sex workers they’re going to arrest. Yes, you read that right: Cops want to be free to molest or have sex with sex workers during investigations.
- A Jehovah’s Witness died after refusing a necessary blood transfusion (because it’s against their religion), and a Pennsylvania court has told her family to stop suing the hospital.
- There’s something awful about the story here, but the headline is incredibly misleading: “My Daughter Was Murdered in a Mass Shooting. Then I Was Ordered to Pay Her Killer’s Gun Dealer.” It omits the part where the grieving mother sued the ammunition supplier, but that a federal law protects gun dealers from such lawsuits and requires plaintiffs to pay court costs. The problem here is that law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and the power that the gun lobby has in our country.
- Disney’s firing of longtime Muppeteer Steve Whitmire, the voice of Kermit the Frog since Jim Henson died in 1990, has gotten very ugly. (Disney owns ESPN, so I am a Disney employee.)
- Speaking of Disney, Vulture – for whom I occasionally write as a freelancer – looks at why the company spent half a billion dollars building an Avatar-themed area in the Animal Kingdom theme park. It might be fun, but how about adding a section to Animal Kingdom based on the Australian movie Animal Kingdom?
- It’s from February 2016, but this profile of Haitian-born Yankees prospect Estevan Florial, by Joel Sherman, is worth reading, especially now that Florial has broken out with his performance this year in low-A Charleston.
- DigBoston looks at racism in Boston sports, especially at WEEI, which has a long history of racist, misogynist, and other bigoted commentary and behavior from hosts. I have refused to go on the station for several years.
- A Republican Congressman from California asked a scientist during a public hearing if it was possible that there had once been an advanced civilization on Mars. We really do elect the worst people to govern us.
- One new study finds 91% of plastic ends up as trash, not recycling. Buy less plastic and reuse what you have.
- “Rape choreography” is an actual role now in film and TV production, but the process takes a toll on everyone involved, even those who are asked to keep the actors safe during filming. Hinted at a few times in that piece: There’s way too much rape in modern film and television.
- I never played much PnP Dungeons & Dragons, but I know many of you did. Paste looks at a new app, D&D Beyond, that may revolutionize the game for DMs and players.
- Still not sure if this New Yorker piece on avocado toast is serious, but I just want to say that I like avocado toast, as long as there’s a fried egg on it.
- Oakland Raiders runningback Marshawn Lynch bought an Oakland soul food place to keep it from closing down. But will they serve biscuits and gravy?