→ August 18, 2023
→ By

Music update, July 2023.

So this playlist has been done for two weeks, but I took PTO right after the deadline to go to Gen Con, rest and recharge, and do some family stuff, and I barely wrote a word while I was off other than my huge Gen Con wrapup. I’m pushing this one out because my August playlist is already at 19 songs and we have two Fridays left. Therefore, enjoy this list of songs released between 18 and roughly 50 days ago. As always, you can click here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

The Dinner Party – Sinner. This indie-rock quintet from London seems like they should be based in L.A. in the early 1980s, or maybe Brooklyn in the early aughts, like a blend of Sparks and Lucius.

Charly Bliss – You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore. CB’s first new track in three years, with their sophomore album Young Enough already four years old, is welcome news. I haven’t seen word yet of a new LP from this grunge-pop quartet.

Miles Kane – Wonder. Kane is half of the Last Shadow Puppets (with Alex Turner) and was the lead singer of the Rascals, but he’s recorded under his own name since the latter group broke up in 2009. There’s some Stone Roses to the guitar work here on this new single, released ahead of his latest album One Man Band, out August 4th.

Brad – Hey Now What’s the Problem. A funkier track from Brad’s final album, In the Moment that You’re Born, which features the last vocals from Shawn Smith. Smith died in April of 2019, and you know his work – he was also the lead singer for the band Pigeonhead, whose “Battle Flag” earned one of the great all-time remixes from the Lo-Fidelity All Stars.

Sampha – Spirit 2.0. Mercury Prize winner Sampha has one of the most distinctive voices in music right now – in a good way – and often elevates otherwise uninteresting material, but here he’s got a quick, frenetic track with vocals seem off-balance in a way that keeps your ear tuned in.

Metric – Just the Once. Not their best, far from their worst. I’m okay with Metric dialing it back just to write a fun dance-pop song every now and then.

Courting – Flex. Wikipedia calls them “art punk,” maybe because they have proper British accents. This is definitely poppier than that, but smarter than pop-punk. They feel like a band on the come, maybe one full album away from the big leagues. Also, I think that’s a “Mr. Brightside” reference.

The Front Bottoms – Emotional. Maybe the best call-and-response of the year, although the peculiar nasal thing they do near the chorus is offputting.

Yard Act – The Trench Coat Museum. Yard Act’s debut LP The Overload was my #3 album of 2022, although since it came out early in the year it’s been more like seventeen months since we last had new music from this extremely English art-punk band.

Royal Blood – Pull Me Through. Don’t let the piano intro fool you, there’s some crunchy bass-through-an-octave pedal work coming not too long after.

Tame Impala – Journey to the Real World. I mean, there are catchier songs on the Barbie soundtrack, but the mere fact that they picked Tame Impala to join a roster of explicitly pop acts is itself a reason to recommend the album. (Also, that stupid “Pink” song is still in my head.)

Bob Vylan – Dream Big. Grime rap combined with punk? I definitely hear a lot of Bad Brains in here, although I’m not very familiar with grime as a genre.

beabadoobee – the way things go. It’s a little twee, but it’s pretty catchy, and beabadoobee’s voice does lend itself well to this sort of light chamber-pop. I just don’t want to encourage too much of this.

Baby Queen – We Can Be Anything. Baby Queen is a 25-year-old singer from South Africa whose debut album, Quarter Life Crisis (get it? ugh), comes out on October 6th. It’s sort of avant-pop, with some clear Grimes influence in here.

BLOXX – Weight in Gold. So events have overtaken my playlist as BLOXX’s EP Modern Day is out, and its title track is on my in-progress August list. It’s upbeat, punk-tinged indie rock, kind of if Neon Trees were less overtly poppy with better lyrics, especially with a little more new wave influence on the EP’s five tracks.

Jungle – Back on 74. Volcano, the fifth LP from this British neo-soul duo, came out last Friday, and so far everything I’ve heard is … just fine. I haven’t caught a breakout single like “Busy Earnin,” “Happy Man,” or “The Truth,” just some very 70s sounds without the big hooks I’m used to from these guys.

Slowdive – Skin in the Game. The second single released ahead of next month’s Everything Is Alive, Slowdive’s second album since they returned from a 19-year hiatus in 2014. I also feel obligated to mention that I was in Commissary, a barbershop and café in Indianapolis, and the barista was playing Souvlaki in its entirety.

Romy – The Sea. Mid Air, the first solo album from the xx’s Romy Madley Croft, is due out September 8th, and I think it’s more pop-adjacent than her main band’s music or that of bandmate Jamie xx, whose debut album featured some guest vocals from Romy on “Loud Places.”

Lathe of Heaven – Ekpyrosis. You’d think this was some sort of extreme metal track from its name, which refers to the Greek Stoics’ belief that the universe would be destroyed and reborn every 36,000 years, but this is a NYC post-punk band that sounds like Killing Joke or early Ceremony, named after an Ursula K. Le Guin novel.

Horrendous – Preterition Hymn. I almost feel like I have to apologize when I include tracks with death growls, but man that big, swirling guitar riff that opens this song is something else. Horrendous’s first album in five years, Ontological Mysterium, is out today, August 18th, and the songs released ahead of it show a return to the musical ambition of their first two albums, even with some flourishes like the acoustic passage at the close of this song.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,
→ August 17, 2023
→ By

Barbie.

Barbie had already crossed the billion-dollar mark before I got to see it on Saturday, on top of weeks of positive reviews, hype, and discourse, which combined to both set a very high bar in terms of expectations while also likely predisposing me towards the movie a little bit because everyone seemed to like it – especially film critics and fans I know and respect. So bear all of that in mind when I tell you I pretty much loved this movie from start to superb-last-line finish.

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s script takes existing IP but does something wildly ambitious with it, turning a kids’ doll with very little lore or mythology other than the series of toys in the line’s history into a wide-ranging social commentary and satire on patriarchy, feminism, toxic masculinity, and consumerism, among other things. It’s also a visual feast, at least when the movie is in Barbie’s world, and packed with allusions, references, and entendres that appear to be double. (I was most partial to the Zack Snyder reference, although the Proust and Stephen Malkmus ones were close.) Aside from a slight slowing near the end of the film as the script grapples with how best to get the main characters to the finish line, it maintained its pace with quick wit and snappy dialogue that never talked down to the adults in the audience and provided plenty to keep the kids interested as well.

Barbie starts out with its titular character (Margot Robbie) in Barbieland, driving her tiny car, saying hi to all of the other Barbies, while an obnoxiously catchy song (“Pink”) by Lizzo plays. We also meet several Kens, including Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling), and discover that in Barbieland, girls run everything, and the guys are just various flavors of eye candy, competing for the Barbies’ attention. Beach Ken is obviously in love with Robbie’s Barbie, who we find out later is Stereotypical Barbie, but she doesn’t really need him – he needs her far more. Everything is perfect, every day, in every way, until Barbie is plagued by a sudden existential dread and things suddenly aren’t so perfect any more, which leads to the actual plot of the story, where she ends up going to the Real World to find the kid who’s playing with her and putting all of these thoughts and problems into Barbieland. This leads to a rather rude awakening for Barbie; a massive epiphany for Ken, who sneaks into her car as she’s leaving Barbieland and then discovers the glories of patriarchy; and a problem for the executives at Mattel, who would really rather not have a repeat of the time Skipper showed up in Key West.

I cannot praise this script enough; other than the set design, it’s the strongest part of a very strong movie. Gerwig and Baumbach had to satisfy so many stakeholders and, I presume, mandates: make it funny, make it smart, make it appeal to kids and adults, make it look great, make it authentic to the limited source material, don’t denigrate the doll or the line or its history, and so on. It is often laugh-out-loud funny, with Gosling actually delivering many of the better lines, and when it’s not, it’s mining humor from satire, or just from wry observations.

The pace is also superb, as we’re barely into the movie, with about ten minutes of worldbuilding in Barbieland, before Barbie utters the out-of-character line that kicks the plot in motion. So many movies, whether prestige films or films built off outside IP, are 150 minutes or more; Barbie didn’t need to be, and it isn’t, coming in at about 114 including the credits. The result is a movie that’s packed without feeling dense, and that only slackens a little towards the end as the movie has to focus entirely on resolving the main storyline.

Gosling does kind of steal Robbie’s thunder, though, which is a little ironic for a movie that’s not just about her character but about feminism and the absurdity of patriarchy. He’s just so good as Himbo Ken – well, it seems like all of the Kens are himbos, but he’s especially dim – and the script provides him with more chances to flex. Barbie is dismayed and annoyed in the real world, but Ken thinks it’s the best thing he’s ever seen, and his reactions to little things like someone asking him for the time are priceless. The remainder of the cast is probably more impressive on paper than in the movie because there’s barely enough for anyone else to do. About half of the cast of the Netflix series Sex Education is in this movie, including Emma Mackey (Physicist Barbie), who is the best actor on that series and seems destined for superstardom, and Ncuti Gatwa (Artist Ken), who’s taking over as the Doctor in the next season of Doctor Who. Both stand out when they’re on screen here, but neither gets much definition. Simu Liu is very, very funny as Tourist Ken, Beach Ken’s main rival, playing an obnoxious dudebro version of the character, although it’s also a pretty two-dimensional role. Michael Cera might have the best supporting performance here as Allan, Ken’s best friend, whom Cera plays as every character Michael Cera has ever played on TV or in film – and it’s hilarious. If it’s not him, it’s Rhea Perlman, who is also quite wonderful but in a character that gives the film its most saccharine moments. Bonus points if you spot Lucy Boynton’s cameo; I missed it until the credits, and jumped when I saw the Sing Street actress’s name – and that of her character, which completes a great joke from within the movie.

Given the critical acclaim and commercial performance, Barbie seems likely to earn a slew of awards nominations this cycle … and win very few of them. It might be the best lock for any set or production design awards, followed by costume design, but this could be the sort of movie that has to be happy with the honor of being nominated. The dark horse category here would be the screenplay, where Gerwig – who I really, really hope gets a director nomination now after she was snubbed for Lady Bird and especially for Little Women – and Baumbach get points both for technical merit and artistic integrity. They chose a high level of difficulty and still succeeded, while also slipping in plenty of inside-Hollywood jokes to please that crowd. I’ll go on a limb and predict it gets eight Oscar nods: Picture, Director, Song, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Film Editing, Makeup/Hairstyling, and Costume Design. That’s not what I’m saying it will deserve – I haven’t seen any other contenders yet, with most of them still unreleased to the public – but a wild guess on what it will end up getting. I wouldn’t be the least bit upset to see Robbie or Gosling get a nod, although my gut says that enough voters will decide that the movie isn’t serious enough, the same way actors in genre films have had a hard time breaking through for nominations. Barbie totally captured me once the 2001 homage ended, and I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t end up among my ten favorite movies of the year.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,
→ August 12, 2023
→ By

Stick to baseball, 8/12/23.

I’m back, in more ways than one – I took some PTO right after the deadline to go to Gen Con, get some downtime, and just generally focus on myself for once. I’ll be back at work on Monday, although my next article probably won’t run until later in the week.

I was quite busy leading up to the trade deadline. I started with my midseason re-ranking of the top 60 prospects in the minors. Then I started breaking down trades as they happened:

Plus a brief look at some of the teams that did the best and the worst at the deadline.

Meanwhile, I wrapped up everything I saw and played at Gen Con, including my top ten games of the convention (which saw a record 70,000 unique attendees), and reviewed the family cooperative game Miller Zoo.

I’ve had two great guests on the Keith Law Show from the music world – Susanna Hoffs, talking about her debut novel This Bird Has Flown and her new album The Deep End; and Joe Casey of Protomartyr, talking about their new album Formal Growth in the Desert and his beloved Tigers. You can listen & subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And now, the links, gathered over the last four weeks…

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
→ July 16, 2023
→ By

Stick to baseball, 7/16/23.

For subscribers to the Athletic, here’s an index to my draft coverage from this past week:

I also recapped the Futures Game and wrote a brief note on the call-up of Pirates’ right-hander Quinn Priester.

I had Joe Sheehan back on the podcast last week, before the draft, and then skipped this week to write all that stuff above. You can listen & subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I’m a little pressed for time so let’s get to the links:

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
→ July 15, 2023
→ By

Seattle eats.

I hadn’t been to Seattle in 22 years before this past weekend, and it was 25 years since I lived there for a summer. Other than a swing through Pike Place Market, I didn’t hit any old haunts like Caffe Ladro or Gelatiamo or Zeke’s Pizza on this trip, between wanting to try new places, skipping a rental car, and staying in a hotel near the convention center that wasn’t near where I lived in 1998 (the northern side of Queen Anne).

I didn’t plan to do a brief pizza tour of Seattle, but that’s how things worked out. The first stop was Delancey, a wood-fired pizzeria in Essex that does an especially thin crust, more so than traditional Neapolitan pizzas have. I had the crimini, a white pizza with that type of mushroom, thyme, fresh mozzarella, and olive oil. The flavors were spot on – I happen to love mushrooms with thyme in any dish or form – but unfortunately the pizza was slightly overcooked, and I say that as someone who likes a little char on the edges of any pizza cooked at these temperatures. They do make an excellent Manhattan, though.

The next night, I went to Café Lago on Capitol Hill because they’re renowned for handmade pastas … but on Mondays it’s $10 for their wood-fired pizzas, and who am I to argue with that? I ordered a half portion of their Caesar salad, which was solid-average, and then the salsiccia pizza, with sausage, red peppers, fontina, and mozzarella. The cuisine here is Tuscan, so the pizza isn’t Neapolitan but it’s similar, just with less dough around the edges, and the dough was about as light as I’ve ever had – I can’t believe I ate the whole thing, but I did, because the dough felt so light and the ratio of toppings to dough was perfect. The sausage was the predominant flavor on the pizza, in a good way; it wasn’t excessively salty or flavored with fennel, which I find can overwhelm a pizza. Delancey’s style is closer to my personal favorite, but Café Lago’s pizza was better. (I also had the interesting experience of hearing the song that’s been my ring tone for at least 15 years now, “Love Spreads” by the Stone Roses, on the sound system in the restaurant – the bartender told me he makes his own playlists for when he’s on duty – which led to some serious cognitive confusion.)

I could walk from the hotel to the Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar on Capitol Hill in less than ten minutes, so I had lunch there to take a break from writing on Monday, ordering their shrimp roll and three (raw) oysters, which I asked the server to choose for me because I don’t know a damn thing about oysters. They were much larger than what I’m used to as an east coaster and the server did a hell of a job, giving me three different flavor profiles from briny to sweet. The shrimp roll has local bay shrimp, celery, shallots, pickled Fresno chiles, tossed in a light herb aioli and served on a brioche bun. The bun was the best part, which is no knock on the filling, but my god, I could eat that bread every day until I die and be happy. Shrimp salad is so hit or miss, mostly miss in my experience, but in this case the dressing was so light that I could still taste the shrimp and the chiles.

Taurus Ox also shows up on best-of lists and was another reader recommendation. It’s a Laotian restaurant with a small but fascinating menu – they’re apparently known for their burger, among other things – and I went with what seemed like a traditional choice, the Laotian pork sausage with sticky rice, chilled vegetables and jaew bong. I could tell this was expertly made and included very high-quality ingredients … but I didn’t like any of it. The predominant flavor was capsaicin, not just for its spice but for its strongly bitter flavor, couple with the bitter heat of galangal, so all I got was bitter and hot. The texture of the sausage was fantastic, but it was hard to enjoy it with all the bitter notes. I think this just wasn’t for me.

Oriental Mart is a stand in Pike Place Market, across the street from the main hall, and you can order food at the front (street-side) to eat at one of the handful of stools in the back. They only offer a handful of dishes but you can watch the chef, Ate Lila, making them if you sit in the right spot. I split my order between salmon sinigang and chicken adobo, and my only complaint was that I wanted more of both. The chicken was fall-off-the-bone tender with the deep gingery flavor of the braising liquid, while the salmon was perfectly medium when I got it, although sitting in the hot liquid of the soup it was probably going to end up overcooked if I hadn’t eaten it quickly. The broth itself was only a little tangy – I don’t know Filipino cuisine well, but I know sinigang is supposed to be sour – and I wished there were a few more vegetables in it. Okay, that’s a modest complaint.

Portage Bay Café is kind of the Seattle version of the southwest chain Snooze; they do oversized breakfast plates and big combinations. I had the mushroom benedict, which had some very fresh and maybe undercooked mushrooms, while the breakfast potatoes were well-cooked but way too salty.

Hello Robin is a cookie shop on Capitol Hill that also sells Molly Moon’s ice cream and, if you are a little bit creatively inclined, you can get them … together. I did the “open-faced” version, because I am but one small man with a tiny stomach, getting one chocolate chip cookie with “melted chocolate” ice cream, the latter of which reminded me a ton of Toscanini’s Belgian chocolate ice cream from my Massachusetts days. The cookie was really outstanding even though I probably would call it overcooked, given how browned the edges were, but it was bursting with brown sugar and butter flavor. This was my post-Taurus Ox dessert and it made up for it.

Frankie & Jo’s, right next door to Delancey, does vegan ice creams, and some of the flavors are, to be kind, batshit. Not in the sense of containing batshit, but nobody needs chaga mushrooms or maca root in their frozen non-dairy dessert product. However, if you navigate the menu carefully, there are some more sensible flavor combinations. I went with mint brownie, because I’m not a savage; it’s peppermint ice cream with dark chocolate brownie pieces and cacao nibs. They use a coconut milk base, and the texture is as good as I’ve ever had in non-dairy ice cream. There was no point where I wished I was eating the real thing, which is impressive because I love real ice cream from cow’s milk, with all the butterfat and, unfortunately, the lactose. After eating an entire pizza at Delancey, this was the dessert I needed.

I tried two coffee spots while in Seattle, both fairly old school, Victrola and Espresso Vivace. Victrola was the easier walk, so I went there twice and came home with a bag of Rwandan beans from there. They don’t do pour-over but seem to always have a single-origin on drip, as well as the usual array of espresso drinks. Vivace runs like a machine, with two lines and a barista dedicated to each, and their espresso struck a perfect balance of acidity and natural sweetness.

Finally, two people recommended Stateside, which I walked by a half-dozen times … but they’re only open Wednesday through Saturday, so I wasn’t able to try it. They do upscale Vietnamese-influenced food and I’m sorry I missed them and their partner cocktail bar Foreign National.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
→ July 2, 2023
→ By

Music update, June 2023.

These lists just keep getting longer, and still I feel like I’m probably missing a lot of great tracks. June saw some outstanding new albums – Queens of the Stone Age, Godflesh, Django Django, Protomartyr, Portugal. the Man to name a few – but my favorite was Geese’s 3D Country, the sophomore record from the Brooklyn post-punk band whose Projector was such a surprise back in 2021. So this month’s playlist has 32 songs and runs over two hours, helped by two tracks that run over seven minutes each, but I just couldn’t bear to cut anything else. As always, here’s the link to the playlist.

Pip Blom & Alex Kapranos – Is This Love? I wasn’t familiar with Pip Blom, a Dutch indie-pop band named for its lead singer, before this track; Kapranos is, of course, Franz Ferdinand’s lead singer/guitarist. This collaboration might be the best pure pop song I’ve heard all year, and the chorus is very early FF.

Beck w/Phoenix – Odyssey. A one-off single ahead of the two artists’ joint tour this summer, representing Beck at his most pop and Phoenix continuing the same vibe as last year’s Alpha Zulu. It should be the feel-good hit of the summer.

Speedy Ortiz – You S02. Man I am glad to have Speedy Ortiz back. This is the second straight single that’s peak Speedy, and “Plus One,” which they just released on Friday, is too. Rabbit Rabbit, their first full-length LP in five years, is due out in September.

The Mysterines – Begin Again. I loved most of the Mysterines’ singles and EPs prior to the release of their debut album Reeling in March of 2022, but that record didn’t include any of their best songs to that point; the sound was there, but the hooks were a little lacking. This is the first single from their as-yet untitled and undated second LP, and I like the melody and the sultry vocals, even if it doesn’t quite rock out the way the band can.

Louise Post – What About. Sound familiar? I’ll give you a hint – the seether’s Louise. (One, two, three, four!) That is indeed Veruca Salt lead singer Louise Post, who just released her debut solo album, Sleepwalker, on June 2nd.

Queens of the Stone Age – Paper Machete. I’ll say two things about the new QotSA album, In Times New Roman: I hate all the punny song titles (“Carnavoyeur,” “Obscenery”), and I think it’s a good record that reflects Josh Homme’s age and increasing interest in melding more pop songs with the traditional QotSA crunch and even his stoner-metal roots.

Weird Nightmare – She’s the One. Alex Edkins (METZ) records as Weird Nightmare, and this latest track is more jangle-pop than his last album was, leaning even into late 60’s pop music.

Sprints – Adore Adore Adore. I love how the chorus here channels rage into a great earworm. No word on a new album from these Irish punks, although they’re touring with Suede later this year.

BLOXX – Runaway. The second single this year from this London punk-pop quartet, a step up from “Television Promises,” as we await word on a new album.

Tame Impala – Retina Show. The better of the two unreleased demo tracks from the Lonerism sessions, released now on that album’s tenth anniversary. The breakbeat here behind the music pairs so well with the psycheledia in the guitar and the overall production.

STONE – I Gotta Feeling. STONE put out their first EP Punkadonk in November and keep churning out high-energy singles, this time with spoken-word lyrics – not exactly rapped, thank goodness – in advance of their performance at Glastonbury last weekend.

Ghost of Vroom – Still Getting It Done. Mike Doughty’s new Soul Coughing-ish act has put out two new songs in 2023, this and “Pay the Man,” with this song better both musically and lyrically, with more of that drum-and-bass vibe from his original band.

Jungle feat. Channel Tres – I’ve Been in Love. The London-based neo-soul duo Jungle will release their fourth album, Volcano, on August 11th, with this the third single off the record, featuring guest vocals from American rapper Channel Tres.

Satin Jackets feat. Panama – Alive. I’m a Panama fan going way back to 2013’s “Always,” although now the Australian trio mostly collaborates with other artists, including several tracks with German producer Satin Jackets. This one sounds quite a bit like those early Panama tracks, all electronic pop with a great hook.

Cory Wong feat. Ben Rector – Ready. The ubertalented multi-instrumentalist Wong has lined up a huge collection of collaborators for his upcoming album The Lucky One, due out August 18th, including this soulful track with singer/songwriter Rector, with whom Wong has worked and toured before, as well as another track “Hiding on the Moon” with O.A.R.

Grian Chatten – The Score. Chatten is the lead singer/guitarist for the British punk act Fontaines D.C., but his solo debut Chaos For the Fly is a shocker, a lush, soft, acoustic-driven collection of subtle ballads and folk songs, led by this track, along with the previous singles “Fairlies” and “Last Time Every Time Forever.”

Slowdive – kisses. Slowdive returned in 2017 to release their first new music in 22 years, then went dark again, but they’re back with this new track and another album, Everything Is Alive, due out on September 1st. Slowdive have always found themselves lumped in the shoegaze movement, but at least since their return, they’ve been firmly planted in dream-pop, and this shimmering song is another example of how they create lush textures combining music and voice.

Geese – 3D Country. The title track from what might be my favorite album of the first half of 2023 comes from this group of NYC kids barely out of their teens, whose Projector was my #4 album of 2021. They’ve expanded their sound in myriad ways, maintaining their experimental leanings but incorporating classic rock, country, and jazz with their previous take on post-punk. I see a lot of comparisons to Squid, but Geese’s songs are tighter, still ambitious and even meandering (fitting with the album’s concept) but always with purpose.

Public Image Ltd. – Car Chase. Fresh off their fourth-place finish in Eurovision with their song “Hawaii,” a tribute to John Lydon’s wife, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease at the time and died in April, PiL have this new track that’s much more in line with their traditional sound. Their first new album in eight years, End of World, comes out on August 11th.

Protomartyr – For Tomorrow. I haven’t gotten through all of their newest album Formal Growth in the Desert, but I’ve liked several of the songs I’ve heard already, and the song “3800 Tigers” includes a reference to Lou Whitaker, so how can I not love it?

Portugal. the Man – Plastic Island. Chris Black Changed My Mind is a huge departure from Woodstock, way less poppy and less rock-oriented, this time with a wide array of guest musicians from different genres and even eras (Edgar Winter!). I think it’s going to disappoint a lot of people who only jumped on the band because of “Feel It Still” but it’s thematically in line with their two albums before that one – and I’d guess a little bit of a rejection of mainstream success and airplay too. There’s a lot to like but it’s just a less accessible album.

Christine and the Queens – Big Eye. Chris’s new album Paranoïa, Angels, True Love is a sprawling 20-track record loosely built around the story of the play Angels in America with guest appearances from Madonna on three of the songs, and it can’t help but be uneven in parts. It’s also a broad departure from his prior mature-pop style, meaning there aren’t the immediate ‘hits’ like “Tilted” or “5 dollars,” but the record has some huge, soaring moments where his music matches his ambitions, like this seven-minute track.

Romy – Loveher. Romy (of the xx) sounds incredible here on the latest single ahead of her long-delayed debut solo album, Mid Air, due out in September, although the music below the vocals is a little simple. Her voice just carries the day.

Django Django – Gazelle. The Djangos released an album in four “parts,” effectively EPs, called Off Planet in mid-June, to generally strong reviews that all seem to agree that it’s too long (by length, it’s a double album, although conceptually it’s not). I’ve stuck with the Djangos for a decade even though nothing they’ve done has had the commercial or critical success of “Default” and their Mercury-nominated eponymous debut album in 2012. I just like their general sound of psycheledic-tinged dance-pop, of which this is an especially good example.

D.A. Stern feat. Sarah Chernoff – Lovebird. Chernoff was the singer for the short-lived group Superhumanoids and I’ve followed her solo career since they disbanded because I think she’s one of the best vocalists I’ve ever heard. Here she provides guest vocals for the LA-based songwriter/producer Stern, finding her in more of a rock vein than anything I think she’s done before.

Kyo feat. Coeur de Pirate – Dernière danse. Béatrice provides guest vocals on one verse of this track by French rock band Kyo, who’ve been around for a quarter century but of whom I hadn’t heard before this, probably because they sing in French, and we just don’t cotton to that sort of thing around here.

The Hives – Countdown to Shutdown. These Swedish rockers will release their first album in 11 years, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, on August 11th, and just like the first single from the record (“Bogus Operandi”) this one has a very simple, loud, catchy guitar riff powering the track forward.

Rival Sons – Mirrors. I admit that Rival Sons’ sound isn’t the most original, but they do come up with some great riffs that bridge the gap between 1970s rock like Led Zeppelin (their most obvious influence, I think) and the early 1980s metal bands that at least started out as Zep clones, even if they later asphyxiated on their own hairspray.

Post Animal – Aging Forest. Well this certainly isn’t going to slow the comparisons of Post Animal to Tame Impala. You can hear the Kevin Parker influence in the chorus, while the verses are more doom than psychedelica. As an aside, Stranger Things’ Joe Keery was in Post Animal when they recorded their first album, but left the band as the show took off.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Dragon. Yes, it’s nearly ten minutes long, although most of the songs on the new album, ridiculously titled PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, are on the longer side, as the band goes back to the heavier metal sounds of Infest the Rats’ Nest with a more open, jamband approach to the music.

Horrendous – Cult of Shaad’oah. Horrendous’ highly progessive death metal sound is still here, but the vocals are actually more shouted than growled for large parts of this track, off their upcoming album Ontological Mysterium (August 18th).

Godflesh – LAND LORD. I include Godflesh here as much for their massive importance in the history of metal; they all but created the industrial metal subgenre, merging their now signature non-musical sounds with the detuned guitars and extreme riffing of the grindcore genre that was ascendant at the same time in the U.K. Streetcleaner was such a shock to the metal system, especially given the dominance of hair metal in 1989, and tracks like “Christbait Rising” and “Like Rats” still stand up exceptionally well. Their latest record, PURGE, is less overwhelming than their last two albums – both of which came after their breakup and re-formation – with a more open and, odd as it is to say, brighter sound, with the guitars up front and the bass & drum machine produced a little towards the rear. Highlights include this, “NERO,” and “ARMY OF NON,” which has a sample of a rapper saying “Check it out, y’all” that I think might be Slick Rick.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,
→ July 1, 2023
→ By

Stick to baseball, 6/30/23.

I posted my 2023 Mock Draft v3.0 this week, and as usual did a Q&A to take your questions on it. Going forward, I’ll have the last Big Board update later this upcoming week and then mock 4.0 on Saturday, the morning I fly to Seattle to cover the Futures Game and then the draft. I also did a just-for-fun piece on who I’d put on the All-Star rosters, and then I avoided the comments entirely. I was a lot more active in the comments on the other pieces, including my scouting blog on Jackson Holliday and Brady House. And I weighed in on Friday night on the two players going to Kansas City in the Aroldis Chapman trade.

Over at Paste, I reviewed Rebuilding Seattle, a midweight economic game with some polyomino tile-laying aspects, an imposing game on the table that plays pretty quickly and doesn’t have that many rules to learn.

And now, the links…

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
→ June 30, 2023
→ By

Challengers.

Challengers is one of the hottest new games of 2023, and snagged a Kennerspiel des Jahres nomination already (along with Iki and Planet Unknown). I’ve played it a bunch. It sucks.

Challengers does two extremely annoying things. One, the biggest flaw in the game, is that it is deeply asymmetrical in a way that can leave certain players at a huge disadvantage. It’s a small-deck deckbuilding game, but you only get a selection of six cards in each round and can choose one or two. If you don’t like the cards, you can refresh the supply one time, but that’s it. Since those sextets are drawn randomly from much larger decks, you can easily end up seeing a strictly inferior set of cards to those your opponents see. That alone would be enough to make a game suck.

The other is that its core mechanics are totally unoriginal. It’s a flag battle, where players flip cards from their decks to try to match or top the defense value of their opponent’s last played card, and regain control of the flag. A battle ends when one player has to draw and can’t, or when one player has to discard but already has filled all six spots on their bench (one spot per unique card type). This is Magic: the Gathering stuff and every game that it inspired or that just flat-out copied it. It’s also a game where most of the cards have unique powers, which just reeks of plans for future expansions, and also increases the learning curve for new players because you have to learn what’s in all the decks. Some games do this well, like Wingspan. Challengers does not.

In Challengers, up to 8 players will build their decks, adding one or two cards in each round and removing as many cards as they wish, then doing battle with one opponent. Each battle’s winner gets a trophy worth some random amount of fans, with that amount increasing as the rounds progress. The players with the most fans after all seven rounds play each other for the championship. Since the battles take place simultaneously, the game doesn’t take any longer with 8 players than it would with 2, in theory, at least.

The cards you can add progress in strength and special powers, with three levels, A, B, and C. In the first two rounds, you can only add from the A deck; by the seventh round, you can only add from the C deck; and in some intervening rounds you might have a choice of two decks. There are also multiple sets (colors) in each deck, which can matter for cards that only work on cards of the same set, or that change power based on how many different sets are on your bench. There are some cards that let you remove cards that are already on your bench, which in my experience are the most valuable and coveted cards – but you can play an entire game and never have a chance to add a single one of these (Butler, Sorceror, Vacuum Cleaner, etc.). Some cards also let you gain additional fans regardless of whether you won that match, even giving you fans just for selecting the card.

There’s nothing terribly new here, and it feels more than anything like a game to make money rather than a game you’d want to play again and again. The asymmetry of it is just too extreme for me – the game is fundamentally broken. If I want extreme randomness, I’m pretty sure there’s a dusty copy of Sorry! somewhere in the basement.

As for the Kennerspiel, I’ve played this, and I’ve played Iki, but have only seen Planet Unknown, which I think is out of print at the moment. Iki is fine, although the game itself is several years old and just made it to Europe within the last twelve months, so it was Spiel eligible without actually being new (like someone getting a Best New Artist Grammy nomination for their fifth album). Planet Unknown looks fantastic, and I’m still hoping to snag a copy somewhere. The slate of nominees for the Kennerspiel and the regular Spiel just contributed to my general sense that the award has become too hit or miss for me to worry about. The 2022 winners, Cascadia (Spiel) and Living Forest (Kennerspiel), were fantastic and both worthy of the honor. The previous year’s Spiel winner was MicroMacro Crime City, a perfectly fine game that didn’t break that much new ground and felt like a larger version of something I might have seen in GAMES magazine as a kid. In 2020, the Spiel went to Pictures, a goofy party game; and the Kennerspiel went to The Crew, an interesting cooperative trick-taking game that wasn’t good enough to earn the award or complex enough to win the “expert’s game” honor. And so on – they get some right, but they might be batting around .500. The award still matters a ton for sales and marketing, so I’m not dismissing or ignoring it, but I don’t think I’m using the same criteria they are when it comes to thinking about games.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,
→ June 24, 2023
→ By

Stick to baseball, 6/24/23.

I released my second mock draft for 2023 this week for subscribers to the Athletic. I also did a Q&A to answer your draft questions.

My guest on the Keith Law Show this week was Michael Ruhlman, author of Ruhlman’s Twenty and the brand-new The Book of Cocktail Ratios: The Surprising Simplicity of Classic Cocktails, which is an essential guide for any home bartender. You can listen & subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And now, the links…

  • Longreads first: The New Yorker’s Louisa Thomas has a tremendous story on the vicissitudes of Daniel Bard’s career, as he’s had at least two distinct comebacks already in his baseball life. (There’s also a mention of Keith Law Show guest Sian Beilock, author of Choke.)
  • Defector has the story of con artist John Rogers, who scammed people out of millions through his business of buying and digitizing photo archives from major newspapers and professional photographers.
  • NBC News’s Brandy Zadrozny interviewed putative Presidential candidate and science denier Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who shows just how divorced from reality he is, claiming that the powers-that-be prolonged the pandemic, that the vaccines killed more people than they saved (they did not), and that the CIA killed his father. He also still doesn’t understand that the mercury found in fish and the mercury that used to be found in vaccines were in completely different forms that the human body handles differently.
  • The British government is holding over 60 migrants, mostly Tamils, in a makeshift detention camp on Diego Garcia, with conditions deteriorating and what seems like an end-run around refugee rights because the Brits are claiming the island, which houses a military base, isn’t actually part of the UK.
  • Starbucks caved to pressure from bigots and removed Pride décor from many of its stores. Workers from over 150 locations are going on strike to protest the move.
  • The astroturfing group Moms for Liberty, which is pushing book bans and other anti-LGBTQ+ policies, quoted Hitler … again.
  • Thiefdom, a new game from the designers of Clans of Caledonia, is now also up on Kickstarter. I don’t like Clans of Caledonia anywhere near as much as the consensus – I find it a rather soulless economic Euro – but this appears to be a totally different sort of game.
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
→ June 15, 2023
→ By

Klawchat 6/15/23.

Check out my redraft of the 2013 MLB draft class if you’re a subscriber to the Athletic. The companion piece, looking at the first-round picks from 2013 who didn’t pan out, will run on Friday.

Keith Law: Pick me up and shake the doubt. Klawchat.

Ben: favorite restaurant in Newark DE?
Keith Law: I almost never eat down there – there’s plenty up here by us in Wilmington, or in Kennett Square if we want something a little different.

Adam: Is Orlando Arcia’s season real? Or SSS
Keith Law: A .394 BABIP isn’t sustainable, especially not for a guy whose career BABIP in the majors was around .290 coming into this year. That said, I think a little of the improvement is real this year – he’s making a lot more hard contact than ever, after already showing some improvement in that area in 2022, so I would buy him as a regular, just not a star like he’s been so far this year.

Adam: When Acuna goes 40/60 while hitting .320 and winning MVP will that be the greatest single season ever?
Keith Law: No.

ChicagoSteve: Hate to be a total homer, but I have to ask about George Wolkow’s draft prospects. How does his commitment to South Carolina affect the likelihood that he’ll be drafted? Any insights into his signability?
Keith Law: I don’t discuss signability unless it’s very public already – and in many cases what I know about signability is hearsay to the point that I can’t be certain it’s accurate.

Dave: I read that Dylan Crews pulled himself out of the draft when coming out of high school. Do you remember where he was graded from a talent perspective? Would he have been a top-10 pick? First round? Later? Thank you for all the great insights about the draft.
Keith Law: I saw him in HS, right before the world ended. He came into the year as a likely first-rounder, probably top 15, and then got off to a subpar start with more swing and miss than usual, only to have his season end due to the pandemic. The thought at the time he withdrew was that he knew he wasn’t going to be drafted as high as he wanted/expected so he chose to skip it entirely. Can’t say it was a bad decision.

addoeh: Looking forward to the mushroom and truffle pizza at Serious Pie in Seattle?
Keith Law: I am not familiar with this – haven’t been to Seattle in over 20 years, actually.

Brendan B: No question. Just screaming into the void for Bo Naylor to catch 6 days/week in MLB and Amed Rosario to stop blocking 5 shortstop prospects in Cleveland.
Keith Law: Yep. Naylor and Rocchio and LFG.

Greasy Nick: Interesting to see PCA slightly downgraded by some folks (presumably) due to the swing and miss in his game. Do you think he has the chops to be an above average hitter?
Keith Law: Not sure what you mean – I haven’t downgraded him anywhere. He’s driving the ball more this year, if anything.

Slothburg: Victor Bericoto & Tyler Fitzgerald both having great starts to the season. Any chance either of them profile as regulars at their respective positions?
Keith Law: Fitzgerald was 25 in AA – I’ve seen him, don’t think he’s more than an up and down guy. I haven’t seen Bericoto.

Adam: Has AJ Minter exceeded your expectations? I understand he’s a reliever but during his rise through the minors you were pretty low on him I feel like
Keith Law: No, I said he’d be a reliever and he has been.

Mike: Think the nats should give cj abrams some time in aaa?
Keith Law: I don’t think that would do him any good. He needs to get stronger, not to go face lesser competition.

Matt W: What do you see as Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s likely upside? MLB regular, bench player..?
Keith Law: Platoon or part-time player. I think RH breaking stuff is going to give him a ton of trouble in the majors.

Chris: Would Giolito as a rental fetch a top 100 prospect at the deadline?
Keith Law: I think so, but I also don’t spend any time asking FO people about hypothetical trade value. It’s more from seeing what comparable guys returned in past years.

Deke: So … Wingspan. My brother’s family and my family have gotten together to play board games regularly. Catan, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, we love that sort. We tried Wingspan a while back and the whole collection of us could not make heads or tails of the instructions. It was a huge letdown after seeing you and so many others talk it up as the best game ever. Is there some trick we needed to try? We couldn’t even figure out how to get started in a “start playing and you’ll figure it out” sort of way.
Keith Law: I would suggest finding the Watch It Played video on youtube for it – Rodney Smith does those, in conjunction with the publishers, and I think he has the best and clearest instructional videos out there. Wingspan is daunting to start, but actually not that complex to play once you get going. It’s just of information to gather a lot up front.

Mike: When does ben brown get the call? Is he more of a mid rotation sp or back end?
Keith Law: Could be mid rotation, of course back end more likely.

Michael: Hey Klaw- wondering if you’ve had a chance to see Orion Kerkering? Or heard anything from scouts. Any chance there is something there other than an 80 grade name? Could he be a GUY? Thanks!
Keith Law: Straight reliever, huge spin on two pitches, command and control very questionable. I’d move him up quickly though – he’s just getting guys out with pure stuff now, not being forced to work on locating.

Mike: Is Trey Lipscomb a potential regular?
Keith Law: No.

Aaron C.: Please build us your perfect sandwich. Type of bread, condiments, protein(s), etc. Spare no details, klaw.
Keith Law: Something like this: Turkey on any sort of rye, some kind of flavored mayo like chipotle or sriracha or failing that a little mayo and mustard, lettuce, pickles, pickled onions, roasted red peppers, oregano, salt. If I’m home, I use Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle.

Ryan: Small sample size but Salas almost has a .400 OBP in Low A as a 17 year old. Do you think he could make the majors by the time he’s 20?
Keith Law: You’re cherrypicking a little there – he’s drawing walks at a crazy clip (over 20%), but the rest of the line is just fine until you consider his age. I do think he can see the majors by the time he’s 20, but I don’t think this small sample so far has changed anything except maybe to indicate that he’s not overmatched like most 17-year-olds would be.

Matt: Not an A’s fan, but why can’t MLB force the owner to sell? I remember when Oakland had the highest payroll in baseball back in the Bash Brothers days. They clearly have the fanbase.
Keith Law: On what grounds?

Alex in Austin: Would you move Luis Matos in your rankings at all based on the first 2 months performance?
Keith Law: Less on performance specifically but on health & return to how he looked in 2021 pre-injury when he did make my top 100.

Guest: I doubt that Vientos is a star but why bring him up just to sit him? Why not leave him in the minors if they aren’t willing to play him?
Keith Law: I wonder if this is another case where the FO brought up a guy Buck doesn’t like so he won’t play him.

Mac: Probably didnt make the cut for your first round misses piece but, as a Stanford fan, what was the downfall of Austin Wilson?
Keith Law: He wasn’t a first-rounder, so no. I thought the swing never recovered post-Stanford. I know some scouts who never thought he was that advanced a hitter.

Alex: Have you changed your long term outlook on Kyle Bradish based on his performance this year and last, or do you still see him as a future reliever?
Keith Law: No change. He had a nearly 5 ERA last year, so I’m not sure how that would change anything. Baltimore’s defense helps him a lot (which is to the team’s credit).

Andrew: I read a stat that the Tigers have produced 20 less WAR from their hitting than the next worse club. I’m really hoping Langford falls to 3, as a fan tired of bad at bats.
Keith Law: They have to take the right guy, and then develop him. I was never wild about Torkelson, but come on – I don’t think anybody thought he’s struggle as much as he has (acknowledging that he’s started to hit more this month).

Aaron C.: Almost time for the 2023 half-year award. Best meal you’ve had so far this year? Best dessert?
Keith Law: Best meal I’ve had this year was at Talula’s Table in Kennett Square. Honorable mentions to Laser Wolf in Philly, Juniper & Ivy in San Diego, Baba in St. Petersburg. Best dessert was the coffee ganache-topped ‘yodel’ at Juniper & Ivy.

Dana: Should the Yankees bite the bullet and swap Volpe for Peraza, at least in the short term?
Keith Law: Not a bad idea. Also, again, a reminder that making major roster decisions off spring training performance is generally not a good idea. It’s like hiring off the interview rather than the resume.

Dallas: Liover Pegiero seems to be heating up in AA and is still only 22. Do you foresee him having a future in the big leagues, and what should the pirates do with their glutony of middle infield prospects?
Keith Law: I like Peguero but he’s repeating the level, so we need to see him carry over these improvements to AAA.

James: Are we concerned about Emmanuel Rodriguez’ K rate yet? Any change on his potential outcomes or still too early to make any difference?
Keith Law: He was promoted to high A after just 47 games in low A and then a season-ending injury. And he’s only 20. I’d have a lot more patience with him.

Jesse B: Any concern with Kevin Alcantara not walking or hitting hrs?
Keith Law: More the BB and K numbers. The homers will come. Still young, but not what I was hoping for.

Mike: Favorite east coast beach?
Keith Law: I am not a beach person, sorry.

Ryan: Where do you think Tanner Witt fits in this upcoming draft? Obviously he hasn’t looked incredible this early off TJ, though it seems like what you would expect. Dodgers first pick(seems very Dodgersy) to the Comp B round seem realistic for him?
Keith Law: I think something like that – some team hoping they’re nabbing a first-rounder on the cheap.

Duder: How far does Jacob Wilson drop?
Keith Law: Who says he’s dropping?

Duder: Who’s got the most helium and could slip into the 1st round who you never would have guessed would get there at the start of the year?
Keith Law: That is easily Joe Whitman at Kent State.

HH: I have heard much less about pitcher abuse by college coaches the last couple of years. Have thing actually improved?
Keith Law: Yes, absolutely. I think one big reason is they know people are watching, including scouts and recruits.

Chris: How excited should I get as a Brewers fan about Jacob Misiorowski’s early-career returns? Can be become an elite pitching prospect?
Keith Law: I wrote him up last month – that delivery is not going to let him be a starter. https://bit.ly/3BFXPtJ

JR: Remember all the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth about universal DH? And now you hear almost nothing about it? Guess it didn’t ruin the game after all!
Keith Law: Yep. Now they’re complaining about other things that might “ruin” the game.

chauncey: what is wrong with the mets?
Keith Law: I don’t think it’s one single thing but perhaps betting that much on older starting pitchers wasn’t a great plan.

Brian in NoVA: At what point does Baltimore start thinking of trading about some of their position players prospects to get some pitching? It feels like they have their window of contention is getting close.
Keith Law: Now, right? I feel like this July is that time.

Reedy: Is there anything to fix with Cam Collier? He oozes talent but the numbers are not following thus far.
Keith Law: He’s fine. He’s younger than many high school guys in this draft.

Jason: thoughts on Roman Anthony?\
Keith Law: Interesting choice to promote a guy based primarily on his batted-ball data without expecting to see more in-game results. He was a really interesting upside play in last year’s draft, though, so I believe it’s real and he’s going to be one of their top prospects by year-end.

Guest: With the passing of Cormac McCarthy, what are your thoughts on his legacy? I know you have a couple of his books on your all-time favorite list. Will he be regarded as one of the best American writers?
Keith Law: I think he already is. Look at a lot of what was written about him this past week. And I know Harold Bloom had already said McCarthy was among the American greats.

Drew: Sheehan, Frasso, and Knack have all been outstanding. Do any of them project as an ace? Or mid/back end guys?
Keith Law: If Sheehan sticks in the rotation, he’ll be an above-average one. The other two I think are very likely relievers, albeit good ones.

Teej: Are you making your way to San Diego this year? Any thoughts on Luis Matos that wasn’t already covered in your “just missed”?
Keith Law: I was out there in April. Matos looks completely healthy and like everything that was wrong last year, into the AFL, may just have been about being less than 100%.

Alex: Any sense of how the league values Jordan Westburg? Seems weird that the Orioles haven’t promoted him yet.
Keith Law: I agree that it’s weird that he and Ortiz are still in AAA. I understand Mateo provides a lot of value on defense, but he’s a .250 OBP guy. He might be the worst everyday hitter in baseball right now.

davealden53: Happy belated 50th.  How sustainable is Ezequiel Duran’s 2023 performance?  The BABiP shows some luck but not enough to explain his output.  And where will he play?
Keith Law: My only real question is whether a guy who’s this much of a free swinger will continue to get enough pitches to hit hard – and he does hit it hard, often – to keep this up.

Joshua: What are your thoughts on who Rizzo would take at #2 if both Crews and Skenes were available? Thanks!
Keith Law: I think they take Crews if he’s there, for a whole host of reasons, not least of which is that he’s the best player in the draft and I can’t think of a time when Rizzo had that opportunity and didn’t go for it. He took Strasburg and Harper and paid them accordingly. He took Rendon at 6 when Rendon came into that year as a probable 1-1 guy, or at least on the very short list, before he got hurt. Mike’s a scout at heart. He’s not passing on the best talent.

Alex in Austin: You have been pretty tough on UVA development in the past, particularly with pitchers.  Is there a specific reason that many of their arms improve after leaving Charlottesville?
Keith Law: For years they’ve pushed pitchers to all adopt the same ‘crouch’ delivery, and it doesn’t work for most guys. So then pitchers like Mike Vasil get into pro ball and take off because they can restore their old deliveries or at least find something that works better for them.

rob: have you watched enough of Pierce Bennett from Wake forest to know if he’s a an MLB prospect?
Keith Law: He’ll be a nice senior sign next month. I have seen him but I don’t know if he’s more than that – it’s very much a contact approach without any juice.

Jon: Favorite McCarthy novel?  RIP.
Keith Law: The Road. Although that’s more of a “I respect the hell out of this novel” than something I would say is a great summer read.

Jason: What can Georgia expect from Wes Johnson as a head coach?
Keith Law: Really have no idea – what makes you a good pitching coach doesn’t necessarily make you a good head coach/manager.

Wampus Cat: Any starting pitching help in the minors not named Andrew Abbott that might be able to help the Reds’ stay relevant in a weak NL Central this season?
Keith Law: Not this year – I think they’ve tried everyone. Some bright spots further down like Lyon Richardson but he’s not coming up in 2023.

Dodgers: Outside of changing ownership, what lessons could an also-ran like the Rockies learn from the Dodgers?  The Dodgers seem to have mastered — or as close to it — player evaluation and development.
Keith Law: I know Schmidt just became GM less than a year ago, so I’d like to give him more time, but under the previous regime they just fell further and further behind other clubs in basically anything R&D.

Guest: Where is Westburg’s likely defensive home: 3B or 2B?
Keith Law: I think 3B but also think he can handle 2B.
Keith Law: They’ve done a really good job with him.

Matt: Signs you are in a good restaurant? For me, it’s no salt and pepper on the table because the food is going to be seasoned properly.
Keith Law: Fair.

Brent: Wait, no cheese on your sandwich?
Keith Law: Correct. A lot of that is being hilariously lactose intolerant – literally had a GI doctor laugh at my test results – so I never acquired the taste for most of the cheeses you’d put on a sandwich.

Maitan: What went wrong with Kevin Maitan?
Keith Law: He peaked around age 14.

TheRealHenryFPotter: Other than C. Montgomery, assuming he ever gets healthy, do the White Sox have ANYONE on the farm who can be considered A GUY? And do you have any insight as to why they have such a hard time developing pitching at the minor league level?
Keith Law: I would like to think Bryan Ramos could be now that he’s back playing. They haven’t drafted a lot of pitching high, have they? And not a college arm in a while.

RA: How strong of a case is Junior Caminero making for your mid season top 25?
Keith Law: I do a midseason top 50 and he would be on that, I believe. That’s for after the draft … another reason I hate the late draft date, it pushes the post-draft prospect ranking too far back.

Guest: Two questions – is Skenes likely to go to the Washington Nationals and are there any board games on the ratification of the 19th Amendment that you can recommend?
Keith Law: That seems like a plug for Votes for Women!

Carrie: Thoughts on Daniel Lynch going forward?
Keith Law: He hasn’t looked like the same guy this year. Velocity down, fastball was always too true but it’s even more so now and it looks like his breaking pitches have backed up too.

Big Fan: Hi Keith, have you dug into what’s going on with Spencer Strider his last few starts?
Keith Law: Nope, sorry.

Austin: Who do the pirates take #1 overall?
Keith Law: I had them taking Crews in my last mock and I’ll have another one up next week.

G: Are the Cubs doing things right? Entering the 3rd year of a sell off is excruciating from a fans perspective
Keith Law: In general, yes.

Jon: How is the college process going?  Any suggestions for a parent?  Not looking forward to this.
Keith Law: It’s certainly overwhelming. There’s too much information out there and I know I am not well-equipped to process it all. We’re lucky that my daughter has a counselor at her school who is an expert and is helping guide us through the process – I can see now why parents pay for that kind of service.

Reid: I love watching Bobby Miller pitch and I re-read your LAD prospect writeup in February and found it to be very accurate.  It’s interesting to me that his performance has improved since being promoted, against some good competition too.  Do you think this is because of better pitch sequencing, an adjustment to the slider, and the early shoulder injury affecting him in AAA?  4 starts is not the biggest sample size but do you think he’ll continue to pitch at this level for the rest of the season?
Keith Law: The safe bet is to say he’ll regress somewhat the rest of the season because he’s been so good. I also think the environment in AAA is so different now for several reasons that the stat lines there are less reliable than ever.

Justin Y: Thoughts on Carson Whisenhunt, starter or reliever?
Keith Law: Starter.

Guest: Would you be interested in replacing Padma?
Keith Law: Did she step down?

Jay: Have you checked your fridge lately?  Is your milk, ketchup, and mustard, and eggs woke?  Seriously, my head explodes knowing that there are about 50% of people who think this is a major concern.
Keith Law: I regret to announce that (checks notes) Organic Valley has fallen.

Subscriber: Care to share your opinion on the recent layoffs at The Athletic?
Keith Law: Really?

Todd Boss: Wyatt Langford Question: if he’s really that good a CF, why wasn’t he playing there full time all season?  Why is he playing a corner so Florida can give the majority of its CF innings to a redshirt freshman hitting .230?
Keith Law: He’s not that good a CF and don’t believe anyone claiming the contrary. The hope is some pro coach(es) can help him become a CF, given his speed, but he’s not a good CF right now.

Ben: The Twins continue to bench or pinch hit Alex Kirilloff against LH … He’s never had poor splits and has probably been the best bat on the roster all year. Kyle Garlick doesnt deserve ABs over him due to splits. Any idea what they are doing ???
Keith Law: It’s disappointing – he’s old enough now to just let him play every day.

Carl: Have we seen enough from Nick Yorke this year to say he’s back on track?
Keith Law: Absolutely.

Drew: Has Chase Hampton jumped Warren in prospect status? He seems to have some real helium.
Keith Law: I think he’s probably their best SP prospect now.

Noah: Does Moises Ballesteros have a chance to catch in the majors? His future outlook?
Keith Law: He can hit, but that body is going to make it very, very tough for him to stay anywhere on the field.

Jon: Soccer has for years been dealing with sovereign wealth fund ownership, and now golf (the sport) is practically owner by sovereign wealth.  To this point, the major American sports have avoided this.  With team prices continuing to increase, do you think it is inevitable?  Hope not.
Keith Law: I do.

Chris: Just reading Chase Hampton has been moved to AA, thoughts on him?
Keith Law: Saw him in May and wrote him up here: https://klaw.me/42co3ih

Guest: Will Encarnation Strand be in your mid season top 50?
Keith Law: No.

Matt: Elly DLC came in firing on all cyclinders, but was cooled off by Royals pitching???  What are your thoughts on his start?
Keith Law: Contact is going to be an issue for him for a while – he got to the majors really fast, and I think there’s going to be a lot of adjustments going forward to pitch types & locations. He’s aggressive because he’s so talented but MLB pitchers can take advantage of that.

TheRealHenryFPotter: Follow up to the White Sox minor league pitching question: in recent years they’ve drafted Matthew Thompson, Drew Dalquist, and Jared Kelley (High School, but still) and they all seem to have plateaued, and not very high. The exception is Garrett Crochet, who I don’t feel they developed… he was drafted ready for his role.
Keith Law: And Kelley was always pretty high risk. Still, that’s just 3 HS arms, not that many to draw any broad conclusions.

Nathanael: Hi Keith, do you ever get down to Richmond, VA for Double A scouting?  Great town for food if you’re ever out here.  Great work on the redraft today as usual.
Keith Law: Last year, to see Kyle Harrison.

Colin: Who of the dodgers pitchers left in the minors has the best chance to become an ace or even a #2?
Keith Law: River Ryan.

shaff: Which happens first: I-95 fully reopens or Jackson Holliday makes the majors?
Keith Law: Given the incentives to reopen the highway and the incentives to hold guys down in the minors, I say I-95 reopens.

Nathanael: With the A’s pending departure, I wonder why the Giants were so adamant about the potential move to San Jose in 2013.  Wouldn’t moving further away to San Jose have been preferable to playing 15 minutes away in Oakland.  Vegas just seems like an awful market.
Keith Law: I’ll believe they’re moving when they actually play a game there. This is a disaster on many levels – Vegas will be the smallest media market in MLB, they already have two major sports teams there and at least one minor one I know of (not counting the Aviators), and the whole area is going to run out of water.

Appa Yip Yip: I really want the anti-woke people to learn that Glenn Burke was the co-creator of the high five along with Dusty Baker. Glenn was gay, high fiving is gay, I didn’t make the rules they gotta boycott high fives now.
Keith Law: There’s a kids’ book about it – I think it’s called A High Five for Glenn Burke.

Howie: Keith – when in Seattle consider getting the Caribbean Roast sandwich at Un Bien in Ballard. Amazing baguette, fall apart (not shredded) pork, thick caramelized onions, garlic aioli, romaine and pickled jalapenos. A messy sandwich, but one to remember.
Keith Law: That sounds great, and like it would be the only meal I would eat that day.

Danny: I asked a couple weeks ago but you responded Austin Wells just got back from injury. Now he’s had 30+ games in AA and has 340ish AB at that level. Is defense the only thing keeping him down and shouldn’t the Yankees at least start trying at him at different positions in that case?
Keith Law: That’s less than a full season in AA, and even this year in a small sample he’s still punching out 35% of the time vs LHP. I do agree they should try him more at first base, at least. I wonder if they’re leaving him in AA to try to keep up some trade value.

Shawn: What’s the appropriate level of skepticism for a pitcher under 6 feet tall?
Keith Law: To me it’s mostly a function of how the stuff plays from that height, rather than an injury issue. I don’t know of any evidence that being sub 6′ makes a guy more injury prone. I do know a lot of those guys don’t work out as starters because they don’t get good angle on the fastball. But guys who sink it or otherwise get a big vertical break can mitigate that.

Danny: I think you had Brock Porter going to the Yankees in your last predraft mock last year and we now know Porter signed for almost a million more the Yankees gave Spencer Jones. Do you know if the Yankees had Porter higher than Jones if the money was equal?
Keith Law: I think I had them on Jones somewhere – maybe the prior mock? – so he may very well have been their target all along.
Keith Law: Gotta run but thanks as always for all of the questions and for reading. I’ll try to fit in a Q&A next week around the mock, and I’ll have a third mock the week after that, and before you know it it’ll be draft day. Take care & stay safe.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: