→ October 16, 2021
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Stick to baseball, 10/16/21.

My first dispatch from the Arizona Fall League is up now for subscribers to the Athletic. I’ll have probably one more post, a longer one that covers everything else I saw.

Over at Paste, I reviewed Riftforce, a great new two-player game that sort of combines Battle Line and Magic: the Gathering, if you can imagine that. It has a very high replay value as well, which is key in a two-player game.

With some more content out, I’ll get on my email newsletter as soon as I’m back from Arizona. And, as the holidays approach, I’ll remind you all every week that I have two books out, The Inside Game and Smart Baseball, that would make great gifts for the readers (especially baseball fans) on your lists.

And now, the links, with a shorter list this week as I’ve been reading less while on the road…

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→ October 11, 2021
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Of Dice and Men.

When I interviewed Conor Murphy of Foxing on my podcast a few weeks ago, he recommended a book called Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It, by David Ewalt, that gives a light history of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a fun read even if you’re just a casual player, one where the author leans into his self-vowed nerdiness, mixing the history of the game (and tabletop role-playing games in general) with his own experiences playing as a kid and again as an adult.

It may surprise some of you who know of my love for tabletop board games – or just think I’m a big nerd myself, which is probably accurate – that I have never been much of a PnP (pen and paper) D&D player. I did try it in middle school, and also played a little bit of the post-apocalyptic game Gamma World, which came from the same publisher, but never played either very much or for very long. I had some friends who really tried to get me into it, but I found the in-person experience kind of slow and often disorganized. My knowledge of D&D derives far more from playing computer games based on it, notably The Pool of Radiance (the first “gold box” game) and the Baldur’s Gate trilogy, than from the paper version. I liked Pool of Radiance, which I played up until I faced Tyranthraxus, the big foozle at the end of the game, whom I could never defeat, but I loved the Baldur’s Gate games for their incredible story, strong writing, and rich production values, and played the whole thing through multiple times. I can still quote lines from the audio track, and have given up on several similar games I’ve tried since then because they either couldn’t offer the same kind of thoughtful, immersive environment (Temple of Elemental Evil), or because I’d face a poorly designed, difficult battle early in the game, and just bailed (Icewind Dale).

Ewalt’s book is about the pen and paper game, and starts back in the 1950s, well before the game we know now as D&D was even a gleam in the eyes of Gary Gygax and David Arneson. D&D was novel in several ways, especially its open-ended nature and the legacy aspect of one play session affecting the next, but it has its roots in multiple games that came well before it. War games predate role-playing games by a few decades, and several, including the 1960s title Braunstein, directly influenced Arneson (who used it as inspiration for his own fantasy campaign setting Blackmoor, which later became an official D&D campaign setting). Ewalt gives a brief history of gaming, going back to ancient Egypt, then fast-forwards to the 19th and 20th centuries, getting to wargaming and the advent of D&D in short order.

The history of Dungeons and Dragons could probably fill a longer book, although it might bog down in stories of internecine warfare, as Gygax especially seemed to have a habit of alienating colleagues, running Arneson out of the company and trying to erase the latter’s contributions entirely (spurring multiple lawsuits Gygax and his company, TSR, would lose). Gygax’s personality, including what Ewalt depicts as a belief that TSR was his own personal fiefdom, led to his ouster from the firm after a few years of financial mismanagement. Wizards of the Coast bought TSR in 1997, as the company was approaching insolvency, and Hasbro later bought Wizards of the Coast, so D&D now resides in the portfolio of the largest board game publisher in the world.

Ewalt intersperses stories from the main campaign he’s playing as an adult at the time he was writing this book, which I found less interesting than the actual D&D history he provides, and that probably won’t make much sense if you’ve never played the game yourself. However, that narrative allows Ewalt to go into some of the specifics of D&D for the non-gamer – the basic framework of characters and parties, different mechanics, the changes in rules over the course of D&D’s history, even more arcane stuff like why there are clerics and bards and monks in the game. I was willing to hang with the details of his own campaign – which I found a bit ridiculous, as a non-PnP guy who’s pretty much stuck to CRPGs in fantasy settings – because it served that broader purpose.

If you’re not a DnD player at all, but would enjoy learning the superficial history of the game, you might enjoy Of Dice and Men anyway, since it’s very light and well-written, with some self-deprecating humor that helps Ewalt from sounding too pretentious. If you’ve played the game anywhere, in any form, you’ll probably enjoy the trip down memory lane.

Next up: Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

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→ October 10, 2021
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Stick to baseball, 10/10/21.

My only content for subscribers to The Athletic this week was my contribution to our playoff predictions, where I pointed out that the evidence says playoff predictions by humans are probably no better those by than a dart-throwing monkey. I only got one of the wild-card winners right, and at the moment one of my four LDS picks is down 0 games to 2. Anyway, I held a Klawchat on Thursday.

Over at Paste, I reviewed the semi-cooperative horror-themed board game Deranged, which I found too derivative of games like Arkham Horror without offering enough new ideas or mechanics.

On my podcast, I spoke with Jeremy Booth, founder of Program 15 and the Future Stars Series, talking about the 2022 draft’s deep high school class, player development in the majors, and more. You can subscribe to my podcast on Spotify or iTunes. I will not have a new episode this week due to travel, but will return on the 18th.

I’ve been better about sending out my email newsletter this past month, although I held off sending one this week with nothing immediate to promote. And, as the holidays approach, I’ll remind you all every week that I have two books out, The Inside Game and Smart Baseball, that would make great gifts for the readers (especially baseball fans) on your lists.

And now, the links…

  • Longreads first: The best thing I read this week was this Guardian longread on how the Booker Prize works – how judges are chosen, and how in turn they choose the shortlist and the ultimate winner. The UK’s rough equivalent to our Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Booker confers financial success on nearly all of its winners, often changing the courses of their careers.
  • Ed Yong writes that we are unprepared for the next pandemic as we refuse to learn lessons from our mishandling of this one.
  • A “dead” oil tanker that has been moored at a Yemeni port for 45 years is in danger of falling apart, sinking, or blowing up, all of which would lead to a massive humanitarian and environmental disaster, with minimal plans to prevent this catastrophe and no help from the Houthi forces that control western Yemen and its Red Sea ports.
  • Students who were victims of sexual assault at Moody Bible Institute, an evangelical Christian college, found themselves blamed and punished while their abusers often escaped consequences. The same school fired a professor who helped students file a Title IX complaint a few years ago. Just like Jesus told his followers to do!
  • You read about the bad art friend, right? You should read about the bad art friend.
  • Kellogg workers are on strike, after months of being forced to work 7 days a week, 16 hours a day, and now threats to outsource their jobs. You may choose to join me in avoiding buying their products while their workers are fighting for basic rights.
  • Case reports continue to show the risk of death and severe illness in children who contract COVID-19, such as the 8-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy who died of cerebral edemas due to COVID infections.
  • Yet another ivermectin/COVID-19 study that claimed to show a benefit has serious problems with its data.
  • Writing in The Cancer Letter, the newsletter of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Arthur Caplan, who has written several books on the policies of Nazi Germany called out the non-virologist Dr. Vinay Prasad’s recent comparison of COVID-19 mitigation measures to fascism, calling them “fundamentally racist.”
  • Moderna is prioritizing profits over public health, keeping prices for its COVID-19 vaccines out of reach of many poorer countries. Is the global benefit of curtailing the pandemic enough that wealthy nations should subsidize vaccinations in poorer ones?
  • “Pro-life” Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R) declined to stay the execution of a man with the mental capacity of a small child, because nothing says you believe in the sanctity of life like signing off on a state-sponsored murder.
  • The vice-chair at the Fed shifted his portfolio towards stock ahead of a big announcement last year, as did two other Fed officials, which should make you ask why people in those positions are allowed to trade in equities at all.
  • The “Evolved Apes” NFTs turned out to be a scam. Color me shocked that a new, unregulated market is rife with fraud and con artists.
  • The Biden Administration says they want science advisers, but they haven’t been listening to them when it comes to policy choices.
  • I know very, very little about this topic, but thought this piece from Matt Yglesias on the “mobilization delusion” of progressives was well argued.
  • Literary Hub has a piece on how Rush’s lyricist/drummer Neil Peart helped lure young listeners over to the “dark side” of Ayn Rand, the terrible novelist.
  • Board game news: Asmodee imprint Space Cowboys announced a new edition of the out-of-print game Jamaica, a popular family game
  • The Kickstarter for Mythwind, a cooperative, asymmetrical game, is over $666,000 as I type this, and keeps going up, with 21 days to go.
  • Board & Dice announced Tabannusi: Builders of Ur, a heavy worker placement game co-designed by Daniele Tascini (Tzolk’in, Teotihuacan).
  • The Kickstarter for North Star Games’ new Alice in Wonderland-themed game Paint the Roses will open up on October 12th.
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→ October 7, 2021
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Klawchat 10/7/21.

You can see my playoff picks and a one-paragraph explanation here (for subscribers to the Athletic).

Keith Law: Klawchat. Because you have to make this life livable.

addoeh: I see Dayton Moore’s son is projected to be a draftee in 2022.  From the outside, there could be a conflict of interest if he knows where other teams view his son and where they may draft and offer him.  This probably isn’t the first time this has happened, but do you see a potential issue?
Keith Law: Happens every year. IMO, the best move would be for the Royals’ owner to say you can’t draft your own kid, and move on. The information imbalance you mention is, I think, unavoidable.

Noah: I’ve written to you about this before, but it still gets under my skin when I see Sandy Alderson make a move (like letting Rojas go).  While I know the next GM or President will pick their own guy, I just would rather the Mets hire that next FO guy than have to read about Sandy Alderson doing anything other than retiring after his involvement in turning a blind eye to sexual harassment in previous hires.  Why won’t the Mets announce Alderson’s firing or retirement?  It’s a stain on an already stained organization.  Thanks for doing these, Keith!
Keith Law: I have no idea. Whatever you think of Alderson’s legacy, his tenure with the Mets has been disastrous, and he shouldn’t involved in this hiring process. You didn’t mention the conflict of interest he faces with his son in the FO as well. Will he hire someone who has no real plans to use his son or retain him beyond the contract they just gave him in July (which was itself suspect, as that’s a decision the new GM should be allowed to make, not HIS OWN FATHER).

Matt: Can you please explain to all the Yankee fans out there that it does no good to fire Aaron Boone unless there is a plan to replace him. It’s why the Yankees ended up with Aaron Boone in the 1st place.
Brian: Hey Klaw, thanks for hosting this chat. Highlight of my week. Inevitable Yanks question from an impatient fan – how do they move forward? Fire the coaching staff? The GM? Nobody? How do they get over the hump?
Keith Law: These both seem like the same sort of question. I don’t think Boone is the problem here. The team just had a great season with a rotation that was often cobbled together, and they lost the WC game primarily because their ace has been dealing with a hamstring injury the last few weeks and wasn’t able to give them a quality start. That doesn’t call for wholesale changes. Go sign Correa and a starter.

Dark Knight: Who do you think is better offensively:  Wander Franco or Bo Bichette?  Big debate from a circle of loyal followers.  Thanks Keith!!
Keith Law: This is a debate?

Barry: It seems like there are lots of Kickstartes for board games, even when the games are published by for profit game manufactures. Is there a reason why?
Keith Law: Aha! I know the answer to this. One is marketing – Kickstarters build a big buzz for upcoming titles. And the bigger reason is that it guarantees a sales figure for the first printing – you aren’t printing 10,000 copies and hoping you sell them but with no idea if you’ll sell out or only move 2500. It’s not the original purpose of crowdsourcing, but I think it ensures the financial health of publishers because they aren’t putting big piles of cash at risk and sometimes ending up with a warehouse full of unsold games.

Mo: Do the Cardinals need to look into the SS market this off-season given DeJong’s been pretty rough for 2+ years now?
Keith Law: I like Sosa. I think I’ve always kept him reasonably high on my Cards rankings and he finally justified that this year. Would like to see him get a full shot at the job.

Daniel: Keith, outside of Stearns/Beane… would you mind giving us a few names that you think would be good hires as president of baseball operations by the Mets? Who are you high on to run a franchise? Thanks in advance.
Keith Law: So I heard last week secondhand that those guys and Theo had already turned the Mets down … then the report of a Theo conversation that happened this week came out, so maybe what I heard was wrong, but also, I can’t imagine either guy taking that job. It would be great if the Mets didn’t just recycle the same names all over again.
Keith Law: I know several people within MLB who are rooting for Bobby Heck to get the GM job there, and he’d make a lot of sense as a respected exec who comes from one of the best-run orgs (Tampa Bay) and can bring that knowledge as well as his experience managing a staff (he was scouting director for Houston when they took George Springer).

ATR: Do you anticipate Torkelson and Greene to be in Detroit’s opening day lineup? Thanks!
Keith Law: No, just because of service time stuff. So few teams do that.

Jason: is it unfair that a team can withstand the loss of Bauer and Kershaw and still be a WS favorite? Seems unfair to me. Any other team this wouldve been a death blow. Thats what like 70 million bucks in pitching?
Keith Law: Define “unfair.”
Keith Law: I mean, should they sign Harrison Bergeron instead?

Chris: Is there any optimism for Rockies fans with Bill Schmidt?
Keith Law: Derek and I discussed this on the pod we just recorded for tomorrow (The Athletic Baseball Show), and the answer is … maybe. It really depends on what he does next, and especially who he hires.

A Salty Scientist: So has Logan Webb really leveled up on command and the change to become a legit #2? Nothing in the expected stats screams fluke to me, but curious if you’ve seen anything notable.
Keith Law: I think this is his peak, in the sense that he executed his pitching plan about as well as he possibly could this year. I don’t want to say it’s luck, because that seems to discredit him, but more that everything went right for him. If he’s a 60% groundball guy who can really limit hard contact like he did this year, he can be an above-average starter for a while. But I would bet the under on 2022 because of the above – everything seems to have hit at the 90th percentile.

Anthony: I know minors stats shouldn’t always be used for prospect evaluation but I’ve read stuff on  Julio Rodriguez’s hit tool being closer to a 50 than a 60 based on his long swing. Given his career minors BA is well over .300 why isn’t his hit tool given more praise?
Keith Law: Because batting average is really not a great measure of hit tool, especially not when you’re facing a lot of bad pitching in the minors (and some good, too, he’s not only able to hit the bad ones).

Seth: MLB is missing a golden opportunity with the Giants Dodgers series starting so late on the east coast.  This is the series all baseball fans have wanted to see this year for so many reasons.  If this was Yankees Red Sox it would be in prime time on the east coast without question.  Seems like there has to be a way to get these games on earlier so they dont end at 1:30am EST.
Keith Law: If you start the games earlier then the west coast fans – which, I would assume, includes most of the Giants’ and Dodgers’ current fan bases – miss the beginnings of the games, and that’s worse.

Philly Phantasmic: How much playing time will the Royals give Melendez and at what positions?
Keith Law: He’s a catcher. They have to use him as a catcher, and yes, I’m aware of the catcher they already have, but that guy isn’t going to hit 48 homers again, and catchers, especially ones who’ve caught as much as he has, are not great bets to age well into their 30s.
Keith Law: OTOH if the Royals just want to keep Salvy as the everyday guy, I imagine they could get a king’s ransom for MJM.

Jason: Did everyone who worked in the Trump White House just keep saying to themselves “Think of the book deal, think of the book deal…”
Keith Law: Well, they were clearly just thinking about themselves, so this fits.

AES: Aside from a long history of normalizing racism, why hasn’t there been a bigger outcry about Mcdonough’s comment about Zaidi?
Keith Law: It was showing up on Twitter’s “trending” sidebar for me all night, but there should be some kind of reaction from his employers. It was inappropriate.

Mcf1417: Michael Harris had a rough end to the year. What’s your thought on him going forward?
Keith Law: Harris in the Atlanta system? He didn’t have a rough end to the year at all. You can see my notes on him from when they came through Wilmington.

Chris Mitchell: Should the playoff format be changed to reseed the teams after the WC games without regard to division winners? If this were done in the NL, it would be Giants-Braves and Dodgers-Brewers in the NLDS with a possible matchup of baseball’s best teams in the NLCS. A playoff format that results in the teams with the two best records in the sport meeting in round 1 needs changing.
Keith Law: No. No format will be ‘perfect’ and trying to tinker with it to achieve a desired result in year N will probably yield an undesirable result in year N+1, and then we’ll hear a bunch of ideas to tweak it further.

J. Brenner: Any surprising omissions from AFL rosters? Personally, I expected to see Corbin Carroll show up.
Keith Law: Not surprised after his surgery. I was hopeful, but not optimistic. That said I am so fucking happy to see how many good prospects will be there, and that they’re having the AFL at all, that I’ll take whatever i can get out of the trip. (By which I mean a trip to Changing Hands and very tough decisions on where to eat between games.)

Matt: Was a little surprised that Joey Wiemer didn’t get a mention in your prospects of the year column. Age? Position? Don’t believe in the swing? Something else?
Keith Law: Older guy in single A, and also, I can’t mention every single player who had a good year.

Famous Twitter User @Whitey_83: Any insight into how the Ozuna saga might play out in Atlanta? I would very much like to never see him again, but I have serious fears about the org either bringing him back (when/if it is allowed to do so) or crying poor because of his contract for the next three years.
Keith Law: I truly don’t know, although I share your wish and your fears. I could see Liberty demanding that he play as long as they’re paying him.

SD: I know it’s hard to evaluate managers because there is so much we can’t see. From what we could see I thought Tingler was pretty good. Do you have thoughts you could share?
Keith Law: From what we could see, I agree. There are a lot of reports of the players not wanting to play for him, and while you don’t necessarily want to let the lunatics run the asylum – or to blame the manager for their own play – if the manager has lost the clubhouse, that’s a reason to move on. I think Tingler will be a great manager if he’s given a second opportunity, a la AJ Hinch and Terry Francona.

John: Hey Klaw, how rare is it for 2 prospects in the same system to essentially come back from being almost written off like Pratto and MJ? Is what they are doing sustainable?
Keith Law: Both are for real. In their cases I believe there’s a common cause – the Royals changed how they were working with several of their hitters, and they had all of 2020 to do so with these guys. I don’t ever want to see another lost minor league season, but it turns out a few players might be substantially better off from a year of instruction without games, or just from the year of rest.

Dave: Do the Mariners seem ripe for regression? Seems like they could be better next year but have a worse record with how much they outperformed their pythag
Keith Law: Yes. Future is bright, 2022 may feel disappointing.

Ethan: Keith, what are your thoughts on this Padres season?  What should be the priorities this offseason?  And what should be their profile as they look for a new manager?  Thanks as always for your good work!
Keith Law: Darvish and Snell both had 4+ ERAs, in that ballpark, and pitched a lot less than I would have expected. It all starts there, doesn’t it? If you knew going into the year that both of those guys would be average-at-best, would you pick them to make the playoffs? I wouldn’t have – I thought their rotation would be a major strength, bolstered in the second half by Gore (now going to the AFL!) and maybe the arrival of a more developed Weathers (who was pushed into making 18 starts that I’m sure were not part of the plan). Whose fault is that? The manager? The GM? Or just rotten luck?

Guest: Anything to read into Daniel Lynch’s struggles with command / control this season? Young guy figuring it out or does it dampen your enthusiasm?
Keith Law: Young guy figuring it out. They’re not all good right away. Some guys take a year or more.

Robert Axelrod: What due diligence did MLB pay to Cohen’s “dark money” past and its role in our political mess? Not to mention his grey dealings in the investment world.
Keith Law: The Kendricks are established MLB owners and their dark money habits are well known. MLB doesn’t care.

Tony: Do you think Mike Elias should spend some money this winter to not be embarrassingly bad again? And do you think he’ll do that?
Keith Law: I’d think ownership would want to do so. You have the game’s #1 prospect on the cusp of the majors. Do you want to field a 60-win team around him?

Ciscoskid: What is this Giants team in 2022 regardless of the this postseason results. A lot of cap flexibility but also a lot of holes to plug again.
Keith Law: I wouldn’t bet on a lineup with key players this old repeating the way they did, but I also think they’ll be more active this winter knowing that they are clear contenders going into the year.
Keith Law: That’s all assuming the CBA stuff gets settled. who knows what happens there.

Henry: Dave Roberts did an excellent job managing the Scherzer/bullpen yesterday, and Mike Shildt managed it like a regular season game. He’s lucky Wainwright wasn’t worse but he kept him in too late. It still befuddles me why managers make stupid decisions.
Keith Law: I was a little surprised to see Scherzer start an inning and come out with 2 men on … I’m not saying it was wrong but it felt more ad hoc than it needed to be. Shildt got very lucky on Wainwright. If Turner doesn’t chase a pitch he seldom chases, the Dodgers might put 2-3 on the board in the 4th (?) inning and change the whole course of the game.
Keith Law: Good pitch by Wainwright, of course. Just surprised Turner offered at it.

Neil: As a Jays fan this weekend hurt, but the last month was awesome.  I see tons of people pushing for expanded playoffs, but I really think that would devalue September, which can be so much fun.  Im guessing expansion of playoffs is inevitable, any way MLB avoids it?
Keith Law: No, there’s too much money in it for MLB. They will always take the option that increases their revenues in the short term regardless of any deleterious long-term consequences. Always.

Snarfle: Do you see a viable compromise on the whole service time thing? Start the clock when the player is drafted?
Keith Law: Can’t see that taking. I like the idea of at least connecting free agency to the player’s age at debut, or when drafted, to recognize that players who go to college are at a relative disadvantage (since they likely won’t see free agency until at least 29, versus ~27 for the best HS draftees and international FAs).

Luke: Will the 2022 MLB season start on time or are we looking at a work stoppage?
Keith Law: I believe there will be a deal, we won’t lose all or even half of the 2022 season, but the hot stove will be delayed and maybe even spring training will too.

Pete: Hey Keith, I was really excited to see Gabriel Moreno so high up on your rankings in the middle of the year. What’s his ceiling stat line? Is it higher than someone like Francisco Alvarez? Or was he ranked higher because he’s so close to being ready for the majors?
Keith Law: Moreno is closer to ready but as hitters they’re quite different – they will both probably be stars, but get there in different ways.

Josh: Were you a fan of the Dune novel or the David Lynch movie?
Keith Law: Loved the first novel. Never saw the Lynch movie. The sequel novels get increasingly ridiculous and I wouldn’t recommend anyone read past the first.

Jason Bersani: should I stay in on Corbin Martin, for sim/DMB purposes? I bought when shortly after the draft Calls thought there was a chance he trend into the best arm of the class.
Keith Law: He made my top 100 then too. Hold.

Kevin: Why would ESPN have Arod call the wild card game on Tuesday? He was incredibly biased the entire game, not to mention he isn’t good.
Keith Law: But he’s famous. Between him not really knowing the players or how most teams think about players & roster construction, and Vasgersian shouting the extremely cringey “What up Holmes” when Clay Holmes pitched, it was a pretty lousy experience. (And no, I don’t get ESPN2, haven’t since I left the company.)

Deke: The Jessica Berg Wilson death — obviously the vaccines are good and necessary and the mandates help, but when someone (not a bad-faith actor, someone genuine) holds that up to you, what do you say in response? How do you address their concerns in that regard? “It’s vanishingly rare” just isn’t going to sway those people.
Keith Law: It’s a terrible tragedy, but that’s the 4th death in 15 million doses of the J&J shot administered (and, I think, the second since the pause, after which the medical community was supposed to be more aware of the signs to watch for). The odds are minuscule, and it’s possible she didn’t get the proper care for a known if very rare side effect. On the other hand, we’re at 700,000 deaths from COVID-19. More people die of the virus every 10 minutes than have died from this blood clotting disorder.

Noah: I’m getting my booster next week (immunocompromised) and I have a hard time sussing out why there is debate in the medical community about whether or not boosters are necessary.  It seems like there is waning efficacy, but a lot FDA/CDC folks are still saying we need to get the unvaxxed vaccinated and well…that doesn’t seem likely to happen until mandates are more broadly used.  So, shouldn’t we be promoting those who want boosters to get them?
Keith Law: STAT had a good piece on this. The connection between science and policy, while certainly better than it was under the circus, has not been great under Biden.

Snowy: Elly De La Cruz got a lot of buzz this year, is he a possible top 100 guy next year?
Keith Law: He has top 20 overall tools but his approach is really not very good at all. It’s a bunch of 7s on the scouting report, though.

Jason: Does this week just prove Facebook has too much power and influence over our lives and needs to be regulated?
Keith Law: I don’t love that phrasing. I prefer to say that if Facebook can’t police itself – or won’t – then they should be prepared to face the consequences of their own actions. Don’t take down anti-vaccine content? Fine. Help pay for the costs that unvaccinated people impose on our economy.

Matty: What do you make of Bellinger’s season?  Is this an anomaly, a result of the shoulder injury, or are there long-term concerns with his hit tool?
Keith Law: I assume he was hurt.

Ben: Would you consider Witt to be the MiLB POY? If not him, who?
Keith Law: I wrote a whole column about it.

Chris Mitchell: Did you have similar thoughts about Kapler the second time around – seems like he’s learned a lot from the PHL experience.
Keith Law: Yes, and also he was allowed to hire more of his own people. Always thought he got a raw deal in Philly, and subsequent events proved he wasn’t the problem. The roster was.

Matt: I’ve never been a doom and gloom guy over MLB popularity, but a game that’s 1-1 in the 9th and over the four hour mark is insane, right?
Keith Law: Great game. I was hurting this morning from staying up for it.

Santos: Am I just an old man yelling at clouds or is MLB creeping towards an aesthetic problem? I know advertisements have been there forever – I have no problem with them around the ballpark and on the broadcasts (though I’m not fond of how many are behind home plate now), but they put the Nike swoosh on the jerseys and that was a small change….now they have the FTX logo on the umpires’ shirts…they have betting kiosks and advertisements in stadiums…I’m not a luddite but I just can’t get behind this. I don’t mind european sports (I’m a cricket fan) but their uniforms are awful. You can’t tell what the team name is or the player unelss you wade through a stack of other companies first. Am I overreacting?
Keith Law: Oh, just wait till your screen is crowded on three sides with interactive betting tools. It’s coming.

David: Any interest in the Dune movie?
Keith Law: Absolutely.

Bill: Just FYI. People do read your completely dishonest political takes and other dishonest takes and realize that dishonesty is likely to show up in your other work
Keith Law: And yet, here you are. Really appreciate you looking out for me, though.

Henry: Nice Strangelove DM reference.
Keith Law: I give in to sin.

section 34: I’m a lifelong baseball fan but increasingly I find the game boring: too much take-and-rake, too little action. Do you feel this way too? For an analyst there’s still plenty to analyze, but do you find the game less interesting to analyze now that the Three True Outcomes make up such a high percentage of plate appearances?
Keith Law: I miss basestealing and more balls hit into play (and not finding fielders). I don’t want to see the league ban the shift, though. Deadening the baseball even a little bit would go a long way. So would raising the bottom of the strike one (although, TBH, I haven’t seen data on whether that happened this year).

James: With the huge incoming growth of sports gambling, have you ever read The Fix by Declan Hill about matchfixing in soccer? Any concerns about seeing that happen in MLB (or the minors in particular where players and umps aren’t paid well)?
Keith Law: That is inevitable. We will have a scandal around betting in baseball. I feel like we’ve already had a few, actually.

Dark Knight: what are your thoughts on Drew Rasmussen and Ranger Suarez?  Drew for example pitched well against TOR 3 x, BOS 2x and even against PHI.  Do you think they’re for real?
Keith Law: Rasmussen is a two-time TJ guy who was worked extremely hard at Oregon State. I’d really be surprised if he stayed healthy as a starter despite all of that – he’d be a big outlier, at least. I like Suarez as a back-end starter.

Joshua: Is there still hope for Victor Robles? Would he be best that he start fresh somewhere else? Thanks.
Keith Law: Has to start hitting the ball harder.

Alex In Austin: I missed how Shane Baz is postseason eligible.  What happened to the rule of being on the roster on Sept 1st or did he arrive in the IL loophole?
Keith Law: That rule has been a laughingstock for a few decades now. If you’re in the organization on 9/1 you can be on the postseason roster.

Dan: Pedro Leon seemed to start putting it together after a tough start, all while learning a new position. Do you think he can be a star?
Keith Law: I think so but he’s near the top of my list of guys to see in the AFL.

Wayne: Is Votto a Hall of Famer in your opinion?
Keith Law: Yes.

Scott: You seem like a guy who likes good smart pop tunes, you should give The Beaches a listen if you havent already. I think they would be up your alley, punky yet very catchy.
Keith Law: I’ll check out their new EP. I can’t remember if I listened to Talk Show when it came out – too many indie bands with Beach in their name (Beach House, Beach Fossils, Beach Slang).

Dave: I would to see either Jamey Stegmaier or Elizabeth Hargraves on the podcast to talk about Wingspan and board game design. Would be fascinating.
Keith Law: Great idea. I’ll get on that.

Dave: Did anyone see this kind of season coming from Cedric Mullins?
Keith Law: I know some Orioles scouts who thought he could be a good regular but thought he was underappreciated in the org (and especially by Showalter). I don’t know if any of them would have expected (waves hands around) this.

Arturo (Mexico): I think Soto was better this season than Harper, but it seems to me than Harper was more relevant to the Phillies winning than Soto (for example many hits that were decisive in victories in an order at bat with little contributions from his teammates). Would it be a good argument in favor of Harper’s candidacy to MVP?
Keith Law: Sure, especially with the two fairly close, although I only use that as a final arbiter when I can’t decide otherwise.

Matt: Political takes are dishonest? Funny, I thought they were opinions.
Keith Law: He just means he doesn’t like them.

Dana: Any idea what happened to Gleyber Torres the past two seasons?
Keith Law: Not really. I think he’s a buy-low candidate for someone. But I also know that I don’t know what happened.

Dark Knight: Will Michael Kopech be a starter for the Chisox next year?  How good do you think he’ll be?
Keith Law: If he starts, he’ll be really good. Might take a year or two. But he’ll be really good.

Guest: If you’re the Yankees, you sign Correa, and then what with Peraza and Volpe? Trade Peraza when he’s ML ready and trade Gleyber if Volpe turns out to be the star he looked like this year?
Keith Law: Volpe can play SS, but I’m okay with signing Correa and then either moving Volpe to 2b when he’s ready OR moving Correa to third. Peraza isn’t good enough to merit changing the plans around those two guys.

Mac: Trey Sweeney will be in the Yankees SS mix too.
Keith Law: I don’t know any scouts who think he stays at shortstop.

Margarita: Hi Keith, how did you manage to invite Lauren Mayberry to your podcast? How did it happen? Probably an interesting story.
Keith Law: Just used my network. I was thrilled to get her and she was an amazing guest, too.
Keith Law: OK, that’s all for this week. No chat next week as I’ll be out at Fall League, but I’ll write up what I see there. Hope to see a few of you at the games as well! Stay safe and thank you as always for reading.

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→ October 7, 2021
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Harlem Shuffle.

Colson Whitehead’s last two novels, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, both won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making him the first Black author to win that prize twice. Both were serious novels, the first with fantastical elements to try to tell a familiar story in a new way, the latter more straightforward, but neither presaged what he’s done in his latest novel, Harlem Shuffle, which is funnier, more action-packed, and just generally more entertaining.

Harlem Shuffle is the story of two men in that part of Manhattan in the early 1960s. Raymond, the son of a crook who has become an entrepreneur, owns a furniture store in Harlem that caters to the customers the white-owned stores downtown won’t serve. Freddie, his ne’er-do-well cousin, has been getting Ray in trouble since they were kids, and this time, he lands Ray smack in the middle of a heist that has half of Harlem looking for them, and involves Ray with the kind of people he never wanted to be involved with – the people with whom his father did jobs, that is. When a mobster’s goons show up at the store, and a crooked cop does too, things go pear-shaped for the cousins, leaving Raymond to try to find a way to clean up the mess and protect his family. Meanwhile, Ray’s situation at home is always tenuous. He needs a bigger house for his growing family, while his in-laws continue to look down on him as the son of a crook, which makes him not good enough for their daughter. He’s already conflicted about taking any money from Freddie’s shenanigans, but now anything he gets from the big score would help him move to a better place … while also risking further scorn from his in-laws and even the trust of his wife.

My experience with Whitehead is limited to the two novels that won him the Pulitzer, both of which were weighted down with heavy themes and only lightened by Whitehead’s remarkable prose and rich characterization. Here, Whitehead gets to have some fun, even though there are undercurrents of violence, internecine warfare in Harlem’s Black community, white cops assaulting Black citizens (including the real Harlem riots of 1964, which occur right around Ray’s store and shut down much of the commerce on which he depends), and more. There’s also a subtle theme of the growing divide within the Black community between the upwardly mobile and those still held down by the extensive obstacles of the time and the history of oppression that still limits Black Americans’ economic opportunities today.

I’ve seen media coverage of Harlem Shuffle that makes it sound like a heist novel – possibly pushed by the publisher – but it’s more heist-adjacent, since Ray doesn’t participate in the heist itself, just in the misadventures that follow when you steal something that a very powerful and violent person would not want to have stolen. Whitehead adapts one of the best aspects of the heist genre, or just the hard-boiled crime genre in general – the array of eccentric and often funny side characters that populate many of those novels. A thief named Pepper who worked with Ray’s dad turns out to be a pivotal character as the novel progresses. Miami Joe is one of the main antagonists in the first part of the novel. Chet the Vet is so-called because he went to vet school for all of a month before turning to crime. Between these fun, if only morally compromised, side characters and Whitehead’s ability to shift between the highbrow prose of his award-winning novels and the vernacular of his 1960s setting, Harlem Shuffle was a blast to read, perhaps an entrée into his work for folks who want to start with some lighter fare before reading his two more serious books.

Next up: David Ewalt’s Of Dice and Men, recommended to me by Foxing lead singer/songwriter (and longtime D&D player) Connor Murphy.

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→ October 2, 2021
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Stick to baseball, 10/2/21.

For subscribers to the Athletic, I posted my hypothetical ballots for the six major postseason awards. Fans are taking it extremely well, as you might imagine.

On my podcast, I spoke with Conor Murphy of the band Foxing, talking about their new album Draw Down the Moon and our mutual interest in games – he’s particularly into D&D and Magic: the Gathering, but we talk a lot about tabletop games we both enjoy. They’re hitting the road next week with Manchester Orchestra and I’m bummed I’ll be in Arizona for Fall League when they come through my area. You can hear their newest album on Spotify, and you can subscribe to my podcast on Spotify or iTunes. I was also on the Athletic Baseball Show again on Friday, where you can hear me say Dylan Carlson might be a breakout candidate for 2022, which I recorded a few hours before he hit 2 homers against the Brewers.

Over at Paste, I recapped my experience at Gen Con, running through every game I saw or played at the convention, and ranked the ten best games I tried.

I’ve been better about sending out my email newsletter this past month, with this week’s edition talking about how challenging I’ve found my role as an adjunct at a local university. And, as the holidays approach, I’ll remind you all every week that I have two books out, The Inside Game and Smart Baseball, that would make great gifts for the readers (especially baseball fans) on your lists

And now, the links…

  • Longreads first: The Guardian profiles Prof. Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist and bestselling author who has emerged as a major celebrity in the culture wars while allying himself with some disreputable figures, including the white supremacist blogger Steve Sailer. Pinkerite, a blog dedicated to exposing Pinker’s links to bogus “race science” proponents, asks if this column is “the end of the gentlemen’s agreement” to avoid asking Pinker about his history of defending and working with white supremacists.
  • Zach Helfand writes in The New Yorker about the imminent arrival of the automated strike zone and the loss of the human element. I disagree with the basic premise here – as you might have guessed – but there’s one point worth bearing in mind: The actual strike zone is probably a lot smaller than the de facto one umpires call, and that might mean more walks and longer games.
  • From October of 2020, WIRED looks at the cultural problems that have bedeviled Amazon’s attempts to buy its way into the gaming market.
  • My colleague Meg Linehan wrote a powerful investigative report on NWSL coach Paul Riley’s history of abusive behavior towards his players, including rape, after which his employers, the North Carolina Courage, terminated him within hours.
  • A 2019 book called The Psychology of Pandemics presaged much of our country’s reaction to this current one.
  • Pitcher Kieran Lovegrove came out as bisexual, making him just the second player ever in affiliated baseball to do so and the closest player to the majors as well.
  • A 10-year-old girl in Virginia died of COVID-19 after she was told to walk sick kids in her class to the nurse.
  • As more evidence emerges against the COVID-19 “lab leak” theory, why does the mainstream media continue to push it?
  • Youtube appears to be finally moving to ban all anti-vaccine content.
  • The New York Times did what it too often does, highlighting the views of the deranged few, here talking to New York state health care workers who said they’d choose job loss over vaccination, but I think there’s a subtle message here: These people will use any loophole they can find to avoid the consequences of their choices, like claiming a religious exemption they don’t merit.
  • Yale historian Dr. Beverly Gage resigned as head of the school’s Program in Grand Strategy, citing the school’s unwillingness to fend off influence from conservative donors, including San Francisco Giants owner Charles Johnson, whom you might remember from his donations to Lauren Boebert and Madison Cawthorn.
  • UNC officials met with an Israeli diplomat who pressured them to remove a teacher who criticized Israeli policy while teaching a class on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
  • South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R) used her office to pressure a subordinate to issue Noem’s daughter a real estate appraiser’s license, according to the Argus-Leader.
  • Toxic microbial blooms on freshwater lakes and rivers may be a harbinger of a coming mass extinction event.
  • The New York Times’ Pete Wells offered an unflattering review of Eleven Madison Park’s new $335 vegan tasting menu.
  • Board game news: Days of Wonder is selling pink train sets for Ticket to Ride, with $2 from each $4.95 going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
  • The massive 4X game Voidfall, from European publisher Mindclash, is nearing $1MM raised already on Kickstarter.
  • Queen Games is publishing four Stefan Feld “city collection” games, three of which are reimplementations of older games of his (Bruges, Macao, and Rialto) and one of which is new, with a deluxe edition bundle that costs $695. (Not a typo.) I’m not linking to that nonsense, but I am linking to this video critique of Feld’s cultural appropriation in the game Marrakesh, including an embarrassing photo of him in a fez holding some sort of chain to an invisible camel. That this is still happening in 2021 – seven years after Bruno Cathala put actual slave cards in Five Tribes, which is the first major outcry to result in a change to a game that I can remember – boggles my mind. Whether you agree that this is cultural appropriation, or merely harmless appreciation, it was completely unnecessary, and says to me that no one around Feld or Queen thought to say, “hey, maybe this is a bad idea.”
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→ October 1, 2021
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Music update, September 2021.

Whew. That turned out to be an epic month for new music, with my top album of 2021 so far dropping on the first Friday, a bunch of returns from old favorites, even some tracks from artists I didn’t love who surprised me with great new material. That means this playlist is one of my longest ever – 29 songs and 104 minutes. Enjoy. You can access the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Little Simz feat. Obongjayar – Point and Kill. I’ve said a few times now that Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is my favorite album of 2021, and this track, featuring the Nigerian singer Obongjayar, is a major reason, one of the many standouts on the record along with the title track, “I Love You, I Hate You,” “Woman,” and more.

Sleigh Bells – True Seekers. My favorite track from this duo since “Rill Rill” over a decade ago. Their music can be so deliberately abrasive that it often turns me away even when there’s a good vocal hook, but this song is a sort of anti-pop anthem that I can’t get out of my head.

Hatchie – This Enchanted. I loved the melodies in Hatchie’s first album and earlier singles, all in the sort of dream-pop sound that reminded me of early Cranberries or Lush, but her voice is a little bit soft and I think she fares better when the production puts her voice down into the music rather than out front. This new single does just that and it’s among her best so far.

Snail Mail – Valentine. Lindsey Jordan, who records as Snail Mail, is now all of 22 years old, and her second album, also called Valentine,

Parcels – Somethinggreater. I was not familiar with Parcels at all before hearing this track, but I’m all in on this funky, R&B-inflected pop gem. It’s the third single they’ve released ahead of the double album they’re putting out on November 5th.

Frank Turner – Haven’t Been Doing So Well. Love when Turner gets into his punk roots more, which he really does here as on “1933” or “Recovery.”

The War on Drugs Feat. Lucius – I Don’t Live Here Anymore. At least Adam Granduciel is just leaning into the Bob Dylan thing, singing “a creature void of form” on this song before name-checking Dylan directly. The singers from Lucius bring a lot to the chorus here, too.

Cœur de Pirate – On s’aimera toujours. Béatrice seems to be locked into singing in French these days, which is fine, as I think her voice is beautiful, as is the language, although I feel like the U.S. audience is going to miss out on some great indie-pop because of it. If you’re wondering, the title means “We will always love each other.”

Jerro & Panama – Lost for Words. Producer Jerro’s debut album comes out today, and this single features Australian producer Panama, who appeared on several of my playlists in the mid-teens with “Always” and “Hope for Something.”

Obongjayar & Sarz – Sweetness. And here’s a track from Obongjayar’s latest EP of the same name, also featuring the Nigerian musician/producer Sarz, an Afrobeats-centric record with a heavy dose of ’80s R&B.

Bartees Strange – Weights. Strange is an avowed fan of the National, but I like him anyway, and here it sounds like he merged the National with the Hold Steady while adding his own vocal flourishes. It’s more than the sum of its parts.

Pond – Human Touch. These Aussie psych-rockers just released their ninth album, simply called 9, today, with this as the second track and third single released ahead of the record, along with the also strong “America’s Cup.” Their brand of psychedelic rock emphasizes groove over the hazy production more typical of the genre.

The Lottery Winners feat. KT Tunstall – Dance With the Devil. I’ve been on the Lottery Winners for a few months now, but just discovered that the bio on their Youtube channel calls them “a mob of four twits from a rubbish working class town called Leigh, near Manchester.” Anyway, Something to Leave the House For, their second album, drops on October 29th.

Sam Fender – Get You Down. I wasn’t familiar with Fender’s work, although with a name like that, you’d better play one. He’s pretty popular in the UK, with his first album hitting #1 and his second due out on October 8th, with a sort of emo-tinged indie-rock that I think could play pretty well here too.

Zeal & Ardor – Bow. The gospel/black metal fusion isn’t quite so present here – there’s some distorted guitars at the back of the mix, but this minimalist track from Manuel Gagneux puts his vocals front and center, where they belong.

Yard Act – The Overload. I feel like this particular brand of post-punk music only works if you have a working-class English accent, so that the deadpan talk-sung lyrics sound charming rather than offputting. Whatever the reason, it works for me.

Stereophonics – Hanging on Your Hinges. The Guardian‘s final tracks of the week column called this song “the biggest pile of sh**,” but this song, while not exactly vintage Stereophonics, rocks. That’s a great riff that carries the whole track.

Eels – Good Night on Earth. I didn’t realize Mark Oliver Everett – sometimes known simply as E – was still churning out albums every two years or so, but so it is. This track wouldn’t be out of place on Electro-Shock Blues, which is high praise. Also, I need to say this pretty much every time I talk about Eels: E’s father, Hugh Everett III, came up with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. What’s the cooler legacy: that, or “Novocaine for the Soul?”

Talk Show – Underworld. I feel like at some point this new wave revivalist band will run into trouble thanks to the one-album act of the same name that included three members of Stone Temple Pilots (without Scott Weiland). “Underworld,” the first release off their EP Touch the Ground, due out in early 2022, straddles the genres of new wave and post-punk, like someone remixed a Gang of Four track.

Mini Trees – Carrying On. Lexi Vega, who records as Mini Trees, just released her debut album, Always in Motion, two weeks ago, featuring this lush dream-pop track and earning some extremely positive reviews already.

Ovlov – Land of Steve-O. Ovlov doesn’t release much music – their 2018 album Tru is their only LP since 2013’s am – but their sound is still intact, very ’90s Dinosaur Jr./Sebadoh lo-fi fuzz-rock.

Parquet Courts – Black Widow Spider. I have never been a fan of Parquet Courts, or Parkay Quartz as they once called themselves, but this song is fantastic. It’s off Sympathy for Life, their seventh album, which comes out today.

Aeon Station – Queens. Aeon Station is Kevin Whelan, bassist and co-founder of the dormant band The Wrens, along with two other members of the Wrens. Their first album, Observatory, comes out in December, and includes five tracks Whelan wrote for the never-completed fourth Wrens album. Charles Bissell, the guitarist and co-founder of the Wrens, is not involved, and has said that band is now “dead” and he’ll release his own solo work. It sounds like a big mess. Anyway, I wasn’t familiar with The Wrens at all before this track, but it’s good.

Mastodon – Pushing the Tides. These metal stalwarts’ eighth album, Hushed and Grim, comes out on the 29th. This track, the first single released off the album, veers back more towards the heavier technical metal of their early career, and while I loved their last record’s more accessible sound, I’m good with just about any direction Mastodon wants to take – as long as they don’t release their version of the Black album.

Thrice – Summer Set Fire to the Rain. Featuring Puig Destroyer drummer Riley Breckenridge, Thrice will release their eleventh album, Horizons/East, next Friday.

Monolord – The Weary. This is the first track I’ve heard from this Swedish doom metal band, with some stoner metal influences here as well, so this is more than just the eight thousandth version of Cathedral or another Sabbath ripoff.

Black Map – Chasms. I thought Black Map, which comprises members of several other bands (Dredg, Far, The Trophy Fire), was a one-off project, but they’re back, with the same style of classic metal with hints of prog.

Iron Maiden – Days of Future Past. Obligatory, although I maintain that the vocal melodies are beyond Bruce Dickinson’s capabilities at this point and end up detracting from the song.

Carcass – The Scythe’s Remorseless Swing. They’re back, with their first album in eight years and only their second in the last quarter-century. Torn Arteries includes this track, which has an incredible 70-second instrumental opening, as well as 2019’s “Under the Scalpel Blade.” I don’t think their sound has changed or evolved much if at all since Surgical Steel, which was the best extreme metal album of the last decade and maybe the best metal album of the decade, period, but I’m okay with this. Carcass more or less perfected melodic death metal, and while I could do without some of the blast beats and will never really enjoy the death growls, the guitar and bass work here is just incredible.

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→ September 30, 2021
→ By

The best books about writing.

I put out a call on Twitter for writers’ suggestions of resources for the students I’m teaching this fall in a Mass Communications class at a local university, and you did not let me down, with over 100 responses to the tweet and a few emails as well. I decided after I saw all of your replies to turn it into a post here, so that everyone could see the list more easily.

Twelve books earned at least two votes apiece. The runaway winner, unsurprisingly, was Stephen King’s On Writing, which garnered 25 mentions. In second place, with eight mentions was Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, edging out William Zinsser’s On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by one vote. Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several Short Sentences About Writing, Benjamin Dreyer’s Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, and Roy Peter Clark’s How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times rounded out the top six, all of which earned at least three mentions from you. I have read … none of these. Clearly, I have some work to do. Maybe some day I’ll be a good writer!

Here’s the complete list of books that you mentioned, which I’ve also tried to categorize by subject where possible (going off others’ descriptions, since I haven’t read any of them myself). I have picked up Harold Evans’ Do I Make Myself Clear for my Kindle, since it’s on sale for $3.99 right now, and put in hold requests at my library for several others. I have ranked them within each category by how many of you mentioned each book, with that number in parentheses if it’s greater than one. All links below go to Bookshop.org, from which I receive a commission for any sales through this site. Please don’t feel obligated to buy here – you can and should ask your local independent bookstore, or hit the library instead. If you have other recommendations that didn’t make it into this post, please leave them in the comments below.

General writing

On Writing, by Stephen King (25 mentions)

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott (8)

Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity, by Ray Bradbury (2)

The Writer’s Notebook: Craft Essays from Tin House, various authors

The Lively Art of Writing, by Lucile Payne

Conversations on Writing, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, by Roy Peter Clark

10 Rules of Writing, Elmore Leonard

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami

Style

Several Short Sentences About Writing, by Verlyn Klinkenborg (4)

How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times, by Roy Peter Clark (3)

Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, by Virginia Tufte (2)

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One, by Stanley Fish

The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase, by Mark Forsyth

The Reader Over Your Shoulder: A Handbook for Writers of English Prose, by Robert Graves

Sin & Syntax: How to Craft Wicked Good Prose, by Constance Hale

First You Write a Sentence: The Elements of Reading, Writing … and Life, by Joe Moran

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, by Steven Pinker

Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style, by Arthur Plotnick

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, by Francine Prose

The Elements of Style, by William Strunk & E.B. White

Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, by Joseph Williams

Fiction writing

Save the Cat!, series by Blake Snyder (2)

Writing the Novel, by Lawrence Block

Writing Fiction, by Janet Burroway

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, by Alexander Chee

The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers, by John Gardner

Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting, by William Goldman

Danse Macabre, by Stephen King

Method and Madness: The Making of a Story, by Alice LaPlante

Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story, by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life, by Noah Lukeman

Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee

Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different, by Chuck Palahniuk

Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, by John Truby

The Wonderbook, by John Vandermeer

On Writing, by Eudora Welty

The Kick-ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, and Earn Your Audience, by Chuck Wendig

How Fiction Works, by James Wood

Nonfiction

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser (4)

Draft #4: On the Writing Process, by John McPhee (2)

Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, by Beth Kephart

Follow the Story: How to Write Successful Nonfiction, by James B. Stewart

Persuasive writing

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip & Dan Heath

They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, by Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff

Writing to Persuade: How to Bring People Over to Your Side, by Trish Hall

Scientific Advertising, by Claude Hopkins

Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us about the Art of Persuasion, by Jay Heinrichs

Goal, Motivation and Conflict, by Debra Dixon

Grammar

It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences, by June Casagrande

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, by Benjamin Dreyer

The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Gordon

How Language Works, by John McWhorter – out of print

Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss

Clarity

Legal Writing in Plain English, by Bryan Garner

Do I Make Myself Clear: Why Writing Well Matters, by Harold Evans

Writing without Bullshit:  Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean, by Josh Bernoff

The Reader Over Your Shoulder: A Handbook for Writers of English Prose, by Robert Graves

Creativity

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, by Natalie Goldberg

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, by Steven Pressfield

How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency: A Psychological Adventure, by Robert Boice (out of print)

Journalism

Associated Press Guide to News Writing, by Rene Cappon

The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on the Wall Street Journal Guide, by William Blundell

The New New Journalism: Conversations with America’s Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft, by Robert Boynton

Poetry

The Real West Marginal Way, by Richard Hugo

Writing Poems, by Robert Wallace

Everything else

The Pyramid Principle, by Barbara Minto (business writing)

Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer: The Artistry, Joy, and Career of Storytelling, by J. Michael Straczynski (writing as a career)

The Copyeditor’s Handbook, by Amy Einsohn (editing)

My Turf: Horses, Boxers, Blood Money, and the Sporting Life, by William Nack (essays)

Modern English Usage, by Bryan Garner (language)

Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative, by Jane Alison (narrative structure)

Words on Words: A Dictionary for Writers and Others Who Care about Words, by John Bremner (vocabulary)

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→ September 25, 2021
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Stick to baseball, 9/24/21.

For subscribers to the Athletic, I named my Prospect of the Year for 2021, going through a number of the top candidates this year (and there were too many to include), and two weeks ago I profiled Austin Riley’s transformation from a low-OBP hitter with exploitable holes to a downballot MVP candidate. I also held a Klawchat on Friday.

I spoke to Joe Posnanski on my podcast this week, talking about his new book, The Baseball 100, which comes out on Tuesday. You can buy it here. And you can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Over at Paste, I ranked the ten best games that are currently out of print, and my Gen Con wrapup should be up today or maybe on Monday.

I sent out a new edition of my free email newsletter this week. And, as the holidays approach, I’ll remind you all every week that I have two books out, The Inside Game and Smart Baseball, that would make great gifts for the readers (especially baseball fans) on your lists.

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→ September 24, 2021
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Klawchat 9/24/21.

Starting at 1 pm ET. My 2021 Prospect of the Year column is now up for subscribers to the Athletic, and my ranking of the ten best out-of-print board games is up at Paste.

Keith Law: It’s that time of year again – I can taste the air. Klawchat.

Steve: Please rank eventual ceiling of Rays’ pitchers  McClanahan, Baz, and Patino. Thanks.
Keith Law: One of those guys was top 5 on my midseason prospect ranking. He’s the clear answer. I also think McClanahan is limited to a five-and-dive starter – if he stays healthy – because he’s always going to have some trouble with right-handers.

Deke: I’ve noticed you appear to be fairly adamant about not ending a sentence with a preposition, sometimes (IMO) to the detriment of the sentence’s flow. It’s a rule that was taken from Latin and has no actual application in English — essentially a fake rule forced into a rule it doesn’t belong. I am basically 100% sure that you know this, so I’m curious — do you do it because you think the rule SHOULD apply, or just to avoid annoying pedants yelling at you and having to go through the conversation?
Keith Law: I write the way that sounds right in my head. Prepositions take objects, so a preposition should come before an object if possible. The terminal preposition just sounds wrong to me. The Latin thing is a myth though.

David: Do you have any thoughts on how Preller has kept this job so long? He’s certainly acquired considerable minor league talent, but the organization has shown a remarkably poor ability to assess talent at or near the major-league level during his tenure (Myers’ extension and the signing of Hosmer being perhaps the most egregious examples, but certainly not the only ones), and none of the managers he’s chosen have worked out very well. I can’t help thinking that it’s time for ownership to clean house and hire someone with a different approach (Jason McLeod?).
Keith Law: I wonder if Hosmer was him or ownership. It’s diametrically opposed to anything else he’s done as GM. As you said, they have acquired an absurd amount of talent, through all channels, and I don’t think one year of some horrible injury luck should outweigh that. The fire Preller camp is extremely reactionary.

Michael: Hi Keith – Any thoughts on the NL MVP race?  I know Tatis and Soto have had great years, but watching Harper the last few weeks has been a revelation. I am shocked when opposing managers pitch to him he is so locked in. Thanks for the chat!
Keith Law: If I had a ballot – I don’t, of course, because the powers that be don’t want me to vote – I’d have Harper on top. Tatis is the best player in baseball, but he’s missed 25+ games, and that’s a factor in the MVP award.

Guest: Would love to see Sam Bachman get some work in the AZFL. He hasn’t pitched since Sept. 1st after COVID protocols in High-A, and then again after his promotion to AA. With only 14IP in pro ball would you send him to AZ or sit him down knowing he’s been throwing on and off since Feb.?
Keith Law: I’d love to see him, but since he had a shoulder scare in the spring, resting him is probably the better option. Start fresh next year with a single plan for the entire season.

Devon: What’s your outlook on William Contreras? I think he’s actually looked really good at the plate (given his age and big defensive responsibilities) but Braves fans have been frustrated by his defense. Do you think he just needs more reps behind the plate or is a move off the position necessary to keep the bat in the lineup?
Keith Law: I have never thought before that his defense was a problem –  if you read my pre-season capsule on him, you can see I was pretty positive about it – and I also think judging a catcher in his first year in the majors is probably unfair.

Mike: Keith, I know we can’t scout the stat line, but it seems Mark Vientos had a great year. I read his defense is not great though. What are your thoughts on him?
Keith Law: He can hit, and the power is legit. I had him as a fringy defender before the season and it sounds like that’s about right … maybe even a tick worse. But they already have more first basemen than they can use, so I wouldn’t try to move him just yet.

Trevor: You’ve touted the Mets and their home grown talent, yet no playoff appearances amongst the group since 2016. Failure fall on the players, the front office, or other?
Keith Law: You kind of skipped over the part where they hired a completely unqualified person to be GM (when they could have hired Chaim Bloom) and let him trade away their top prospect for nowhere near enough in return.

Troy: What is the Tigers Ryan Kreidler ceiling?
Keith Law: I saw him this summer – I think he’s an extra guy.

Mac: Are you feeling better about Jarred Kelenic’s long term future?
Keith Law: Yes. I was never actually worried about him – the gap between the minors and the majors right now appears to be the biggest it’s ever been. A lot of good prospects are going to struggle right out of the chute.

Mike: Keith, you are named POBO of the Mets. What do you do with Stroman, Conforto & Syndergaard? Who do you sign/ offer QO?
Keith Law: I’d offer all three. Take the picks if they leave. And I’d have interest in bringing all three guys back, too – the first two on long-term deals, Thor maybe a make-good one since he’ll be working his way back into next year.

Tim: Should the winner of the NL West with the best record in baseball have the choice of who they want to play vs. mandating they play the wildcard winner in the Division Series?  This year more than ever it would seem the Brewers are going to have the advantage of facing a much weaker team regardless of who wins the east and who wins the wildcard game.
Keith Law: Nah, the system is what it is. I have issues with the playoff structure but the #1 seed facing the second-weakest team rather than the weakest team isn’t one of them.

Mike: Klaw, I read some executives say Cohen’s tweets will scare some people away from the Mets. Do you believe this? Big market team/wealthy owner (still feels good to say that), why wouldn’t anyone want the job, especially for top $$$.
Keith Law: I think it’s complete bullshit. And so are these candidate lists that recycle the same white men who’ve had that job before. I saw one “list” that included a guy who clearly failed in previous stops as a GM. Why would the Mets do that? There are plenty of good candidates out there, some of whom haven’t had the opportunity yet, some of whom aren’t – gasp – the same white men who’ve already had that chance!

Billy: Will you be chatting every week again come this off-season?  These are the highlight of the internet each week.
Keith Law: I appreciate that, but it’ll really depend on what else I have going on.

Trevor: Kevin Maitan was said to be the greatest international signee since Miguel Sano. What did the scouts miss about his profile?
Keith Law: I don’t believe I ever said that – he was hyped up at age 14 but he was already very physically developed for the age, and at 16/17 he made it clear that those evaluations were in error. He wasn’t that good of a hitter and his body had gone the wrong way.

John: Your thoughts on Austin Martin?  Where does he help the Twins ? CF?   Next year?
Keith Law: I’d refer you back to my writeup of the trade – I think that all holds true. We’ll see how he looks in March after the Twins have had a chance to work with him on his swing, and once he’s farther removed from the wrist injury/

John: Why do you folks think Trump is still presidential material?  Amazing how much loyalty he attracts even with his craziness.
Keith Law: He exploits his adherents, still they love him.

Luca: Keibert Ruiz and Joe Ryan…yay or nay?
Keith Law: They’re both prospects, yes. Ruiz was on my top 50 (see above).

Friar Fan: Meulens, Alomar Jr, Alou, Boch? Have a prediction for a new manager in SD if Ting goes?
Keith Law: If Preller is picking, it’s more likely someone he knows from the Texas system. Those sound like names that reporters throw around.

Chris: If you had to pick one long term, Kelenic or Julio?
Keith Law: Kelenic. Middle of the diamond player.

Kevin: Is the complete game going away ? How would you run a pitching staff?
Keith Law: Oh it’s gone. CGs are oddities now.

Zac: When Chris Illitch took over, the public opinion is he was in to make money and he won’t spend money to win. Do Tigers fans have the right to be angry if he doesn’t sign one of the premium shortstops this off-season?
Keith Law: I hate that mindset – sign one of these players, or you suck.

Alex In Austin: I found Wingspan to be a bit too solo and lacking interaction.  Is it just me?
Keith Law: It does lack much interaction. I don’t think that’s a flaw; it’s a matter of taste.

Scherzers_Blue_Eye: What do you make of Josiah Gray? Very up and down rookie year–a couple of really good starts, a couple of stinkers.
Keith Law: I think there’s a lot of learning how best to use the stuff he has there. He has the stuff to be a legit above-average starter. He has to use it more effectively – location, command, pitching plan.

CHOP: Indigo Diaz? What are the reports you have heard?
Keith Law: He’s a one-inning reliever. He could be very good in that role in the majors, but the attrition rate of pure relief prospects is really high.

Robert: Arte Moreno, worst owner in baseball? The sheer number of terrible stories coming out of Anaheim, from the Skaggs tragedy and lawsuit to the minor league treatment, that don’t even approach the problems within the lines is nothing short of embarrassing.
Keith Law: Don’t forget his open support of Trump!

Mac: Is the elimination of short season the only reason so many teams had so aggressive assignments this year?
Keith Law: It is *a* reason. I don’t think it’s the only one. I think it’s hurting the lowest tier of players, though.

Hunter: Thoughts on our current administrations performance. Afgan, border, covid, oil, Hunters laptop cover up, seem to not be going so well. Haven’t seen any criticism from you yet.
Keith Law: Your mistake was the “Hunters laptop cover up” part. You are actually looking for r/thedonald.

Bill: Thoughts on Mountcastle’s season?
Keith Law: Kind of what I expected. Not sure where they’re going to play him long term.

Ben: Hi, Keith. Heard on your podcast that you came to Taiwan to meet with two former players in Keng Buo Hsuen and Cheng Chi Hong,. As a scout, what are some of the biggest challenges when scouting players outside the U.S.?
Keith Law: I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer that, since I haven’t really covered the international market. I can say that the way Taiwanese amateur pitchers are used – throwing side sessions every day, at least back when we were there – is a pretty big problem if you’re trying to sign guys and keep them healthy.

Will E.: Was Alek Thomas under-scouted out of HS? Looks like him vs Kelenic is now debatable as the top bat in that HS class.
Keith Law: Don’t think so – I had him as a first-round talent, and he was at some major events like the NHSI. Everyone saw him.

Chris: In the 20’ish years you’ve been doing prospect lists, what is the most you’ve seen a player in a year(in person, video)? Perhaps maybe like 25IP and 25 PA for a few players every year?
Keith Law: When Pratto/Melendez were here two years ago I probably saw 40-50 PA from each. I stopped taking notes because they weren’t making adjustments and it was futile waiting for something to improve. It’s all the more remarkable that they’ve done what they’ve done this year.

ProjectBiscuit: Has any player or his parents/close ones ever thanked you for being the high guy on him as a prospect compared to other evaluators? For example, I think Trae Turner’s dad thanked Kiley in person for being higher on him than most evaluators going back to when he and Rodon were teammates.
Keith Law: Yes, quite a few times. It’s a nice feeling when that happens but I don’t know if it would be appropriate to disclose their names.

Ken: Hey Keith, I was the guy on twitter a week or two ago arguing that Dave Parker shouldnt be in the HOF due based on  his career WAR and little value he provided after ’79 (other than ’85).  Broadly, speaking when I discuss WAR with others in terms of HOF, assuming standard 15 year career (ages 23-38) I working working with a model of anything over 70 is auto placement, anything under 60 doesnt get you there, 60 is where the conversation begins and really 68 is the minimal sweet spot thus i call a 4.5 WAR season a HOF worthy season.  Understanding everyone has a different floor for the HOF, am I off in my thinking using this as a loose but reasonable guideline for 15ish year careers?
Keith Law: I would say that’s a good starting point, but you always want to consider the context of a player’s career rather than just creating those hard cut-offs. I can say that, okay, Salvador Perez isn’t even getting to 40 WAR in his career, that’s not a HoFer, but I would take more serious looks at players starting in the 50s in WAR.

Rodney: Do you think it would’ve been in the best interests of player and team for the Reds to call Hunter Greene up to work out of the bullpen in September? Any thoughts on why they didn’t?
Keith Law: He missed a start with soreness in his AC joint in August. I’m assuming that’s why.

Famous Twitter User @Whitey_83: At this point, should any of the young outfielders in Atlanta’s system figure into the team’s 2022 plans?
Keith Law: I want to be open-minded on Pache, who did show a good bit more patience in AAA this year, but for a team that’s trying to win he might be a risk they can’t take in the short term. So probably not.

JL: No question, just wanted to plug for people to vote in their local elections this November. Here in Kansas, some anti-mask nuts are running for open seats and I imagine that’s happening throughout the rest of the country, too.
Keith Law: Amen.

Luis Robert: I am hitting .355/.393/.559 with a 160 wRC+ and .404 wOBA over my 262 PAs this season. That’s 3.1 fWAR in just 60 games. If I stay healthy next year, am I a top-5 player in baseball?
Keith Law: With a .424 BABIP. So, yes, if your true talent level is a .424 BABIP, you will be a top-5 player in baseball.

Bob: Seems like Adley Rutschman has gotten better at AAA. How long do we have to wait to see him in the big leagues in 2022?
Keith Law: I’d note that pretty much every prospect is hitting for more power in AAA than below. But Rutschman should be their Opening Day catcher.

David: Any update on the Rockies’ GM search? Local media seems resigned to Schmidt keeping the job, with the caveat that he might well be a good candidate in the end.  But having no external candidates seems like a real problem, given how the last few years have gone.
Keith Law: I bet it’s Schmidt. I’d take him over the field at this point.

Chris: How concerned should the Yankees be with Jasson Dominguez strikeout numbers? Is it just his adjustment after a lost season, or something more?
Keith Law: Isn’t he 18? in full-season ball!

JJ: Speaking of MVP voting, isn’t MLB concerned about John Henry owning both the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Globe?  Last season, Julian McWilliams of the Globe voted for two Red Sox on his ballot — including putting Alex Verdugo at 5th — while the team was hideous.  Does MLB just not care that one employee was essentially voting for his coworkers?
Keith Law: The team being hideous is irrelevant. The conflicts of interest are rife – MLB.com writers can vote, because they’re eligible for BBWAA membership now (as they should be), but that means they’re now paid by the league.

Jeff: Where do you come down on the Kiermaier fiasco? I say he did nothing wrong.
Keith Law: I say he did. Sketchy.

HGarcia81: Hey Keith – Hope all is well with you and your family. Is your wife feeling better now?
Keith Law: Still dealing with a lot of residual fatigue, even a month after she was done with the main sickness from COVID-19. I can’t imagine how deluded you must be to think you’d rather risk getting that sick than get a safe, effective vaccine.

MS: Frank Schwindel and Pat Wisdom starting next year?
Keith Law: I would bet against that.

Aaron C.: How does Klaw “watch” baseball? (Not just “with my eyes” lol) Is it background noise while you’re cooking? Are you armed with a list of recent call ups and flipping channels to get another look at players you’ve scouted? Do you watch milb dot tv, instead? Just curious.
Keith Law: MILB.tv is too frustrating to watch … it’s such a poor substitute for being there. I watch more major league games if I’m home, just bouncing game to game to see interesting players.

ChrisP: Gore has made it back up to AA, but are you hearing any update on how his delivery has progressed from the complex?
Keith Law: You’ve probably seen the video – Longenhagen posted some. That’s the delivery now.

FWIW: FWIW, Stroman can’t be QOed
Keith Law: Ah yes, he took a QO last year. Thank you.

MS: When you go to these board game conventions, where do you stand on nerd level 1-5; 5 being super nerd
Keith Law: I mean, we’re all big nerds there, and happy to be so.
Keith Law: I feel pretty socially capable there, though. Like, no one is looking at me like I’m the biggest nerd in the (giant) room. I think.

Kevin w: Overall, have you been happy with this administration?  I personally can quibble with a few things (lack of progress on voting rights being one), but overall been very pleased.
Keith Law: Yes, and yes. I have no idea what this Haitian immigrant decision is about – it seems antithetical to anything the party should stand for, like it’s just a fear of riling up the people who are never voting blue anyway. They’re just not doing enough overall, given the control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

Aaron C.: Should I read anything into Nick Allen slugging .254 at AAA-Las Vegas (in a teeny sample) other than dude might be worn out from crisscrossing the globe to hit a little white ball in 2021?
Keith Law: Very small sample.

Jay: Red Sox vs. Yankees this weekend — if one of those teams misses the playoffs with a $200 million payroll, should their season be viewed as a failure?
Keith Law: Not a fan of that mindset either but it’s endemic. They’re in a really tough division – four teams contending, one of which went to the WS last year, two spending that kind of money, and Toronto a strong playoff team last year with a higher payroll than they’ve had in, what, 15 years? They literally can not all make the playoffs.

Bob: I truly appreciate you baseball coverage, but personally think your a Liberal nut case.
Keith Law: *you’re

Gabe: Spencer Howard. Too early to throw in the towel?
Keith Law: Let’s see him get healthy and get a regular role in Texas. The phillies jerked him around quite a bit, and his shoulder barked a few times this year and back in 2019.

Bill G: Keith, you were high on Detmers in your mid-season update.  He struggled in his MLB games.  Is this SSS, or did you see something that gave you cause for concern.  Does the gap in MLB vs. minor leagues apply to pitchers as well?  Thanks.
Keith Law: I think it applies to everybody.

Dungeon Master: Any idea if CJ Abrams, Corbin Carroll, or Royce Lewis are recovered enough to participate in AZ Fall League?
Keith Law: I don’t know, but I am assuming Lewis won’t be, given the injury. I’d be thrlled to see any of them.

Joe: You recommended a book by N. K. Jemisin to me a while ago. It’s still on my reading list but I picked up The City We Became by the same author and am really enjoying it. Thanks. And when you’re in San Diego if you haven’t already checked out Mysterious Galaxy I recommend it.  Great book store that focuses on fantasy and sci-fi but does have other genres.
Keith Law: Excellent, thank you.

Mac: i.e. Alek Thomas “and he was at some major events like the NHSI. Everyone saw him.” He was bad at that event and many teams killed him. Yet another example of teams giving up on a northern hitter too soon.
Keith Law: I was there. He wasn’t bad at that event. And teams saw him after that too, since it was basically the start of his spring (and near the end of a lot of southern kids’ springs).

Mike: Also, Mets fans want Luis Rojas gone immediately after game 162 but I can’t help but see his resume as someone who is going to be a great manager elsewhere. I’m sure you know Rojas well from the minors, what are your thoughts on him going forward?
Keith Law: He should be on every team’s short list if he’s scapegoated in NY.

Rick: I have a friend from college who won’t stop texting me shit about “Hunter’s laptop” – he’s a doctor and he refuses to get the covid vaccine because of unknown long-term side effects. So, that guy is in good company.
Keith Law: It’s a disease.
Keith Law: Well, COVID-19, and Trumpism.

Matt: A national baseball reporter with an endless fixation on the Orioles rebuild tweeted today that, while the Dbacks are equally as bad, at least they tried and spent $80 million on Bumgarner. How do you feel about the perspective that even if you throw $80 million a way on an aging pitcher, it was worth just because you spent it?
Keith Law: I mean, sure, they did try, and that’s worth praising, but it also hasn’t worked out, and that’s worth acknowledging. I am not going to criticize the Orioles for choosing not to do that. They will have to spend on pitching at some point, but last winter wasn’t the right time and maybe this winter isn’t either.

Daniel: Any thoughts at all on Ryan Garko being hired as the Tigers director of player development? There’s basically no information about him since he retired from playing.
Keith Law: I’m a fan. He coached at Stanford for a year, had an important role with the Angels, very smart guy. Stanford should have hired him to be their head coach, to be honest.

Snoogans: Who are some early candidates for the top 10 songs of the year? Albums?
Keith Law: Little Simz’ Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is my top album of the year. Arlo Parks’ Collapsed in Sunbeams, Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime, Gojira’s Fortitude, and Kid Kapichi’s This Time Next Year are up there for me. Top songs besides some of the tracks on those records … Robert Plant/Alison Krauss’ “Can’t Let Go,” Jonah Nilsson’s “Diamond Ring,” Wolf Alice’s “Smile,” CHVRCHES’ “How Not to Drown,” Jungle’s “Truth,” Jorja Smith’s “Addicted,” Royal Blood’s “Typhoons,” and Griff’s “Black Hole” are all contenders.

Lido: Torey Luvollo got an extension yesterday. Good move or bad move?
Keith Law: I was surprised. People who cover that org tend to criticize his in-game management.

Jack: A bit confused by the Alek Thomas questions in this chat – does drafting a toolsy high school hitter in the second round and seeing them have significant prospect success a miss by the industry?  Not exactly Albert Pujols here
Keith Law: Yeah, I’m not really sure either. If I had him ranked in the first round, then it’s not like the industry was unaware of him.
Keith Law: Meaning I take a lot of my cues from scouts/execs – not the other way around.

Guest: Would people in red states not benefit just as much from things like child tax credit and universal pre-K? Are there not households with two working parents? Single parents?! So frustrating.
Keith Law: One of the great tricks of dark money efforts has been convincing people that expensive government policies and programs that would help them directly are somehow bad ideas.
Keith Law: There are real arguments for and against those programs. I support universal pre-K, but I also know it’s going to be expensive, and hard to implement fairly across the country (look at public education from K-12 … don’t pretend kids in majority Black areas are getting the same caliber that kids in majority white areas are). We could have a real debate over the pros and cons. That can’t happen because one side just screams “socialism.”

Pat: 30 years ago today- Nevermind, Badmotorfinger, Blood Sugar Sex Magik,& Low End theory were released. that’s the album that killed hair metal, the best album from one of the biggest bands of the last 35 years, Soundgarden’s breakthrough & a seminal hip hop album. Helluva day!
Keith Law: I mean, I have a hard time putting RHCP in the same tier as the other three … but I’ll allow it.

Larry: Alek Thomas has really been raking this year. Is his ceiling 60 hit, 55 power in center? If so, that’s a legit star, no?
Keith Law: I’m a big fan, obviously, but I do not believe he’ll get to 55 power.

Kevin: Would Rickey Henderson be valued different as a prospect now than when he came up 40 years ago?
Keith Law: If anything he’d be valued more highly.

Daniel: Aaron Ashby: starter or reliever or something in between?
Keith Law: Reliever.

Matt: My brother is a huge Trump supporter. He has a son on disability that would qualify for SSDI. He refuses to get it because he doesn’t “want any help from the Government.” Even though his taxes pay for it and it’s provided.
Keith Law: I feel bad for his son.

JP: I’d add, the dark money efforts you cited convince people that government programs help “those kinds” of people, if you know what I mean
Keith Law: You know who pours a lot of cash into those dark-money efforts? The Kendricks – owners of the Diamondbacks. Read Jane Mayer’s Dark Money for more. Randi Kendrick’s name comes up a few times.

Pat D: Tucker Carlson, Charlie Kirk, or Ben Shapiro: who’s the worst of the worst?
Keith Law: Carlson. With the larger platform comes greater responsibility.

Bob: The racist narrative is getting old.
Keith Law: You know what’s really getting old? The racism.

Larry: Talk to me about expensive programs when the Government isn’t Trillions of dollars in debt
Keith Law: If you can explain the actual import of that debt to me, we can talk.
Keith Law: Also, slash the military budget.

Joe 2: Follow up on Robert, assuming his BABIP isn’t sustainable, what is the ceiling?  30/30 with HR upside and middle of the road OBP with continued near gold glove defense?  Or is there potentially more?
Keith Law: That’s a ceiling. I’d bet on a lower OBP than that.

Matt: I mean we spent $8 Trillion on a BS war for 20 years. Conservatives never complain about that though.
Keith Law: No, and if you start to wonder why, just follow that money.

Pat: RE RHCP- There’s a reason I said “biggest” bands, not “best. 🙂 That said, I had a lot of good times in college listening to BSSM.
Keith Law: Fair point. And that album was huge while I was in college. I don’t think it’s aged as well as the others, though.
Keith Law: That’s all for this week – thanks for all of the questions and for reading. Check out that Prospect of the Year post I linked above, and keep an eye out for my Gen Con wrapup today or tomorrow over at Paste. Stay safe and go get vaccinated!

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