→ September 1, 2025
→ By

Jungo.

Jungo is the third version of a game that has previously been published in Japan as Hachi Train and Nanatoridori, with very slight changes to the rules each time. It is very much SCOUT lite, with simpler rules, but ultimately much less strategy and decision-making because your moves are usually going to be pretty straightforward. (It’s on Amazon right now, but not Miniature Market.)

Jungo is a “card-shedding” game, like SCOUT or UNO, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all of your cards before anyone else does. You’re dealt a hand of cards from the deck, which has cards numbered 1 through 12 in various colors, and you may not rearrange your hand. On your turn, you must play either a single card or a set of cards of the same number to the table, beating whatever is on the table at that moment. If you’re playing the same number of cards, you must play a higher value. Otherwise, you must play at least one more card than is there already. If you can’t or don’t want to do either of these things, you must pass and draw a card … but if that card allows you to make a legal play, then you can do so immediately. You can also keep the card and put it anywhere in your hand that you’d like, or discard it.

When you play a card or a set to the table, you have the option to take the cards were there into your hand, placing them wherever you want; if not, you must discard them. If all players pass and play returns to whoever played the cards on the table, they discard whatever’s there and begin a new trick. Play continues until someone has no cards remaining in their hand. You can just play a single round, or you can play multiple rounds until someone wins twice for a longer game.

I just don’t see any scenario where I’d choose to play Jungo over SCOUT. Jungo is just too simple – there’s really very little strategy here from turn to turn, as the optimal move is obvious every time. You want to play the strongest set you can to try to get cards out of your hand, both to move closer to having zero cards and to potentially create a new set within your hand for a future play. Because the game only allows sets of cards, and not runs of consecutive numbers, you don’t have as many possibilities within your hand, so picking up cards is less likely to be useful.

I could see an argument that Jungo is easier to teach than SCOUT, since it probably has half the rules of the older game, but I’ve had success teaching SCOUT to non-gamers and to kids, so simplifying it doesn’t have a lot of appeal for me. Your mileage may vary, but Jungo wasn’t for me.

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→ August 30, 2025
→ By

Stick to baseball, 8/30/25.

Over at Endless Mode, I wrote about how educators are using off-the-shelf board games in their classrooms for all sorts of didactic purposes.

I held a Klawchat on Thursday. I also appeared on The Menschwarmers podcast, which (obviously) is about the intersection of Judaism and sports, to talk about the Core Jackson story.

I moved my free email newsletter over to Kit this week, and the transition seems to have gone smoothly. If you were already signed up on Substack before Wednesday, you should have received the new edition. If you haven’t signed up, or signed up on Substack after that, you can sign up on my new site at Kit.

And now, the links…

  • Long(ish) reads first: A BBC investigation found that images and videos of child sexual abuse are easily found on X/Twitter, including those of a woman who is one of those victims and has directly asked Elon Musk to stop it. Third parties based overseas are using X to advertise the images for sale, then switching to other platforms to exchange them.
  • Josephine Riesman ’08 wrote in the Harvard Independent, for which I wrote while I was there, that we should avoid the building that bears her family’s name, the Riesman Center for Harvard Hillel, because that organization has ignored the genocide happening in Gaza and said nothing about the Administration’s attacks against the university.
  • ICE detained a mother in Massachusetts for 10 days over a 2003 cannabis charge for which she’d been pardoned. The woman is here legally, and the offense is no longer even a crime in Massachusetts. She was released on August 20th.
  • Alderac’s Kickstarter for Into the Machine has a novel structure – there are all sorts of expansions for their other titles here as well, and the more items you pledge, the greater the discount you get.
  • I’m intrigued by the game Le Vent Rouge, with a relaunched Kickstarter up now, as it looks like a dice-rolling and bag-building game, but a heavier one, with a play time listed at 60-120 minutes.

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→ August 28, 2025
→ By

Klawchat 8/28/25.

Starting at 2 pm ET. Over at Endless Mode, I wrote about educators using off-the-shelf board games in their classrooms.

Keith Law: I heard a funny thing, somebody said to me … Klawchat.

RH: Hi Keith, thank you for chatting, what should the Nationals do this offseason under their new admin?
Keith Law: The first step is hiring the right person (or persons). I’m worried that ownership wants to be too involved, which would mean hiring some sycophant or otherwise compliant GM/POBO rather than bringing in a strong candidate with, I’d hope, some player development experience. There’s a lot of talent in the system now after the last two drafts and the trade deadline, but I’d say overall they need better results from the development side than they’ve had to date.

Aaron C.: With the caveat that ALL Hall of Fame debates are kinda annoying these days, who’s HoF candidacy debate is gonna be more annoying: Yadier Molina or Salvador Pérez?
Keith Law: Oh Molina’s for sure. Unrelated, but I would really like to see him get a shot to manage somewhere – and it doesn’t have to be St. Louis.

Guest: Cubs personnel allowed white nationalist Charlie Kirk on to the field at Wrigley. Busch and Shaw took pics with him with big thumbs up. And yet no coverage from the Chicago media or others. Fear of Ricketts family? Coming White Nationalist Bobblehead Day at Wrigley?
Keith Law: I don’t have any background on that one but 1) I would not have allowed him close to the field and 2) I would also imagine that they feared a backlash if he complained publicly, like they all do, about cancel culture or whatever if they denied him a pass.

Steven: Any thoughts on Jeremiah Jackson with the O’s?
Keith Law: Not a guy. Used to be a prospect, never developed any semblance of a plan at the plate.

The Tone: Whats your projection on AJ Ewing’s hit tool? Is it good enough to make him a potential impact guy or is he more of a speed and defense guy like Morabito in that system?
Keith Law: Big fan. He can hit. Future regular.

Chris: Hi Keith,
A lot of Red Sox fans, as well as some in the media, have soured on Kristian Campbell since the Red Sox sent him back to AAA. Has your opinion on him changed as well?
Keith Law: No. Recency bias strikes again.

Joe: Is it too soon to lower expectations for Jackson Holliday?
Keith Law: Jesus. He’s 21 and in his second year in the majors. Witt Jr was 22 in his rookie year and was only worth 0.9 WAR. Now he’s a top 5 player in baseball. Why on earth would you be talking about “lower expectations” for Holliday?

Ryan: Is Rob Manfred really recruiting Bud to carry water for a salary cap concession? Was Mr. Burns not available? Won’t anyone please consider helping the poor team owners.  Please tell me that no one will buy this hogwash.
Keith Law: I don’t think players are buying it, but the media will. They have never failed to fall for owner propaganda.

Alek: Yohandy Morales has adjusted reasonably well to aaa the last 2 months. Do you think he can be a solid bat for this washington core that needs more pop?
Keith Law: That is false.

Aaron C.: Is a late 2026 A’s rotation of Arnold, Morales, Jump and Perkins (a) realistic and (b) enough to get me and the 50 A’s fans left excited?
Keith Law: Realistic, yes, although Jump’s delivery is terrifying and he’s already blown out once. But if they all stay healthy it’s a solid to above-average group.

addoeh: How sustainable is this version of Cade Horton?
Keith Law: I don’t think it is sustainable – I think he’s a starter, but more like a league-average one. He’s had some very good fortune on the four-seamer that I don’t think is going to last. The secondary stuff is legit, with three 55s or better, but I don’t think he can throw the four-seamer half the time and continue to get away with it.

Michael: Hindsight and all, but would the Cubs have been better off keeping Bellinger, Paredes and Smith?
Keith Law: Given the goal of contending in 2025, trading for Tucker was the right move, giving Bellinger away probably was not.

Kevin W.: How sad are you as an American at the moment?
Keith Law: Embarrassed and disappointed would be better words.

Hoss (Austin): Should Red Sox stick Tolle or Harrison into the pennant race as either starters or relievers, or would team and player be better served to continue their development in AAA?
Keith Law: Not sure what the plan is for Tolle’s innings, since it’s his first full year and he’s throwing harder than ever right now. I’m a fan of breaking in young pitchers in relief, like the Pirates seem to be doing with Chandler (credit to them, so few teams do this any more).

Patrick (WI): Thanks, as always, for ALL.THE.CONTENT.
Keith Law: You’re welcome. Thanks to all of you for reading.

Patrick (WI): Now, on to the question….what should I be looking at for my favorite team’s MiLB development over the last month of the season? Who they move up? Who they don’t? More?
Keith Law: Yes, who they move up is important, as that’s often about setting a guy up for where he’s starting next year – although sometimes it’s about getting a player into a pennant race to help a certain affiliate. Just bear in mind that the competition level these last few weeks can be very wonky as players are promoted or shut down.

Guest: Keith, who is playing where and who is getting traded?  Benge CF, Williams 2b, Baty 3b, Vientos DH, Mauricio? Reimer?
Keith Law: Reimer’s not in that group. Nice player, but below Elian Pena and Ewing among their position player prospects, at least. Benge keeps getting better.

Bill G.: In spite of the rules changes, offense is still down in MLB.  You and others have stated that the gap between AAA and MLB is larger than ever.  Is there really enough of a talent pool to support expansion?  Won’t expansion make offense degrade even more?  Thanks!
Keith Law: I think expansion might boost offense – there’s never enough pitching to go around anyway, so we’ll get a lot of ‘worse’ pitchers throwing more innings in the majors, right?

davealden53: In one of your recent chats, perhaps the most recent one, I asked about reducing pitchers’ injuries.  You replied with smaller staffs.  I agree that injuries would like be lessened if pitchers had to focus on longer outings.  But wouldn’t offense go up with pitchers not pushing to their physical limits?  Would another adjustment be required to keep baseball at +/- 9 runs per game?  If so, what changes?  Deadened baseballs?  Enlarged strike zone?  Taller mound?  (I lean toward strike zone changes.)
Keith Law: I’d be fine with offense going up, though. Offense is down overall, and it’s too HR-driven. That’s not the most marketable version of the sport. I don’t need MLB to mimic the Savannah Bananas here – just lean into the best things innate in the sport itself.

Matt V: Any intel on Jonathon Long of the Cubs? Heard good reviews on the bat speed. Something there, or just a good statistical performer at AAA?
Keith Law: The latter.

Bobby Digital: Given the current state of the Red Sox- playing well, seemingly set up for longer-term success- what is your assessment of the Bloom era? As a fan, I feel like he earned his ticket out but also took a ton of unjustified heat despite doing a lot work to put in place many of the pieces we’re enjoying today. Curious how someone more objective, and more expert, views this. Thanks!
Keith Law: Bloom laid a lot of that foundation and I think he got run out of town for a lot of things ownership did (or prevented). Cardinals are already on the upswing now for having him.

Richard: I came across a book series I thought you would enjoy and wanted to share. It turns out that Jo Walton wrote a series of alternative history mystery books about post-WW2 England and they are fun. The books are centered on a fictional England’s move toward fascism, and are a little darker than I would like, but still with Walton’s excellent writing. The first novel in the series is called “Farthing.”
Keith Law: Love Jo Walton. Just saw last night her new book is coming out in June 2026 – first new novel from her since the pandemic, I think.

Eric: I realize we still are in relatively small sample size territory, but what are your impressions of Colson Montgomery so far?
Keith Law: Since the ASB – which gets rid of the series at Denver – he has a .262 OBP and a 29% K rate. It’s going to be an ugly return to earth.

Ben: Your thoughts on this “arms race” to gerrymander the most seats before next November?
Keith Law: I’m glad the Democrats are at least fighting fire with fire for once after pretending since 2016 that they can reason with their opponents.

Mike: Hi Klaw – Thanks for continuing to do these. As a Mariners fan, I’ve never been more excited by what they have in the big leagues and on the rise in minors. This feels like the making of a mini dynasty if they play their cards right. My question is regarding their embarrassment of riches in the middle infield – counting Cole Young, who would you target to flip this offseason and who would you deem untouchable?
Keith Law: Emerson’s untouchable. I’ve said for months Young is the best guy to trade. Lacks the ceiling of Emerson, Arroyo, Celesten, but he’s MLB-ready.

John: What happened to Tanner Bibee this year? He seemed to be emerging as a really good starter after his first two years, but he’s really gone backwards in 2025.
Keith Law: I don’t have a great answer to that, sorry. Not sure why his changeup, which was at least a 70 when he debuted, is playing so much worse this year, or why he’s barely using it.

JR: Mclean seems like the real deal (SSS). What do you project for him long term? Also, do you think the Mets are being too aggressive with Tong, or do you think he’s ready?
Keith Law: McLean needs something for lefties but the fastball/breaking ball combo is legit. Fine with calling Tong up now, although I wish they weren’t throwing all their rookies right into the rotation like this. (I understand why they are – it’s just not ideal.)

SJ: Is there any hope for post-hype guys like Mead and Julien to put it together? Wasn’t looking for great defense, but they were supposed to hit.
Keith Law: Never bought Julien’s bat – he could walk, more than anything, but poor athlete & defender without the hit tool. Mead I give a little more of a chance. Smart pickup by the White Sox, even if he’s a longshot.

Aaron: I don’t believe in Hurston Waldrep despite the early success given SSS. Have you seen anything that changes your opinion of his long-term major league role?
Keith Law: Yes – they really changed his pitch mix, so he’s not just straight four-seamer and plus splitter out of the zone any more.

Mike: With Cal entrenched at catcher for the M’s, what would you do w/ Harry Ford? Try to flip him in the offseason, or try to move him to another position? I’m assuming they are resisting the urge to move him right now for trade value reasons.
Keith Law: Ford is not a good defensive catcher anyway. Don’t think they’re getting a ton of trade interest from clubs that think he can catch. Moving him around might increase his trade value if they show he can play somewhere else.

Mike: How good is Kevin McGonigle’s hit tool? A 12% K rate with more walks than strikeouts as a 21-year-old in Double-A is wild.
Keith Law: There’s a reason I had him as the #1 prospect in the minors last month.

Guru: How has Nick Kurtz improved since you saw him his Junior year at Wake Forest?
Keith Law: Don’t think he’s improved so much as he’s gotten fully healthy. He might be swinging more, though – I’d have to check the data on that one.

Tom C: Is there anything sadder in MLB than Mike Trout turning into a JAG?
Keith Law: He’s better than that. He’s just not a superstar any more.

Aaron: If you were Alex Anthopoulos, would you trade one of Murphy or Baldwin this winter and sign a full-time DH or keep both and alternate them in the catcher/DH spot?
Keith Law: I’d shop them both and see what comes out of it. They have some clear needs they could address with a trade of either guy.

Kevin: Do You think Mike Elias is going to survive this offseason?
Keith Law: I haven’t heard anything about his job status either way.

Ben: Your thoughts on South Park taking on this administration?
Keith Law: Haven’t seen any of it. I’m supportive of anyone, anywhere, pushing back.

JR: Do you think the As will still end up in Vegas? Are they really building a stadium or just moving dirt around?
Keith Law: Have they even moved any dirt around?

Jack W.: Even though it’s incredible growth to go from being demoted to a two week instructional camp to middle of the lineup hitter in the span of like 3 months, the power has to turn down at some point for Colson Montgomery, right?  If he settles into a .290 OBP / 475 slugger that can manage at shortstop every day, is that a positive player?
Keith Law: I’ll take the under on those numbers and I don’t think he’s a long-term shortstop

Ben: Are you on the Newsom train? As in, his holding a mirror to trump’s whiny and threatening posts?
Keith Law: He’s been very quick to throw trans rights out the window. I won’t support anyone who does that.

Ryan: Arizona has a really nice position player core (3 of the top 20 in fWAR!!) but it seems like everything they touch pitching-wise turns to ash – can’t really develop anyone and every signing they make goes pretty much worst-case scenario instantly. Are major front-office type changes needed there? Or what do they need to do?
Keith Law: Gallen took off when he got there. Ryne Nelson’s had a modest breakout year. Burnes blowing out his elbow is just part of the risk of signing free agents. They haven’t used a lot of prospect opportunities (high picks, trades) to bring in pitching, so I don’t see your point about them not developing guys … Pfaadt’s been a disappointment in the majors, but he was also a money-saver in the last round of the 2020 draft out of Bellarmine, so in that context he’s a wild success.

Justin: Cobb Hightower was a really buzzy name after the bridge league last fall, someone who seemed like a good bet to get into the top 100 if that momentum continued. He hasn’t hit at all this year, and San Diego shipped him off to Baltimore. Is the glow completely off Hightower now? Really disappointing season.
Keith Law: It’s been one year.

K: Esteban Mejia finishing an 18 year old season in Low A. Is he a guy?
Keith Law: He throws hard and it’s a good delivery. I believe he’s been shut down, though – hasn’t pitched in a week and a half.

Oz: If you were named GM of the Pirates and the owner said you could spend up to the tax threshold, but you have to make the playoffs next year to keep your job, who would you sign to turn that team into a winner?
Keith Law: I’d go sign some power bats. If money is really just no object, sign Tucker, sign Schwarber. Get another 60+ homers into that lineup.

Mike: Should the M’s have converted Hancock to the bullpen a while ago?
Keith Law: Yes.

Nick: Seems like the Mets have a lot of arms having great years in the minors.  Got to love the work the scouting department is doing in conjunction with their pitching lab.  Would love to get your opinion on these guys – Santucci, Wenninger, Watson, Thornton, RJ Gordon, Lambert, Girton?
Keith Law: That’s the sort of thing that has to wait for the org report this winter, sorry.

Jonathan: Do you think JJ Wetherholt makes his debut this year once he can’t lose rookie eligibility like Winn did?
Keith Law: That date has already passed. I’d love to see him called up, just to get him a little bit acclimated to MLB pitching, but I don’t know their plans.

PW: Trevor Rogers is definitely someone you consider extending if your the O’s, or would his career before the previous two months really hesitate you?
Keith Law: He looks a lot like the Rogers from the breakout year. I’m buying it, completely.

Michael: With the understanding that things could turn around, it does feel like the US as we knew it is gone forever. Does a national divorce actually make sense? How long should CA, NY, IL,MA, etc. support the red states financially and allow them to cause such havoc and harm? Is there a way to have a shared military and not much else?
Keith Law: I don’t see how that’s remotely feasible – even though, yes, blue states paying for red states to turn around and try to legislate blue state residents’ rights away is a broken system.

Kevin: Enrique Bradfield has had some hamstring problems, but an .800 OPS with excellent defense in AA this season. Should O’s fans be happy with Chandler Simpson, or expect more?
Keith Law: He’s better than that, a lot better.

Guest: Outside of the absurdity of media members influencing player contracts through end-of-year awards, do you see Roman Anthony finishing top two in the AL ROY race, which would seemingly make the contract look even better?
Keith Law: It’s Kurtz 1, clearly. I’d probably put Anthony 2 if I had that ballot. (I have NL ROY.)

Aaron: Cubs ownership has been openly political/bigoted for years. This year they are likely to get only 250-300 PAs and 150-200 IP from Latino players. Their top draft picks and 18 of 20 total this year are white. They’ve traded away many of their best Black and Latino prospects. And now they have Charlie Kirk on the field posing with players.
Keith Law: College baseball skews heavily white. If you draft college guys, you’re drafting mostly white guys. I have no kind words for the Ricketts family but this is a stretch.

AJ: George Valera was a popular name in the prospect world a few years ago then faded away after he didn’t perform. He’s now gotten really hot in AAA – small sample noise, or is he someone worth paying attention to again?
Keith Law: 25 games in his third year with time at the level.

TomS: Hi Keith. Thanks for the chats. Do you have any plans to write another book?
Keith Law: Nothing specific. The idea has to be there – it’s a lot of work and I don’t want to commit to that unless I feel compelled to write about it.

Ryan: On a non-baseball related note, I love Wingspan but have never tried Wyrmspan, nor do I know anyone who has. Have you? Is it worthwhile?
Keith Law: I reviewed it last spring. It’s excellent, but a bit more complex.

Nice: Jakob Marsee wasn’t heralded as a prospect, but he’s been incredible so far and the underlying data looks very promising. What are your impressions of him so far and what’s your long-term outlook on him?
Keith Law: Small sample.
Keith Law: I don’t think he’s an everyday guy.

Kevin: Went to San Diego for first time last week. Had Juniper and Ivy, which is thought was exceptional. The Yodel was divine.
Keith Law: Still my favorite restaurant in the country.

Justin crawford: What the heck do you make of a guy like Justin Crawford? Everyone says that the way he hits won’t translate to the mlb because of the underlying metrics, but he’s hitting .330 in AAA and above .300 in every league since being drafted. What are your thoughts?
Keith Law: I’m sorry, who is ‘everyone?’ The issue is not that he won’t hit, but that he won’t drive the ball or get to power.

Kyle: As a Canadian who used to travel to US frequently for pleasure but hasn’t for some time now, I’m not sure what the “proper” stance should be given everything going on. Is there an argument that US travel is still ‘acceptable’ as you’re supporting the local people wherever you go, or should it be off the table as a gesture to the bigger picture? Have you cut travel to any locales you don’t support politically?
Keith Law: That hasn’t really come up … like, I wouldn’t travel to Hungary right now, but if we take another international trip that’s not high on our list anyway, so claiming I’m boycotting it for political reasons would be misleading. Travel to the US is down right now and we deserve it.

James: Hey Keith why do you not post on X as much as you used to? Cooking, baseball, life events seemed much more commonplace on my timeline and it’s missed!!
Keith Law: Because it’s a cesspool of hate and misinformation. I have only posted links there since November. I’m active on Bluesky now.

Jim: Personally, I think that people are the greatest fun.  I had a mix of the two versions I loved, but the tape was in a stereo that was stolen.
Keith Law: I worried that quote might be too deep a cut!

Frank: At this point does Henry Davis need a change of scenery and a fresh start with another organization?
Keith Law: Hard to separate whatever his issue is from the team-wide hitting issues.

James: Has Jacob Wilson impressed you more as the year has gone on? Or still relatively down on him?
Keith Law: No, he was tapering off hard when he got hurt.

Alek: Are you conerned about this 2024 nats draft class like i am? King, dickerson, lomavita bazzell, all have been disappointing (dickersons young sure, but Bonemer has outperformed him and was taken right around him if i recall)
Keith Law: Concerned that several of those guys have seemed to go backwards, notably King and Bazzell, with what look like changes to their swings. Dickerson’s 19, has shown some hard contact skills, wouldn’t compare him 1:1 to Bonemer or any other single player because there’s so much development left ahead of them both. But King’s been bad in AA and I’ve seen it – he’s not the same guy.

Michael: Any thoughts on why Brujan ended up being a bust. I know you were high on him at one point.
Keith Law: I think some of it is just the contact didn’t hold up because he wasn’t able to hit it hard enough. He’s also never gotten an extended look, though. Atlanta should give him regular PT in September to see if there’s anything left there … he could always run and had bat-to-ball skills, and he’s at least flashed harder top-end contact this year.

Kevin W.: Still play guitar?
Keith Law: Almost every day.

Patrick (WI): Cuisine world tour question…if you could travel someplace you haven’t been to sample delicacies, top of your list?
Keith Law: West Africa.

addoeh: If you’re Carter Hawkins, why are you worried about the 2032 Cubs?  If you do really well between now and then, you’ll get promoted, probably at another club.  If you don’t do well, you’ll be let go.  Why focus on something you may not be around to see?
Keith Law: Why worry about 2032 when it’s not clear we’ll have a functioning country at that point?
Keith Law: I don’t understand any GM thinking about 7 years down the road. Even if you’re rebuilding you have to have a shorter time horizon than that.

Colin: Luis Arraez…why is everyone giving him so much guff when he is a 3 time batting champ?
Keith Law: Batting average champ.

James: Who do you think has the best chain delivery pizza? Pizza Hut, Dominoes, etc
Keith Law: No.

James: Do you think AL MVP is Raleigh or Judge?
Keith Law: Judge and it’s not close.

Ben: Regarding Michael’s question earlier about a union split – speaking as a Brit who’s lived through Brexit – you are stronger as a union than split.
Keith Law: Fair point.

Ryan: wrt Arizona, it’s not just Burnes – Montgomery, E-Rod, even going back to Bumgarner have all been awful since day 1. I guess what I’m getting at is, what do they need to do to ensure they’re not wasting this position player core they’ve built?
Keith Law: Montgomery was probably hurt the moment he started pitching. Bumgarner was a bad signing, period – he was already showing signs of decline before the deal. Burnes was the right call, though, and it just didn’t work out because all pitchers have that injury risk at this point. I wouldn’t let Burnes deter me from trying it again.
Keith Law: They have to go add a pitcher somewhere this winter, trade or signing.

Jack W.: If you’re the White Sox, do you look to trade one of Quero and Teel in the offseason?  Seems like a misuse of resources to have two relatively promising young catchers platooning this much when there are so many other holes on the roster
Keith Law: Yes, but I’m not sure who I’d rather trade. They’re both really good.

John Olerud: Just curious, do you think there’s any validity in the perspective that Harry Ford may have become a bit underrated as a prospect overall? Maybe it’s a leading question from an Ms fan like me, but all he seems to do is get better at the things that MLB teams seem to want players to get better at, especially a prospect with his his (and OBP) tools who seems to have done what he needs to do to be a capable MLB catcher.
Keith Law: I don’t, because of the lack of a position. You could argue that as a player who defies the typical categorization, he’s undervalued, but that also means (to me) that he’ll have a hard time fitting on a typical roster.
Keith Law: you need a team that’s unusually flexible in how they think about using/deploying players.

TomS: How has AI been incorporated into team front offices re: player evaluation’s
and do you think there will be AI scouting some day?
Keith Law: I have not heard of anyone using AI in that way and given what AI is doing to the planet I don’t want to see it used anywhere.
Keith Law: AI sucks. Maybe it will be useful some day. It’s just the latest tech bubble, breathlessly reported by a technologically illiterate media base. It’s also a great case study in negative externalities.

Ken: he has a BWAR of 65.9, should Willie Randolph have been a HOFER?
Keith Law: I thought he was borderline at the time, but given the lowering of the bar in recent years, I think he belongs. Speaking of which, I believe both Lou Whitaker and Dale Murphy, both of whom should be in the Hall, are eligible this year via one of the super-secret committees.

James: Condon or Dylan Crews?
Keith Law: Leaning Condon now. He has made some promising adjustments in AA, still whiffing on breaking stuff too often but bringing that down as he gets more reps.

Chuck: Do you f*ck with electronic music much? Saw Jamie xx recently and it’s got me into a run with some other DJs: Takuya Nakamura, Four Tet, etc.
Keith Law: It’s song by song. I’ve loved some Jamie xx stuff (“Loud Places”, “See Saw”) but the latest album left me cold.

Fernando: Do you have a best cheesesteak list ?
Keith Law: I don’t eat cow, sorry.
Keith Law: My wife would tell you Jim’s on South St is the best. She’s a native to the area.

Colin: Do you not think the 3 time batting average champ deserves to hit in the 2 spot? Everyone in San Diego seems to want him moved either to the 9 spot or out of the lineup
Keith Law: No, I do not think that that makes someone the best fit for the 2 spot. Arraez has a .316 OBP this year. Putting all of those outs in the 2 spot would be irresponsible.

James: Since when do you not eat cow?
Keith Law: Over 7 years now.

Ken: thoughts on Kjerstad – obviosuly his career isnt over by any stretch but is there any legit hope of him still being a 20+ hr .260 hitting .800 OPS type player?
Keith Law: I’m inclined to say no, unfortunately, but I would at least like to see him get a chance somewhere else. I didn’t love the pick at the time, but he did show more than enough in the minors to make me think he could be a regular with the sort of power you describe.

Michael: Respectfully to Ben, Brexit has not much to do with us. Our country’s size in population and geography means we will always have differences, but these are differences that are killing people and destroying families. And no matter what side of the aisle you are on, defunding medical research will kill someone you love or you whether you realize it or not.
Keith Law: The problem I see there is that we’re not really that split blue state/red state. We’ve disenfranchised huge swaths of the populations of red states, and splitting the country just leaves tens of millions of people who don’t support the hate and violence and anti-science preached by one party under a sort of gerrymander-powered minority rule.

David: Are we resigned to expansion (probably inevitable) and geographic realignment (please a thousand times no) or is this just a leverage ploy for new stadiums in certain MLB cities?
Keith Law: Both. There will be further extortion, and we will get to 32 teams before I retire.

Ben: Who’s the best choice for Dem nominee if you had to pick? Wes Moore, perhaps?
Keith Law: I don’t know enough about the possible candidates for that to say. I just don’t think throwing away the rights of one vulnerable minority is the way to mount a viable opposition to Trump running for a third term (do not dismiss this possibility) or to whatever stooge they nominate to replace him. You don’t beat the “nobody has rights but straight white men” party with a platform of “some people have rights too.” Everyone matters, every race, every gender, every orientation, every religion or non-religion, everybody. You can’t fight exclusion with selective exclusion. You fight it by being the party of equal rights for everyone, period.
Keith Law: That’s all for today – thanks so much for reading and for all of the questions. I’m hoping to get to a game in the next couple of days and will have a new scouting notebook from there. Go call your reps and senators and make your voices heard.

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→ August 25, 2025
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Chincoteague eats (and more).

I was off last week on PTO, and headed to Chincoteague Island, Virginia, with my wife, stepdaughters, and another family of four (a family we know, just in case you were concerned), renting a house there near the tiny “downtown.” The hurricane kept us away from the beach most of the week, but I was impressed by the life on the island, including the sheer number of food options with almost no chains of any sort.

The best food we ate on the island came from Pico Taqueria, which is a take-out stand like the majority of food spots on the island. I tried the fried fish taco, the seared shrimp taco, and the roasted cauliflower taco, the last of which had the most flavor, with a briny pico de gallo with capers, garlicky mayo, and fried shallots. The rice and beans, which contained bacon, were well-seasoned and properly cooked, although I didn’t get any bacon flavor from it.

Our one meal out at a restaurant was at The Pearl, a seafood-focused restaurant on the Assateague Channel, so you get a view of the national park while you eat. The seafood was good to very good, although I was disappointed that the crab cakes didn’t contain any lump crab meat, so they had a higher ratio of breading to crab than they should have given where the restaurant is. The best item we got was the raw Chincoteague oysters, which are salty and briny enough to eat without the included cocktail sauce or anything more than a bit of lemon juice. Don’t bother getting a mixed drink, though.

Cosa Pizza is a wood-fired pizza truck that promises “a modern twist on … the original Neapolitan thin crust.” I liked their pizza quite a bit but it’s well-removed from Neapolitan, as their dough isn’t that airy and they must cook at a lower temperature, getting a lot of browning around the outer crust without the charred spots that are characteristic of Neapolitan.

Island Creamery has a couple of locations on the Delmarva peninsula, one of which is in Salisbury, Maryland, about 10-12 minutes from the Shorebirds’ ballpark. They make their own ice cream and the flavors are strong – I’ve had the Java Jolt, dark coffee ice cream with brownie chunks and chocolate-covered espresso beans, and Marsh Mud, very dark chocolate ice cream. I’d go there over the BYOC (Build Your Own Cookie) stand, where you pick one of seven cookie flavors, then get it served warm with a scoop of Hersheys ice cream and a topping for a little under $8.

I only had coffee out once, at Amarin, a café and bakery right on Maddox just over the bridge from the mainland. They roast their own coffee at a roastery you’ll probably pass driving towards Chincoteague, but everything is medium-dark or darker, which just isn’t my preference. If you’re more into Starbucks-style coffee drinks, it’s a great option – and there’s no chain coffee on the island, other than McDonald’s if you want to count that – but I like lighter roasts.

Church Street Produce is a small produce stand with baked goods, including homemade pies for (I think) $23 for a full-sized one and $8 for a mini pie. We cooked a good bit while in the rental house, and I picked up a few vegetables here – the selection is small but extremely high-quality.

In non-food activities, Old Neptune’s Bookshop is a cute and very well-curated used bookstore, where just about everything is $9 and up but most books are in excellent shape. It’s in part of a house, which is true of a lot of shops and cafes on the island, right on Maddox, not far from Amarin. There’s no parking here but for now there’s an unoccupied food lot across the street where you can park. I bought four books there and could easily have bought three times that.

The main beach is on Assateague Island, in the national park, although there was no swimming permitted in the ocean while we were there because of strong rip currents that were exacerbated by Hurricane Erin. We did get to swim in Tom’s Cove, which you can access from the same parking lot that serves the main beach, where we could walk most of the way out and only be waist-deep. It’s a smaller beach, but it was way better for the kids. You’ll need a park pass to access any of this, along with the walk to the lighthouse, the drivable wildlife loop, and the various hiking and bike trails.

We don’t usually go to the same place twice, but if circumstances brought me back to Chincoteague, I wouldn’t mind. Nothing was more than 15 minutes from the house; most of the food options were less than 7 minutes away. If we were bike people, we probably could have ditched the car for everything but the trip to the beach. I would take this over the Outer Banks, based on our trip there last year, since this was half the distance from our house and the fact that there was so much less driving involved once we got there.

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→ August 23, 2025
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Stick to baseball, 8/23/25.

I’m on PTO this week, but a piece I helped report ran at The Athletic this week, with Brendan Kuty taking the lead, looking at why the Yankees took a player in the draft last month who, as a college freshman, drew a swastika outside the door of a Jewish classmate. It’s not about his baseball ability, but what the player, Core Jackson, did to try to convince teams that that’s not who he is as a person, and what the Yankees did to decide they were willing to take him in spite of that. I got the initial scoop, and expected that I would end up writing a straightforward story about a kid who’d done an inexcusable thing – and maybe one that no one would want to discuss on the record. It turned out to be something very different.

Over at Endless Mode, I reviewed the two-player game Gatsby, which is an above-average (and very spiteful) game with a well below-average theme that has nothing at all to do with the great novel.

I wanted to get this posted and the next time I get a window to write I’ll work on my free email newsletter, which you should sign up for because it’s awesome but also it’s free so if it’s not awesome have you really lost anything?

And now, the links…

  • WIRED looks at the rising problems for Roblox, as the company faces lawsuits over the lack of moderation and claims that the platform is a haven for child predators.
  • A couple of people who look exactly like you’d expect are trying to create a whites-only community in a state where you’d expect it, Arkansas. I saw some negative reaction to this New York Times article, but I don’t think the authors went easy on these neo-Nazis at all – and this is a good example of where sunshine should work as a disinfectant.
  • Colorado has their 17th measles case this year, this one of an unvaccinated child under the age of 5. You can put the blame for that on RFK Jr. and his cronies, too, profiting off years of spewing false information about the MMR vaccine.
  • Bradford William Davis spoke to Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier (D), who spent two full days round the clock in the Texas Capitol building in protest against Republicans’ extreme gerrymandering of the state, about her action and how it’s the kind of move that more Democrats need to make to show voters they’re actually fighting.
  • Eddie Kim, a reporter for the new worker-owned San Francisco publication The Gazetteer, went to report on an ICE kidnapping action and got pepper-sprayed by an ICE officer. They wear masks, they attack the press, all because they know what they’re doing is wrong.
  • More great board game Kickstarters: Keymaster has one up for Hanami, the retheming of my all-time favorite game by Reiner Knizia, Samurai; and Weird City has one up for Satchel Quest, a competitive bag-building dungeon crawl game from the designers of Point salad.

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→ August 16, 2025
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Stick to baseball, 8/16/25.

Over at Endless Mode, I reviewed the light but very fun game Wine Cellar, which scales really well up to 8 players, an unusual player count for anything that’s not a party game. It’s out of stock at Miniature Market but the bad place still has it.

My free email newsletter went out last weekend, and I’ll send another one out whenever my next piece at the Athletic runs (I do like to time them so that they serve the function of catching readers up on things I’ve written).

And now, the links…

  • The New York Times exposed how the AI bubble is going to drive up energy costs for everyone. Not mentioned is how it’s probably going to drive water shortages as well. If you’re searching for something on Google, by the way, you can disable the automatic AI-generated tosh that appears at the top of the results just by adding “-ai” to the end of your search terms.
  • Brandy Zarozny exposes the chaos and infighting at HHS under RFK Jr., who didn’t even tell his own staff – or maybe even the President – before announcing that he was killing funding for further research into safe, effective mRNA vaccines.
  • One woman in Oregon is using an old law aimed at stopping nuclear power plants there to fight green energy projects like wind and solar. Nuclear power was and is much safer and far more efficient than its critics (mostly on the left) claim it is, so while this is just bad for humanity, it is a bit of perverse justice to see the same side that fought nuclear plants hoisted on their own petard.
  • Scientists have found ‘sex reversal’ in five different species of birds in Australia, including one bird that was genetically male but laid eggs. Taxonomy is a human creation. Nature is too complex to make our artificial categorization schemes as accurate as we pretend they are – which makes the war on trans people even more disgraceful than it is just on humanist grounds.
  • The staff at an English pub threatened to walk out if the restaurant accepted a reservation from Vice-President JD Vance, so they turned him away. It’s even more humiliating because Kamala Harris ate there a few weeks earlier.
  • The cases before the Supreme Court on states’ powers to discriminate against trans athletes are about much more than just sports. The seat has been open for years because Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) blocked a nomination by then-President Joe Biden, just because she could.
  • There was a global summit on plastics pollution this past week, where talks on a pact to fight the issue broke down (something that plastic doesn’t do!). I didn’t see this in any U.S. press, probably because our current government is cutting every effort to help the environment.
  • Two very exciting games I saw at Gen Con went up on crowdfunding sites this week: The Voynich Puzzle, a crunchy worker-placement game based on the unsolved Voynich manuscript; and Camp Grizzly, a co-op title based on 1980s slasher films that is a reprint of a game so hard to find that full copies have gone for $600.

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→ August 15, 2025
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The Ministry of Time.

Kaliane Bradley entered the crowded field of time-travel fiction last year with her debut novel The Ministry of Time, earning a Hugo nomination for Best Novel and landing a coveted spot on Barack Obama’s best-of-2024 list. It’s a marvelous book that does this sort of fiction right: it’s very light on the time-travel parts, and spends extremely little time worrying about the mechanics or the paradoxes, instead jumping off time travel for a story that is by turns philosophical, psychological, and quite romantic.

The narrator of The Ministry of Time is a British-Cambodian woman, like Bradley, and has been working in various government agencies when she’s tabbed for a special project as a ‘bridge’ to one of six people that the British government has plucked from history and brought to the present. There is a single time-travel door, and while the government hasn’t mastered its use – far from it, as we learn – they went through history and found people who were otherwise about to die, usually in horrible ways, to ‘save’ them by way of making them guinea pigs in a massive experiment. The narrator’s charge is Commander Graham Gore, who was aboard the HMS Terror during the doomed Franklin Expedition in the Arctic waters north of and around what is now Nunavut, where the search for a Northwest Passage to Asia led to the death by exposure and starvation of over 100 men, along with no survivors. The Ministry extracted Gore, knowing he would die shortly anyway (so his removal would not affect the historical timeline), and put him in the narrator’s care, housing them together in a shared apartment once he’s released from several weeks of confinement and forced re-education so he and his fellow time travelers, some of whom came from the 1600s, would know what a car is or how money works.

There is a thriller here within The Ministry of Time – as you might imagine, the British Crown’s intentions here are hardly pure or altruistic – but the novel is a love story at its core, as the narrator and Graham develop feelings for each other from very early on, despite the gulf between them in times, cultures, and ethnic origins. (Race and racism are frequent fodder for dry humor in the book, especially as the various ‘expats’ from times past, all of whom are white, struggle to adjust to a multicultural society where a whole bunch of words are no longer suitable for common use.) The relationship comes across as natural, almost inevitable, including the required element where one gets furious at the other and appears to break things off, which here happens simultaneously with the big twist and leads to a slightly ambiguous but extremely satisfying conclusion.

Bradley also has a knack for creating supporting characters who manage to be three-dimensional and yet still useful in various ways, often for humor but occasionally for purposes of intrigue or suspense. The narrator’s own handler, Quentin, might be a conspiracy theorist, or he might know more than he lets on. Maggie, from the 1600s, turns out to be a saucy wench (channeling my inner Laurence Sterne here), and gets to explore her sexuality in a way that would never have been permitted in her time. Arthur was about to die during World War I, and has a harder time adjusting to the fact that he’s now in a time when his life and liberty won’t be at risk just because he’s gay. And Adela, the Ministry of Time’s Vice Secretary, starts out as a sort of comic relief taskmaster character, but plays an increasingly essential role in the plot as the story develops.

I said before reading The Ministry of Time that I thought it was going to win the Hugo, because it had so much hype and positive press behind it, and because the last ten nine authors to win the Hugo for Best Novel have all been women, with only one of the other six nominated works written by a woman author. Bradley’s work also includes significant explorations of race, sexual orientation, and culture, again all things the voters have tended to favor, over the sort of hard sci-fi that dominated the award’s first 40-odd years – with the winners then nearly always white men. (One exception is The Calculating Stars, the 2019 winner, one of the worst novels ever to take this award. The author was the President of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association at the time.) Now that I’ve read it, I also think it’s going to win because it deserves it* – it would be an upper-half novel among all the winners, probably the best novel to win since N.K. Jemisin’s three straight wins, just edging out T. Kingfisher’s Nettle & Bone. It’s sci-fi, but it’s literary sci-fi, one that uses a single speculative element to tell the sort of story an author couldn’t tell otherwise, and those are nearly always the best examples of the form.

*The other three nominees I’ve read, all of which were good: Service Model, A Sorceress Comes to Call, and The Tainted Cup.

Next up: Natalia Ginzburg’s Family Lexicon, a classic of 20th century Italian literature.

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→ August 12, 2025
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The Tainted Cup.

Nominated for this year’s Hugo Award for Best Novel, Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup marries the classic detective story with high fantasy novels, with a story narrated by the detective’s assistant (think Archie Goodwin) because the detective can’t do the leg work (think Nero Wolfe), set on a world where civilization is constantly threatened by enormous aquatic creatures called leviathans that crash through the city walls and flood the town. It’s a slow build, but Bennett sticks – pun intended here – the landing, and by the end of the novel, both of the central characters have been so well developed that it felt like the middle of a longer series.

Din is the very young, very green assistant to an investigator named Ana, and finds himself at the scene of a very bizarre death: A military official with powerful connections, Blas, has been found disemboweled, killed by a mutant plant called dappleglass that essentially kills its host by sprouting a giant tree. The corpse is impaled upon the branches when Din arrives, and he finds that the wealthy family on whose estate the murder took place is away while their servants range from uncooperative to hostile. The murder turns out to be a small piece of a much larger conspiracy that runs all the way to the top, so to speak, as Blas was just one person killed in this manner and the body count will continue to rise over the course of the story.

In the world of The Tainted Cup, people – I’m assuming they are people, at least – can be augmented in various ways that enhance certain abilities at the cost of others, or perhaps of their health, sanity, or longevity. Din is one such augmented person, called a ‘sublime’; he’s an engraver who has the equivalent of an eidetic memory, ‘engraving’ everything in a scene into his mind through the use of specific chemical scents. Ana is an eccentric, not a sublime, but with superlative powers of deduction, choosing most of the time to remain blindfolded so that she can focus better on the problem at hand. She seldom leaves her lair, never visiting the crime scene, instead sending Din out to gather the information and report back using his engraving powers, making her a fantasy heir to Nero Wolfe in multiple ways. (If only she loved orchids.) Their relationship isn’t that interesting, at least not yet, as Din is so clearly the subordinate, and is often the straight man to Ana’s barbs and witticisms, although as the novel ends, multiple small events start to shift that balance of power to a more equal one and the door to a more Nero Wolfe/Archie Griffin sort of relationship opens.

Bennett has also built a fascinating world here, where humans are at the mercy of a larger species that threatens them, and the empire’s ability to maintain order and control of its people is at least in part predicated on their ability to protect them – or persuade them that the empire is their only protection. The investigation into the murder(s) exposes a complicated back story of multiple levels of corruption and a past catastrophe that killed scores and rendered an entire canton of the empire uninhabitable, a crime that ripples through their society to this day. It’s a complex supertext above the simple narrative of the detective story, and the latter allows Bennett to give the former so much detail and texture – the investigation propels the plot forward, and no one ever stays in one place, literally or figuratively, for very long.

The Tainted Cup is more detective story than mystery, however; I don’t think the reader is supposed to figure out whodunit, given that Ana figures out the culprits over a period of time, with one of the assassins identified with probably a third of the novel to go – except, of course, they’re an accomplice rather than the mastermind. I enjoy both genres, but the detective story depends much more on the strength of the detective character(s), while the mystery is usually driven more by how clever the plot is. Bennett has created two reasonably compelling characters already, with enough interplay in the last few chapters to start the development of their relationship and foreshadow a more interesting (platonic, to be clear) one in future novels. Ana could easily have fallen, or fall in the future, into cliché; she is odd, certainly, as Wolfe and Sherlock Holmes and Poirot are, but in different ways, and she’s a stronger detective character than Inspectors Alleyn or Montalbano, to name two other series I enjoy. Din shows more growth within this specific novel, as he’s young and naïve and wedded to formal traditions that Ana finds amusing or just silly. By the time we reach the conclusion, he’s learned substantial things about himself, and found his voice in a way that was almost as satisfying to read as the solution of the main mystery itself.

Next up: I just finished Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time, which I fully expect to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel this year. I think it’s the best one and I think it checks a lot of boxes.

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→ August 10, 2025
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Music update, July 2025.

July may have been the weakest month of the year for new music … or it might be that I was busier than ever between the day job and Gen Con, so I didn’t find as many new tracks or artists as I would in a typical month. Regardless of the reason, my playlist is shorter than usual, but August’s is already about to surpass this one in number of tracks. As usual, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the playlist here.

Cerrone & Christine and the Queens – Catching Feelings. Cerrone was an Italo-French disco pioneer in the late 1970s; this new track is from a four-song EP with Rahim Redcar, who resurrected his Christine and the Queens moniker for this project after releasing two albums last year under other names. If you’re looking for a “song of the summer” that’s worthy of the title, this is it.

Jay Som feat. Jim Adkins – Float. Som’s new album Belong comes out on October 10th; Adkins is the lead vocalist and guitarist for Jimmy Eat World, and you can definitely hear his influence on the rhythm lines in this pulsating indie rock track.

SENSES – call me out. This Britpop revival band put out their latest album all the heavens last month, one of the few bright spots among July albums.

Geese – Taxes. This inventive post-punk band from Brooklyn is set to release its fourth album, Getting Killed, in September, and I don’t think any of the members is older than about 22.

Rocket – Wide Awake. Named for the Smashing Pumpkins song, this LA-based band sounds a lot like their idols, but with better vocals that also serve as a softer contrast to the darker riffs on this track. Their debut album, R is for Rocket, comes out on October 3rd.

Black Honey – Shallow. This Brighton band’s shiny take on indie-rock hooked me from the start almost ten years ago, and they’re still churning out catchy tracks that highlight singer Izzy Phillips’s sultry voice. Their fourth album, Soak, comes out on the 15th.

Iron & Wine feat. I’m With Her – Robin’s Egg. It bothers me a little that Iron & Wine is one guy, not two, or a full band, but I’ll have to get over it. He’s put out two collaborations this summer, including this track with the trio I’m With Her, a supergroup that includes former members of Nickel Creek and Crooked Still.

Wet Leg – mangetout. Once again, everyone seems to be falling all over themselves to praise Wet Leg’s new album, Moisturizer, and I think it’s more style than substance with a couple of decent tracks, including this one. I don’t find their lyrics as humorous as the majority of critics do, so their appeal comes down to the quality of their hooks – and this is one of the best on the record, but not up to “Angelica” from their debut.

Kassa Overall – Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat). Jazz drummer and occasional rapper Overall is releasing an album of jazz covers of hip-hop classics called C.R.E.A.M. on September 12th, featuring this Digable Planets cover and the titular one from the Wu-Tang Clan, along with Tribe’s “Check the Rhime” and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.”

Sudan Archives – My Type. I loved Sudan Archives’ 2022 album Natural Brown Prom Queen, naming it my #2 album of that year. This is her second single this year, more of a straight rap song with an electronic backing track, without quite the same experimentalist bent of NBPQ. Both are from her upcoming third album BPM.

Jorja Smith – With You. I’ll probably include every single Smith releases on my playlists, now and forever, but I do wish she leaned more into jazz and funk and less into this sort of EDM, which I just don’t think does her voice justice.

Luke Haines & Peter Buck – 56 Nervous Breakdowns. Haines was the leader of the Auteurs, a Britpop band who somehow get blamed for the downfall of the entire genre, and Buck was in some ‘80s alternative band before becoming best known as one of the guitarists in The Baseball Project. The two have collaborated here on an album called Going Down to the River to Blow My Mind; this song sounds much more like Haines’ prior work than Buck’s.

(The London) Suede – Dancing with the Europeans. I’d rank this third among the three singles Suede have released so far this year ahead of their upcoming album Antidepressants, just because I think it has the weakest hook of the troika. It’s still strong enough to make me more excited for the full-length record.

The Charlatans – We Are Love. One of my favorite bands of all time, The Charlatans came from the Madchester scene of the early 1990s and thrived right on through Britpop, even surviving the bizarre death of one of the founding members, but they ran out of steam around the turn of the millennium, and singer Tim Burgess’s voice, never the strongest, grew increasingly thin. That last part hasn’t improved any here, but this guitar riff is one of their best in 25 years. I saw them in concert in 2001, with Starsailor opening, and they were one of the most disappointing live bands I’ve ever seen because Burgess really can’t sing.

Wytch Hazel – The Citadel. Doom metal in the earliest sense – this song wouldn’t be out of place on a late ‘70s British hard-rock album. It’s from Lamentations, the fifth album from this relatively new band (they started up in 2011), released in July.

Blanco Teta – Perdida. This trio from Buenos Aires blends punk, noise, and experimental rock together in a frenetic blend that has some of the abrasiveness of extreme metal and the edge of early post-punk experimentalists like Art of Noise.

Forbidden – Divided by Zero. Thrash metal and math references – two great tastes that taste great together. Forbidden came up in the Bay Area along with some of their better-known contemporaries, never getting their due during their original run in the late 1980s, but I think they’re underrated. This is their first new song in 15 years, and first with new vocalist Norman Skinner, as their original vocalist Russ Anderson retired entirely from music.

Void – Apparition. This Lafayette, Louisiana, band is churning out old-school thrash in the Bay Area style, with crunchy guitars, abrupt tempo shifts, and vocals that you can still understand, mostly.

Sodom – Battle of Harvest Moon. Sodom are one of the pioneers of German thrash metal, and one fo the most prolific; this track comes from their 17th album, The Arsonist, released in June. As with their compatriots Kreator, their sound has always included elements that would later become hallmarks of death metal, without the worst of the vocals or the blast beats.

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→ August 9, 2025
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Stick to baseball, 8/9/25.

At the trade deadline, I broke down the following trades for subscribers to The Athletic:

I also posted a midseason ranking of the top 60 prospects in the minors, held a Q&A about it, and wrote up a scouting notebook on Travis Bazzana, Braylon Doughty, and some other Cleveland and Baltimore prospects.

At Endless Mode, I ranked the ten best new games I saw at Gen Con and also ran through everything else I saw or played at the convention this year. Prior to that, I reviewed the game Big Sur, and wrote a feature story on the effects of the Trump tariffs and economic uncertainty on the board gaming space.

I appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition to discuss the brief callup of Jen Pawol to become the first woman to umpire an MLB game.

Now that this post is done, my next writing assignment is my free email newsletter, followed by a pair of reviews for this site.

And now, the links…

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