{"id":11151,"date":"2026-03-07T11:46:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=11151"},"modified":"2026-03-07T11:46:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:46:42","slug":"stick-to-baseball-3-7-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/07\/stick-to-baseball-3-7-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 3\/7\/26."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For subscribers to the Athletic, I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7078205\/2026\/03\/03\/2026-mlb-draft-ranking-roch-cholowsky\/\">ranked the top 30 prospects for this year\u2019s MLB rule 4 draft<\/a>, and ranked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7066706\/2026\/02\/25\/mlb-rookie-class-players-values-impact\/\">the top 20 rookies by potential MLB impact in 2026<\/a>. I also posted two draft scouting notebooks, one on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7086867\/2026\/03\/04\/mlb-draft-scouting-roch-cholowsky-justin-lebron\/\">the loaded Globe Life Field last weekend that featured Roch Cholowsky<\/a>, and one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7065158\/2026\/02\/23\/mlb-draft-scouting-grady-emerson\/\">on potential top 5 pick Grady Emerson and some second-tier college guys<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At AV Club, I reviewed the two-player game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/yellow-house-board-game-review\">The Yellow House<\/a> and the capture-the-flag game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/space-lion-board-game-review\">Space Lion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the support of the Athletic, I\u2019m now posting some short videos about prospects, the draft, etc. on <a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/mrkeithlaw\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@keith_law\">TikTok<\/a>. You may also see these videos embedded in stories on the Athletic\u2019s site. As always, my main social media outlet for links and commentary is <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/keithlaw.bsky.social\">Bluesky<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next up for me is a new issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/keithlaw.kit.com\/\">my free email newsletter<\/a>, plus my February music update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Longreads first: <em>The Lancet<\/em> excoriated the current Secretary of Health and Human Services in a piece titled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736(26)00414-9\/fulltext\">Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: 1 year of failure<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Defector\u2019s Nate Rogers took a profile of Jason Lee and <a href=\"https:\/\/defector.com\/a-complimentary-profile-of-jason-lee-that-was-surprisingly-difficult-to-publish\">turned it into a meta-piece about publishing the profile<\/a>, which Lee tried to prevent just because Rogers asked him about Scientology.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A crypto scammer known as Bitcoin Jesus lobbied Trump and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/bitcoin-jesus-roger-ver-tax-evasion-friends-of-trump\">got himself a sweetheart<\/a> deal where he just had to pay the taxes he owed, neither pleading guilty nor spending a single day in prison.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A new cohort study found that people who very frequently (\u2018always\u2019) listen to music <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/gps.70163?prg140729=d9a93e48-8433-49be-87ba-a0582abd483e&amp;__cf_chl_rt_tk=2GT_FFeNU.sal2Sv9zBGB5n8AX6a_zpM30rI6LrwI34-1772814208-1.0.1.1-euaZ8jb9FWYPljmVBzVowNzYJVCy.E.EXZ_2RtwP.7w\">have a lower risk of dementia<\/a>, as do people who also play music. Excuse me while I go practice guitar\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mike Piellucci wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmagazine.com\/sports\/2026\/03\/rangers-statue-davis-texas\/\">the Rangers\u2019 disgraceful decision to install a statue of a racist<\/a> who fought integration in the 1950s and then refuse to answer questions about it. That\u2019s the same team that refuses to host a Pride Night, the only MLB team not to do so, and one of two MLB teams without a paid maternity leave policy. They are who you thought they were.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Israeli \u201csettlers\u201d \u2013 that term is such a gross euphemism \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/23\/world\/palestinian-west-bank-settlers-displacement.html\">harassed a Palestinian family for two years until the family left its home<\/a> so these so-called settlers could take it over. There are words for people who take over territory through the use of violence, and \u201csettler\u201d ain\u2019t one of them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>New York Times<\/em> opinion writer Jeneen Interlandi went long on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/23\/opinion\/doge-hiv-funding.html\">the human cost of Trump\u2019s attempt to destroy scientific research at American universities<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The U.S. missile attack on a military base that flattened a girls\u2019 school was bad enough, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/news\/exclusive-iranian-girls-killed-double-tap-strikes-minab-school\">we hit the school a second time to kill some of the survivors<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A story in <em>Quanta <\/em>asks if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/the-man-who-stole-infinity-20260225\/\">Georg Cantor plagiarized or at least failed to credit Richard Dedekind<\/a> for large parts of his 1874 letter on the different sizes of infinities and the existence of transcendental numbers. I find it odd that the story never mentions the name of Cantor\u2019s paper, \u201cOn a Property of the Collection of All Real Algebraic Numbers,\u201d which demonstrated that the set of algebraic numbers is countable. (Thanks to reader Shaun P. for sending this along.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Proton Mail pitches itself as the pro-privacy email option, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/proton-mail-helped-fbi-unmask-anonymous-stop-cop-city-protestor\/\">they narced on one of their customers to the FBI<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <em>Philly Inquirer<\/em>\u2019s Will Bunch explains how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/opinion\/ice-detention-centers-georgia-dhs-noem-trump-20260222.html\">ICE intends to cram thousands of people into warehouses<\/a>, with little regard for what might happen with that many humans in one space.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An ICE hostage held at concentration camp in Florence, Arizona, <a href=\"https:\/\/tucson.com\/news\/local\/border\/article_a5053df1-4ade-4424-972f-e9f5270829bb.html\">died of an untreated tooth infection<\/a>. And there\u2019s a raging measles outbreak at an ICE concentration camp in Texas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Meanwhile, Customs and Border Patrol dumped a nearly-blind man who didn\u2019t speak English on the streets of Buffalo, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wivb.com\/news\/local-news\/buffalo\/missing-man-found-dead-on-perry-street\/\">where he was found dead<\/a> outside a Tim Horton\u2019s several days later. The agents didn\u2019t take him home, and put him out without shoes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The great Brett Anderson wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/dining\/rise-of-the-all-day-cafe.html\">the rise of the all-day caf\u00e9<\/a> in the <em>New York Times<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Also in the <em>Times<\/em>, musician\/poet Richard Hell, a founding member of Television and the singer\/songwriter of \u201cBlank Generation\u201d with his own band, showed off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2026\/03\/04\/realestate\/richard-hell-east-village-apartment-tour.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share\">the rent-stabilized apartment where he\u2019s lived for half a century<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mississippi consistently ranks as one of the worst states in education, so of course their state House passed a bill to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarionledger.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2026\/03\/02\/nil-tax-exempt-ms-house-bill-helps-ole-miss-mississippi-state\/88897237007\/\">make college athletes\u2019 NIL money tax-free<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The University of Mississippi fired an executive assistant who reposted a comment on the legacy of Charlie Kirk after his murder; faculty members in Oxford have testified that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mississippifreepress.org\/lauren-stokes-firing-over-kirk-post-chilled-speech-on-university-of-mississippi-campus-faculty-testify\/\">the firing \u201cchilled free speech\u201d on campus<\/a>. She\u2019s suing the school, saying her First Amendment rights were violated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>New Hampshire House Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/newhampshirebulletin.com\/2026\/02\/19\/house-passes-bill-banning-leftist-indoctrination-and-lgbtq-teaching-in-public-schools\/\">passed a bill to ban \u201cleftist indoctrination\u201d and LGBTQ+ topics in public schools<\/a>, yet another assault on free speech from the \u2018free speech\u2019 party.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A pro-Trump, pro-MAGA account on Twitter that boasted 300,000 followers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/a-white-house-staffer-appears-to-run-massive-pro-trump-meme-page\/\">is actually run by a White House staffer<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/20\/chinese-university-student-trump-crackdown\">Purdue University rescinded \u2018dozens\u2019 of offers to graduate student applicants from China<\/a>, complying in advance with a threat from House Republicans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The executive branch is lying about the people ICE arrests, putting up photos and calling them \u201cWORST OF WORST\u201d even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/02\/27\/nx-s1-5720167\/trump-ice-immigration-social-media-deportation-dhs-immigrants-detained-disputes\">when they have no criminal records<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The Tampa Bay Times<\/em> was once a legitimate newspaper, but they\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/news\/the-tampa-bay-times-is-now-publishing-ai-generated-stories\/\">now running AI-generated stories<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Texas lawyer who helped write Texas\u2019 draconian abortion ban found a client for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/04\/texas-california-abortion-pills-lawsuit\">a lawsuit against a California doctor who prescribed abortion pills to the client\u2019s ex-girlfriend<\/a>. These zealots will stop at nothing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For example, a woman who went to a Tennessee hospital for a sterilization procedure was admitted, given an IV, and then told that the hospital wouldn\u2019t do the procedure because the hospital\u2019s Catholic Ethics Oversight Committee said they had \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsmv.com\/2026\/02\/26\/tennessee-woman-says-hospital-canceled-her-sterilization-surgery-while-admitted-hospital\/\">a duty to protect her sacred fertility<\/a>.\u201d Sounds like they set her up to waste her time, just like those pregnancy \u2018crisis\u2019 centers do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Measles is everywhere \u2013 there are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksl.com\/article\/51457971\/patients-say-measles-worse-than-expected-as-utah-hits-350-infections-doctors-say\">over 100 hospitalizations from measles<\/a> in Utah, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/atlanta\/news\/georgia-confirms-second-measles-case-of-2026-unvaccinated-resident-in-bryan-county-infected\/?intcid=CNR-01-0623\">it\u2019s in Georgia now<\/a>, and the U.S. is on pace to see triple the number of cases it saw in 2025.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The police chief of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, is on leave and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcphiladelphia.com\/news\/local\/calls-grow-for-quakertown-police-chief-to-resign-after-clash-during-protest\/4363133\/\">facing (merited) calls for his resignation after the violent arrest of five students<\/a> protesting ICE at their school in Bucks County.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Syria\u2019s post-Assad government has been consolidating control over the fractured country, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/1\/29\/syria-grants-immediate-citizenship-to-kurds-in-wake-of-gains-against-sdf\">even offered citizenship to the Kurdish people and made Kurdish an official language<\/a>. The Kurds are the largest stateless population in the world, with about 10% of them living within Syria.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Longtime essayist and blogger Michele Catalano re-shared her 2025 post about <a href=\"https:\/\/michelecatblog.wordpress.com\/2025\/08\/08\/betting-it-all-away-2\/\">how gambling wrecked her family<\/a> in the wake of the various infuriating news items about people betting on the Iran war and the use of nuclear weapons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Backdoor 43 in Milan claims <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehook.com\/cocktails\/backdoor-43-smallest-bar-world\">it\u2019s the smallest bar in the world<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>One new Kickstarter this week, for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/tangerinegames\/kaelora\">Kaelora<\/a>, a set collection game from Tangerine Games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For subscribers to the Athletic, I ranked the top 30 prospects for this year\u2019s MLB rule 4 draft, and ranked the top 20 rookies by potential MLB impact in 2026. I also posted two draft scouting notebooks, one on the loaded Globe Life Field last weekend that featured Roch Cholowsky, and one on potential top [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1300,49,60,137,160,1456,1109,190,1506,1315,1059,1055,1197,747,870,1044,477],"class_list":["post-11151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abortion","tag-baseball","tag-boardgames","tag-frauds","tag-health","tag-immigration","tag-israel","tag-links","tag-mathematics","tag-measles","tag-mississippi","tag-new-hampshire","tag-police","tag-post-punk","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-tennessee","tag-texas","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11152,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151\/revisions\/11152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}