Archive for May, 2023

You’ve now gotten a glimpse of the AL east in my Dynasty 16 team short season (80 games once a week) league. Lets continue with a look at the AL West. (Current as of 5/11/23 Noon EST)

WestWLPCTGB
Toronto95.643——
Minnesota106.625____
Seattle 85.6151/2
Chicago67.4622 1/2

Toronto: 9-5 1st place (tie)

The good news : Ellis Burkes is tearing it up with a .393 avg 4 HR and 15 RBI’s He is in the AL Top three in Avg, Slugging, OBS, HR & RBI. Pat Mears has been a pleasant surprise hitting .302 with a pair of triples while Brian McRae has scored 12 runs with only 14 hits. Meanwhile Troy Percival has been lights out 5-5 in save chances and their Team ERA of 3.24 is tops in the AL and 2nd in the Majors.

The Bad News: No team has swung and missed more than Toronto with 136K’s in 14 games and Cecil Fielder (8K .174 avg) and Ed Sprague (17K’s .184) have only one HR between them in 51 AB. With the glove their .976 fielding is 2nd to last in the AL only Cleveland has done worse with the normally sure handed Mike Lansing with 4 errors in 14 games

Didn’t see that coming: Toronto Relievers Kent Bottenfield, Mike Jackson, Tory Percival and Jim Poole combined have appeared in 14 games, pitched 20 1/3 innings and have yet to give up an earned run

Medical Report: Rusty Greer was hurt early in the season and won’t be back for this homestand and isn’t expect back until the team hits LA although there is an outside chance he makes the last game in Minnesota, The prognosis on John Valentin who went down during the Seattle series is much better as he’s expected to be able to make the the Atlanta Series before the team hits the road for six.

Coming Attractions: Toronto has two more against Cleveland and hosts Atlanta for a pair before going on a six game road trip ending in LA but starting with a critical four games at Minnesota.


Minnesota: 10-6 1st place (tie)

The good news : Their +23 run differential is the AL’s best fueled by Johnny Damon whose .451 avg and 1.237 OPS both lead the majors Chuck Knoblauch .354 1 HR 11 RBI, and Mark Whiten .295 2HR 12 RBI are big reasons for it. Ben McDonald 3-0 with a 1.73 leads the league.

The Bad News: Brad Radke 5.21 ERA and no decisions in three starts. Javy Lopez has disappointed with the bat .191 1 HR 8 RBI and the glove he and Brian Johnson have a combined 25 stolen bases and 4 errors between them with only 5 caught. Whiten is wowing with the bat but already has 2 errors in the outfield and Jason Giambi .220 1 HR 7 RBI .270 OBP, and Garret Anderson .182 0 HR 1 RBI 1 R scored have underperformed.

Didn’t see that coming: Pedro Martinez 2-1 3.94 ERA

Medical Report: They feel fine

Coming Attractions: Minnesota’s home stand continues with Florida in for 2 and a huge 4 game series with Toronto interrupted briefly for a pair in St. Louis before they come back home for 3 vs the Yanks


Seattle: 8-5 .615 3rd place 1/2 GB

The good news : Albert Belle has been a monster at the bat hitting ,339 with 6 HR and 13 RBI. A-Rod only has 3 HR but has driven in 10. Jeff Cirillo his hitting .333 and has an OBP over .400

The Bad News: Dan Naulty has a 1.08 ERA but with an 0-2 record with only a 50% save rate (1 in 2 chances) Ken Griffey Jr. .214 1 HR 5 RBI

Didn’t see that coming: Randy Johnson in the bullpen 1-0 1.29 ERA 3 saves in 4 chances

Medical Report: Daren Oliver who was hurt in his 2nd start will be available for the final game of their series with Boston but with a record of 0-1 and an ERA of 10.29 the question is, will he come back to the rotation?

Coming Attractions: Seattle faces Boston and Pittsburgh on their current homestand before traveling for 4 against the White sox in Chicago and a pair in Houston before they see home again.


Chicago : 6-7 .313 4th place 2 1/2 GB

The good news : Marty Cordova has been a pleasant surprise with his .351 avg he and Steve Finley both have six doubles tied for 3rd in the AL Frank Thomas line is .300 4 HR 10 RBI with a 1.004 OBS. Alex Fernandez is making other teams earn their way on as his 1.57 walks per nine innings demonstrates. Steve Finley already has 2 outfield assists and Robin Ventura and Omar Visquel have only one error in 113 chances and the White Sox are tied for the fewest runs given up in the majors.

The Bad News: Unfortunately while giving up the fewest runs Chicago is also dead last in the AL in hits, batting avg (.242) and OBP. .311. White teams don’t score runs on Chicago they sure can run against them as Mike Macfarlane has caught only 1 of 11 runners trying to steal 0.91.

Didn’t see that coming: Mark McGuire .132 0 HR 2 RBI BUT .353 OBP 13 walks (3rd in league)

Medical Report: Every is healthy just not contributing much

Coming Attractions: Chicago has a nine game homestand with the Yanks coming in for 3 Cincy for two and then four huge games vs Seattle before hitting the road.

UPDATE: Had Baltimore coming attractions for Chicago, fixed.

For decades the political has left waged a guerilla style war here in the United States.  It was a cultural war fought with destructive ideas rather than the type of war fought with guns and other physical weapons.  It was a war they fought unopposed because most of us on the political right did not think this conflict was worth our attention.  We were so very wrong.

A small minority of us Conservatives and Libertarians saw what was taking place and tried desperately to raise the alarm.  We were all but ignored.

Now that this culture war is all but won by the Marxist Left, a sizable percentage of those of us on the Right have finally taken notice and have begin to fight back.  The hugely effective boycott of Bud Light is strong evidence that we have effective weapons in our arsenal.

The political left has targeted children from the very beginning.  This article explains the two fold rational behind this.

Leftists aren’t building a robust generation of people who can fight wars and control countries. Instead, they are creating a broken generation of people who will be physically and mentally dependent on government care for the rest of their lives.

Lenin understood how important children are to any revolution. The most famous quotation attributed to him is, “Give us the child for eight years, and it will be a Bolshevik forever.” An alternative is, “Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.”

As you can see from this article, the strategy employed by the left was devious and effective.

Much as America’s enemies historically used its (formerly) free press and the nature of its open society against it, Constitution-disdaining leftists used conservatives’ adherence to the Constitution — and its mandate for limited government, the rule of law, and equal justice under that law — against them in their now successful bid to get control over virtually all of the country’s institutions and levers of power.

They now ruthlessly use the self-same institutions they used to protest — but now own — to spy on, castigate, deplatform, silence, slander, “cancel,” and even incarcerate those with whom they disagree.  They eschew dialogue and debate and simply scream “racist!” or “transphobe!” at any- and everyone who dares to dissent from their preposterous narrative.

Corporate media proved to be the most effective arsenal the left employed in this culture war.

IF you can control the information flow, you can control an entire society. Gone are the days of trusting your reporters and news outlets to provide unbiased and factual pieces to keep you informed on the state of your country.

Perhaps I’ve watched too many “X-Files” episodes, but I now embrace the same principle of Fox Mulder: trust no one. To get to the bottom of any story as a citizen, you’d have to read reports of the same incident on at least 30 different outlets to get a sliver of truth.

The hard reality is that traditional media outlets have been not just complicit, but happy little manipulation warriors bent on ensuring your mind and views fall in line with their chosen narrative.

Over the last decade, their narrative of choice: You’re a racist. 

According to Lexus Nexus, there has been a marked increase in specific phrases and words since 2014. As an example, below is a taste of some of these terms: white privilege, system racism, diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias, whiteness, intersectionality, diversity training, police brutality

How sharp is this increase? For example, between 2011 and 2019, the New York Times and Washington Post increased using words like ‘racist,’ ‘racists,’ and ‘racism’ increased by over 700% and 1,000%, respectively. 

Furthermore, between 2013 and 2019, the same two publications increased their usage of terms like ‘systemic racism,’ ‘structural racism,’ and ‘institutional racism’ by 1,000%. And during that same timeframe, the two liberal heavyweights of print used ‘white privilege’ and ‘racial privilege’ at an increased rate of 1,200% and 1,500%, respectively.

College campuses have also been the primary battlefields where this culture war has been fought and won by the left.  Checkout this article.

Hundreds of professors at the University of North Carolina signed a public letter Tuesday opposing legislation that would require university students to take courses on America’s government and founding documents.

The 673 UNC Chapel Hill professors revealed the public letter Tuesday, arguing the new courses and another bill in the North Carolina House of Representatives would constitute an infringement on the university’s “academic freedom.”

The first piece of legislation, House Bill 96, would require students to take a 3 credit-hour course covering America’s founding and history. Required reading for the course would include the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, at least five essays from the Federalist Papers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Gettysburg Address.

The author if this American Thinker article has it absolutely correct.

Put simply, the big mistake in thinking the culture war isn’t the most critical issue heading into 2024 is that all of American politics is now one big culture war. The culture war is the only issue because the cultural war is everything now. When one side stakes its claim to political power on offering abortion up until birth and transgender operations for 8-year-olds, and holds out these policies as proof of its moral authority, we’re way past arguing over how to get the economy back on track. There’s no going back to that kind of politics.

Tucker Carlson hit on this at the end of his big speech at Heritage recently. He compared the values of the political left to the values of the Aztecs, who sacrificed children to their bloodthirsty gods — and he wasn’t wrong.

One of the things that I argue over and over again is that you have to take for where and what they are.

There are things about Donald Trump that drive people absolutely nuts. Almost all of them are about style and ego but in the end you can’t get all of the positives from Trump without the rest of him. He is who he is and all of those things that he is what made his administration, in my opinion the third most successful presidency in the history of this country.

And the CNN Town hall demonstrated why.

Trump took no prisoners and doggedly took all that was thrown at him and made the case for his second term.

CNN wanted to talk election 2020 and January 6th and Trump swatted it right back at them making point that the left ignored for years and then still moved forward on the issues that people actually care about.

The best measure of how well Trump did is the absolute meltdown the left is having over the American people being able to see Trump make his case in his own words.

The angriest people in the world seemed to be the CNN folks in the panel afterwards but it also produced what was in my opinion the best moment of the night where Congressman Byron Donalds was quoting testimony given under oath vs Anderson Cooper trying to “correct” him by quoting a book which is not written under oath.

Put simply we saw Donald Trump at his best, willing to say the truth to people who push a lie, willing to talk straight and make his case. I disagree on his comment concerning Disney vs DeSantis but that’s OK, he used the media well making his best case to the American people without the filter that the left so wants to keep on.

This is the Good Trump and if he wants to win the GOP nomination that is the Trump we need to see.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a top to bottom eval of one of my leagues so let’s look at my once a week 1996 draft league currently in progress. Lets start with the AL East.

EastWLPCTGB
Boston76.538——
New York (A)76.538____
Cleveland58.3852
Baltimore511.3133 1/2

Boston: 7-6 1st place (tie)

The good news : Jose Canseco is tearing up the joint hitting .367 (4th in the AL) and driving in 16 (1st in the League) on 4 HR and 3 doubles. Mo Vaughn has 7 HR leading the majors and a .424 OBP. One the mound Turk Wendell has yet to give up a run in 5 1/3 innings of relief.

The Bad News: Starting pitching Roger Pavlik is 0-2 7.94 with batters hitting .326 against him. Donovan Osborne isn’t wowing anyone with a .313 avg for batters and a 6.17 ERA

Didn’t see that coming: Roger Clemens 2-1 3.57 ERA

Coming Attractions: Boston has three at Seattle before coming home for a pair against San Diego and a critical 4 game series vs the Yankees


NYY: 7-6 1st place (tie)

The good news : Andres Galarraga & Juan Gonzalez are both part of a six way tie or 3rd in AL Homeruns with 4 each. the joint hitting .367 (4th in the AL) Todd Stottlemyre is 3-0 tied for the MLB lead in wins, leads the AL in ERA (1.03) all while 3rd in Innings pitched. Jeff Juden in 6 relief appearances has yet to give up an earned run (WHIP 0.87).

The Bad News: Joey Hamilton (0-2 8.36 ERA WHIP 2.00 .361 avg against) has been bad but Andy Pettite (0-3 13.89 ERA WHIP 2.91 and batters hitting .426 ) has been much worse and are the reason why the yanks don’t have a lead in this division and was likely the prime driver in the trade of Mariano Rivera to Atlanta for John Smoltz (yes you read that right).

Didn’t see that coming: The Rivera / Smoltz trade should rank 1st but Bernie Williams stat line is interesting. He only has 10 hits .244 10 for 41 but has 10 RBI on those ten hits.

Medical Report: Pete Harnisch got hurt in his very first start and won’t be available against the White Sox but will be back for Houston unless they won’t to hold him for the big 4 game series vs the Red Sox

Coming Attractions: The Yanks have spent a lot of time on the road with three more vs the Pale Hose but they have a quick pit stop at home for a pair at Houston before heading to Fenway park for a critical series vs the Red Sox.


Cleveland: 5-8 .385 3rd place 2 GB

The good news : Bobby Higginson was a late draft pick but he’s been hitting like a first round pick batting .393 (3rd in AL) with 13 RBI (2nd in AL) all without a single HR. Jim Thome leads the AL with a .479 OBP and Edgar Martinez leads all the majors with 15 walks and Benito Santiago currently injured is part of that 6 way tie for 3rd in HR..

The Bad News: Cleveland has a team ERA of 5.85 2nd to last in the majors and three pitchers with ERA’s over 10 including Charles Nagy who in three starts has an ERA of 10.80 ERA an Avg against of .378 Their team is also dead last in the AL in Home Runs (9)

Didn’t see that coming: Despite the 2nd worst ERA in the Majors and the AL’s worst fielding percentage (.970) they are only 2 games out of first.

Medical Report: Both Kevin Appier and battery mate Benito Santiago went down vs the yanks and won’t be back in time for Toronto but they should both be around for St. Louis

Coming Attractions: The Tribe has three north of the border with Toronto and a part at home against St. Louis before heading to Baltimore for 4 games a stretch which give them their best shot to threaten for first.


Baltimore : 5-11 .313 4th place 3 1/2 2 GB

The good news : Hard to find good news here but the O’s lead the majors in fielding with a .993 avg and of teams with 15 attempts against them have the best caught stealing rate .462. They are also 2nd in the AL in walks as a team (59) Meanwhile while their starting pitching with the exception of Rheal Cormier (1-0 2.45 in 18 1/3 innings) has been suspect Jay Powel, Lee Smith and Randy Myers all have ERA’s of 2.08 or lower and are a perfect 4-4 in save situations.. The only good news at the plate is Quilvio Veras 3rd in the AL in Runs scored and tied for 4th in walks while Quinton McGracken who acquired with Mike Hampton for Danny Darwin and team leading hitter Brady Anderson has matched Anderson’s .333 batting avg and team lead in OBP since joining the club.

The Bad News: Baltimore is dead last in ERA (5.99) Last in the AL in slugging (.376)2nd to last in the AL in homers 2nd to last in avg .249 Starting pitchers Mike Hamption (6.00 ERA) Doug Drabek (8.36 ERA) Mike Mussina (9.82 ERA) Danny Darwin (12.10 ERA before being dealt to Houston) and Jimmy Key (ERA 13.50) have not benefited from the solid gloves of the team.

Didn’t see that coming: Pitchers Doug Drabek, Danny Darwin and Mike Hampton are a combined 5-5 at the plate with 4 RBI’s

Medical Report: Baltimore remains two starters down. Jimmy Key was lost after his 2nd start. He won’t be back to face LA but should be back in time for the end of the Cleveland series. Musinna will miss the entire homestand but will be able to make the trip to Florida.

Coming Attractions: Baltimore starts a six game homestand with 2 vs LA and 4 vs the Tribe before heading off to Florida for a pair then three in Seattle .