Some players made a big splash with their new teams yesterday. Some old GMs made excuses. Also, did you know that there's an official MLB vodka? It may actually even exist, but we're not really sure!
I doubt that Batgirl is that bad. The directors are the guys who did the acclaimed Ms Marvel show. The writer did Birds of Prey, which has its detractors but also its vocal supporters. Its cast is really solid. And surely it can't be worse than Steel or Superman IV or Catwoman. My guess is that the white men from Discovery Communications looked at a film starring a woman of color, directed by two men of color and written by a woman and said "there is no audience for it." Hardly for the first time, there is barely any support for films with superheroines who aren't Wonder Woman. Or for films with minority leads who aren't The Rock (with the huge exception of Black Panther). I do think that someday the film will be released, and we'll find out it's actually pretty cool. And wonder why it was buried. And given all the absurd decisions being made by the new regime at Warner Bros, I suspect it won't be long till the new regime is fired and the film is released.
Re: Boras, Rizzo, and the Nats... I've seen reports that both MacKenzie Gore and James Wood are repped by Boras, so while they're a long way from free agency, the potential is there for this dance to play out again in several years. Hopefully the new owner will keep Boras at a proper adversarial distance, rather than the weird frenemy state they're in now, one that has had Boras quoted in the past as saying "Rizzo and I built this team."
Sandy Alcantara's season is indeed amazing. This year there have been 16 cases of a major league pitcher going nine, and he is four of the 16. (One of his four wasn't a complete game because the game lasted ten.) No other pitcher has more than one.
The Marlins have had eleven games where the starter lasted at least eight innings: that's ten from Alcantara and just one from Pablo Lopez.
Incidentally, we're just past the tenth anniversary of Cliff Lee being the last starting pitcher (ever?) to get an out in the tenth inning.
No particular insight into the Distill thing but it reminds me of the situation earlier this year in which the Philadelphia 76ers partnered with a basically non-existent company that was some mix of metaverse crap and masterclass and turned out to be a big scam (shockingly). Defector ran a good series on it; the company was called Color World.
“Cup of Coffee by Craig Calcaterra is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.”
Say it fast, like the voiceover at the end of the Liberty Mutual commercials. Totally works.
"That fielder’s choice, by the way, was initially ruled an inning-ending double play but it was overturned when replay revealed that the hustling Realmuto reached the first base bag just ahead of the throw. Atlanta’s four-game winning streak is snapped. Viva hustling."
Viva replay! It ain't perfect. but it works quickly and well the vast majority of the time and it helps get the call right. It's limited enough to not affect the pace of the game too much. And the umps announcing the issue like NFL refs could have been cringey but has been helpful.
MLB gets a lot of stuff wrong. It's gotten this one right.
RE: Batgirl, reports I've read have indicated it was NOT bad to the point you would shelve it. Also, it is EXPENSIVE to release a film. It's unusual, but "they" might have felt they didn't want to spend that extra money on it. Finally, giving WB/DC WAY more credit than they deserve, they might be getting ready to rethink/relaunch a new DC film universe (starting with Black Adam) and they felt that Batgirl would not fit in that new world. I still can't believe they wouldn't put it on HBO+ (except for the last reason). RE Soto, even if the Nats wanted to build around Soto and keep him through his contract, they are not close to contending so even if they did build a nice nucleus around him in his remaining time, he's walking before they get competitive. It really sucks that a franchise can't keep a generational talent like Soto, it really does. Not sure what else to do except to only allow owners committed to spending, but there are only so many billionaires out there. Cleveland could spend the doors off most teams but current ownership simply won't.
The reports on Batgirl are it’s nothing more than a tax write off. Evidently if they don’t use the character in anything they can get a partial tax write off and decided that would make them slightly more money in the short term than releasing it on streaming, and long term be damned because the CEO wants to look good NOW, not do things that will benefit the company long term when he might not be there.
Daniel Vogelbach reminds me of how far we've come since the steroid era. From perfectly chisled specimens of the late 90's back to the 70's/80's look of an everyman throwin' on a uniform and playin' ball, the common man is once again back in the game!
As a Yankee fan growing up in NYC I always liked taking part in the Stadium heckling (my father's dislike of Winfield for 'replacing' Reggie aside). Then during one Red Sox visit the fans on the third base side started heckling Mike Greenwell as he went out to play left; specifically, they were, to put it in a polite way, yelling at Mike that they hoped Mike's wife lost her ongoing battle against cancer. Since I saw the look on Greenwell's face, I've never heckled a player. Umps, yes.
Apparently they also get a tax write-off if they don't release it anywhere. So I guess they think the tax write-off is worth more than the amount of money they'd get if they did release it
I hope Juan Soto has a blast in San Diego.
I hope the prospects the Nats got are as good as advertised.
And I hope my wife’s ghost pushes Mike Rizzo down a flight of stairs.
One of these things is less likely than the others. (HINT: It’s not the ghost thing.)
You say the Reds are inept, Craig, but since their 3-22 start, they've gone 39-40. For a team that blew up in the off-season, that's not too shabby.
I doubt that Batgirl is that bad. The directors are the guys who did the acclaimed Ms Marvel show. The writer did Birds of Prey, which has its detractors but also its vocal supporters. Its cast is really solid. And surely it can't be worse than Steel or Superman IV or Catwoman. My guess is that the white men from Discovery Communications looked at a film starring a woman of color, directed by two men of color and written by a woman and said "there is no audience for it." Hardly for the first time, there is barely any support for films with superheroines who aren't Wonder Woman. Or for films with minority leads who aren't The Rock (with the huge exception of Black Panther). I do think that someday the film will be released, and we'll find out it's actually pretty cool. And wonder why it was buried. And given all the absurd decisions being made by the new regime at Warner Bros, I suspect it won't be long till the new regime is fired and the film is released.
Thanks for the "Soap" callout in the intro.
Re: Boras, Rizzo, and the Nats... I've seen reports that both MacKenzie Gore and James Wood are repped by Boras, so while they're a long way from free agency, the potential is there for this dance to play out again in several years. Hopefully the new owner will keep Boras at a proper adversarial distance, rather than the weird frenemy state they're in now, one that has had Boras quoted in the past as saying "Rizzo and I built this team."
Sandy Alcantara's season is indeed amazing. This year there have been 16 cases of a major league pitcher going nine, and he is four of the 16. (One of his four wasn't a complete game because the game lasted ten.) No other pitcher has more than one.
The Marlins have had eleven games where the starter lasted at least eight innings: that's ten from Alcantara and just one from Pablo Lopez.
Incidentally, we're just past the tenth anniversary of Cliff Lee being the last starting pitcher (ever?) to get an out in the tenth inning.
No particular insight into the Distill thing but it reminds me of the situation earlier this year in which the Philadelphia 76ers partnered with a basically non-existent company that was some mix of metaverse crap and masterclass and turned out to be a big scam (shockingly). Defector ran a good series on it; the company was called Color World.
“Cup of Coffee by Craig Calcaterra is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.”
Say it fast, like the voiceover at the end of the Liberty Mutual commercials. Totally works.
I'm feeling some deja vu over the vodka story... any word on whether Curt Schilling has a stake in Distill Brands?
"That fielder’s choice, by the way, was initially ruled an inning-ending double play but it was overturned when replay revealed that the hustling Realmuto reached the first base bag just ahead of the throw. Atlanta’s four-game winning streak is snapped. Viva hustling."
Viva replay! It ain't perfect. but it works quickly and well the vast majority of the time and it helps get the call right. It's limited enough to not affect the pace of the game too much. And the umps announcing the issue like NFL refs could have been cringey but has been helpful.
MLB gets a lot of stuff wrong. It's gotten this one right.
So is the first version of today's email now a collector's item?
RE: Batgirl, reports I've read have indicated it was NOT bad to the point you would shelve it. Also, it is EXPENSIVE to release a film. It's unusual, but "they" might have felt they didn't want to spend that extra money on it. Finally, giving WB/DC WAY more credit than they deserve, they might be getting ready to rethink/relaunch a new DC film universe (starting with Black Adam) and they felt that Batgirl would not fit in that new world. I still can't believe they wouldn't put it on HBO+ (except for the last reason). RE Soto, even if the Nats wanted to build around Soto and keep him through his contract, they are not close to contending so even if they did build a nice nucleus around him in his remaining time, he's walking before they get competitive. It really sucks that a franchise can't keep a generational talent like Soto, it really does. Not sure what else to do except to only allow owners committed to spending, but there are only so many billionaires out there. Cleveland could spend the doors off most teams but current ownership simply won't.
Next on my to-do list is making a "What the hell do I know? I'm retired" t shirt. If you let me know your dad's size, I can make one for him, too.
The reports on Batgirl are it’s nothing more than a tax write off. Evidently if they don’t use the character in anything they can get a partial tax write off and decided that would make them slightly more money in the short term than releasing it on streaming, and long term be damned because the CEO wants to look good NOW, not do things that will benefit the company long term when he might not be there.
Daniel Vogelbach reminds me of how far we've come since the steroid era. From perfectly chisled specimens of the late 90's back to the 70's/80's look of an everyman throwin' on a uniform and playin' ball, the common man is once again back in the game!
As a Yankee fan growing up in NYC I always liked taking part in the Stadium heckling (my father's dislike of Winfield for 'replacing' Reggie aside). Then during one Red Sox visit the fans on the third base side started heckling Mike Greenwell as he went out to play left; specifically, they were, to put it in a polite way, yelling at Mike that they hoped Mike's wife lost her ongoing battle against cancer. Since I saw the look on Greenwell's face, I've never heckled a player. Umps, yes.
Apparently they also get a tax write-off if they don't release it anywhere. So I guess they think the tax write-off is worth more than the amount of money they'd get if they did release it