Will be interesting to see where Soto ends up. Mets have shown they’re willing to open the wallet for the big players. Yankees have always been spenders. I could see some other teams that were just short of making it spending to get him as a long-term build-around piece. I’ve heard the Dodgers are in on the Soto Sweepstakes, but I don’t think it makes sense from a financial perspective.

Some people sell their code packs online, though I guess it could be risky.

I’m basically in TCG Live to practice the game and to figure out how a deck is working before sleeving up in paper.

TCG Pocket is just a fun diversion. 2 free packs a day is like little dopamine hits, for better or worse. I can let my nieces and nephews “rip” a pack open as a reward without thinking “that’s $4 gone.”

TCG Live is for people who actually care about Pokemon TCG and the complexities and depth it offers. It’s not that confusing; there are maybe 3 currencies, and one of its features, like it or not, is that you can’t just swipe a credit card and get everything you want. The only money-to-game translation is buying IRL boosters and scanning in the codes. Yes, the app can be fairly buggy, but it’s what we’ve got for now, ever since they closed Pokemon TCG Online. It doesn’t have trading, which is to prevent people from just having a dozen accounts and amassing all the value into one.

The currencies aren’t too bad: Coins are for cosmetics. Crystals are the “premium” currency for unlocking the battle pass or buying the equivalent of IRL sealed products (boosters, display packs, bundles, etc). Credits are like dust from other TCGs. Duplicate cards beyond 4 are “dusted” and you can convert them into the singles you want for deck building.

TCG Pocket is to slowly attract people into collecting actual cards again. After you get into the cadence of opening your 2 free packs a day, people might start to be interested in collecting physical cards, which pulls them into paying for boosters (rather than just buying singles) and trying the actual card game. It’s just a small bonus that TCGPocket might also earn them a bit of money, largely off of old art and minimal playtest work.

I know ownership will never be loved by the fans, but I do believe that as a sport, baseball is better when the owners care about the game rather than treating it purely as an investment.

Max Fried, huh.

I guess the big question is, what starting pitchers are available as FAs this winter? Because starting pitching is always in demand. I could see the Red Sox possibly paying over market value but I could just add easily see most of the NL West go for that, or the Cubs or any of the fringe contenders who just missed the postseason this year.

I’m a huge Pete Rose hater. I don’t think gambling should be associated with baseball, and hate all the stupid gambling sponsors and ads going on.

Now that he’s passed, I’m torn between putting him in the hall cuz his career was indeed hall-worthy, or keeping him out since he broke the cardinal sin of baseball.

He’ll see none of the glory, taste none of the praise, and give no speeches. Is that enough? Or does it set a bad example for future players (or even kids) that gambling is forgivable?

He came so close!

Astros eliminated? Like honey to my lips, water to my soul.

I’m a Dodger fan, but I really wasn’t expecting Teoscar to hang with some of the bigger sluggers. Super proud for him, though!

Damn good show this year. Not sure if the format changes were good this year or not, but it was a dramatic semifinal and final round, at least.

Dang. Spread across 3 different pitchers, so it’s not like they just left a struggling pitcher in longer than they needed to. Just brutal.

Interesting move by the Padres. When I saw reports saying that they were shopping Kim and Cronenworth out, I assumed they were in fire sale mode. Getting a potentially great closer is not the direction I thought they would be moving in.

I didn’t think there was any risk of them leaving, but I’m glad they’re staying where they are.

Plus, I still haven’t gone to see a game at OPACY, so this gives me another 30 years to procrastinate on that.

I’ve gotten so used to the /r/baseball version of these posts that I was looking in the wrong quadrant for the Dodgers.

Side note, those Braves are scary. Watching one of their games, they look like the most well-oiled machine right now.

Newer posts are saying that the injuries were likely caused by gunfire from more than a mile away. Glad to know that this wasn’t some sort of domestic terrorism attack, but it’s still unsettling.

What goes up must come down, but geeze, some people are dumb.