Not really bitching about family per se, b/c I get along fine with both my family and my in-laws, but more about the amount of time I have to spend being surrounded by people over the next 10 days.
I'm not a loner by any means, but I'm definitely a bit of an introvert and I enjoy my personal (quiet) time. I also am a creature of habit. Hitting the road tomorrow to go spend Xmas Eve and Xmas Day doing shit with my side of the family at my folks place. Then Thursday and Friday visiting the wife's family in Louisiana. Get back to Houston on Saturday just in time for my wife's best friend and her new boyfriend (who I've never met) to fly in from Colorado to stay with us until the 2nd. Tonight is more or less my last night of normalcy until next weekend.
It's based on where you are in the revenue/payroll pecking order. We were over the luxury threshold last year, so higher cost to sign a QO player/lower return to have a QO player sign elsewhere.
Good news is that it will be nice and cool for most of the rest of the time you're here. Cool front arriving tomorrow evening and it shouldn't get above high 60's again until Monday.
December is the toughest time of year for me to make any fitness progress. Treading water and not packing on too much extra fat is about the best I can do. So many parties, end-of-year client lunches, family get-togethers...etc. For the entire month of January I'll do my annual routine of avoiding booze as much as possible and sticking to a much stricter diet, so I usually allow myself to play fast and loose over these final 2 weeks of the year.
important to at least stick to my usual workout schedule even if I'm taking in too many calories (via both food and beer). Always nice to start out the new year without needing to spend the entire month of January just building back to pre-Thanksgiving strength.
I'm well aware that I owe my wife a really nice Xmas gift, as it was both her 40th birthday and our 10th anniversary earlier this Summer. We looked at a bunch of watches when we were in Switzerland back in August and I got a pretty good idea of what she likes. Ordered this on Saturday, should be arriving later this week, just in time for the holidays. I will soon be in a distant 2nd place in the watch rankings in our house.
Incels big mad about a female protagonist with a shaved head. You know exactly what the comments would be.
It will probably get review-bombed when it first comes out. Since it's Naughty Dog, I'm guessing critics score of 96/100 or something with a user score of 2.8. It will eventually sell several million copies and win multiple GOTY awards.
Got up to 82 yesterday. Was absolutely gross in Houston (yeah, yeah I know). Close to 80 and extremely humid today through Tuesday until the next cold front on Wednesday which peters out by Monday. Currently trending towards a warmer than average Xmas Eve.
Lifelong Astros diehard here, but I might have to find a new team with a less annoying fanbase.
I'd have been much more pissed at keeping Tucker and letting him walk for nothing this offseason than actually getting value for him now.
I'm fine with this deal.
I think if Paredes plays 75+ games next season at home, he's almost surely going to hit 25-30 HR. And despite his .232 career average, he gets on base at a decent clip (17% K rate and takes a healthy amount of BB).
Cam Smith seems very likely to be a contributor for us across the 2nd half of this decade.
But man, as it stands currently, our OF look like a giant Achilles Heel in 2025. Yordan's going to primarily DH, so right now get ready for a whole, whole lot of Jake, Chas, Dubon and (insert current minor-leaguer).
Yep. Huge sophomore year for FL State and then quickly mashed his way through A and A+ (27 games) before spending the final week of the season in AA. I imagine he starts 2025 in Corpus, but should have a pretty streamlined path to MLB in 2026.
Phillies offer for Tucker was apparently Bohm and Castellanos. LOL. A guy with 3.8 WAR in 5 seasons and career .736 OPS and a replacement-value veteran owed $40M over the next 2 seasons.
On what fucking planet?
I'm worried we're gonna take worst case approach, which is IMO:
1. Bregman signs elsewhere and we replace him with Polanco on a stupid 3-year deal we'll end up regretting.
2. We hold on to Tucker and let him walk this offseason with nothing to show for it beyond a 3rd or 4th round comp pick for turning down a QO.