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Klawchat 10/19/23
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Keith Law
1:56
New name to me - thank you.
Scott
1:56
Thoughts on Johan Rojas’s playing ability and future?
Keith Law
1:57
Defense and speed are legit. I don't think he's ever much with the bat but there is contact skill there to carry him enough so the rest of it plays. It would help if he gained a little strength - that frame isn't going to allow much, but any increase in contact quality is a big boost to his chances to be a regular or more.
Jon v
1:57
Think Manzardo opens 2024 at 1B with big league club with Naylor mostly at DH?
Keith Law
1:57
Seems too soon? Maybe June.
PhillieJake
1:58
Late to chat sorry if this was asked. Why did The Pirates send Carter Bins to AFL? He’s at best fourth in depth chart. No real future in majors with team.
Keith Law
1:58
They were probably required to send a catcher - teams are given certain spots to fill - and chose him.
Sagya Williams
1:58
Believer in Wilyer Abreu?  Will he stick as an above-average regular?
Keith Law
1:58
Don't see it.
Patrick
2:00
As one of the skeptic/rationalist types I follow, can you help explain why so many - yourself included - have taken the maximalist position on transgenderism? There isn't much in the way of "science" to support it. The science I've seen you cite is flimsy at best, and reliant on language games to confuse/distort reality ("sex is not binary" is not true in any sense when every human being on the planet has exactly two parents). Is it just fear of social/professional consequences? And if so, do you see any potential downside to introducing unreality to science and politics? A concern I have is with vaccine advocates promoting an easily disprovable lie, like "trans women are women" - who would trust anything you say on vaccines when you've proven yourself to be willing to throw rationalism out the window when it suits your politics?
Keith Law
2:04
You kind of took the mask off there at the end. There's plenty of science demonstrating that sex is not binary - the "two parents" thing has nothing to do with it - and that the transgender brain is real, with some genetic influences. But the important point here is that my advocacy for trans rights comes in the face of a hate-filled, anti-science, highly partisan attempt to demonize trans people, very much in the way that the Nazis othered Jews and Roma people, and very much in the way that Hannah Arendt explained would-be autocrats do as they try to rise to power. Laws that ban gender-affirming care for minors don't improve any outcomes, and they increase suicides and self-harm. What those laws do do, however, is play to a base of voters that has been primed by a decades-long disinformation war that has told them that tobacco is safe and the climate isn't changing and vaccines don't work and the earth is flat and the 2020 election was stolen.
2:05
You have a choice: You can stand up for the rights of one of the most vulnerable populations in the country, even if it amounts to no more than opposing laws designed to isolate or harm them, or you can side with the people shouting "groomers" and "pedophiles" and doing everything they can to other trans people. I don't think this is a very hard choice, especially given all of the evidence from the neuroscience world that the transgender brain is different.
Bartleby
2:05
Why can't people just STFU about sexual issues that have nothing to do with them?
Keith Law
2:06
It's the disinformation war I mentioned. Most of these people never gave a shit about trans folks until the alt-right threw a target on their backs.
Sedona
2:06
Have you had a chance to evaluate Yamamoto?  Potential #1?  Prediction where he does?
Keith Law
2:06
He will also be on my free agent rankings.
Heather
2:06
Local radio show was talking about the Red Sox' GM search, got deep into the weeds, and started talking about Billy Beane.  One of the radio guys was adamant:  Billy Beane should be in the HOF, for the way he changed how front offices approached the game.  Should a GM who never got a team to the World Series be in the Hall?
Keith Law
2:07
I have no opinion on Beane's Hall candidacy but I wouldn't use pennants or WS rings as a strict, binary criterion.
2:08
That's all for this week - thank you all for reading and all of your questions. My free agent rankings will drop right around November 1st, give or take a day or two, and that will probably be my next major piece for the Athletic. Stay tuned for that, some new game reviews, and some great podcast guests coming up as well.
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