New Year’s Eve

A few words, and an unfortunate detour, before heading off to London.

Not feeling super-great this morning, which isn’t the best since I’m supposed to be on a flight to London this evening. I fear another bout with evil kidney stones; going to head to the emergency room to figure out what’s happening.

No fun at all.

But I’m hopeful things will work out. We’ll see.

Before I go, I did want to let you know:

• There’s now an Eventbrite page for our event in London on Jan. 4. I’ll know a lot more later today, I would hope, but as Nick Fury says in “Avengers”: “Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

• The Diamondbacks’ signing of Corbin Burnes is a really big deal. It’s amazing to me how the National League West (and, to a lesser extent, the National League East) has taken all the mojo away from the American League East. The entire sport used to be driven by the eternal battle for dominance between the Red Sox and Yankees. Now, I’d say that the five best teams in baseball on paper are the Dodgers, the Phillies, the Diamondbacks, the Braves and the Mets… and the Padres and Brewers (and maybe even the Cubs) have to be considered in the mix, too. All of them, obviously, are National League teams.

Burnes joins a loaded NL West. (Duane Burleson/Getty Images)

• The Burnes signing is also a reminder: The Baltimore Orioles continue to blow it. I just cannot get my arms around the inaction happening in Baltimore. No team in baseball is better suited to go for it than the Orioles, and they just continue to let the world pass them by.

• One of the hottest rumors going now is that the Tigers are going hard after Alex Bregman. You love to see it. The Tigers’ great finish in 2024 reignited baseball in Detroit, and with the Lions right in the middle of the Super Bowl mix, this has a chance to be a glorious time for the Motor City.

• We have our final results from the PosCast Holiday Cheer Draft! Our winner in 2024—incredibly, this is the first time he’s won—is Nick Offerman, who selected these things in order: (1) Alcohol; (2) Meat; (3) Making love. Realistically, nobody else had a chance. PosCast Holiday Draft phenom Alexis Gay finished second for the second year in a row. Brandon McCarthy finished third, his highest-ever finish. Alan Sepinwall and Linda Holmes rounded out the top five.

• It feels incredibly dumb for me to be writing this newsletter in the minutes before heading to the emergency room, but, you know, that’s just who we are here at JoeBlogs. Happy New Year, everybody.