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Skubal Lands, Dynasty Tax Due: · The Rand Report: Sports

• 0:08
  Biggest arm available, just change sides. Tarek
• 0:12
  Skubal is a dodger. Two times Cy Young, rental,
• 0:15
  three prospects, and the rest of the league is
• 0:17
  already doing the math. This is The Rand Report.
• 0:21
  I'm Jim Rand. Sunday just made the calendar honest.
• 0:25
  First, the deal. Los Angeles gets the left -hander
• 0:28
  who has owned the American League for two seasons.
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  Detroit gets Zaheer Hope, River Ryan and Brady
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  Smith. No major league pieces left the Dodgers
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  roster. No top three prospects gone. Just the
• 0:40
  kind of package that looks aggressive until you
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  remember who is on the other side of it. Scubble
• 0:45
  is owed the rest of his $32 million. He hits
• 0:48
  free agency after the season. He is not a long
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  -term solution unless the Dodgers write a much
• 0:54
  bigger check in November. That is the part the
• 0:56
  soft takes keep skipping. This is a rental that
• 0:59
  raises the ceiling for two months and three series.
• 1:02
  It does not rewrite the next five years unless
• 1:05
  both sides decide they want to. The reaction
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  was predictable. Some corners called it the death
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  of competitive balance. Others shrugged and said
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  the Dodgers always get their guy. Both missed
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  the point. The Tigers started 22 to 38. They
• 1:22
  never got close enough to justify holding a pending
• 1:24
  free agent through a lost summer. They took the
• 1:27
  best offer that did not demand their own future.
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  That is not collusion. That is a front office
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  reading the standings. Meanwhile, the Dodgers
• 1:36
  already sat near the top of the majors. They
• 1:39
  already had Yamamoto, Otani when healthy, Snell,
• 1:43
  Glasnow. Adding Scoobold does not create a dynasty.
• 1:46
  It just removes one more excuse for everyone
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  else. Second, NFL camps. The pads are coming
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  on, the hold -ins are still holding. Bijan Robinson
• 1:55
  in Atlanta, Jameer Gibbs in Detroit, both in
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  camp, neither practicing while the money talks
• 2:00
  continue. That is the modern version of leverage.
• 2:04
  Show up, don't play, keep the fines off the table
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  and the pressure on the building. Every team
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  still runs the same script, competition, best
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  player wins, depth wins championships. Then the
• 2:15
  star running back is limited and the backup is
• 2:18
  getting the bulk of the reps in the open practices.
• 2:21
  Health is still the only story that matters in
• 2:24
  August. Mahomes is moving well enough that week
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  one looks realistic. Other rooms are already
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  counting days on the PUP list. The gap between
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  the press conference and the practice field is
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  where the season actually starts. Third, the
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  standings. The brewers took over the top of the
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  majors. The Red Sox beat the Dodgers the same
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  night the scuba news broke. That is not narrative.
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  That is the scoreboard. Boston has been quietly
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  good. Milwaukee has been louder about it. Neither
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  team needed a late July splash to stay relevant.
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  They just kept winning while the big markets
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  made the headlines. Deadline winners and losers
• 3:02
  are already sorting. The teams that added without
• 3:05
  gutting their future look smart today. The teams
• 3:08
  that stood pat because we're still in it will
• 3:10
  look different in three weeks if the wildcard
• 3:12
  math tightens. Here is the through line. Talent
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  concentrates. Money talks and the organizations
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  that treat both as tools instead of moral arguments
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  keep showing up in October. Scoobl and Dodger
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  Blue does not break baseball. It just makes the
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  cost of competing visible again. Same thing is
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  happening in every NFL building right now. Contract
• 3:34
  theater, pad practices, early injuries. The soft
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  talk always arrives first. The results arrive
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  later. This league does not care about the narrative
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  you prefer. It cares about who can still pitch
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  in October and who can still run through contact
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  in December. Everything else is noise. This has
• 3:52
  been The Rand Report. I'm Jim Rand. No soft takes.
• 3:56
  See you next time. Short and Engaging Retellings,
• 4:11
  a full vivid retelling of Homer's epic, one book
• 4:14
  at a time. Join us for dramatic storytelling,
• 4:17
  legendary adventures, and the ultimate tale of
• 4:20
  homecoming. The link is right there in the show
• 4:22
  notes. The Odyssey, Short and Engaging Retellings,
• 4:25
  go check it out.