The Wild Card: Feeling Numb

I was driving home last Saturday night from work. This is a thing I've done every Saturday for the past two years. It's a fairly long drive, and during the summertime I usually turn on the Diamondbacks game on the ol' FM radio if it's on. I was in the middle of listening to a particularly heinous game against the Padres when Schulte dropped the news of *that* trade.

(If you don't know what I'm talking about when I refer to it as *that* trade, then you are lucky to have been caught in whatever natural disaster left you without internet access for a week.)

I let out an audible "What!?" while stopped at a traffic light. Then I saw the riots, the existential dread, the everything, hell I even participated in it briefly to be kinda cool and because I was, briefly, feeling it.

But here's the thing, despite logically knowing that this is a bad move from a Baseball perspective, and it shows a modus operandi with this organization that is a little scary, I can't bring myself to be genuinely angry about it now. Like, it's not good, and will probably bite the organization in the ass in a few years, but I can't muster up the rage. I have Kevin Towers to thank for that.

See, while this may be the first pure "WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE HELL?" move for the TLR/Stewart regime (Others are questionable, but at least you could find a reasonable defense for or at least see the lines of logic as to why they would think such a move would make a team better, even if you don't agree with it.) Kevin Towers could knock out four of those before lunch, and I thank him for it.

See, because of all the rageahol I garnered over the course of Bauer-Gregorius or Trumbo-Things That Are Better Than Trumbo, I have built up a tolerance for bad trades made by teams I like. It's like building up a tolerance for Iocane powder, or heroin. I would need more to feel the effects (PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT TO THE PIRATES FOR DEREK BELL HE'S STILL UNDER CONTRACT BECAUSE OF SOME WEIRD LEGAL STUFF FOLLOWING OPERATION SHUTDOWN), of course, if we were to extend this metaphor out to its logical end, such a dosage would probably kill me. Let's not dwell on that.

But I guess for me, it's a sort of defense mechanism as well. I generally don't feel good when I get caught up in post-trade angst and counter-angst and counter-counter-angst. I see a comment count like this

And my mind goes "Nope", because it's 300+ comments of two groups of people saying "I like this." and "Well, I don't like this." to each other in varying ways that involve more words than that.

So yeah, you might be upset about the Touki trade, and rightfully so, but there's a lot in life and in Baseball to look forward to! There's also a lot of good TV nowadays, so I'm told. Do what I did, kill off all feeling inside and write jokey articles that mask the true pain and ennui you feel about your current station in life!

Ha ha! It's fun!

(Have fun debating/complaining about the trade again in the comments, I know y'all)