It seems so obvious now

You have some amount of money to create some dream scenario or plan or team.

I'm not very online, but from what I do see, this is a trend that I enjoy. Enough of these seem to be fun and harmless exercises that they can just be a chance to think about something silly and then talk to someone about it.

We need those things.

My friend just sent me one that involved making a dream baseball team from some of the best players from the past 30 years. More on that shortly.

Today

• The shattering mind palaces as week 1 of the NFL season kicks off and fantasy football managers second guess themselves
• How I spent 33 fictional dollars to make a dream baseball team
• A career milestone from someone I called an old man earlier this week

Of course Quentin Johnston is good

I am all in when I prepare for fantasy football drafts. I look at and hear player names all summer, and form my general idea of who is good and who is not. I read. I listen to podcasts. And so on.

It's always a little jarring, then, to see the actual players on the field. At the moment when it's no longer abstract, and I see a player doing well whom I otherwise hadn't given much thought over the months before the season, I immediately kick myself for missing something that now seems obvious.

Take Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston, who caught two touchdowns in his team's week 1 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. A former first round pick who has been the subject of much derision in his short career, Johnston would have been a late round pick with no risk and real upside.

I took that shot in none of my drafts, except for in one case for a "guillotine league" (the lowest scoring team is cut each week). I left him on my bench in said guillotine league.

I don't know if others have this experience, but I think it's a funny little trick in my brain. I saw Johnston's performance last night, and even knowing the odds of him being a mediocre player for the rest of the season, I questioned myself. I should have known he was going to be good, right?

Chris Harris calls this our "mind palaces." And each season, he comments on how week 1 has the effect of shattering our mind palaces. Some struggle to let go of their previously held opinions more than others. As for me, I always find myself thinking that my mind palace is built with sticks, something that I should destroy and start over with.

OK, maybe it's not that extreme. I still probably won't even play Quentin Johnston in that guillotine league next week (if I make it to next week). But I still find it interesting how my thought process scatters as I watch these early season games.

Build your dream baseball team

My friend Ryan sent me this thought exercise that involves some of the best players of the last 30 years.

I don't know who made it this terms of giving credit, but will be happy to add that in later.

Here's the team I pulled together. Imagine that Jeff Kent is in here as the nine-hole hitter, which I forgot to add when I wrote out my lineup.

I was following my gut on a lot of these picks, especially when it comes to favorite players like Larry Walker, Greg Maddux, and Joe Mauer. I think Rickey Henderson and Mike Trout in the outfield together and at the top of the lineup is untouchable.

Besides the fact that Ozzie Smith is so fun and provided some flexibility at $1, I liked the idea of him and Adrian Beltre as an incredible defensive combo on that side of the infield. I do not like Jeff Kent one bit, and he's a clubhouse cancer that my fictional manager will have to deal with.

But Jeff Kent was a great player, and I think adding him at second gives me a really well rounded team. Maybe the jerk factor is baked into that $1 price.

Like I noted, this kind of exercise is fun. It's a good online trend. There are lots of fun lineups to create and discuss for baseball fans.

Justin Verlander adds an accomplishment

It is difficult to compare baseball players across eras. The game evolves. The rules change. Some statistical milestones in 2025 carry a different weight than they would have in previous eras.

That goes for career marks, too. Players might climb lists of all-time leaders by sheer longevity, not necessarily because of their own greatness as compared to the people they're passing. Those are the cases where it gets squishy and hard to compare across the eras of baseball history.

With all of that said, I think there are certain names in baseball history that stand out when a modern player joins or passes them with a career statistic. For hitters, this tends to be the likes of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and so on.

For pitchers, at least one of those names is Gaylord Perry. This week, Justin Verlander passed Perry on the all-time strikeout list. That's a big deal.

At age 42, Verlander is trying to prove that he has something left in the tank as this season winds down. Maybe he does. I know I'm rooting for that to be the case. Either way, it's saying something if you pitch well enough long enough to pass those all-time great pitchers on career lists.

Odds and ends

• This ESPN headline made laugh: "Jalen Carter awaits discipline amid NFL's sportsmanship emphasis." Of course the reason he is awaiting discipline is because he spit on Dak Prescott. Not sure you need a "sportsmanship push" to punish that (ESPN).
• There is an absolutely wild story unfolding in the NBA with the Los Angeles Clippers appearing to work around the salary cap to pay Kawhi Leonard extra money. They did so, allegedly, through a fake sponsorship from a company in which team owner Steve Ballmer invested $50 million. Ballmer claims to know nothing, and Giri Nathan wrote about his less-than-convincing explanation (Defector $).
• The Dodgers lost 4-3 on Saturday night, their fifth straight defeat. Their starting pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamota, was one out away from a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles. He gave up a homer to lose the no-no, and the Orioles scored three more runs to walk it off. All with two outs. Incredible (MLB.com).

With Ozzie Smith in at shortstop for my last-30-years dream team above, let's sign off with some highlights of "the Wizard" on defense.

Happy Sunday.