#trades

We all love and admire a dynasty when it comes to sports, especially when that team is the club we cheer for. Never was that more true when it comes to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have quickly become the most hated team in all of baseball. Is that a bad team?

Sure, the Dodgers have the highest payroll in the majors entering the 2026 season, exceeding over $390 million to top the league spending charts. Of course, it only gave more ammo when it comes to the critics, after the Dodgers pull off a robbery when they traded for Detroit Tigers generational ace Tarik Skubal.

The Dodgers held tough and did not deal away their top prospects, instead shipped off three solid prospects, but their return was the back to back AL Cy Young Award Winner.

Skubal, 29, took the loss in his Dodgers debut Tuesday night against the Chicago Cubs, but was very effective.

He has been one of the most dominant hurlers over the last several seasons and the Dodgers fanbase and critics feel they fleeced the Tigers.

He joins a staff that is loaded as the Dodgers continue their quest for a three-peat, and this is where the critics will say the "Dodgers are bad for baseball" because of how they acquire the stars.

The reality is this -- the Dodgers are playing by the book -- they are breaking any rules and they are ahead of the game. However, there is growing concern that the league is headed towards a lockout in 2027.

We all know labor disputes rarely if ever, end quickly. If the league tries to actively and aggressively pursue a salary cap and the players' union hold their own, negotiations could turn ugly fast. But, do not blame the Dodgers.

One could argue the Dodgers dominance and sustain success might just convince the powers that be and the stakeholders that changes are necessary, which means MLB could in fact come away with a more balanced, fair and competitive landscape.

Full breakdown below.

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Most repair-shop disputes that reach a courtroom turn on one question: what exactly did the two sides agree to? When the only record is a memory of a kitchen conversation, you lose that argument more than you should. Five plain-English sentences on your work order change that.

This is general education, not legal advice, and the wording is a starting point for a local attorney. Here are the five clauses that do the most protective work for the least effort:

1) Define the scope of work, stating inclusions and exclusions. The most common dispute isn't about quality, it's about scope. 2) Disclaim pre-existing conditions, backed by two photos of the data plate and any visible damage. 3) Limit liability to the invoice amount, which keeps a $300 repair from becoming a $3,000 claim. 4) Require written approval for extra work, so every add-on becomes billable and defensible. 5) Spell out payment terms and late fees, using "permitted by law" language.

A few rules to make them count: put them where the customer sees them before saying yes, capture a signature or digital acknowledgment, keep the language plain, and have a local attorney review once. These sentences won't win every dispute and don't replace insurance, but they give you a written record when memory and goodwill run out.

You quote $300 to replace a dryer heating element. The customer says "while you're here" and you spend another 40 minutes, order a $40 part, and come back a second time. The check is still for $300. That $300 job just cost you $900 of your day.

It's the quiet margin leak that never shows up in your accounting software, because the money was never billed. The construction world calls it undocumented change orders: someone asks for extra work, someone agrees, and the paperwork never catches up to the handshake. Small repair shops run on kitchen-table deals even more, so techs just eat it.

Scope creep is the slow version. Track callbacks for one month and most owners find 20 to 30 percent of jobs involve an unbilled return trip. Add slow-pay customers, and one illustrative truck leaks about $445 a week, roughly $21,000 a year.

The fix is a checklist that fits on a dashboard card: quote in writing, write up every add-on as a new line, get a yes before you touch it, log every part, price the return trip, and state payment terms on every invoice. Never start a new job for a customer who still owes you for the last one.

The point isn't to nickel-and-dime anyone. When add-ons are written up and priced fairly, customers trust them more, because they saw the number and said yes.

My husband teaches his trade in a major metro area and let me tell you what “everyone is going into the trades” looks like:

1/10 students dropping out in a week because they didn’t realize they’d need to be able to do/learn algebra

The majority of students can’t show up on time, stay the entire class, or dress appropriately

Half of them cheat

1/10 students actually engage with the curriculum

there are three ways to make enough money to make it "worth" the price of having a broken down, agony filled body by age 35:

1. Get into one of the unions (not gauranteed)

2. Become a capitalist (start your own small trade business)

3. Work in extremely high danger sectors of your trade

why do you think conservative pundits push trades so hard? it's so people flood the market looking for these "high wages" only to find everyone else already had that idea. and the only people who win are the goddamned land owners who now, thanks to all of the tradies, have a far lower cost associated with essential labor!

look. trades are important and useful. the world needs people who do things like plumbing, and hvac, and concrete, and electrical and etc etc etc.

but in my experience, trade jobs where youre one worker as a member of a company, pay like. AT MOST $5/hr more than the standard payrate in a given area. for jobs with longer, harder hours, with some of the highest injury and mortality rates of any job out there.