1984Echoes

Anyone. But it IS an accurate statement. So... why won't Hamas just SURRENDER and save the fate of ALL their brethren? I've asked this since the middle of November. Why won't they surrender and save all their brother and sister Gazans? Don't they love their fellow Gazans? All those women and children, that they are related to? Dying under Israel's invasion and hunt for their hostages and the terrorists who committed that awful Oct 7th butchery? All they'd have to do is give up all the hostages, surrender, give up all their arms... low-level guys or those not directly involved in the Oct 7th butchery or kidnappings probably sent home, maybe after 90 days incarceration, and only the leaders (Sinwar, etc.) put on trial for implementing their Butchery and sentenced to death. Or maybe even the leaders could be allowed to escape into exile. Although I don't believe Israel would be too keen on that idea...

Which falls under: "Assholes and opinions, everyone has one." He does NOT obtain MORE legitimacy, which you are attempting here, because he was a FORMER member of Obama's White House. Hey, I used to live up the street from Mar-a-Lago... So MY opinion has MORE VALUE than yours!!! Right?

On this I can agree with. At the very least, Biden should have gone to the podium and said "All weapons sales to the State of Israel are halted until there is a humanitarian resolution to the current Israel-induced famine in Gaza. We will play our part. But all weapons sales are halted until Israel also does its part, which it is unacceptably failing, miserably."

So you're trying to tell us that we are selling them DIRECTLY to Netanyahu, right? OR... That we need to drop support for the State of Israel ENTIRELY... Because of... Bibi. Right? **** Israel? Do I have you right?

The WSJ is completely in thrall of Trump and MAGA. The polls you quoted, from them, I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw Trump. Which is zero. All polls are garbage as far as I'm concerned, not just WSJ, until we hit mid-October... from that point, I might take a look. But probably not. I just have no interest there. And... Trump is going down in flames.

We are selling them personally to Bibi? He has a personal Air Force? He is personally paying us $18 billion? Could you please stop mischaracterizing support for the State of Israel with direct interactions with Netanyahu, which are LIES?

It's only sick ****s, IMO, that can be attracted to this sick ****. I consider MAGA, and all his supporters, to be sick ****s. Sorry, and too bad if that offends anyone. But Trump has been a sick **** for 40+ (in the news that is... he may have been a sick **** his entire life... he only announced what a sick **** he was to the world when he first opened his mouth to the public... roughly 40+ years ago IIRC). Anyone attaching themselves to this sick ****... is a sick ****.

Bryan Sammons was in the Toledo rotation for most of last year. He's almost 29 and a 5th starter... at Toledo. He can easily be skipped in the rotation because he doesn't matter. 5th starter. Easy to skip over. This is what you think the Org should do with Madden? Sammons doesn't matter, at all, in this situation. Not to be mean to him, but he is almost a non-entity. Easily replaced as a 5th starter, in Toledo, by any other non-real-prospect that Detroit wants to throw out there. Again, this is the situation you want Madden to be in? It's better for Madden to be in Erie, as the #2 starter behind Jobe... where he can work on control and new pitches and tunneling and such... than as the 5th starter in Toledo, easily being skipped over. He won't be skipped over in Erie. Even if he ends up in the bullpen at some point in the future, as I've already stated.

The other side of the coin to that is Wyatt Langford. And he's going to be DH'ing a lot, or stuck in LF. It's great that he has such a nice bat.... But as long as Clark has a high OPS, and is a 2-way player (great defense, great bat) than I prefer 2-way players like Clark over the plethora of DH's that we seem to always be overabundant in.

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They're having cap issues so he might free up. He's already stated how disappointed he is in their offers, or lack thereof... But I still think he's not much different than Kane and will end up costing quite a bit more than him. I'd rather earmark for Kane and another top-6 forward separately so I consider them two different players. And Kane versus Reinhart/ Lindholm/ Guentzel loses, IMO. Given that Yzerman can make the money work, of course...

Stamkos, based on age and potential contract demands (exceeding the cost of Kane, IMO...), makes me prefer Kane. Kane was a special situation because of the injury (and had already played with the Rangers last year after accepting a trade). Leading to: I think Kane would stick with us on a team-friendly veteran contract versus the cost of chasing Stamkos. So I wanna stick with Kane and instead chase after a younger/ higher-end free agent. I don't know if Yzerman can make the money work (Aside from some expensive extensions on our horizon, he'd also have to move several veterans either by not re-signing them as free agents or by actively trading them...), or if the player would have any willingness to come to Detroit, but I am looking at someone like: Sam Reinhart (highly unlikely), Jake Guentzel (??? maybe have a shot?), Elias Lindholm (VERY high on my want list...), Stamkos as a fallback (maybe...?) Just thinking out loud here...

To break it down more simply: They need a higher level of talent. Yzerman has patched together a competitive team. But he's using lots of bubble gum and Elmer's glue. The more extensive list of problems as a result of that: It's a good enough job to make the team playoff-competitive, but we also can see ALL of the warts that go along with that: With almost nothing in high-end skills: (A) Larkin goes down and we nosedive; (B) As you've pointed out, our puck control is ****, leading to all sorts of problems: 1. The other team has control of the puck way too long, and we're always on the losing end of shot attempts. 2. So that means our goalie has to constantly win games for us. 3. Our passing is beyond sloppy. 4. We dump and chase versus having controlled entries into the offensive zone... That's improving, but we have a ways to go. 5. It seems the other teams' almost always control the entry into our zone, it's always a goal chance for them. 6. We don't control our entries so we fight for puck control after a dump & chase which SOMETIMES leads to a potential scoring chance but MOSTLY just hands control of the puck back over to the other team. 7. We run into CONSTANT turnovers due to our lack of puck control and/or passing. 8. We scrap for pucks and goals... which is getting us wins and maybe even into the playoffs this year... but that's not enough for sustainability, nor reaching the HIGHER level of playoff competitiveness that EVERYONE wants for this team... I am all on-board with Yzerman building us a playoff-competitive team, even one built out of pieces and parts, because... it's time. But in order to turn this Pinocchio into a "REAL boy"... They have to get a higher skill level. Edvinsson is a huge part of that... Noone is able to outreach him for the puck when it's on his stick, and he shields it so well anyways. Noone is able to knock him off the puck either, which, I don't know if you would call that "toughness", but it has the same effect. We need to move off of flawed skill and/or defense players: Like Gostisbehere, Petry, Perron, maybe even Veleno, and replace them with some of the kids that Yzerman has lined up. I know that's a scary thought for quite a lot of people, including Yzerman... but it needs to be done. That means, Kasper, Cossa, Tuomisto, and maybe even Wallinder and Mazur (I don't know if the last two are NHL-ready... but I'll just throw out a guess that they are...). They are faster, bigger, stronger on the puck, etc... than what we have. I think we need to re-sign Kane for two years. He's not a perfect solution, but I think he is basically a "coach on ice", similar to a "Larionov", trying to teach the rest of the team how to pass and puck control better... Just my thoughts on that. Finally, Yzerman needs to find some money somewhere, to be able to invest in at least one high-end top-6 forward talent. By free agency or trade or however he can. Just my 'pinion...

For 2 or 3 innings. Which means he is in the PERFECT spot on the pitching staff right now, right where he is...

Yzerman would broom out Lalonde if he could garner a huge coaching upgrade. But I don't think there are all that many of those out there... Is Berube a "clear" upgrade over Lalonde?

Gibson's a RH'd D too... and yes, looked VERY good this year...

Too much float for Trump to do that. $8 billion float? Which foreign money guy wants to flush that much money down the toilet? Lastly: Trump is NOT winning in November. Post-election: The stock crashes all the way to the bottom. Whatever hopes the Red Asshats think DJT stock value might have based on... literally, nothing... evaporates post election. You're right... I wouldn't touch this stock. Not even with YOUR ten foot pole... 😉 But I would short the stock if I could. No fear.

I tried short-selling the stock when it hit $70 because there's a homerun in there. "Shares not available to sell short". So... OK, ixne that. I would be fine with buying January Puts (because after he loses in November this stock is going to crash down to penny-stock level (around a $1 plus or minus...) but I didn't like the numbers. $39 for a January $60 put? When the stock is $70? I think everyone knows this stock is going to crash and burn. But it's not letting me make money on that certainty. That... this is a **** stock and everyone knows it. The value of that Jan-2025 $60 put? Now that the stock has dropped from $70 to $46? It went up in value from $39 to $43. Oh how I would love to short sell the **** out of this crap stock.

Augustine got rocked by UM and loses 5-2. UM will be in the Frozen Four.

Well... That's not so bad. (For the United States that is... not so much for Spain/Mexico...).

PS: I just saw Mattison is out for the season... The full season? Or he'll be back maybe for August/Sept/AFL? TJ... well... that answers that... We'll see him next year...

At least until they try to get to Toledo. But nothing before that...

Even though Lee is the Tigers 14th ranked prospect... I don't see a huge pathway for him to make the Majors with Detroit... I just don't see it. I think I would look at Erie, at the moment/ with this roster, as the 4th best prospect being a reliever who could sneak onto the Detroit roster at some point in the future. There's a pair of reliever types who K a lot of guys even though they toss mostly mid-90's and can reach upper 90's... With some deception and secondary pitches... One Righty: Tyler Mattison, One Lefty: Lael Lockhart. With learning curves, obviously... But I'd be more interested in watching these two guys as dark horse candidates over wondering if Cruz-Workman-Cabrera can ever find their bats or Lee actually develops into something (that he's not...). For me: It's Jobe-Madden-Melton... and then keep an eye on Mattison and Lockhart to see what they can do. Just my 2 cents.

One more thought on Erie: I'm interested in seeing how: Jobe, Madden, Melton & Mattison pitch this year. Jackson Jobe and the 3M's. Has a nice ring to it. But... I see nothing much else of interest there, prospect-wise. Maybe Trei Cruz, or Gage Workman, or Danny Cabrera locate their missing bats? Maybe Lockhart is interesting, a little? Or maybe they turn him into a Lefty Reliever? That might be at least a little interesting...

Took a quick look and thought "Wow! That's pretty crappy for Jobe in Erie..." Still think that, but another thought also crossed my mind: It will be VERY easy for anyone showing that they've mastered High-A and is ready for a jump to AA... to make that jump. The Org can send just about anyone down from Erie in a swap and not bat an eyelash. I'm thinking the West Michigan-to-Erie train (and vice verse) may be just as, if not more, busy than the drive between Detroit and Toledo. Just a thought.