Tiger337

A Tom Brady shirt wearing MAGA! Who would have thought?

I just looked up Whitney Webb and she may be crazy, but at least she doesn't appear to be politically motivated. She dislikes both parties saying that they both support elite corporate and government interests rather than the public. I won't be buying any of her books, but she got that part right.

I was at the hotel the team was staying at one year. One prominent pitcher from that squad was hitting on women all over the place. Others were likely more discrete.

How is that going to help him at this meeting? He already won the election, so he doesn't need to court the racist vote in that meeting. I think his goal in the meeting was to get African countries to accept deported immigrants. I'm sure he'd also like to grab any minerals that they might have. None of that has anything to do with his racist voters. I can believe that he was being condescending in order to put them in a weak or defensive position just because he likes to do stuff like that. I can also believe that he's dumb enough to believe that complimenting him in that way would help in negotiations. In fact, that is what I think happened. By the way, I did not know that English was the primary language in Liberia, so that's not why I called him dumb in this instance. I do know that there are countries in Africa where English is the primary language, so if I hear an African speaking perfect English, my first instinct is to assume that he is from one of those countries. I would think that someone who speaks with international leaders on a regular basis would be able to figure that out. I can't assume that with Trump though, because, although I know he is very skilled at marketing and sales, I have seen no evidence of intellect from him ever.

It should. Cabrera was very close to free agency when the deal was made, so that's not a good comp. Skenes has four more years. His trade value may be unprecedented. I don't see how you can get him without trading two top prospects and then some.

Yes, there is. That's why I don't think the proposal is completely nuts. It's not the direction I want them to go in though. I like that they finally have a young successful team and a system which seems primed to pump talent into the majors for years to come. I've been waiting for this since the 80s. I don't want to see them give that up for one great pitcher who could have a career altering injury at any time.

"He knows exactly what he's doing"

No politics here

I don't know. That's how his name is pronounced. It's not like I am using an Asian stereotype or slur.

I know you are talking about adults and I've known people like that. I'm pretty sure we all have. It takes very little intellectual calculation at all. What I disagree with is that you talk like every word and action of his planned out and every dumb thing he says is done with a purpose. I don't agree with that. I do think he tries to appeal to a certain target population like you say, but I also think a lot of times he is just being naturally stupid. His behavior is nothing new. His behavior is not something he does just for political gain. He has been in the public eye for 45 years and he has always come across as stupid.

I'm fine.

LOL, I may not be a man of the world like you, but I'm painfully aware of those things. Painfully aware. In fact, I think anyone who has attended public jr high and high schools becomes very aware of those things at an early age. I also know that Trump likes to appeal to his base, but I just don't believe he is calculating and nuanced about it as you claim.

He may be part of a bigger strategy, but that strategy is not planned by him.

Tork has been hitting pretty well of late and we know that Greene and Tork never hit at the same time.

His desire to be loved is interfering with his racism and cruelty. Miller will be pissed.

He was a being salesman. He wants something from him, so he showers him with insincere praise. If you are saying that he knew that English was his native language and he was pretending otherwise, I don't buy it.

Dumb as ****.

Coleman was great his first three years with the Tigers. Too bad Billy Martin blew out his arm.

That kind of explains the difference between b-ref and fangraphs pitching WAR. b-ref focuses on past performannce while fangraphs is morte predictive. Both philosophies have their uses. But what if fielding performance does in fact change because a player loses a step? Then we don't know if the change is due to performance or variability. It has been shown that fielding performance peaks earlier than hitting.

Yes, that is a problem. I don't think it's a good mainstream stat. To your other point, I don't think defensive ability necessarily changes so much year to year, but it's very possible that the small sample performance that we see does vary a lot. Defenders are much like relievers in that they don't have a large sample size of difficult plays over a season.

I hope they go with DRS so WAR will be more consistent across b-ref and fangraphs. Statcast might be better - I have kind of assumed that it is - but I don't think it has been proven. I don't know if WAR ever should have been mainstreamed, but since it already is happening, it should be more consistent. Those who want to dive deeper can plug in any numbers they want and make their own WAR.

Defensive statistics are less reliable than hitting stats in general, but I trust DRS more than most defensive measures. I like that is continually updated and transparent. I usually look at statcast and DRS, but it takes a long time for defensive numbers to stabilize. I don't think even a full season is enough.

Never take Shelton's bait.

Skenes is the second best pitcher in baseball and he's got 4 more years until free agency. I don't know if any pitcher with that much value and team control has ever been traded before, so we don't know how much he's worth. I don't think it's ridiculous for the Pirates to expect multiple bluechip prospects in return for him. Regardless of his value though, I would not want the Tigers to do that. I'd rather they keep their best position prospects rather than roll the dice on one big pitching prize. I think there is little chance of the Pirates trading him anyway.

If you compare them by OWAR which takes hitting and position into account, then Greene has the lead 2.8 to 2.1. So, the big difference is fielding. B-Ref uses the DRS statistic: Rodriguez 12 runs better than average (roughly 1.2 WAR) and Greene -2 runs worse than average. That is a huge difference. Is Rodriguez really that much better defensively this year? Looking at the statcast numbers, Rodriguez is 9 outs better than average and Greene is average (0). Fangraphs has Greene with 3.0 overall WAR and Rodriguez 2.4. FanGraphs has used UZR for WAR in the past, but they are not showing any data for 2025. So, I am not sure what they are doing this year - either they are still using UZR and they are just not showing us or they are using a different stat now.