Tiger337

I have long believed that professional sports is filled with narcissistic "alpha males" and that I wouldn't enjoying hanging out with most of them on a regular basis. They are not my friends though, so it doesn't matter. They are great entertainers.

About 40% of undocumented immigrants came here legally, but their work or student visa expired. I understand the overstay is still illegal, but these aren't rapists and drug dealers. In fact, only a small percentage of undocumented immigrants are serious criminals. I don't think many would protest if they quietly removed that small percentage. That does not require invading cities and disrupting and endangering the lives of everbody in the city

Yes, people accused marothformvp and Stan and Archie of being trolls in the past, but I don't think they were capable of being better. MAGAholic has always been prickly in this forum, but he was once a reasonable poster. Now, he has made a a conscious effort to agitate people with every post he makes and is deliberately just being a trouble maker. That is why he is the first person I put on ignore in a couple of years.

One of the students in the program in whch I work wrote a good article at WBUR about the dangers of AI potentially taking away our civil liberties: https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2026/02/25/ice-ai-surveillance-cell-phone-video-license-plate-readers-sarah-young-goldberg

FanGraphs projects them to finish 16th in the league in runs scored. There were more gains to made on the pitching side and I am not upset that they didn't acquire a hitter, but I am not going to pretend that they don't have potential weaknesses in their line-up. On the positive side, FanGraphs projects them to finish second in run prevention. Great pitching and average offense is typically a successful mix.

Sure, they never expected us to descend towards authoritarianism and to turn on our allies, but as far as personal behavior goes, they were right on target. Amereicans are loud, arrogant, self-absorbed, shallow, ignorant and unserious people. In that respect, we got exactly what we deserved.

We are living up to the ugly American stereotype for sure.

Newsom seems childish to me. I am really hoping somebody more serious emerges. I'm not going to hold my breath.

It will mostly likely be ok. What is certain is that nothing that happens in the first week of spring training has any bearing on the season at all, unless someone gets hurt.

They have the WBC tournament this year, so we might see more minor leaguers playing in spring training than usual.

not bold enough.

yes

They are just as capable of keeping up with the demands of playing every day as they have ever been. They have more off days now and no scheduled double headers for other reasons other than capability. One of them is having a strong union. The reason for bigger pitching staffs is that teams have figured out that having more fresh pitchers allows their best pitchers to throw at maximum effort and get maximum results. Then when they get tired, they have plenty of fresh arms to fill in the innings at the end of the game. Pitchers could pitch just as many innings as they use to, if they were not pitching at maximum effort on every pitch.

The players have more leverage now.

Some have said that. I wouldn't make that claim but I don't think it's outrageous to say that Avila deserves a good deal credit for the roster and I don't think there is an accurate way to say how much

I think it's impossible to measure how much each one deserves for 2024-2025. You seemed to want to give Harris 100% credit which I don't agree with. For 2026, His impact is going up substantially in my mind.

I don't remember anyone saying they wanted him to be replaced. Most people believed all along that he was a good GM for the long-term, but many wanted him to show more urgency to win now while they still have Skubal. Now, that he's doing that, people feel better about both the present and future Tigers.

only if they are part of a well-regulated militia.

It's been years since I have blocked anyone, but the new blocking function works well. You don't even know when they posted.

I had the same thought.

I got lots of Divsion I hockey players in my classes at UMass Lowell. Most of them weren't there to be students. It was interesting experience!

I wasn't even a hockey fan, but it was still one of the best stories ever. Jim Craig's brother was a student in my class several years later.

This is the annual bold predictions thread. This is not a thread for projections or maybes or ifs or buts. Say what you think will happen definitively from your gut. I'll start. Kevin McGonigle will head north with the team as the starting shortstop, start off a little slow and then everything will click and he will be Rookie Of The Year.

Every site I looked at has Bregman in the top 10 and McKinstry and Keith outside the top 20.

I bet at least half of you are having politically incorrect thoughts about the name and performance of the last Tigers pitcher.