gehringer_2

yup, anything which uses superconductor magnets needs helium. For the heat transfer applications, the only other gas that gives you the heat transfer coefficients Helium does is Hydrogen, but of course the fire hazard of H2 would complicate things immensely. You just can't plug it into a system set-up for Helium without likely blowing yourself up - not to mention it may react with the substrates and ruin them. But we've just been told the US 'doesn't need' the Strait of Hormuz. Market searching for a bottom today and not finding one so far....

Wait until US manufacturing comes to a halt because we can't get microchips because Helium for chip production from Qatar is stranded there. That should actually hit before the fertilizer shortage, which will be even worse. But the real tell in that statement is that somebody finally got through to him with the fact we cannot open it. We will simply fail if we try to open it by force. So just like a 3 year old told he can't have the toy --- "Don't want bad toy anyway!"

Yup, start here and see how it plays out.

a new channel has just appeared on my DirectTV - 663 - DSN

It looks like the next big ripple effect from the Iran war (other than oil prices) after fertilizer production is going to the semi-conductor production. What does the ME have to do with semiconductor production you ask? You need helium to run high tech fabrication processes. A third of the world's Helium comes from Qatari natural gas fields and those fields are effectively shut down. https://apnews.com/article/iran-chips-semiconductor-helium-exports-war-fe934332f7c83bb722ca87db22cd57d0

The long ball only gets you so far.....

the other aspect would he to have the cap space to make a big move when one was available, which in general they haven't had as they've burned their cap on guys who weren't going to get them over the line anyway.

I guess. Looks like the guy she left for George Clooney.

Has Yzerman forced any significant staff turnover since he's been here? I get the feeling he is too comfortable with with the staff status quo.

His best full season OPS+ has been 106. He should make them better agains LHP but 'impact' might be an optimistic take.

I was an early skeptic of Zach at short when they 1st played him there in '23, but since what I'd call a rocky start, by the numbers he has graded out well there in '24 and '25 and he has the strongest arm on the team. So I'm a little more on his SS bandwagon than I used to be. Where there is a big a difference is in taking throws on steal attempts and other kinds of tag plays - Baez is just a class by himself there, but no-one else is likely to come close to Javy there, it's just a unicorn skill he has. McKinstry certainly doesn't and I doubt McGonigle will either.

Since Yzerman has been GM, I would say the only impact players has brought in outside the draft (i.e. trades and FA) have been DeBrincat and Gibson, and maybe now Faulk. Not going to give him much credit for Kane because it didn't look like there was much competition to land him at the time. In 7/8 years that's not much. Maybe count Chairot if you want to be generous.

The question remaining in my mind is whether they have the pitching depth to survive Verlander, Mize and Flaherty all failing to perform, an outcome that I think still has too high a probability to be happy.

If he gets off to a start like he did last season they'll make a path! That's the thing, you just don't know about this stuff until it happens. I don't think he'll do what he did last season, but I can't say I know he won't. In the end, that's really the whole point of having all these multiple position capabilities, it's to be able to put the bats that are hitting into the lineup and still cover all the positions. Or conversely, it means you don't need to stay with a guy who is not hitting because you don't have another player at his position.

Javy sat against a fair number of RHP last season so that's more or less a given, it's just a matter of how much.

the other question is how Hinch manages McGonigle. There is a fair amount of opinion here that you don't want to move the rookie around. OTOH, IMO it is the very fact he can play both SS and 3B that helped make his call-up happen in the end. So we don't know what Hinch and McGonigle think and that makes a big difference in how it goes. And if they don't want to move him around, do you start him at 3b or SS? You already have Baez and McKinstry, both of whom they they like at SS, while they have no proven 3Bs. Seem that leans the decision to putting him at 3b where he has been through a lot of ST. But we'll see.

the other wild card is McKinstry. Seems unlikely his bat is as productive as it was last year, but if he does earn starting playing time a lot it would be on the left side of the IF. Good problems to have but also a ton of variables in the mix. I think the difference with Javy is that regular playing time is his to lose. He may well lose it, but I think it's his to start just because they are paying him and he will catch the ball where ever they put him.

looks like most of the injured guys not already on the 60 are too close ready to play to put there - Lee, Horn, Sweeney.What's the deal with Jake Miller?

and the bottom line is that if you hit you are going to play and we can only guess who is going to hit. Green, Torres and Dingler are probably the only guys on the team guaranteed to get really long runways if they don't hit, every one else is going to have to earn their keep from pretty early on.

Bingo - the wings have gotten themselves trapped in no man's land of team construction. Yup - the lack of speed, or in particular, quickness, shows up in their inability to close on guys to get take aways in the their defensive zone. They have to hang back because they know if they try to pressure they will get left behind. Virtually every team we play can put pressure on an offense in their defensive zone better than the Wings can. And it hasn't changed in 7 yrs. The big D men have helped a lot down low but the pressure they continue to lack is from their forwards above the half board. And of course it plays both ways, lack of quickness means they can't break a good forecheck and they don't have the power players to push through it. In my book McLellan is some kind of genius for getting this team as fars as he does.

In Sweeney's case, he can be optioned without being 'outrighted' correct? But that doesn't get him off the 40, which is I think where the discussion started. I suppose if they are still happy to keep him as the "backup.backup" shortstop then they can find someone else to boot off the 40.

Is Peck going to Toledo, or Erie? He only got in ~100 PA at AA. I suppose Sweeney had his shot and didn't do enough with it.

Ecuadoran Army staged show raids? Blow some stuff up where there is no actual risk up of being fired back on and get lots of film to show the Americans what a great job you are doing - they're smart enough to figure out it's the kind thing Trump loves.

I listened to it. He did say they used their FA resources for the OLine first (i.e. they needed tackle(s)) it was the number one priority for the team - he was clear about that. But he also said they liked the degree to which they filled that need. He also again pushed back about not drafting pass rushers with the idea that in the Lion's scheme guys a guy has to be able to set the edge first. Pass rush specialists have limited appeal to him. And then he stressed over and over again, repeatedly ad nauseum, that whatever the need he won't draft for need because it's too big a waste of talent not to take the best player on your board. Over the course of that player's career, need is too variable to give up taking the very best players. He cited Jack Campbell as the way it works out that maybe you don't need the guy when you take him, then when you find that when you do you have top talent. So I would say anyone listening to that total exchange as a means of trying to counter strategize the Lion's draft wasn't going to take much more from it than their own projection of what they think he is going to do anyway.

Yost and Ranier are still a ways from AAA so I'd think there is room and reason for them to want Sweeney there. I don't think they care about saving AB for Workman.