gehringer_2

I'll grant Cossa has been inconsistent, but he was simply outstanding for a long stretch in GR, there is some kind of talent there. Maybe playing 2nd string would have been exactly how to break him in successfully. But we'll never know.

That's a laugh. I'd take any Chicago Priest in a test of wills with Trump.

ex-refinery guy here. The picture is actually very complex, many interdependencies. Each refinery is pretty much set up to run optimally on one type or mix (which may or may not also mean one or one set of sources) of crude oil. The flexibility of a given refinery to do something else varies with its particular equipment but profitability (ie prices go up) will almost always suffer, at least short term, if they are forced to switch crude slates. In the US, most midwestern refineries run Canadian crude or oil that comes by pipeline from the gulf. East coast refineries import more, West cost refineries source some local (CA is a big producer but nowhere near CA's consumption), a lot of Alaskan, some ME. Refiner's generally hike their prices the instant world oil prices go up, though in reality they have several days (not months) supply already on hand and any oil at sea may already be paid for, though that varies also, some tankers do arrive with the oil un-purchased and the deal is cut on arrival. I'm few years out of the biz now so I don't have any inside sources any more, but I would estimate that in the US, total imports from non North American sources are low enough that given the fall in demand that the increase in prices will produce, I doubt we will see outright US shortages, but don't ask me to bet on that, and there will likely be some local dislocations. The situation in Europe and in particular Asia is much different. They know their vulnerability to supply upsets so in general Asian refiners keep a LOT more crude inventory (month+) on hand, which is the only reason why you haven't had Asian nations (i.e. China) making more noise about retaliation against the US (trade etc) if this doesn't end soon.

I can't see them giving Jones much more rope but other than that: Parker and Javy aren't actually doing too badly, Torkelson's last three games were good, Yesterday it was Keith, Torres and Dingler that went 1-12 and those are the guys who had been playing well so far. Green is scuffling but you know he going to get more room to straighten up than anyone else on the team.

If the docs say there is no risk, then starting now and giving him the longer ramp up to playing full game minutes seems like a fair strategy - assuming they do limit his minutes. The paradox with Cade is that he's so much an end of game player you wonder what you'll get playing him 15 min. 🤔

whether we agree or not, I'm sure Iran's position is that a cease-fire means Israel stops shooting at their clients and that surely hasn't happened either.

Use auto-tune?

I think this is a good take. Talbot was pretty useless this season and we knew from the beginning that a lot of the team's early success was Gibson and the temptation would be there to burn him out. I just don't get this reluctance to see what a guy can do, what the worst that can happen - he shows he's not ready? It's not like you'd be sitting prime career D. Hasek to look at him, he would be stepping in for just barely there Talbot.

Intel, left for dead 8 mo ago at $19, just hit $58

Right. The thing with McCarver is that he was never gracious enough to admit the Tigers were also a pretty damn good team that year. Even Tom Izzo will admit when he plays a good opponent! 😉

I was really hoping we'd see a Riley that has moved away from the extreme swing but I'm not seeing it. I see Riley as a guy who can either be a very good 20 HR hitter or a pretty useless 35 HR hitter and he seems determined to be the later. He's just not built to hit homeruns without the long swing. His frame can't generate the power that a big guy like Judge or Cabrera, or even a more compact but powerfully built guy like Trout can without having to over commit on his swing. And the over-commit is going to leave him a poor OBP hitter if he won't change it. Be a good hitter and let the HRs come on the good barrels and he'd be fine (IOW if he had just continued to let his '24 approach improve)

Correct. Max has some personality, but I don't see him as the type to come into a clubhouse the tear into it and a HOF manager the way Gibson did in LA at all. Max is more what I'd call a "Peacock" on a Myers-Briggs scale. Outgoing, likes to be seen. Gibby was a piranha.

Kudos for the return of the MiLB reports!

No arg there. That was sort of my point about why good managers are rare and valuable. It's easy to have a long resume (say like Trammel) and get a managing gig and just try to always go by the numbers or by a 'system' (like his reliever rotation idea), but a good manager does have to have sort of 6th sense about his team and players that goes beyond the data. I didn't mean to imply Hinch wasn't as good as anyone at it, just making the point that that is always the manager's biggest challenge - and where his decisions can have the most impact, especially in such a data driven environment where it's always easy to justify "I was just following the numbers"

Not that it needs re-iterating but... ETTD.

I sort of doubt we even need to inquire to know....

The euphoria is somewhat premature I'd guess. High energy costs are going to take a while to come down and the month they have been high still has to percolate through the economy, plus we likely have a bad inflation report coming. But I'm not going to complain if the animal spirits of the market want to bid up my IRAs.

Tork is what he is, a low average guy who can put the ball in the seats and has learned to play 1b somewhat above average. I would put it that from a team building perspective, replacing him is not as high priority as shoring up the OF and replacing Torres and Baez in the short term (and KM looks like one of those) but that it's fairly likely someone will come along with a better bat but a glove that won't play in the majors where it played in the minors and bump him out of his gig - for instance a Max Anderson type, though I'm not sure Max in particular is a good enough example of his 'type' to do it himself... Riley I'm more worried about. Seems like a guy who isn't bringing his brain to the table in his career thinking.

Speaking of China. I tend to believe there were probably some quiet but powerful threats of economic retaliation from that quarter if Trump didn't end this. Of course, the Chinese being as subtle as Trump is lurid, they'll be perfectly happy if no-one ever knows.

well that's what we have all been hoping for! And seriously, on this team 'best hitter' was not a very high bar to clear. But he's still trailing Keith's start by ~40 OPS pts though he's passed Keith in most counting stats (also has ~13 more PA). Assuming this is the real McGonigle and not just the charged up version that will run down in a month - which is admittedly a huge assumption - I think he and Colt are as likely to be the highest OBP guys on the team as anyone else. And McGonigle may hit for more power. Colt has shortened his swing so much he has almost no hip rotation, he's really sacrificing power potential for contact right now. Maybe as he gets comfortable with the new stance he'll start to use his lower half more.

The sad thing is, Mario could have been better with someone else. On a few occasions when he worked with someone else the difference was obvious, he was much more personable and engaged with the other person in the booth and it was a better broadcast. Rod could do color, but Mario was right about that too - too often he hadn't done any homework and he would go whole games adding nothing but his cutesy signature lines. Tiger's have only themselves to blame, they should have broken them up years before it fell apart. Sure you don't have to like someone to work with them, but when it reaches where one detests the other to the point he can't be his best self professionally it's no good to keep forcing it. The interlude with Shep was regrettable, but they've landed on their feet with Benetti, for as long as he stays.

Until tonight Riley only had 7 Ks in 43 PA, which is a decent reduction. Unfortunately all his other results have a reduction as well. We've heard a lot of talk about Riley having worked on a lot of stuff in the off season, but so far the upper cut swing doesn't look real different to me.

So all this amounted to was that we have given Bibi the free use of the worlds most expensive lawn mower for 30 days (which we get back with its blade seriously dulled) so he could extend his 'forever war' just a little further out before it becomes the failure it will inevitably be.

No, you don't understand, we just have to be patient and we will see the victory emerge....or so we were told.

Iran has just been funded to the tune of 100 new Shaheeds per ship Transit. So much winning.