gehringer_2

this bothered me though: this was Tork, quoted by Petzold last week. I don't think you can give away any AB where a pitcher can hit his spot 3 times. That's a solid recipe for only winning games against the worst pitchers. Sure, you hunt zone when you are ahead in the count, but you have to start adjusting your approach from 0-1, at two strikes you've given the pitcher too many ways to get you out. And if you watch the Tigers, they seem to fail on an inordinate number of AB where they are up 2-0, because they are looking for perfect and pretty soon they are 2-2 and then out of the AB. Your BA when you get to 2-0 should be huge. And it's especially dumb for Tork, because he has the power to "do damage" just fine on an outer third FB (IIRC, 6 opposite field HR last season) if he sat on one at 0-1 when he *knows* that is where he is going to be pitched. But so far he won't. The 'approach' doesn't even give himself enough credit. Everything you do in a AB has to be directed at not getting to two strikes, esp 0-2. All the numbers tell you that. If the Tiger's are willing to go to 0-2 to swing the bat at a strike, that is why they are an inept offense.

I have to think the wide zone is driving down scoring. I don't think is was any accident that in the Yankees series there were almost no runs scored in the two games where the K zone was 30" wide while the one game with a normal zone generated a dozen runs.

is the sclerotic nature of Russian command and control going to be able to adjust to improving resourcing of the opposition, or are they in effect going to get rope-a-doped - committed to a set of objectives that will become untenable?

one would like to think an international kid who's been a pro pretty much since he was 16 would have a better chance of holding steady mentally. The thing is, even if he has his head on right - that doesn't mean he may not have holes in his swing and if he does MLB pitchers will find them. The second hundred PA will tell.

apparently Foley has been rejuvenated as well.

and Wenceel keeps hitting.

yeah - that was good to see. Maybe just a little 'dead arm' syndrome he worked through.

you never know, but one difference is that despite the way Edwards treated his wife, he was a more appealing personality than Trump. I think the other aspect is that in the Edwards case the prosecution spent too much time on the affair - trying make Edwards seem like jerk I guess - instead of providing the evidence that he actually broke the law.. This prosecution has a lot of good black and white evidence - does not appear to be making that mistake.

this is the functional shift in approach that Biden is attempting. They recognize that the political difficulty of raising taxes for new transfer payments is pretty close to impossible. It's going to be a big enough lift just to increase the FICA cap to put Social Security back on a better footing in the near future. So instead do everything you can to push wages for the lower half of the economy. It's easier to build winning political coalitions for those things. Even if it is somewhat inflationary, increasing economic equity is simply more important to holding togeher the fraying social cohesion in the US than another 0.5% on the inflation rate.

Maeda, now Miller. Seems Foley is likely to be next. Were we talking about trading pitching for bats in another thread? Silly us.

'burned' is a the correct term here, not 'wasted', that is unless you are a Minny fan...

remember how quaint it was when they made the effort and paid professional writers like William Safire to compose sophisticated dog whistle rhetoric? Good Times......

The two RBI walks he worked were impressive - he doesn't easily lose his nerve.

FWIW - there was one story that said the thing he did to his shoulder sliding into the base was going to take 2 yrs to heal "completely", so possibly a continuing deficit there - at least coming into this season.

Hinch probably will, but I would not - I still want to see him use the more of the field and be more aggressive on FBs middle to outer third. Even Gibson complained today that Tork takes too many strikes.

Interesting. Have assumed so far that it was mostly about Keith's move to 2b blocking him there.

any kind of background noise at all about trying Jung at SS? It seems like a if a guy can play 3B he's got some arm, and if he can play 2B he's got a little glove, and your system's need for a SS is close to dire, it might be worth at least an audition.

383 is reasonable HR if you pull at least to the power alley - if you are to the center field side of the power alley you have no real complaint until you've hit it more like 400' a home run in exactly 1/2 (15) the parks says nothing more than that you play on an average field If there is one thing Hinch needs this team to do it's stop making excuses for themselves and start hitting the ball. he needs to stomp any player self-pity about the ballpark dead. Hate to hear that kind of crap.

Henning is such a tool. 383 is not a HR in any CF anywhere and he certainly should know that. What's so ridiculous is that he's been in every major league park countless times, its absurd he makes statement that people will rely on assuming he's giving them reliable reporting when he's not.

been a depressing week for this team. Today I can take. It's one thing to get stoned by Verlander when he has it all working, or even losing ugly and knowing there is stuff you can fix, but continuing to fall just short of the mark in close games and have no answer is more the downer.

all we need now is for Torkelson and Greene to hit in the same ballgames. In the last 7, Tork is at 320, Greene has gone ice cold to 138.

they won the 9th inning.

walking a guy down by 8 is just about as bad as walking a guy up by 8.

well, Lange can't throw strikes today, Wentz got hammered, Foley has a problem, Maeda to the DL. The pitching is going to be gone before the hitting ever comes around.

Interesting contrast - Verlander did give in to Torkelson with the middle-middle FB but Took couldn't get on top of it. EDIT: could get high enough on the line drive either......