gehringer_2

maybe we can persuade Lee or Chas to do the research - but it is my statistically totally unproven but none the less firm belief, that depth in a baseball line-up will get you more production than the same total wRC+/WAR etc mal-distrubuted in a small number of huge stars. And I definitely believe that beyond that it's more cost efficient, the marginal cost of the best baseball players generally exceed the marginal value of how much better they are. I'll admit that is probably less true for pitchers, but the injury risks are so high for pitchers today I don't see how they can be rationally valued anyway.

you can win an election on not being the other guy, but you don't build anything that way. 2020 being the example. Biden had the core of new democratic approach on economics, but his party wasn't really interested in it and in the end he was too out of gas to be a major change agent. In 2024 Harris basically ran on cultural progressivism, which I think is great but clearly doesn't win elections in the US, and her economics was basically old school democratic 'give away more stuff' promises that fly in the face of a deficit approaching 3rd world country levels. That combination just didn't move enough people to say "Yeah! Those are the long term goals we aspire to!" - ergo - there was no party ideological/policy adhesion (for enough people) providing immunity against the Trump reprise.

typical democratic 'gesture' politics. Maybe if your party came up with a political plan to offer voters beyond "not Trump" you might get more traction. The Dems have gotten themselves into the odd position of being an out of power party that is somehow the one defending the status quo. But too many people don't like the status quo, which is how Trump has won elections.

LOL - I'd change your syntax there to "have beaten everyone" because we know the truth is that if any baseball playoff series was repeated the odds are pretty close to 50/50 the other team would win it the second time around.

the only time I had a strong "would rather face" feeling was the 2006 series. I wanted the Mets because I thought we matched up better. We'll never know if we would have matched up better against them or not but we didn't handle StL very well!

Tiger fielder's have shortened this game to 24 outs for the Sox.

And I think we are at a point where the money matters. We've pretty much lost the noblesse oblige class of wealthy people willing to bankroll civil society, but today's middle class still is not awake to the fact that the responsibility is now theirs. And it doesn't have to be political money. Support your University, the ACLU, your library system, buy your local newspaper, there hundreds of places that middle class monetary support can help protect civil society from the caprice of a rogue Federal government.

with Perez and Meadows back Javy drops from #1 in CF to #3, but no, that won't stop Hinch from getting him out there enough to keep a hand in.

but the other thing is that the kid just doesn't strike out. You get a lot more mileage out of your ABs when a third of them don't end without you hitting the ball!

we can only hope that title isn't a premature take on "the man Putin hasn't killed yet"

But I never like trading to get older in the first place. The way the CBA works, older players are financial death to any but the richest franchises (which we aren't) so I don't really see moving prospects on any scale as a viable long term option for the Tigers, unless you want another Dombrowski boom/bust cycle. Personally, I'm too old to be interested in another 10 years of bad baseball! You will start losing you own players fast enough that what you think is a surplus coming up today, won't be when the time comes.

he raised his OPS 50+ from April to May so the trend is in a good direction, but the less promising part is his walks are dropping off. I don't know if I'd be keen on just throwing Baez out there full time at SS again, but with Javy who knows? McKinstry is having a great year but I still don't like him as an everyday SS.

Sweeney and Malloy have similar OPS over the last month or so, both around 600. Sweeney marginally better. But Sweeney plays a premium position and actually has a reverse platoon split, so it's pretty hard for me to see what possible advantage there in in keeping Malloy, but the fact is TPTB seem to like him more than I do (as a player that is ).

Can't be too disappointed in the offense this weekend, Bubic and Wacha might turn out to be the best pair of pitchers they face back to back this season. If KC starts to hit at all they are going to be heard from.

Good to be leaving KC if Perez is starting to heat up.

If a starter doesn't go 5 it's up to the discretion of the scorer. He thought Lee made the biggest contribution. That's all there is.

Javy should have swung at the 1st one - best pitch he got in the AB.

How many time do you see a manager bring in a pitcher just to match the handedness of the guy at the plate and then have the guy basically pitch around him?

and of course, all the hits today are Baez, McKinstry and Greene.

runze, s'il te plaît!

He was doing well till about May 15. His last 35 PA have been at about 150 BA. McKinstry has scuffled in his last 30 or so as well.

I want him to be the best he can be. He can be better against LHP than he has been this season which would make him an even better piece in the lineup.

this season his K rate is up and walk rate is down - but his slugging is up a bit. It's close to a wash in wRC+ but his platoon split has gotten way worse. Last season he was 698 OPS against LHP, which is fine. This season down to 522. I would agree if he wants to stay an everyday player he needs to back off on the all or nothing approach tendency.

Big arm but from my strictly fan level power of observation he has a problem reproducing his release mechanics reliably - which is leading to too many uncompetitive pitches. If the brain trust think he's got a chance to or is close to fixing that, I can see giving him more run.

Agree. I like both "How many guys have you drafted that made your team" and "how many guys did you bring to the majors from the minors". I think both of those things measure important aspects of a franchise's capability to sustain itself on a reasonable budget.