gehringer_2

Certainly possible. And AJ always knows enough to say a lot of nice things about the people he works for, so you wouldn't necessarily find out he didn't wanted their advice if he didn't.....

I think you can separate a couple of different aspect here though. You are talking about the long term health of the org issues - the tech, the data flow etc., but I think most of us looking at the situation at the end of '24 are asking the question did he have any input over that period in particular that helped them win - that's a more dubious proposition, and I think the conclusion that he absolutely was not working to make the playoffs that year as of his trade deadline moves is inarguable. I'm sure he was pitching in with whatever help he could offer once they started winning, I just don't think there was much specific other than those general kinds of support and managing the Toledo shuttle, that he could provide. He cast the die, if didn't come up as he had to have expected because his team and his manager exceeded his expectations. I don't know how much credit you can give a guy for that.

Once the players are on the roster how much input does a GM have on what happens on the field? It would be managing the rotation of guys up and down from Toledo. That's a task that certainly affects outcome and where a manager and GM are cooperating. Now we don't really know how the org handles that. I'm sure there are orgs where the manager simply calls the GM and tells him who he wants when, and there are probably some where the GM provides a lot more input into the decisions. So Maybe Harris gets a lot of credit here, maybe 95% belonged to Hinch.

IDK what the 'right' answer is. We point to the NFL as the model for parity, and the one virtue in the NFL is that good ownership wins by being good ownership, without having to worry about the other guys having more resources. The Lions have been the poster child for this - years of failure under WCF because he didn't know or maybe just wouldn't run his football team the way it needed to be run to win. Shiela comes in, cleans house, and puts a winning team on the field with exactly the same resource base. Now the question is, if you are a fan, is it any worse to live in a major market NFL city and be doomed by a bad ownership (say the NYG) or be a baseball fan in a small market city doomed because despite good management your team doesn't have the resources to compete? It's futility for the fan either way. And in at least one sense you can argue that the MLB system is better because by making fans in big markets happy more often you are making more fans happy. That is an argument, but of course that the NFL's cash flow now dwarfs MLB's that argument hasn't really proven out overall.

Correct. Among other things the collapse at the end of 25 exposed an apparent weakness in AJ's managerial toolbox - he apparently doesn't have the gift that a guy like Leland had for loosening up a tight clubhouse. There were all pressing that last month and he didn't find the key to break them out of it. Hinch has a lot of strengths but nobody is good at everything and he didn't succeed there where someone else might have. Once 1st place was lost and the long slow train wreck was in the rear view mirror, they recovered enough to get within a run of the ALCS.

the numbers floating around for Framber Valdez have been 5/$160. Tigers could certainly afford that but I haven't seen them listed as in the hunt even once.

just for context, ESPN is reporting that 9 teams are paying at total of ~$400M in luxury tax this season, led by the Dodgers with a $169M levy. What I didn't know about the LuxTax is that the first 50% goes to the MLBPA pension funds, not the low revenue teams. So that only leaves about $9M per team in LuxTax revenue payments, and even that money is distributed not equally, but based on some formula by the commissioners office that rewards teams that are building their fan base. (See Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_luxury_tax ). Basically LuxTax transfers amount to about 1 WAR of payroll per receiving team. IOW - hardly moves the needle. According to the same Wiki, MLB's main revenue share system requires teams to pool 48% of their non-media income (basically gate revenues) after deducting "stadium expenses" and that is then split equally 30 ways. Very roughly, a team that sells 3M ~$50 tickets would have $75M more gross gate revenue, maybe call it $100M since rich teams probably make a bundle more on luxury boxes as well, than a team that sell 1.5M tickets, but who knows what is left net after what the teams are allowed to deduct as 'stadium expenses'.

I hate shoot outs too.

likewise. One of the dumbest rules in the NHL. If a linesman misses an offside just play on - it was probably so close that overturning a goal because of it is just negating a good play that didn't get any material advantage by being off side by so little the linesman couldn't see it.

So is M fan taking a moment to thank Oklahoma for keeping Alabama in the playoff long enough for them to have to hire Wittingham?

maybe the specter of the work stoppage is really going to have an effect.

Maybe a little with Soderblom - they gave him an audition and then we didn't see him again for a season and a half. But in his case they still are a long way from sold even now. I thought they should have used him last night given the way the Jets were tossing Wings around but whatever.

Right now the problem with ASP is the fit. He has some NHL level talent but his skill set isn't what the Wings currently need the most from a Dman. It's the weakest part of his game the Wings are most in need of.

The roster in college ball is big enough to have more than one fall back. Sure, collecting depth is much harder in the portal era, but that is the job description.

Of course MN also wanted him to field a position so bad match all around. 🙄 I tend to take what guys say when they change teams with a grain of salt though - they always want to make the team that wanted them look better than the team that didn't. If you look at the numbers, Ortiz was pretty much the same hitter in 2003 as in 2002. The big difference was the number of HR he hit at home going from the Metrodome (5) to Fenway (17), while his road HR were almost unchanged - down one (15->14). So whether or not he liked the coaching at MN, he definitely didn't like the ballpark!

I might give him #2 and #3 as throwing it away because a pick was as likely as a catch. Of course if those guys were covered why did he throw there - what were his other options supposed to be? Who knows?

Sure - You are correct that there is personality type to whom everything but their own personal experience holds no weight. Living in a high tech world were you can't directly experience or personally 'prove' most of what is going on around you has to be a real bitch for them. Joe Rogan comes to mind. Maybe I'm not being fair, I've been steeped in a scientific method culture pretty much since I could walk. Since I can only go by myself - I don't know anyone else's thought processes but my own, I don't know how fair it is to evaluate other people's capabilties to to think about and evaluate facts, evidence, reality.

They are a little deeper than that. Kane and Edvinsson round out a decent top 6. Then a step down to Compher, Copp and Chairot - then the cliff. 😱 Though I have to say, one guy playing a little better recently is - I almost hate to admit - Rasmussen. McLelland seems to have him playing faster at least.

Even though OSU missed the FG at the end of the half, they moved the ball well and by around the time they scored in the 3rd quarter I thought the momentum on both sides of the ball had shifted to OSU to where I am bit surprised they didn't win the game.

HaHa - though to be fair, if the word 'see' is being used in the wider sense of perception in general, it would apply to instrumental measurements, so while you can't see DM visually, you can point to objective physical evidence that implies its existence. That would be the sense I meant upthread when referring to the position of an pure empiricist (I think I had used the term 'objectivist', when I should have used 'empiricist'. Objectivist would be an accurate enough word semantically but I forgot Ayn Rand hijacked that otherwise good word for her nonsense.)

we have 7 Kidde devices that do the wireless mesh thing - when one goes they all go. It's a 10yr sealed power system, when the battery dies they get tossed. But one thing I've noticed is that I switched from buying ionization detectors to optical detectors on the last round, and even on the ceiling, the optical detectors eventually pick up enough dust/whatever that they will start to give false alarms until you vacuum/blow the dust out of them.

The Larkin line hasn't been doing much 5 on 5 in Dec either according to Daniels last night, maybe because Finnie is spending too much time picking himself up after being dumped.

depending on who is left after the portal shuffling is over.

There may cold and snow in Ann Arbor tonight, but the tears in Columbus are bigger Miami 24/OSU 14.

What's the deal with Buium? Isn't he supposed to be back active soon in GR?