gehringer_2

A little slight by Vlad to remind Donnie who the boss is.

I think Jung starts in Toledo - he's not doing enough to make the team. Sweeney and Javy are the left side until one of them plays his way out of a job. Baez is back to having some XBH pop - that's what they were hoping for. It may not last but I think what he's doing to far is earning him a starting spot on a provisional basis. With Vierling and Meadows down, DH is available for Tork with Carpenter in the field. If Tork is still hitting when Meadows comes back, they'll cross that bridge then. If he isn't it's an easy decision.

The chicks love the long ball - As of today I'd bet Torkelson is going North. Of course if he goes cold the rest of the way that will still change.

1.200 OPS in 33 AB. I wasn't that surprised they let a guy go that was still in AA and was going to be 25. I was surprised they hadn't moved him AAA last season - I guess they weren't seeing something they wanted despite the apparent turnaround with the bat.

Casey still has command issues to iron out. By my informal count he was into the 2nd before he landed his first breaking ball for a strike. But he battle through the walks without losing his cool and that's progress too.

Farming is a funny business. Since prices can respond so elastically, you can end up with a fair profit even when you lose a lot of your 'crop' (whatever it is) because if losses are wide spread (as they are in this case) prices rise a lot (which they have) which makes it profitable to stay in the game even with reduced production capacity.

In general chickens for eggs and chickens for the pot aren't the birds. The flu is a much bigger problem for laying hens - I would imagine at least one factor would be that they generally live in closer quarters where contagion is worse (thus the drive for cage rules).

It would be ironic if the states with cage laws, which operators complained would cost them money, end up being the lowest total cost operators in the country in the bird flu setting. But of course, regulation bad, government bad.

Hopefully there is some 'learning curve' effect of farmers learning how to keep their hens flu-free. Pretty simple, if bird losses Go down, egg prices will fall but they probably can't fall to where they were if the cost of operations with containment measures in place is higher, which it almost certainly is. On the other hand, if the virus take a mutational left turn that leaves the present control efforts in the dust, any respite we are seeing now will be short lived. In a situation like this, it would be such a great thing if only there were some method by which such scientific needs could be worked on in the interests of the whole country.

The difference in his approach so far this season is night and day - he is swinging at everything in the strike zone. That may end up being an over compensation and whether it works for him once pitchers are in midseason form I can't say, but he has certainly taken the idea of 'look for ball, hit ball' to a level he never practiced before. Any worry that he may still be in a 'refuse to change' mode can be put to rest. Even if he's not a better hitter, he is a different hitter.

bring them both up, prove their NHL bone fides splitting time (assuming they both are good enough!) then trade one once he can bring back another difference maker.

I would take the question as: Is Duren bringing something above average to the table or would any big athletic player do as well being fed by Cade? If he could develop even a little short offensive game.... But how many guys have we said that about who never did.

I agree on this, these three are going to make or break Yzerman's and the Wing's near future. If they are not impact players, this franchise is in purgatory for another 5 yrs. Maybe you can add Augustine to that group.

Let's be fair - DD & Mike Ilitch did a lot of of the design on the house Avila inherited.

no - I'll defend the parallel because of what the team is actually doing - in a long wait for young players, committing money to the wrong players, making bad trades, having to dump a bad coach but (maybe) finding a good one, and keeping people around too long who probably should be broomed, those are all nearly exact correspondences. Which is logical since most teams that aren't getting any where don't get anywhere for most of the same reasons.

It's the rotary engine, they've always had lubrication issues on sustained use.

So did Kenny Holland yet he ended up ineffective. Sometime guys find a combination in one place or time and can't reproduce it in others. They got a big energy boost from a new coach but that's not looking sustainable. By any objective measure this team is not improving very fast and the FO has been making moves over multiple years that can't be defended. By that measure the comparison is spot on whether we like it or not. We just keep hearing that it's the next crop of kids to come up will be the difference. If it were any one other than Yzerman and his track record he'd be on a very hot seat for this performance in this place.

I keep getting drawn back to the parallels with Avila. Of the various tasks a GM has to do, Al did one pretty well -drafting); started others in the right direction but was too slow - development infrastructure; and at others was outright terrible - acquiring major league talent via trade and FA. He also keep a bad manager too long but then did hire a good one. The parallels with SY are striking - and of course in the end Avila's performance was judged by virtually all to be not good enough. Hard to be a total failure in an aspect as important as trades and FA and succeed no matter what else you are doing right. I agree with what's been said before - that to retain his credibility SY would be advised to drop the hammer on the parts of his org that are clearly under performing and bring in some new ideas.

I don't know if the market is ready to punish him that severely at Starlink and Tesla, but if it does, and Musk starts looking like a 'loser' in Oligarchy's sewing circles, you can bet that will get him bounced out of Trump's orbit.

In American Politics it's hard to be forgiven for a messed up economy. Reagan came in with a bad recession, but inflation was so bad he was forgiven because by the '84 election inflation was back under 4% and interest rates were on a steady decline. I don't know what Trump is going to do to try to justify a recession he causes or if anything he says would have any traction in the face of rising unemployment.

for the sake of argument, I'm going to assume the Docs have the Tigers persuaded that Javy is likely to show some recovery to his prior self, otherwise the lack of urgency around adding a SS seems a little dumber than I'd like to believe the FO is.

Russia will agree to the cease fire but then not abide by it. As predictable as the Sun rising in the East.

Even sellers have to catch their breath

where the heII did Talbot think he was going?

recent outlet attempt by Gustaffson from behind the net has to be be on the most inept I've ever seen.