gehringer_2

Charlotte?

Shep is not a terrible PBP guy per se. He probably mangles his syntax a little too much to ever be top flight, but that wasn't his main problem in the Tiger booth. It was the terrible unnatural quality of interaction with his analysts that pulled the tiger broadcasts down more than anything else. If he never has to work with another ex-major leaguer he might get somewhere. Of course if he'd ever had a good analyst to work with it might have helped - he did do best with Gibson, even in Gibby's diminished state, and that sort of proves the point. He didn't have great analysts and he didn't elevate the analysts he had.

This reminds me of a time years ago - '75 maybe? - before Disney et al had gotten all that big. We'd gone to FLA for the semester break and the Orange bowl and started back from Ft. Lauderdale on the 2nd. Apparently it was us and most of the rest of the Midwestern population because the Turnpike/75 were reported to be stop and go all the way to the GA border. So after suffering the stop and go for about an hour (with a manual trans!) we got off and started up the back roads. Northwestern FLA in those days looked just like a scene from 'Deliverance'. Rickety unpainted front porches with rocking chairs on them. Spanish moss draping everything. The whole nine yards. Took forever but one of the most entertaining drives we ever made.

To the question on road maintenance and the U, I think it depends. On Central campus I believe the University owns building *on* public thoroughfares, so the City/State/Fed are responsible for road maintenance as per the regular funding systems. OTOH, I think big pieces of north campus, where I have hung out in recent years, are University compounds and the U has built and maintains their own roads there.

It would seem that by getting out before his case was actually decided/tried (or whatever term the NCAA would use for their process), he has effectively short circuited things. He's now beyond the NCAA's reach and doesn't need to cooperate with any resolution of his cases. The U in turn can argue that it's unfair to hammer them since they can't effectively defend themselves without Harbaugh's cooperation so they are his victim as well..... NCAA doesn't get Harbaugh's head on a pike, but they do get him out of their hair. A half-loaf for everyone but Jim.

Harbaugh doesn't need a statue and Bo's should be gone.

No, sorry Mike. There is no room for YOU with the Putin apologists running the Republican party. Be nice if you were smart enough to figure that out.

It's always, always, always, and only, projection with these people.

But considering how many (i.e. few) bats made it over the same period, you can't really argue the emphasis was any more effectively on hitters!

It's a disservice to truth for Western Media to report this as 'has died' instead of 'was killed.'

Chengelis with a story on Manuel and NIL. Not much concrete info, a lot of 3rd party affiliates of the 'U' patting Warde on the back. Some discussion/focus on business endorsement deals as the long term sustainable path. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2024/02/14/michigan-unveils-new-partnership-to-bolster-nil-operations/72596193007/

Alex Lange to McCosky in today's DetNews: He only threw a 4 seamer 5% of the time (as per statcast) last season. Stands to reason that a breaking ball pitcher that needs to throw his fastball for called strikes might want to increase his 4 seamer use more if he can't keep the sinker in the zone. Like he says - it's not rocket science. It wasn't rocket science last season either but he apparently didn't want to take on making that adjustment on-the-fly mid-season.

MLB TV is available for out of market games at reasonable cost. The problem with MLB TV is that is all it is good for, you can't use it watch your own team unless you are an ex-pat.

There probably are conflict/relationship rules associated with both their appointments, but whether either or both of them violated them is probably not relevant to any prosecutions they were pursuing because there is no intersection to the interest of the defendant. If a cop violates Miranda, or the evidence of an illegal search led to a conviction, then that is misconduct that goes to the the rights of the defendant and does and should poisons the trail and voids a case. How does a conflict in the appointment of a prosecutor impact any particular defendant? Is the arg that Willis would have hired a LESS competent counsel if there had been no (alleged) conflict? That hardly washes. I don't see where Willis critics go with this. I suppose if she is fired it could set back the case - but there must be other people in the office up to speed on the case. Any org has some kind of "Next man up" and all that....

Avila picked a few MLB caliber gloves, gloves - Adames, Suarez, Workman, Paredes - despite Tiger FO reservations has was a positive glove at 3b in Toronto after the trade Mostly they either didn't hit or the got traded because other player like two way players too!

My thought as well. 🍺

Conceivable. The question is whether there are enough 'moderate' GOP members to support this or whether it's more likely the Dems just get one or two blue district GOP members to turn. I may have less confidence there is enough middle left in the House GOP to do consensus government. But either way the GOP middle can't install one of their own without Dem support, so the companion question is can you get the Dems to support a moderate GOP member for speaker or will their calculus be "better to let the chaos reign until the election." We could easily make the mistake of giving the blue party more credit that they will earn when the time comes to choose. Or alternatively, what rules are the GOP middle willing to yield on to get the Dem support they need? It won't, and shouldn't come for free. Still lots of moving pieces on the board.

I think the American interests in opposing a rogue state like Russia in Ukraine are not too hard to see. Maybe the exception to this was Vietnam - I think that one was nearly all on ideological (and self-righteous) grounds - there wasn't much economic or strategic value in VN at the time. Certainly nothing there at the time like the mid-east's oil. I suppose one can argue that our initial concern was driven by concerns about the stability of France's NATO membership but by the late 60's when the war really heated up those issues were off the table and the French public, like most of Europe, was turning against the US prosecution of the war. But even for the most committed proponent of the 'Domino Theory' there was a contradiction at the core of their thinking. If Communism really was an inevitable force and there was no ultimate winning of 'the long twilight struggle', why were we bothering to waste blood and treasure half-way around the world? If we had been half way clear thinking at the time it should have been clear that the way to fight wars of revolution/independence was to work against the economic/political injustices around the world that drove them. But to do that as a general principle would run into vested profit interests - and the circle is closed.

When the House returns Johnson's speakership will collapse over resolution of the impending shutdown. The only question then remaining is whether there are 2-4 GOP reps who have had enough and will throw the speakership to the Dems, or whether we get one more short term, paralyzed, ineffective, speakership between now and the election.

I believe this is it. Obviously we don't have all the medicals, but the some of the reporting has referenced that the kind of shoulder injury Keith had can take a couple years to resolve completely so I get the impression they have not given up on the possibility of him playing 3b permanently, but there may some kind of markers for his arm health they will look for before they risk playing him there.

Cade has exactly 4 made 3s for the month of Feb. which is half over as of tonight.

which I may or may not have just contributed to. Have a text message that is an invitation to a "live presidential tracking poll", whatever that is. Haven't the faintest idea if it is something legit or not. My first take would bot mischief or just another thinly veiled fund raising appeal. Not going to take the time to fine out. Deleted it.

IDK if Vierling is an answer there either. I do know I was pretty thoroughly unimpressed by McKinstry's play at 3rd. IIRC, Ibanez's arm is questionable there. I like Hinch in a lot of area's but the one I don't is that I think he skirts or maybe even crosses the line in holding guys back or playing them out of position to maintain his "optionality" to the point it is probably costing him wins or at least not actually adding any. I think even from a statistical argument, playing the best guys in their best roles most of the time is going get you more wins than being able to very, very, very occasionally win a game on a perfect substitution that ended up being the turn in the game. My date pool suggestion for this season would the date Keith first plays 3b

Yeah - there is a lot of hope that Vierling can hold the fort there when all else fails. I think that is a reasonable possibility but I don't think he has near enough track record there nottp realize that he is anything but a sure thing. That's part of my complaint about the Tigers being so slow to give him more run there last season to find out.

Nobody in the Bally stable is in the same area code as Steve Stone as a baseball broadcaster.