gehringer_2

I think there has - traditionally at least, been a difference in how how boys and girls were socialized. Not sure how I would encapsulate it in brief -- maybe the difference is exactly on the "directness scale." I don't know if in science/engineering that's less of an issue because men and women in those fields are already more aligned personality/attitude wise In my case I ran into the same kind of differences on the directness scale between ethnic cultures. My wife's family was very West Euro, I'm Middle Eastern. They used to drive me crazy because none of them ever came out and said anything directly, every communication was a dance around the heart of the matter for fear of upsetting someone. My socialization was put it all out there and hash it out, and if that gets noisy, that's OK. It was OK to mad at someone for 5 minutes and then it's over - no harm, no foul.

4 teams in the Central have positive run differentials. Combined they total 20 runs less than the WhiteSox negative differential.

Interesting that GenX men have become more conservative than the boomers. But ages around 40's and 50's are the period when breadwinners are in their 'greediest', most tax hating phase so it's partly just the economic conservatism natural to that age group.

his terrible start may have killed his chances for ROY, but Keith is an 825 OPS hitter over his last 250 PA - and he's still getting better.

I don't know if the number is absolute or if it renews if you win the challenge. But even a limited number will drive the umps to start calling closer to whatever ABS does than what they call now because they won't want to be shown up every game.

I think Cooper is just over the Hill. He's the top dog and he's not enforcing any kind of discipline/quality in the people working for him. And if it's because he's getting pushed from above he needs to have the cojones to walk. It's not like he needs the money.

Foley was a better pitcher without the hair. ...Just sayin'

Which is probably the reason we haven't seen it yet. Of course, bring in ABS *AND* deaden the ball and you maybe get back the more balanced game we once had. But it won't happen. Today league management is too impatient. You can't make a change that will take a few years for everyone to adjust to even it it's the right thing to do.

Bill Veeck was sort of joke with the Sox. With Veeck they always led the league in tacky. It's been easy to dislike them ever since.

Looked like he had the throw beat even if it hadn't gone into the dugout. He was at the bag as the ball went overhead.

Sweeney didn't need 3rd there. Bad base running.

Mize hurt trotting down from the mound toward a pop-up, Faedo hurt while not even on the field. Somewhere there is a trainer that should be looking for a new gig.

the only election night I spent at the bar was '72. A bunch of us scrounged up ties (you needed them then) to dress for the Gandy Dancer so we could drown our sorrows with class, since we knew McGovern had no chance.....

I don't know why I thought he was younger than he is, maybe because he looks it, but at 29 he is a grizzled vet by comparison on this team.

I don't know how often they are being honest vs just competitive but it's not uncommon for guys to think/claim they made catches they didn't. I played so many years of softball that I don't have any sense left of the impact of a lighter hardball at the end of 13" glove and how much you can sense it's trajectory. You should hear the ball hit the ground, then your glove, but if it hits your glove then your glove hits the ground, it might not sound that different, especially if one sound is simultaneous with your foot/arm etc., hitting the ground.

My work here is done.

Tigers trying to maker sure they burn up another WS pitcher before tomorrow's game (30 pitches for Brebbia in the 9th)

no life on the fastball today, not getting enough pop-ups.

Tiger replay advisor needs to be go? They seem to be losing a lot.

Matt Vierling: Clutch enough.

Happy Sku-ball-game..... ......not much better.

Torkelson up to clean-up. Hope that isn't too soon to mess up his head again.

I used to watch those Yankee teams a bit and like a lot of RHH, good slider pitchers could get ARod away with some consistency early in his career. But to his credit he was able to reduce that weakness in his game as his career progressed, even if he didn't always put up the gaudy numbers of 2005. In general they talk about some guys being 'mistake hitters'. They don't have a lot of zone coverage but can bang it if you hang it. I think those are the guys that probably get the 'choke' label because in the playoffs you are facing pitchers a lot less likely to hang one to you. If you never go get a pitcher's pitch in the zone, you are going to suffer against better pitchers.

In the playoffs it's always going to come down to who can still hit against the best pitching, because odds are that's what you get to see in the other playoff teams. I can see an argument either way. You can theorize only exceptional hitters have any chance against top pitching, so you basically go stars and scrubs because the scrubs will do no worse against top pitchers than average players anyway - i.e. neither will do anything. The other take would be if I have run creation distributed across a bunch of players, one or two of them slumping won't matter, whereas if I have 3 great hitters and one is off his game, that's 33% of my offense. I sort of doubt there is any rigorous way to evaluate the choice and even if there were, no real team is likely to end up built to a single paradigm because almost all teams have to take players where and as they find them. No team is going to dump its stars for sake of a stronger 7-8-9 in the lineup. All I do know for sure is that if you are going against Tarik Skubal in the playoffs, you want Jose Ramirez.

no, you can't do much about it once you are there. Those are considerations at the front end of your team building. Stars are great when they don't let you down. I remember a lot of gnashing of teeth over ARod in 2005 after he put up a 1000 OPS for an MVP season and then did nothing against the Angels and NY went out in the 1st round. He carried them in 2009 though.