gehringer_2

What strikes me when I watch them on the field and on the bases is the fearlessness. Like Tork's DP. After the ball hit the ground most guys are just taking it to 1st, but he still choose the tougher play with zero hesitation - and it was only the zero hesitation the allowed the execution to be successful. You have a bunch of guys `that play that way - Tork, McKinstry, Greene, Baez, Meadows, and it's infected any that maybe on a different team, wouldn't. And Hinch apparently has them drilled to where it works because they mostly DO execute. And of course Harris - and to his credit Avila, both upped the stress on putting guys on the field who could play the game outside the batter's box over previous FOs.

it was also his 20th and 21st point.

Three 100mph+ EVs tonight plus the very pretty DP. How many 1Bs just pick up that ball, trot to 1B and think they made the play?

yeah - the pitch probability thing was quite irritating - blocking almost a 1/4 of the screen.

it is what it is, they are out of power. Maybe the thing is good Dem candidates can win easily in a lot of places, but the party as a nationwide recruiting org (one of its most important functions) is failing to bring enough quality people to the races. Whatever it is, you are just kidding yourself if you think midterm gains mean much when you still can't get actually get into power. But if they pull a Congressional sweep in '26 then I'll be glad to agree with you that things have gotten peachy.

To me the problem is they’re soliciting money without giving any reason to support them. I don’t see that as good politics. It comes across more like entitlement. The question is whether the dems are doing politics effectively. A party with zero branches of national government is not, no matter how much special election over performance handwaving gets done.

Not sure Langford isn’t a part time player on this team.

if you are talking about NYC that paradox is part of what they were talking about. Coumo won the working class. But Mamdani ran the 'modern' media campaign that ended up reaching enough people to overcome Coumo's money and media advantage. One interesting thing in the discussion was not he details of political positions but evolution in how to use media to win an election in today's environment where saturation TV advertising is showing itself ineffective more and more often. The other aspect is whether the party knows how to find the candidates that will function well with newer media systems. The complaint is that the standard party approach is see who can raise the most money early and assume that is your most viable candidate. But that is exactly what gets you a Coumo. I really see that now in the emailing I get constantly since I'm on a bunch of Dem mailing lists. They all go to trash but it's still interesting to see the only thing they are after is money - there is almost no appeal to why anyone should care if they are elected, But every candidate is hustling to prove they can raise more money a year and a half out because they know that's what gets them labeled as 'viable', whether they actually have high level campaign skills or appeal or not.

Hogg has to be a MAGA mole.

that Chris Hayes plus 9 more years around the block.

IDK if NYT podcasts are paywalled, but Ezra Klein had a long talk with Chris Hayes this week that covered a lot of ground regarding new vs old campaign paradigms and how they intersect traditional campaign fundraising vs candidate talent, a lot of it revolving around Mamdani vs Coumo and whether the Dems are learning anything.

and after 87 it was a long time before the pitching was playoff caliber again.

LOL - I went through this with an early version of UM's "DUO" TFA. You could only add a new device while you still had your old device. They did fix it after a couple of years, but software developers are the only people in the world who get away with releasing products that are the equivalent of selling shirts missing a sleeve.

Likelihood of seeing Cobb this season sure appears to be slipping away.

At this point I'm guessing we are going to see Lange far enough ahead of the deadline to get an evaluation. He has made 4 rehab appearances, 4 IP, 4H 7K 1BB. If he keeps controlling the walks through a few more outings I don't see why they wouldn't bring him up ---and Hurter can't be more than one more bad outing from being sent down.

I think the K to end the 6th was one of Casey's better moments as a Tiger. We normally don't think of Mize as a "here it is, hit if you can" guy with his fastball, but he was coming back from 3-0 in that AB.

32 is not that old for a pitcher, but Spencer has had a lot of wear and tear issues already.

I was more wondering why the story had new legs again, I guess the media picked it back up because Gio was in town.

As per Statcast, his hardest throw last season was 82 mph, he already has one this season at 87 (which I assume was probably the long throw last night). If he can hit 87 with any kind of regularity he'll be passable at 3rd and maybe he'll improve on that yet.

SGL not great, not terrible. I suppose considering how few IP he has since surgery we shouldn't complain - he really should have been able to spend more time at AAA rebuilding instead of being pressed into service on a division leader.

which isn't even a good move for a guy with options. If poor performance gets him sent down and THEN after more poor performance at AAA he finally goes to the IL, I believe he's not going to get MLB service time for it.

Too many ball out of hand pitches. Not good

This was reported way back when he signed.

They roll over because their institutions are all on the Federal dole. That the problem with the increasing shift in all kinds of spending from private, state and local, to the Federal government - you get money but they get the leverage.