gehringer_2

But the thing with Trump is that it doesn't really matter what he thinks about most things, because he doesn't really have much in the way of personal policy convictions. He doesn't really care about abortion personally either. The problem with Trump is that since all human relation is transactional to him, what you have to pay attention to is whose votes/money/support he will buy by backing their positions. And in Trump's case it's been staunchly anti-abortion evangelicals and RW 2nd amendment fanatics that he has pulled into his coalition in return for legislative and judicial appointments supporting their causes. In his heart (or whatever he has that substitutes for one) I'm sure he thinks the whole culture war is stupidity, but he's willing to be the vessel into which the culture warriors pour their support if it gets him power.

Is there a good way to quantify or discern hitters who are "relatively" better at hitting good pitching? Can we define what that mean evens? As specific examples, say you have a LH hitter with a 750 total OPS and an 800/600 R/L platoon OPS split. When you get to the playoffs and aren't necessarily going to face an average amount of R and L hand pitching in a given match-up, so would you rather have the guy with a 750 OPS or may even a 725 OPS but no platoon split? Likewise in the playoffs where I might see a team more overloaded with L or R hitters than league average, do I prefer to have a pitcher who relies mostly on command and change of speed (Skubal type) than a guy with a similar total ERA but who is primarily a slider pitcher who may to struggle against a heavy LH lineup? (maybe a Scherzer) type)? Or just take a guy like Vierling who doesn't have any all star numbers but *seems* to have excess "clutchness" because he can and is willing to adjust by going the other way or pulling the ball depending on what the pitchers is trying to do. He's not a better hitter overall than another guy but he doesn't have a single point of weakness for a good pitcher to exploit as successfully. I think I'd like him on playoff team.

Looking at BR numbers. The Yankees have the most WAR as a team in the AL with a total 12.6 WAR and they are just about 12 wins over 500. At the other end the WS are more than 30 wins below 500 but 'only' rate -22 WAR. The Yankees could end up near 20 WAR by season's end, maybe more like 16. The fit isn't perfect but not bad for a rough approximation. One thing I don't know is whether the BR numbers count injured/moved players in the current team totals.

so the 'stay' is settled. The question is more about the 'on' part.... 🤔

BR has him at 1.8 WAR at 113 games. If you could get nine 2 WAR guys on a team you'd have a pretty good team!

W hite S ox !

smoking is probably a big piece as it contributes more than just the lung cancer deaths to the gender disparity - it also drives COPD/emphasyma and cardio vascular disease. Men who won't go to the doctor until it's too late - esp older men, would be an interesting one to have data on. We all know cases of that anecdotally.

Accidental death and death by infections from wounds probably kept male life expectancy down before workplace safety progress began in the 20th Cent and antibiotics arrived. Smoking was also a factor in the difference for my parents generation. Prior to WWII, smoking was more common in men than women and by the 80's lung cancer prevalence in men peaked at more than twice the rate for women. Since then smoking has dropped for men so to gap in lung cancer deaths between men and women has closed a lot. https://www.lung.org/research/trends-in-lung-disease/lung-cancer-trends-brief/data-tables/lung-cancer-deaths-and-rates-by-race-sex-and-year

Jason "I've used all my good karma for the week" Foley with the save.

Jung Ks on a what would have have an RBI BB. They did burn up another WS pitcher for the weekend.

Tork had a nice AB going until the last pitch. Can't freeze on a FB.

I also sort of doubt Sherrone Moore is going to be a source for the occasional conservative culture warrior statements Harbaugh was good for that must have endeared him to some donors. but who knows?

IIRC we had a short lived law to that effect in MI that had been pushed through by the tourism lobby. I don't even remember if it ever took effect or was repealed before the 1st time it would have been applied.

If Trump showed up at a Michigan game they'd have to embargo letting any students in or there'd be a riot. At the very least they would have to turn off all the field mics and do a sterile audio to keep the non-stop "F*** TRUMP!" chant from going national.

With a nearly 1% chance of death with every childbirth and a high # of lifetime pregnancies that's a lot of women dead in their 20's pulling down that number.

that's right - the deal bought him out of his 1st year - so you are probably right - the totals will about go up 60-100%. IDK, Mize show flashes, but every pitcher that gets to the majors can show the occasional flash (Daniel Norris comes to mind), that's not enough to prove he will ever be a consistent major leaguer. He has a power arm, he has shown evidence of throwing a usefully live FB this season, and those count for a lot, but the injury history......and this last one coming off the mound on a pop-fly is just too bizarre, unless he had done it before hand and just started to notice it then.

the club option is $3.1M, agree that sounds out of the question. Based on this year's $830K and being 1st year arb - let's assume he'd win arbitration at $1.2-1.5M. That's still pretty cheap. Next year would be another matter....

'15 '16 '17 O-Line letterman. https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/roster/patrick-kugler/16310

College football being in a state of total chaos, anything is possible. It's usually foolish to count on anything with a team with an untested QB, but it's possible a not very effective M offense will be enough against a bunch of other teams whose chaos has been even greater than M's

You don't need tests to know that Baez should be shut down'...though they might be helpful if you want a medical reason in addition.

It's the Matt Millen error. Teams are not as strong as their best part, they are as week as their worst. Balance is almost always better.

It's dumb system system. The Arbs seem to have established a seniority based scale with close to zero consideration of a player's actual worth. All it does is create more player movement without actually benefiting players. If the Tigers decline - the odds Casey can get on the open market anywhere near the amount an Arbitrator would award have to be about nil.

Someone noted no-one has started a game thread for M for this season. When you follow winning big with a season with a dim outlook, I guess interest falls fast.

I’d guess they’d be happy as not if no one read it.

think how much better it would have been if he hadn't extended Willis, Cabrera, Martinez and Fielder unnecessarily? Sure you want an owner with an emotional commitment, but most the things that Mike did that were counter productive all stemmed from being letting emotion trump cool reason: The tiff with Max, the way DD was fired, and the extensions noted above.