gehringer_2

I wouldn't argue that in any number of fields, there are faculty with an ideological ax to grind, but in that respect US colleges are no worse "indoctrination" than what I've seen at a Boy Scout camp. I think the reality is that most students are pretty skeptical of that that kind of thing and the net effect may be to produce as many reactionaries to their views as adherents. The bigger problem is the control of faculty hiring by people with narrow views creating a school without intellectual breadth.

Like a lot things, the reality is it's a spectrum everywhere. A quick analysis of the US Senate and electoral college show the US is somewhat flawed democracy. Manipulated elections are a favorite sham of Russian imperialism, so I suppose better that there be a mechanism to reject one than not . Dangerous, yes. If you are in a place where there is no good answer you best take the least bad one. But in Bergler's quote, I think the flaw is in his semantics. Democracy is more than just elections. Russia proves nothing if not that. If a society's rejection of an election is a better reflection of the will of the majority of the people, that is still democracy. The question as always is where is the actual truth.

When Tork got here I think it was pretty clear the Tigers org didn't have any solid system for hitting development. In the last couple of years we have started seeing guys take steps here and there - Bigbie, Workman, Meadows are cases of guys that looked stuck earlier and then made some progress (at least relatively) more recently.

I don't think he has enough trade value that it's likely he's going anywhere so he's going to get his chance to hit his way back into relevance. There's a lot of potential there but he has to find an approach where the production matches the potential. It's sports - it's supposed to be do or die. Carlos was a late bloomer - we didn't move him until his age 28 season, Tork is going to be 25 this season so he's probably worth more to the Tiger's as a watch and see than in a trade, but you never know, if someone makes an offer.....

the need to bring in a strong D player has definitely gone up. It seems free agency may be devolving into a two tier system along with everything else. If the big 5 happen to be interested the sky is the limit, If they all pass the price tags drop precipitously.

no argument with this take but I don't profess any idea of whether Torres is a player more likely to upset or solidify team spirit.

functionally

last year the Tigers were pretty good at run prevention once they got things figured out. I'd hate to lose that for the sake of 112 OPS+ career hitter. We don't know if Keith is going to master 1st, Torres is not good defensively, SS and 3B are still question marks. It may all work out fine, or it may turn out to be a GM over-shuffling the cards.

I really hope I'm wrong but this is beginning to sound like a team that isn't going to fit together very well.

Talk is cheap in the off season - I have a hard time imagining Hinch is going to live with Gleyber’s D on the middle of the IF unless he somehow gets better than he has been.

I will wager this is probably the least likely of his accomplishments. I can see a few happening with a great deal of hoopla, but it will bog down and Trump will just declare victory and the vast majority will get a path to citizenship.

I’m still waiting for the Tigers to move a LH bat.

I've seen enough engineers fail because they didn't have the communication skills to make their case. I always told students who thought their engineering tech comm requirements were wasting their time to remember that to get the money to do any of the things they wanted to achieve technically they would in 90% of cases have to persuade a non-technical person to give it to them. That argument sometimes seemed to strike a chord.

converting him to RH OF would be an interesting try.

Colt is probably a better 2B than Torres at this point so it will be interesting to see what Hinch does with Gleyber. Colt improved a lot in the course of the season. If you look at his errors for instance, he had 12 for the season but only 3 came after July 1 and by the end of the season his DP turns were 1st rate. Torres has had a high error rate everywhere he plays, and considering how hard it it to get an error in today's game, that's not a good thing.

If you were born in 1936 you made it through two perfect squares. Sort of like making it through 2 passes of Halley’s Comet

These were pre Torres plans, may or may not still be operative. If you are trying to get more RH capability, it’s McKinstry and Sweeney who have to lose AB. And Vierling in the OF also bumps a LHB.

89 yrs since the last, 91 yrs till the next.

bottom line from I have gathered is that in MI the charter schools in economically stressed areas don't do enough better than the public schools to believe they have any kind of core solution. The problem with urban schools - aside from often being tied to crumbling century old infrastructure, is the students. And the problem with the students is the social situation and to fix that you need better employment and security for about 15 yrs. The turnaround needs money, persistence and some level of political agreement on policy, and at least one of those always seems to be missing.

Here's hoping we find out these players actually are not as bad as they have been playing.

I’ve always loved the church term for this: “Moveable Feast”

TBF ,It’s probably a little unfair to ask someone to be responsible for anyone else’s logic. I’d taken Biden over Trump 16 ways to Sunday but that doesn’t mean I can figure out what he’s been thinking on a lot of issues - eg: Israel, Ukraine, border policy- etc. Biden has seemed to have a problem being “all in.” Like he prefers to shade or trim at the margins on things. This fits the pattern.

Not at all

had to go all the way to Reuters to find the report.

and the corollary to that is likely that if you are talking to Harris and you leak from your end, you are probably done talking to Harris.