gehringer_2

In those first few games after the trade, I remember that Brooks was reporting life/spin on Norris' FB way into the top percentiles. But the constant tweaking to try and fix the unsustainable unreproducible delivery and the various assorted injuries along the way soon enough resulted in that FB being long gone. The last time we saw him I didn't recognize anything interesting in his pitch dynamics. It's too bad, he seemed like a good guy at heart, but for all his supposed athleticism, his body just betrayed him as a pitcher. It made/makes no sense that a guy that athletic could never coordinate himself into any semblance of a normal controlled delivery.

Because you read Elmore Leonard?

Weather Underground future radar projection has the rain starting at 6:30 in Cleveland at moving out by 9:45. Not too promising. On the other hand it looks like some of that could be light - almost drizzle. I agree though - if they try to start it, maybe start Brieske or Holton and hold Skubal for the inevitable resumption.

you are what your record says you are.

Copa might have him over-swinging - it does that so some guys. But other peripherals like K rate, walks and doubles argue the other way. So it could also just be half a dozen warning track shots that didn't clear the fence at COPA. It has not been a hot Summer in Det. COPAs HR park factor this season is 91 so far. Carpenter has a big Home/Away HR split as well. Then again, and conversely, Jake has hit most of his at home. No-one else on the team with enough to mean much.

There is a kernel of truth in saying that people expect the government to control the game more than it should or can. The government's job is to control the rules of the game. At best the game runs largely by itself. It's up to the gov to keep watch and push it back when it starts crossing the wrong lines.

Simple is good. I like simple.

One should always game out every contingency, right?

I do think Tork has to learn how to play every day in a long season. I think he is a guy that carries himself with so much confidence that his coaches don't realize he is probably still getting run down. And I hope he does not get too greedy. At some I think he can be a better OBP hitter if he'd be more willing to take fastballs to right field. He has the talent, you see it on occasion but he doesn't commit to it with any regularity because he's having too much fun pulling the ball ---- for now.

I think that is pretty generous. Unless it was because his knee was still not 100%, his near total inability to contribute once he came back last season is red flag that's hard to ignore.

Lack of effective communication between players who have not played next to each other much is inevitable and largely self-correcting with more time together (one of the constraints on constantly mixing and matching), but it's a different issue from the player's ability to execute plays at the position.

I think if you look back at history, the assumption that you had to be psychologically fully formed (what ever that means and if it ever really happens) to be married is a recent one. In the past, the age at which people married was more closely related to the age at which they assumed financial responsibility for themselves. When a high percentage of people in the US didn't finish high school, you were talking about people who would be going out into the work force to live independently at roughly 16 and thus people at that time saw no reason that that was not a appropriate time to 'settle down', which => marriage. Today the young people at minimum are expected to finish high school and the accepted social ideal is to obtain some additional kind of training or ed after that and the assumption of 'proper' marriageable age has followed that up into 20's. I think we tell ourselves socially that is a decision based on developmental or ethical concerns but I would guess it is as much a subliminal society wide justification system for doing what economics/education has come to dictate. Just looking at the huge turn around from 1950 to 1980 and then back again, you can't seriously argue that social mores are not quite fluid compared to structural economic imperatives.

So he's still going to lose a bunch more practice time. Kid's got his own little rain cloud following him around.

I think Georgia would issue a fugitive warrant for him. As per this article it appears states - esp since a 1987 SCOTUS ruling, have extremely limited grounds to refuse extradition. So Trump could attempt to refuse and a Federal court would eventually order FLA to deliver him, but it could be another delay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extradition_law_in_the_United_States#:~:text=If requested by the charging,crime in the custodial state.

Torkelson hit two breaking balls for HRs, then hit a 95 mph fastball to the wall in the 9th. Yeah - he's adjustable. 😉

And made a really good throw to the cut off man. Didn't matter but still a task well done.

I guess good Foley and good Lange is too much to ask for one day....

RIght! I wasn't thinking that if they keep him in Toledo his clock is frozen. IDK - I'm sure it would really tick him off if they played that kind of hard ball with him, and I suppose there is a risk getting that much on the bad side of S. Boras. OTOH, if he's not getting anybody out, it's not fair to the fans in Det either.....🤷‍♀️

I guess throwing him a FB isn't such a great idea either.

Baddoo will have these high impact games, then he'll disappear for a bunch of games. Lots of talent there but no consistency.

IDK - that for sure used to be a constant suspicion back in the post WWII world. Questions like whether FDR engineered Pearl Harbor to get us into the war or later in the 60's around the Kennedy assassination and various issues around Nixon like whether he sold out the country to the N Vietnamese. So the idea that there are TPTB that have the underground power tod do something like that has traditionally had some currency. But I do wonder today whether there are "Powers that Be" have that kind of control in this politic. Everyone is so willing play anything for an advantage over the other side.

How can they have spent the whole season not knowing Vierling is their best 3b and it's not even close? And TBH, his bat is pretty marginal for the OF unless he is in center, and that isn't going to happen with Riley here and Parker Meadows likely on the way. So he's more valuable at 3B anyway.

His walk rate is not his strength.

Lange working his way back into shape.

I don't think it's a good idea to keep throwing breaking balls to Torkelson.