gehringer_2

Well, maybe I can feel your pain, but as of about 2018 I had to stop giving anyone credit for believing Trump and then being disappointed. 😉

This was the irony of Obama, and why he won so easily. The left assumed he was one of theirs because of his bio and they didn't make him 'prove himself' to them, yet Obama was a much more conservative Dem than Biden or Harris, or Bernie, or Warren, and that came through to the rest of electorate, whom he was able to make feel comfortable with him. The DNC appears to be a disaster, but Party orgs today aren't that relevant at the Presidential level - In the TV/Video age presidential politics is personal. A strong Dem can win regardless of what the DNC is doing.

I don't know how you can make an argument that the second is true when the opposition is Donald-J-Bibi-is-my-BFF-Trump. It's just a non-sequitor. Was Harris willing to give the Arab American lobby everything or even most of what it would like? Of course not, no US national politician is going to do that, that's not on the table in the real world. So that means it's up to the Arab-American population and its leadership to at least vote rationally given the choices it they want the system to work for them at all. But I'll grant that just boycotting elections you don't like or can't win is a very popular philosophy in ME culture - it's always been counterproductive there just like everywhere else it's tried, but it is what it is.

IDK yet if he's a bust, but guys that never break a 250 BA in the minors don't usually have enough contact skill to stay in the majors unless they have well above average power. At 25 the clock hasn't run out for him completely, but I would probably agree that his career is looking less than 50/50 right now.

For what good it's done him, he's still only at 1HR/40AB and his EV this season is exactly the same as last season.

The fact that he didn't hold his roster spot with the Tigers when the season started doesn't help his trade value either.

Going to see an old performer who isn't up to it anymore isn't anything that would be on my list, but I do remember going to Baker's (Keyboard Lounge) one night and Sippy Wallace was on. She was already 90 something and they had to help her to the stage, but once she got there it was like a light bulb going on, she was great - though you could still see what more she would have been if she still had 30yrs more energy. Musicians can be tough old nuts. I have recordings Artur Rubentstein made at 90, he was still bringing it.

Sure. It can certainly both be true that he was illegally set up, and that he is otherwise a creep. It's easy enough to believe he'd given someone somewhere reason to believe that targeting him might be successful.

Sure - I agree wrt the basic ability to catch, throw and cover ground, but you will still gain useful knowledge from being to see the hitters you are playing against a few times, and as the team and the player learn each other strengths and weaknesses - accuracy of positioning choices will improve, etc, so there are still improvements available in net outcomes. But the other thing I meant to point out is that people are looking at poor short term Rdrs and ignoring that he was plus over a short term last season. Taking the total over 100 games -2 ain't great, but it's still better than you are going to get from McKinstry and maybe even Javy since Javy's unreliable arm can keep his great glove from racking up a lot in the way of positive net fielding ratings -- and 100 games it still barely enough for Rdrs to level out anyway. Not that I think he is going to ever win a GG or anything, just that I think he may field well enough that if the bat comes around a little more he'd be a serviceable starting SS and it may take 500+ PA to get a better take on that. Obvious if we might know sooner if he keeps slumping, but if he can hang around a 650 OPS I'm still interested. I do have reservations about his arm though. He's hit 85mph, would like to see 90 from my starting SS.

I wish it were so. But every seat in the US Congress matters, even if she doesn't matter as an individual character it's also true that the other side gets a lot of by mileage nationalizing their messaging against the dem's loonier members just as the left nationalizes their against Jim Jordans/MTGs etc. And MB is correct that no matter how you want to tally the total effect, she was more a detriment than aid to the Presidential ticket in '24. Even if you grant that it was Harris herself who put herself at risk with Arab Americans, Tlaib, as a Palestinian, could have provided a measure of political cover by exemplifying that was still important to support the ticket against Trump as a net gain, but instead she did basically the opposite.

this also, but OTOH, if you actually believe Pettersson would1 put up 100 points wearing the winged wheel, that's has to trump the value of even the best fore-checker. But the bottom line is I just don't see how, as resource constrained as they are, they can take the risk of being wrong about Pettersson and hanging a bust on their cap.

No, but I want to see more of Sweeney before giving up there. His 2025 Rdrs isn't good, but his overal Rdrs over the 92 games he has played as a pro in only -2 and he hasn't played the position in the majors for even a full season yet. It would be nice to see a stronger arm, probably not much hope that will change. On the offensive side, his May was better than his April, he does stand in well against LHP and his K rate is reasonable. The down side is his walk rate is poor. But since, as accurately pointed out, he wouldn't bring much in trade, and there still a reasonable hope about his upside, I think we keep playing him for the time being and see how he trends. And with Meadows and Perez back in the OF, McKinstry and Baez are going to start taking some of his AB at SS just in the normal course anyway.

I know - I meant a package good enough to keep you at home! 😉

Do we need to pitch in and get you a better cable package to resolve this?

Everyone got it wrong all the way around. Ono obviously didn't understand what he was walking into in FLA, but the Regents screwed it up as well. When Ono was hired they knew he wasn't really a fit for what UM wanted long term, but they needed to move quickly to cauterize the bleeding after the Schlissel fiasco. But he was supposed to be a transitional guy - a place holder. What ever possessed them to extend him instead of letting him ride off into the sunset with a "Thank-you very much", and looking for the leader with the political fit they wanted long term would be a very good question to ask Esqs Bernstein and Acker. Because when la merde a frappé le ventilateur with Trump Admin V2.0 it became all too plain to the majority on the Regents that had just extended him (and most of the UM Community) that he was not the guy anybody wanted.

All things being equal I'd love to take a flyer on Pettersson but in the real world the Wings are too talent poor an organization to have the luxury to take that kind of risk. They are no position to make an investment that has that much possibility to blow up.

Remember the 1st time they called Elmer up they put him out there with Ras and Sundqvuist - sort of a three trees line? I would have liked to see that play out a little longer. Something about being out there and not being the biggest guy seemed to work for Rasmussen.

Tork's a little off

yup - the ball goes up and starts getting blown but then straightens up as is comes back down to where the wind is more effectively blocked. Makes it really confusing.

some guys just don't do it when the have the chance - those are guys you tend not to win with. So much of sport is the ability to perform in the moment.

Fetter's visit was one batter too late.

Why are Hanifee's numbers pretty good but my feeling when he comes into a game so bad.

I don't even get the point for the activist. The proof she's not a serious person is right there if she can't think her way to the conclusion that she has more chance of her views influencing policy under an administration of her own party. Again, it's the primacy of the gesture, the performance, the public bow, and the ego massage associated, and the lack of concern or maybe understanding, of the actual outcome. And in the end she is only the reflection of the same intellectual rot infecting her constituency, which is just a slice of the larger messed up in the head and heart US public.

The cost of politics as performance.

All you can reasonably do is hope for rain, or maybe damaging hail ...and brimstone.