gehringer_2

Olson hit his wall. Strike % on the slider falls and he's in trouble. Kid needs to get more value out of his FB - throw it higher - spot it better, something. and the Twins getting some of the luck the Tigers got earlier.

so I came in after it started - who's in the booth for Fox? EDIT: Pierzynski? I thought he would sound more like a jerk.....

Torkelson has gone from not aggressive enough to way too aggressive. Needs to find his balance point.

That is the question. It all depends on how good Yzerman is, or believes he is, at picking players. He did get a probable perennial all-start at 6. It already seems probable all 4 of his 1st round picks have or will get to the NHL so I think you have to say that in Yzerman's hands, 1st round picks are worth a lot. Certainly a lot more than we got used them being worth under Holland. and just for reference, Debrincat was himself a 2nd round pick (39 th overall). And Buddha makes a very good point about his production being down without Kane. Remember we thought we had some shiny value in Abdelkater, and it turned out it was just reflection off Datsyuk.

One can only surmise that there is a volume of shoes left to drop on this episode - Imelda Marcos volume even.

"from the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step" Regardless, if Prigozhin is simply allowed to return the status quo ante - the civil defense panic around Moscow and Putin's pledge to make all the rebels pay leaves him looking like a cockolded fool. Not to mention a slight issue of several aircraft apparently downed by Wagner forces yesterday. Putin now playing Henry II to Prigozhin's Beckett: "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest/(read warlord)?" Any way you slice it, Russian stability has taken another notch downward.

You know what they say about the weather in Michigan. Give it ten minutes....

LOLOL - Now Prigozhin says it's all over.

Not.

Larry Doby comtemplating how glad he was not to be a catcher?

Prigozhin is certainly a bad actor. The thing is that it's not really clear what he wants. Early statements were to the effect that he wanted to clean out the MoD so Russia could *continue* the war more effectively, and that Putin himself was a victim of MoD incompetence and misinformation. That was before we heard from Putin and it was unclear whether this was some 3D chess level ploy of his to re-create a more pliant defence establishment. But Putin made it clear this morning that whatever green lights he's giving Prigozhin in the past he wants him stopped now. So what is Prigozhin? He's not an ideological revolutionary, he's not a freedom fighter/reformer. He is a creep, but what else? He's looking to me like the dog that may catch the UPS truck. What's he going to do with it? Does he even know?

Favorite part: It's amazing how much you can get done when you worry more about the job than the reporting about the job.

Russian State forces fortifying entrance routes to Moscow. Sounds like this so far relatively bloodless rebellion is not going to be bloodless for too much longer.

The Coup Plans were all on Hunter Biden's laptop.

This moring Putin had to address his people on state TV to plead that they resist a military revolt in his army. Who had that on their bingo card 15mo ago?

That's the fun part, so far he hasn't had to - aside from taking down a couple of helicopters early on, no-one in the Russian Army seems to care to fight with him. Putin is finding out there is a down side to beating your nation into passiivity. He produced a nation where no-one cared to oppose him, in the same nation no-one will care to save him. Putin is apparently now waiting for Kadyrov to save his butt. Yup. Creating free lance armies is pretty much State Suicide 101. Or, as Gandalf would say: "A Treacherous Weapon is ever a danger to the hand."

Things getting progressively murkier. Reports that Wagner HQ in multiple places have been 'raided' by interior police. Meanwhile Prigozhin is in Rostov making nice with generals that were calling for him to stand down a few hours ago.

yeah - but he has to get control of it first.

Need some hitters.

Another report, another conclusion. https://www.reuters.com/world/no-direct-evidence-covid-19-pandemic-started-wuhan-lab-us-intelligence-report-2023-06-24/

Torkelson gets an asterisk on that K.

well at least Stewart is out of the game.

I'd say for starters he has to secure a fuel supply somewhere or he's not going to get far.

arming independent militias is a suicidal course for any government, even a dictatorship. Putin set Wagner to get chewed up at Bakhmut and now he's done with them and wants them to go away, but it's never to easy to tell thousands of armed men what to do.

1st inning triple extends Parker Meadows' hitting streak to 13 games.