gehringer_2

well, I don't know if it will change and who knows what may possibly change with the Bally bankruptcy, but as of today, the Bally game on DirectTV and my Gameday audio are back to being close enough to synchronize. Blissful relief from Shep and Monroe. Jim Price is showing his age - but mostly just by talking less.

Cisnero gives up a 2 run bomb. Tie game.

Vierling had another poor break on a fly ball to left. He may be fast but I'm not seeing a good OF - at least in this game.

He did fine but he was behind enough that I wouldn't say he had been sharp.

a problem with a blanket move like waiving it late is that you would still have relievers that never picked up the discipline of working faster. That's sort of where I see they could improve it. Set up a system where guys are forced to work faster at least enough that it becomes a habit, and then you can relax it under some circumstances to benefit tension and the game still is not likely to slow to a crawl, but if you do something that exempts certain guys completely - for instance like closers, you won't 'reform' their behavior at all.

Manning getting by but not throwing a lot of strikes today. Baddoo adding to his day by throwing a seed from RF to third to almost nab a runner. Best throw I've ever seen him make.

Baddoo taking a walk and being disruptive on the bases to manufacture a run. Carpenter with 3 HRs. Meanwhile Veirling showing questionable CF play not many LH pitchers in the AL Central. Maybe Baddoo and Carpenter do both make the team..... Manning with a pick-off after a lead-off single in the 3rd.

Trump has had hits and misses. The fact that he wants a perp walk doesn't necessarily mean it will work for him. Remember the miscalculation with the Lafayette Sq walk. If you are LE, you do your best not to play into his hand but you can't obsess over trying to outmaneuver him.

Baddoo flashes a little leather to end the 2nd for Manning.

And Manning escapes loaded bases with one out.

manning in a jam in the 1st. Then a terrible read by Vierling in CF matched only by how bad the runner on 2nd misread it.

yeah - there is a certain level of relaxation in watching a BB game that is lost since you constantly feel the time pressure on the pitcher. I think they had to do something but now that I see it in action I might have approached it differently: 1) yes make the batter step in within 8 seconds and stay in the box. Nobody gains anything watching a batter adjust velcro - that had to go. 2) give the pitcher as long as he wants but after 20 seconds the batter has to be given time by the ump IF he asks for it. Once a batter has stepped out on a pitch once, then the pitcher MUST deliver in 15 sec once the batter returns. I think once you break pitchers of the ability to take a long time on that second pitch, they will probably get out of the habit of taking a long time on the 1st one as well because they are not going to want to work at mulitple rhythms. The system ends up becoming pretty self regulating intead of clock watching based. It does shift control to the hitter - as long as he is willing to wait before stepping out there is no clock running - but that will be most of the time I think. The truth is that other than some relievers, most pitchers prefer to work on a pace - it's the batters that were screwing up the game with all the step outs and glove adjustments - so the requirement on the pitchers were probably largely misguided. There are some relievers that were terrible and the modern idea of holding a pitch forever to freeze a runner had to be stopped, but making the pitcher come home in ~15 after you've exhausted the hitter's patience once might have been enough.

I saw that the Red have cut Daniel Norris. 7 BB in 6.2 IP. Baseball is a funny game. He and Dontrelle Willis. Great athletes, good arms, can't throw the ball over the plate. Go figure.

of course. The question of 'how much better" was possible is most interesting if you're talking about someone already near enough the top to enter GOAT consideration. But psychologically you also have to admit the othe opposite premise. As noted, the life of a pro athlete can be pretty damn boring if taken to a coach's recommended nose to the grindstone endpoint. How many guys would end up losing enough psychological/motivational edge that that effect exceeded the physical toll of whatever deviations from the straight and narrow they took. Unanswerable question, but not one I would dismiss. That said, if you are talking straight up addiction level alcohol abuse, there is no upside in that - but there is a lot of lifestyle choice in play short of that.

And you always end with the Mickey Mantle question - how much better might a guy have been? Or maybe worse.

Wonderful agility for a big player. You can't teach that - at least not much.

It was interesing/funny to here Jansen talk about this the other morning. You suddenly have a lot of money and opportunity but if you are going to be good you still just have to resign yourself that it's going to be a pretty boring life for as long as you are playing.

Good News - Tigers draw 4 BB today Not so Good News - Tigers K 18 times today.

Turnbull gives up one hit in 4 IP, though that one did go yard.

But it's not eyeball numbers alone that are important - it's really eyeballs x purchasing power behind each set of eyeballs. So markets like the US and Japan are going to be overweighted compared to most of Central and Latin America.

body language? are we having fun yet?

Girkin just repeatedly and directly eviscerating Putin in media posts. How is he so beyond the reach of Valddie?

I thought I had been reading some suggestions he was BP possibilility - if not that is OK by me.

Hill not helping his cause recently.

I would guess given Hinch's obsession with interchangeablility, they want them both to be able to play both but not likely at the same time - that part today is just ST random opportunity.