gehringer_2

Another dribbler on the ground for a base hit. Tigers IF positioning has been consistently wrong so far.

IDK, depends on how you cut it. No runs allowed in 19 of his last 26 appearances, 3.10 FIP since May 1. I wouldn't say he's pitched badly. Like most not top of line relievers, he has days when he's not good but for a 6,7th inning guy thought he was serviceable. Time will tell if his replacement does better.

two weak ground balls and two men on.

did not expect that. For Vest? gotta be more to that story.

Well, I know Buddha thinks I'm crazy when I mention things like this, but is there some kind of limit on the operating mandate of a US college or University? Is there some point where the connection is so tenuous and so unattached to their core mission they walk away from what left of their involvement? Or maybe it just becomes a licensing, sponsorship and a stadium rental relationship and the team is an otherwise free standing business of its own? Truth is, the more I think about it, the more I think Congress will undo enough of what the NIL court rulings did to allow something pretty much like the current system to survive another generation.

At least he has not been a disaster this season - at least not since May. That's more than I thought we would get. Since May he's on a pace about .9H/game. if he plays in 25 more games out of the 47 remaining, that should get him past Beltre on the all time list. Then again, down the stretch there really isn't any reason not to play him more if he is hitting. What would they be saving him for/from?

True also. I suppose you can accept to see questionable talent tryouts get more priority on a team they know isn't going anywhere. You would hope not to see any of that next season.

I'm less worried about the hitting. Most of the hitters are still in the 'getting' better phase of their career, and one or two of Malloy/Keith/Meadows could be in house improvements by next year. I'd wan to pick up at least one bat, but it's not clear what position they'd be looking for - catcher, 2b or 3b depending on what you expected from Keith? OF is already pretty crowded with guys we like. OTOH - my confidence levels for Manning, Turnbull and Mize are all moderate at best.

Meadows in Center, Greene goes to left. At COPA, left is the field that needs more speed to cover. Riley has good OF speed but no arm so he is perfect for LF at COPA. I assume that since Malloy at least got an audition as a 3b, his arm would play in RF. Vierling's clearly does. Carpenter's is fair. Greene, Meadows, Vierling, 7-8-9 might be as good as some of the TB or Royals OFs of recent years. All that IF Meadows keeps hitting.

You would normally hammer the manager for prepping his team incorrectly when they start out badly three times in a row but we tend not be allowed to blame things on Hinch (). But TBF, you started the season with a bad Turnbull and no Lorenzen. That was probably most of the difference. But even given that, we still had hitters coming out of ST in a funk. Last season it was everyone, this season it was mostly Cabrera and Torkelson. Two months ago that list would have included Haase and Baez, but their problems are now more than slow starts. I don't suppose you can blame a manager much for what a 23 yr vet is doing, but I've never been sure this coaching staff has had the right keys to Torkelson.

Still working here. Is your browser janked? I use mostly Linux and I've noticed in the last year or so Chrome is getting more buggy - having to reset it more often and use FF to do more things, but that just might be for Linux.

The Tigers are one game under 500 in games Riley played, 10 under in the games he didn't and probably no accident their worst losing streak came when he was out. It doesn't take that many good players to make a difference. We have a couple of promising position players in the system that could help next season (for a change) and the BP is OK, but I think even with Mize returning, you have assume they lose ERod so they are going to need to sign at least one and maybe two Lorenzen level starters in the off season if they are going to get above 500. Or maybe Olsen becomes a beast.

Don't know what's up with Bart - but he might be trending to a backup profile. The discouraging thing for his value is that he hasn't been able to hit at AAA either since they sent him down. Injuries maybe?

Rationalist theologians were always easy pickings for Hitchens because religious belief, if it's real at all, is transcendent of objectivist experience. Heck - I rather have seen a discussion between Hitchens and Deepak Chopra than Hitchens debate the head of the Anglican Church. More potential to be instructive.

this is one good question. How do you keep the athletes "in" school at all once they are paid to be professional athletes - even given how tenuous the definition of "in" might become? Slippery slope to a professional league where the basis of the link to the college just atrophies away? They will come up with something but it may look a lot different.

Yeah - i'd guess it's half that many. But it all depends on how income distribution to players shakes out and I don't think we know that yet. And a few things have to change. 1st, NIL as a concept has to go - it's a nonsensical because the real money players generate is in tickets and media, but NIL only allows them to be compensated by people who do not get media and ticket revenue. That's a fundamental mismatch that is unworkable long term. They set up system where it is inevitable that ticket and media income is going to be illicitly diverted to NIL payers. Get rid of NIL and put the payments above board or it's a disaster in the making. And of course Congress could also force the athletes back into amateur status - or some as yet un-imagined intermediate status. That's seems unlikely but you never know. That could put everyone back at square one or some other as yet totally unknown square. But assuming that some system emerges where players actually get a meaningful chunk of the total income generated (CA legislative model) then the equation is forced back to market considerations and I can't see how you don't end up with teams allotted more or less along media market lines just like every other pro sport model. And that would be less than 40.

We've got Skubal tomorrow. Do we dare hope?

Not only on Trump's GOP but also on Netanyahu's Israel. I've always believed Obama's relative antipathy to Israel (because of Netanyahu) was a big part of what drove Charles so deeply into the arms of the harder right GOP to begin with. He was not nearly as strongly party aligned before Obama's falling out with Bibbie. (Of course Fox was also paying a lot to buy that alignment by that point as well). I wonder if he could have brought himself to admit Obama was right about BN. I thought generally FP was a severe weakness for Obama, but he had Netanyahu pegged right.

If I had to guess today, the off season departures will be Baddoo, Maton, Haase, Ibanez plus whatever trades they make.

First time I went to CA was in 1972. The didn't yet have jetways at the gates at LAX, you still came down the stairs from the plane to the tarmac. That was exactly what the sky looked like when the door of the plane opened and it stung your eyes as soon as it hit them the first time. It's easy to forget that air and water quality improvements in the US have been huge - it's something to keep in mind because it proves we can change the way we do things once we decide to.

I think Ukrainian supporters would like to see the same leverage applied on Taurus and ATACMS as happened with the Abrams and the Leopards: i.e. Germany signals they want to wait for the US to approve ATACMS to send Taurus. That increases pressure on the US whereas as straight out German approval would decrease pressure on the US.

Brieske looking good. Can he be consistent? That would give you a BP that looks like Brieske/Foley>Holton>Cisnero/Shreve and what do you do with Lange?

If he and Malloy split RF and DH, Vierling plays 3B and RF and Greene and Meadows play the other two outfield spots nearly full time that can work.

Stat sheet says he hasn't hit a single yet? 6H, 2-HR, 3-2B 1-3B

Brieske has a FB that can play in relief.