gehringer_2

There are two explanations for what we saw, that is one, the other is that the Lions didn't have the personel to match up to what Seattle was doing without leaving worse vulnerability somewhere else. Even if that was the case, you can argue they mis-judged the relative risks, which is still bad enough, but it seems doubtful to me the Lions staff didn't understand what Seattle was doing to them well enough.

Patreaus on his view of the most likely NATO response to a Russian use of a tactical nuke: Probably not enough - but it would be start. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/02/us-russia-putin-ukraine-war-david-petraeus

I'm really curious to see what the Wings look like defensively under Lalonde. Under Blashill, they played like they were the slowest skating team in the league - sooo soft and cautious in their own end it was hard to explain short of them all (maybe excepting Bert, Larkin and Seider) believing they were going to get beat if they played any more aggressively - i.e. they either couldn't or at least didn't have the confidence they could skate with the other team. If they actually do have enough speed to play successfully like a 'normally' aggressive team, it's going to be a huge indictment of what Blashill was coaching. If they really don't have the speed and end up constantly getting beat, Lalonde is going to be one unhappy camper!

When Hutch played at UM they had linebackers.

That would be an interesting move - almost too close in terms of the rivalry. But Fleck could probably do better by the end of the year if Minn wins the West.

LaLonde quoted about Veleno in today DetNews: This could be Blashills epitaph for the whole team for the last couple of seasons.

IDK how much you can expect in terms of existing playes getting better. The first year away from Patricia where you had bad schemes and bad lockerroom culture maybe more so. But from last year to this year I wouldn't expect to see many players turn into something they hadn't already shown other than an Okudah coming back from an injury. A few might but in general you replace poor players with better players to get a better team. The one place where you get the most growth from reps in the O-Line, and that's been pretty good.

This is the Lions coming off a historically bad period. They are scoring a lot of points and they have another possible star receiver joining before the season ends, that's the good news. And the D is terrible - and its next off season's project. NFL teams often turn things around fast, but that's usually because they went through a year where their record was worse than the team 'really' was in some way - for instance a bunch of injuries to good players who would be back the next season or a completely incompetent QB. The Lions earned their 3-13 last season the old fashioned way - they were bad. You're not likely to bounce back to playoff contention in one year from that.

he has plenty of power, but 99% of the time his lower half is so far in front of his swing that by the time the ball gets there he is all upper body. The HR today he kept his lower half back and was in full rotation as he hit the ball. He could be a good hitter if he did that all the time. And if pigs had wings.....

no way Victor Reyes should have only 2 HR in 300 AB.

BaBIP gods pissing all over the Tigers today.

LOL - overcompensation for air-mailing it way past the cut-off man yesterday. Baddoo's arm is a completely randomized variable. I assume he must work on it but it hasn't done any good so far.

Wentz gave up two runs and in the end only saved the BP having to get one out - how is that a good trade?

Wentz aiming the ball and missing. Walks Correa for a run. It so seldom does any good to try to squeeze more out of a pitcher who has lost it that the insistence of managers to keep trying to is hard to understand.

Baddoo calls off Greene only to have the ball hit his glove right in the palm and bounce out for a double. 🤬

it is understandable that this is always attractive, and there are some cases where I would agree - for instance a toxic clubhouse where too many players with attitudes have to be removed - a situation like the one that did in Francona in Boston. But my brain tends to tell me the best way to get better is to prune and build carefully, making sure each move is actually an improvement and makeing sure you don't waste any value out of haste. Sure you can overdue it with that - and I think unwillingness to move on from marginal players was certainly be something you can accuse Al Avila of being guilty about. But in the case of three Tigers who have the most question marks right now - Kriedler, Torkelson and Baddoo, you have three guys who are really short on major league PAs to be making any final decisions - they aren't like the Niko Goodrums of the world still around after well over a 1000 PAs of proven futility.

also a measure how dumb the Tigers have been with their roster.

Torkelson spends half a season getting into a funk in Detroit, goes to Toledo and in a month he is raking. Comes back to Detroit, hits for 3 weeks and ends up back in the same too tentative at the plate funk. Who/What/TF is wrong in this picture?

735 OPS in Sept with a 15% walk rate. He should go to winter ball somewhere. He needs to keep playing.

more than two posts. /thread

today, will have.....

game thread...

that he'll bite the kneecaps off anyone that doesn't hit!

LOL - an economic conservative just took over in Britain and has run the country off the rails in less than a week.

yeah - I doubt many folks are going to watch a guy hit 140 with no power. I'm sure there are a few, but I'm also sure there would be as many more likely to be interested if they were a better team.