gehringer_2

As I recall learning many years ago from a little game theory, when you go up against unprincipled opposition, your best course is supposedly to absorb the first 'cheat'. But after that if they don't return to the rules you take the gloves off and beat them anyway you can because it's always a losing proposition to offer principled treatment to those who won't observe principle. (which in the end is why the way the Allies finished WWII was the correct course, but that's another story....). From larger standpoint of Christian ethics this is not a trivial dilemma to face. We are taught to give our cloak to the man that takes our coat. The traditional justification out of the passive political stance is that the responsibility of an individual is different than the responsibility of civil leadership, because justice is a requirement of moral civil leadership, and if course means must be employed to remove unjust leadership, so be it. That's the theory anyway.

Correct. The exact number of games should follow from making the most rational schedule - that is if any assumptions of rationality can be taken with Manfred's regime.

Our society has fallen to where money is the only value and victory is the only reason to play the game. So this is what we get. Now sure, there are plenty - millions - of people for whom that is not what real life is about, but those people no longer control the economy or the culture, or the office of the commissioner of baseball.

Pretty deep catch! Not that likely one squadron was running multiple hardware but to the picture at hand, those are clearly both three blade props. I don't know if every series of Spitfire used 4s, but most pics I've seen of Spitfires were 4.

Beyerly’s was/is in the Twin Cities area. Sort of in the same order as Bush’s but better service. Definitely miss them. The worst areas for food quality at main line grocery stores are places where nobody cooks — like Ann Arbor.

all losing teams spend effort trying to polish their legacy, it's marketing 101. If they had had a playoff run last year of course they still might have done it, but the odds would have been lower because there would have been less effort spent looking for things to burnish the team's appearance with the fans. Also as you note, it takes two to tango, do we really know how long they may been trying to set it up and Sergei just "couldn't find a good time"

Tigers could use a Granderson mode trade soon, i.e. trade a position player with value for a good minor league arm with some years of control that you believe is a rotation quality guy.

This

I think this is mostly an 'in the park' thing. Most fans see most games on the Telly, and there it doesn't compute. I am almost always (~90%? )unaware of hearing any of the walk-up audio on a broadcast. In the ballpark it's very in your face.

naw - Dingler could only be #1 and #3.

the Tigers are tied for 7 most runs scored in baseball and most of the teams ahead of them play in small ballparks. Most nights we are sending 8 of 9 batters to the plate with OPS+ >100 (and Javy is at 95). This set of players is also +30 R(drs) I wouldn't be so quick to try to jettison the pieces of this lineup for 'the grass is greener'. Other than injuries, the Tigers have the luxury of pretty much requiring the next crop of guys to have to force their way onto the line-up.

I have only two nits to pick with Dickerson that irritate me in the way he covers a game. The 1st is his tendency to doom fix on early high pitch counts. It often ends up irrelevant. Note it once and move on till it actually comes into play. The other is when a Tiger player or the team isn't playing to some expected outcome, he'll harp on how unusual it is - for instance if Skubal walks a couple. It comes across to me as sort of whingey. Again once, or twice is enough, but he can get into a real rut over it. Because it really doesn't matter if it's outlier behavior if it's what's happening, so again, past performance irrelevant to progress of the game at hand. No point in the repetition about the fact the player doesn't usually do what he's doing/did. We get it but he did it. Not the worst stuff in the world, but peeves for me.

Top of the 9th ended for the Brewers with the bases loaded. They had pulled it to 4-3 but couldn't come up with a 4th.

Brewers leave the bases loaded in the top of the 9th, lose to the Cubs 4-3. Cubs 6 back

I'm surprised they had a green chalk board in 1957, but green or black that is a helluva chalk board.

I don't see either him or Javy having a regular starting gig. Both will can and will move around a lot and play as much as they hit. I have a feeling Parker Meadows is not going to be a factor. He can't stay on the field and when he's on it he doesn't hit, so CF will look like this year, mostly Javy and Wenceel and maybe some Vierling if he can stay on the field.

One of my dear departed Mum's favorite words.

Blue Jays have lost. Oviedo gives the Pirates 5 innings of 2 hit ball in his 1st real outing coming off mulitple surgeries incl TJ Baseball.

Charle with a QS and a nice play by Gleyber.

I'll maybe beat a dead horse a bit here, but this aspect doesn't bother me. There are better stats to tell me who the 'best pitcher' which you note, Every stat doesn't need to tell you the same thing, Some can just reflect the historical record and I think that's fine. It doesn't have to be a measure of who is the best pitcher to still have stats that catalog actual game history. Good luck/bad luck history is cooked into so many baseball stats already that I don't see that part as a particular knock on some kind of win/loss record. e.g. The guy that finishes with the most HRs may or may not have hit the most balls the hardest. We still follow who has the most actual luck/success. The whole movement to advance stats was to try and separate 'event recording' stats from better performance metric stats. So now we have better performance measure stats, there's no needs to jettison recording stats - the history is still the history. All that said, I won't defend the current W/L stat. It's a nearly information free from either standpoint.

The defensive limitation is certainly a consideration, but OTOH, he is such a perfect example of the way the Tigers want hitters to work pitchers that I think they'd be glad to have him back from the player standpoint, but still probably not from the contract standpoint!

I don't disagree the current stat is worse than useless, particularly the 5 inning minimum given current starter use patterns. So is there a simple way to give pitchers credit/liability for their actual game accomplishments? (as apart from performance stats like ERA/FIP do nothing to record their game success failure). I don't know if there is. I know a suggestion like mine would never be adopted just because it's too big a change and would create too big a break in the statistical history. What I suppose would be better would just a new stat. Leave W/L as a historical artifact and record some other measure of game success/failure. And since everything is in the books somewhere a new stat can be back calculated for what players have done in their careers.

Of course, 50 years ago it would have been pretty unusual for 12 teams to score 6 runs or more in a game on the same day like happened yesterday.

Diaz is really bad back there. Doesn't move his body at all, just tries to glove everything.

you can get away with less brute throwing velo if you can get your throws off quickly. There aren't that many plays you need to be Andrelton Simmons to make (though that kind of arm/range to the right is pretty nice!)