gehringer_2

I don't care if whether the charge is 'accurate', that's fine. I was opining of 'hate crime' conceptually. Writing anything you want is not illegal. To me it's an odd bootstrap to say that something you did which was perfectly legal, basically now becomes part of a crime only retrospectively. While it's true that there a certain aspect of that in conspiracy law, that can get questionable in my view as well. I guess in general I don't see the utility - or should I say attraction, of finding more ways to stack charges onto crimes that already are going to carry the maximum sanction the law is going to allow - whether that be life/no parole or a death sentence. Maybe it's a form of 'virtuous' virtue signalling, but I don't see that it adds any useful or needed function to the law or public safety. Practically speaking society gains no objective value in deterrence, enforcement or safety by charging a murderer with an additional crime for the reason he murdered. Now if you are actually going to make the expression of hate illegal, which many countries do (e.g. Germany) then I think that is at least functional, we just don't agree with doing that in the US.

the problem with state of mind is evidentiary, and as this case shows, even though you may have it in spades, you don't need it at all because there is more than enough to prosecute without it. Thus - legally superfluous.

load the basis with no out - DO NOT SCORE

you were saying?

Fedder: Look - we don't care what you give up - go out there and throw some off speed pitches.

Cameron - noodle arm. Nothing on that throw, and he was shallow enough the assist was there for the taking.

Why is Beau still out there? I think Hinch had this game written off before it started.

Brieske - Major league - even swing and miss FB, but the breaking stuff needs work.

Shep is so FOS

Baez had completed the force but didn't know it.

PED systems that are beating the tests?

I'm sure he was very comfortable playing it on the big hop.

Kewl

Jeter, ARod would be if they would let him in, Simmons, Baines, Halladay....a lot I'm guessing without going through the list further!

Seriously, the only thing keeping Seider from being 'completely' elite is more TOI with better other players.

LOL - I know, I watched that game 7 and thought "Where did the Wings get those green sweaters!

lets hope it's Wilmer Flores knocking at the door.

Freehan is such an odd case to me. He was the hands down dominant catcher in his league for nearly his whole career. Forget all the stats, that alone should get you more consideration that Freehan ever got.

They are crappy on D because they do not attack the puck when the other team has it - they all sag off all the time - they don't fore-check, they don't close-out opposing puck carriers. They basically wait to recover pucks after shots on goal and aren't very good at that either. There are two extreme poles as to why - 1) they are just too slow 2) they have been coached to play that way. I have no question that #1 is at least partly true, but replacing Blashill should help resolve the balance between those possibilities. Of course the degree to which #2 is the problem is why he had to go. For instance there is no reason for Larkin or Bertuzzi to rank poorly defensively.

Interesting. I don't think you need to be a great performer to lead, but I do think you need to be a steady one - and good enough your job is secure. Guys who are always going in and out of slumps have to consume too much of their own mental energy on themselves - so that leaves out Schoop, Baez, Grossman etc. OTOH, I think despite not being an all-star, Alex Avila was a team leader - other than one year he wasn't much at the plate, but he was always a solid receiver and consistent in doing what he could do with the bat, and that kind of combination is/was enough for credibility I think. If Torkelson makes it, I think he is the most likely candidate to grow into the role. Candy would be the other obvious possibility, but I think he's a little too sweet to push anyone - maybe not...

34 RA in 5 games for a playoff team? Morris and the whole staff sucked in that series. Everything that happened post 84' sucked really. Even reaching the playoffs in '87 couldn't erase the fact that Monaghan was an idiot (in Ann Arbor we knew him up close and personal already) and it was obvious management was intent on screwing up the team to save a few bucks and everything could only get worse - which it did.

No arg there. My one extra thought on that is that I think Mickey got everything out his talent, I think maybe Jack could have been better than he was - not that that should get him anything in retrospect - his record is what he made it. But I think maybe the reason Morris was able to rise to the occasion as well as he did on those occasions he gets so much credit for is that there may have been a more successful pitcher in there that his personality/stubborness always sabotaged a little over a season. Or another way to put it is that for as much sage advice as he claims to have for Tiger pitchers today, I never thought he was a very smart pitcher himself.

Next year could be get tricky if Mize, Manning, Turnbull and Faedo are all healty, but then again, how likely is that!?

half dozen good years only gets you the HOF if you do it for the Dodgers.....

He had a bad week and Mayo was a manager in a hurry? I do see some significance to the fact that two of the losses were to the offense that won 109 the next season. Mayo jerked guys around all the time - did he ever use the same batting order twice in a row? Just looking at the game logs over that two weeks it's honestly hard to figure what Mayo was doing. Fred Lasher was out, so the BP would have been short. The starts Mickey didn't make were given to Pat Dobson(2), Darryl Patterson and Hiller took one - so that wasn't saving the pen really. OTOH, Mickey worked 5 and 5.2 innings in his last two relief appearances with no runs so he was already in split start - stretch out mode. But then Mayo skipped him for a full week before his next start (Aug 22) so who knows what was going on? Maybe he was ready to start again and got a virus or something. They did add Don MacMahon on July 28 which adds some evidence they needed more BP arms. If they wanted to see what Patterson (rookie?) or Dobson could do as a starter your couldn't send Sparma to the pen, his control was erratic, Wilson was a senior guy (and a good hitter), you weren't going to move McLain! In any case, I don't know how often Mickey was higher or lower in FIP than 19th, but for him, his '68 FIP was pretty normal. I mean, there is a reason he's not in the HOF despite retiring with the most K's for a LHP. He usually was not *that* dominant, he was just very good. His real talent came later in the number of innings he would give you, that saved you as a team from having to use somebody worse for those innings. That did have great value but there is no prize or award for that.