gehringer_2

and Keith is almost no loss, his production had already tailed off badly in the 2nd half before the injury. Colt made some progress this season, his overall offensive numbers slightly better than last year - but I expected more progress than we've seen. Showing he could still play 3rd is a big positive for the future, and he's only 23 -- so we can still hope for more improvement - but as of right now he's not a big loss.

I don't think he's ever going to get close to that, but if could at least get under 25% he'd probably raise his value.

something...something..switch hitter.... something.....

the thing with Riley is that he doesn't have to hit the way he does now - he certainly didn't last season. And this is kind of where I wonder where the Tiger coaches are. Earlier in the season everyone was talking about how Riley had shifted to the most extremely inclined swing in the majors. Now there is reason outliers are outliers, it's because you almost never find optimum performance at the extremes unless there is something extremely unusual about the player that makes him a physical outlier. Riley runs a little funny but there is really nothing that would lead you believe that he would be likely to be successful in a batting style that NO-ONE else succeeds with. I mean probabilities aren't rocket science. You better be able to prove your choice of an outlier style gets demonstrable results or your coaches should be on your case to get back to what normally works.

The relevant organizational question is whether this year's approach change has been without or without the blessing of his coaches. The Tiger org certainly understands that HR alone a productive player do not make. I guess maybe early on it looked like he could swing for the fences and be better overall, but the reality caught up with him - most likely in the form of pitchers adjusting to a guy they know is going for broke. Riley has to learn what Tork had to learn - you have to be the best hitter you are, even if that's not the hitter you'd like to be.

Riley has sold out to hit HRs and has succeeded in hitting more of them, but at the cost of a reduction in every measure of his overall offensive value. Dumb.

I think you can view it two ways 1- injuries are not a GM's fault - the starting pitching looked solid going into the season. There was no sense throwing away the future at the deadline - there was no possibility of adding enough to repair it all. 2- Thinking the pitchers that made up last years BP could repeat what they did was wishful thinking. He went into the season with a BP for which implosion was a high probability. Then he bungled the deadline by adding a lot of quantity but insufficient quality.

And they carry Salmonella.

Should be a great season for GR. 🥱

Time of possession was always an issue - maybe a better or just deeper defensive team that could have subbed more and they get over the top. But the Lions FO had no idea how to build a winning football team. They were all about flash - and especially flash at RB. Barry was the end of a long line of over reliance/over investment at RB. But beyond that they had little clue to team building.

It is fair to ask if in their efforts to filter player procurement through the 'good guys in the clubhouse' lens they forgot to obtain the requisite percentage of junkyard dogs to bite some kneecaps.

Here is another display of the same data given as % change Yr over Yr. What stands out in this view is how steep the recent lines are in both directions. A lot of over and under compensation/reaction around Covid and what looks like the beginnings of another rapid run up in the making.

LOL - should have moved him there already, might have encouraged him to opt out. Just sayin'.

another typical Flaherty outing. Good WHIP, good K rate, 6+ ERA.

so here is a thesis. The Tigers over-emphasize hitting mistakes. Makes them overly vulnerable to when a team pitches well and doesn't make many. IIRC this was Tork's whole problem last year - he had to go back to Toledo to basically learn to cover more of the plate. But where did he develop that habit of being too selective in the 1st place - the Tiger org. And in fact early in his career Hinch always stressed Tork had to "find pitches he could drive". OK that's true as far as it goes, you do have to hit the mistakes. But what do you do when the mistakes are not there in quantity? Is the Tiger hitting philosophy flexible enough to produce hitters that are competitive against good pitching and don't just beat up on the bad? "Command the zone" is a two way street for hitters. You have to let the balls go, but you also have to put strikes in play - at least after strike one, even if they don't happen to be HR potential level mistakes.

FIFY

I think GM has a big piece of LAC.

Somewhat of a return to normal. Looking at the longer term trend, July/August would normally be the best months for homes because of the large number of people who want to move before school starts. The outliers have been the last couple of years when there was virtually no July/August bump at all.

Another issue is just that all media has to brought under the regulatory tent. One of the major justifications broadcasters have used to argue for looser regulation on them (and rightfully so) is that their competition is nearly totally unregulated. Cable and IP have be to refined by Congress as public utilities and brought under oversight so everyone is on a level playing field.

+1000 (minor note:, CU must be "reversed.")

They effectively lost 3/5 of the starting staff they thought they had - Jobe, Olson, and Flaherty turned into a pumpkin. That alone was going to be very hard to overcome, but they managed to do just that because they had some offensive players playing at outlier levels for their talent. Now it's all regressed to mean values, a couple of BP pitchers have done what BP pitchers do (be inconstent) and on top of that they are psychologically shell-shocked as a team. That last part is up to Hinch to fix and so far he appears to be failing. Leyland had his flaws but this is probably what he would have been good at. I don't see Hinch as having the kind of personality that can lift a room. And to be fair, a manager probably doesn't need that 99% of the time, but it's needed now.

I'm beginning to think that with the pitching staff so shattered, Flaherty more likely to either bail or just be bad, Greene having plateaued, Meadows looking like he isn't an MLB hitter, Torkelson's ceiling locking in at about an 800 OPS (IOW good player, but not a great one), McKinstry having come to earth, Torres gone, I'm having trouble seeing them being a >500 team next season. So maybe they get a boost from Anderson or McGonigle by mid-season, still doesn't help the hole the pitching will be in.

"AI Overview" reports UM/Neb pulled 5.3M viewers and was CBS's top rated game. Given it was also sure that Lions had beaten the Ravens in 2009, make of those numbers what you will. 🤷‍♀️

exactly. If ABC or Sinclair pull a show the right or the left argue the merits and can make as big a deal about it and try to create all the PR and economic pressure over it they can, and ALL of THAT is just a matter of free commerce. As soon as the US Government or any of it's duly authorized representatives, in particular a regulator of said media, weigh in, THEN it's immediately a potential constitutional issue. Don't know why this has be clarified and re-clarified at every one of these episodes. The same public that can remember what happened on Survivor Season 1 episode 5 can't keep a little constitutional knowledge in their head long enough to bridge from one media controversy to the next.

I can see the point of having the calls made by the ump standing right at the point of the play - it's visual, immediate and the way other rules work he's going to be there anyway so he has something to do, but none of that means the ump couldn't be getting *all* the calls on ear piece.