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gehringer_2

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Everything posted by gehringer_2

  1. The solution to this is more people voting in primaries. But too many people want to be able to wash their hands and say 'I'm not a member of either party, it's not my fault they keep putting up crazies in the general election" Well, yes it is, you have chances in every election cycle to help determine the trajectory of the party you have the most affinity for, if you don't use it, you leave the field to the crazies. And it also is if you don't go vote in the general because there is no issue motivating you enough to care if a crazy wins there. Less than 30% identity as members of either party. If primary turnout is 1/2 of party affiliated voters like the general is 1/2 of all voters, that puts 15% of the total population voting in a primary and so 8% wins the day. When 8% of the population can pick your candidate, sure - you've got a problem.
  2. Did he ever have any resources to work with? I have no idea. But It is almost comic though how much Avila is the anti Dombrowski. He may been Dave's #2 but it sure looks like Dave must have shot down any suggestions to do any of things Al has done since he took over. Still, the failure is how slow all the moves have been. If all the scouting and MiLB resources needed revamping and new tech, why wasn't all that complete 3-4 yrs ago so we would be seeing the results now. Maybe that was Ilitch's choice (no reflection on Al), or maybe that was as fast a Avila was able to figure it out (major reflection on Al).
  3. so of course, hottest day of the year yesterday, AC compressor would not turn on. Of course by that time it was way too hot to go into the attic to check the wiring. So this this morning's project was discovering that I need a new 'sail' switch (it detects whether the blower has turned on so the compressor doesn't just ice up the coils in stagnant air). Jumper that baby out and spend $15 at Amazon. Home ownership sucks. Amazon is great.
  4. the only drawback is that Harold doesn't have much reach, but what can you do? Carpenter had two double today BTW --- just sayin'.....
  5. has 6 walks in his last 7 games - , also 7 K -
  6. What was big money in Hockey at that time is chump change in baseball today.
  7. Tampa with all kinds of pressure in the OT, then a turnover at the line, a lucky bounce of a blocked shot, one great pass, a shot and it's over. Avs take #1.
  8. I'd put the probability Manuel doesn't make the offer at zero. Once it's made you never know - maybe the guy loves working with 18yr olds. Probably safe to assume the Tigers will not lose him based on money given what UM can offer, but you never know there either!
  9. if the Tigers had signed Correa to the Twins deal he would be gone in a year just like he will be gone from Mn in a year. A one yr deal on SS really wasn't going to do the Tigers much good. Baez's two year deal doesn't do us that much good either, but a little more.
  10. I remember when Dirks hurt his back and was on his way back doing rehab at Toledo I'm looking in the boxscore and he is attempting to steal bases. Daylight madness. He looked like he could have been serviceable player.
  11. Correct. If you want to go back a little further, I think you find increasing cases of Dombrowski talking about 'ownership' like a foreign entity. They were drifting apart - possibly over differing objectives for the team. There was one episode I can't give you the details about but it struck me clearly that Dave had wanted to pursue some line of action Mike vetoed and the way DD commented was pretty much not that he had tried to talk to Mike or persuade him, but that he done a petulant, "fine, you're the boss" and walked away from what he thought was the better course. It was a fractured relationship and that is probably what led him to be looking for a new landing pad - which as you note, would have been the last straw for Mike.
  12. Unless he does it soon, the failure to pull the Tigers out of this swoon will also weight heavily against him with owners like Moreno who think that is exactly what a manager must be able to do.
  13. well of course not, that's the rub. You don't really know until enough time has passed to determine if they have performed well or not. The talent pipeline of a major league baseball team is about 6 yrs deep. I don't know how much you can figure out about anything in baseball on a short term basis.
  14. because Dombrowski's firing was driven by a personality conflict. The two of them had worn out their welcome with each other.
  15. Effective teaching isn't just presenting material you know to someone else. It can be, but will usually have an unacceptably low success rate on those terms. We spend a lot of time of this even at the college level where the students are supposed to be mature enough to understand and cope with their own learning styles. Even at 18 many are not. The truth is that people do not teach other people things, everyone learns everything themselves. Teaching is figuring out how to facilitate the connection between the student and the material so the student teaches it to themselves. Some people have certain levels of emotional intelligence that guide them to do this well without specific training, but most do not.
  16. Ahh - well that is an interesting one. I'm not sure he did value winning as much as some other objectives that he managed his team to meet, but that's history.
  17. OTOH, he certainly does score high enough that the Tigers should not be where they are. IIRC the Tigers ponied up the 3rd most off-season money in the majors, they've hired a top line manager, they've spent freely on equipment and technology through their system. I haven't got a clue what's in the water in the Tiger clubhouse that's turned all the bats to noodles, but it's not for lack of an owner willing to provide at least reasonable resourcing. That's a much easier argument to make than to support objectively. I'd certainly entertain arguments about whether or not it's sufficient to win a WS, but not that it's not sufficient to put a respectable team on the field. I don't find arguments attempting to draw inferences between the Sports teams and City of Detroit development persuasive. Hard to imagine two more different worlds. I don't have any particular affinity for Chris Ilitch but when a team under-performs the projections made by every unbiased statistical forecasting service, laying that at the owner's door seems illogical.
  18. People love to argue bad intent, but that is pretty silly really. Ilitch wants to win, Avila wants to win. They may or may not know how to get there but arguments that their motivation is suspect is just venting. Everyone in a losing org should be under pressure - that is part of Ilitch's job.
  19. so I grew up in NW Detroit and there was a good size shopping area at Grand River and Greenfield, anchored on the three corners by a Ward's, a Federal's, and Hughes and Hatcher men's store. The Ward's and the Federal's had parking lots behind the buildings. Someone had a house in middle of the Federal's lot they wouldn't sell. It must have stood there in the middle of the parking lot for 20-30 years. Somebody died, the house was finally torn down, but not long after the whole shopping area was toast anyway. In the end it didn't bother anyone.
  20. so will he change his delivery when he comes back? If he does, will he be as effective?
  21. that's the frustration isn't it? If you are the owner do you want to throw away the work done to this point? But why are they getting there only now instead of 4 yrs ago? I suppose to some degree you sometimes have to wait for people you want to become available or negotiate over time to get people that are available, but this org has been glacial.
  22. it wouldn't be out of character in the context of the Ilitch org historically. but that was Mike and Mike is gone.
  23. how many of the guys in those roles today are the ones from even 3 yrs ago. To me the biggest critique of Avila isn't that he doesn't have a sense of where the org needs to go, but that he has been way too slow getting the org there. Is that all him, or is that as fast a the owner wants to move yr by yr? Who knows?
  24. It comes down to trying to predict whether desperation psychology is a plus or minus in a situation like this. Hinch and Avila have been 100% 'stay the course, it is inevitable these players will come around'. The alternative is to start firing people and churning the roster and who know what you may give away in your haste to create motion. How many players are more likely to respond to patience as opposed to a kick in the ass? Damned if I or anyone else really knows.
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