gehringer_2

If you are light skinned and you live past middle age without aid of a plastic surgeon, you will look exactly as good or bad as the amount time you've spent in the Sun, and Sun Tans were a very in thing when the boomers were of the age to get them....

yeah - unless coaches are talking - and under Hinch they are not allowed, we don't get much look under the covers. In Tork's case - looking at his AB's it would *appear* he is being at least a little more aggressive in the K zone - but even whether he had figured that out on his own, or is working at a specific request, or isn't doing it as much as they want, who knows? Of course it means nothing because you really can't tell by looking anyway, but I always thought Manning needs to pitch a little angrier. 😡

If you have made a good faith effort to enter the country and INS holds you up, that's more or less 'force majure' and I would imagine contracts recognize that. Getting yourself convicted and put in jail for the term of your deal is pretty much straight up permanent non-performance of your end of the bargain! I don't think a team would have much problem getting out from under either way. And in all likelihood, the standard contract has clauses for the more obvious sources of "it's your own fault" non-performance - like ending up in jail. The Rays will save the money but you know they'd rather have the performance!

the last one -- no way. It was in his glove and he dropped it.

Best of all possible worlds it that Miller picks up the slack. He's the guy with the resume.

the only thing they did right was to get a good set up at the end - with the ball going to Vierling - probably the fastest defender, chasing the runner back to third, so the other runner couldn't risk trying to get there. Of course if Vierling runs him down the 1st time he has the ball that's much better, which might have happened if Matt had come off the base toward the runner a little before Jake made the 1st throw or if Jake waits another step - but Vierling is an outfielder after all....🤷‍♂️

yeah - any Manager who says he isn't managing to win the most games in the season is probably lying, and to do that you definitely will occasionally have to decide to save your staff when the odds against comeback get steep..

Clark and McGonigle combine to be on base 8 times and steal 3 bags in a Lakeland romp. McGonigle 898 OPS, Clark 799

at least!

well, that's where the discussion more or less started - has Kelly shown he's significantly outpaced Jake's production rate? The question is certainly debatable, but my initial question was about how far you go to keep Kelly if you believe he will be a better catcher/hitter going forward

But there is another way to look at it to consider. Maybe he is only a 1 War player, but if the best you have behind him is -1 WAR, then losing him 'costs' you 2 WAR. I think you can get into a lot of pain making player decisions without considering the context of the current team. IMO, it's something the Tigers have done way too much of in recent years - moving guys they didn't think were 'worth' what they would have cost only to leave behind an completely empty hole with a seriously sub replacement player getting playing time. Not arguing for Kelly in particular but just raising the point that I don't like player decisions made "in vacuo" because they never really are.

You get it if it was close enough to have required a perfect play - but that wasn't. On that basis Gio's was more defensible -that was a very good throw.

I don't know where you are going with this. MB has already given you the black and white chapter and verse. Presidents *always* go to Walter Reed for an annual - it's pretty much tradition over decades if nothing else (well maybe all except Trump who didn't want his being subject to any official view) https://www.audacy.com/connectingvets/articles/walter-reed-why-do-presidents-go-to-a-military-hospital

I think this is ultimately what will eliminate the Ray's liability for paying him. If he's in jail, he has broken his end of the contract by not showing up, and that will break the contract. MLB contracts may be 'guaranteed,' but I'm going to guess there is still a requirement that you show up if the team is willing to have you unless you are legitimately medically unable to play. Sort of like with Cabrera - he didn't want a buyout, the Tigers probably didn't really want him, but they had to pay him only if he kept coming to the park willing to play everyday.

So he and Jake are basically the same guy in that respect. So what are you willing risk for a possibly higher level of performance? That's a question that never goes away. If you're willing to risk nothing, you probably never hit any winners either. If Dingler is better than both of them and will play 80-100 games next season, then by all means stay with Jake since he's cheaper and the role is backup. So if I'm the GM what I want to know is what do I have in Dingler? Get him up here to see some MLB pitching. It will be a roster dislocation but if he's not willing to do that his year I think Harris needs his head examined.

There's a big if there, which is that as an 8 yr pro, he would have to agree.

I don't know why you think it strange that a lot of people are employed at the White House, and a lot of them are at pay grades where it's a lot more efficient to bring personal services to them occasionally rather than to have them schlepping around a half gridlocked DC, especially since some of what is going on here is mandated by the West Wing admin.

Not sure how they could right now regardless of the money. Madden has not been effective, Manning is sort of floundering around - presumably working on new stuff that's not ready. Gipson-Long is out. Montero already filling in for Mize and Flahety's health seems precarious again (plus he might get moved...). Convert Faedo or Holton to start? - bullpen is already thin. Englert? A bad team spending on a bridge pitcher in a deadline deal seems like a pretty dumb route. Choices besides giving Maeda more shots to fix himself aren't so great currently. I guess the other thing is, does anyone in the org have a guess as to why he's failing? It's not like what little velo he has is gone. It's that command is lacking - he can't get ahead, which is easy enough to see, not so much to fix. It's not like anyone expected him to notch a winning record or anything, but they sure couldn't have expected this implosion either.

I think techwise they are fine. I've driven a Fusion hybrid and it was well engineered. But I never got the impression there was that that big a production or sales investment made- and of course they got hammered over accusations of manipulation of mileage figures on their hybrids, which had nothing to do with product engineering but gave them a big marketing black eye for a while. Plus, WCF Jr., being the idealist he is, has created a public image for Ford that was pushing 100% EV (as you noted)

It is sort of funny. One of the stock complaints from the population about politics is too little focus on the issues. So here is a case where as a voter you have a clear opportunity to vote a program and a set of positions on issues over the particular personality (i.e. Party over Person). and we can't cope?

As of today, Tork's OPS at Toledo is about 50 pts higher than it was when he was at AAA in '22. That's not a lot be excited about, but I guess it's more progress than if the numbers had been the reverse. To me, if he can get his average up to something north of 270 at AAA it might mean he's covering enough of the zone for another shot against MLB pitchers. He's hanging around 250 now.

So of the Presidents that have died since WWII ended, 4 died at an age greater than 85 and one is still alive at age >85 (Ford, GHWB, Truman, Hoover, Carter). Three died younger (Nixon, LBJ, Eisenhower) than 85, and one lived past 85 but was effectively incapacitated at by that age (Reagan). One was assassinated. So Biden's probability of making 85 based on just on that sample is about 50/50. (4 are still alive but not yet 85 - Clinton, Obama, Bush II, Trump).

and he gave up three runs in 4 IP so he's not exactly found dominance at AAA yet.

IDK - forecasts have been moving up the time the rain is expected to clear. Question might be if the OF is playable.

that may be a true take - in the abstract, but the primary season is when the *public* had to make that decision and it didn't. All those ambitious potential democrats in the field that people are talking about all looked at Biden and decided he was too formidable to take on. Now the chattering class in the media want to revisit that decision - and from a vantage point of having much less inside understanding than those potential candidates that didn't run. The system isn't designed to to just drop in candidates after the fact - not gonna work. The Northam bruhaha should be the model for this. If Biden just keeps on keeping on, people are finally going to figure out there is no story in his age. If he keels over, then he can be replaced! 🤣