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That wasn't the answer last year.

That may be, although on balance, left-handed pitchers in the minors are substantially more hittable than left-handed pitchers in the majors. Look, I want Carpenter to be a good hitter against left-handed pitchers as much as the next guy does. It's just that despite all the chances he has gotten to demonstrate as much, he has not been able to deliver on the opportunity. His 78 sOPS+ this year is basically the same as it was in 2023 (81) and 2022 (67), so he has simply not been improving at it. It's fair to a point to wonder whether the Tigers have given Carpenter every opportunity needed to demonstrate that he can improve against LHBs. But it's hard to take seriously any insistence that Hinch is simply blind to Carpenter, or has it in for Carpenter, or is simply too stupid (or, more probably, too analytically ideological) to see just how good Carpenter could be if only we penciled him into the lineup against LHPs every single time. You know, just throw him in there and he's bound to improve at some point, isn't he? But the team's coaches have watched Carpenter hit morning, noon and night practically every day for eight months running during each of the past four years; we see him only during actual games, and even then, only when we actually watch them. And oftentimes our opinions are influenced in his favor because we remember seeing discrete events such as this or this or this. (Just for fun, listen to what the Yankees analyst had to say about Carpenter after that last one.) So I gotta believe that Tigers coaches have seen enough to know that Carpenter's is just not going to get any better at hitting left-handers on a real ongoing basis, and no amount of wishcasting is going to change that.

Statues and memorials are not about preserving history. They are about honoring historical persons and events. Take down the statues of Confederate traitors to the United States and the historical accounts of them are still available to peruse in any number of other sources. People who support memorials for Confederate traitors while opposing memorials to pioneering fighting forces of color are telling us everything we need to know about them.

One problem with voter ID is that certain parties within state government can manipulate what is and is not considered valid ID with the apparent purpose of suppressing the vote among certain classes of people. Some states require voter ID strictly and only official state issue; others allow non-photo ID such as fishing licenses. In such cases, certain types of people more likely to engage in those activities are privileged with looser requirements to prove their identification than others who are not given to those types of activities. Native American communities, low-income, elderly, and rural voters are disproportionately affected by voter photo ID laws. This is partially because photo IDs aren’t as common as many people assume: 18% of all citizens over the age of 65, 16% of Latino voters, 25% of Black voters, and 15% of low-income Americans lack acceptable photo ID. Elderly and low-income voters may not have the availability, financial resources, or mobility to obtain the necessary identification, and rural voters may face significant barriers to obtaining the necessary documentation due to their geographic isolation. Further, many rural and Native Americans born at home or on reservations and tribal lands lack the mandated paperwork needed to obtain a government-issued ID that fits the legal requirements to vote. In short, many citizens find it difficult to obtain government photo IDs both because the ability to get to the facility to obtain it is limited or blocked, and because the necessary documentation, such as a birth certificate, needed to prove one's identification to obtain valid photo ID for voting is often difficult or expensive to acquire. Aside from class and racial discrimination, there are other peculiar ways voter photo ID laws turn voters away from the polls. For example, people who change their last names after marriage or divorce and don’t have a permissible ID that reflects their name on the voter rolls may be unable to cast a ballot. College students are also uniquely impacted by these laws, as their primary form of ID can often be a student ID, which isn’t always accepted as a valid form for voting. In all these cases, voter ID laws deny eligible voters access to the ballot box. One other problem is that on the ground, the law can be applied on an uneven and discretionary basis. Poll workers can take it upon themselves to choose to ask certain people showing up for every piece of required ID needed to cast a ballot and refuse them if they are missing any, or if they consider even one piece to be invalid based on their own discretion; while the same poll worker can wave through someone else without requiring proof because the poll worker knows and likes that person, who may not even be legally registered to vote.

We're not talking about why housing prices have increased.

Carpenter has few ABs against LHP for a reason, and it's not because Hinch sucks. Try though we might, we can't simply wish Carpenter into becoming a good hitter against LHP.

Curious: what makes you believe Bregman would seriously consider coming here?

Meaning considering median household income? 2000: $42,000 2025: $74,000 Average change per year: 2.3%

Being the child of a should-be Hall of Fame doesn’t seem to have helped Kody a whole heck of a lot on the field. He just had his best ever season and turns 30 next May. He’s cleared a couple million in earnings by himself, though, so at least he won’t have to have Daddy pay for all his pharmaceuticals. 😉

TBF, Daz was a supporting player in that trade.

Nobody has ever clocked twelve below at dWAR in a single season, so I’m thinking that’s probably defensive runs instead. Tork does have a history of hanging around that particular number—FG says he was right at that number in 2025. And his range ain’t getting any better. I’ll allow it.

Carpenter in 2025: vs RHP: .257/.300/.512, 120 sOPS+ in 401 PA vs LHP: .217/.238/.400, 78 sOPS+ in 63 PA Defense: Fielding Run Value: -3 (30th percentiles) Range/OAA: -3 (21st %); Arm Value: -1 (43rd %) Kerry Carpenter has been quite good enough for us the past couple of years, but make no mistake, he is not Mr. Right. He’s Mr. Right Now.

I wonder how much of it was Avila trusting that a top prospect’s sibling would de facto become a top prospect as well? Josh Jung was the Rangers’ #1 prospect the day Avila drafted Jace first round, and Austin Meadows was the Pirates’ #2 prospect when Avila took Parker second round. Apropos of something, probably, Avila also picked Kody Clemens right after Parker.

I would be surprised, and disappointed, if Harris did not pull off some solid free agent signings and/or impact trades to get us into a solid position to go deep into October. We are now at that point in our trajectory. I would not count on top tier free agents, since Detroit is not a top tier destination for them at this moment. But I would bet this team will not be the same as last year plus a couple of ciphers.

Given his defense and big platoon split, I don't think he'd bring back as much as we'd like. But I'm willing to give Harris a chance to show us what Carpenter could bring back.

You can tell someone is completely fos when they say they used to belong to the "democrat" party.

Gerrymandering is not anything like voter ID. Gerrymandering is explicitly designed to blunt the will of a state's voters through geographical technicalities. And out-of-cycle gerrymandering is intended to be outright hostile to democracy, which is why the Supreme Court should put an end to that. But you can rest easy, pal, because we all know they won't.

It wasn't. It was a compromise to get southern slave republics to join as states. The worst part is where, if there is not clear EC majority, the election gets throw to the House where each state's delegation gets a single vote, and the guy who gets the most state's votes wins. It's wildly antidemocratic, and beyond asinine.

TBF, Trump said he would deliver only concepts of a plan, which is a lower level promise to break.

But what if the people take the money that's supposed to go to healthcare and use it to buy caviar and lobster on Amazon instead?

By bringing the force of the federal government down upon the heads of team ownership, just to fulfill his personal wishes for aggrandizement, Trump will get what he wants.

I don't think states should have the right to practically fix elections through discretionary out-of-cycle gerrymandering at the command of the leader of their particular political party.

I decided a long time ago that if you're gonna guilt me into giving you money, you're going to have to gift me something higher value than return address labels.

Maybe half the league is chase-prone to Longenhagen's liking?

As long as it helps a criminal syndicate, Trump will comply. Birds of a feather and all, dontcha know.