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Fetterman 2.0. Progressives will pretend they never supported him and he was the conservative Dem.

Exactly. Like, how is this even debatable?

I don’t disagree. But they seem hell bent on keeping him around despite the slim skill set he has. Actually, I wonder if there’s too much pride in keeping players of his ilk around too long. He was successful in his role as DH vs LHP last season. Great. In the grand scheme of roster build, how valuable is that given other concerns with the roster? What are the odds of a duplicate season?

Cursed!!

No doubt. Just looking at performance to date isn't enough. And you you can't really base it on what has happened long-term in AAA for a couple of reasons. There is a very different level of talent between MLB and AAA. Also, there is so much turnover in AAA that pitchers might not get a chance to adjust.

any decision driven by how much Jahmai Jones plays is a mistake.

yeah - it's weird isn't it?. I think if you take all the data together - his swing is pretty similar, he's seeing the ball better - which implies he's now quicker - able to wait longer, but as you note, despite having the same swing plane, and same pull %, his launch angle is significantly down. So I guess the conclusion is the stance change has shifted the relation between where his eyes are and where the bat is and he hasn't quite adjusted to that. He 'just' needs to swing a little lower than his eyes are used to telling him he should. That's why fiddling with the way you bat is so terrible - you can make a change that fixes a bunch of things but if it changes one other thing you can't fix, you are screwed. Can Colt make the adjustment? Nobody knows. But we are going to find out.

No, they don’t have to hide Harden’s bad defense. 😆 I do wonder if he’s just at the point in his career where he is going to show wear and tear on both sides of the ball in the playoffs. Give him some credit, he’s played 70+ games the last three regular seasons and playoffs on top of that. But if it’s going to lead to him being ineffective on the offensive side, then there’s nothing for Cleveland to do with him but run the offense through other guys and use him as an alternative option. Probably not what they were hoping for when they traded for him. Hopefully the Piston defense travels. It’s just so damn glorious to watch it when it’s clicking. I’m a defense first fan, I find it more fascinating to watch. And seeing Thompson flying all over the place in this playoffs has been an absolute joy. Seeing that translate to other Pistons at times has been fun to see, too. And Holland and his bit of havoc off of the bench. Sure, this team is going to be heavily dependent upon Cunningham. But grind the opponent down along the way. Make them struggle to score, force them to use energy on both sides of the court.

I just wonder how Tiger pitching health is compared with other teams over the past several seasons. This is at the major league level and minor league levels. It’s probably difficult to get an accurate read if what the Tigers do throughout the system is more or less impactful on arm health vs the rest of baseball.

Might as well get back to winning a game.

His contract doesn’t suggest that he’s someone to build around. It’s potentially longer term, but it’s at a nominal salary. While @gehringer_2 brings up a valid point (and I’m paraphrasing loosely) about offering the contract but then not playing him, it’s not an onerous deal on the money side. But they’ve got a roster spot wrapped up with someone they appear to only want to platoon. I think they’ve gotten a little too platoon happy. They’ve got some versatile players. But now we see that versatility is robbed when those players are missing. And then you realize that the players with no versatility really need to be everyday players. A guy like Jones doesn’t help when he can only play a nominal amount of OF. And he’s tied somewhat directly to Carpenter. And then strictish platoons of Keith/Lee at 3B forces the Tigers to carry a guy like Short to cover middle IF. And this doesn’t even get into potentially playing Dingler a bit much because they need his bat in the lineup. Sure, he’s young. But the innings behind the plate are going to add up quickly. They should figure out a way to DH him a bit more, but that cuts into Jones’ time at DH.

Nice inflation, gas prices, war and unconstitutional doge bro nailed that vote

It's amazing how Fetterman was the Platner of 2022 who the progressive liked, and as soon as he won and changed his stripes, it's all he was never progressive, he was the establishment conservative Dem.

I've never quite understood why training guys to throw better seems to be the one great failure of Kinesiology/exercise science. Nobody ever seems to get better at it. Weird.

Of course not now, but he ran as the progressive. He was endorsed in the primary by Bernie Sanders. Fetterman supported Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Fetterman distanced himself from progressives after he got elected. This isn't debatable. He ran as a progressive.

i think you'll see mbn and mazur out of camp. one of postava and cossa for sure (if not both). anton will likely need a little more time. asp too after this year's nhl showing. who knows about danielson. did the injury affect him in detroit? part of me hopes so because he wasnt very impressive when he was here. right now you have: blank-larkin-raymond debrincat-copp-blank (kane FA) finnie-kasper-blank rasmussen-compher-appleton edvinsson-seider faulk-aljo chairot-blank gibson with no changes and if you assume they dont bring back Kane (and i think they will bring back Kane), 3 forward spots and 1 defenseman. again, 2 forward spots if they bring back Kane. i dont think you can expect a playoff team unless you get a proven player on line 1. is that kasper? do you start finnie there again? or do you trade for someone? i bet two prospects are traded for a forward. danielson might have enough value to be the centerpiece to get an ep40, but who knows? he hasnt been very good. do you have to part with mbn or bear instead?

But the plays Baez makes above and beyond the current in house replacements far outweigh the boneheaded errors he makes. So, yes, this team misses him.

LOL - nobody confuses John Fetterman with AOC.

pac money is not the reason big donors have issues with national party membership. It's more doubts over the quality of the leadership. And it's quite possible the old guard donors are wrong and Martin is right - I'm not in a position to argue that, but party level donations are lagging. The Corp-PAC pledge is individual candidates, not the DNC

Come back to what? He hits the same way every year. He's a decent hitter, but not somebody you want to build around, especially since he can't field.

They need to vote for the non fascist. That option was very clear in 2024 and they chose the guy who literally said he would be a fascist over the black woman and her laugh. Voters are the reason the US has slipped into fascism.

So, everybody needs to vote for your candidate? That doesn't sound like democracy,.

That's why I blamed the voters but apparently they are all innocent in the decisions they make.

Thwarted by the Virginia constitution.

Colt Keith is having a super weird year. He’s hitting .321 and his wRC+ is 113 even after yesterday, so it’s not as though he’s collapsing, but he’s in this weird sort of purgatory where his contact quality is actually the best of his career in term of hard hits, but two things are suppressing his results: (1) a launch angle drop to 9.7 that’s turning potential home runs into hard grounders and line drives, and (2) literally zero home run luck on his fly balls. His xSLG is .451 vs his actual SLG of .387, which should suggest a comeback, but his SLG has trailed his xSLG his entire career, just never like this. It’s a real question whether that drop is the result of instructional intention, since the Tigers are one of the more line-drivey teams in the majors; whether pitchers are exploiting his weakness at hitting sliders more systematically lately; and whether his more passive approach at the plate this year (much lower strikeout AND walk rate) is a slump artifact or a real change. Everything about his individual and expected metrics screams inevitable comeback, but man, it sure is hard to watch while we’re waiting.