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I am ordinarily not a believer in using a promotion to shake things up. Right now, it needs to be on the table.

Right. The thing with McCarver is that he was never gracious enough to admit the Tigers were also a pretty damn good team that year. Even Tom Izzo will admit when he plays a good opponent! 😉

Clark wants the bright lights. He will bolt at his first chance.

I am less impressed by Greene every year.

I was really hoping we'd see a Riley that has moved away from the extreme swing but I'm not seeing it. I see Riley as a guy who can either be a very good 20 HR hitter or a pretty useless 35 HR hitter and he seems determined to be the later. He's just not built to hit homeruns without the long swing. His frame can't generate the power that a big guy like Judge or Cabrera, or even a more compact but powerfully built guy like Trout can without having to over commit on his swing. And the over-commit is going to leave him a poor OBP hitter if he won't change it. Be a good hitter and let the HRs come on the good barrels and he'd be fine (IOW if he had just continued to let his '24 approach improve)

I get the sense that Clark is the type who won't sign an extension.

Yes, If Greene, Torkelson and Carpenter hit even at their normal levels, it will solve a lot of problems

I saw Deleterious' post on the G-League First Team. Has anyone watched the G League games that fanduel has had on this season? I will generally put the game on but unless it's tight late in the game it's pretty much just background noise with an occasional two-minute watch followed by another 30 minutes of using it for background noise.

This season is about Riley and Tork establishing if they are part of the offensive core or if they are just guys. It's early.

Could be true but I'm not sure he has the standing in the room to be the leader of the pack....

That was the season in one game. And with one point, they somehow still stay at least mathematically alive. It's like the least they could've done to keep the never-say-die Red Wing fan still keeping a miniscule amount of hope. Basically, get to 89 and hope Ottawa just gets four or worse. It's like hanging on a limb and that limb really can't support your body weight, but hasn't this been what it feels like to follow this team for about four seasons now? Well, Columbus obviously needs to lose again as well.

Jones seems like the cheerleader type. He has different celebrations for everyone I think.

I wasn't really suggesting that Clark was similar to Gibson, just that he has a distinct personality from their current group. From a fan's perpective. I do like to see different personalities on the team. Watching the game last night, I was thinking I don't know McGonigle from Keith from Dingler. They all look and act the same.

I didn't like the part were every day at 4pm all US citizens have to do an air kiss to Iran and profess their love and respect for the Islamic Revolution.

Correct. Max has some personality, but I don't see him as the type to come into a clubhouse the tear into it and a HOF manager the way Gibson did in LA at all. Max is more what I'd call a "Peacock" on a Myers-Briggs scale. Outgoing, likes to be seen. Gibby was a piranha.

Randy Smith laughs at the Art of the Deal

He doesn't come off to me as intense as Gibby. I knew Gibby a bit at MSU and he was INTENSE. Clark seems to be more of keep things loose but "let's go win" guy. I've followed him on twitter and watched/listened to his workouts that he posts. Under the flash there's a pretty solid, intelligent, high effort person. It just strikes me that he's the kind of leader this team needs. The spotlight falls on him, doesn't faze him and the others fall in line and follow him....I'm thinking we may see sooner than later.

Konnor Griffin gets 9 years $140+ million. There have been a few extensions this year. Maybe they will get something done for McGonigle and Clark.

Kudos for the return of the MiLB reports!

Long story but one that still makes me emotional. My lifelong best friend died from cancer in May of 24. We met in kindergarten, went to all 13 years of school together, played sports together, roomed together at MSU, and shared a house a couple times in our early 20s until marriage etc. How does this relate to your post? One of my most vivid memories with him was an Eli Zaret/George Kell moment. I'm pretty sure it was on the Morning Crew show either the morning after they hit 35-5 or a few days before they did. He was a dairy farmer and some mornings I'd get up and go visit him in the feed room as he ran the silage unloader. George came on with Eli and started with "It's magical Eli, just magical" with his Arkansas twang it was unforgettable. For the rest of our lives he and I would use that phrase to describe things, sometimes seriously, sometimes sarcastically. Now and then that phrase comes to mind and I think of my buddy......

So, he could be our Kirk Gibson? I am not a big fan of flashy players, but I agree the team is very bland. I don't know that every team needs a vocal leader (sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't), but from a fan's perspective, a little variety would be interesting.

No arg there. That was sort of my point about why good managers are rare and valuable. It's easy to have a long resume (say like Trammel) and get a managing gig and just try to always go by the numbers or by a 'system' (like his reliever rotation idea), but a good manager does have to have sort of 6th sense about his team and players that goes beyond the data. I didn't mean to imply Hinch wasn't as good as anyone at it, just making the point that that is always the manager's biggest challenge - and where his decisions can have the most impact, especially in such a data driven environment where it's always easy to justify "I was just following the numbers"