casimir

That’s a possible hazard around heavy equipment that could bend the steel toe downward. I’m not sure a baseball has enough force to do that. And I would think if anything, it’d be a lighter material fashioned in way around the foot to not dig in.

Which Antetokounmpo plays more tonight?

Steel toe cleats.

They're going to have to play slightly below .500 basketball the rest of the way to hit that section of the ballpark.

Says who?

Hmmmm..... Giants Considering Trading From Group Of Young Pitchers This just struck me as interesting given Harris' previous employer.

Maton.

Yes, I think I remember that you called it out as a possibility, but I don't know when that was. My guess is they probably had that in their sights as well. I know the NFL has its training camp show on HBO or Amazon or whatever platform, and I obviously can't recall the name of the show. I wonder if MLB would consider something like that for spring training. I'd be interested in seeing some of the behind the scenes stuff. I realize that it'd probably be only a fraction of what goes on, but I think that could be fascinating to see if done well.

Oh, sure. His numbers look pretty good the first time through the lineup. Afterwards, not so much. Maybe his destiny is as a RP. I think with the SP options for the Tigers, game/season durability is a reasonable concern. So, that puts a little bit more workload on the BP. Having a few multiple inning RPs would be beneficial. I think Harris/Hinch have mentioned this (specifically the RPs) somewhat recently.

The commentary on Faedo was before the extra option was granted, too.

Olson also had 36 innings at Toledo. I think expecting 160 in 2024 is reasonable, although you never know for sure with pitchers (health) and youth (consistency). Manning hasn't been above 100 in a season since 130+ in 2019. Not really sure what to expect out of him, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up moved or in the bullpen. Skubal has gone 149, 117, 95 the past 3 seasons. I think they'll let him go as he can go. They need to cover 1,400 innings. I used to think around 900-950 of those needed to be covered by the SP. I don't know if that's really the right math anymore with pitch counts and increased usage of RP.

Sure, nobody wants to be that team. But the Pistons are playing against themselves as well as the opponent right now, and this game is on the road. There's always a chance. But besides youthful inconsistency, I don't see anything from Wednesday to build off of to think that tonight could be the end of the streak.

The main rotation? Doubtful. The end of the bench? Oh heck, they've been looking forward to breaking game time sweat this week.

I don't think there's much chance Gibson-Long starts the season in Detroit. MLB teams need those 7th/8th/9th SPs on the depth chart these days, and his options make that an easy decision. I think it will be interesting to see how Mize is handled early on. I kind of wonder if he starts out the season at Toledo in rehab as a means to keep his innings down a bit earlier in the season. He's pitched 150 innings before, but that was in 2021. Can he duplicate that at the MLB level after a handful of shorter outings in Toledo? Maybe a game or two going through the lineup only twice, maybe another game or two where he's allowed to go past that if he's pitching well? I realize he's probably been rehabbing and working his craft outside of the box scores. But how does that work manifest itself in live games? How will he be able to handle the workload over a full season after his time off?

Does Vegas have odds on which NBA player eventually breaks Green's jaw?

Its kind of hard to feel sorry for San Diego.

Can you blame him? So, considering we're all Tiger fans, where does this rank against the Tigers stealing the 1987 division pennant from the Blue Jays?

13 games down in the NFL is 76%, which would equate to game 123 in MLB. When the Tigers played game 123 on 08/19/2023, no MLB team had been eliminated yet. Not even Oakland was eliminated. 100% of all teams were playoff eligible. 30 of 30 is more parity than 30 of 32, eh?

That's false. You're only counting out Carolina and New England, teams that have been eliminated. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/standings/ New York (both of them), Los Angeles (what the heck, both of them), Tennessee, Las Vegas, Washington, Chicago, and Arizona are 9 teams with a combined chance of making the playoffs of around 35%. Plus, only one team out of the NFC South are going to make the playoffs. Carolina has been eliminated, so add two of the remaining teams that will be eliminated. So, if you could, please explain how you've arrived at your 30 of 32 teams having a "real" possibility of making the NFL playoffs right now. Because I see 2 eliminated and 11 others barely having a pulse.

Is there a lid on that bucket?

OK, so they'll move those load management days from these 4-6 games to any of the other 76-78 games on the schedule.

It is stupid. I am old. It made money. It generated interest. All of these can be true. But just because something draws interest and generates money doesn't mean it can't be stupid.

I think the ABA or CBA used to do this. Wining the game was 3 points for the standings, winning a quarter was 1 point. I don’t know if the standInge were then based off of these points. They must have been, why else go through the hassle?

Is that what is meant by parity, the ability to win a division?

I assume they had a home crowd advantage as well. I guess another thing I don’t understand is that all of the tournament games count in the regular season standings and the statistics are accumulated as well. Except for the final game of the tournament. Maybe it’s just the way my head is wired, but that doesn’t really make much sense to me. I realize the way they add games to the schedule to get everyone to 82, and the tourney title would be 83. Ok. Hold off on or significantly limiy East vs West games until after the tournament is done. Don’t close out a season series between teams until after its over. Then whatever the matchup is, just cancel the second regularly schedule game of the season to keep those teams at 82 games.