Jim Cowan

Sometimes when a guy is exceeding expectations you have to reward him. Marcus Thames is an example, he destroyed AAA several years in a row but other than one season (during which he excelled) he was never given the opportunity to have a full time job with the Tigers. Whatever groove Carpenter is in right now, see if he can hold it together at Toledo.

Watching the Elvin Rodriguez highlights from a couple of days ago, he reminded me of Fidrych.

I always enjoyed following Mike Hessman. By reputation he was a solid defender at third and of course he had that tremendous power. 180 K's yes, and a lot of years in the minors with an OBP of under .300, but I always thought that the glove and the power should have gotten him a longer look somewhere.

It is OK now to be stupid, to even be proud of it.

Yes, Chet Lemon and Lance Parrish arrived at the bottom of that list around 1990 and only Cabrera has joined it since. The 68 Tigers had Kaline, Cash, Freehan, McAuliffe and Horton make appearances. The 84 Tigers had Whitaker, Trammell, Parrish, and Lemon.

Especially if you start doing it in 1994 and keep doing it for 27 years

Looks like we are going to go for a handgun freeze. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/national-handgun-freeze-key-feature-of-new-firearm-control-bill-1.5923922 I think that this is smart. If you legally own a handgun (one of my neighbours has a .45, I probably didn't say that correctly) then by all means keep it and enjoy yourself but you are its last owner. I think that this will sail through Parliament, the Liberals and the NDP by themselves will carry it, and I will be interested to see how many Conservatives will oppose it. We do have a low-IQ zone here in Canada, it is called Alberta, but even there I don't think that the gun nuts have a critical mass. Even so, a Conservative MP from Alberta probably has no choice but to vote against this bill, but Conservatives elsewhere in the country would be taking a big chance. My opinion anyway. Note also that long guns, those which are not already banned, will be limited to a 5-shot capacity. I am glad that the speechwriters included this obvious truth: other than target shooting and hunting there is no good reason for having a gun.

You can never have too much pitching, but Keuchel doesn't qualify as "pitching" any more.

I have to admit it. I can't figure out who he is arguing with.

It's a love affair with one's self that we have not seen the likes of before, maybe not even from Triple7even.

Christin Stewart was on pace for 40 HR's at Erie a few years back, and people were wondering what the Eastern League record was. It was in the low 40's I think but I do remember the owner: Rick Lancelotti, who was a 4A guy a long time ago. His name has sort of a Jim Adduci vibe to it, as well as that whole Lancelot thing.

32 innings, 49 hits, 20 walks, 20 K's. And here is the most damning evidence of all - he's lefthanded for Pete's sake! If a lefthander can fog up a mirror he usually keeps getting chances. He will sign a Triple A contract somewhere, get shellacked in 4 starts, and get released again.

My wife has had some breathing problems which have been causing her health in general to decline for the past few years, and a friend has a sister in law who runs a prayer circle. They mention my wife in their prayers every week. Which is really very nice of them and I regularly express my thanks, all the while thinking "things can't possibly work this way. There can't be an omnipotent creator who is petulant enough to seek adoration before relieving suffering". It reminds me of some things that I don't like about the RC church. I wasn't raised in it but my wife was and we attended mass with our kids every Sunday for years, took our turns reading, and I am an amateur musician who participated in the music. The priests were great but eventually there came along one who was more conservative. I was playing at a funeral one morning when he came out from behind the pulpit and addressed the family, to say that their husband and father was in purgatory and needed their prayers. Purgatory??? Really, in the 21st century? I was so mad that I had to pack up and leave immediately after the service because I desperately, desperately wanted to punch the shit out of him. That's about 20 years years ago and I stopped going shortly afterwards, and I haven't been back.

Well, Hollywood isn't helping matters, but they aren't creating an appetite for violence that did not already exist and they aren't changing any attitudes so no, Hollywood is not on the list of causes, Hollywood is an effect. You need to look way deeper, Hollywood is superficial.

I think that Hollywood just makes money from a violent subculture that existed for generations before Hollywood ever did. They are serving a market that would exist without them.

I think that everybody passes and he gets a minor league deal. Guarantee him $8 million? That deal would be Pelfrey-esque.

I think that Hollywood caters to a culture that already exists, rather than creating it. Playing GTA does not create a culture that glorifies violence, nor does watching Elmer shoot Daffy in the face with both barrels. Those things are marketed to a culture that already exists.

And what I am thinking is that in the 1880's eastern newspapers were writing romanticized accounts of the lawlessness out west, and Buffalo Bill could tour those eastern cities to sold out crowds.

I don't think it's Hollywood at all, I think it has to be something a lot deeper in your culture.

Yes I think Schoop has returned from the dead and can be removed from the list of problem players.

No I don't think they lost on purpose for draft picks, I think that they hoped to compete while having a lower payroll and a more "sustainable" approach to development. Gardenhire was compared by some to Ralph Houk, a steadying influence while younger players were being incorporated. It failed miserably. But there was never a player out there to tank for, there was no Bryce Harper. They did not tank.

They do but the effect is more like Buford T Justice.

My idle thought watching the police press conference,,,if you want to look like a total idiot in the aftermath of another massive slaughter, wear a fucking cowboy hat as part of your police uniform. Did you hear Abbott say that gun laws have been relatively the same for 60 years without this type of problem having occurred? He chose 60 carefully so that he could conveniently overlook the granddaddy of them all, Charles Whitman.

I am still surprised that anybody thinks that they lost on purpose to get draft picks. Why did they fire Ausmus?

Right down there in the front right corner, those are lupins. "Stand and deliver! Throw down your lupins ", cried Denis Moore the highwayman.