Tiger337

No, that's a different yooper.

Benke is on twitter too still proposing trades and free agent signings. Yooper is on Twitter. He is running for some kind of local office.

I miss the days of platoons. A 26-man roster and 13-pitcher limit might bring back some of that flexibility.

Defense is is a team effort, so it makes sense to have set positions, I don't buy the idea that relievers need to have set roles or that batting orders need to stay the same. I think that's more ego than anything else.

I hope bullpen roles are antiquated, because I don't think they are necessary and I never bought the idea that every reliever needed a set role in order to maximize his talent. I don't know that positions are antiquated though. Hinch uses a lot of different line-ups, but I think some of that is due to lack of talent. It's good to mix and match, but I think ideally, you still want either a primary player or a platoon at each position which is used most days.

I think that would be the whitest team the Tigers have had in a long time.

Benke wants BIG trades

It's not an exciting deal, but I would rather have three position players over an inconsistent reliever. I also like that Harris continues to acquire players than draw walks while dumping players who don't. He's appears to be targeting the opposite profile of players versus what Avila targeted. Vierling apparently has tremendous speed as well.

They weren't going get anything overly exciting for Soto, but Maton and Vierling should make the roster and they are more exciting than Reyes and the Castros. Maton might be their starting 3B. Sands probably won't make the roster but he is more than just minor league depth.

OOOH, I was out hiking all day and didn't realize they made a trade.

He's built a good 55-man roster.

He's not getting mocked for it. It's the right thing to do, but it's funny.

It is a clear difference. Whether or not it's a meaningful one remains to be seen.

The Tigers do need to add Wynns.

I have already said I am giving Harris time and am not ready to criticize him. I just think the volume of mostly useless players being churned is humorous. What else are we going to talk about?

Why needs Andy Ibanez when you have Tyler Nevin?

It's different and it's a positive thing, but it's kind of low risk low reward. Better than nothing, I guess.

So, the roster is at 38 now. More exciting waiver selections on the horizon!

I think the people at the top are terrible and always will be. Having worked as a consultant within government for a long time in the past, I know that there are some good people at lower levels who work to get things done despite the corruption and BS at the top. So, despite my cynicism of high level politics, I don't dislike government as a whole.

Some are worse than others, but none of them care. I believe that the system is such that someone who does care can not succeed as a politician.

The attached chart showed leagues over time with different profiles which gives you an idea of how much on base and slugging are worth in different environments. I believe that will give you somewhat of an answer to your question. I don't think you'd have two teams today with more different profiles than the ones for let's say today versus the deadball era.

The wOBA stat gives weights to BB, 1B, 2B, 3B, HR based on the statistical probability that each event contributes to a run. The weights do change over time, but they remain relatively stable. For example, Walks had about 3% less value from 2018-2022 than they did from 1998-2002. The value of singles changed even less. If you go back to the 1930s, you will see some more meaningful differences. https://www.fangraphs.com/guts.aspx?type=cn

I am also ambivalent. I like it because it's strategic. I don't like it because it's still disconcerting to see balls that have been hits my whole life as a fan become easy outs. I never really got used to it. I don't really think they can ban it though. I think we are going to see teams find ways to get around it. I also agree with you that more hitters should have been able to get around it. I don't buy the excuse that it's too difficult for the best hitters in the world to alter their swing to beat the shift. I do kind of buy the theory that players don't try to beat the shift because constantly slugging for homers pays off in the long run. I don't think that works for everyone though.

I don't know if it will go a lot farther, but I think it's going to help a lot for two reasons: (1) It will speed up the pace of play (2) It will allow less time for pitchers to rest between pitches which I think will affect them significantly and might even cut down on the strikeouts a bit. Unrelated, but I don't think banning the shift really addresses any real problems.