gehringer_2

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Most players don't get better in their platoon splits though.  If you let all the lefties that can't hit lefties a chance, you'll lose a lot of games figuring out that they'll never hit them.  

yup - there is always a tradeoff risk. You'd love a guy that plays great D like Parker to be able to stay in the game, and his track record is still pretty short - could he keep his platoon split reasonable? Who knows? How much are you willing to risk to find out? Always the question.

I think this is a place were the new pitcher simulation pitching machines can make a difference maybe. A hitter can go dial in a variety of LHP and practice against the pitch breaking away and maybe show his manager he's progressed enough to merit a shot. It should reduce the level of unknown at least some.

It is objectively true that some guys can hit pitchers from both sides with only insignificant splits. It's rarer for lefties, but to my mind it's so valuable when you find it that it's worth spending at least some effort to look.

You should have a some kind of idea by the time a guy gets through the minors, and it's when a guy who has handled pitching from the other side in the minors isn't given a shot in the majors that I'd question it the most.

12 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

I can live with a degree of platooning, but can we stop taking the bat out of the hands of guys who are swinging well (Keith/Carp) and start doing it more with Javy/Rogers/Tork?  When there’s a righty in we aren’t jumping at the opportunity to pull those guys out, but God forbid a lefty comes in.

yeah - Hinch just doesn't like playing shorter term trends very much, he believes in the strength of longer samples. That's always a debatable question. I don't think it's deniable that some players do sometimes hit a higher (or lower) level for week or a month when their past average performance really isn't the best predictor. But the problem always is how to know exactly when one of those streaks starts or ends. One of the reasons baseball managers who can make a difference are rare.

Baseball is maybe the most measured/measurable and statistically catalogued sports, but you always run into the fundamental limit on the assumption that the guy you measured Monday is really the same guy on Tuesday. Some players are very consistent, some aren't, a guy may not have slept well, he may be worried about his relationship, he may be coming down with a bug or have a slight physical deficit. There are a million big and small things working against the assumption that the player is a constant, while the player himself is doing everything he can to be a constant. As long as real people are playing the game that tension will always be there.

BTW Tork has reached in 7 of his last 12 PA in the last 3 games - mostly on the strength of 5 walks, so he's coming around a bit at least on plate discipline.

15 minutes ago, HeyAbbott said:

Benetti is excellent on national broadcasts. He and Andy have reeled in the 12 year old boy humor quite a bit. So long as they remember that there is actually a ballgame going on for them to provide analysis they are OK. For play by play, I still prefer Dickerson and Petry.

I'm not as big of fan of DD's as I used to be. There are a couple things he's gotten into the habit of that sort of grate on me. One is how he'll spend time telling you how great a guy (particularly a pitcher) is or has been while he's being shelled. What is the point of that? It has pretty much zero relevance to the call of the game to tell me that last year the guy's ERA against lefties was only 2.3 or that his control is 'usually' great after he's walked two. It's basically apologizing for poor performance and that's not something I care to have the PBP guy doing. "He's having a bad day" is fine and leave it at that.

This is today's print from the Cleveland Federal Reserve's "Inflation Now" forecasting tool.

https://www.clevelandfed.org/indicators-and-data/inflation-nowcasting

They are hitting targets on Kharg Island but apparently not the core infrastructure. Iran has struck a petrochemical complex in Saudi. 

West Tx Intermediate Crude near $118, Stock market falling this AM.  That last one might be the only thing Trump pays attention to. 

19 minutes ago, buddha said:

once you made it legal, you opened the door to sports obsessed schools with huge, rich alumni to open their pocketbooks.  michigan, ohio state, indiana...

it was always a benefit to michigan once they got comfortable with the idea.  now that they are, you see them winning.

with that said, dusty may was the biggest part of that.  football has more money than god but couldnt get out of its own way, michigan put together a great team, and then coached them well enough to win.

dusty earned that big ol raise he's about to get.  

Somewhere, lost in all the Noise and Chaos that is the current US government, there now are  proposals beginning percolate between the Admin and the Senate, and enough interest that something may yet emerge. They could take some of the issues out the court jurisdiction, possibly rationalize things a bit, or just make it all worse! But in any case, I don't think we need to worry about the current state being the final word for college sports.

UConn hung about as tough as you could and still lose.

So, is Warde Manuel still a moron for Sharrone Moore or a genius for Dusty May?  

only so long a bullpen can live on the ragged edge. Tigers down 4.

So how 'bout those Wolverines?

Tigers playing Strand-O-Matic

Man - Torkelson has been in the AL long enough to know you don't just take off on an overthrow at Target. That bounce back happens all the time.

Spencer Yost.

Anderson throws a couple of good curve balls for the third out.

Jaimai Jones' pixie dust has dried out.

has Anderson gotten the 1st guy he faced out as a reliever yet?

Riley not seeing this guy very well.

This team is going to struggle with run prevention 3 out of 5 nights.

Riley had a few good pitches to hit in that AB but didn't barrel any of them

LOL -gleybar fails to appeal the ball after Minny fails to appeal the strike.

8 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

I’m sure Larkin has been less than 100%. I suspect Raymond has. But my sense is that Yzerman is safe regardless. As I have said before, I think his rebuild timeline ends when Copp, Compher, and Rasmussen contracts end. I would bet he and Ilitch have discussed this.

I was hoping against hope that Larkin would pass on the Olympics. I knew there was no way he would but I was hoping anyway. I guess from his standpoint a gold medal will be a fonder memory than washing out in the 1st or 2nd round of a cup series someone else is going to win, so I can't blame him. Just because .I. don't care about the Olympics.........😉

32 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

Rasmussen is still on the team because of his contract rather than because of his size. This is part of the culture problem with the team. Some guys are stuck behind him and Compher, the rest are stuck with them. I also thought it was a bad message to extend Chiarot for so long. His job was to hold down a spot until the kids were ready. You’re telling me it’s going to be another three years before Tuomisto or Wallinder are ready? The message seems to be that Stevie is running the team not to lose, and in this sense the players seem to have bought in. 

All front office decision issues. 

I think the most likely outcome is that if Larkin and Raymond are confirmed to have playing less than 100% at the end, Ilitch is going to give Yzerman another year at least. Just my guess about how it will go......

10 hours ago, casimir said:

Worst signing EVER.

45 minutes ago, buddha said:

kane was "fine", but is he a guy busting his ass every night? 

I wanted to let Kane go at the end of last season as I doubted he was going to do much this season and thought there were better places to use the $$ - I know they didn't want o give up what he still brought to the PP, but at his point in his career he wasn't what they needed to improve their 5 of 5 game.

1 hour ago, buddha said:

it could just be bad luck and not because yzerman doesnt know what he's doing.

1 hour ago, lordstanley said:

Does anyone here who tracks these things know whether Larkin, Raymond, DeBrincat and Seider were given an inordinate amount of ice time the first 2/3 of the season to compensate for lack of depth?

He plays Sieder a lot, but not really more than other #1 Dmen. But just my observation is that when Seider's ice time starts climbing, he does change his game to conserve energy to compensate (which is why I don't like ever seeing them do it).

With Larkin and Raymond, I don't think the team overdrives them. Their ice time does not look out of proportion for a #1 line.  Certainly nothing like Brian Murray used to do overplaying his best players. But as players you have to be aware of when you are overdriving yourself when you are on the ice. A guy like Larkin has  to understand that he has to walk a line between how much time he can stay at max+ effort and still keep himself available. I do wonder if Larkin is a little too emotional (trying too hard) a player for his own good.

3 minutes ago, buddha said:

them being injured makes more sense.  but then that is a problem because its two years in a row they've both been hurt at the end of the year.  bad luck?  or too small?

and/or driving themselves too hard because there is no other help?

Hockey is a game that can be played at an unsustainable level but only for so long. That true of both teams and individuals.

46 minutes ago, buddha said:

bringing in chairot was to get that type of player.  edvinsson and seider are huge and both are physical.  faulk is huge.

he has been trying to accumulate big physical players

Size is important, in Dmen who have to physically clear the crease and control the corners, but size is only important in a forward if the player knows how to use it to take and protect possession. To a large extent speed, especially quickness, and good stick can get you there too, which is why DeBrincat is a way more useful player than Rasmussen even at the aspects you'd expect size to help with.