gehringer_2

As the team gets better, the ratings expectation on the broadcast rise with them and if the guys in the booth aren't cutting it, they are not going to get the kind of long leashes they got when the team was losing 100 games and no-one expected much. I think it's pretty clear from his rapid rise to the top of the heap that Dirks has been the ratings star of the group. He can get a little OT, but he gets down into the weeds of how the game is played better than anyone we've heard in a while.

Agree the wrap around programming is terrible. I would guess its all about capturing advertising revenue bump from the game audience even if most people are tuned out and just waiting for Hinch's postgame. But RE:Shep - no he was another level of bad. At least Benetti participates in occasional intelligent conversation about baseball instead of acting like a moron the way Shep did. Of course Shep does know baseball, you would just never know it listening to his broadcast. But he choose to do it that way - why? Who knows? He still thinks it was the right way to do his broadcast despite that it cost him the job. Carlos Monarez even wrote a column defending Shep where he talked about his decision to act dumb even in the face of the fact that the biggest complaint about the broadcast was that all he ever did was 'interview' his color man instead of having a conversation with him. Carlos apparently doesn't understand good game coverage either. Two people both bringing insight to the broadcast are always better than one.

MCS commented in the game thread about Baltimore's rebuild flaming out. That's the advice they didn't take. The one thing I worry about with Harris is that he may not as draft centric enough for pitchers.

It's only fitting in that it matches the stupidity of the voters that elected him believing his policies would be good for them.

Best news for the week. Tigers are going to need starting pitching depth before this season is over.

LOL - American Management: I worked for a fortune 100 that was horizontal integration of a bunch of very successful subsids. The divisions all had tons of long standing market cred and goodwill tied up in their names. The mothership in Houston couldn't wait to homogenize it all under their own logo - to prove how smart they were I guess. Company ended being partially dismembered and sold at least twice after that brilliance.

Hindsight being 20/20, using Chapman in regulation instead of extras was a waste because you need those K's a lot more starting with a man on 2b.

does this refer to all rebuilding, or just rebuilding that accompanied by a zoning change request? The City of LA normally processes tens of thousands of ordinary building permits in a year.

three teams in the Central have better records than the Yankees. Love it.

It's a thumb guard. They are actually fairly common around the league once you start to notice them.

they should have tried the last one.....

Humid air is less dense.

Andy says Boston has one more BP arm.

Just thinking - don't let down after getting the two tough bats - and bang.

If the Tigers and get through another inning, Wiessert is the end of the Sox BP. They'd have to warm up a starter to relieve him.

good AB but no result

Riley's been hot when he's hot, but he's been cold too much.

Well - at least it's not Chapman again.

Not tonight apparently.

Chapman has such a classic delivery. Coils up like a snake, then WHAM.

Chapman off to a great start this season - hard to believe he's not due for some regression at 37.

it's cube of office space that GM is going to move into, plus the adjoining tower which is what you see over the OF wall. The tower is supposed to be apartment/hotel or some such residential typ space. It's being put up by Gilbert/Bedrock. They've completed the structure now, but last night I was at the ballpark and you could see that the interior of the tower still had construction lights hanging inside - just open space yet. The kicker is that when GM moves there the RenCen ends up with a bunch of vacant space and they've floated a plan to tear down the two towers closest the the river to open up some green space there. Not exactly Orthanc and MinasTirith, but the complex would still look pretty weird with the three still standing in such an odd asymmetry.

He came pretty close to one down the RF line last night but the wind was sort of in

who then gets cut down on one of the best OF throws of the season so far.

"Shoulder." I suppose that could be better or worse than TJ depending on whatever details follow.