gehringer_2

This was season for Wenceel to improve on his 1st season and cement his future. Instead he treaded water - ended up with almost zero net improvement. Pretty much mush rather than cement.

True of course - but he was pretty decent over a couple of years. You can't expect quality for nothing. Arb can be expensive but is it really any worse than what you would pay in FA for equivalent production? Assuming the Tigers believe he can produce again.

I think the other thing that is true is that this is not like the Scherzer episode. To me Scherzer was an unforced error because we offered competitive money ( once the amortizations were figured in) and Max knew that full well, but he wanted to leave. I think all things being equal Tarik would be happy to remain a Tiger, but the economics have shifted so much in terms of the rich teams having stupid high incomes to throw around now that the Tigers cannot reasonable offer what he will likely be offered.

yeah - it can't be discounted. If he buys something more than 150 ft at the waterline for her the Tigers could be in trouble.

The only one I'd maybe differ is Foley. I would think given the need and the pre-injury track record, if Foley is going to be reasonably healthy he'd be a lock.

which he probably fabricated anyway.

Now watch them re-elect Begich and Sullivan. Better to be on the roof stranded in the cold than be defended by a gay soldier, because ......'Murica!

Also - with Campbell there is going to be a basic conflict between his creativity and the officials being predisposed to not liking and looking to flag anything they haven't seen before or that they have to think about.

Yeah - Malloy has great zone discipline, but I haven't seen enough evidence Malloy can hit the ball when it's in the zone - at least so far. The former by itself isn't enough to stay in the majors.

and Kirk's fans on the forum didn't like what they thought was dis-repect to his memory here, in a place were not more than few people saw it? Jeez Louise.

The other extreme end way to look at the argument is that your one year of your superstar may be worth 6-8 WAR plus the economic value of a playoff run, and you get a high comp pick, which gives you a shot at a guy with as good a set of odds of success as a prospect you get in trade; compared against getting a prospect or two in a trade, from the team that knows them best and is still willing to part with them, who have a good chance of having less career WAR than your star produced in that one year you kept him. And I think for Harris the high pick has a lot of appeal because he knows what he wants in a pick and it's probably not what a lot of teams draft for.

You're kidding, right?

Harris alluded to this talking about the Tiger approach would change as the line up changed, and to large degree this is probably the ultimate truth. Once a guy gets to the majors, very few ever change their profile much. Not saying none, but few. Now in the Tigers case, since the K's are a recent thing for Greene, it seems reasonable to expect he can move back along a path he has already been on. With Torkelson it's all about his willingness to go to RF, and I'm still not sure Hinch has his heart in encouraging him to do that. Even in the presser, Hinch pushed back a little on the idea that he's willing to see the power hitters back off on power for contact. It's an interesting clue of a bit of daylight between him and Harris that they live with. Which is fine, no two people in an org do or should agree 100% on everything.

Nuclear power is a good base load match for renewables. The question is whether US society can still produce the kind of competence and discipline required to be a safe nuclear operator. At one end, the US Navy does very well - at the other end we saw the outcome of a sloppy and poorly disciplined society running Nuke plants in Chernobyl. I've have no qualms about the science and engineering of nuclear power. But accountability is such foreign word in US business management today that I do worry about nuclear power in the hands of quarterly profit driven/unaccountable management US business.

but probably not the liquid sodium cooled concept this outfit is pushing. Liquid metal cooling is one of those bad ideas like Hydrogen powered cars that sounds good so it just won't die. TBF, I think what is at work here is the divergence between science and engineering. There are some things which are elegant Science or elegant logic, that simply can't be adequately engineered in the real world. So these ideas just keep getting life and investment, and then ultimately fail the test of ever actually being executed in the mundane real world of what is practically possible.

Bridge is done, apparently they can't get the customs houses into operation - construction/staffing/training, whatever. Some reports the Canadian side lost a ton of workers to the nearby Stellantis plant project and accusations that US gov is dragging its feet.

Yes. I think he has posted a link to it here before but I won't presume to - just PM him for it.

What a symbol! It will surely drive them to greater glory.

Unsurprising yet sad.

and unfortunately that also means their signature to an agreement isn't worth the paper it's printed on, so we'll see.

these projects are moving targets and I don't track them particularly closely, but these are probably the same units that Ontario Power is building at Darlington Ontario (north shore of Lake Ontario) which is already the site of a set of conventional CANDU reactors. One modular is being built at Darlington now, 3 more are planned. They will be the 1st modular reactors in N. America. A lot of folks are watching this. Part of the project at Palisades MI is to add two or more modulars at that site along with the restart of the PWR, but everyone is waiting to see if the reactors at Darington work as advertised. Ontario power also is considering putting Modulars in at the site of the huge coal plant (2400MW) at Nanticoke (lake Erie) that has been torn down.

Cautionary tale. There was a time that the Dodgers had a #1 prospect young outfielder everyone was salivating over. Boston finally pried him loose in return for Mokie Betts. Since the trade, Betts has put up another 32 WAR, Alex Verdugo has produced 8.6 and doesn't seem to have much left at only 29 (Jeter Downs didn't produce any). It's *really* hard to match any young player(s) to a superstar. You just never know ⚠️

I can imagine it goes something like this. The Tigers ask Skubal for the courtesy being able to match, Boras says - go fly a kite, make us an offer now. The Tigers eventually make one for a max AAV but less term than Skubal wants and it's over when the Tigers are outbid on term. I can see C.I. being will to make him the highest paid pitcher - and maybe by a decent margin *while* he's still pitching, but I don't see Chris being willing to pay another player >$40M/yr to play golf for 3 or 4 years. Just don't.

another aspect to add to the argument is that a longer throw does mean less leeway for a breaking ball, and again - I would argue that is the whole point. If it's harder to control max spin with the added distance, that devalues max spin. That helps the batter but probably also helps pitcher's health long term.

the difference is still much smaller than the range they already pitch through. Any pitcher than can throw a pitch a few inches higher in the zone can throw the pitch for a strike a few inches further away. Even a 'slow' major league pitch ~80mph, is moving horizontally a lot faster than it is moving vertically. Besides, even if is harder - which i'm not conceding, isn't that the whole idea? To make it a little harder for the pitchers?