gehringer_2

Trump's politics have descended into the 'Oprah Giveaway' paradigm, but with the twist that the give away is to promise to break something in the government for every constituent with a gripe. "You get a broken institution, and YOU get a broken institution.....!!"

Rangers starting a RH reliever tonight (LeClerc) - Assume that means the left hander Heaney after the 1st time through....

And now Nigel Farage is trying to get back into the act.

from the freep "As for Torkelson, the Tigers want him to tweak the lower-half mechanics in his swing to be more athletic and adjustable at the plate." I hope the plain English translation of that is 'cover more of the strike zone.'

when was the last time a Tiger pitched 3 to finish a game?

either am I....😕

IDK - At least when Russ Thomas was there, he and WCF were BFF and I imagine every Lion move was vetting over several (or more) rounds at the Lindell. Thomas knew the way to WCF's enduring loyalty was to play to his aspirations as an NFL mover/shaker.

It is true that WCF was always as interested in a top pick's potential market impact as his football impact (fannies in the seats!). Who knows why that might have drawn him to Harrington in particular, but if he'd had better football sense the Lions were not have been what they were.

He can't hit a fastball right now, the question is whether that is a neuro-physiological limitation or th existence of mental confusion in the 150 milliseconds or so when he has to make up his mind. Without searching right now, I think I would find he tagged a good number of FBs hard in the 2nd half of last season when he had his best stretch. But we'll see if they can do anything with him in Toledo, though I will continue to wonder if the Tigers, with their emphasis on not swinging too much, are just a bad fit for a guy I think needs to swing more.

The pick wasn't the problem - maybe the handling of the player, but that's still an open question. Someone always has to be picked 1st - that just a fact regardless of whether there are any sure things in a given draft.

No - I agree with the way you put here - that is what I meant as well. Yes - they would have been dropping the ball, which is what argues that it is not the case.

IDK - I'd like to think there is a hitter in there still waiting to get out. He has a beautiful swing and such easy power. maybe that last NCAA season where pretty much everyone walked him all the time put him down the wrong path? Who knows? it's like he either can't see the need, or maybe doesn't have the confidence to believe he can go get pitches and do damage instead of over thinking what he wants to swing at. But as has been noted, if what Tork happens to need in his unique case is to learn to become more of a hacker, that might be a hard lesson to find help with in this org right now.

There isn't one. If something is going to change someone has to occupy Gaza who has the military where-with-all to keep squashing Hamas long enough for their light to finally flicker out, but even then, it still depends does depend on whether the locals are on board. Look at the US experiences in the ME- as bad it was and as inept as we were, in the end we sat on Iraq long enough to crush Al Qaeda but couldn't do the same in Afghanistan with the Taliban. Why? Because in the end most Iraqis were tired of war and crazies and were with us against Al Qaeda, but the same was never true in enough of Afghanistan. And to TBH, it didn't hurt that the US and Iran were basically on the same side against Al Qaeda in Iraq as opposed to the converse here.

For starters, I'm going to guess they need to get him with an instructor that connects with him.

I was actually surprised when I looked back at the numbers how poorly he had hit at Toledo. HRs yes, which I guess is what we were all looking at, but that was it.

It can't because they just kill their internal opposition. It's like expecting Xi or Putin to fall from the inside. It's not that hard to prevent if you kill enough people, and killing is something Hamas has as little compunction about as you will find anywhere.

Did you reverse what you meant to ask? I said I think the org thinks he can be better. Hinch has talked about Torkelson being a good hitter on numerous occasions. Certainly if they didn't think that I can't see what reason there was for them to give him so much rope this season.

I would say he had an idea that was reasonable from one aspect, but ended up being wrong in toto. I remember early on in the push to overload the receiver corp discussion about how if you could force a team into having to cover a #1 level receiver with a their #3 CB, you would dominate on the mismatch. Maybe true as far as it goes. The problem is that Millen missed the converse - which is that no football team is better than their weakest link position group, and overloading at one position leaves your weakest links weaker, and you end up more exploited than exploiter. The best football teams are the most balanced where you can't attack them anywhere easily from either side of the ball. So in the end I think Millen did not have a good concept once you zoomed out to consider the impact on the whole team. And the proof is in the contrast to how Holmes got the team to the Conference final by making it a priority to keep filling the weakest holes.....well except for kicker maybe.

The thing is, looking back at it, Torkelson was never a decent hitter in the minors before they called him up. He's been 'unfinished' from the get go. When he made the team in 2022, he had only ever hit 239 in Toledo the prior season, and then when they sent him back down in 2022 he still didn't get above 230 at AAA before they brought him back again. So he did hit a bunch of HR in 2023, he still never got his OPS to 800. So he has never shown sustainable skill as a hitter in the 1st place. All we can hope now is that it isn't too late at this point for him to learn to do what he should have learned to do 2/3 yrs ago, command more of the strike zone.

Can we arrange to have Javy only hit with the game on the line?

The beatings will continue until morale improves, right? 😉 Sure there is line somewhere between being George Steinbrenner and demanding no accountability at all, but if the org didn’t believe Tork was capable of a lot more, maybe they should have moved on- and done something to fill the hole. The tough calls are also of the job. The thing is I do believe they think he can be good hitter, so at some point there should be some level of accountability for not being able to help him more effectively.

This seems so obvious but I don't hear any of the people inside the system talking about it, which is depressing.

You pay MLB staff big bucks because just like the players, they are supposed to be the best in the world at what they do. It may be a hard task, but that's the portfolio. Pro sport is not an excuses business - figure it out or get people who can.

Obviously we don't know what goes on that we don't see. Hinch claims Torkelson is a tireless worker, which you can believe based on his improvements with the glove, but the question is *what* is he working on with the bat? It's very hard at this point to accept the premise that Tiger coaching is helping Torkelson and that leads to the conclusion that one of two things is true, either a) he is too stubborn to change a failing approach he is over committed too, or b)whatever it is the Tigers are advising him is just not the right answer for him. I suppose at this point whichever is true, maybe Toledo is in order because in case a) it should get his attention, or in case B, he'll get a different perspective from different coaches (hopefully). Even the guys in the booth are putting out there that Tork has to be more aggressive early in the count. Given the Tiger media ecosystem that tends to make me believe they are getting that direct from Hinch, but that is just a guess. But now it's looking like even more than than now - he has to improve his plate coverage as well, and maybe that is going to take some swing retooling - IDK.....He's a messed up puppy right now.

It’s the old axiom: When you know there’s a con, and you don’t see the mark, you are the mark.