gehringer_2

LOL - The VFW logo is a Maltese Cross and in VFW installation rituals people march out (or at least use to back in the day) the pattern of the 'Cross of Malta'. I watched many of those as a kid and and only later as a adult wondered if any of the WWII guys had any idea who the Knights of Malta were. Probably not.

I'm not lying when I say I wasn't wild about Mize. IIRC, Brady lost some top end going into his last college year, so to still like him you had to assume he'd figure it out and get it back the stuff that made him the consensus preseason #1. Turns out he never has - he's just a low 90's guy, but he's still learned to pitch with that and give him team some innings - so he's still produced a lot more than Mize. OTOH, I've always thought you have to take it with a bigger grain of salt that most did when a breaking ball, and esp split finger pitcher, has big college success because a lot of it comes out of the zone, and MLB hitters aren't going to go out of the zone nearly as much, so I was at least a little skeptical of Mize. Sure enough once Casey started to get some innings in the MLB in '21 he had so little success with the split against MLB hitters that he cut it's use rate from 18% to 13% and threw sliders. This year he's trying to throw the split more again - probably getting some pointers from Kenta.

In 2018, if they were set on taking a pitcher, the other highly touted player was Brady Singer. He didn't have a good final college season and fell to the Royals at 18th, but he has 8.5 more WAR than Casey and has given the Royals 400 more IP than we've gotten from Mize.

dagnabit! The idea was not to have to face Merrill. EDIT: no harm, no foul!

Holton, Vest or Foley? EDIT: Holton it is.

Someone asked last night who on the Tigers can hit velo. Parker says "Me."

I just want to at least see some evidence he's becoming a smarter - as in higher OBP - hitter.

Yeah - He keeps teasing - he'll show some flashes, but at some point he's got to become a consistent difference maker and hope is getting harder to sustain. Still, you know like day follows night he'll have a couple of great years for someone else after they cut him loose.

Like his last start he did get a little better as he went but he needs to be better out of the gate.

I don't know if 3 games is enough to get them to reconsider their left-handed push but I hope so. It's too easy for your divisional rivals to load up on LH relievers. They can do that a lot faster than you can develop RH hitting once you go too far down that road. As always, the fact you think you can exploit a statistical advantage today doesn't mean your opponents are just going to stand still and not respond so you can beat them to tomorrow.

Dimitri Simes and his wife both indicted today https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/05/us/politics/russia-us-simes-indictment-election.html

Just no life/movement - esp on his FB. It's been an issue since the day he was drafted.

This guy is 15 yrs late for the vasectomy he's needed.

Meh. Overkill. Say anything with a smile and the right attitude and it's fine. It makes be feel guilty to accept service at a place where I feel a condition for employment by the staff is to be autonamatons.

It's not the speech, it's the law. You can't spread around foreign money without registering as a foreign agent and foreign money is about the only kind the law does say you can't spend on an US election - though there are even some loopholes there.

I suppose normalization of outright treason is the logical endpoint for the Trumplican program to normalize everything else that should be disqualifying.

well, you can say Hinch might have gotten Montero out of there with the lead, but the way Brieske and Miller pitched they should have given up runs there. Padres BP too much for the Tigers. The heavy LH lineup doesn't work against a lefty BP. Montero looks like he has some promise but of course he really should be at AAA learning to pitch inside and sequence

well the 1st GB was in the right direction for the Tigers.

didn't get the run in, Foley gives up two ground balls it's over.

Malloy is not a good matchup for this velo. Hope for a walk

terrible AB by Carpenter. Take middle-middle for strike one and then Ks out of the zone.

Vierling will be the runner - can't ask for better than that.

don't see a path to a win without using Vest for 2 here, but whatever... EDIT: my bad, I thought the guys in the booth said Foley was coming in.....

the buyout is $250K vs a $4.25M commitment. If the FO thinks they are picking up that option Ilitch needs to show someone the door.

Well someone on the Tigers is living right because you just saw two of the best outcomes from two of the worst relief pitching performance you may ever.