gehringer_2

If he fails, it won't be for lack of confidence.

They succeeded to some degree. They have scored 29 more goals this season than last plus whatever they add in the last two. But the goals against only dropped by 10, and it will less than that by the end. So while Yzerman turned over some Dmen last off season, the D didn't get substantially bettter, if at all. And of course not enough of our forwards are effective two ways either.

Hopefully some team will be willing to give something up for Berggren - who could be an asset for a the right team - one that is already strong defensively but needs finishers on offense. But for the Wings who are weak defensively and already have DeBrincat (and possibly Kane) he might well be worth more as a trade chip.

right - it's just an amazingly bad assembly. How many line-ups could you add Cade Cunningham to and end up with a worse team?

split with the predicted division winner. Disappointing given they should have won one yesterday, but not a complete disaster.

Urshella's glove still works.

now Foley can't throw strikes? What else?

I really liked a couple of pitchers before where he spoiled the close to a called strike sinker - pure defensive swing to stay alive with no intent to do anything.

He had a pretty sorry AB in the nightcap yesterday as well.

this is such a weird dance Israel and Iran are doing. The 'attack' by Iran on Israel by means Iran knew Israel could pretty easily counter stands as sort of a de-escalating escalation. They created an off ramp for themselves with their own public and more importantly an off-ramp for Netanyahu as well if he is willing - or even wants to - take it.

I love Hinch when it comes to pitching and bullpen management. He's as good as I've ever seen - better, but something is wrong with the team's hitting approach that is taking too far into the season to right itself. Either the players finally figure it out themselves, or the players tune it out, or the coaching alters its approach.

yeah - I'd like to have seen Lalonde mix and match more just in the regular course of things, firstly just so guys get more familiar with each other in case someone goes down so you don't get the situation where you lose Larkin and all 4 lines are screwed up, but also just because you never know if you might hit a little special chemistry you'd otherwise miss. and you're right that the 2nd line was completely becalmed for weeks and Lalonde pretty much just left it alone instead of trying to change things up.

OK, so they are not 2-11, but they won some games on the virtue of some great pitching, the O is just as dead out of the gate as it has been for the third year. When does the hammer fall on Hinch to change the way/take responsibility for the way he brings his hitters out of ST? The probability of this just being bad luck or cold weather is pretty low at this point. The team is messing itself up somehow. They are all 'in between' looking for what ever it is they're looking for that isn't there.

Wood-Rich threw a 93 mph middle-middle FB to almost every hitter that inning and not one barreled it up - all fouled off.

Keith is making them all look bad, shortening up and taking base hits with RISC.

Hinch outsmarted himself on that one - no question. I can accept that but at least take the bunt sign off when he is clearly lost on the first attempt and give him half a chance to hit.

never send a guy up to bunt who doesn't. Just silly.

absolutely terrible approach by Torkelson in the 11th with the game on the line all he needs is to poke the ball to right against a guy throwing him outside and he's till trying to pull everything. Terrible.

The poor producers had paid for the sword master, the choreography and Harrison just blew it up, but you can't argue with perfect.

The best outcome for the Wings would be to find out Ras has one of those silent abdominal tears (i.e "sports hernia") slowing him down. Short of that the disappointment probably continues.....

If there is one thing that I think maybe the Tigers over do, it's preaching about looking for pitches to drive. My take has always been that too many Tigers take too many 1st pitch strikes because they aren't perfect pitches to drive, but then get themselves behind in the count and become easy outs. Sometimes you have to give the pitcher a little credit. If he is painting the corners maybe you aren't going to get a pitch you love and so you can't take him deep but that doesn't mean you can't shorten up and put a ball that's going to be a called strike in play instead of taking the eventual K.

This is kind of out of left field but Ras reminds me of Rasheed Wallace in a way. Players that have a level they can show but can't hit consistently or even most of the time. Rasheed's baseline was higher than Ras' but the idea that there was always more there that wasn't showing is the same. I sort of wonder if sometimes with big guys if it's a physiological thing, that maybe its genetics and they just can't get to a high enough metabolic output consistently. That would certainly be a factor in both basketball and hockey.

they all have the same teeth?

But it sort of proves the point that making progress in trades and signings of NHL players is very slow going, the big jumps come from the guys you draft and the Wings didn't bring anyone up this year until they finally ran out of reasons to keep Edvinsson in GR. If Cossa is the real deal a step up in the goal tending next season could drive the next point total increment.

If Selleck had done Jones it would have been one and done. He couldn't have given the character the irony that is Ford's calling card and makes a romp like an Indiana Jones movie work.