gehringer_2

The pattern of a man who knows what he needs to do but keeps hoping against hope he won't have to but then having to anyway.

I didn't have a problem with Trump talking to Kim. I was less enthusiastic about him kissing his ass.

I assume Barnhard is usually a guard? He was just being abused by speed ends playing tackle. They can't play another game like that.

I think coming to the Tigers in the middle of them jumping on the 'control the strike zone' campaign was probably a mistake for Javy. It may be a better approach for a team in general, but you just don't want Javy to be tentative at the plate. Even if it does end up two feet outside, Javy can hit those if he stays with it. I don't want him second guessing himself halfway through the swing. I've said before I think the 'control the K zone' mantra is spot on for pitchers but questionable for hitters depending on what it means at the second level. Almost no hitter is trying to swing out of the zone. Few hitters need to be told to try and stay in the strike zone, OYOH most hitters can use any kind of help you can give them figuring out how to stay in the K zone. It may be a small but I think it's a real distinction between telling a hitter "You have to stay in the K zone" vs "We are going try and give you tools and strategies that will help you with pitch recognition." There is a significant shift in the responsibility on the coaching side depending on the formulation.

Sounds counter intuitive but if you look at his fangraph data, Javy's contact rates are not what has changed, while his HR/FB ratio is way down from his better years, so you can make a reasonable argument that he is not hitting the ball as hard when he hits it. I think we spend too much time fretting over Javy's zone control. That is all about pitch recognition and there is little a hitter can do change his ability to see the ball, all he can do try to get better hitting what he swings at - no matter where the pitch ends up. And strength to get the bat to the ball is a piece of that. Now that said, you can get quicker to the ball, which helps with the recognition problem, and I think Javy does have a fair amount of excess wind-up in his swing he might work on eliminating and if he comes so ST without any changes in his swing I won't be optimistic regardless of what he accomplishes in the weight room.

talk about all the intangibles you want, the game is going to hinge on the very tangible question of whether UMs O-line gets healthy.

IDK, whatever is going on I can't help thinking he might be in pretty bad shape - I really thought he would show up for Parker making the club and when the entire Meadows family showed up without him that seemed a story in itself.

actually I was thinking more about whether any of either episode would have any traction outside the Tiger org, where the players they might be interested in would be. I'm sure some of the Tigers knew what was going on with ERod. The very fact that none among the players talked about it 'out of turn' so to speak, is probably fair evidence none of them had issues around it.

++++

Did you catch the 'live performance' of the movie at Hill a few years ago? Very cool.

actually I thought the ball was thrown exactly on line to where the receive was - just way short. If I were Maryland I wouldn't like to lose a game on that call.

but to your exact point, involvement in for what are becoming for all intents and purposes professional sports, is simply one more step in the wrong direction from where they need to be going.

it would be risky thing to be caught doing, but it could also be almost impossible to detect given the tech available to do it.

they need to work with Greene on learning to make more catches on his feet. Greene has a good glove hand and he could probably turn some number of the dives he currently makes into safer basket catches if he worked at it. The extreme ones are just going to take some maturity to decide if the game situation warrants it. The problem for a low scoring team is that it too often will... I would note that Austin Jackson could put up +20Rdrs seasons and he refused to dive for anything! You don't have to spend a lot of time on the ground to be a plus fielder.

and young players can become better fielders. For instance, in Tork's case the skills are fine, but he gets sloppy. That's exactly the kind of thing that a good work ethic can help. It can be frustrating but if anything the previous regime pulled the plug on guys too soon (Adames, Paredes, etc).

Either this is a conventional garden variety institution caught in the act story that someone is trying to come up with an outre cover story for, or the guy was pretty cracked. Story has bounced in both directions but plenty of popcorn to munch until it becomes clear which. Buddha always gives me grief about it but in the end I really have trouble seeing how the thing that major NCAA revenue sport is turning into, is compatible long term with the institutional objectives of a modern University. The management objectives and values are so alien to each other that I think University management systems will only have increasing problems handling oversight of their revenue sports programs as the sports get more professionalized.

There was never a question that the NIL system was guaranteed to produce this kind of outcome. i.e. once you give un-regulated people permission to start tossing $$ around, the odds of keeping it between the lines ain't gonna be good.

I think it's just as likely neither Tiger situation has any buzz among players in general because 1) like everyone else, probably none of them have much of a clue what was going on with ERod an thus likely have no opinion about it one way or the other - in the end he's just a guy with an opt out that took it. Nothing to see there. 2) With Turnbull non-tendered, no-one actually had their service manipulated in the end. No player is going to hold it against a team that they cut somebody loose who appears to have wanted just that.

Depends on who washes out. By the 2nd half of this season, Keith, Jung, Torkelson and Baez are potential everyday IFs, Greene, Meadows, are holding down 2 OFs. Canha, JHM, Carpenter, Vierling, left to fill 2 roster spots plus the bench has to play enough to stay sharp. So - yup, it's pretty crowded already. Of course the jury is still out on whether Parker's bat will hold up and Jung could falter at AAA, but the rest look like fairly sure things to be in their spots. Catcher is the obvious play for a new body but we already know there probably won't be one out there to be had.

I think with Turnbull there was a potential for his case to have gained some traction with players - if the Tigs had gone to arg, won a relatively low salary for him and then he had pitched well - becoming a high performance bargain and not gotten paid only for the difference between a rehab assignment and a option assignment. But the non-tender has short circuited any potential issue in that direction.

yeah - being in a hurry to make another bad move isn't an answer either. At this point it's hard to believe Weaver actually has some clear idea about how to put together an NBA team, so there's no optimism in having Gores force him to do more. More of what?

On one hand Spencer gets what he wanted - he's going to be a FA. OTOH, his value is down to where he won't do any better than he would have in arbitration, almost certainly worse. So bottom line at best he signs a one year prove it deal somewhere, and at the end of the season is pretty much exactly where he would have been after pitching his last controlled season in Det, other than being out a chuck of cash. Anyone think Boras will reimburse him the difference?

I don't know if I'd say it was for nothing. It was responsible for creating an outcome.

I think this pretty close. It reminds me of A Conan Doyle, in his 1st story where he introduces Sherlock Holmes, Holmes tells Watson he doesn't want to know anything about anything not related to his work because it would just push something he does need to know out of his brain. Harbaugh probably doesn't see the world except in whatever aspects are reflected somehow by football, and as I've said before, I strongly suspect that he is far too credulous toward anyone who professes to be a fan of his program because he doesn't see past that being a fundamental virtue in a person. I don't know if I would call him dumb exactly as much as narrow. At least since Don Brown he's done pretty well picking coaching talent, which is the head guy's most important asset.

Larkin and DeBrincat have sort of disappeared. If I had to guess., it would be that Larkin is still having issues from the shot he took in the back.