gehringer_2

LOL. In the non-evangelical Christian world, there is a theology emerging that says the Chuch's reason to exist must be 'missional', not attractional.' That for a couple of hundred years in the US, Church's have existed primarily to bring resources into themselves to build up their institutions, when what they should be doing is being conduits for their members lives and resources to be directed back into the world to make it a better place. The Mega church is the epitome - the end game in fact, of attractional church structure. The end game because it becomes fundamentally an entertainment venue focused on it's own preservation. And worse, the attractive church must strive for popularity by conforming to the prejudices of it's members. But entertainment is not the place to find meaning in life, and a church that doesn't change lives for the better is no church. Which is why the model contains the seeds of it own eventual failure to remain relevant to anything.

Boban has been in the league 9 seasons, his total time on the court is still less than starter's minutes for a single season. And he's pocketed $40M.

i don't really care what he puts on his shoes, but I guess I don't get why the IG post that doesn't show enough of the context to explain it (or maybe there were more and that's the only one that made twitter?)- or may that's the point - to generate "what does that mean" clicks?

I think the attack was formulated to be the most massive thing they could advertise for internal consumption that would still give them some hope of not engendering a coordinated retaliation. But they are playing a very dangerous game assuming that this isn't exactly what Bibi needs to justify what he has wanted to do all along, which is to try to bring down the Iranian regime. Nuclear facilities are an obvious target but also very hardened. As noted my guess is that unless the US talks Israel out of it, what is going to happen is that nothing will happen as Israel bides it time until the Iranian leadership drops its guard enough to be in one place and that is what Israel will go after. They'll go for Khamenie and IRG leadership and hope it initiates a chain reaction collapse of the IRR. I think that will fail, but I still think that is Bibi's likely game plan.

Of course Iran also opened itself to a counter attack by Israel that could be devastating. They apparently are banking on the US persuading Israel that it's the actual result - 'no harm, no foul' and not the brazenness of the attack - which is straight up grounds for an Israeli declaration of War under old style rules, that should be controlling. For their sake I hope they aren't overestimating the level of influence we have left with the Netanyahu government. If Israel does counter attack, I expect it will be an attempt to decapitate the regime, which would get really interesting if it succeeded.(by which I mean total chaos)

They could fire Weaver, fire Williams, bring in a new GM who will draft a player to complement Cade, move everyone else they can for players that actually make a team, and become a respectable if not deep playoff calibre team. Or they can do what Gores is most likely to do, which is give us another round of the same incompetence and futility and we can watch Cade walk at the end of '25

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.