gehringer_2

I'm sure Hinch would love to have another RH OF, I just don't see where you get him on the 26. You'd be down to one IF on the bench unless they they go to 12 pitchers, but that seems pretty unlikey also.

damn - just lost a post At any rate - i wouldn't compare Zadina and Ras at any point in their careers. Ras was hurt half the year before they resigned him but in 21-22 the improvement was obvious. Plus he has more potential because of his size to contribure to the team Yzerman wanted to build. Yzerman still holds that he could turn into a decent player. We are probbly going to get to find out because odds are he will be back at camp.

LOL - 'everybody said so at the time' about the pick too. Still wasted money if he doesn't play for them, just as wasted as the pick was. You can't really separate the two.

sure, as a general value proposition Jimenez may not have been enough to bring a starting 3B. But that's tactics, the need to fill 3b was a strategic requirement.

It's NHL, not the NBA, IDK if I'd call 3x$1.8M/yr small by NHL standards. It's about the middle of the RW salary list and he's been less than a middling player. Of course maybe he was just being diplomatic but Yzerman was still holding that he thinks Zadina can make it in the NHL Asking to be traded sort of tells you he doesn't want to play for Lalonde though, which could make it tough for him if no-one picks him up and he has to come to RW camp.

IDK - Pence doesn't seem like he'd be a bad guy to have to spend non-political time around. Believes a lot of bat-**** crazy stuff yes, but he's sort of an old school polite, courtly kind of guy. To me he's like Romney without the chic and the Saville-Row suits: A guy I'd trust my stuff with, just not my government.

It tells you how odd Fla politics must be. In most places it's generally hard to get elected to anything if you generate that kind of personal miasma around yourself.

My singular memory about Zadina was on a PP one day. Pretty sure the Wings were trailing and needed the goal. They gave Zadina a PP shift and the 4 other Wings went all in for him. They must have set him up for at least 7 SOG from the slot, and he put every single damn one into the middle of the goalie;s chest. It was an encapsulation of the team having gone out of their way to help him succeed and his inability to justify it.

LOL - Keith and Malloy took a night off but are right back at it. Keith 3/4, Malloy with the HR and 2 BB

I assume in hockey if they pick him up they have to pick up the contract - unlike baseball where you get a waived player for the minimum? If that's true he's stuck here. Also makes the contract a pretty terrible decision.

absofreakinglutely

he was playing something like 50% but it needs to get to more like 60%. They keeping thinking a switch is going to flip for Haase, but even if you throw out this season, Haase's HR rate over '21-'22 was one in 20 PA. Jake's HR rate this season is better than that anyway (one in ~17) and he's the better catcher. I understand keeping him healthy but he'll still get plenty of rest playing more than Hinch has been willing to use him. At this point there is little reason to play Hasse more for the sake of offense.

Ain't it the truth.

So much for Lanford and Crews both being *clearly* better than the rest of the field?

Sure - maybe just a moonshoot there, but then again, you can't give Harris a pass for not putting a better 3b on the field (or in the near pipeline) by saying he knew the guys he picked up as possible replacements couldn't play there in the first place. >Was there, in your opinion? Not my job man! If you have a working knowledge of league personal and you know you aren't going to find a 3b, why do you let Candelario go? And of you say Ilitch didn't give him a choice I'm going to say he may have already failed as a GM if his relationship with his owner is such that he can't move him on a $7M decision. That's my angle on it. I was fine with letting JC go because my assumption was Harris was going to competently fill the hole. Now in retrospect, my hindsight view definitely swings 180 because he didn't. Now that's not to say I'm grabbing a pitchfork. As posted above, I've liked most of his personnel moves other than 3b - nobody's going to bat 1000. But I'm not going to give him a pass and blame 3B on some forces outside Harris' control either.

So I was just looking at Jeimer's splits for the last few years and what's interesting is that his performance as a RHB has been pretty consistent in the 675-725 OPS range. But it's his performance as a LHB that has yo-yo'd up and down from year to year - up to over 800 and then back down into the 600's. Now the funny thing is the wrist issue was in his left wrist and supposedly bothered him batting RH as per here. That actually dovetails with that fact that his RH performance has never gotten close to where it was in 2018 since. But it doesn't explain why his LH batting has been up and down year to year.

The odd coindence is that what I would say were Harris' only two misses both related to 3B, Maton and Malloy. And Malloy may yet end up a valuable MLB hitter, he's just apparently not going to do it at 3B. A couple of possibilities: 3B just happens to be an unusually hard position to fill right now, or who ever was assigned to grade 3B glove work wasn't up to the task.

The whole Superior coast. It's best to do this not too long after the spring thaw when water levels are high and the wildflowers are peaking, but if you start at the WI border and work east on the Superior shore you can spend two days just stopping and hiking into all the waterfalls. Awesome

It appears his performance in this game has moved Torkelson to positive WAR on BR. Huzzah!

Life is too short to even think about trying to know NBA trade rules. The only thing I can take from this is that it is a strange use of the word 'apron'

Tigers seem like a decent org most of the time. You'd think they'd at least call around for him and see if they can move him. Or if his agent is any good he'll know if he has a potental landing spot somewhere if he refuses assignment. Otherwise his best career move would be to go to AAA so he can keep playing and work toward getting a ST invite from a team next season. Of course the other question is whether they have playing time for him in Toledo. Once Baddoo is activated their roster shows 4 OFs. Parker is going to play everyday. Witherspoon and Steele are filler, Solak is just as much an IF, so why not?

The arithmetic is that they are not going to carry 5* OF only players. A number past 4 and that player has to double somewhere else. So with Greene, Baddoo, Vierling, Carpenter as 1-4, Haase is #5 and he is filling a second spot as the backup catcher. For Marisnick to stick, you have to have another OF doubling on the IF. Vierling can supposedly play on the IF but since he has only played 3 innings there this season the Tigers don't appear to take that possibility seriously. P - 13 C - 2 IF - 6 DH - 1 that leaves only 4 OF. Marisnick's attraction is that he is a RHB and he is a better OF than Haase, but he can't replace Haase as the 5th OF because he can't catch or replace a utility infielder.

Even though it's still early for seasonal judgments, I'm fine with most of Harris' pickups. I like McKinstry, Vierling, Holton, Eglert, Ibanez. Maybe a lower grade coming for Malloy if he's going to be limited to DH duty. Even in Maton's case, it probably wasn't his 1st choice to be put at 3B.

Of course he's hitting at Toledo.... I have to say I don't see the fascination. Decent walk rate but other than that a dime-a-dozen 4A 2B. Obviously the right guy likes him (Harris)

Kody Clemens back to AAA https://www.mlive.com/tigers/2023/07/phillies-sending-ex-tiger-down-to-minors.html