gehringer_2

That question is sort of in limbo until he proves he can still pitch. He might be one of the unluck few percent who can't recover their command after TJ. It does happen.

It's about time the middle realize when they have just as much power as the extreme. No-one is going to get 'Primaried' over blocking Jim Jordan.

Quothe Mike Pence, "I was not aware...." Sort of says it all.

Your typical non-championship baseball FO, if they did want to trade him, would call him up ,to the majors first and hope he hits enough to burnish his trade value, and just endure 200 bad ABs if he doesn't. It's what the Tigers of yesteryear would have done. Soon enough we'll see what Harris does.

I guess it depends on how bad 'bad fielder' means. Almost no-one comes up from Toledo and is as good with the glove as his billing with maybe the exception of Parker Meadows, who does look exceptional out there. I would have to guess that means Malloy will be even worse than we suppose. I guess OTOH, Carpenter has not been as bad as his rep. Sure there are things he is pretty bad at which means he always fails the eye test. But his numbers argue he does enough ordinary stuff well enough not to be a serious liability (-2 Rdrs)

Jim Jordan doesn't know how to write legislation, Jim Jordan doesn't know how to pass legislation. I guess that does make him the ideal GOP chief legislator.

LOL, Jordan increased his vote by 11 over Scalise. So at this rate in another 10 sessions he might get to 217.

Why do get this constantly sinking feeling about Cade....

Yeah - fixed that - I thought he had gone back to the OF but that was wrong also - he came back at 1b.

I think Harper is a somewhat comparable case. He had TJ on his at the end of last Nov was back in the field in June of this season but at 1b

QFT

this is always the amusing part. But it's part of the myth structure. Humans crave determinism in a Universe that is stochastic right down to the atomic level and they will just invent it anywhere they can't find it really exists.

Have you traded Greene? I guess I could see Greene and Malloy at DH and LF as the season opens but as Riley rehabs he's going to bump Malloy out of left probably by mid-season.

I'd put it that the fact that the outcome of an unbiased playoff would be random means exactly that what you do with the format does matter because the format can change an unbiased result to a biased one. So you want to be intentional in designing formats to either avoid bias or at least get the biases you want and avoid ones you don't. For example, leaving aside the question of whether it actually does or doesn't, if we assume just for the sake of argument that layoffs hurt teams and that could eventually be shown, then you certainly did not want to disadvantage the best teams by "giving" them a bye. Home field is the other obvious candidate bias , as most teams do have higher winning percentages at home, though without looking it up I believe that in all sports home-field advantage has been shrinking since replay arrived. I'd guess it could disappear nearly completely in baseball if pitch calling is automated.....

Bigbie with a 483 OBP in 7 AFL games. https://www.mlb.com/tigers/news/arizona-fall-league-roundup-for-october-11

TBF, you can get a Parliamentary system's panties in a bunch as well spending weeks trying to form coalition governments when no outright majority prevails. But Ronz is more correct than not, the mess in Washington is just a symptom of a generalized decay of the fundamental social contract in the US. Enough people today believe the system is broken enough that they've stopping caring if it's cared for. Their problem is their lack of imagination about how much worse their lives will get once they decide that expending the effort to fix what they have isn't worth their time to them.

Jeffries' opening position should be "you want my votes, join my party"

Building a team for COPA is a little tricky. On average you're going to end up with OF with less bat because it's a harder OF to hide a bad fielder. In turn that means you are probably prone to taking chances on IFs with more offensive potential but whose gloves may end up not playing (W. Castro.....). I always though Avila knew what he wanted, but it was like he always underestimated how hard it would be to replace the players he was willing to let go when they were not ideal.

I know it will never happen but the more we've kicked this idea around the more I like it.

Indeed. The irony of letting Nick and JD go, both at least in part over dissatisfaction with their defense, was the team defense did not improve. It's begun to improve now several years later, but certainly not as any consequence of moving those two guys.

Indeed, and the other truth is that over a 6 month season, with injuries, trades, promotions, often the team that finishes in September is quite a different team than the one that accumulated its record. So there is always some lesser or greater degree to which a record doesn't even belong to that current team. But take it from a different tack: Since in truth we know that the outcome probability of any short series between two baseball teams with between 500 and 600 records is so close to even that neither team should have any expectation of being favored, do you *want* to bias the outcome to the advantage of the team that did better through the regular season exactly as the reward for that performance? That is a philosophical question, not a mathematical one.

If "lipstick on a pig" was ever appropriate, it would have to apply to any attempt to repackage Jordan. 🐽

Jordan has apparently been running a charm offensive to moderates saying that as a leader he will take on the mantle of representing the interests of the whole party. IMHO, they will believe that to their peril.

At some point when frustration is hitting defcon 5, Biden and the Dems need to figure out how to make the perfectly pitched play to flip 5 blue district GOP reps. It really the only way this can end well. Doubtful the leadership is up to it though.

FIFY