gehringer_2

Right - so how does that get you closer to a successful baseball franchise?

To me the thing with Monroe is that I know he could be better than he is. He forces things when he is in the booth, and there is always too much force or tension or growl in his voice. He'd be much better if he'd lose that and just be normal. That and his basic game breakdown sucks. I'm close to catatonic with the number of times he has told me that a guy who has absolutely zero intention to is going to try to 'use the big part of the field'.

I thought the official game clock is kept by an official on the field - or at least it once was. That's why the ref often tells the scoreboard operator to reset the clock to whatever?

Do you get the impression that Ray's ownership is whistling past the graveyard with the notion that a new ball park at the same spot is suddenly going to draw more fans? I'm very skeptical that whatever co-development they do in the area will make any difference to baseball attendance either. Buying tickets to a sporting event is pretty disconnected from any consideration of whatever level of civic activity is going on around the venue. There just isn't that much connection other than maybe having places to eat - and probably more than 3/4 of fans see eating in the ball park part of the experience. Maybe the presence of a ball park benefits commerce in the area around it, but I don't think the equation works much in the other direction.

This was the pretty much the take on him before he ran for Speaker. He does have one sort of striking feature I noticed with all the video of him this week, and that is his absolute stillness when he pauses while speaking. It's almost mesmerizing in a weird way. I was checking my internet connection to see if my feed was freezing.

Hard to know where the Tigers are on Kieth vis a vis 2nd vs 3rd. I don't want to bring in a 2b if that's going to be Keith's preferred position - things are already getting log jammed there. If Keith is going to play 2nd, go find a honest to MLB glove for 3rd. If Keith is your 3b, commit to him there.

LOL - Lengthy process? I guess the read the ratings reports verrry slowly.

I suppose in 20 yrs when people are retired and writing books it might become more clear - or not since book writers often write with the express purpose of re-inventing history! - But it's not hard to believe both that that McCarthy expected the CR to go down, and Gaetz expected McCarthy to survive, and the actual events only show neither had a clue about what they were doing. It's an old story - if you are going to manage a legislature you better be able to count votes before you ask for them to be taken.

And of course, BSD is a dead-man walking entity itself. The people that made this decision could themselves be gone at any time.

It's what I said before - for Repubs like McCarthy their very psychic identity is so tied to their tribal membership they can't act rationally in their own or the greater public interest if it implies a compromise in that identity. They are are all in a state of psychological paralysis. They are de-evolved, basically examples of pre-civilization homo-sapiens.

How many guys are going to take one look at who their supporting case is going to be and politely decline the offer to interview? Probably most anyone worth their salt.

Don't you think Urban would chafe in E. Lansing? Not a big enough stage for him I would think.

The disappointing thing to hear was 'all the analysts will be back.' If they run the same production but just replace the PBP voice they are already capping their potential improvement.

I think this is true.

Agree in the main here. Not a huge fan of Mario either and would as soon they do better, but TBF, in their last few years part of this was because of the tension in the box. Mario would not engage with Rod because he believed Rod wasn't pulling his weight, and since they didn't get along, there were few conversation points from out side the game call. I clearly remember Mario doing the occasional game when Rod was out, and he came across as almost a different person. Gibson could really draw him out. You can fault the Fox management keeping two guys together that were holding each other's better selves down, and both of them for being too stubborn individually to get out of a situation that was stunting their professional performance before it eventually blew up on them.

Not sure if I would call this doing 'due diligence'? or 'due negligence'....

I'm sure it would be a futile attempt, but I'd still take some of Cabrera's money and make a pass at Tirico - just because you never know.

One of the issues with quantitative based management is you can fall into the trap of missing unmeasured variables. This is not unlike corporations that make bad strategy moves because their cost accounting systems tell them to try to save money in one place, which ends up costing them a lot more money in another place, but they don't have any way to know it because that place doesn't have the right cost measurement metrics in place to tell them. Let's posit that 'moving guys around' causes a deficit of 'X' in a team's Rrds over a season, and an increase 'Y' in the teams runs scoring. As long as Y > X we are golden. What if it isn't? How would you even know? We all know the team can measure 'Y', can any of them measure 'X'? How do you assign a weight to how much a player playing multiple positions contributes to a play not made? I'll posit the defensive metrics and sample sizes being what they are, it's not an easy thing to do. Plus every player may respond differently. But it's always a dangerous thing to assume that just because you can't or don't measure something that it doesn't exist.

apparently Kimbrel has done this before - in particular in extra inning games where he preferred the man on 3rd where he couldn't steal signs. Of course he could just use PitchCom....

It so reassuring to know we have such small minded, venal men running the GOP.

Self inflicted wounds IMO. Matt knows baseball, he could have acted and talked like he knows baseball and he might have made it work - at least better than he has done. When all Shep does is play the fool to the ex-player, you never get an actual discussion or counterpoint view on anything - and when the ex-player has nothing to offer but stock phrase platitudes like Monroe, you don't get very good baseball analysis. Maybe it was noble of him to take on the mantel of trying to make poor to mediocre color guys look better, but his first responsibility was to the listener, not his partners.

well, this does surprise me. I figured McCarthy would have his name put back into nomination and we see January all over again, but apparently not. McCarthy will not run for his old gig

Yup - Andy is a 'Natural'

And of course, just another example of: ETTD.

I wonder if Gaetz actually thought McCarthy would swing a deal with the Dems to keep the Speakership which would have allowed Gaetz to just keep agitating, basically cost free. Hard to see with McCarthy out how the radical wing does not end up dis-empowered. Do they think they can come with a guy that will cede them even more than McCarthy did?