gehringer_2

there are states with graduated income taxes where that's going to ding you signficantly, e.g.,NY, Balt, MN are near 10%. No doubt, MI's 4.25% isn't chump change on $100M, but OTOH, I can't say I've ever heard a MI pro athlete complain about his state income tax. Also - state/local taxes are complicated for pro athletes - an athlete has to pay local taxes in the juridictions where their away games are played, so you only get the lower rate on the part of your salary you can apportion to your home games.

The Tigers best hope is that enough pitching gets healthy that they can move an effective starter or two or one or two effective position players. I'm still optimistic Torkelsen can be a good hitter, Greene looks solid. Add two FA and that's a 6 man line-up. Six solid players plus a Jake Rogers and a McKinstrey and you can fill in enough to compete. The problem is they are running out of time this season for any of that to happen - guys need to be on the roster pitching to establish trade value - and of course we are not likely to see Mize at all this season. But the lack of a single high trajectory player on either side of the ball at AAA is just catastrophic - it means there is no room for error, injury etc. They are going to need a marked reversal of their recent injury rates and what reason do we have to suppose that is going to happen?

Turnbull has nowhere to go and the Tigers need pitching. I can't see whatever tiff they may have had trumping those realities. He'll be back as soon as he's fit. Edman points out the bigger risk, which is that you never want to hear a pitcher has a problem in his neck....

Parker has been hitting at a very steady 720 OPS. The oonsistency is good but he will need to take another step up if he's going to make it.

Gee, I *hate* to disagree with Lynn, but while familiarity with a hitter is an advantage to the opposing team in general in formulating pitching approaches, on the individual level, the advantage goes the hitter with increasing familiiarity with any particular pitcher. There are of course many factors in total, but I think one contributor to the increase in 'true outcome' hitting approaches is that a hitter in today's game with 30 teams each with a 13 man staff, never gets the opportunity to get as familiar with each pitcher's stuff the way they did when they played all their games against only 7 or 8 other teams with 10 man staffs.

Fulmer's stuff is marginal, he is what he is. Soto's stuff is good when he can control it, but he could not throw his slider reliably last season which is what was making every outing in the later part of the season an adventure. Looking at Fangraphs, his slider usage is back up to where it was in '21 and its pitch value is closer to career norm so it's looks like he has recovered it. If he doesn't lose the slider again he'll probably have a decent season by the time it's over.

Not happy with Turnbull maybe not telling them he has a physical issue? Or not happy they lost track of him while he was changing agents? Or maybe unhappiness internally because someone tried to play service time games with Spencer and he caught them out at it in public.

Manning 1.2 inning for the Hens. 5 outs, 0R 2H 2BB 1K. 45 pitches 23 strikes. Rusty.

Justice Bigbie and Chris Meyers from WM to Erie as per Henning. https://twitter.com/Lynn_Henning/status/1668022850916175872

things that happen when nobody likes you anymore.... https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/27/russian-bitcoin-wallets-allegedly-exposed-by-apparent-hacker/

We hope both that all this is true and that Harris is truly competent, but in truth how Harris talked to Ilitch - at least initially - is probably not that simple. Remember he had to get the job first. There is a calculus there right? If you come into the interview and are brutally honest about how bad it is and how long it will really take, you might not get the job because you know there is probably another guy out there who will come in and wax poetic about all the potential they see in the system and how painless progress will be with *him* at the helm. It's like bidding any contract - you'd like to put all the adds in there you know you are going to need, but if you do you know you won't get the job, so you hope you get the job and develop enough trust as you go that you can go back to the well for those adds you left under the table on the bidding.

I would say the 'starter' strategem worked exactly as designed today. Getting to the 6th inning with 4.1 IP from Wentz and only 2 runs on the board is absolutely a successful result for your pitching plan. That part worked fine. They lost this one because Foley and Lange both picked the same day to not be able to throw strikes. If you are managing by likelihoods, that's not the one you should spend your time planning for because you don't have any workaround for it anyway.

Funny thing, when Trout came up he had kind of a 'baby fat' look that I read as a risk he night run to fat as he got older. That part turned out to a completely unjustified concern, but he's ended up missing big chunks of his career prime seasons anyway.

the thing we don't see that will also play a part is what Harris represented to Ilitch as the target outcome for this season. WE can sit here and say there never should have been any expectation, but none of us know if that is the expection Harris presented to Ilitch, which is the standard by which he and his team are likely to be judged. Sure, I would be surprised if Harris doesn't more or less have a pass from Ilitch for this year, but I'd be a lot less surprised if the management team is going to be on a much shorter leash as early as next year. Once an owner gets impatient enough to make the 1st change, his patience to see movement is likley to grow progressively shorter, whether ours does or not. 😟 The third regime enjoying the accolades for success built on a foundation that the 2nd regime put into place but was not allowed to see through to completion is an all too common US business story.

dead now.

Not Castro

not dead......yet

this would be funny if it weren't tragic

team effort from the BP today

One would assume the battle plan has any number of options. If the Russians look like they are going to collapse in a given area there should be flexibility to leverage that.

I would note that at his last start, Dirks said Wentz needed more speed differential and to throw his Curve. Today the change is a mph or so slower and he's throwing the curve. Maybe we need Dirks in the dugout!

Dirks is a great analyst.

But OTOH, just because you have a high average doesn't mean it's also empty. Arreaz also walks and hits doubles and he has a 950 OPS. Chasfh's point that you can have a 950 OPS with a much lower BA if you hit for more power is dead on, but it doesn't mean that what Arraez is doing right now isn't still damn useful. All that said, based on his history and current BaBIP, it's mostly just a nice hot streak.

it's not just the two of them though. This is a triangle. Owner's have a certain amount of agency - and if Chris I thinks he's going to be the butt of the jokes at the owner's meeting for having no passion to improve his team..... or whatever worm of discontent you want to imagine works its way into Ilitch's psyche, the guy who will be on the thinnest ice if Ilitch starts getting itchy will be Hinch. Now note - I only said 50/50 in the OP. It's not a hard prediction. I just don't think we should be naive about the way these things often go.

Never underestimate the propensity of management to value marketing and PR over relationships. They are going to need another PR booster for next year if this season doesn't turn around at least a little, and you know who the #1 candidate 'scape goat always is.