gehringer_2

yeah - there is a certain level of relaxation in watching a BB game that is lost since you constantly feel the time pressure on the pitcher. I think they had to do something but now that I see it in action I might have approached it differently: 1) yes make the batter step in within 8 seconds and stay in the box. Nobody gains anything watching a batter adjust velcro - that had to go. 2) give the pitcher as long as he wants but after 20 seconds the batter has to be given time by the ump IF he asks for it. Once a batter has stepped out on a pitch once, then the pitcher MUST deliver in 15 sec once the batter returns. I think once you break pitchers of the ability to take a long time on that second pitch, they will probably get out of the habit of taking a long time on the 1st one as well because they are not going to want to work at mulitple rhythms. The system ends up becoming pretty self regulating intead of clock watching based. It does shift control to the hitter - as long as he is willing to wait before stepping out there is no clock running - but that will be most of the time I think. The truth is that other than some relievers, most pitchers prefer to work on a pace - it's the batters that were screwing up the game with all the step outs and glove adjustments - so the requirement on the pitchers were probably largely misguided. There are some relievers that were terrible and the modern idea of holding a pitch forever to freeze a runner had to be stopped, but making the pitcher come home in ~15 after you've exhausted the hitter's patience once might have been enough.

I saw that the Red have cut Daniel Norris. 7 BB in 6.2 IP. Baseball is a funny game. He and Dontrelle Willis. Great athletes, good arms, can't throw the ball over the plate. Go figure.

of course. The question of 'how much better" was possible is most interesting if you're talking about someone already near enough the top to enter GOAT consideration. But psychologically you also have to admit the othe opposite premise. As noted, the life of a pro athlete can be pretty damn boring if taken to a coach's recommended nose to the grindstone endpoint. How many guys would end up losing enough psychological/motivational edge that that effect exceeded the physical toll of whatever deviations from the straight and narrow they took. Unanswerable question, but not one I would dismiss. That said, if you are talking straight up addiction level alcohol abuse, there is no upside in that - but there is a lot of lifestyle choice in play short of that.

And you always end with the Mickey Mantle question - how much better might a guy have been? Or maybe worse.

Wonderful agility for a big player. You can't teach that - at least not much.

It was interesing/funny to here Jansen talk about this the other morning. You suddenly have a lot of money and opportunity but if you are going to be good you still just have to resign yourself that it's going to be a pretty boring life for as long as you are playing.

Good News - Tigers draw 4 BB today Not so Good News - Tigers K 18 times today.

Turnbull gives up one hit in 4 IP, though that one did go yard.

But it's not eyeball numbers alone that are important - it's really eyeballs x purchasing power behind each set of eyeballs. So markets like the US and Japan are going to be overweighted compared to most of Central and Latin America.

body language? are we having fun yet?

Girkin just repeatedly and directly eviscerating Putin in media posts. How is he so beyond the reach of Valddie?

I thought I had been reading some suggestions he was BP possibilility - if not that is OK by me.

Hill not helping his cause recently.

I would guess given Hinch's obsession with interchangeablility, they want them both to be able to play both but not likely at the same time - that part today is just ST random opportunity.

and another exit velo >100mph

today's cuts. Faedo no surprise. They want him and Wentz starting at Toledo. Kreidler one spot closer to making the team.

Wow. This is twitter feed so who knows if it may end incorrect, but Putin does not show up to greet Xi? I don't believe for a second Xi won't file that - even if the speculation in the tweet about him thinking it was too risky is taken at face value.

The OLine was always my general reservation with those teams. I wanted Raiola gone pretty much from the time he arrived. Was hard for me have confidence in any Lions management that was satisfied to keep bringing him back, and Reiff too for that matter. So OK, they weren't *terrible*, but the OLine was never going to be a team strength with that crew either, and I think that has to be the goal. Converesly, I'm pretty confident Holmes and co. gets it wrt the OLine. That's why this feels different to me - better team build concept in place.

Markets are nice when they work:

Interesting observation.

Sportz could talk baseball, but he seemed to get it into his head that it was up to him to defend the purity of the board againt heathen know-nothings - whatever. I'm going to be clear that I'm alleging nothing here () but Sportz' behavior on the board got to the point where it reminded me of someone who on too many occastions had had a few too many before logging in.

You have to be impressed. The Okwara deal is a good marker. Not that it was an earth shatterning deal or anything, but just because finding common ground on an agreement like that requires finesse - I bet most orgs would just have cut him and then would have had to go find someone else comparable to sign for depth. If the Lions end up getting more cap relief than a cut/new sign would have gained and Okwara gets a fair deal - Win-win.

And the thing is, transitions like that can take time to bear out even once you have the mechanics part down. If a guy has always thrown a flat FB, he had to learn to keep it down in the zone. If he learns to get high backspin in it, he has to learn to throw it up in the zone as a backspin FB thrown at the bottom of the zone is often a serious mistake. So all that muscle/perceptual muscle trained to throw that FB low has be retrained to throw it up.

I believe Dan said he started ST with a 2 for 15. He is now 12/40, which makes it 10 for his last 25, or 400. Nice area.

Miller and Maybe both younger than Cabrera and both 2 yrs into retirement. Of course, to be honest, so should Cabrera.