gehringer_2

Maybe - or maybe I don't. Just because I don't expect certain things from them doesn't mean I don't take a certain cynical pleasure in laughing when they show the degree to which they are lacking those things. Note that at least as far as I can remember, I've never called for JH to be fired, only expressed that I won't particularly grieve when he leaves either.

And let's be completely candid here - every successful football coach is fundamentally a con man. You have to be, it's the core of job, which is to persuade a bunch of young men with a lot of other things on their minds that providing casual entertainment to the great unwashed masses is the single most important thing in life to which they must dedicate every fiber of their waking being. The only difference is in the nature (and sometimes legality) of their methods, but all will appear pretty unsightly if you happen to get a view too deep below the patina.

And the funniest thing to me now is that there is no money in it. Prices have collapsed. The invisible hand is all in on the herb.

Schlissel has probably found reason to enjoy his forced sabbatical a little extra the last month or so....

His unfinished NFL business is to win a Super Bowl. Harbaugh will make lots of NFL noise to beat UM over the head with, but he's not going to jump except to a team that gives him a shot at the trophy. Denver was never any kind of serious possibility. I can believe Warde being smart enough not to have been taking the bait may be why Harbaugh has no present use for him. Which is not to say he is as likely to end up the loser in that dynamic anyway. But Warde will be able to write his own ticket if he is forced out at UM, so he can afford to stand his ground if he cares to.

Most catchers are good with the throws, but there is really no way around the value of wingspan for a 1b and Hasse will never have that at 5' 10". Of course Torkelson isn't your ideal 6' 4" either....

My guess - Haase is going to get the ABs, and where he plays depends on whether Rogers or Sands hits. If they don't, they will suffer his defense and catch him, if one of the others hits enough to be viable, Haase will get his AB in the OF, but I think he is likely to play regularly one way or the other. Not getting Haase more than 350 AB was one of the more glaring personnel errors last season.

Never was a chance and never will be, but still can't get over my fantasy that somehow the Tigers came up with a pot of gold big enough to lure Mike Turico. Our local guy is the best in the biz - IMHO.

Lots of possible reasons to ease out Morris. Pick any combination of: -he's somewhat a loose cannon - re: suspension over Ohtani comment -he may want to cut down on his travel from MN -the Twins may have rehired him -they've been grooming Monroe to move up, someone had to lose the air time -his demographic *is* probably the worst of the current crew. -he and Shep are the worst combination. That's not necessarily Jack's fault (though it might be), but Morris is the one guy where Shep can't seem to loosen up and get over acting like a waterboy, which makes a poor telecast.

why should I like the guy just because he wins? Lot of guys win whom I wouldn't care to have a beer with. Urban Meyer was the most successful coach at OSU since Woody - If I were an OSU alum should I like him? What would your feelings about Krzyzewski be if you'd gone to Duke? Harbaugh's sins may not be of of same nature, but they are sufficient that I find him personally distasteful. I'm not dissing anyone who disagrees - that's their choice.

Note that Harbaugh apparently cut Warde out of the loop to give the news of the blessed event to Ono. Nice to know it's all sweetness and light at the Athletic Dept.

Yeah - they like to win close and lose big.

He just can't bring himself to say he's staying. Like I've said - a total nutjob. He may be a good football coach but at some point you have to wonder how much of the garbage he brings with him is worth it?

Agree. Dmen I'm most willing to lose are Osterle and Chairot. Walman made a great play the other night where he skated down a breakaway. He ended up getting a penalty on a terrible call when the guy blew a skate blade and crashed, (they actually showed the trainers working on the skate on the bench but the officials didn't reverse the tripping call....surprise) but in any case it was impressive speed by Walman-no one on the team but maybe Larkin would have been close. Recently he seems to me to be showing more of those good wheels that he's supposed to be known for.

But they aren't giving him enough PT to stay sharp either..... Have to give SY credit - he hasn't lost one yet.....

I guess the reporting from Grand Rapids was a bit over optimistic?

IDK, maybe because you looked at the frame and the decent speed it was hard not to hope we'd get more out of it than we ever did. And to give Victor his due, he did what he asked, never made a fuss and he did generally know the right play - he didn't make a lot of mistakes.

AFAIK, post duty titles in the US are nothing more than courtesies. They can be offered or ignored.

Funny thing with Victor is that he seemed to do a decent job of taking pitches until he had 2 strikes, then he sort of gave up and started hacking. I don't know how you get a guy over a mental block like that (and apparently the Tigers didn't either!), but it was a little frustrating because you felt like he should have been able to make that breakthrough. At 27 he probably is never going to. I don't have any experience of what a major league is facing in the box, but as an observer I've always had the impression that many bad hitters are defeated by having too much fear of taking a called third.

Montana did have some legs, but he did not have upper tier arm talent either. Winning QB play is only half about physical talent. It does help if you are tall enough to see easily, and strong enough to be harder to tackle (Brady does have both of those). And that's the thing. You can put a QB with great IQ, good accuracy and management skill into a setting where he doesn't need to make a lot of circus throws or run for a lot of yardage with more predictability than you can put a QB who can make circus plays out there and get enough of those kind of plays and few enough mistakes to win consistently without the rest of the cast around him.

Agreed. I believe in Baseball that should be your approach everywhere. You don't need to spend your time and effort just to find guys to fill out your long term AAA rosters. The odds of any prospect anywhere making the ML if they are not really special is very poor. The big problem is the one Edman points out which is that most of the international kids are signed before they are even full grown so there is really isn't much way of knowing what you are chasing.

Good question! It would be some kind of poetic justice if the GOP succeeds in keeping immigration suppressed for a generation or so and gets a crash in US upper class real estate prices as the reward for their effort.

Because it's full of old people who had enough money to buy in there?

Yes. They need to figure out what they are doing with Ned and Hellberg and get to where they have a working goalie rotation. Right now they don't have any confidence in either of them and are close enough to the playoff spot taat they don't want to risk any games to a 'goaltending loss', but you can't drive Husso into the ground either - so something has to give.

The don't score enough goals and Chariot has some offensive play in his game so Lalonde is willing to live with the rest I guess.