gehringer_2

If you don't earn you keep with assists you need to able to shoot - today that means treys. That's the Piston's problem in a nutshell, whoever goes off the ball has to be more threat as a shooter (e.g Dumars in your example) and none of Ivey, Killian or really even Cade, has shown they consistently can be. Maybe they get there, but it's an open question.

I think Schoop is going to be on a short leash. Maybe he'll produce better under pressure.

Meh - I doubt there is a locking or unlocking to be done. He has to throw his breaking ball for srtikes. A breaking ball he already knows perfectly well how to throw and that he has had success with in the past. Soto's problem isn't advice, it's pure execution. He may or may not straighten himself out, and some coach may claim credit, but it will just be resume luck.

Kimbrel is 35. That is so DD.

Then he tried to hand stuff to the equipment guy, but he had walked off.

Every study I have seen of this says that home field advantage is the result of officiating. Last time I looked, home field advantage had been generally declining in baseball and football - almost certainly as the result of instant replay. It would probably disappear completely if more calls were reviewable, though I wouldn't want to see more delays just for that purpose. I tend to believe that this is a big reason that Major League Baseball has been so reluctant to use an automated strike zone - home field advantage is good for ticket sales, and in baseball a computerized K zone would remove the last big factor contributing to it.

a fair number of Constitutional interpreters say it's a pointless and unnecessary exercise anyway. Congress already appropriated the money. No where does it say there is any need for the Congress to expressly re-authortize appropriated money to be spent. It's a habit now and no admin wants to force the court challenge because it would make them look like 'spenders'.

Though more true for Jimenez than Soto. Willingness to move Soto makes me think they probably did offer him to Atlanta, which I wondered about at the time.

well, one thing we can say, Harris may like to take more risk, but he has little taste for risky relievers like Soto and Jimenez. 😱

also interesting that in the highlight reel he has two different stances - at some point in the season he either opened or closed his stance.

true. Vierling is a good fit so as long as some other arms hold up the pen it should be plus trade on balance.

correct. This deal is pretty much a nothing burger. Deck chair re-arrange on the Titanic as we used to say.

they are all too old to have much unrealized upside.

Maybe not, but do you call him a major leaguer with a 648 OPS and negative WAR? I doubt I'm going to mourn Soto's loss but I'm having trouble seeing how any of these guys do much for us either.

If DD ever had a weakness, it was for questionable RPs!

Oh Lord - I don't think so. I don't like giving up any major leaguer for a bunch of middle aged minor leaguers.

the other thing is that you can't predict with much certainty which way the public mood is going to go if the FC group starts playing obstruction. Maybe it ends up playing well, or maybe the public is tired of it and the backlash ends up being a big boost for the Dems. I think the latter is more likely, in which case the non-FC GOP members are going to see themselves forced pretty quickly into a deal with the Dems to kneecap the FC.

LOL - yeah, the question around Goff is getting close to turning around 180 deg. It's almost as reasonable to ask they they will be able to afford him when his deal is up as whether they want him until his deal is up. I'm all in on CBs. I think the position has always been unrated, and even if it gets more love recently - I'd still say it's under rated. I think part of it is that on the way up so many of the great potential CBs end up on the other side of the ball that there are never enough guys in the league with the physical talent to show how important the position can be if you could get the best athletes there.

and isn't this going to be sort of a dilemma for the Pistons? The excuse made for Cade was always that despite not having a top level shot or top level athleticism, he would redeem himself as a top player by the value of having the ball in his hands, but if you've already brought in another player whose hands you maybe would rather see the ball in, where does does that leave Cade? Can you have two guys share primary ball handling in this NBA? In the end don't you have to be better with one or the other? Of course moot point if Cunningham can't stay healthy.

I suppose there are a couple of different views you can take on this episode. On the one hand, the bad news is that the anarchists were able to win by forcing the speaker to accept all their conditions - though the final word on that may not be written until we see if there turns out to be a fight on the rules, Monday. But on the other hand, the events can can also be read that the GOP caucus as a whole did stand firm and out last the anarchists by refusing to force McCarthy aside though the course of the 15 votes in which he lost only a single supporter from the first vote. Hard to know which of these interpretations is going to be more predictive of rest of the session.

Forecast for game time is 24 deg, no snow. Much less bad than it could be.

Kevin McCarthy begins his speakership

but you can be sure he will be claiming a personal victory within the time it takes to tap out 160 characters from the gavel drop.

I don't think it's a very long limb to climb out on to predict McCarthy will fall in fairly short order, probably when the 1st debt ceiling vote comes up. The FC will refuse to let the speaker bring it to a vote and that will be the end of McCarthy. At that point, when it's something real on the table and not just a personnel matter, we'll see if a durable majority to govern can emerge from a coalition of the center of the two parties or not.

Watch them lose someone else before the end of vote 15.