gehringer_2

of course the Russians also seem to have a way with the bad guys rising to power behind guys that look much more promising who are then shunted aside once the stake is well driven through the old regime's heart. Kerensky - Yelstin paved the way for Lenin and Putin......

Sure, although the counter to the 'you'll have clubhouse strife if a guy is demoted' arg is that these guys also all want to win, and most of them are not really going to cry too much when someone who may be standing in the way of them winning more gets moved. Plus I suppose I'd argue that you are paying a manager 7 plus figures to make sure you manage the clubhouse so that winning stays everyone's #1 priority. And of course Soto hadn't blown that many opportunities. It's been pretty clear the ice under his cleats kept getting thinner, but he he hadn't crashed through completely either. The stronger part of the arg for me is about it not mattering because they weren't going anywhere and maybe you straighten Soto out and then his value goes up so you are willing to ride it out. That's fair. Then it comes down to more nebulous questions about when and what kind of culture and how much 'edge' you need to encourage......

Maybe if people start lining up on at least two sides that's progress. There has to be some orgainzing principle for the pushers before anybody can get pushed over. I suppose we might say - well, what if someone even more right wing gets control? - but I would bet even if they do come at Putin from the right, if one or group does win through, their first priority will still have to be to pivot to restablize the Russian state and it will be obvious to anyone who wasn't Putin that they can't do that while bleeding out in Ukraine.

Shep's the only one who ever worked in sports talk radio - he knows where the audience is by now.

👍

It's sort of another example of what I haven't liked about Tigers' management this season. Soto should have lost the his closer's gig when he lost his slider. There were other guys in this BP who could have been doing a better job - but the Tigers just stayed stuck in their rut with a Soto who has pretty much been a recipe for trouble for at least half the season. I guess it's like Jack apparently said last night (when there was no-one to hear him...!), the Tigers over value their own guys. Despite what Hinch says, throwing 100 mph is not 'electric' stuff if you can't control it and have no secondary pitches. Guy who can hit triple digits and not get guys out are garden variety in today's game.

Well. Make that Welp!

this is so appropriate for the end of this season.

I don't know whose idea it is to play OF that deep. They did it last night and it burned them. Davis is so close to the wall he could crawl back to the it before the ball could get there.

From your keyboard to Harris' frontal lobes...

Speaking of Musk, WaPo reporting today that the US actually paid for some/all of the Starlinks he had been given credit for donating to Ukraine. Figures. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/08/us-quietly-paying-millions-send-starlink-terminals-ukraine-contrary-spacexs-claims/

They say they will. It's always interesting to see how close reality comes to the meeting commitments.

We are at the point with Soto where it's like we were tith KRod. You know every time he goes out there that he's on borrowed time because his arsenal is basically the FB, period, and no matter how often he escapes, he remains fixed at the edge of disaster just waiting to fall the rest of the way off. He may be Fetter's big failure of this season. He's had all year to rediscover the lost off speed pitch and it hasn't happened.

Does anyone want Soto on the 40 even as much as Garcia?

can we trade Soto for Torrens even up?

So, much earlier in the conflict there was fair amount of commentary about what kinds of circumstances could lead to the collapse of an army, but when it didn't happen to either side immediately it sort of faded from media consciousness, but a lot of what was described then looks like it may be happening now. I would imagine like everything else in the Russian media fantasy land, it didn't dawn on them that once the relatively small number of professionals in the Russian army got their units cut up and the preponderance of the remaining troops were conscripts and home guard, that the confluence of incompetence and complete lack of fighting motivation could only lead to cascading failure.

So of course he's hot tonight.

Torkelson so excited about his night at the plate he forgot to catch the ball.

Victor triples his HR total in three games! Not many players can do that in October!

LOL - timing is everything!

yeah - it was dumb, but he has also scored 15 runs in his last 16 games. There are no perfect players - esp on bad teams.

buy it, lay off half the staff to cut costs and put it back up for sale. I really don't get the impression he has any actual interest in owning it.

flipping off your son while telling him it's not his business probably not be the ideal strategy Matt

not arguing the other points, which are all fair additions to the mix, but I'd argue 28 is not old enough for a pitcher to be much of a decision factor.

Since we expect starters that go to the pen to pick up an MPH or two, don't we expect a reliever that moves to the rotation to back down a similar amount? 110 ERA+ in 4 starts - all against playoff teams. We might be selling low - if he can stay on field going forward. But no doubt somebody is going to go that they'd rather not lose. They have too many mid-level arms to keep them all.