gehringer_2

True enough - though differences also. The Sunni power structure in Iraq knew that once Saddam fell they were never going to get power back again - beyond Saddam they had no prospects - the future was civil-war and/or an inevitable Shia take-over since the Americans would eventually force an election the Sunni couldn't win if they removed Saddam. "Reformed" government by the Sunni wasn't possible in Iraq as the only 'reform' the Shia cared about was gaining control. What is so striking in Russia is the degree to which Putin is destroying all the vestiges of civil society that could reasonably function once his bullet finds him. It's going to be like Libya isn't it?

you keep what you kill?

people complain about CF but dead center is actually the same as Tiger Stadium was for the last 30-40 yrs at the old ball park- 420*. Now it's true that the 420 wall is a lot wider at COPA than it was at Tiger stadium so that just to left and right of dead center are longer at COPA. But there were still a good number of deep shots hit at Tiger stadium that guys didn't get rewarded for. They could round out the CF wall at COPA to get rid of the 430 areas and it wouldn't bother me but TBH I like the 420 to dead center. (For a long time I think Dan Dickerson was the only guy in the Det baseball media that understood that dead center was not the deepest point at COPA) *If you are old enough to remember the flagpole being in play at TS,, it was 440 into a fairly square corner where the left and right field walls met, which was where the flagpole was. But when they did some remodel work at one point (60's, 70's?) they put a fence across the sharp corner which put the flagpole out of play and took about 15-20ft off the distance from dead center to home plate. Strangely enough, they left "440" painted on the wall until the end even though it wasn't anymore.

Yup. And wasn't it before they even had the high bridge completed that the shipping that used the drawbridge ceased to operate? From A^2 to Oregon you could either go through downtown and over the Wayne bridge, cross the River on I-75, or go to 280. 280 was longer but actually quicker once the new bridge was in and assuming 475 wasn't under construction.

Not just stupid, but doesn't even make sense in it's own logic. And this guy waves "hi"

welcome to the Tiger's world. Maybe there is kind of miasma that hangs over the players centered at Brush and E. Adams.

yeah - non-shutouts are now our victories. Javy hasn't hit half badly this month. If he comes back next season where he is now that would be an improvement.

The other thing you can get out on the open road is the truck that just sticks it in a walking gear and sets a slow roll. If everyone stays behind it, you don't get nearly as many cars through the congestion than if people go around him and fill-in the space he is leaving in front. He's driving in a manner that is comfortable for him, but may be inefficient for the rest of traffic.

the fact that some people are so doctrinaire about how other people drive is why zipper merge is the right answer. It removes the choice from the situation.

In the original design, the bullpens were not in LF, so the LF wall was what is now the far wall of the BP. A LOT of HRs now fall into the BP. Just remove the inside wall of the BP and that's the original field. They basically over compensated for the LF being the East (windward) wall. IIRC nothing much was done in right because RF played OK to begin with. There might have been some minor change to the height of the RF wall where they took out the old BP.

follows up with a 9 pitch 2nd. Nice

Wentz with 34 pitchers in the 1st without a walk or a run?

Weren't we supposed to be done with having to buy guys out after we cleared the decks in 2017? 🤬

LOL - absolutely correct, but I'm too lazy to do that today!

If I recall anything I learned in a couple of driving classes I had to take when I had a company car, the big risk factor on the freeway after tailgaiting is differential speed and when people merge early and leave the other lane open for people to blast down - you get a lot of differential speed between the lanes and that increases hazard. If both lanes slow down together that is largely eliminated and I believe that is part of the analysis for zipper merge. But for sure it only works if the state makes the effort to educate the driving public.

No, it just tells you he's not a pull hitter so COPA is not his best park. No hitter will have the same profile in every park unless you mandate that they all be equal. If you bring in CF at COPA, you are going to have to move something else back out or you are going to end up that much more above average. Now I'm sure that is fine with a lot of folks, nothing wrong with that and YMMV, but if we are trying to move away from a '3 true outcomes' game you'd be taking COPA in the opposite direction.

What would make it a lot more likely to succeed would be if MDOT put "Use Zipper Merge" signs up at the sites, but if they ever do I can't remember the last time I saw one.

but that is exactly what zipper merging does away with. That person trying to jump everyone has no way to do that if both lanes run full right to the merge. I think that is one of the main reasons authorities recommend its use.

HooBoy. That's a lot worse take than the early 'adminstrative screwup' reporting on this.

it's actually the combination of having people doing two different things. When half the people are trying to zipper merge and half hate zipper merge, what you get it people trying to cut each other or denying them merge opportunity - It's then those bad behaviors that causes the bottlenecks. If everyone would do one of the other it would always go better. The MSP say zipper merge and that's good enough for me.

except that this is not true. The field may be big, but overall through its history it has played average for HRs, has ever since they moved LF. The reason the park HAS to be big is because they rotated it (wrt Tiger stadium) such that the prevailing summer west wind blows OUT. Tiger Stadium rotated around to where COPA would be a complete joke. They've did just fine getting to two WS in the 1st 10 yrs playing in COPA in the current configuration, which was a higher incidence rate of getting there than they ever had at Tiger Stadium. Guys hit the ball over the CF often enough. Granted the corners were the CF wall meets the R and L field wall are a bit much but that is a tiny proportion of the whole field. Parks factors look bad for the last couple of years but they always follow the home team performance (even though they shouldn't -if you watch them over time they always do....) because the team is crappy. Tigers have hit 47 HR on the road, 42 at home, while scoring 28 more runs at home than on the road. The ball park is not the problem, the roster is.

hard to figure at only 30 yrs old. Most guys make it to a couple of years older before falling off a cliff like Schoop has.

Usually guys have bad years because they slump for some period but at least in some other period still show their normal output- but their annual numbers are depressed by the slump period. Schoop hasn't had a single decent stretch all season - I'm afraid he is done. You look at Javy's game logs and he's had some decent runs, and has been near 800 OPS recently. Schoop has done nothing - not one good stretch sufficient to give him even one month at 700 OPS and he has 3 months under 500.

Pechorin 'falls' off his boat.... https://news.yahoo.com/putin-ally-falls-sea-adding-111159933.html

I'm not big on hitters worrying too much about launch angle, but Tork is one guy that could use a tad more loft in his swing.