gehringer_2

This man knows how to make a sale.

It's just depressing that we are back in a rut where we are going to commit to a guy who's probably going to be terrible just because we owe him more money than one of the other guys who is terrible, who we will cut but who then will go on to have a good year for someone else......

That's true, but I can give a guy like Steve Schmidt credit for repudiating his past as long as he is willing (as he seems to be) to actually now work against what he built then. It's the people like Mitt that I have no patience for, who want to sanctimoniously repudiate Trump as some kind of isolated infection instead of the revealed core of what they believe produces.

Maybe someone has the patience to do the search, but I'm sure we could develop a good estimate of the probability that a guy who has a year as bad at Schoop's *in-the-absence-of-injury* comes back at age 31 with a good season. I need to be persuaded there is any real chance. The only real hope I have is that it's because the Tigers, as a team, are screwing up their hitters in some detrimental way that new management could change. But since it seems probable that Hinch isn't going anywhere, then that is not likely to change either.

I'm not going to knock any ally, but I want real allies. The guys at the Bulwark to the best they can by their own lights. They are mostly the true converts. But there is a whole GOP intellectual set that's still working on a serious case of hemorrhoids trying to sit on the edge they think divides Trump the man from the party beliefs that produced him.

LOL - Never any credit for the gals. I thought 2020 was suburban Moms! (!?!)

Chris either want to win, or he doesn't.

Since 2013 Bryce Harper has had a pretty good string of big odd numbered years, meh even numbered years. Assuming he comes back this year and finishes with 3.0 WAR (he's at 2.5 now), then in his last 5 odd years he has 28.5 WAR, while in his last 5 even years he has 9.3

Well, it's great for them, it would be nice if there were enough of them to actually swing elections! It's damn depressing. Then again, when you can't swing a guy like Romney on things like renewable energy and expanding ACA, I'm not even sure there is any point in having 'Never-Trumpers'. It's fine to talk about how horrible Trump and his politics are, but if you are going to keep towing the exact same philosophies and policy lines that ultimately led to politics like Trumps, you really are not helping. Trump's demagoguery and disdain for democracy didn't just spring full grown from his brow, there was a GOP constituency conditioned for years with set of political beliefs that was leading inevitably up to this point. If the never Trumpers can't walk away from those, they will just leave the soil fertile for the next Trump. Some have, but almost none among the elected set where it would matter. Romney being exhibit one.

IDK. Most of the time when a guy has a 'bad year' it's because he has one prolonged slump but regained his 'normal' productivity for at least part of the season. Schoop doesn't have a single month over 700 OPS yet and he's starting August even worse at 594. Candelario at least has had one stretch of productivity long enough to give him an OPS of 873 for a full month in July which might hint that there is still some latent hitting skill in there. But the truth is that Candelario's career track record is already one of hot streaks with long periods of non-productivity, so it's easy to take the view that his productive periods are the outliers for him. I don't any confidence in either of them going forward. Krieidler's lost time has been really costly with regard to figuring out whether he is an option. It would be doubly bad if confidence in Kreidler makes them feel replacement of Candelario is less urgent and then he turns out to bust as well.

right. The problem is that they are preaching to the converted. Their ads effectively make Dem talking points, but if those actually connected with the MAGA we wouldn't be where we are. Yesterday I heard a just a bit of an NPR segment done from Wyoming. This guy is in tears because after knowing the Cheney family for 3 generations, he is going to vote against Liz. It just made no sense, the guy wanted with every fiber of his being to vote for her, but the challenge to the self-identity he was attached to was so great it literally had him choked up to where he could hardly speak, but even that emotional impact wasn't enough to separate him from his cult.

It's hard to for even good teams to win both ends of a double header, thus by converse, is easy for even bad teams to be able to salvage one.

another careless smoker!

Seeing some reports that Russian officers have withdrawn to beyond the East bank of the Dnipro near Kherson. Given how well the Russian army fights when their officers are not amongst to manage them.....

Carpenter started 0/8, has gone 5/9 since. EDIT: Make that 6/10

Well, let’s nip any irrational exuberance right in the bud. Myself, I don’t see either Schoop or Candelario’s bats coming back. I don’t see either Castro being any better. Catcher is still not going to generate offense. Baez I’m 50/50 on whether I think he’s likely to rebound. Even in a best case scenario where Greene, Baddoo and Torkelson all contribute next season, they still need a ton of new players. More than one offseason is likely to yield.

It would seem that Al decided he wanted to be good at all the things DD was not. Unfortunately while he has shored up the things that they didn’t do well under Dombrowski, he has failed to also do well at any of the things Dave did. Result: team with weaknesses different from a Dombrowski team, but still weak, or in fact weaker.

And they've reached the point where they are trapped in a mutual death spiral. It's hard enough to hit in the majors, but when there is never a guy on base when you are up to put the pitcher in the stretch, let alone maybe be a threat to steal, and nobody gets to hit when the man in the on-deck circle is a threat to go yard, it just gives the opposing pitchers even more advantage.

don't look now, Baddoo is 9 for last 29. All singles though....

just keep repeating to yourself: "loud outs...loud outs.....lout outs....."

he started out pretty bad, but has only one in his last three games. We'll see if he can turn that into a trend.

Wasted cash at that as Mariot is gone. In fact, Mariot is the other half of the Jacob Robson trivia question: What two players remained on the Mudhen's 2022 published roster one month after they both left the team.

You have to give China credit for their embarrassment free ability to pivot. China: PELOSI CAN'T GO TO TAIPEI. WE ARE GOING TO HOLD OUR BREATH TILL WE TURN BLUE AND THE WORLD ENDS. ... the world goes on, till somewhat later: China: Another Congressional visit? Oh well.

Tork has gotten through 2 games without a K!

yes - you are correct on the Amazon buy. But why would he shut up because Obama was elected? Looking at the history - Mackey got into a bunch of hot water in 2008 blogging about the Whole Foods/WIld Oats merger and at one point was under investigation by the SEC. Maybe that's when his board told him to shut up in public. When you think about it, if he had been ticking off Bezos, more likely he would have just fired him.