gehringer_2

Yup. The only comp I ever thought was close for Henson's pure throwing ability was John Elway. Unfortunately for Drew, it takes more than the arm to make a successful QB.

OSU has been coasting defensively pretty much since Day took over and it's beginning to show. Maybe Knowles can turn it around, or maybe not, but they don't play D the way OSU teams used to.

Lloyd Carr's handling of Henson was not his finest hour.

Indiana with the lead on Purdue in the 1st and then their QB goes down.

It was an ironic win though. OSU was able to sell out and stop the run when they choose to so it was JJ's passing that broke the game into M's favor. It was pretty much after M got the lead and forced OSU to overplay that it opened up the big runs for Edwards. I'll give Harbaugh credit for not being stubborn - when he had to go pass he went pass and stuck with it even after JJ missed a few early. Also have to credit the officiating crew. The OSU corners were not playing the ball and those were good PI calls but it's all too easy to imagine a universe where they were not called.

well, that was certainly unexpected.

a moderately class move by Day not to take his last two TO's

Baddoo is still around because he had a 340 OBP the last two months of the season is one of the few baserunners that pressures the other team. Baddoo's good luck is that you might be able to teach him to be a more adequate fielder, which is currently is not, but you can't teach slow guys to run fast.

or go for it. If you are going to risk giving them the ball in that field position you might as well try for the 1st. Then again, he had the leg.....

Remember how Avila loved to make deals the very first day he could? Remember how most of them turned out?

It's a theory, but I think what it runs up against is that every drive in an NFL game is important enough you have to put your best shot to score out there. No matter how you start a platoon out, sooner or later you will be forced to conclude you have a better chance to score with one guy compared to the other and the platoon ends. I think it might almost work if you looked at it based on the opposition - so for instance if you are playing the Lions and you have a mobile QB you start him in preference to the drop back guy. Again, seems sensible but you run into all the intangibles issues about 'who is my starting QB' and which players support which guy and a lot of misc noise the coach might rather not deal with.

And making final decisions.

the problem is you probably don't get anyone that has had success (at least recently) on a one year deal, which is why I'm guess they may have to settle for something more along the lines of a reclamation project. Of course if Harris isn't very high in Mize long term, then sure, I suppose we could see a bigger signing.

It's partly Lalonde's system. He has them playing mostly dump and chase, which means that 5 on 5 a foward has to normally be the first player to touch the puck in the offensive zone. Hronek seems to be the only Dman with license to rotate deep in the offensive zone, the rest are mostly all staying back. Dman goals have been there but mostly on special teams and trailing D-men hopping on lose pucks in the slot. On the PP they are also playing differently - the Dmen are taking fewer long shots looking for deflections - now you have more forwards other than Larkin with the skill to manage the PP from the lower corner with less emphasis on the point (Kubalik, Perron). And maybe the other more subtle thing is that Larkin doesn't look for Sieder as being the only other competent guy on the ice with him as much as he did last season because he has Kubalik. Larkin is still by far the #1 facilitator on this team and whoever he is looking to feed is going to get points.

Of course look at JJ at Michigan. He was leading the world in completion % as long as they were running a short passing ball control air game. Once they tried to start stretching the field and throwing over the D, his % plummetted. Same QB, same receivers. Tougher opposition probably also , but mostly just the change in game planning. So it's a number that's going to have a little context to it.

Harry Nilsson, the Point, 1970. The Rock Man - "You see what you want to see, and hear what you want to hear." That was my sig line before the forum SW changed and did away with them. The only other avatar I ever used was the Queen of Diamonds - every day that Trump was in office - in salute to the fact that he was the realization of Frankenheimer's Manchurian Candidate.

The defensive failings tonight were mostly forwards not pursuing in their own end, not the D men. Seider did make a blind clearing attempt that led to the 2nd Coyote goal, but otherwise played a strong game.

serious question or am I missing something obvious?

To much offense by the bad guys when Erne and Sundvquist are out there.

the conventional wisdom used to be that to compensate for vision and obstacles, shorter guys had more success if they rolled out a lot, but that's tougher to do in todays game with so many edge guys that can run a QB down if comes in their direction - also means a short QB better be fast as well. Size also helps guys fight off sacks or get the ball off before they can be pulled down. In general, there is probably good reason so many QBs look like Brady.

I thought Elmer was making a contribution with his puck possession skills. While Rassmussen has been fine with other mates, I don't think Sundqvuist has found a fit as well was when he was with Ras and Soderblom. He seems to me to be floating around aimlessly too much of the time recently.

Isn't that sort of like saying, "It only takes one earthquake to level the town" Doesn't mean it's particular fun to sit up on the hill and watch the city all day long waiting for it.....

Catcher is asolutely weak, but that's true for almost everyone other than KC (and even Sal is getting old) so that would be the place you might just have to live with being bad because there just are no options.

You look at what Yzerman has done finding guys like Kubalik and you hope that kind of model would be viable in baseball but I have my doubts. In hockey a pretty decent player can get sort of buried with poor line-mates or a coach/system that's bad fit for his style of play. For a ballplayer, it's such an individual performance that it's pretty hard for good players to go unrecognized regardless of their team or teammates. And the likelihood of finding another unrecognized metric like OBP was to the money ball revolution shrinks every year.

so putting Chris Ilitch aside, about whom none of us really know jack squat, now that the cuts have been made what are we left with:? Starting Pitching: ERod, Manning, Turnbull, Wentz, Faedo, Brieske, Alexander, possible Skubal post ASB Relief Pitching: Soto, Cisnero, Jimenez, Roni Garcia, Lange, Alexander, Foley, Hill After one or two are inevetably lost to the DL that should make 13 or so. With Skubal and Mize both likely to be back in '24 any kind of long term starting pitching signing seems a lower priority than other holes but at least one 'prove it in ST" tryout signing also seems inevitable.... Position Players: C : Haase, Roger - (Seems like a signing is in order here) 1B: Torkelson - (either has to hit or be replaced - can K. Carpenter learn 1st?) 2b: Schoop - (do we trust him to have a comeback yr?) SS: Baez 3B: Kreidler/Short/Clemens/Ibanez/TBA (Help us Obi-Wan Kanobi, you're our only hope!) RF: Austin Meadows/TBA CF: Greene LF: Baddoo/Haase/Meadows DH: Cabrera, Carpenter, Haase So where does it hurt the most? I know most of the focus has been 2B/3B and OF, but I think the power vaccuum at 1B/DH is just as bad. As of now there this no fallback if Torkelson doesn't come around, and enough has been said about Cabrera. It would be a huge help if Carpenter is more than one month flash in the pan.