gehringer_2

Well, 'Welcome to the Show" *was* Circus music!

KC using a 5 men on the IF shift to get Reyes.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brady Singer: The healthy guy we passed on to take Mize. /....sigh..../

I know this horse is beaten, dead, buried, and forgotten, but I would still be giving Alexander's starts to Norris. Of course they've made sure it's too late to do that now by not keeping Daniel stretched out. You can try 16 ways to Sunday to persuade yourself it's not, but it will remain true that Tyler Alexander does not have MLB starting stuff.

2nd and 20. No problem. Now,, can they stop anyone?

I was less than impressed with the accuracy of some of his throws - of the 1st two TD's (don't remember the order), one was thrown over his receivers wrong shoulder, which didn't matter because he was 15 yds open, and the other did not lead enough away from the defender. Against a better secondary both of those plays might have failed. But those nits picked, JJ plays *fast*, and you can't teach that. The one 10yd TD on the pass over the middle in traffic was a thing of beauty - a Matthew Staffordesque delivery.

He spent half his life playing at the fool, but Al Franken is the smartest guy in a lot of the rooms he finds himself in.

To me, Meadows is the toughest call. You have no idea what you really have. 50/50 whatever you decide, you end up wrong.

also a good point. The toothpaste doesn't go back in the tube. The relationship between Russia and Ukraine can now never go back to the status quo ante - at least while Putin lives.

Correct. No question that 3rd parties - like the US - are also trying to shape the conflict to their own advantage. No denying that it is also a proxy war by which the US seeks to defang the threat we see in Putin for reasons completely apart from Ukraine's interest. That is just the real world. But when real-politik also happens to line up on the side of the angels, I can live with it.

so before this started, I asked the question about whether the Ukrainians were going to be 'serious' about defending themselves or whether we would find, like say in Vietnam or Afghanistan, that we could pour in effort from this side to no ultimate good, because if that had been the case, then none of the death and destruction war would be justified. Cut a deal with Putin and be done with it. And since history proves that the US is quite capable of misunderstanding the true nature of the clients we have picked in the past, I absolutely had doubts about this enterprise. But the truth has been that the Ukrainians answered the bell from day one. This is their war, not ours, and they have every right, and every moral justification, to fight to create a way of life different from what they could expect under Putin. And anyone in the "West" who fails the see the need for them to win doesn't understand the value his own freedom, because it's the "West" the Ukrainians are fighting for.

inverting of the old school "you have to win your job in practice" and coming up with, "you have to lose your job on the field"? I can see the value of the psychology in that for the rest of the team once you assume that the loser is going to leave the program anyway. Otherwise you might be concerned for the loser to have the battle play out in front of the fans.

'nuf said right there..

I think Pioneer could be giving them a better game.

IIRC, I think in more recent years I did see a ball assessed on Benoit - once, but back in the day you are right, they didn't have to because nobody took the time - still you would see an umpire occasionally wave at a guy to pick it up and they would. I think one of the big shifts was teams realizing that it froze runners when the pitcher held the ball. I think that drove the shift toward making the taking of way too much time more standard practice - and it leaked from there into all situations --And again you are right, the leagues never responded as it was happening when it was happening. If they had then, it never would have gotten to where it is now.

the comedy is that most important thing they are doing, the pitch clock (which I am all for), isn't really even a change - it's just enforcement of what was always theoretically on the books but the Umps just stopped enforcing a few decades ago.

no one in the BP for Det. Just Foolish to risk letting Manning go back out there again -- if it gets the bottom of this inning.

if that ball hit a few less raindrops Tork would have had a dinger. Of course if they call the game this inning the triple will get wiped out anyway.

One more out and this one is official and they can call it. ....done.

Sure. Just like the 'settlement' on the Sudetenland brought peace to Europe. False retcon assumptions. No matter what Putin negotiated he'd have gone to war for more - he just would have started in a stronger position. Unfortunately, the only way Putin's territorial ambitions in Ukraine were going to be ended was going to be on a battlefield. He's been committed to that route since at least 2014. In fact no-one today can look at the criminal outrages perpetrated as policy by Putin's armies and have even a shred of belief that Putin's Russia could have been a reliable negotiating partner.

I can't come up with the link but I thought I read it was the guy from double A they brought to Det.

Walk by Baddoo, doubles by Reyes and Baez, single by Harold. Tigers putting the hurt on KC in the 3rd.

I don't think Dingler's bat has shown enough to get him to the majors yet. Maybe it will next season but if I'm playing GM he hasn't converted his prospect status to eventual MLB contributor yet. That and the fact that Rogers' bat is not getting any preview this season makes C pretty wide open for next season: Haase plus unknown unknowns.

yes. People need to be clear eyed. No one can let down their guard or relax. You can be sure Putin has at least one more throw to make.

Part of it is that most guys would suffer in any comparison to Barnhart, who is really good back there. But even Ozzie Smith had to hit to stay in the majors. You can acknowledge Tucker's excellence with the glove and still be clear it doesn't buy him 250+ MLB ABs if he can't OPS 550.