gehringer_2

I wasn't referring to the hearings, I meant the way the MAGA crowd consumes the lies.

Yeah - I'm sure there is a theory behind the step wise increases, but OTOH, if you know you really have to get to 'X' percent (say 4.00) what is the downside of just going there? I suppose it roils too many transactions in progress, but it would do the job a lot faster.

hitters drive me crazy. Torkelson should have know there was about a 95% probability the 4th pitch was going to be on the outside edge, so instead of going with it and getting an RBI, he takes strike two and end up in a hole. This team is always hitting at strike two - they need to be more aggressive earlier. Batting averages are about 100 with 2 strikes, which is just where the Tigers are......

and he couldn't talk to Trotz until yesterday.....

very nice.

correct. More about the dopamine hit for the lie than the necessity to deal with discomforting truth.

Kewl. Was that sort of park to park to park through that area?

So if Casey's UCL is fully intact but stretched out, does that mean they can just shorten it at one end instead of doing a transplant? (like when they tighten shoulder or ankle ligaments) Might be a quicker rehab that way.....

I'm plenty bereaved at what this team has done, where do I get my check?

I think it's that in 1974 Republicans still had things they believed in that could make the country better if they won. So they had a program and the program was more important than Nixon or a single cycle in the WH. But the GOP finally got their program under Reagan and by 2001 and certainly 2008 it had failed miserably. Today GOP ideology is bankrupt, they run to do nothing but win. They are a party of nihilism. This enforces that's only about the tribe and the win.

Sort of a repeat of Friday.

have you ever or do you know anyone who has 'strained' a quad? I have no idea what that injury even is. I've 'burned' my quads running too far too soon after a winter layoff, but they just hurt, it was never debilitating like straining a hamstring.

true

IDK - do you think Benghazi made any difference to anyone? My take is more that Hillary suffered from her own baggage from the Clinton admin (e.g. sweetheart investment deals with Tyson etc) and her own personality issues than any fallout from the Benghazi hearings in particular. Those struck me as more a matter of preaching to the converted I would think. And she put off the progressive wing for a lot of reasons. But that's just my personal take. Maybe those hearings did get some traction with independents.....

Indicting him and losing the case in a public prosectution might not be the worst thing. After all, who besides the 12 nuts on that jury still believed OJ was innocent after that trial?

A lot of this counter argument is based on Switzerland, but for a lot reasons it isn't really comparable. For starters in Switzerland a lot of these weapons are military issue long guns that ex-military are allowed to keep as part of the citizen ready reserve after they leave active service, IOW, guns locked in the closet and not thought about as part of everyday life. Other types of gun ownership in Switzerland is probably falling. Training requirements and background checking are also much more rigorous. https://www.businessinsider.com/switzerland-gun-laws-rates-of-gun-deaths-2018-2#in-addition-to-the-militias-arms-the-country-has-about-2-million-privately-owned-guns-a-figure-that-has-been-plummeting-over-the-past-decade-6

Not enough. It's not that he 'didn't accept' the results, it's that he actively used lies and deception to try to motivate a rejection of the results, by force if he could swing it if not by abuse of the courts and media if he couldn't. That's a damn site more than 'not accepting' and needs a lot more sanction than a harsh judgment by history.

at least you really did get the music you paid your money for, that's more than anyone ever got from Trump.

Since last night the forecast keeps moving the rain back. Last night it was to start at 3p, then this morning it was 6p, now it's back to 9p, so who knows? If it moves back another hour or two they might get it in.

Lee made a post in one of the threads about Fedder being more important than Hinch and it got me thinking about the whole pitching/hitting dichotomy with the Tigers org. I think there is one conclusion - which is that Avila is a 'process' guy and today pitching is something which is definable by 'process'. The tech has allowed teams to understand spin, release, movement. And the Tigers (as they should) have gone all in. They seem to know how to put pitchers into the pitches they should be throwing and how to optimize them throwing those pitches and they appear to have a good system for evaluation of the quality of arms (TJs among them not withstanding). I don't think it's arguable that it been nothing short of phenomenal the way the system has been able to come with young pitchers and BP arms to keep this team even treading water in the face of catastrophic pitching staff injuries and a once in a lifetime offensive collapse. Al has put processes into place which have resulting an org with strong pitching and has hired a manager in Hinch who managers his staff well. That part has been a success. But on the other side, hitting is whole different ball game. There are many aspects you can coach a hitter for, being short to the ball, weight transfer, swing path, and all of that can help a hitter put the bat where he wants to when he wants to, which is great. However 99% of hitting is knowing the point you want to get the bat to, IOW, knowing where the ball is going to be, and there isn't a whole lot anyone has ever figured out to help a hitter do that. And in the absence of any clear system for developing that, like there is in pitching, the Tiger org doesn't seem to have any clear ideas about how to make a good hitter or how to find them, other than that Al likes guys who don't K a lot. Well who doesn't? I like Al's organization abilities, but he needs to find a hitting 'guru' for the system that can show him how to bring some of what has been accomplished on the pitching side to the hitting side.

I doubt any kind decision about that is close. I think the plan is to put a team around Goff and see how he does, then decide how to get a QB if that's not good enough.

the interesting argument here is does it matter if he kept saying he didn't believe people. After all it's what he would say even if he did understand the facts but his strategy was to willfully deny them. Can the Costanza defense hold water in a court of law?

exactly

last in walks might argue that they don't take enough pitches, but I think counter-intuitively, it goes the other way. I think last year they were so pleased with their ability to extend ABs and work pitchers that I do wonder if they fell in love with it too much and opposing pitchers are taking advantage of a team that is now not aggressive enough early in the count, so they giving away too many strikes. It's great to make pitchers work, but you have to remember the best way to drive a pitch count is not to take pitches, it's to get guys on base. In the hierarchy of baseball, chasing starters is good, but not as good as scoring runs.

Grossman is where you would have hoped a hitting coach could have done something. Supposedly Robbie, unsatisfied with his best career year (and nothing wrong with that per se) went out over the off-season and tried to retool some stuff. Well, damn if it hasn't worked out, but can't he at least get back to where he was? And can't coaching help him get there? Sure it's possible he is toast at 32, he wouldn't be the 1st, but it does seem a little odd that there was no intermediate fall off last season or even in the second half of last season.