gehringer_2

Oh Lord. And Jack called it. We will never hear the end of it.

What's hurting is that Cabrera has cooled off again. He's still the only hitter we have who can even get close to 'carrying' the team. Maybe Tork gets there, but not there yet.

Options are not great. Garneau is not hitting at Toledo. Dingler not doing much with the bat at AA, Rogers not ready for a while. Lavarnway is hitting a little at Toledo but I don't know anything about whether he can play the position at MLB level.

not sure why Morris is defending Haase on a throw Schoop had to try to jump over the runner to get.

He labored some but that is his 6th two run start. Really can't complain about that.

bad break for Tork. Should have hit that one last time. /...sigh..../

bad route by Clemens - cost a run and extends the inning. He needs a hit now to redeem himself.

Not feeling good vibes from the O today....

Livensparger sort of erratic - squeezed Faedo against Buxton, has given him two marginal calls against Kepler. Umpires.

LOL - easier catch underhand, but whatever works.....

so unfortunately, if you look back to last year, you will find that Eric Haase's OPS after Aug 1 through the end of the season was 582. He did all his damage in his 1st ~225 AB. I think Eric is another case of Shelton's disease.

Damn. Miggy robbed and Tork needs to find his opp field swing a little more. Been hitting into too many DPs.

This. Lyndon would have been in tune with times if he had lived in ours. But it's an interesting example of it being more important to pay attention to what people do more than what they say or how they say it. Lyndon's language may have been bad, but his sense of racial injustice in the US real and he did something about when he had the opportunity.

check your GPS buddha!

great start for Faedo

would make sense

individual players don't have to be big, but as a team you can't be small. It's not only the ability to absorb and dish the physical play, but it seems the importance of reach has grown and keeps growing. Maybe a function of the modern stick to some degree or just the taller players in the league perfecting styles of play that incorporate that reach.

you don't want Harold playing too much SS. If you've been watching, you remember that when when Javy was out for a few days Harold was pretty badly exposed. It's sort of comic that they choose Harold and Willi as utility based on their supposed flexibility but neither can play a serviceable SS. They've both hit well enough (esp Harold) to keep their spots but if Javy got hurt they'd be foolish to let either play extended innings in his place.

RIley isn't? Damn - thought he already was.... So just in case he breaks a(nother) leg, they haven't burned an option yet.....guess you can't blame them.

and a very moderately moderated one I would add.

right. So there is no rehab clock running on him on the odd chance he has forgotten how to hit. Otherwise does it matter? He's already on the 40 so he's already burning an 'option' to be in Toledo -- maybe the only difference is what they have to pay him?

Oh c'mon now UI, no fair playing the martyr (even while denying it) when you are having fun doing it!

well also in part because they committed to giving Kody a look. Harold could be playing LF. True, they could have subbed out someone else, but that's the 'in part' part.....

more just the human interest side - the guy could have given up a long time ago but he's still apparently trying.

for the moment being operative. Jose's longer term Rdrs trend is not too pretty, which surprises me a little - I thought with his body confirmation in quickness his D could hold up. Not specific to Jose or Javy - It would also be nice if there were a way to estimate the true effect of extra outs given up or saved in an inning. There is a cascade effect on scoring that exceeds the win probability value of the individual misplay itself when extra outs are granted in an inning that any baseball watcher senses is real but I'm not sure there is any easy or rigorous way to capture. (more pitcher fatigue, more BP use etc...).