gehringer_2

another good swing on a fastball by Cabrera (93 on that FB -- not that great though....).

when I wrote the post I was estimating - i was off by the -019 and added that after. But honestly, he was pretty screwed up in his rule 5 year, so I would take his floor as his career since then which is pretty much right at 700.

Rotation just looks too good to be in that range. Rodriguez seems solid. Mize and Skubal may not be aces, but they will mostly keep us in their starts. How often, even when we had Verander and Scherzer, did we ever go into a season with the 4th and 5th starters as well set as they are now with Alexander, Manning and Pineda? Depth in the BP still looks pretty sketch, but the back end led by Soto is not bad. They have the luxury of having enough position depth that if guys slump there are guys behind them that can pick up more ABs but I do wonder how they will cope with an extended slump by Cabrera.

I'm guessing she's so far out of the ship channel into shallow water they can't get any suitable ship near enough to her to partially off-load her.

it sucks because Haase, Reyes, W. Castro are all worse against RHP, they really need a bat that is better against RHP. I guess that will end up being Harold Castro.

true - his april 21 was as bad as Cabrera's, but TBF, he is ~700 (681) ops over his career and that includes his terrible rule 5 season. To me the question is which is more likely to have another terrible slump - I'd guess Miguel just because his physical condition is so precarious. Maybe it's gotten to the point where they will be more willing to sit him down, but I find that doubtful.

I think the difference is that we know Victor's floor with the bat is at least a 700 OPS, and he can run the bases. He'll be at least replacement level and if we get lucky and the bat is better now, the deviation from that will be be to the upside. So he's not going to kill them. Cabrera OTOH, could give us another really terrible stretch like the first 5 wks last season, and that really would hurt - again. (and interesting how much of a pass Miguel has gotten over his very significant contribution to the terrible start last season. It all gets blamed on time for Hinch to put in his system and the clean-up hitter hitting 100 gets ignored - I suppose it's not worth talking about since there is nothing anyone could have done about it!)

You know, with Hill and Riley both gimpy, that opens to door for W Castro to start the season in Detroit.

you have to imagine he shoots well enough in practice (of course remember those videos of Drummond making threes in the gym.....) I guess at 21 I wouldn't want to say his shooting couldn't improve but yeah - it would be hard to refuse an decent offer. Of course given the Pistons history of giving up too soon on serviceable guards, maybe caution is in order.

interesting to see Livers making some noise. I thought he tended to be under-appreciated compared to his teammates at at UM, though Franz Wagner is also doing a good job of living up to his rep.

Amazing now much this is looking like Vietnam compressed into weeks instead of years. The Russian can't hold ground but continue to harry Ukraine from the air as their remaining bargaining leverage to try to gain at the table what they cannot hold on the ground. As noted, the #1 priority now should be high altitude air defense capability for Ukraine. Manpads can(have) stop(ed) the Russians attaining tactical air dominance for ground operations, but can't protect the Ukrainian populace.

Promising legal retribution to your political opponents. Amerika. What a country!

this long (an hour) but interesting. In Finnish with English subtitles. The view of Russia by a retired Finnish intelligence officer. This is from about 2018 - recent but before the current war began.

BTW, just saw Smith has 'resigned from the Academy" whatever that actually means. Be nice if it were that easy to 'resign' Putin.

the only disconnect here for pitchbot it that John McWhorter hardly represents the mainline NYT editorial management sensibility that it lives to skewer. JW is actually the resident anti-wokeness curmudgeon.

only the Brits could work a dumb joke this hard.....

the contrast is so clear. Even down 4 on 5 Ottawa has the speed to close on the puck handler immediately. Wings fall back even 5 on 5.

wheels fell off in a hurry in this one.

reminds me of a Where's Waldo drawing

sports based on exploiting fossil fuels and generating more CO2 are exempt - of course.

you know there is a enough buzz around other players this season that Miguel can just show up and work on his game. But's it's all about the legs with him. A prevailing view is that he's slowed down too much to be an effective hitter - that may be true but it's not that unusual for HOF level hitters to maintain their reflex and eye to 40. What we know for sure Cabrera struggles with is the drive off the back leg. When it's there he can hit, when it isn't he can't. As Lee posted, he will likely just give us streaks when the leg/knee is good and not much the rest of the time so all we can do is hope he has more good days with the right leg.

McCosky and Dickerson yakking in the booth during the game when Cabrera singles on an off speed pitch. Chris notes (with some justification) that throwing off-speed to Cabrera shouldn't happen much this season since he can't get around. Still, after Chris leaves the booth, Miguel gets the last word for today by hitting 96 over the fence.....

>They just said lying to voters doesn’t matter. Well it sure hasn't hurt the GOP yet, so....

Woodbery tweeting about him coming back 'down the RF line' so this was after he went to the OF after scoring the run? EDIT: Beck just posted he went off at the end of the inning after he came in from 3rd.

Cabrera homers ....on a fastball.