gehringer_2

wtf?

With Mantha you get a nice set of hockey player attributes, with Bert you get a nice hockey player. No question that based on his physical gifts he has theoretical upside that Betuzzi doesn't, but he also hasn't shown much inclination to achieve it. Which brings me back to how impressive it is that Sieder actually plays to his size with such seeming ease. There was a play along the boards in the Philly game, not any kind of big deal play but just a little microcosm of what Seider brings: He was in the corner along the boards getting control of the puck and a Philly forechecker was coming at him to hip check him against the boards and roll off the check to try to get possession himself. It was not going to be a big hit or anything, just a solid play that could normally take a guy off the puck, but in a seeming split second Moritz was able to set an edge and shift his weight and just repel the check - the guy just bounced off without moving him. An example of the difference between just having physical attributes and actually playing to them.

LOL - that doesn't say much for how much even pitchers that do have to hit care about their hitting - you'd think they would have to be better than guys who only face live pitching a few times a year if that. Then again I suppose the AL pitchers don't have enough AB to push the numbers a lot anyway.

does that 108 include AL pitchers hitting in interleague games? I would probably exclude them from a comparison.

The Rams D also came up huge - they really tightened down in the 4th. Going into the fourth I figured for sure the Rams would need to score twice to win because there was no way they wouldn't give up at least another FG to Cinci for a tie at 23.

I have never been a fan of the DH, but TBH, pitchers were bad hitters even in the 60s. 125-150 was not an unusual BA for a pitcher even when they did it all the time. I would guess the difference is that the pitchers that did like to hit were able to stay sharper but I don't remember there ever being too many of those. Just on on a quick comp, the hitting on the '68 Tiger WS team starting staff wasn't particularly better than last year's Braves - a couple weren't terrible, a couple weren't.

it definitely seemed the order was in to the refs not to call the call too close. Actually, after the missed call on HIggins I was waiting to see when the make-up call would come.

It's looks like he had a good grip on the jersey with the right hand that was the source of the momentum he needed to propel himself past Kupp for the knock down. That's a fair call.

Mitchell was a weird story.

that's the ridiculous part of 'racism' in general. In America, your social race characterization will be based on your skin tone, despite the fact that is too small set of genetic markers to effectively characterize what part of the world a person's ancestors came from, and despite that the whole notion that that should mean anything is absurd.

That one will look pretty weird in a few years when people look back at the game stats. 4 catches for 47 yard or something - won't look like much in the stat sheet. Just as well the Rams won as a Cincy win would have been tainted by the missed offensive pass interference/face mask on the TD. And probably would have been an easier win if McVay had just stopped trying to run the ball and given Stafford more useful downs to move the chains. Also the PI 1st down saved Stafford's bacon at the end because if they had failed to get the TD after those two terrible throws after 1st and goal the story would have been the overthrow and the dead duck into the dirt and that Stafford choked. I like when the the line between success and failure ends up standing out so clearly.

sure the guys in the toughest spot are some of the guys just put on the 40 who haven't yet collected an MLB salary, though some of the guys in that position will also be top prospects like Greene and Tork who scored a nice payday when they signed.

this thread is becoming proof we need some baseball games.

just don't look in your rear view mirror.

this. Maybe it makes a difference, maybe not, but I sure would have liked to know what a Cabrera that kept his weight down would have looked like at 36-38. less strain on the knee, the ankle, etc.

yup - If they went from bad to almost 500 with the addition of Seider, Nedeljkovic and Raymond (and missing Vrana), then adding Edvinnsson and Berggren might get them to playoff level, at which point a couple of serious FA signings might get them to a good place. Injuries are always the wild card though...

One of the local rags (edit: actually J Beck on the MLB site) had a story about Inge working as a volunteer coach for UM. You see that at first and you think, journeyman kind of ball player - can't the U put him on the payroll? Then you go to sportrac and see Brandon made $43M in his career. What's an assistant baseball coach salary to him? (or at least what should it be.....🤷‍♀️)

before the game ended Mickey said that the officials put the empty netter up as unassisted because it was an 'awarded' goal because of the stick toss, but all the boxes have given Larkin & Gagner assists so I guess they changed the ruling, or Mickey just read it wrong. Maybe it's only an 'awarded' goal if the stick had prevented the actual goal?

what about one side is more evil but also more right?

the other thing is that it's not only the owners vs the players, but it's the fans vs the players, because every additional dollar spent on player compensation ultimately comes from the fans. It's easy to sit here and say the owners should up the cap because they can afford it, but that's not how it works. The owners are just the pass through, all the money that goes to the players ultimately comes from the fans because no franchise ever operated at a long term net loss.

You'd hope the players have (should have!) seen this coming a mile away and even the MLB minimum is enough money that you could have put yourself in position to go a year without being paid.Of course there will be some players who are unprepared or have leveraged themselves with outside debts they can't support. Probably more than should have! Most owner theoretically have more than enough resources to cover their non-playing overhead, but it might be complicated for some - they may not be able to just shift money into their ball club from some other entities without violating responsibilities to other partners or stock holders etc. And you might have some owners who are just more the sportsman and want to play more than they care about their co-owners' last $.

He was very good for FB PBP. Maybe 2nd in my rankings to Van Patrick, though Dan Miller has grown on me...

the thing is it doesn't mean much to just get some mediocre level of production when you are playing next to a really good player - almost anyone would do the same. It you can't at least make yourself visible on the ice playing without a star dragging you along, you aren't really very good. Call it Abdelkader syndrome.

correct, Philly is not much of a test. At his best there is still a huge falloff from Bertuzzi on that line to Zadina so you are wasting Larkin's potential to that degree, which is why I'd guess he's not going to be there once Vrana gets back anyway.....

LOL. For one of ours we would loop a wide belt or even a bath towel under her and just take a little weight off and she'd come up once she felt the lift but the other never went for that either.