gehringer_2

when I saw this I assumed it was because Amazon was going to stop using them, but from what I read it was UPS's decision to decline Amazon's business. Not sure whether that is credible or just CYA PR. I suppose if Amazon isn't willing to pay at a rate UPS can make money on you don't want the business, but you better have a cost accounting system that tallies it all up right. I've worked for fortune 500s who learned the hard way that they were not apportioning their overheads correctly and ended up in deep trouble after shutting down volume businesses they thought they were losing money on but which were really supporting the rest of their units.

Probably why ATL made him available.

LOL - you don't usually improve your business prospects by taking your potential future customers to court. Just one of those old marketing rules of thumb .....

What makes it a little harder to read is that Torres isn't going to be here after this season so the moves made to accommodate him are going to get unwound in '26. Who know what this is going to look like. On the Torkelson front, I have no clue what has or hasn't passed between Torkelson and the team since October, I would only hope any good management would be reserving final judge on what a player is until they see what the player does in competitive game situations after whatever work he has done. There is no cookie cutter that reliably stamps out hitters. I suppose if he is goofing off that's one thing, but he he's chosen to work on things in a different priority, that gets pretty grey. Most players do know themselves better than anyone else does. I'd be more interested in what he shows actually show up with in ST than the details what his off-season regime were. But the reality is we don't know anything anyway. And the Truth is whether he toed the line to the team's satisfaction this off-season or or not, he still isn't going to have a spot if he doesn't hit better.

Wouldn't be surprised, but people don't need inflation data from BLS to know it's happening, they sense every time they buy, so people will know.

if Canada shuts down oil imports to the US it might be hard for the midwest to make up that supply from anywhere else very quickly. I don't know how long they could hold out before they had to blink, but it might be longer than we could. Refineries that would be scrambling for supply would be the Marathon in Det, the ex-Sun refinery in Toledo, Koch and Marathon in Minneapolis, Probably Husky in Toledo was well, and probably the BP and Exxon refineries near Chicago.

You can't fault them, but that doesn't mean you don't take it into account in evaluating what a player is likely to provide. Bad luck is bad luck, but I'm not necessarily so sanguine about 'hustle' injuries. If they happen because a guy plays out of control, to me that may be a red flag. Riley has been close to being there.

It will be a triple whammy. Food is going up because there will be no field workers, electronics, clothing and all kinds of small mechanicals up because they come from China, housing up because wood and fuel from Canada, all service entry level wages will be driven up if undocumenteds are actually removed from the work force, and of course as noted, all domestic manufactures will raise prices to meet the reduced competition. No one should be surprised. Importing goods from overseas and suppressing US wages have been cornerstones of inflation control economic policy since Reagan. And they work. Remove them and we are going to get inflation. I'm on board for entry level wages being forced up, not so much any of the rest of it!

Although Carpenter is another guy that needs to stay on field more successfully.

I don't remember Paredes having anything like a great arm at 3b but he has graded out there average to plus so far. Vierling's has graded a little below average thought he might improve some if he played there more regularly. McKinstry's Rrds has been up and down, good in '23 bad in '24 - sample sizes for both guys not really big enough but neither appears to project to be someone you want there every day.

clearly opinions on Maeda can vary. I think he's toast - but we will get to see for ourselves because there is little question they are going to start the season with him. I won't be heartbroken if he pitches well, but surprised.

The one thing Trump will prove to be very adept at is generating lawsuits against his admin. This will certainly be one of them.

Or put the other way, it all depends on what Torkelson has done with Torkelson. If he can add to the performance level he found after his return, he'll force his way into the lineup, if not, he won't or he won't be in Detroit. It's a no mercy business, that is unless they already owe you $25M or more.

But when cuts come, the question isn't 'who is good', it's 'who is worst.' Maybe he was the worst, maybe not. But they've assigned him as the 'worst' so that's what it is.

they'll almost certainly be classic agitprop: See the mess we're in? it's all the libs fault and 'those' people's fault and everything we did would have been golden but for the deep state opposing us at every turn. And the Magats will fall for it hook, line, and sinker, because the Orange One can't be wrong, he's been saved and appointed by God.

I hope his offense just needs some time to catch up with Amen's

Trump is going to find that no matter how strong he thinks the US is, the rest of world united is stronger, and he's doing a bang up job of uniting the world in opposition. He'll be remembered as the Saddam Hussein of the 1st world. Uniting the world against him - and unfortunately us. Fool.

She is such a waste of protoplasm.

You see the connection if you look at what the Koch brothers (now brother singular) did/have done for years. They spent a lot of money on drumming up grass roots right wing political strength in the white underclass talking basically libertarian virtues - which is just another twist on anti-social welfare thus anti-underclass- but what they got from helping GOP pols get elected was regulatory relief - the right to keep keep polluting and profiteering more. That's where the connection lies. With the religious right it's the same thing. But the targets are a little different. Moneid interests support the evangelical hierarchy on things like anti-gay and anti-abortion policies (other second class citizenships in the RW taxonomy) and again the quid pro quo for them is the religious right supporting laissez-faire economics.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/technology/school-fight-videos-student-phones.html

We need to face it, the US public is too under educated to self-govern itself in a technological era. We either have to start educating people to an acceptable level of civic/economy competence, or prove Xi correct and let ourselves collapse. The problem is there is no short term solution at this point.

It's taken 2500 yrs, but Socrates' complaints about democracy are finally turning out to be true.

You do know that the majority of young people in the US have a television in their bedroom or a video enabled phone and that the majority of American parents have zero knowledge of how to implement any kind of audit or control on their home IT service. I sincerely doubt anyone has any kind of good handle on what American young people are watching. If it's on the mid tier cable/streaming packages, young people are seeing it.

So they didn't think he would make the team, which is a shame because he probably would have done less damage in the last pitching spot on the roster than Maeda will do in that spot before they finally have to release him. I think any sports team management that could truly get itself past the sunk cost fallacy would probably be good for another 5% on their winning percentage on that basis alone.

You haven't seen the jr/sr high tic-tok fight video craze?