mtutiger

Setting aside all the absolutely gross, borderline definitely NSFW stuff alleged, apparently Dunphy claims that Giuliani told her that he was selling off pardons for $2mil a pop, and splitting the proceeds with Trump. Possibly the least surprising thing I've ever heard. If anything, surprised the number wasn't higher lol

Goodness, what a bender....

100%. They were 100% putting him on there, it worked out with them notching a win. But the long game is more about seeing Spencer get a real AB there and seeing what he can do with it.

If Malloy keeps on his current pace, it seems unlikely to me that he will remain in Toledo all year.

It's less about the margin, particularly at this point, and more about the pattern of how national polling and state polling are telling two different stories. Which mirrors the last Midterms.

Also, injuries have affected this rotation yet, unlike in 2022, they haven't had to give starts to the Drew Hutchison and Daniel Norris types. In part because of decisions that Harris made to bring in Boyd and Lorenzen. Put another way, the rotation has more depth than people credit, it just doesn't seem like it because some of that depth is currently being employed. Obviously expectations should be tempered some for Skubal and Manning when they get back, but it's unequivocally a good thing that they are slated to come back and the rotation should be better for it

Not watching but line, at least, suggests that Faedo deserves better

Would it kill the offense to, umm, do something?

Very true... I remember watching a game in early 2021 and didn't realize how bad his disease had gotten since the last time I had watched games regularly (I had checked out for a little bit while I was getting my Masters)

There's a blast from the past lol

Cam Maybin for TV, Bobby Scales for radio. That's the ideal right there.

Good God Almighty

Definitely a mere coincidence

Random thought, but I wonder the degree to which the AL Central landscape in 2023 (ie. a slappy fight between mediocre-to-bad baseball teams) influenced the degree to which Scott Harris thought this was an attractive job to take. Clearly the Tigers have a ways to go toward respectability, but from Harris' perspective, it may have looked like an easier turnaround to work with this club and all of its issues than holding out for another job in a much tougher division. Particularly if he did get some assurances about payroll from Pizza Jr if this team started to show itself being closer to contention.

Again, my thing is that he knows enough to adjust when a particular player isn't doing well or when a particular lineup configuration isn't working. There are a lot of managers out there you cannot say that about. He isn't perfect, he does make mistakes, but the Tigers are still lucky to have him in the grand scheme of things.

Tucker Barnhart.... can't believe that trade/signing got so much hype in retrospect.

About as expected... a better than normal night for CNN, but largely underwhelming for a town hall type event

This is 100% accurate. Fans will read whatever they want onto it, but the Occam's Razor explanation is that Eduardo had to deal with something absolutely hellish in nature family wise last year and, whatever that issue is, it has been dealt with and he's back performing and contibuting. And it's not just DD or Petry either, his actual teammates are currently heaping praise onto him (such as Riley Greene yesterday)... I'm pretty sure I have seen quotes from the other starters (Wentz for sure) about how they are learning from him as well. Scott Harris had an appearance on MLB Network yesterday where he was praising him. It's not like this is "fans seeing what they want to see", he legitimately looks like he's in a better place and contributing this year. That doesn't mean that he's gonna stick around or that Harris won't use him as a trade chip, but just as Eduardo appears to have moved on from whatever happened last year, maybe the fanbase should as well.

I'm not sure it's a narrative that I buy either.... especially with all the talk from DD/Petry about how ERod has been working with / talking with Wentz and some of the other starters and trying to mentor some.

He came into last year as the Rangers Opening Day 3B, iirc.... some of that is a reflection of the Rangers not being the best ballclub in 2022, but they also weren't exactly down on him as a contributor going into last year either.

If he does have a good season and stays, some of it could be a reflection of the team improving, but also AJ will have to get some credit for really building that relationship in the offseason and building that trust with him.... think about where we were a month ago when he ****ed up on the bases and got benched and where we are now. A different manager who didn't put in the work to understand their star player may have ended up with a different result. Honestly, ERod would need to be extended for sure just because the AAV of his current deal is too low for how he's pitching, but maybe the same could be said for him in that the org did stand behind him last year when he was away and when the fan base was agitated by whatever personal problems were going on in his life. Not sure that's a guarantee in other orgs.

Regarding AJ Hinch and batting Wolfie cleanup a couple of days ago despite his struggles, notice how he wasn't in the lineup yesterday at all? And probably won't be in the starting lineup tomorrow? I didn't love the decision to bat Maton in the cleanup spot on Tuesday, but to Hinch's credit, when he makes decisions that can be seen as mistakes, he tends to correct them fairly quickly. This isn't Brad Ausmus we're talking about here who would just keep ****ing that chicken over and over again.

If this team finds itself near the top of the division approaching the deadline, I am starting to lean more toward them trying to figure out a way to hold onto ERod or even get him extended beyond this year..... and while I understand the incentives for trading regardless of outcome, there's also the fact that winning, even in this bad division, can be used as a selling point to free agents in the upcoming couple of free agent classes. That this team sees this division as winnable and will do what it takes to compete. Frankly, as much as we complain about the front office/ownership during this last offseason, the fact that the product on the field was so bad last year was no doubt an impediment to building from the outside. But we have a long way to go until we get to that point.... even if they are competing and do decide to trade ERod, I just hope they do so in a way that they utilize the leverage of their position to extract more talent and/or talent that can be usable during this season and not down the road.