mtutiger

And yet Kevin will let him stick around lol

The other part about illegal immigration and the spike in asylum seekers (they are conflated a lot but are two different things, fwiw) is that the debate is completely uncentered around actually fixing the problem and more about short term band aids. Militarizing the border and forcing asylum seekers to apply for asylum in other jurisdictions, those are band aids.... they don't solve the problem of people making the choice to trek 1000s of miles to try to get to the United States. The only real way the problem is truly solved is through policy change and cooperation with origin countries that involve helping to raise the standard of living enough that it dissuades people from deciding to make that trek.... but OTOH, the people who are most animated by the border tend to be the same people who want to indiscriminately cut foreign aid and think it's all a waste of money, so my guess is that we will be dealing with the status quo regardless of who is in office going forward.

A good example of why "thoughts and prayers" are deeply unsatistying... they all come with an expiration date.

Texas resident here....Yes, Texas is trending blue. Those aren't just liberal talking points. Now, the degree to which it trends blue is dependent on a few things, including border issues and how it impacts the thinking of those who live down in the Valley. But the trend is there. Particularly given the population difference between places in the Texas Triangle (ie. DFW/Houston/SA/Austin) and the Valley, whose population is to Texas what the UP is to Michigan

The obsession with the Kennedys in general is very weird from the right wing conspiracy crowd... now added to that is the RFK Jr. campaign that is being cheerled as a stalking horse campaign by the same folks

As frustrating as Maton has been, Kreidler hasn't proven that he can be better. I think he sticks around, but batting him cleanup needs to stop for a while

Bieber hasn't had a clean inning all night, no damage regardless.

Honestly, Tork would probably be OK too... just cannot trust Maton up there to make contact against breaking/offspeed stuff

Good God, we live in stupid times

"Donald Trump Found Guilty of Sexual Assault. Here's Why that's Good News for Trump" -Maggie Haberman, probably

Why do they keep putting Wolfie Maton in the cleanup spot??? What an outrage

I know ballmich more or less disappeared after Trump was elected (except one time leading up to the 2020 election), but his brand of engagement really was a leading indicator of the direction that the GOP was lurching in.... so much of the themes and language he used have become increasingly mainstreamed in conservative thought.

I love how the same people that had no problem playing identity politics with the Nashville shooter all of a sudden are alluding to the Allen shooter as being a "false flag".... It's all so transparent and all so dumb.

Hence why I said: "Absent those, they would probably still be overperforming, but more modestly."

Gotta say, love being told by a guy that marinates in Russian propaganda apparently on a daily basis that I, guy who lives in a 50/50 neighborhood in a 50/50 county in a state that Donald Trump won and works in a pretty conservative workplace/industry, engages in "groupthink"... PigSnuggler probably needs to look in the mirror a little bit.

Generally not great to cherry pick or discount specific results, but their pythag numbers have to be somewhat influenced by the early blowouts, particularly the 12-2 and 14-5 blowouts in the Tampa and Boston series respectively. Absent those, they would probably still be overperforming, but more modestly. Either way, they're a team relying on the close W more than the blowout... really outside of their 8-1 game against the Mets, they really haven't had one of those this year iirc. If they have can add a few laughers to their repertoire, that would help.

With respect to Manning, I'm not sure this last injury should be held against him given how fluky it was.... that could happen to anyone. My overall point is that we are mostly focused on the Tigers here, given that it's a Tigers board, but there's added perspective in understanding the difficulties that other teams in the division are facing. Never would have predicted it prior to the season, but the Tigers seem relatively settled / stable in comparison to most of their division mates.

The record outside of the AL East thing screams of being something that will normalize as more games are being played, although clearly it's the best division in baseball and the Tigers may just be an extreme example of how that it is the case. I do think just looking more broadly at the division, while the Tigers have some risk factors roster wise (SP has been mentioned, hitting got off to a slow start and may have a tendency toward being streaky), and I cannot believe I'm saying this, but they may actually have less question marks than every other team in the division except the Twins. The Guards have been ravaged by injuries to their starting rotation and a mediocre offense that has regressed into one of the worst offenses in baseball in 2023... the White Sox basically have no reliable pitching right now and a mediocre offense that has seen it's fair share of injuries.... the Royals have no pitching and, outside of Vinnie P, Bobby Witt and Sal Perez, not exactly the most reliable offense either. If the tick up in the Tigers offense is water reaching it's level, I definitely think second place is a good goal for this club, even with some of the risk factors it otherwise possesses. But they will need to keep improving offensively, and really that could potentially come down to Greene and Tork continuing to progress as hitters. And the starting pitching will have to hold as well.... hopefully getting Skubal back could be a plus in this regard.

Wentz did today, so that is a start. Also hasn't hurt that the schedule got easier earlier than expected.... the Mets/Cards/Guards are playing much worse baseball than people expected them to be when the schedule was published.

One imagines that any movement on JHM would probably precipitate some moves further down in the system, wrt Colt Keith of Wenceel Perez.