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I don't think of it as a bunch of bad choices as much as it's been a decent bullpen that's gotten roughed up as of late, and also in which everyone in it has had bad stretches. We are disappointed in the Tigers this year, so the bad times really stand out to us.

I have never not been in on AOC. I always thought she is cut from a different cloth from the rest of the so-called The Squad.

This is a really good article, and highlights the unintended consequences of all these changes Baseball undertook all at once: reducing number of minor league levels, reducing roster limits within the remaining levels, pitch timer, schedule changes to six-game series, ABS, am I missing anything? Perhaps especially ABS, which is really juicing walk rates. In the majors the walk rate is about 8%. In AAA, it's 11.3%. And in AA, with supposedly worse pitchers, it's 9.8%. I would imagine we will see jacked-up walk rates when ABS comes to the bigs as well.

I pulled up a bunch of 2019 mock draft articles, and while to your point it wasn't unanimous, Riley showed up on most of them: Baseball America: Riley Bleacher Report: Riley CBS Sports: Andrew Vaughn ("For weeks the Tigers have been strongly tied to outfielder Riley Greene, the best high school hitter in this draft, but Vaughn slipping would make them shift gears.") The White Sox took Vaughn at #3. Perfect Game: Riley Fangraphs: Vaughn ("Vaughn or Florida high school OF Riley Greene.") The Athletic: Riley Callis, MLB Pipeline: Riley Mayo, MLB Pipeline: Riley

Shelby did have a solid eight-game stretch from May 11 to June 25, giving up only two earned in 8-2/3 with eight strikeouts and no walks and a .115/.138/.308 slash against. Of course that was also buoyed by a .105 BABIP, but he did have a FIP 3.16 and xFIP of 3.32, so, not chopped liver. In the two game since he has collapsed, and to G's point, I'm wondering how much clocking a guy in the side of his helmet and putting him out of the game got into Shelby's head in yesterday's outing. I think I'd be surprised to see him DFA'ed today, although his Savant card is pretty blue, meaning he doesn't have much underlying strength in his pitching, so I guess it wouldn't floor me.

Avila gets positive credit for not screwing up the Riley Greene pick, the same way he doesn't get the blame for picking Tork 1-1. He took the pick everyone would have taken. Late round guys are basically dartboard picks for everybody. I don't see how anyone can claim someone is a genius because they laid in wait for a guy they knew was going to rake in the major leagues but who wouldn't get picked until the 19th round. That just doesn't pass the smell test. The Fetter thing comes out of nowhere, but now that you mention it, it was a good hire by Avila, especially since Fetter coached in the Padres system while the guy who'd just been hired a week earlier as Tigers manager was a scouting VP there.

What, what? Bill James and Joe Biden spend a lot of time hanging out and watching Nationals games? Since when? How does Joe find the time to do this? And how does something like this not get widely reported? Is this real?

Honest hypothetical question: if Biden were to have to pull out, should Kamala Harris be the nominee because she clearly is the best candidate who can beat Trump? Or should she be the nominee because she’s the vice president now so she’s next in line and people have to be fair and wait their turn? I can’t say I know for a fact that anyone is better than Kamala on beating Trump, because it is all a great unknown.

I don’t think Biden won it handily at all. He came out of the box rushing his words; he failed to stay on track and finish his sentences effectively; and he let Trump’s worst lies go almost completely unchallenged. None of these have to do with his looking old and vacant, except for the possibility that he knew right away he was really ****ing up and got completely inside his own head about it. He may have done better later in the debate, but by that point, it was just too late. You just don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

Plus it is widely accepted that Humphrey was gaining so fast on Nixon at the end that he may very well have won, but for Nixon explicitly sabotaging Johnson’s agreement with Vietnam to end the war.

Riley was the consensus pick at 1/5, so Avila got the guy everyone else would have picked. Olson seems like a decent pickup although he was a 13th-round pick out of high school with control issues in the low minors who seemed to find himself when the Fetter team got hold of him, traded for a guy who was basically getting run out of town for poor results, so it’s fair to wonder whether he was a blind squirrel pick. Skubal was picked in the ninth round literally as a favor to Scott Boras, and Carpenter was a late-round guy who got passed over 561 times before we eeny-meeny-miney-moed him, which is why I am loathe to give Avila genius points for picking either. Call it Avila hate if you want, but if you really want to defend Avila as a competently average picker of players, I think these examples fall short of the mark.

This pretty much nails it. Back in 2018 breaking stuff was still considered put-away pitches. Six years later, only high cheese pushing 100 at minimum at the top of the zone can seem to get big-league batters out. Casey is basically a pitcher of a different era, with signature pitches today’s hitters know how to spit all over. That might be why his K/9 is not even as high as seven, even post-surgery. There are some bright spots in Casey’s performance. His FIP- is 91, which is a bit better than average, he doesn’t give away free passes much, and he kills a lot of worms. But he still can’t get swing and miss, can’t get guys to chase, and gives up too much on-the-button contact, and he isn’t better at any of that than he was in 2021 pre-injuries. We may be seeing the finished product right now, which would make him as good as he’s ever going to be. If anyone could theoretically benefit from a ball deadened back to 1980s level, it is Casey Mize.

Honest question: do we know he wasn’t a first-pitch-taker at Arizona State?

Ah I knew they had it the whole time 😁

Holy f***. From six-run lead in the ninth to tying run coming to the plate.

Malloy almost knocked out a couple teeth head-first sliding into the plate to beat the throw to the shortstop from the center fielder.

Point!

He's no HOF intellect, either, since he doesn't appear to realize that there is a fertile middle ground between knowing 100% what a pitcher is going to throw, which is impossible, and completely guessing or even thinking about what the pitcher is going to throw, which is impractical.

As are we here. So ... what?

This is the guy who correctly predicted Trump wining in 2016.

it can't be that they're all ex-Republicans because the "Pod Save bros" worked for Obama's White House, so this guy must referring to something else.

If I'm Russia, what do I want now? For Biden to stay in the race. If I'm Russia and I want Biden to stay in the race, what am I going to do? Flood the zone with info ops encouraging Biden and his followers to stay in the race. If I'm Russia and I want to flood the zone with info ops encouraging Biden and his followers to stay in the race, what would be a good way to do that? Put out bull**** polls right after the debate showing Biden's poll numbers are going up. I'm not saying this is definitely what Russia is doing. I'm saying this would be a good way to do that.

Let him. That would accrue to his detriment.

This was decided only to help Trump in his own court cases and in his campaigning, nothing more. That it also happens to help a few J6 terrorists—only those charged which obstruction, which the vast majority were not—is simply gravy.