chasfh

Fulmer is back to killing it, at least.

Yes, he is.

He may not have had a bead on where Kepler was. He may have thought Kepler was going to score very easily.

Yes, he was.

One of the things I wonder is what happens if, god willing, we pass through this current situation as though it is a phase and we come out socially stronger on the other side in, I don’t know, let’s say ten or fifteen years. What happens to people like Tucker Carlson and Elise Stefanik and J.D. Vance, people who seemed to operate within an acceptable range of the political spectrum but then dumpster-dove into the dark side for the money and the power? Do they somehow get repatriated into polite society, or are they spun off into permanent social exile for make the choice they did?

I can’t watch Fox News for more than a couple of minutes without my stomach tying up into knots. I get physically queasy. The main point of the black guests is to let white viewers know that black people are redeemable if only they assimilate traditional American ideals—IOW, there can be good ones.

That’s where the money is for him.

Or their minds are so clouded and closed that they don’t know they are wrong. I remember several decades ago being surrounded by the thinking that black people have more advantages than white people because of affirmative action and whatnot, and if they are still in poverty or have higher death rates, that’s a problem of their own making, and “the rest of us” shouldn’t have to waste our tax money to unsuccessfully government-spend them out of a problem they don’t care to solve on their own. That’s pretty strongly-established thinking in those circles, strong enough that they don’t have to go through the mental and psychic gymnastics of knowing one thing and saying/doing the opposite in the interest of group orthodoxy. A lot of people, particularly rank and file voters, who think that way do so honestly, for what that’s worth.

Well, to be fair to be Republicans, they have basically told us over and over that they were going to use fraud in upcoming elections.

About the only safe way I can think of to get Putin replaced is to backchannel some incentives to people on the next level or two down and convince them that Russia can reconnect with the rest of the first world without Putin at the top. The danger is that most if not all the the people on those next couple of levels down are completely simpatico with Putin and that reconnecting a first world run by the United States is not at all an incentive for them, and such an offer hardens them and increases the chances for a disastrous outcome.

lol suxx

That first walk was pretty Soto-like, though. The difference is Chafin’s track record is better and as you say, it didn’t work out this time around. But I am glad to see the Tigers fighting back from the early deficit. Shades of later 2021.

That wasn’t Baez’s fault. There wasn’t a double play to be made on that ball, and he couldn’t have gotten up and thrown out Kepler at the plate. The Tigers played a strong game today—that was just another dollop of bad luck.

Normally that’s the left fielder’s ball. but when it’s a choice between Javy and Willi …

Sorry about making this happen, guys … 😏

That said, that was a very Soto outcome on Kepler! 😅

I like Chafin here and not Soto.

That’s fine, but just know that you’ve gotten yourself into a position where you will never be able to praise Baez in this forum when he does do well, because everyone here will remember, if not actually remind you, that you bailed on him six weeks into his first season here.

That was a good effort by Tork on a play nobody could have done anything with.

Man, them are good wheels for a guy who came up as a catcher.

Dickerson just hammered Andy Gonzalez on the 2-2 slider that “missed”.

Miggy with the run-scoring single, which is good because even a close throw would have nailed Schoop at the plate.

Schoop still smacking the ball around, only now hits are starting to fall in.

There’s a reason Haase was rookie-eligible for four different seasons before he caught on last year.

Thinking a little more about this, some of us have tried to work out what a schedule would look like in a 32-team world. I think most of us have assumed two leagues, unbalanced schedule, the most teams would be against your division, second most against your league, and a smattering of inter league games against selected teams. But now that Baseball is going to a new thing next year in which everybody plays all 29 of the other teams, so that fans can see every player in the league play their team during the year, for marketability purposes, any new schedule would probably have to maintain that new system. So here is a radical proposal that i do not advocate, but which I think is certainly within the realm of possibility: create a single league of eight four-team division and shorten the season dramatically to expand playoffs. in this kind of system, each team would play the 28 teams not in their division three times apiece for 84 games, and then play each team in their division 18 times for 54 games, for a total of 138 regular season games. Season starts in late March and ends the day before Labor Day, after which playoffs starts. Sixteen teams makes the playoffs and all round are best of seven. Four sets of series: wild card round (16 teams whittled down to eight); quarter finals (eight to four); semifinals (four to two); and World Series (two to one). Playoffs start the day after Labor Day and end by the last Wednesday in October. No more November games. All Saturday and Sunday games will be night games to avoid the football buzzsaw, plus no Monday or Thursday games at all. Sure, this would be an execrable situation. But if the goal is to maximize playoff revenue and “excitement” while avoiding having your lunch eaten by football, this will probably look mighty fine to Baseball. The players wouldn’t mind it, either, as long as their current contract salaries are not cut by 15% because of the shortened season.