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Now for a little good news—look who's ranking toward the top of the Statcast pitcher list! Maybe that 2016 RoY year wasn't a one-off after all.

Trigger warning to Mize fans: don't watch this video or read the rest of this post. By way of reminder, here's how Pedro Martinez assessed Casey Mize a couple years ago: Pedro: "For a guy that's so young, throwing the split-finger, if you think about him in a 200-inning season ... see? With that kind of torque on that elbow? You're looking at Tommy John." That's also what we'd read from Fangraphs prospect writers back in 2018 when we took him 1/1.

Hey, you old guys (55+): If you're anywhere near a TV or computing device, you have to watch Miggy get his 3,000th hit, because there's a good chance this will be the last guy any of us will see hit that milestone. That is, if this table from last September in Fangraphs is to be believed:

It would have been funnier if he'd said at least 502 homers and a .310 batting average.

I don't know, I'm inclined to take Putin's word for this one. Even a stopped clock tells the truth twice a day. Plus, it's not as though Putin is saying they're pulling out and giving the Ukrainians a break. Blockading them to starve them out is still an aggressive act of war. The trick is going to be making the blockade stand strong against what I assume will be Ukrainian bombardment of their positions.

Well, this didn't take long to find—we are definitely among the most injured teams in baseball. Compare to 2021, when we were in the bottom ten on the most-injured list, which may help explain why we won as many as 77 last year.

I'm not happy with the way they seem dead on their feet, but I'm not quite so down on this team just yet. We are in an early stretch playing some of the best teams in baseball: the White Sox are projected this morning to end up with the ninth best record; so are the Red Sox; and the Yankees are projected to end up with the fourth best record. That's nine of their first twelve games right there. And it's not going to get much easier very soon: they have the 8-4 Rockies in town for three this weekend, and then they'll face championship series contenders Dodgers and Astros within two weeks after that. We've talked about this before. But also, guys who were supposed to be significant contributors are out. Javy is out. So is Riley. Casey is not available. neither is Manning. Chafin hasn't even pitched. Funkhouser isn't available yet. Cisnero had to go on the 60-day. Jake Rogers is gone for the season. Spencer Turnbull's prime is wasting away while he rehabs. If all these guys were available to play, we'd probably be feeling very different about this team. I know that the injury bug is biting everyone, but without researching it at all, it feels like it's biting us especially hard. And yet, as dead as we have looked on our feet, we have been remarkably close in games. Each of the last eight games, during which our record has been 3-5, have been decided by two runs or less. That's because our pitching, of all things, has really stepped. We're not striking any anybody out, but we're also not walking anyone, and we're not giving up any bombs. That has kept us close so far. Sure, there's been some luck in the pitching, and I wouldn't put money on a prop bet that they'll keep that up, but when it comes strictly to results, I'd rather be lucky than good. Considering the schedule they have had so far, I'm thinking we are right about where we can expect us to be.

April 15. Since Saturday, the Tigers are the only team in baseball not to homer at all. Surprisingly, they have not been the worst hitting team, at least on an all-around basis. Their slash line since then is .204/.336/.247, with a wRC+ of 86, "good" for 16th in baseball. That's due to their on-base skills during this period: their OBP has been .336, which is sixth-best in the game since Saturday. However, they have also scored only six runs since then, tied for last in baseball. And the moral of the story is: getting on base don't mean a thing if you can't bring 'em around to score.

It's starting to look like the idea is to starve them.

Just another whiny little bitch with no principles or scruples.

I blame Ian Hunter for fooling people about Cleveland.

Well, technically, you inferred that I implied it was fake. Between the failure to identify the airlines as overseas, and the inability to click through tweet to get to the article, I'm forgiving myself for the implication.

He seemed anxious.

Way to run yourselves out of a potentially big inning, guys. We could have bases loaded and no outs with one run in right now.

How can this be? The mask requirement was dropped on Monday, April 18, the date under the headlines is April 11, the tweet doesn't link to an artic ... Oh, wait a minute ... it's a joke! By a comedian! Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Hilarious.

I can’t stop hearing this in my head every time I see this thread title.

I agree with this, and I also get the sense that no one has to force Craig to be like this. This is who he’s always going to be. He seems like a natural fit for MLB Network.

I am just over the hump on a bad head cold that started Monday. It was my first one in probably three or so years. Boy, that was a good run. I took a home COVID test. It was literally the first COVID test Ive taken. No line on the right side under the T, so according to the test anyway, no COVID. Although, in a weird way, I was hoping for a positive, assuming this is BA.2 and then I should be immune to it afterward. God, the stupid things that leap into your brain when you’re sick …

And powerfully delivered. Wow.

Dan has always been great about calling a spade a spade, and at those times when Dan gets critical of what he sees in the field, I can almost hear the wheels spinning in Monroe’s head as he tries to figure out what to say to put a positive spin on it all. I can imagine him thinking about Dan, “Jeez, what team is this guy even on?”

I agree he’s been doing that for a long time, but I’ll take that plus decent analysis over bland PR and fan-like boosterism seven days out of seven.

To my way of thinking, Price is at least a standard deviation better than Monroe, mainly because I value honesty in analysis, which Price provides and Monroe either doesn’t feel he can, or is constitutionally unable to provide.

Well, sure he just shows up and talks about himself. You don’t tell a Hall of Famer what to do. I will grant that C-Mo is the best of the bunch, although that’s a bit like saying Akil Baddoo is your team’s best hitter—it doesn’t mean so much on a team that generally can’t hit. My specific issue with C-Mo is he talks like he’s still in the clubhouse, using clubhouse nicknames for the players, which makes me roll my eyes; he’s a “let’s go, boys!” rooter behind the mic, which makes me roll my eyes; and he’s basically a PR manager for the players, spinning anything that’s suboptimal into bland positives because hey, he’s gotta see those guys the next day.

If Craig Monroe becomes the permanent analyst on radio with Dan, I think it’ll take the quality of the broadcast down at least a full notch. C-Mo is still in clubhouse mode, maybe for good.