RedRamage

Pointless trivia of the day... did you know that the Cleveland Guardians actually originated in Grand Rapids? They were originally founded in 1894 as the Grand Rapids Rustlers with the Western League. in 1900 they moved to Cleveland and changed to the 'Lake Shores,' then the Bluebirds in 1901, the Bronchos in '02, the Naps from '03-'14, then became the Indians in 1915.

I'm guessing the 33rd Team will only be marginally successful, then Brady will join and it will be fantastic and everyone will consider Belichick the greatest analyst in NFL history. Again... sorry... I'm just in a bad joke mood this morning I guess.

No wonder he wanted out of Detroit so bad... Sorry... it was too easy... I couldn't let it go.

Update: 24 White Sox = 31-108 03 Tigers = 37-102 The Tigers just finished a 3 game winning streak. They would go on to lose the next 6 games meaning if the White Sox win the next 6 games they'd be tried with the 2003 Tigers. Teams now need 54 wins to guarantee that they don't finish with a worse record the the White Sox this year. The Angels and Athletics have both passed that mark meaning only the Marlins and Rockies (both at 51 wins) are still in the danger zone.

Update: 24 White Sox = 31-103 03 Tigers = 34-100 The nationals can no long finish with a worse record than the White Sox. Leaving 4 teams mathematically still "in danger" of sucking more than the White Sox this year: Marlins (48 wins... need a combo of 11 games, either Marlin wins or White Sox losses to be safe) Rockies (50 wins... need 9) Angles (54, need 5) Athletics (58, need just 1)

I so, so, so wanted Cornejo to work out. I was rooting for him big time. I had been a Tigers fan a bit in the 80s, but sort of stopped following them in the 90s. I really got back into it around 2000. It took my young son to see the Tigers Caravan one summer and he had a little interaction with Cornejo so I instantly became a fan. I remember him being talked up so much as the next great pitcher for the Tigers.

Another bit of useless data... If the WhiteSox won out the rest of the season... if they won every one of their remaining games they'd end up 61 and 101. There are only 5 teams right now who could end up with a worse record than that. In order to ensure that the WhiteSox don't pass them, these teams need to win things many more games: Nationals: 2 games Athletics: 5 games Angels: 7 games Rockies: 12 games Marlins: 14 games

Compared to the Angels and Athletics? Much less "out of it." Games behind the division leader: Tigers: 9 Athletics: 14 Angels: 16 Games behind the final WC slots: Tigers: 6.5 Athletics: 16 Angels: 18 If you're noticing that those two teams are further behind the WC vs. division leader just be aware that is NOT a typo. The AL West kinda sucks this year. The Central has three teams that have a better record than the best team in the West. The Tigers would be only 4.5 games out of first place in the West. Shoot, if we could just not consider the White Sox, the Central's winning percentage is .543. Even with the White Sox the central is at .481. The West? 0.465. The Central has a team with over 100 losses already and yet we still have a combined better winning percentage than the west.

The Tigers just beat up on the White Sox leaving them at 31 and 101. It's made me wonder: Could the WhiteSox top the '03 Tigers in loss total? The 2003 Tigers, at 132 games played, were at 33 and 99... so a robust 2 games over the White Sox right now. To not top the 03 Tigers the White Sox need to win 12 more games out of the remaining 30... this would give them 43-119, same as the Tigers. Here's their remaining schedule: vs. Texas (3) - Probably out of the race vs. Mets (3) - 3 Games Back in Wild Card @ Baltimore (3) - Probably in the playoffs, but fighting for position @ Boston (3) - Probably out of the race vs. Cleveland (3) - Fight with Royals for lead of Central vs. Oakland (3) - Way out of it. @ Angels (3) - Even more way out of it. @ Padres (3) - Probably a WC team, fighting for position. vs. Angels (3) - Still way out of it. @ Tigers (3) I do find it interesting that we might be the ones to push them over the limit in that last series. Only 4 of the series look like they are against playoff bound teams, but none of those teams look like they've locked up positioning so they won't be coasting. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next month.

I'm not saying it's nothing... cause obviously it's something... but we're also talking about practice here. Any thing that's more than a little "ouch" moment they're going to be extra careful with. It's not like Sewell needs reps to get up to speed with the offense or learn the play book or whatever... he's a Pro-Bowl caliber going on his third season with the same staff in place. Slight discomfort? Get him off the field and check it out to be safe. Again, I'm not saying it's nothing and don't worry. But I am saying: Don't panic just yet... let's hear what the staff says after they get a chance to look at it.

Well, me for one. Honestly I'm not sure why you assume that most people have done this? It's frankly disturbing that you'd assume this. I'm a bit put out that you'd state something like this because when I did it, it was a domestic flight and therefore totally different.

Yeah... I think you did.

Thanks, this is really cool. I was looking at the injury listings on pro-football-reference, which are nice charts, but it's great that someone is trying to put a number on it and taking into account the importance to the player/position. The Lions rank is about what I expected... middle of the pack. Nothing substantial that makes you think the Lions pissed in God's cereal, but also nothing so good that makes you think Holmes made a deal with the devil. I will say that I think they are under-estimating the importance of the QB, and they seem to admit that as well: "...while Cincinnati showed the limitations of the AGL formula: they ranked third in lowest AGL but of course their most substantial injury was to starting quarterback Joe Burrow." I think Minnesota is another example of that. They were starting to build some steam last year until Cousins got hurt, then it all fell apart. But Minny is still ranked in the middle of the pack in AGL.

While technically correct, I disagree on dodging it. We did not have many that we lost of the whole season, but we had some key players who missed substantial time: Cabinda - 12 CJGJ - 14 Houston - 14 Jacobs - 5 McNeil - 4 Mosely - 16(.9) Paschal - 5 Vatai - 11 And these are just the bigger names. I'm not include Sudfeld or Knight or Zylstra or Nelson (all double digit games missed). And again I'll point out... where were we the weakest last year? Secondary... where the projected starting CB was out for pretty much the entire season and the projected starting safety missing 82% of the season. We started Vildor in the NFC Championship game for goodness sake! This also doesn't include that we lost Marvin Jones because he stepped away from the missing 11 games or that Jamo was suspended for the first handful of games. I'm not trying to say that the Lions had it super bad injury-wise. I know that there were other teams that had it worse... MIN, for example. But I don't think the Lions got super luck in the injury front either.

I don't think we dodged the injury thing. Perhaps other teams got hit worse, but the Lions had quite a few injury issues. OL, for instance lost 9 games among the 5 starters (Decker 2, Jackson 5, Ragnow 2) and the defense really had some key injuries: CJGJ 15 and Mosely 16.9. There's a smattering of other players who missed a few games here and there included ARSB (1), Monty (3), Anzalone (1), etc, but especially that secondary hit was huge. Our secondary was the weakest unit last year easily and it was missing two big name free agents who were supposed to help it for nearly the entire season.

I'm probably one of the bigger Bates slappies here (just look at the UFL thread), but a 64-yarder in practice doesn't mean much. Don't get me wrong... I definitely LIKE that he has a big leg, but kicking in practice vs. in game where the opposing team is barreling in on you and there's pressure to make it... that's what counts a lot more. Bates mostly seemed to be able to handle this in the UFL well, but there's always the question of whether the added mental pressure of doing in in the NFL will be too much. I mean he's on a (nearly) $2M contract over two years. This is life altering money and if he's successful he can expect even more.

I want him to go to which ever team will do better with him. I don't really fear the Browns or the Pats right now, so I'd prefer that the 49ers get a lower pick (as a result of the team he goes to finishing with a better record) in whatever draft picks they're getting back. I will say that I'm surprised that there are two trade deals worked out (from the 49ers end). This actually gives Aiyuk some leverage with the teams. I don't know if this is common and I've just never heard of it before or if the 49ers are trying to be nice to Aiyuk or what.

Two things: 1. This is why we moved on from Jackson. He was beginning to be an injury problem. Missed 4 games two years ago, missed 5 games last year. He's good when healthy, but being healthy all year was becoming hard for him to do and it's not smart to give a LOT of money to a guy who isn't able to play regularly... not when he's "just" good. 2. Even if they are all healthy for week 1, OL is about working together and getting comfortable with how your neighbors play. If they only have limited time to work together this will work in favor of the Lions. Having said that, if there are "day-to-day" things than the group may still be able to drill together, just not do an actually contact stuff.

I'm certainly not being a rules expert, but doesn't he take up a spot on the 53 man roster then?

Grapes? Is that you??

Even if we assume a resurgence of Levi (which is a HUGE if right now), it's still to early to cement it, but I totally agree that its looking like a monster return on the draft. Sewell: Bona fide star, pro-bowl caliber starter Onwuzurike: Quality rotation/possible starter McNeill: High Quality Starter/border line Star Player Melifonwu: Quality rotation/possible starter (depends on how he progresses at safety) St. Brown: Bona fide star, pro-bowl caliber starter Barnes: Decent Rotation guy Jefferson: Depth piece We got 3 starters... and that's 3 guys who would be starters on nearly any team in the league. We got 3 players who are borderline starters. 3 guys who would probably be starters on many teams in the league, but aren't quite good enough to be considered starters with the Lions. We got 2 bona fide stars with at least 1 knocking on that door, and maybe more? Yeah, this is the sort of draft that could rank up there with the best, that's for sure.

See, the thing is just about any other coach I can think of... I hear that from them and I just assume it's coach-speak... trying to talk up a guy. "Best shape of his life..." sorta stuff. But with Campbell? I think he actually means it. Now, obviously it has to translate from training camp to actual games AND there's the little matter of staying healthy. But make IF he put together and IF he can stay healthy... that's a HUGE bonus for the defense.

With Cominsky out and Judon unhappy with his contract in Boston, do the Lions call up the Pats about what it would take to get Judon? Being a Grand Valley alum I'd love to be able to root for him.

I think that's definitely true, but... I think that would have been true before the trades, if maybe not quite as much. 3 of our 6 players penciled is an Major league starters are injured with now in Mize, Olson, and Manning. Another 1 has just totally bombed out and been demoted. That means we had 2 good starting pitchers. Starting pitching on 7/30 was in bad shape. For 2025, are we really in any worse shape that we were two days ago? Sure, triple A pitching isn't as deep as it was because we've had to call up Montero and will have to call up more now. But these are guys we hoped would be pushing for starting jobs next year and/or will be pushed back to triple-A if the three guys listed above come back healthy. The ground we've lost for the year isn't because of the trades, it's because of the injuries and underperformance of key players.

Maybe, but remember this is just a rental on a guy with some back issues so I'm not expecting the sun moon and stars... just the moon, and maybe one or two smaller stars.