casimir

The umpires aren't calling a 3D strike zone.

50 watts per channel, Babycakes.

The length of the games and the start times are just ridiculous. But its the same in all sports. The Super Bowl is probably the best championship start time, but even with that, why on a Sunday night which drains people for Monday morning?

Great song. This past weekend, there was a high school band rendition of it at halftime of the football game. The effort was nice, but the slower pace made it suffer in comparison to the original. The other school did a halftime show homage to previous cult classics, like the SpongeBob theme (a little slow, but good), the Simpsons (good stuff), and Star Trek (sounded really good by a marching band).

What a difference a year makes. Last year, Rogers was persona non grata among Tiger fans. Now his injury is considered by that same group (myself included) to be an impediment for next season.

Latest On Mets, Javier Baez If Baez & the Mets potentially get an extension completed early, it seems like this would ramp up prices on the remaining SSs as Baez is off the board and one of the SSs moves to 2B. Not the best of news for Detroit. On the other hand, I'd prefer the Tigers not sign Baez anyway. He'd be an upgrade over the flotsam & jetsam that the Tigers had at SS this past season, but I'm suspicious of the low OBP going forward.

Chicago Bulls (0-0) vs Detroit Pistons (0-0)

Can we have both strong gun and strong voting controls in place?

Schwarber in the regular season (2,579 PAs): .237/.343/.493. Schwarber in the playoffs (115 PAs): .286/.391/.582. Move over, Reggie?

Grumpfart.

There's plenty of room for improvement. Some of it will be internal. But there's certainly plenty of room to augment the roster externally. Mize and Skubal in the rotation. Soto, Cisnero, Alexander, and Funkhouser in the bullpen. Fulmer somewhere on the pitching staff. Schoop at 2B, Candelario at 3B, Grossman in a corner, Baddoo in the OF. Haase behind the plate. These spots have been earned (some more than others). Cabrera has the contract. Hill has the defensive chops if not the luck of health. Manning has the expectations. They're likely on the roster. Torkelson and Greene are on the horizon if not the roster. Turnbull and Rogers are on the 60 IL. Nothing else should be a scholarship to the active roster for Opening Day. Nothing else should be considered earned. All unmentioned 2021 Tigers come with the tag of "if". Plenty of room for improvement.

I would prioritize SP, SS, SP, C, and RP, and more P before CF. And the RP is a tough one to gauge because of the volatility in that realm. I don't trust it going forward, someone else mentioned the peripherals, and I agree. Maybe that's where Fetter gets more out of RP than peripherals suggest, I don't know. But if the market gets goofy for SS and ignores Marte, he can help the Tigers offensively and defensively.

The benefit to signing a SS is that there is plenty of room on the defensive spectrum to slide down and still be productive. If one wants to assume Kreidler/Workman will be major league SSs in a few seasons, .... I'm not too sure that's a risk I'm comfortable assuming, I want to see more out of both. But, yes, Correa (or Seager/Story/Semien) could move off of SS if the Tigers have access to a major league ready SS when Candelario hits free agency.

This is why I think he could have an opt out if he signs for 10 or fewer years. I think he will set himself up to be a free agent at 30 or 31 and try to get a deal through his age 39/40 season.

I will.

I prefer no longer going after DH only types. I would really like the Tigers to use the DH as a semi off day for the everyday players.

We can spitball here and easily assume north of $35M per and longer than 7 with a player opt out after a few seasons, right?

Is it just me, or does this seem to be lost in speculation about where he goes to?

I guess I hadn't realized Canha is going to be 33 soon. I guess now rethinking it, I wouldn't go more than 2 years on him. Looking at his numbers again, there might be some evidence of the downside of his career, although the abbreviated 2020 is tough to judge. Pederson would make for a really lefty heavy OF. I'm not sure that's ideal. Grossman can play everyday. But then Pederson and at least one of Greene/Baddoo would likely make the Opening Day roster. I suppose if one of the kids is ticketed for Toledo or used as trade bait, Pederson makes sense. I don't know, it seems like a RHB OF makes more sense for a decent balance in the OF. And, yes, this assumes RHBs in Cabrera, Schoop, a C, Torkelson in the lineup. I guess Greene is assumed to be an everyday player. Baddoo showed some capability to go the other way against LHPs, although the consistency certainly isn't there (not surprising, he's a young kid, a rule 5 kid, and he's lost a good amount of development time not just due to COVID). Starling Marte just turned 33, so he kind of goes against what I said about age and decline with Canha. But he's also better than Canha, so there's that. Does an OF of Baddoo/Greene/Marte/Grossman sound like fun? Maybe Marte is the bargain due to age and the SS bacchanal?

That's an interesting theory, I hadn't thought of that. Although I do remember half heartedly suggesting an OF of Granderson and Maybin on the corners with Ordonez in CF with the point being Granderson and Maybin could cover from the lines through the gaps and Ordonez wouldn't have much of a slice of defensive responsibility.

He had to take off his arm armor before strolling the bases, otherwise he might'of injured himself.

What’s crazy about Duvall is that his first MLB experience in CF was at the age of 31 even though he’s had MLB OF time since he was 26.

I like the FA suggestions of Canha. He gets on base and has some power, and he sounds versatile enough that, if he can be used in CF on occasion, he should be fine in a corner for Detroit. Plus, if he can pick it at 1B, maybe that also helps the bench a bit without sacrificing too much offense if Torkelson can move across the diamond to give a day off to Candelario once in a while. I like Grossman to repeat. I know some are suspicious of his career highs, but I think a lot of his ratios line up to when he was a platoon player (which doesn’t always work out that way). The problem with going after an OF is that the Tigers probably have room for only 4 unless they get the pitching staff down to 12. I’m still not acclimated to 13 pitchers, but that’s the way MLB works these days. So, Grossman and Canha, then two of Baddoo / Greene / Hill? Maybe Greene starts out in AAA to work on CF and maybe cutting down on Ks? It seems unlikely to go with 2 lefty bats in that instance, considering those 2 slots would need to play CF (not sure Canha would be up to CF in Detroit’s OF)

Groundhog Day? If they see their shadow, they have to be kept on the 40 for six more weeks?