Useful Idiot

Well,.....okay...out of all the teams you list, there are not enough to form two 4 team divisions...so where is the team you are keeping up your sleeve? I don't think there is any way MLB would put the yanks and bosox in different divisions, so I'd speculate that the Red sox, Yanks, Orioles, and Rays make one division The Tigers, Jays, Guardians, and one other make up the other one. Where does your "research" tell you that the expansion team(s) will be located?

Tuesday night, I shoulda said 😃

I know its just a "coulda, shoulda, woulda"...but I sincerely believe VR would have nabbed that Sano drive to right field Wednesday night.

The wheels really seemed to come off once Victor hit the IL.

FWIW, in my mind I set a benchmark of .500 as the reasonable goal this season, towards better things to follow. Of course I set that goal intentionally on the conservative side, hoping to dodge disappointment. But DANG! big Al got me again.

B,b,b,but Big Al said every game counts this year....last year he was still in anal retentive penny pinching mode...this year is supposed to be vindicating!!

I often feel the same way here. Must be something in the air?

I thought we were supposed to do better than last year? Somehow I envision it as a let down if we only threaten (and fail) to attain .500 again this season

Why not Cubs, Brewers and Wsox? Might as well F things up good, we're headed that way anyway.

After seeing Castro at third base today, I don't think we can spare Candelario unless and until A Avila learns how to flirt with drunken sailors.

Well, I guess that I should find redemption in the knowledge that I'm not paying any premium, considering that winning ballgames is no longer a priority? "Pillared and letterboxed" seems about right for a ".400" team.

So much for "keep your lead shoulder tucked, and push the ball to the opposite field" ? Or Rod Carew's "use the whole field" strategy

Thanks for all that guys, but I'm still wondering about one of my original questions. Did those of you who get BSD "in market", get to watch the spring training games, and now that the regular season has started are they showing the same day replay of the earlier game? My cable guide channel here claims that both are being provided, when in reality they are/were not available to the viewer. So,I'm trying to ferret out who the culprit might be, Bally, or my local provider. Just seems odd to have the listings in the guide, but not the programming Meanwhile I'm being inundated with Reds baseball on 3 different Bally sports Indiana channels, plus White Sox and Cubs...all in 16:9 format....while the one Tigers channel I get is pillared and letterboxed, (and carries poker and tennis most of the time)

Okay, thanks...makes sense!!

I'm getting Tigers games through Comcast in North East Indiana. Regrettably the presentation is in "window box" (pillared AND letterboxed) format, but it's better than nothing. One thing I've noticed is that none of the spring training games were actually shown, despite them being listed in the local guide channel. Same goes for same day "replay" showings of games broadcast earlier in the day. They are listed in the guide...but instead we get tennis. My question is, those of you receiving Bally Sports Detroit in the Detroit metro area, are you getting the same substitutions, or were you given the spring games and the rewind games as listed? Bonus question, during Miguel Cabrera's at bats, the Bally camera work is sure to show clips of Cabrera's mother and two kids in the stands....and they also cut to a showing of two people up on a porch in the luxury boxes. Who are those people? I'd guess the woman is Rosangel....but the blonde guy I am at a total loss for. (?)

**cough cough** Victor Martinez **cough cough**

Of course some insist that a player can never willingly decide to up their game, that they are born with a finite skillset that they will forever be bound to. I guess (to those critics) the hours of players analyzing videos of their own plate appearances is little more than self indulgence?

I thought it was especially poignant in tonight's post game interview, where they asked Victor what he was doing differently, and his reply "golpear la pelota donde no hay nadie" So much for the BA/BIP critics....😱

It's be interesting to see how it plays out once Riley Green is back in the picture. Last season I would have guessed that Victor was going to be the one to take it in the shorts. Now I'm not so sure. With both Meadows and Grossman as fixtures.....Hill, Baddoo, or Reyes are bound to be a casualty. I'm thinking now that Hill has the short straw.

Looks to me like he has developed a new swing, the propellerheads might have to revise their numbers?

Not too sure about that. Comments last season optimistic that Victor would make the team coming out of spring training this year, were met here with dis-enthusiasm, so my post was mostly one of wanting to rub that reality into all the grouse's faces. Looks like I hit my mark, too. 😁 Nice triple today

Over at the Tigers official MLB site, I see they are listing Victor Reyes as being on the opening day roster. For some reason when they went went out and got Meadows...I suspected that was the end for Victor. I really hope Victor can finally find himself and silence his critics, once and for all.

His willingness to now acknowledge winning ballgames as even being important seems a pretty drastic improvement from the "everything is intangible because we are fully committed to our future" blubber he's been spewing the past few years.

“You’ve got to go full bore from Day 1, because those few games at the beginning can mean everything at the end.” - - Al Avila (end of story at link: https://www.mlb.com/tigers/news/spencer-torkelson-prospect-faq ) So much for the apologists who try to excuse mediocrity with platitudes such as "Pennants are won in September, not in April". It'll be interesting to see what the Tigers are capable of now that big Al has declared that every game counts

So, here is what the new schedule is gonna look like. 56 games within division: That's 14 games against each of the other four teams, down from 19 games now. Teams will play four series (one three-game and and one four-game, each at home and on the road) against the other teams in the division. 60 games against rest of league: Clubs will play six games (three at home and three on the road) against the 10 teams in the other two divisions in their league. That's more or less what we have now, though there are a few four-game series each year. 4 games against "rivals": Some rivalries are obvious (Yankees vs. Mets, Giants vs. Athletics, etc.), others not so much (Padres vs. Mariners?). Going forward, rivals will play four times each year, two at home and two on the road. Right now it varies by year. 42 other interleague games: Against the other 14 teams in the other league, teams will play one three-game series each season. They will alternate home and road each year. So it'll be Red Sox vs. Mets at Fenway one year, Citi Field the next. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-lockout-10-important-under-the-radar-changes-in-cba-including-new-schedule-format-and-loss-of-game-163/ Only 116 games against your own league? This is not "progress"