sabretooth

Swift in HoF mode

Damn nice D sequence

I guess we dont need to worry about the O Line. What a game!

I agree.

Last 30 days wRC+: Tork 198* Kerry: 184* Haase: 161 Tucker: 137 Greene: 122* Kreidler: 110* Reyes: 109 Javy: 97 * Hopeful signs for next year? Haase will hopefully continue to be a nice semi regular. Tucker should be gone. Reyes should be a 4th OF at best. Javys 97 could be his new normal. Jeimer has been terrible the last 30 days (77), but thanks to his post-ASB surge in July, his post-ASB wRC+ is 109. I dont hold out much hope in him. Harold has been poor since the ASB (84). Probably reality setting in, but he can be a nice bench player even if he doesnt hit very well.

I agree...that comment about POC seemed like virtue signaling.

I have always thought that it made more sense to accept more risk, not primarily to make more money, but to put a fun product on the field that people will enjoy and secondarily to make more money. We are in a metro market area that is in the top 10 in the country and expatriated fans around the country. So hell yeah there's lots of room to grow profits. Also, after Miggy's contract is taken out of the equation the Tigers will be about $50M below the league average payroll. Opportunity abounds! My *hope* is that Chris seizes it and goes for the molson. Logically, he really should. Why would a guy own a baseball team to make *some* money every year siring a lousy product, when he can go all-in and make a *lot* of money on a good product? My *fear* is that if he was willing to pay Miggy's $25-30M contract, and rely on cheap/short-term contracts for guys like Cron and Schoop and such, and basically committ to losing a lot of games while making modest profits from 2017 - 2021, he might simply slip back into that mode again, but this time with Baez + ERods annual $40M spend in the place of Miggy's contract. The image of Henry Winkler in pumps shying away from a laughing Jerry Reed comes to mind. I visited some other parks with winning teams, most recently ATL, and the atmosphere was electric. I don't care if most of the fans who come to see a winner don't know baseball that well or only show up to see a winner. I am tired of going to Comerica and feeling like it's a library with a crazy librarian blasting music and making announcements on the loudspeakers. I'm not criticizing DET fans, but this team simply doesn't give us anything to cheer about, Chris, AA and Hinch/Fetters failed efforts to build a decent team (and bad luck in terms of injuries) in 2022 notwithstanding. This model is basically a no-name team, but it doesn't work. Imagine the GTW Pistons if Sheed, Prince and Rip were battling injuries, Chauncey shot like Josh Smith, Ben Wallace was fighting a bad back, and they brought back Grant Hill as a face/name. Tigers fans are forced to cheer for a one-legged greybeard trying to lob soft singles over the second baseman's glove. Hire a GM who knows how to build a minor-league system, can make trades, commands the owners respect and resources, and give this freaking team a league-average payroll. Anything less is complete BS in my opinion.

This is unfortunately the most likely outcome with a disengaged, conservative, and risk-averse guy, which Chris seems to be IMHO.

That is really funny! I looked that up and was initially going to quote the same stats, as well as the fact that the 2022 Tigers spent about 2/3rds of their salaries on Free Agents. They spent soooo much of the 2012 - 2016 payroll on extensions for Miguel, JV, and Miggy's bestest buddy and big toe, Victor. Ahh, Victor. If only Mike had liked Max as much as he liked Victor. Avila could have traded Max away for peanuts in 2017 as well.

Nah, they didn't buy the turnaround from 2005 to 2006; and while 2007 wasn't a pennant winner, they still won 88 games, and they didn't add any additional major FAs for 2007. The team payroll was only a few million above the league median in 2007. Once they signed Renteria and extended Willis in 2008, the payroll jumped into the top 10 and stayed there until the firesale in 2017. Interestingly, in 2012, the only Free Agent making more than $9M was Prince, and of course they also were paying JV and Miggy >$20M. So 2012 really was three mega-stars et al type structure.

Another couple of games like this and you'll have an entourage

Today I declare, I shall hope again. Come back, Bert, there may be something happening that you will actually want to share with the next generation.

After the 2013 ALCS disaster, it was three+ years of The Expendables, four+ years of hard tanking, and two years of a failed rebuild. At the beginning of this season, I had hopes that the tank-picks in Greene, Tork, and Mize would help make this team decent, along with the Baez/Meadows/Schoop/Candy/ERod veteran axis. Didn't happen of course...and now a new group of kiddies just might be emerging.....and they are not tank picks either. Little tiny green shoots in what has seemed like the salted ground of our minor league system....dare we hope for a positive future that is supported by players who did not require $100M or 100 losses to acquire them?

Just awesome, finally some demonstratable glimmer of hope about the future.

This is a great game.....honestly one of the coolest Tiger games I've seen in about 10+ years.

I am with this 100%, it wouldn't bother me a bit to see guys like Menzin stay around if they have the skills and approach that the new GM is looking for. Menzin may be a fine up-and-coming talent that just needs the right mentorship and situation to fully realize his potential. Given what has happened here, I doubt he is marketable in an executive role elsewhere at this time -- even if another GM liked him, they would be afraid of hiring a guy with Detroit's current stink on him. Being part of a turnaround team here in DET under a new successful GM is probably the only ticket for Menzin to be a MLB executive long-term here or anywhere.

I never ever felt this bad even about the 2003 team. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Mike I and DD would step in and make things better. With Chris I in charge, I could imagine them announcing the hire of Sam Menzin next week and a virtually bottomless pit of failure ahead....not because Menzin is a bad guy or has no skills, but because he represents more of the same from Chris I. Even if they hire a very qualified GM, unless it's Theo (and it's not going to be Theo, I've understood that from day 1, even though I have promoted the concept), I am not going to get behind it until I can plainly see that this GM has the resources and support and space to turn this ship around and win without some huge re-rebuilding project and another 5 - 7 year plan or tanking or some other BS.

Oustanding points, I don't disagree with anything you've said here. The last time I checked, it seemed that most/nearly all of the guys who have been struggling have seen a reduction in Ks and lower LA, fewer barrels and softer hits. It **may** be that they have been coached/encouraged to emphasize contact, which may have had they consequence of canceling out the mediocre power they started out with.

Absolutely

Boesch actually had two years of decent production (2010 and 2011...I said decent, not above average), and a third year (2012) that was far far more productive than Baddoo this year, and he had a very nice cup of coffee with NYY in 2013 at age 28 before disappearing. Looking ahead, Baddoo has the potential advantage of breaking in at age 22, so he has a few years of probable athletic improvement ahead, unlike Boesch, who broke in at age 25. Boesch faded the way you would expect a platoon guy with mediocre skills. I would be **very** happy if Baddoo can take advantage of his relative youth to be a decent semi-regular until age 28 or 29 or so. I dont expect that, but I do think its reasonable to hope that Baddoo cab have a couple of decent years. You dont **expect** a guy to go from better than league average at age 22 to completely unable to hit at all and disappear. Baddoos preseason projections were for him to be decent. The collapse isn't shocking, but I think its reasonable to say that it is suprising.

I should have been clearer...the change in baseballs and potential coaching shortcomings notwithstanding, the "baffling" part is how everybody took a dump this year. I wouldnt be baffled if Baddoo's troubles were a relatively isolated phenomenon along with another guy or two. But everybody...its wild.

That was between the ages of 17 and 20, though. He admittedly didnt put up impressive stats, but he did a good job last year against MLB pitching, including rebounding from a bad slump after his hot start. He's only 23....his profile looks a lot like Boesch....if he succeeds, he would likely provide several years of decent production.

Baddoo is another guy that is a head scratcher. He clearly has the skill set to be a decent hitter but he has seemingly forgotten how to hit, like most of the guys on this team this year. I understand having a tough year but OPSing sub 500 is just ridiculous. Baffling.

Barnhart has had a 109 OPS+ for the last 30 days, 12% K rate, .330 BABIP. Too late for him here, I figure, but maybe hes finally remembered how to hit like a decent backup C.

My son was about to graduate from U/M with honors, and is a popular guy, and all of a sudden he was hit with a freight train of issues that have sidelined him from finishing college for two years. Fortunately we have identified physical ailments that were undetected that surgery has largely remedied, but he has two+ years of pain and emotional dislocation that he is working through with counseling and medication. He may be one of the very fortunate ones to have the right team and diagnosis. Mental health issues are no joke. I have all the sympathy in the world for Austin and I hope that he comes out of this with his identity and life intact.