Tiger337

Sparky was a character, but I agree he was probably not a great manager. Enough players have said good things about him for me to think he was a pretty good manager. However, I think he was better at managing veteran egos than developing young players. He had a lot of talent in place in both Cincinati and Detroit. It was hard to screw that up.

Definitely one of my favorites Tiger moments. Better than the Ordonez homer because of the personalities involved.

Nobody can stop the Dodgers. It's so unfair.

I think Liranzo still needs to regarded as a top prospect, but I also wonder if the Dodgers knew something.

It's something we can't talk about here.

To follow up on this, these are the players I have identified as having 500 games and 2000 PA with three different franchises" Rusty Staub - 4 franchises Willie Keeler - had 10+ WAR with each Doc Cramer Johnny Damon - 10+ WAR with each Darrell Evans - 10+ WAR with each Curtis Granderson - - 10+ WAR with each Steve Finley Billy Buckner Reggie Jackson Omar Vizquel

If it was just left fielders, you could make a case for Greene because there is no clear cut chloice. Do they break it down by position or just take the top three outfielders? I see McKinstry is listed among utility players. With so many multi-position guys now, I'm not sure how they define that. I don't really care about Silver Sluggers anyway. It has an "everybody gets a trophy" vibe to it. Just pick the best hitter and leave it at that.

They'd likely be stellar today too. They probably would have somewhat lower batting averages and hit for a little more power.

Right.

I imagine that trying to get ball 4 would generally be considered unmanly

In 2024, the Tigers gave their team the message that they were giving up on the season and then they couldn't stop winning! So, maybe they needed that message! I don't think there is any way a fan can know the psychological impact any move will have on a team. Even sim teams have long streaks or slumps for no reason at all. Last year, in a historical sim league, I got beaten by a team with an absolute **** roster. He had no idea what he was doing. I had the highest run differential in the entire league and didn't make playoffs. I lost so many one-run games. What a bunch lof chokers. 😃

If you go to newspapers.com, they've got a bunch of articles from that league. It looks like it was around for a long time - 60s through early 90s? If you want to go down memory lane, you could get a free trial. I had a subscrition for newspapers.com a few years ago when i was writing a little about Tigers history. It's a fun site.

It's always an option!

December 10, 1996. The Houston Astros traded Doug Brocail, Brian Hunter, Todd Jones, Orlando Miller and cash to the Detroit Tigers for Brad Ausmus, José Lima, Trever Miller, C.J. Nitkowski and Daryle Ward.

One of my least favorite Tigers ever.

He also had the highest WAR of any third baseman in Tigers history. That is definitely their weakest position, but he was the best of the lot.

Mark Lewis looked like a steal for the first month and a half. Then he came back to earth.

Why not both?

I disliked the Fryman trade, but hearing that they traded him to clear money unecessarily makes it worse. I didn't know that at the time. Did Randy Smith make any good moves? Those 7-player trades with the Padres and Astros were fun but it was mostly just moving players around with no real impact.

Yes, I would agree with that. I don't think he likes baseball very much. Previous commisioners were also mostly concerned with generating revenue, but they also seemed to have a certain amount of respect for the history, culture and traditions of the game. I don't see that with Manfred at all.

At least he wasn't named Jose.

I like that idea. They should also randomly pick a fan each game to pitch one inning.

Of all the readilly available info, those are all good sources. My only advice would be don't bet money that you need on minor leaguers!

I don't think there is anything MLB can do which will make indivual players as exciting to casual fans as they are in the NBA and NFL without substantially altering the sport. It's just not the nature of baseball and I hope they don't try too hard.

I am curious to know what kind of advanced stats and tracking you've seen which makes you so confident in your ability to project minor league players that you are willing bet $1,000 on it. That sounds like it would be a great contribution to the discussion if you'd give some details.