HeyAbbott

Tyler Alexander has a nice 'stache tonight. Is it a lucky stache?

I would be tempted to host an intergalactic kegger if Avila got fired. After looking at the organization, we have an ops of .619, with the MLB median at .709 and the top twelve teams being .722 or better. We have one player, Haase, that has a WAR above 1. In short, we are woefully inadequate offensively. We need to come to grips with one simple fact is that we are still in a rebuild because it has been bungled horribly during the last seven years. Whether we like it or not, Skubal is a major asset, and this team is a lot further away from being a .500 team, let alone a true contender than most of what we believe. I believe that we will be sub .500 next year as well. I am also not convinced that Tork will make it and stick in the MLB as an impact player. We have still quite a bit of pitching in the pipe. Skubal is valuable in that IIRC, he has had his Tommy John, and Faedo is still working on his craft. Offensively, might have 2 positional super subs in the farm system right now that is close and outside of some pitching, that is about it Between Turnbull and Mize, one at least should recover from TJ very successfully, filling a pitching slot. Manning hasn't had a TJ and recovered yet, which also makes him less valuable as his recent arm history would make me think he will have one someday soon. Since bullpens are always a crapshoot, I wouldn't hesitate to trade bullpen pieces for bats. There isn't anything in the current bullpen that is not for sale in my opinion. The one major reason I would reject any Skubal trade, is the fact that during the last seven years the Tigers demonstrated that it is doubtful that they can evaluate, acquire protect, and develop talent. The fact that AA is still GM remains a very powerful reason not to trade anything, except maybe Soto or Fulmer. In the real world with a half-competent GM, a trade of Skubal would have to be considered. l would listen to offers and mull them over carefully for Skubal while being roughly 99 percent certain I would never pull the trigger so long as it is Al Avila's call.

Maybe trading Skubal, Fulmer, and Soto is what is needed to be done.I'd like to hold on to Skubal, but for an MLB ready position player, I am ready to kick the tires.

He can smile, wave his hat at the crowd, and give some of the fans a thrill at seeing him. I don't care what happens to him. He is not blocking anyone and one can always get a sub replacement DH.

This I agree with completely.

Maybe we are expecting too much for a Detroit team. After all, the last time the lions won a championship was in 1957. We are not even at the 20 year mark of this rebuild. Anyway, it looks like we will be mired in sub mediocrity for years to come.

I am incredibly disappointed in this season. I figured if all of the pieces from last year did their career averages, the new additions performed to their average performances and the pitching held up, I thought their was a good chance of being a slightly better than even chance of having a winning season. Granted the pitching injuries and the ST injury to Greene took a lot of win out of that proposition, but I still thought a 75 win season might be possible. The reality is that one would have to consider a 75 win season a success at this juncture. Worse than not winning, this team has not been entertaining. The biggest puzzler is that the vets on this team are hitting way below expectations. Of the 120 plus seasons this team will have completed in October, it looks like at best this team will be the third worst in Tiger's history, in either ops or runs scored per game. Offensively they are dead. Greene is what one would expect for a rookis. Tork needs his time in AAA, and who knows, maybe he never hits big league pitching. What I am hoping for is some entertaining baseball for the remainder of the season. I am also looking for the organization to send a clear message that failure is not acceptable. There needs to be some clear personnel changes that send a message. It should be Al as it starts at the top.

When one drafts players , one can draft folks who project to be pitchers, or one can draft a "just a guy" pitcher for organizational cannon fodder. The point of this is that roughly one out of three pitchers(maybe trending more now?) will have TJ surgery. One strategy is to sign a just a guy minor league pitcher, and build your staff from almostt exclusively FA signings. The idea is to manage your player development risk and to hand as much as possilbe of that off to someone else.

To quote Zeppo Marx, " To have a good football team, you have to have good football players." I think he was on to something there. I am seriously doubting the talent level on this team. At the very least, the construction of the team is poor. Not to worry though. We are merely in year nine of a 66 year rebuilding program, similar to the Detroit Lions.

Personally, I'd prefer getting high quality position prospects, and then sign my pitchers after they have had TJ surgery and went through rehab. In pitching , you get what you pay for and drafting pitchers to develop them is just a waste of resources.

Since we all attend the Church of Baseball, all I can say is, "Amen Brother !!"

I thought about putting this in a separate topic, but seeing the ERod fiasco unfold, I was thinking about how I felt about the FA signings and trades by Detroit this year. E Rod-- A total bust. He will never pitch again for Detroit in my opinion. Barnhart-- He was and is a placeholder until something better comes along. He hits like a typical 30 something catcher and the defense is reasonable. I had low expectations for him offensively speaking, so he is roughly what I expected. Chafin-- IMO, he was the best FA sign by the Tigers. He has performed as advertised. Pineda- A large sized disappointment. Javy-- I think over the long run he will do fine. Defense has been great, hitting I think will have regressed to his norm by the end of the year. Meadows-- Unbelievable bad luck, but may be fine next year. Putting the best spin on things, except for Chafin, I think the FA signings were largely a bust.

He is not very effective.

Relievers are such a flash-in-the-pan, flavor-of-the-month commodity I certainly agree with this.

This team has some youngsters that need to learn how to win at this level. I think this can happen as well as sorting out the wheat from the chaff.

Very True. One still has to be able to identify talent, and to ascertain its quality.

I have moved to the camp of always drafting the most talented position player, so long as the farm system has enough "just a guy" pitchers to field a team. Hand as much of the development risk off to other teams when it comes to pitchers. Trade the excess position players for pitching if need be, or look for reasonable pitching reclamation projects. Other than that, save your FA pennies to pony up for pitching.

The park factor is close to a neutral balance. Maybe some tweaking in the outfield, and if there was some way to add some shade, these would be improvements. I grow weary of all of the whining when some MLB park doesn't play like a beer league softball field though. The biggest long term problem is our gambler's pal of a commissioner.

Riley Greene has got this team on its feet.

BTW, Phil Rizzouto used to do national broadcasts back then, not the Tigers.

The Bally broadcasts you are describing remind me of broadcasts in days past when Phil Rizzouto used to do broadcasts in the late 70's. He'd talk about the weather, the meal he had at some chop house the night before, some nightclub's floorshow, etc. My guess is that someone at Bally doesn't like the demos from the broadcasts and are consciously trying to change them be interjecting general human interest. BTW, I listen to the games only and view highlights later. Bally broadcasts are horrible and I will not support such mindless tripe.

When performance is this bad, someone needs to pay the penalty publicly. I would certainly bring up Lloyd at this point. Make changes. This is not going to get better just doing nothing.

Would they hit water if they fell out of a boat?

The problem with this organization's prospects of improving on field performance does not lie with lack of available resources, rather with its inability to assess and develop talent. Until there is evidence that it can do those 2 things well, performance will not improve. There needs to be personnel moves to drive home to the organization as a whole that there are penalties for failure. The situation reminds me of when Washington experienced mutiny. He couldn't shoot them all, he shot a small group in front of the whole army to quash the mutiny , While this team is not experiencing a mutiny, it does need a major shot across the bow.

This above quote sums up where I am at. It has been a very long time since they have shown the ability to develop players. Since the evidence is overwhelming they cannot develop a position player, and they cannot identify good trade or free agent fits, I anticipate that we are are 7 years away from anything resembling a playoff team.