gehringer_2

I read the only Tiger FAs from this season were Teheran, Peralta, Urena and Holland. Those 4 are already off the current 40 as per the Tigs MLB site - which was at 39 just now. (and Garneau is still there as well)

Fulmer to the rotation is definitely something I hope they are looking at - esp since you do have some MilB guys who might end up being able to back fill the BP. Cisnero is a question mark on this. His Sept created some doubt about what he's going to be in '22. If he is solid, he and Soto are a good R/L set for max leverage. If Cisnero doesn't recapture his command in ST, it would be harder to move Fulmer to the rotation.

Hutchinson and Krol waived. https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2021/11/05/detroit-tigers-pitchers-drew-hutchison-ian-krol-become-free-agents/6303247001/

11 yrs is a long time to flog an advertising concept.

Boyd will be good for about 1/2 the season IF they sign him and Avila appears to be willing to play a little hardball there so that's open. Not sure there is reason to assume Manning pitches any less than Mize or Skubal in '22 but that's a small nit to pick. I still think it comes down to which position they are able to make the premium play at - SS or SP because I believe there will only be one signing in XS of $20M/yr. If it's a SS, then the two pitchers signed will both be mid to back end. If they score a Robbie Ray+ level SP, we are looking at an additional 5th starter type and SS that doesn't include any of the top FA names. It's the total dollars that are going to drive it. The MO seems to be that Chris Ilitch gives them a number and they mix and match up to that number. The number is going to be bigger this year than it has been in a while, but I still tend to think it's going to be a hard number (now reduced by Barnhardts 7.5M) that is less than would allow 2 $30M signings.

Exactly right. Though it's possible they may look at Wentz as part of that formulation. BTW- is Faedo pitching somewhere this winter? Shouldn't he be ready to be doing something somewhat competitive by now?

We are getting an increase in cases on campus and the vax rate is 97% so those are all breakthrough positives. But OTOH they are not getting sick. At some point - and I'm not advocating it's now - preferably when the vax rate is higher or one of the therapeutics proves out, we are going to have to be OK with low severity spread in the vaccinated population. As a lot of people has already said, this one doesn't look like it's going to away, it's just going to get pushed down to part of the background noise.

Liberty's entire campaign has to be one of the most insipid I've ever seen. Probably sells like crazy....

I think that's OK for now - he has get get buy in from his teammates so a little extra sharing of the ball may be a good investment for him for getting the ball back more often later.

looks like he pretty much stopped throwing his slower breaking ball - he was over 90% FB/Slider in '21, so he's basically got his walks under control as a 2 pitch pitcher. Is that sustainable as a starter? Then again, what's a starter anymore?

no offense taken but I didn't say the question was foolishness, I said some of what is taken as serious evidence is foolishness.

wow. The Red's really went cheap - didn't even offer him the buyout. Surprised no other team was willing negotiate with the Reds to get him before they waived him as in the Barnhardt case. I guess the Cubs' scouting report must have been better than anyone else's.

In term of actual evidence BTW, one of the initial arguments that gave the lab outbreak theory legs has to do with specific genetic sequences seen in the virus that supposedly are only created in the lab. David Baltimore, a highly respected virologist was an early advocate of this position. Further research has now shown that that supposition was wrong and many wild strain viruses with these sequences have now been found so people like Baltimore have retracted their arguments. Science moves from hypothesis to test to reformulation and new hypothesis, but once something gets into the American social media miasma, it lives forever. TL,DR version is that this science at the boundaries of knowledge and uncertainty is the general rule and modesty about being "right" is advisable.

You know Wuhan is a huge major metropolis right? There is a probably a state public health lab or University virology program (or more) in every US city the size of Wuhan that studies flu and related virii. So you can say the exact same thing about any US city where an outbreak started. This a real question but too much of what is passed around as the 'evidence' is foolishness.

correct. It is certainly possible, it is also certainly possible it was not.

My best guess?: Because they don't know the answers either and a leader like Xi has too big an investment in not being embarrassed by bad news generated by outside sources - even if not about the virus itself but about all the secondary issues that would likely emerge. But there could be a hundred others. Xi is a wannabe emperor and a definite problem child for the US but you are going to get further in your efforts to get ahead of him if you try to understand why his actions are rational from his perspective than if you just impune them in ways that make for good US politics.

The ignorance level of the US public has already adequately proved its downside. Maybe we should worry less about playing to it and do more about changing it.

I don't disagree about Taiwan, but Covid and Taiwan stand as independent facts.

The death and destruction caused by the virus is not the fault of the Chinese. A pandemic like this one could have started anywhere. The speculation that they somehow accidentally engineered this remains exactly that - speculation. I would think we in the US would at some point learn the lesson to stop blaming other countries without actual proof for things it turns out they aren't doing (Gulf of Tonkin, WMD anyone?). Other than early regional leadership denial of what was going on ( sort of like Tx or Fla when faced with a public health issues? ) the Chinese government has not been doing anything to make things worse anywhere else in the world and it would be pointless to carry on on the international stage politically like they were. Does anyone seriously think that if a bug got started in the US we would have acted efficiently enough to prevent it getting over the borders? The country where people are so public-health disciplined they won't even get vaccinated?

No -- and after they sign a SS, given that Schoop can play 1st and Tork can play 3rd ( at least enough to give Candelario days off ) they will be able to find IF playing time for Kreidler if he continues to do well. And Cabrera will likely be down to 1 day a week at 1B at most.

FWIW, he showed some progression. From his MiLB game log, which isn't always completely consistent - by month his K rates were: May: 36% ( 108PA -AA) June: 36% - 110 PA July: 31%- 100PA Aug: 25% - 109PA - part AAA Sept: 26% 99PA -AAA His walk rate also improved. At minimum it is a good sign that in 150PA he did not regress against AAA pitching. Just have to see what he does as the sample size increases.

all I know is that you must be wearing you bigotry like a beacon on your forehead to tell a "joke" like that to a court officer. The only circumstance I can think of under which the guy wasn't a total creep is that he realized he really wasn't up to this trial and needed to come up with the most foolproof way he could get booted with no pleading and no other questions asked.

Prosecution must have done a pretty sloppy job in voir dire for a jerk like that to have gotten through.

the Tigers spent a lot of money on expensive players but I still never had the feeling there was ever any plan wrt producing a team where the pieces actually fit together. I think it's completely fair to critique Avila on how long it took him to get the decks cleared and actually begin rebuilding, but I at least do now have the feeling that Avila has a clear concept of what the team his is trying to build looks like and when he make moves they move in that direction and not at random angles to it. That's not enough by itself, but it's one piece that used to be lacking that I give him credit for today.

ah - right - he didn't play at all. Probably didn't help his outlook to get bounced out of the playoffs after having won 107 either!