gehringer_2

they were still negotiating on the deal by the minute to the last minute with the JV deal. I would think in a situation like that the boss has to approve the outline but let his negotiator finish the deal on his own judgment at the wire. Or short version, I doubt C.I. took a final approval on the particulars that is was Rogers, Perez and Cameron rather than some alternate return. So in that sense, it's both true that C.I. did approve the deal but it was still all Al's choices - 'his deal' all the way. As has already been noted -- I agree that In that case the owner's perspective is the same as the fans' - it wasn't making the trade that had to necessarily be bad, a good return could have justified it.

OTOH, it’s not like Avila wasn’t able to make major changes to the org because of resistance from ownership. Al’s problem wasn’t dealing with organizational stiffness- he changed the org a lot, it was poor talent and trade decisions.

He seems to be a little thin skinned, but OTOH given who he is, he's still not a guy who likes to spend a lot of time in the public eye. Maybe he's never had to work on his personal PR skills much. I also wonder if he overestimated the patience of the fan base - maybe he talked himself into believing this fan base was so great we would never turn on him only to end a bit up out of his reckoning as he found out our patience is no better than any other fan base.

yeah - too bad JVs watch wasn't a few minutes slow.

Was just looking at his history because I wondered if he had previous deep ties to Hinch and it doesn't look like it.

Riley has had a good week - hitting 296 over his last 7 games and he has erased his negative Rdrs on BR - is currently sitting at zero. Yeah the sample size is way too small to mean anything but still always nice to be out of negative territory. Now legendary Lloyd needs to get Tork turned around. 2 more K tonight, though a BB also.

/...sigh.../ no first game pixie dust for Carpenter.

Hutchinson not great but not bad. Kept it in range (for a normal team) even after the bad start. But reasonable pitching just not enough

so many bad hitters.....

Carpenter's mistake was less on the pitch he struck out on, which was a tough pitch, as the two balls he swung at to get in the hole. And of course Candelario can't pick him up....

Kids' first chance to have an impact.

Riley get's 'em going.

the other comment that seems more telling in retrospect is Hinch's "I wasn't in the room when those deals were made" regarding the deadline trades. Could be knives were out for Al from more than one direction. And as has made us all wonder, maybe it's now safer to say Hinch and Avila were indeed not on the same page regarding call-ups.

supposedly poor, though this week there was a clip of him making a nice play for an assist on a ball off the wall, so at least he can find 2b on this throws.

HaHa.

Sure sounded like it. I guess I need to revise my previous take. I think you throw out all the options other than C.I. was PO'd.

well, they org can commit to not letting anyone go, but that doesn't mean some of them may not take any opportunity offered to bail instead of waiting to see if they get the ziggy anyway...

anyone see any significance to them parting ways with Avila the day Carpenter is finally called up? Suppose there may have been some difference of opinion around that move or a decision on a broader change in philosophy that led to that move that may have crystallized C.I.'s decision to change directions?

LOL- That's what I thought before the Oilers hired Holland. The old boy network in strong in sports. There is probably someone out there that thinks Al is the cat's meow....

I am surprised that it's a clean break. Maybe at 64 Avila would rather retire, or maybe he thinks 64 is still young enough to pursue another active GM job, or maybe C.I. was PO'd at him enough to want him out completely. Or C.I. watched Kenny Holland bail after Ilitch made the effort to make a soft landing for him and decided not to bother this time. I suppose any of those and other possibilities too.

Workman has definitely fallen more than a bit short of the hype they put out around him early.

Parker is not exactly doing the Kerry Carpenter thing, but relative to how he had been languishing this has been a good season for him. From here he probably needs to make about as much more improvement as he made this year to make MLB, but at least he's making progress.

and the truth is, if a guy can put in his first couple hundred AB not not tail off badly as MLB pitchers take his measure is a hopeful sign. Riley has been able to hang around at about a 240 BA for ~150 PA -- so far so good. (Now watch the kid tank the rest of the way....)

and ironically, the guy that set him on his road to Detroit (Robson) didn't even get the courtesy of a farewell notice.

To me, the thing that makes it look like something has changed is the K rate. His MiLB K rates weren't bad last year, and even if he was K'ing too much in Det I would have expected that to fall back to his previous AAA rate when he was sent down, but it hasn't, and K rate is something you normally don't need that big a sample size to start getting a good indication.