Edman85

I know of a friend of a friend, unvaxxed, who was hospitalized last month with it. The friend caught it from the unvaxxed person and was fine in a couple of days.

Yepppp. I have a point in there somewhere about the roster cost of signing veterans.

Trivia! (wasn't sure which thread to put this in) The Diamondbacks DFA'ed Tyler Holton to make room for whom?

Hinch never managed Lugo.

The tender decision that surprised me was Jose Cisnero. I had him near the top of my offseason chop list, but he got tendered a contract.

Happens every year... Toledo isn't in a playoff hunt and they didn't want to disturb the levels that are.

Changed that for you.

I don't know the Kirk Gibson 1983 story? I know the Jack Morris 1990 story, though.

Here is an interesting thing I noticed. It does appear as if Al Avila didn't like to claim players on waivers if it meant dropping somebody from the 40 man. Of his 18 claims, only three involved removing somebody from the roster. It is like the organizational edict was to only shop the waiver wire if there was room on the roster.

😠 No Roman Numerals in the document... Anyways, the four guys I think get protected are Wilmer Flores, Dillon Dingler, Sawyer Gipson-Long, and Keider Montero. Montero may not. Trei Cruz and Roberto Campos are two others eligible. Montero needs to be added right after the season because he is eligible for free agency.

Rusty Kuntz is an answer today.

Fans: spend money good! Fans two years into a contract: why did you spend that money? We are stuck with this guy in the lineup? What a stupid move.

I was a bit Devil's Advocatey with Avila, defending some things. For example, there is ample evidence the 2017 trades were ownership mandated salary dumps. And inheriting a non-existent analytics department at the time mountains of new data were becoming available was pretty bad timing. It is pretty clear he wasn't the person to lead a modern baseball organization, though. May have been an okay GM in the 80's/early 90's when a baseball front office was 10 people, tops. It is clear putting all the pieces together was not up his alley.

Assuming a fair coin. Bayseians may claim 25 in a row suggests there may be a bias in the coin.

Per "The Book," small sample hot streaks for hitters tend to be not-very-predictive because a lot of times it comes in multiple plate appearances against the same pitcher. Thus, the hot streak could be a result of a pitcher being a particularly good match-up, poor quality, etc. Were any of those 8 PA's against a LHP? A batter versus a RHP is not the same batter as one against the LHP, particularly a left-handed batter.

Public biweekly major league and semimonthly minor league injury reports. May not help the team win, but I like it.

Front office personnel: A+. Came in and cleaned house on the amateur scouting/draft front as well as the training front. Way overdue. Reports have indicated alignment throughout the organization, which may have been the "je ne sas quoi" that was missing in the Avila era. This is partially incomplete, as usually this building bleeds into the second offseason hiring period, which may be where that "GM" role gets filled. Player development: A+. Players are by-and-large getting better, both at the big league and minor league level. The minor league system is healthy, and NP's are becoming prospects. Player acquisition: A. A lot more good than bad here. People will point to Maton being a flop or the flubbing of the Rodriguez deal, but across the board there has been positive arbitrage this year. Even very minor trades like Davis for Allen, Lockhart for cash, Leonard for cash may pay dividends. I like the willingness to scour the waiver wire, even if most of the acquisitions on that front come up empty. Draft: A. Mostly incomplete, but I like the different approach after too many years of the Chadd/Pleis stubborn, uncreative mess. Overall an A so far.

The front office hiring season is September-December. Likely the person he wanted last year wasn't available, or he wanted to see what needed shored up... Wait til after the next hiring cycle (A GM hire likely won't be the only move). That's when contracts are up, and it's nigh impossible to poach.

Do you expect a GM to be hired in May or June or something?

Could only squeeze 7 Tigers in today. Can you name the other six Tigers that fit in the center square? One I completely forgot played for the Tigers...

No. Unless he was injured when he sent down. If this cropped up after, he is SOL. And disclaimer, if it is McCosky reporting on roster rules, ignore. He gets that stuff wrong more than he gets right.

He wasn't released. He is designated for assignment so he can pass through waivers and likely stay in the organization. It is a pretty common, and reasonable, tactic.

This is pretty common. The Tigers are just new to the fray.

He's not being stretched out. He's opening. Bullpen day in Erie.

Bonuses were skyrocketing after WWII, and owners implemented various bonus rules to reign them in. Bonus babies were a result of that, e.g. Al Kaline. So yes, the Yankees and Cardinals were hoarding but it was mostly money because this limited the amount those rich teams could spend. Once the Bonus Baby system fell apart, the draft came in, again completely stripping leverage from the players. Its main goal was to suppress bonuses.