Arlington

One of the most interesting things for me about this season is going to be Hinch's handling of the pitching staff. Bullpen chaos was based on the idea of not letting batters get comfortable. This involved matching strengths against weaknesses, limiting the pitches a batter saw against a single pitcher, and varying the pitching styles batters faced. Hinch may have the luxury this season, knock on wood, of 6 to 7 stretched out effective starters very few of which are seasoned enough to go full out all season. For example, Open with Holton, go to Cobb for three or four and finish with Jobe. Really looking forward to seeing that kind of manipulation.

FAngraphs just posted their prospect list. They list 39 prospects which is among the deepest so far. (35+ ratings or higher) Take that back. Almost all the clubs reviewed so far have more 35+ ratings.

Might be a good bonding day for the players. Seems like there are always golf or fishing stories coming from the day off.

They got the best of DD too

And the cheering at that line in the famous live version in San Quentin was dubbed.

Just wanted to point out that Barry Bonds has more than twice the WAR of Rose. Neither will be getting a plaque.

Exactly, his actions showed no regret. I vaguely recall that there were like three stages of admissions. He'd say he didn't do something. Evidence to the contrary would come out so he'd admit to it but then deny something else which he'd later have to admit to. All of this is something he brought on to himself and then made worse. Plus he had terrible haircuts.

Great post. I found the general agreement amazingly uniform. The most notable outlier was CBS AB numbers which indicates they believe he will miss about 10 more games than the others. Still, CBS has his cumulative stats right were everyone else does. The difference in the highest and lowest BAs - 260 and 275 - is about 8 hits over 540 ABs. The most optimistic projection is seeing one more base hit every 68 ABs over the most pessimistic. Edit I was looking a Riley's projections.

The societal ill of gambling has been pushed under the rug for decades now. What used to be only in Atlantic City and Nevada is commonplace. There is a moral wrong in that the owners are promoting a harm but I don't see much of a hypocrisy - it is not unusual. Being able to trust that the outcome of the game has and will continue to be sacrosanct. That trust is bedrock to the gambling world with both baseball and the gambling industry standing firmly on the same side of that red line. Owners will get some money nudging customers to betting houses. In short time, players will see the extra revenue and put a claim on it too. And the economy will grow, disparately, but it will grow.

Maybe because Tork, like Mize, was the clear consensus first pick of that draft that Avila's team went soft on doing their due diligence. With hindsight, how ludicrous was it to assign him to 3b even before he signed. Clearly there was a lot of wishful thinking going on.

The international signee from about a decade ago, what's his name, he always seems to be forgotten in these conversations yet last year he got into 114 games and did pretty good. I think Hinch would go to him as the 1st replacement option.

I look at the Dombrowski years as one of the longer periods of Tiger success. True most of the talent was acquired and I was not a fan of depleting the farm system but the end result was as good as the 1980s run, 1984 aside. Tiger teams seem to be highly competitive for a 4 to 6 year window and then drop off. Avila took over with a lot of assets and could have brought the team back pretty quickly but his trades were terrible and he drafted as bad as Dombrowski did. But Harris seems to be pulling a group of youngsters comparable to the Tigers early 1960s and latter 1970s. It would be great if he could manage to churn a talented roster long after the high draft picks disappear.

It's good you can still remember that.

I am predicting here and now that Maeda pitches reasonably well this spring, and because of that Detroit is able to trade him to a team desperate for starters. At $10 million, he could be a bargain and some team short of experienced arms might just take a flyer. He won't start here and he isn't that much use in the pen. We will get a couple Fetter specials in return.

Players scoring runs and it took me awhile to realize they were Tigers

Wish Clemens was a better breeder though.

I'm starting to get confused on what is the front end and what is the back end of this rotation. It could all flip very easily. TG for Skubal to anchor it all.

I was going to post that Mize will be the Tigers breakthrough surprise this year, but actually there are quite a few players that could do that.

Already leading the Cubs in spring homers.... https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2025/02/20/gage-workman-cranks-the-cubs-first-home-run-of-the-spring/https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2025/02/20/gage-workman-cranks-the-cubs-first-home-run-of-the-spring/ Apparently he has tremendous power.

A chip off the old Chirper

I bet they all own pickups. Not that I'm for or against. Have one myself. Just sayin,

Not if Mrs. Workman has a say. She was pretty vocal in the press about how her hubby was treated.

Seeing what Cody Stavenhagen in The Athletic pointed out is giving me more respect for the Torres signing: "For reference, let’s compare his FanGraphs’ ZiPS projection with another notable infielder: Gleyber Torres: .260/.335/.402, 17 HR, 3.0 fWAR Alex Bregman: .252/.333/.430, 22 HR, 3.9 fWAR" Offensively you are looking at very similar players. Is Bregman's defense worth an additional $25 million? Plus Torres might bring another prospect to the Tigers eventually.

Ernie was the best at capturing that magic of a kid just called up. He did an interview with Fred Holdsworth in the mid-70s that stuck with me. It was Fred's first day and he was bubbling over with excitement. He was thrilled to be interviewed by Ernie and Ernie was as warm and encouraging as could be.

The 1b issue is the curse of Jason Thompson. He was no Norm Cash, said Enos Cabel, who was no Jason Thompson. Baseball Almanac has a kinda creepy stat. In the date of death field they give the rank of living MB players and it's a link to the list. It was a lifelong struggle for him, but Art Schallock now leads all actively living players in age at 100.294 years. Died On: Still Living (1,500 Oldest Living)