monkeytargets39

Assuming the PED suspects are once again all snubbed…. I think Schilling, Kent and Whitaker should get the most consideration off that list.

And a small contingent of online Tigers fans will both expect him to be interested in coming to Detroit and upset at Harris/Illitch for him signing elsewhere

No.

There’s a lot of guys better than Morris who aren’t in.

Agreed. Although I understand why some voters would be hesitant to put known Steroid/PHD users on their ballots, I can’t support the idea of someone being left out just because they’re a jerk. Schilling was a legit ace and one of the top pitchers in the NL for a long stretch of time. He deserves to be in.

I think Felix Hernandez was the better pitcher than CC also. Put him on teams that can give him league average run support and he’d be a multiple time 20 game winner

I get it, but let’s say hypothetically the Mariners didn’t already have Mike Cameron at CF when Ichiro came to Seattle and he played the bulk of his career defensively in center. Is he all of a sudden a much better player just because his offensive numbers stack up better against other CFs instead of RFs? We would all probably say yes because CF production is more valuable, but the butterfly effect complicates that a lot. If Cameron isn’t there and they put Ichiro in CF—now what…does Stan Javier or Raul Ibanez play a lot more RF….and how much more does that hurt the team defensively than Ichiros comparative offense in RF vs CF.

Don’t ignore his elite defense/arm and baserunning.

Wasn’t the big selling point for Paquette was that he was Mark McGwires backup—so he must be good by the commutative property of talent.

The one voter who didn’t vote for Ichiro needs his credentials revoked

I remember the Detroit media being so excited that we signed a free agent when we got Paquette….

5 years and 90+ million bucks for a .246/.307/.469/.776 slash line and negative range, arm and baserunning

If you have a cap, then they should also have a floor. The thing that has been jumping out at me is the absolute massive advantage the west coast teams have in being able to appeal to the Japanese players—and there are a handful of teams that are basically in line to acquire plus MLB ready talent without having to invest time in developing them. Clearly I understand why they’d want to go there so I don’t fault them—but mlb maybe needs to take a look at setting up something that levels the playing field in that regard. In the NBA you have to draft the player in the foreign league in order to get them as opposed to them just signing wherever they please. Perhaps something like that could work for MLB. You can use your draft pick on a player in a foreign pro-league and you then have their exclusive rights for maybe like 3 years. You’d have to pay them X amount times the typical slot price for it—then if that player wants to come to the MLB they can only do it with that team and have to be in that teams organization for their first X amount of years in the league. If they decide to stay abroad for those 3 years, then they can be drafted again by another team in the next draft.

*IF* Meadows plays like he did after his call up, and Greene/Carpenter stay healthy all year, and if Vierling, Wenceel, and Gleyber can play like they did last year- then I think our offense is solid enough to contend for the division when you consider our pitching depth. Also, the Twins have done nothing and the Guardians have shipped out several guys without bringing a ton back. The Royals are now the team to beat in the division IMO

Btw….the start of last year had lots and lots of playing time going to folks like Gio Urshela, Carson Kelly, Javy Baez, Matt Manning, Alex Lange, Akil Baddoo, Joey Wentz, Shelby Miller, and Mark Canha. Once all of those players were dealt/injured/released, we started winning. So I wouldn’t necessarily say that we couldn’t win with the current group we have—most of them just don’t have an established track record.

Minnesota fans don’t exactly have credibility to tease anyone else….in any sport

Padres couldn’t land Sasaki, so they signed their backup plan: Niko Goodrum

It’s a shame that the original Dream Team took Laettner instead of Shaq

If that’s the case, offer him half when he comes crawling back

Sweeping the Dodgers on opening week is gonna be great

Nobody else seems super into signing Bregman…so just wait him out until spring and maybe he gets desperate and takes way less. If not, we still have Vierling, Jung, McKinstry, Ibanez, etc.

Thank you for everything Bob. I feel awful for diehard Milwaukee fans today. It’s just like when Ernie passed—a piece of your childhood goes with it. Those are big shoes to fill and hopefully they get lucky like we did with Dan.

I thought the last thing you’d ever do is allow someone to miscalculate a players service time without correcting them.

Does Campos start the year in Erie then? A third year at WM basically destroys his prospect status I would think