chasfh

I wasn't talking about traditional fans.

best comment from there:

The rumor hasn't been picked up more probably because the Pinafore guy behind it is a nobody and Sports Illustrated is an AI slop farm that bears no resemblance to its former self.

At the risk of drawing more fire on this point, a key reason I would like to re-sign him is that it would send a signal to the market that we are committing to winning, although that might help us a lot more this offseason than next.

I agree with you on balance, although I do think it would behoove us to loc up in the bullpen and maybe even one of the positions to take advantage of Skubal’s peak while he still has it. Flip side, I believe we’re missing out on the top-most bullpen help that are going other places mainly because we can’t effectively compete for them with the Dodgers and the eastern teams, at least not at this point. At least we got Finnegan to come back, for what that’s worth.

I can practically guarantee that the return on any trade Harris would make for Skubal this winter would be hammered by just about everyone in this forum.

The feeling is that Skubal is going to free agency after this season no matter what, so any offer the Tigers make would be just setting the floor for Skubal next winter.

Didn’t we hear about this same offer, or something really similar, last week? Was that also this Pinafore guy?

Try? Like the Pirates “tried” to sign Schwarber for 4/120 knowing he would never take it? That kind of try? 😉 I don’t see any way he takes 8/350 as a first offer from anyone, not even the Dodgers. Everyone believes at this time he can do better. Maybe he does land on 8/350 with someone, but I think that would happen only after a soft season and/or an emergent injury concern.

It would hurt our negotiating position for him to be so open at this point.

I thought it was the opposite: Harris articulated the organization’s approach really well, which of course he would because he thinks and talks about it endlessly, but I also think expectations of him by the trad baseball media are low basically perhaps because he is not a baseball lifer, and maybe because he looks like the high school class president for the Class of 2026. I actually thought Amsinger was being rather patronizing when he said that, as though he doesn’t really respect Harris. I also think Harris likes being underestimated.

I think it’s that a new class of executives, who came in from the classroom or conference room instead of up through the ranks, rankles some fans who respect the latter far more. Scott Harris is practically representative of the new breed.

Red Sox

If Dylan Cease can get seven years, eight for Skubal probably isn’t enough. Probably 350 isn’t, either.

I'm not so sure we can attribute that to airport viewers of CNN.

I'm looking for a receipt, Michael Palin, not an argument. 😉

I'm not so sure those viewers really count since they tend to pay far less attention in common space; and also, many of those viewers find themselves exposed to CNN by circumstance rather than by choice.

I wonder to what degree CNN viewers qualify as “low info voters”? I mean, relative to the others.

Care to produce the receipt in which I literally said the entire Org WILL fall apart if we DO trade Skubal?

Gotta love the idea that I don’t believe the franchise will fall apart if we don’t trade Skubal this winter and that makes me the fatalist.

Harris did say on the Network yesterday that he has some holes to fill on the roster.

If you expect it to be bad, you can’t be disappointed.

We have literally nothing on the payroll after 2027 except Colt Keith.

My recent thought has been that signing Skubal to a long-term deal would go a long way toward signaling to the market that we are serious about contending, which would make us a more attractive destination. If we let Skubal walk next year, that may not hurt our position with free agents all that much, depending in large part how this season goes and what our roster looks like next winter. If we trade Skubal for minor leaguers this winter, however, I believe that would be an unmitigated disaster in terms of our ability to attract top talent to the team, because that would likely be seen as an active move toward pulling back on competing this season after making the playoffs the past two seasons. IOW, it would look like we're going into another rebuild. Fair or not, I do believe that would be the perception.

Nope. Couldn't do it.