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San Francisco has long been understood to be good for pitchers. Seattle is probably the best pitchers' park, but it would be a surprise in today terms for them to win the Skubal sweepstakes.

It's probably more likely that he signs a deal with substantial deferred money, assuming the new CBA is similar in business feel to the current one. So, I would think a Big Six franchise (NYY, NYM, LAD, SFG, BOS, CHC), or an adjacent franchise like Atlanta or Philadelphia, would be the top suitors for him.

I sense that Skubal would like to re-sign with Detroit, but he is not going to pass up a huge payday with rest-of-career security just to do so, and it's easy to understand why.

Kahnle and Holton should be available for this game; Vest, Hanifee, and Hurter probably won't be. We might get another Maeda sighting if it's later in the game with a three-plus run margin either way. We may also see Bailey Horn. Someone said in another thread that we need Jack Flaherty to go at least seven. That sure would help some.

I can't remember whether I read this at the time, but even in a feature sympathetic to its subject, Mario still comes off as the problem in that pairing.

I prefer a TV guy who adds to the broadcast, but a guy like Mario who adds nothing to a broadcast is preferable to a guy like John Schriffen who subtracts from the broadcast.

Benetti got a lot of social media viral with his pairing with Bill Walton a few years ago, but if you can find it, dig up the game he did with Mike Schur, aka Ken Tremendous, during the same White Sox road trip to Anaheim. It is an absolute gem of a broadcast.

I bet there will be a visible shunning of him by at least one other leader of a NATO country.

The blacker and whiter it gets, the closer we get to openly rounding up and disappearing entire groups of people in plain view of everyone else, who will comment about what’s happening before their eyes at their peril.

I don’t know about a Catholics purge, other than to the degree they could use it as a way to wipe out Latinos. But the vice president himself is Catholic; six of the nine SCJs are Catholic, including five of the six conservatives; and a new kind of retrograde Catholic-infused political ideology that aligns really strongly with MAGA has really come to the fore. Catholics may never be truly embraced as a full brother-in-arms by the hardcore evangelical red hats and MAGA leadership, but I’m having a hard time envisioning them lumping Catholics in with Muslims, Jews, atheists, and anyone else they might try to genocide off the planet during the late stages of MAGA rule. I’d be surprised if MTG’s bid to amp up hate against Catholics gain any traction here. She might be getting talking points from the Kremlin on this one.

I wouldn’t mind a rekindling of the Tigers-Blue Jays rivalry of the mid-80s. Especially if it’s Cleveland, the nearest major league city to us, and one we have so little rivalry history with that last year was one of few times ever we went head-to-head with them for pennant stakes.

I have not done much baseball roadwork in the part of the country (Virginian, North Carolina, South Carolina), and that has got to go on the list at some point. I’ll make sure to make Spartanburg a stop along the way.

Meaning 4 years? I’m good with that. 😉

While I like Benetti as a PxP guy over any number of past alternatives, I agree that Benetti’s act gets tiresome. I don’t want to make a comment about generations or anything like that, but he does bring a millennial energy that feels fresh and funny when it works, and eye-rolly when it doesn’t. I tend to like slightly arch commentary over schtick like mascots in the booth, and Benetti does both, for better or worse. I think of Benetti in the same vein as Josh Lewin, who I think I liked slightly better because he could still be as arch while less schticky, and seemed somewhat less impressed with himself. Lewin and Gibby had a feel similar to Ted Nugent and Mitch Albom together on WLLZ. (You other white guys of a very specific age and place might remember that pairing.) Mario Impembia was a cipher. He’s left no lasting impact on me in terms of what he has brought to the canon of Detroit Tigers broadcasters, either in personality or performance. Rod Allen was annoying, and still is with the Marlins, but at least he brought some personality to the booth.

Well, that's a relief. I thought they might have been talking about something stupid.

Time to rethink the MVP vote for Stinky McStinkface.

Let the pouring commence!

There was nothing Colt could do there. He's leading off third and the ball was hit to Machado. He couldn't have been expected to go back to the bag. The only thing I wish he would have done differently is slide way to the left of the plate and slap it with his right hand going by to avoid the easy tag out.

Gillaspie is at the very front of the bullpen with the worst numbers in only four innings of work. This is really a good opportunity to pour it on. Nice read on the fly ball to RF by Colt to get to third on the tag.

I am back on the Tigers feed and can I just tell you how absolutely pleased I am that I get to listen to Dan Dickerson break down Vásquez's outing and not whatever it is that's being said here?

If it's Monday, it's Colt Keith Walking Day.

At this rate, we're going to win the game 16-9.

Neato "rumbles around" third to score on that Riley knock!

I really do like the cleaner, gambling-odds-free look of the Padres telecast.