mtutiger Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 9 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said: Those of us that begged for them to pay - or overpay - for some competent major league players, so the on-field product would not be so embarrassing, were basically ridiculed. Given that the vast majority of the fanbase likely fell in line with this line of thinking, I recall a lot more ridicule toward those who weren't worked up over free agent signings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutiger Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said: Yes, I agree with all of that. Scott Harris made MASSIVE changes in the team structure, changes that were long overdue. And even if Harris does everything 100% right with drafting and developing, this team has no real shot at being decent until about 2026. But still. We've been beaten down for a long time here. Not just with the Tigers, but with all our teams. It's been a horrific sports decade and only Michigan & Michigan State have occasionally given us something to get excited about. In the moment it's just brutal. We all understand where the franchise is at, but damn this is hard to go through AGAIN. We keep hearing the Red Wings are turning a corner and then they fall off a cliff. The Pistons are an absolute disgrace and I don't think they'll ever contend again because we are now in an era where players determine where to go and nbot teams (and none of those guys want to play in a city like Detroit) and the Tigers didn't get all the way to a World Series win 2006-2013 but at least it was exciting. It's so bad that the Lions are the hope now. The freaking Lions.........are you kdding me? (And I feel like it's a wait-and-see for which truly bizarre curse-enabled thing happens to them that lets us all down). We're all just tired of it all and being told to wait again is really hard to take. Trust me, I get it.... To the extent that the losses bother me, it would just be nice to know whether the pain and suffering leads somewhere.... in the case of the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs during the last decade, it did. More recently, in the case of the Baltimore Orioles, it appears to be happening as well. But in the Tigers case, Al Avila wasn't the guy to get the job done, he wound down the last iteration of good Tiger teams and basically failed at his job. Chris Ilitch's greatest sin is holding on far too long to Avila. And I get the cynicism about anything Tiger related in the wake of that. But there really isn't an alternative.... they had to hire someone else, who then brought in other people from other orgs, and we have to see whether they can get the job done. It's out of our control; we just have to watch and see what happens. Edited April 12, 2023 by mtutiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddha Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 it's going to take another 4 year rebuild to get rid of all the pieces that were selected for the last rebuild. good time to be a tigers fan. at least the pirates have good young players, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerbomb13 Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 1 hour ago, buddha said: it's going to take another 4 year rebuild to get rid of all the pieces that were selected for the last rebuild. good time to be a tigers fan. at least the pirates have good young players, lol. So depressing. We get all pumped up for baseball being back only to quickly come back to the realization that they are no better off than they were in 2017, and it’s going to take years for Harris to get them competitive still. Just an absolute dumpster fire Avila left the organization in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casimir Posted April 12, 2023 Author Share Posted April 12, 2023 2 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said: Yes, I agree with all of that. Scott Harris made MASSIVE changes in the team structure, changes that were long overdue. And even if Harris does everything 100% right with drafting and developing, this team has no real shot at being decent until about 2026. Thank goodness there's also trades and free agents to try to improve the team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casimir Posted April 12, 2023 Author Share Posted April 12, 2023 2 hours ago, buddha said: it's going to take another 4 year rebuild to get rid of all the pieces that were selected for the last rebuild. good time to be a tigers fan. at least the pirates have good young players, lol. Actually, the pieces acquired for the last rebuild are still cheap and/or on short term deals, with the exception of Rodriguez and Baez. Getting rid of the pieces should actually be easy, whether its trade or just releasing or not renewing a contract. Yeah, I know, this theory is a rainbow scratch & sniff sticker on a turd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutiger Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 (edited) 23 minutes ago, casimir said: Actually, the pieces acquired for the last rebuild are still cheap and/or on short term deals, with the exception of Rodriguez and Baez. Getting rid of the pieces should actually be easy, whether its trade or just releasing or not renewing a contract. Yeah, I know, this theory is a rainbow scratch & sniff sticker on a turd. To add, I would imagine a handful of guys will or could remain from the last rebuild longer term, Tork and Greene obviously chief among them. Maybe they salvage some production out of Meadows or Perez or Colt Keith as well. Overall, I think best case scenario is that Tork and Greene both show themselves to be long term pieces over the next year or so and then get them signed to an extension so that they hit their prime in a realistic time frame for Harris to rebuild this thing. They may be positively awful this year, but that, along with maybe seeing Tarik back and producing later on this year, would help in at least showing a glimmer of hope. Edited April 12, 2023 by mtutiger 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdog Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 They need some good luck with these pitching rehab guys. At the very least, you want cheap and controllable mid rotation starters. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motor City Sonics Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 5 hours ago, casimir said: Thank goodness there's also trades and free agents to try to improve the team. Not when you don't really have players anyone would want to trade anything good for and an owner who has yet to prove he's committed to, well, much of anything baseball-related. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 14 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said: Not when you don't really have players anyone would want to trade anything good for and an owner who has yet to prove he's committed to, well, much of anything baseball-related. Thank you for this, but there’s more. Beyond just not being able to make chicken salad out of chicken **** on trades, as well as an owner who is just now waking up to the effect his baseball business unit is having on his entire enterprise, there’s also the fact that Scott Harris couldn’t simply sign an impact player or two as though he could just go to Walmart and pick them up off the shelf. Players are sentient human beings who have a say in where they sign, and no decent player would have chosen to come to Detroit and lose big, instead because of going literally anyplace else and winning, or at least losing less. The sad fact is that Al Avila’s Reign of Error basically destroyed this franchise, and it’s going to take probably half a decade to get it on its feet and start to contend. And I know a lot of fans refuse to believe this, but we’re going to have to do it without being a team that impact free agents are willing to sign up to play for, or being able to make good trades due to our lack of organizational depth, for at least two years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motor City Sonics Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 21 minutes ago, chasfh said: Thank you for this, but there’s more. Beyond just not being able to make chicken salad out of chicken **** on trades, as well as an owner who is just now waking up to the effect his baseball business unit is having on his entire enterprise, there’s also the fact that Scott Harris couldn’t simply sign an impact player or two as though he could just go to Walmart and pick them up off the shelf. Players are sentient human beings who have a say in where they sign, and no decent player would have chosen to come to Detroit and lose big, instead because of going literally anyplace else and winning, or at least losing less. The sad fact is that Al Avila’s Reign of Error basically destroyed this franchise, and it’s going to take probably half a decade to get it on its feet and start to contend. And I know a lot of fans refuse to believe this, but we’re going to have to do it without being a team that impact free agents are willing to sign up to play for, or being able to make good trades due to our lack of organizational depth, for at least two years. Thats why I am saying he has to draft and develop nearly perfectly. That's the only way they're getting out of this. And it takes forever. So yeah, comparing to the miserable 1989-2005 years, we're really in about 1996 and even then it took an owner, who loved baseball and followed the game closely getting sick of losing and having to overpay on a couple of older free agents who people thought were done (Pudge, Magglio) and being fortunate enough to get rejected by the steroid-inflated Rich Aurilla which prompted us to take the guy he replaced, Carlos Guillen who may have been one of the best moves in the entire Illitch era. It took the owner getting absolutely fed up with losing to commit to that. But there's a problem with that now too. Pudge was $10 million a year, to nab anything like that now, it's probably $35 million and I don't see Chris doing that - ever. Thanks to the second-biggest free agent failure in Tiger history, Harvey Baez, Chris is going to recoil a spending anything big for a long time. (Jordan Zimmermann is the biggest flop, Harvey's got time to unseat him). But winning meant a lot to Mike, but the feeling I get, and I could be really wrong, is that Chris just isn't that into baseball and watched his dad spending part of his inheritance on it. It comes down to Chris not recognizing Avila was a total failure (I love your Reign Of Error remark) sooner. 2019 should have been it. 47 wins should have been the indicator that this ain't working, but those 3 extra years are probably going to cost us 5-6 more years of bad baseball unless Harris is near-perfect at recognizing talent. If he isn't, then were talking the 2030s before we even have a chance. Damn. I'll be 70 in 2034. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motor City Sonics Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 (edited) Every couple of years Chris needs to talk to a baseball consultant about if the GM/President is moving things in the right direction. Al Avila must have been quite the salesman. Too bad he couldn't use those skills on other GMs and Agents. Or maybe Chris was just gullable and not knowing baseball (and to me that is evident) made him an easy mark. Edited April 13, 2023 by Motor City Sonics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.