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2023-24 Detroit Tigers Offseason Thread


chasfh

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16 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

Turnbull looks cooked to me; combined that with his injury history, age, and disagreement about being demoted, maybe it is best to move on, but the return would be minimal.

Turnbull for Tyler O'Neil? Turnbull for Victor Robles? Turnbull for Nick Senzel?

More likely Turnbull for somebody we’ve barely heard of.

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3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

A hard throwing AA reliever with command problems. 

 

That was more Al Avila’s jam. The new guy might trade Turnbull for an outfielder with pop and command of the strike zone who also played third base in college. Can never have too many of those. 😏

Edited by chasfh
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3 minutes ago, chasfh said:

That was more Al Avila’s jam. The new guy might trade Turnbull for an outfielder with pop and command of the strike zone who also played third base in college. Can never have too many of those. 😏

Maybe true, but I think if the new administration acquired a hard throwing AA pitcher with command problems, they might know what to do with him.  I am not yet sold on their ability to develop flawed position players who try to play multiple positions.  

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1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Maybe true, but I think if the new administration acquired a hard throwing AA pitcher with command problems, they might know what to do with him.  I am not yet sold on their ability to develop flawed position players who try to play multiple positions.  

I wonder whether skills for position players are more hard-coded and more difficult to unlock at the major league level than pitchers whose skill levels are at a similar percentile? For example, maybe it’s more likely for a 33rd-percentile-skilled pitcher to develop a wipeout pitch that makes him an All-Star for a while, than it is for a 33rd-percentile-skilled player to find the swing that makes him an All-Star? So maybe our current coaching staff is better at unlocking average pitchers? I don’t know, just spitballing here.

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14 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I wonder whether skills for position players are more hard-coded and more difficult to unlock at the major league level than pitchers whose skill levels are at a similar percentile? For example, maybe it’s more likely for a 33rd-percentile-skilled pitcher to develop a wipeout pitch that makes him an All-Star for a while, than it is for a 33rd-percentile-skilled player to find the swing that makes him an All-Star? So maybe our current coaching staff is better at unlocking average pitchers? I don’t know, just spitballing here.

I think this is true generally -- that hitting is much less well understood than pitching. From an analysis standpoint, pitching is 100% mechanics. If the pitcher holds the ball a certain way and uses certain muscles to apply certain forces, the result is 100% predictable/reproducible in terms of the result. So while the task may be hard to accomplish, you at least know exactly what it is: get the hand and arm to go from points A to points B. The Tiger coaching staff seems to have this stuff down. But mechanics is only one piece of hitting, which also includes a set of perceptual and reflex issues that fall under the general heading of 'pitch recognition' that are no better understood than most of what the brain does. You may be able to help a hitter change his swing to increase bat speed or shorten his path to the ball, but the level of certainty that any change in swing mechanics improves hitting performance or even effects it in the right way for any particular hitter isn't very good. It's a time problem. Time is no constraint for a pitcher, he does everything he does on his own schedule. But time dominates all considerations for a hitter. He has no control over it and can only react to it and that part of his problem is not one that coaches have many tools to help with.

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On 10/14/2023 at 1:28 PM, holygoat said:

Turnbull is one of those dudes who is probably more valuable to the team he's already on than anything they could hope to get in return for him.

This is probably true.  It’s probably one of those uncomfortable situations where the two sides need each other in order for both sides to find a best case mutuality beneficial outcome.  In other words, Turnbull is healthy, the Tigers pitch him, he posts stats, and a trade is made after his value is increased.  But both sides are going to have to grit teeth, tolerate the other, and just push aside whatever acrimony exists to get there.

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20 hours ago, Jim Cowan said:

I don't see Turnbull as disgruntled at all.  Just faithfully following Boras' advice, no hard feelings.  And why not?

I could be wrong, but he seems to be on the older side of a career timeline.  I don’t know if he was a late bloomer, or made his professional debut on the older side, or both.

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2 hours ago, casimir said:

I could be wrong, but he seems to be on the older side of a career timeline.  I don’t know if he was a late bloomer, or made his professional debut on the older side, or both.

Drafted out of college and ended up with a shoulder impingement in 2016 that slowed his development.

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5 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

Per ESPN...armed men entered the Tigers Dominican republic complex, restrained the guard and stole items from players rooms

“Take off your game worn jerseys and write your names, legibly, along with the year you signed with these gold Sharpies. And then drape them neatly in each of these collectible shadow box frames.”

Edited by Tenacious D
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I like to scour the transaction logs this time of year. Eric (don't call him Matt) Lauer was outrighted by the Brewers this week and will be a free agent. He had a couple of nice years and fell off the map this year with shoulder problems. I do know shoulder issues can be a death knell, and the team that is giving up on him would know the most about his recovery. That said, this wouldn't be the worst minor league flier.

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What do the Tigers really need this offseason

 

Starting pitching and Utility guys?  

 

Next year is about seeing if Carp, Greene and Tork are for real and what you might have in Keith, Malloy, Meadows and maybe Bigbie.      

 

If Colt looks good in the spring, he'll probably be the third baseman.   If Malloy looks good, he'll be up as a DH and sometimes LF.     

I can live with McKinstry/Ibanez at 2b.    Didn't they have a great record when Ibanez started?  

They need to use all their powers and all their skills to fix Javy  (and he needs to be willing to be fixed) 

Help Mize adjust to post TJ, hopefully it's better than Fulmer and Turnbull's first year back 

Find some sort of foot protection for Matt Manning that he can pitch with. 

 

They could use an upgrade over Short/Kreidler/Lipcious, but maybe Maton figures things out or Kreidler becomes the player we were dreaming of 2 years ago.   I could see them going for another Super Utility guy in Free Agnecy this winter. 

 

2 starting pitchers (unless E-Rod signs a new deal here).     Skubal-Manning-MIze-Olson...........pretty thin right now, especially when you consider Mize could really struggle in his return.      Maybe Madden, Flores or Jobe shocks everyone, but I wouldn't count on it.        Please no Wentz.   And lets hope next year's Olson isn't this year's Wentz. 

 

It's another year of watching guys develop, but the coaches/scouts they have in place under Harris sure seemed to make a difference in a lot of guys last year.    Maybe they don't need to go big time shopping, maybe the right guys are here (or at Toledo or Erie) and we have the personnel that can unlock them.    We sure didn't before.     If they can get Keith, Meadows and Malloy to improve the way that Greene, Tork and Carp did.......now we're talkin'

 

Something tells me Mark Canha's gonna be here.  I don't know why.    Seem's like the cheap, average free agent they can live with,  high OBP fits in.

 

I don't see a spot for Baddoo, unless someone else gets hurt.  They have enough left-handed hitting outfielders. 

 

And what of Austin Meadows? 

Edited by Motor City Sonics
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8 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

...     

I can live with McKinstry/Ibanez at 2b.    Didn't they have a great record when Ibanez started?  

...

Jung is going to make a hard push to open up with Detroit.

I don't know if he's ready... but we'll see in ST.

If he is, then both Keith and Jung will play a lot (not bench material guys) one of them at 2B and the other at 3B. Take your pick at which position.

If he's not ready and is at Toledo, then it's just Keith. So, if he can hold 3B and we're looking at 2B as you've outlined above...

I think you just started the 2B'man list for next year. Add in Maton, Wenceel (they'll give him a look), and also Jung as, even if he doesn't open in Detroit I believe he'll still be seeing time in Detroit... sooner or later.

2B could be a pretty busy turnstile next year...

I'm just sayin'...

 

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50 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Jung is going to make a hard push to open up with Detroit.

I don't know if he's ready... but we'll see in ST.

If he is, then both Keith and Jung will play a lot (not bench material guys) one of them at 2B and the other at 3B. Take your pick at which position.

If he's not ready and is at Toledo, then it's just Keith. So, if he can hold 3B and we're looking at 2B as you've outlined above...

I think you just started the 2B'man list for next year. Add in Maton, Wenceel (they'll give him a look), and also Jung as, even if he doesn't open in Detroit I believe he'll still be seeing time in Detroit... sooner or later.

2B could be a pretty busy turnstile next year...

I'm just sayin'...

 

Isn't Wenceel a bit of a liability defensively?      

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1 hour ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Isn't Wenceel a bit of a liability defensively?      

I thought that was SS and he was fine at 2B.

I could be wrong though...

I believe he has superior range over most of these other guys... glove/ hands/ pivot/ arm all come into play as well...

So I don't know the answer to that to be honest...

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