2022 DETROIT TIGERS REGULAR SEASON THREAD

[chasfh]

  On 7/6/2022 at 10:24 PM, RandyMarsh said:

Unless the Tigers are lying about trying to contact him I just can't think of a rational explanation why nobody on his front has tried to reach out to the Tigers. Like where are his lawyers/agents at? You think they could atleast keep the Tigers up to date at the very least to let them know that he isn't dead or something. 

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I don't think the Tigers are lying about trying to contact him because they've publicly said they've tried to, and I take them at that word because the ramifications of being caught in a lie like that are pretty great. To me, this appears that the the Tigers trying to shine some blame on him. I read it as, Tigers are frustrated with Rodriguez now, and this is probably not business as usual, in any reasonable way it could have been.

Of course, Rodriguez might get back to the Tigers tonight and be back with the team in a week. Who knows. Barring that, point is, if the Tigers are willing to publicly state that they tried to contact Rodriguez and he's not contacted him back, and that it is unusual, they are probably looking at his absence in a different light now than previously thought.

[RandyMarsh]

  On 7/6/2022 at 10:37 PM, chasfh said:

I don't think the Tigers are lying about trying to contact him because they've publicly said they've tried to, and I take them at that word because the ramifications of being caught in a lie like that are pretty great. To me, this appears that the the Tigers trying to shine some blame on him. I read it as, Tigers are frustrated with Rodriguez now, and this is probably not business as usual, in any reasonable way it could have been.

Of course, Rodriguez might get back to the Tigers tonight and be back with the team in a week. Who knows. Barring that, point is, if the Tigers are willing to publicly state that they tried to contact Rodriguez and he's not contacted him back, and that it is unusual, they are probably looking at his absence in a different light now than previously thought.

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I agree and honestly he deserves blame for this. Yes personal issues should be private but there is no excuse for nobody on his end to keep the Tigers informed on what is going on and how he is doing especially when you have a high profile job like a professional athlete. Hell even if the Tigers haven't reached out to him you think somebody would've kept them up to date in the last 6+ weeks. 

[sabretooth]

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2022/07/06/detroit-tigers-gm-al-avila/7822762001/

Avila addresses the media after Chris' lolarious fail.

Avila makes balanced and realistic-sounding statements expressing his disappointment **and anger** at the performance of the team, and the media treats it with reasonable-sounding headlines and balanced articles.

Well whaddya know.

The headline could also have been: "Avila passes basic intelligence test."

[Hongbit]

This board is here to discuss exactly these things but probably best for nobody to get any real strong views either way on this situation and how it has been handled.   The truth is we have no idea what is going on.  We know he’s not with the team.   That’s it.  Everything other than that is all speculation.  

[RandyMarsh]

  On 7/6/2022 at 11:25 PM, Hongbit said:

This board is here to discuss exactly these things but probably best for nobody to get any real strong views either way on this situation and how it has been handled.   The truth is we have no idea what is going on.  We know he’s not with the team.   That’s it.  Everything other than that is all speculation.  

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Yeah but all it would take would be for one of his reps to get back to the Tigers and say "he's well but still going through personal issues and isn't ready to come back at this time, we will keep you updated on his situation" or something to that extent. Then the Tigers can convey that to the media/fans and it would remove alot of the question marks about the situation. When a guy literally goes MIA without any contact it is only going to lead to more speculation about his whereabouts. 

[Hongbit]

  On 7/6/2022 at 11:31 PM, RandyMarsh said:

Yeah but all it would take would be for one of his reps to get back to the Tigers and say "he's well but still going through personal issues and isn't ready to come back at this time, we will keep you updated on his situation" or something to that extent. Then the Tigers can convey that to the media/fans and it would remove alot of the question marks about the situation. When a guy literally goes MIA without any contact it is only going to lead to more speculation about his whereabouts. 

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Speculate all you want but not sure how it’s possible to assess any blame or fault without knowing literally anything about what’s happening.    

[Jason_R]

  On 7/6/2022 at 7:08 PM, sabretooth said:

You made the point that Chris shouldn't/couldn't say anything that might reflect even reasonable disappointment aobut the team's bad start because the headlines would twist it into "Ilitch slams Tigers!!". 

When I asked you for an example of where the Detroit media has twisted a sports owner's reasonable expression of disappointment into a "owner slams team!" headline, you presented the headline from the article, where Chris praised the progress of team, which you originally defended as an example of a job well done by Chris. 

Disapointing to see such a lack of self-awareness and contradictory statements from a self-proclaimed communications expert LOL  

Hey I hear your strawman is buying a round of drinks at Elwood's, hurry on down.

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What happened to “respectful”? Oh it was a red herring to begin with. LOL

Whatever. It would have been low class and even damaging to turn Lalonde’s press conference into a news event about Avila’s job status. 

[mtutiger]

  On 7/6/2022 at 11:39 PM, Jason_R said:

What happened to “respectful”? Oh it was a red herring to begin with. LOL

Whatever. It would have been low class and even damaging to turn Lalonde’s press conference into a news event about Avila’s job status. 

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Bob Wojnowski asking one question about the Tigers was not going to detail Lalonde’s press conference.

To the extent the question got any attention, it was because of the answer Chris I gave.

[Jason_R]

  On 7/7/2022 at 12:17 AM, mtutiger said:

Bob Wojnowski asking one question about the Tigers was not going to detail Lalonde’s press conference.

To the extent the question got any attention, it was because of the answer Chris I gave.

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Nobody on this board is saying a word about Bob Wojnowski, but if anyone knows how to make a headline it is him. And he made one. Just not the one this board wanted.

[kdog]

  Quote

“We’re not a rebuilding team anymore,” Avila said. “We want to be better than we are right now, but that doesn’t mean that we have to take a step backward (at the deadline). The step backward is already right now, the beginning of the season and the record we have. We’re going to try to make the team better as we move forward. Whatever that means, whoever we acquire and whatever it takes, we’ll have to consider every option that we have.”

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I'd say it's in the best interest of the team to be sellers this year and get some prospects for guys in your bullpen.

[kdog]

  Quote

He’s had a tremendous first half,” said Hinch. “We always evaluate what we’ve seen in players while they’re under our watch and then when they go somewhere else and what they do. Number one is, we knew Isaac Paredes was a good player. Before I got here, how hyped up he was. He’d come up a couple different times. He had never hit for power. So to me, the curiosity is, what did they unlock that allowed him to hit for that pull power? It’s mostly all pull power down the left field line.”

"Now, we didn’t think that Paredes was a wash-out. You don’t try to win the trade by giving them somebody bad and getting somebody good. They’re smart, too. But it makes you think about how we didn’t untap the power. And I think that’s where we look internally and (ask), what did we see, what did we not see?”

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https://www.audacy.com/971theticket/sports/detroit-tigers/hinch-tigers-asking-what-did-we-not-see-in-isaac-paredes

Nice to be a bit introspective.

[kdog]

  Quote

“I would disagree that we haven’t developed players,” said Hinch. “We have a number of homegrown guys on this team. Drafting in the Rule 5 for (Akil) Baddoo, that was pretty smart. And developing the young kids that we’ve had, the right picks at the top of the draft with Riley and Tork, Willi Castro is developing right in front of our eyes, even if it’s going to be a utility player.”

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[mtutiger]

  On 7/7/2022 at 12:31 AM, Jason_R said:

Nobody on this board is saying a word about Bob Wojnowski...

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He asked the question. Again, Chris I's response made this a bigger story than it needed to be. 

It is what it is.

[mtutiger]

  On 7/6/2022 at 10:49 PM, sabretooth said:

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2022/07/06/detroit-tigers-gm-al-avila/7822762001/

Avila addresses the media after Chris' lolarious fail.

Avila makes balanced and realistic-sounding statements expressing his disappointment **and anger** at the performance of the team, and the media treats it with reasonable-sounding headlines and balanced articles.

Well whaddya know.

The headline could also have been: "Avila passes basic intelligence test."

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Amazing how showing concern to the fanbase over the poor showing on the field tends to be better recieved.

Seems like better PR to me, but whaddaya know 

[chasfh]

  On 7/7/2022 at 12:31 AM, kdog said:

I'd say it's in the best interest of the team to be sellers this year and get some prospects for guys in your bullpen.

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If they do that, in effect doing rebuilding stuff after trumpeting the idea that the rebuild is 100% over, then we fans reserve the right to never believe a thing this regime tells us ever again.

[gehringer_2]

  On 7/6/2022 at 10:37 PM, chasfh said:

Of course, Rodriguez might get back to the Tigers tonight and be back with the team in a week. Who knows. Barring that, point is, if the Tigers are willing to publicly state that they tried to contact Rodriguez and he's not contacted him back, and that it is unusual, they are probably looking at his absence in a different light now than previously thought.

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Yeah, this is the thing. If they tried to do right by him when he needed a few days and then he just leaves them in the lurch, the Tiger’s have every right to feel their good offices have been taken advantage of.    

[chasfh]

  On 7/7/2022 at 2:01 AM, gehringer_2 said:

Yeah, this is the thing. If they tried to do right by him when he needed a few days and then he just leaves them in the lurch, the Tiger’s have every right to feel their good offices have been taken advantage of.    

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On the other hand, I'm trying to figure out "where the there is" for Rodriguez to leave the Tigers in the lurch. He stands a chance of forfeiting his contract if the Tigers can successfully sue to void it, and if he does that, who's going to sign him to anything close to that kind of contract again? Unless he's sick of baseball and happy with the money he's made at it, which I guess is a possibility? We know nothing about what's going on with him, which is considered his prerogative as a matter of privacy these days, but avoiding check-ins from the team to such a degree that the team is going public with that? Why? What's going on in his head?

This is one of the weirder stories in baseball I've heard of.

[Tigermojo]

Paredes never hit for power even in the winter leagues did he? I'm calling fluke for now until he proves otherwise.

There's a really simple answer to the Erod situation, he's a lefty... Seriously hope everything is ok.

[chasfh]

  On 7/7/2022 at 2:27 AM, Tigermojo said:

Paredes never hit for power even in the winter leagues did he? I'm calling fluke for now until he proves otherwise.

There's a really simple answer to the Erod situation, he's a lefty... Seriously hope everything is ok.

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Counterpoint on Paredes, for what it's worth:

https://www.draysbay.com/2022/5/24/23137830/isaac-paredes-has-a-new-approach-in-tampa-bay

 

[sabretooth]

  On 7/6/2022 at 11:39 PM, Jason_R said:

What happened to “respectful”? Oh it was a red herring to begin with. LOL

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My comment about you turning my respectful question inside-out was completely respectful on my part.

If you are suggesting that I was commenting about the above in an insincere fashion in order to distract from the point (the definition of a red herring), then all I can say is (a) PHHHBBBBTT!!, (b) you're wrong and (c) maybe you should consider engaging in some pasttime that doesn't involve you questioning the basic motives of people you don't even know, as an argumentative tactic.

If you instigate and keep returning to snarky and personal comments, I don't think it's the least bit hypocritical for me to respond with targeted sharp comments and sarcasm; and my original point remains completely intact even if I do so -- i.e., that you had no reason to take the conversation there in the first place.

I also don't agree at all with your final point.....nobody suggested that Ilitch should have "turn Lalonde’s press conference into a news event about Avila’s job status."  Just that if Chris was willing to talk about the Tigers, he shouldn't have sounded like an idiot. 

[sabretooth]

  On 7/7/2022 at 1:10 AM, mtutiger said:

Amazing how showing concern to the fanbase over the poor showing on the field tends to be better recieved.

Seems like better PR to me, but whaddaya know 

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It excelled at truthiness

[sabretooth]

This is starting to feel like the Lions' forum....blech

[casimir]

  On 7/7/2022 at 2:39 AM, chasfh said:

Counterpoint on Paredes, for what it's worth:

https://www.draysbay.com/2022/5/24/23137830/isaac-paredes-has-a-new-approach-in-tampa-bay

 

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Even with a new approach, his current hard hit rate and ISO are unsustainable.  Now, the question is where along the spectrum of the before and current will the new approach put him?  If this is just a Sheltonesque hot streak, enjoy it while it’s there.  If it’s JD Martinez light, nice work by he and the Rays.

[casimir]

  On 7/7/2022 at 12:31 AM, kdog said:

I'd say it's in the best interest of the team to be sellers this year and get some prospects for guys in your bullpen.

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I don’t think selling RPs is necessarily an acknowledgment of timing of a rebuild.  Sometimes players need to moved from depth and/or it’s just time to cash in on value at its peak if it isn’t going to result in a postseason appearance.

[gehringer_2]

  On 7/7/2022 at 2:39 AM, chasfh said:

Counterpoint on Paredes, for what it's worth:

https://www.draysbay.com/2022/5/24/23137830/isaac-paredes-has-a-new-approach-in-tampa-bay

 

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Not that there is really any ‘there’ here,   at least as far as we really know yet, but I have been struck by Avila’s talk about establishing a ‘Tiger’ way of doing everything. That’s great as long as it it is never applied to hitting advice. No two hitters hit the same way- I believe hitting my be the most personally customized activity in sport. So you certainly hope that the changes Paredes did or didn’t make were more on his own than because the Tigers were trying to fit him into a box that was wrong for him. I suspect it could be more Isaac here than the Tigers because I do have some recollection that pulling the ball more was something they had already encouraged him to do. 

Edited July 7, 2022 by gehringer_2