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Carlos Carrasco has got to be the record holder for most times signed by a team and then DFAd within the following two weeks.

Moving Thompson would be the dumbest thing this team could do. Cade is the engine that makes your offense exist. Thompson is the engine that makes your defense exist. The defensive turnaround for this team was night and day when he came into the starting lineup and his on/off stats prove it as well (on both ends). Obviously I'm in favor of moving Duren for numerous reasons, but let's ignore the money stuff and just talk about this notion that you can't have two non-shooters starting. I don't buy it. This was one of the final 8 teams standing and very close to being one of the final 4. However, you can't do it with Tobias as your starting 4 and Robinson as your starting 2. If Tobias shot 40% from three and was willing to take all the open threes they kept getting him in the playoffs then things look very different. Replace him with a competent and willing shooter (who can defend a bit) and this team is at least in the ECF against a Knicks team they dominated in the regular season. Same with Duncan. Replace him with someone who is still a solid shooter, but adds either shot creation or defense (both would be tough since that's an All-Star). I have no ideas what trades are out there to make my plan happen, but they're obviously bringing Duren back. It would be monumentally dumb for them to compound one bad move (overpaying Duren) with an even worse move (trading Ausar).

That’s my main problem with ERA, even though overall it has a lot of high level value as a statistic. A couple weak seeing eye ground balls or a bad hop that leads to a run counts exactly the same against a pitcher as grooving a fastball that gets hit 500 feet. I would like to see the predominant pitcher stats be some combination of OPS against, Exit Velocity Against, and Batted Balls on the Edge of the Strike Zone against. Or something that factors in the individual hitters xBA on a ball in a certain sector of the strike zone. Something that minimizes the luck factor in pitching performance.

canada has two world class players and....yeah. they are playing at home but i would make them 50/50 to get out of that group. should be down to whomever wins the bosnia game.

Yordan Alvarez would have helped.

It's out of the box thinking like this that makes a great candidate for GM!!

So then which bat should we have acquired at the deadline

Apparently the NHLPA has evidence of stuff Babcock did with the Blue Jackets that wasn't ever reported publicly in addition to the phone stuff, and now the NHL has to do an investigation, amazing stuff by the Oilers!

I have no interest in Stramel but I'm into it I think lol

Anyway, I heard teams wanted Melton last trade deadline and after he came up and I saw him pitch, I considered him pretty much untouchable. Tiger pitching prospects are few and far between. And pitching, IMO, is very valuable.

wellstedt to utah larkin to minnesota denoyers, stramel, two minnesota firsts and a utah second to detroit.

I was guessing - IIRC: If I Remember Correctly - I had him pegged a bit higher than he actually was.

larkin and cossa for iginla, denoyers, and a first!

??? You said Melton was ranked much higher?

I've seen this in other sports, teams have a good season and bring everyone back, hoping to repeat previous success. Teams need to make some changes to get better, not rely on players repeating success. Javy and Mckinstry are good examples. They were really good last season but regression was predictable. As well as our RH pinch hitter, Jones. I read he was something like 1 for his last 28? Pathetic.

Kevin Weekes is reporting Utah has interest in Cossa, which delights me because of their farm system. It seems like all the Cossa to Edmonton rumors have mostly been random twitter accounts parroting the same rumor, and yesterday one of them made up a podcast quote to make it seem like it was about to happen. Glad an actual "insider" has some info finally.

stunning levels of corruption

Well, I didn't find their midseason update, but a quick search at Baseball America had Melton as Detroit's 24th ranked prospect preseason 2025 and MLB had him at 13th midseason.

Well, some people say pitching is a bit more valuable than position players. So Saurez was traded for a #9 prospect, a position player. And #16 and #17 ranked pitching prospects. I would say Melton was/is more valuable than another teams #9 positional prospect. Im not sure who the Tiger #9 prospect was last trade deadline but there's a good possibility it's a player who will have very little impact in MLB.

Or keep Perez as the RH hitter off the bench, and DFA Jones. Then you at least have someone who is hitting as your RH bat and in dire situations, you can play him in the field.

not at all what this was originally about. Not everything is about Harris. The point of contention was your statement that we hadn't hit 'peak Tiger' yet because the team was great in 25 and we have peices to add. All I'm saying is that you can't just say that because in all probablilty major pieces are going to be lost. If you lose Skubal and Mize next season (assuming there is one ) you need 9 new War to get to where you were in 25 before you can say you are any better. That is no foregone conclusion. It's actually very possible '25 was 'peak Tiger.' I hope not, but that story hasn't been written. Melton and McGonigle maybe get you the 9 back, but then you still have to add from there to be better. Jobe - maybe, Oslen - maybe, Clark - maybe. And you are losing a few more when Gleyber goes.

If you want to put it in more historical terms, I could find maybe 100 playoff teams where if we subtract two guys from it, they lose enough WAR to … wait for it … put them out of the playoffs. So what are we even talking about here? How terrible Harris is because he did not transcend that during a building year? Then he’s terrible. There’s your conclusion.

He's also got a mortgage from his wealthy father who sent him to $80k a year boarding school. Real working class hero.

If we had a CF whose OF play was on a par with Shorts SS play and hit just as badly, that would be an improvement over any day when Perez was out there -- obviously depends what it would have cost for that marginal improvement. Really, we should turn the argument around because the issue is really just Perez - period. He's fielded poorly in RF and CF and he hasn't hit. I think if you look at his performance you can say two things, he certainly has hit below expectation, so you can say a GM can't go by anything other than what a guy has done, and on that score, Perez has simply disappointed. If you look under the covers a bit, what you see is that he has completely fallen off the cliff as a LHB. His LH OPS 2024/2025/2026 go 708/688/476. Mostly because his LD rate is minscule this season. As RHB he is still OK (with relatively few AB his RHB OPS is 785). Of course since you already have Vierling as a RH OF, you only really want Wenceel as LHB, and on that score, he has been simply terrible. The numbers say you are absolutely better off just playing Matt all the time (687 career OPS against RHP) and forgetting about the platoon. But who-know-who is filling out the line-up cards.

New acronym to use... https://open.substack.com/pub/pebblehunting/p/terrible-luck-and-the-pitchers-who?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=epdue