Leaderboard

Here today for my sons 14th Birthday...what a blast! I was 14 years old in 1984. This has been a GREAT day 😁

I'm not sure why I'm bothering with this, it's the equivalent of pissing into the wind and a perfect example of why I hate the current state of prospect analysis on the internet. Fans aren't educated on the nuances of player dev, tool hierarchy, etc., they are just bludgeoned with every highlight and how good this guy might be. If you want to argue that the new list is incrementally better than the old one in some way, that's fine. I'd contend that incremental improvement doesn't actually constitute much in terms of actual system quality or depth. Incremental gains on lists like this aren't where you make your hay....you need big gains that develop guys from these lists toward the higher end talent lists I mentioned earlier. With hindsight as your guide, you can poke holes in all those guys I listed. I can poke similar holes in each of the guys you list.... Dingler....framing/receiving/game calling lag and may not catch up, lots of swing and miss, hints of durability issues. Crouch....solid glove, likely won't get to power at higher levels because of hit tool deficiency. Saquera/Santana/Wenceel....meet Javier Betancourt, Domingo Leyba, Francisco Martinez, and so on. Jung....looks like he will hit but the glove is suspect, doesn't sound terribly different from Stewart immediately after the draft. I can keep going here. Look, I certainly believe some of these guys are good talents with potential and I would likely shove some of them in my own rankings, but they are all flawed in significant ways that prevent them from being guys you start counting on or penciling into future rosters. A simple (not so simple) thing like a hit tool deficiency, need to recognize spin better, lack of defensive chops, poor fastball command, etc., are all more than enough to derail a guy well before Detroit, and little things like that exist in every one of those guys, just like the did the guys on the older list. The Tigers flat out lack guys that reasonably project to everyday roles in the big leagues....to get them, they need guys with tools to somehow overcome significant flaws in their game and they need that to happen with multiple players. That is exceptionally unlikely to happen.

I would also feel better to hear that Hinch threw a chair at Soto in the locker room after the game

Deivi was already a statue at SS.

The St. Louis Cardinals have had 1 season under .500 this century. Their payroll is usually somewhere between 10th-15th in the league; they don't spend like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, etc, yet they spend their money wisely. They are a mid-size market. The don't ever rebuild but always have a pipeline of competent pitchers coming up from the minors to help keep them in games. They don't overspend on big time players but aren't afraid to sign a guy to a reasonable contract. They always have great attendance because fans know they will put a quality product on the field. St. Louis, to me, is the best run and ideal franchise in pro sports. This is what the Tigers need to shoot for.

Tampa Bay Rays (57-50) at Detroit Tigers (43-66)

I can't remember any time over the last few decades when the Tigers had at least two position players at every level doing interesting stuff with the bat. Will it yield any fruit? Who knows? But at least there are some intriguing performances up and down the system.

That means I'm EXTRA serious!!!!

Coming to a campaign ad near you... unreal

Amazing.

Mechanical Man has a point...

Chafin should have been the selection. Lange's BB/9 is a little high, but tbh, he probably should have been in front of Soto as well.

As much as the result sucks, this is definitely the silver lining to take away from this one.

At this point, the results don’t matter. Manning had the best outing of his career. The offense sucks and Soto imploded in a non save situation. But they have to use him because the bullpen is overtaxed. Good bullpens are a waste on a horrific team. Avila thinks he can get more value for them at a later point in time.

Kerry Carpenter is going to make it from Toledo by the end of the game and his two grand slams for the walk off. Book it.

can Carpenter get to Detroit for the bottom of the 9th?

Soto actually has good stuff, but I just can't trust him. I dont care how many times Cody Stavenhagen tells me he's good, I do not need to see any more of these in leverage situations

Now you warm up Foley Hinch? The game is over.

The official account is now tweeting about him lol

In 2027 you can post a thread about how much better those prospects are than the prospects of 2021-2022 that eventually busted out. Of course those guys look awful now because none of them did much in the majors. If they had all turned out to be at least average MLB players, you would think differently.

I do not have any skill as a talent evaluates apart from watching baseball for 55 years. Keeps me young 🙂. But I do see trends around the league and what I notice is many teams that draft lower than us continually produce MLB regular contributors and stars but since the Tram-Lou-etc era we do not. i hope 84 is right about this group. It’s why we watch and the optimism is needed at this juncture because the varsity team looks dreadful. At the same time Micros certified knowledge serves to minimize angst. Both of which combine to bring me to my aged old wish. Just give us a competitive team year in and year out so most of the summer we are “in the hunt”. Maybe no trophies but a pulse daily. A reason to watch. These past seven years have been inexcusable to me and I hope Chris Illitch and Al Avila are embarrassed and ashamed. They wouldn’t even dare mention their own names during yesterday’s Lou ceremony. What does that say? It says get the F out of town you bumbling fools and Disgenuous caretakers of our treasured institution. You are frauds and an insult to the spirit of the game.

I am inclined to agree with this.

This type of stuff is annoying. Especially when trying out the new is EXACTLY what they should be doing. Until we make the playoffs, the rebuild is NOT over. I think Avila is so desperate for wins, and that means Hinch and Ilitch too... that they are making short term stupid decisions instead of long term team building decisions.

A W for Lou on his day.

Its almost as if players are going to struggle when they aren't given consistent ABs

The complaint about Baddoo was calling him up to sit on the bench while Grossman and Willi started in the outfield. It was just stupid.

That's the trouble with me, you know, I got the wrong doctor. You know my doctor, Dr. Vinnie Boombatz.

If the Tigers finish 4th in their division, they should refuse to concede.

So much pretzel logic here.

and then gives up a hit to the pitcher.

That homer for Schoop should not even count lol

Shep is brutal:

Tony Phillips night!

Damn you for crushing my idealistic dreams that billionaires are good people 🤑

Yes, yes you do. The Tigers system is quite bad right now.

unless you are the couple whose plane is an hour late on a connection that was scheduled for a 1:20 hr layover two terminals over....