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I didn’t jinx it!

You need to do this by Category: 1) Trade acquisition that Avila was needlessly hyped over, but ended up as nothing but Hot Garbage: Dawel Lugo 2) Worst Starter on the market that Avila somehow felt was worth making a #3 starter. Who was, indeed, the worst starter on the market: Mike Pelfrey 3) Pitcher coming off an arm injury that seemed to be OK but also quite risky with recent underperformance compared to career norms in addition to the injury risk... That Spectacularly Blew Up in Avila's face: Jordan Zimmerman 4) Over-drafted "hitter" that had ZERO hit tool, some power, and a complete inability to field any position: Christin Stewart 5) Over-drafted "hitter" that had ZERO hit tool, some power, with a hit tool so bad no MLB, no ability to get to said power, Mendoza-like even in the MINORS, drafted in the top 2 rounds, and now every no-hit Tigers prospect is now compared to: Rey Rivera. 6) Awesome potential but injuries destroyed any chance to see the guy in MLB, immediately after we just traded our HOF Pitcher Justin Verlander for this key prospect: Franklyn Perez. 7) Below Replacement Level but we held onto him anyways because Avila couldn't find anyone better so he ended up with vastly more playing time as a Tiger than he EVER would have deserved with ANY other team in MLB: 4-way tie between Buck Farmer, Niko Goodrum, Christin Stewart, Harold Castro. (Feel free to expand this list to your heart's delight). Or add as many additional categories... as needed.

thought we had made a strategic error in going to watch this game with friends - that is usually the kiss of death. Nice to have that curse lifted with an easy (relatively) win....

The perfect candidate for the most Al Avila position player brought in during his tenure would be a guy no one ever heard of before he came here, signed by Al at just beyond prospect age, and has tools that tantalize just often enough to fool him to believing good production is right around the corner. The candidate has homer pop but strikes out a ton and can’t take a walk; has an iron glove that balls just clank off of and a wild arm he can’t control; looks like he should fit in at any position but can’t actually play any of them; gets way more reps on the field in the hope he will prove out the signing than any other organization would ever dare give him; and once he leaves, never steps into a major league stadium ever again without having to buy a ticket. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you: Ronny Rodriguez.

Look at those rally towels.

Avila may have won those trades (I think that's fair), but then you roll in what Shepard said about overthinking the players' abilities, and that's where the team is. The combination of acquisition and development just wasn't where it needed to be during the Avila era. Wherever you want those slider bars to be on individual players/transactions or as a whole, it just wasn't where it needed to be.

As far as Tigers players that define the Avila era I can think of a couple and that's Candelario and Willi. Both seem like they've been here forever, both were acquired in rare trades that Al may have "won", both showed at times glimmer of hope but ultimately just like Al's tenure that fleeting glimmer of hope you may have had was ultimately fool's gold.

Well 30% might vote for him instead of 42%. That would be good.

You can poke around media guides here and get an idea https://pressbox.athletics.com/Publications/MLB Media Guides/

Incredible

Hersch-a-hontus? Walk-a-hontus? Remember when Trump and the right wing went out of their ever loving minds that Elizabeth Warren claimed to have Native American heritage.

I know we all know Ron Johnson is an asshole already, but good lord.

Literal cleanup from literal lunatic in the aisle. I don't know whether she'll be able to jump-start an entire career off this, but we will definitely be seeing more of her in the next couple of weeks, anyway.

$965,000,000 LOL.

speaking of Isbel, here's a song I came across last week on Satellite radio.... this sounds like it could be Zeppelin.

Some singers and songwriters have IT. A certain feature or thing about them that you just listen to them once and they pull you right in and keep you hooked. Tyler Childers has IT as far as not only country music singers go, but truly iconic American songwriters. I listen to a lot of great country/Americana/folk singer-songwriter folks from EmmyLou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Zach Bryan, Margo Price, etc. While I wouldn't put Tyler of Jason or EmmyLou, I'd vault him up pretty darn high on the list.