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Sorry for Romad and all the others that had to go through this again. Will this ever stop? We’ve reached a point where the unalienable rights of this county should be changed to Guns, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Life is not valued in America anymore. It is outweighed by the right to own a gun.

Playing close to the family farm?

They have sucked for years, but Avila was still able to sign players. I think the "players don't want to sign here" angle gets over played.

Last year because it looked like the Tigers were about to take a big step forward toward contention, and not this year because they'd just taken a huge step backwards and upended their front office as a result. To people not deeply embedded with the fortunes of the franchise as fans or beat media, it all looks like chaos. Players have a precious short amount of time to play and win. Why waste it with a team that looks like they're on the treadmill to oblivion? I agree that Harris also did not want to spend big long-term money on players when we're not in a position to win now, but players who deserve big money want to go to teams that look like they are on the way up, not teams that look like they're floundering.

Pro life my ass

Romad. Thoughts are with you. I didn't really want to add anything else because I am seeing misinformation abound in other sites I frequent, and my only hope is that people resist the urge to share scanner rumors or social media malinformation while one of our own is on pins and needles.

I was on vacation, but I've definitely got some thoughts on this whole thing... Bey: I'm fine with the Pistons moving him. I've been getting more and more frustrated with his play lately as many of you have seen me comment. Selfish, inefficient, a shooter who can't shoot, a wing who can't defend, and his numbers have regressed every year. As a rookie we all thought he'd be a 3 and D role player that would develop into a Jae Crowder or (hopefully) Middleton type. Turns out he wanted to be way more than that to the detriment of all those around him. Something I like to call "Drummond Disease" or "DD" for short, but better know as a lack of self awareness. I said previously that this team was going to need to move players to make space for draft picks and free agents that will help them compete because player development alone wasn't going to cut it. Cade/Ivey/Duren are where we're investing our future, and that only leaves the wing where they can make improvements. So, this was inevitable. Wiseman: I'm curious to see Wiseman in a pick and roll system. He has a lot of tools, but he's played less minutes than Duren so far in his career, 1/3rd of the minutes that Killian has played, and is just 21 (to Saddiq's 23). There's still room for growth and he should get plenty of opportunity here. I also don't agree with those saying we don't need a Center. Noel obviously isn't getting played and may be bought out. Bagley is (always) hurt. So, all you have is Stew backing up Duren. Have you been watching the Stew at Center travesty this season? He's too small on defense and has bad hands in the paint on offense. Your only hope is that he figures that 3 point shot out and can become a bench PF and situational Center like Grant Williams. That Cleveland game was probably the straw that broke the camel's back for Weaver, and I can't blame him for that - we looked like a middle school team playing against a college team. We absolutely need a backup Center and if they can get that out of Wiseman, then I'm happy with the return. At the end of the day, you're swapping a bench Wing for a bench Center. Let's not inflate the value of a wing who can't play defense or shoot and couldn't keep his starting spot on one of the worst teams in the league. All I need Wiseman to become is a good bench Center and he'll have more value - or at least less negative value - than Bey at the wing. Weaver: However, I do agree that Weaver's seat is getting much warmer with the fans. The vision and identity of the team he's building is questionable at best. I think fans are ok with being bad during a rebuild, but we're all struggling to see what he's building towards. He says he wants defense but he's collected a team full of bad defenders. This is going to be a big offseason for him, especially if he doesn't get bailed out by landing the #1 or #2 pick. And nobody wants to see him spend that 50M+ on the equivalent of Charlie V, Ben Gordon, or Josh Smith in this bad free agent market. It's definitely going to be interesting.

Once again, I'm talking about this year. Not last year, not 2016, not 2013 or 2012 or 2011. This year is not anything like any of those years. If you like, you can believe that playing for a winner doesn't matter to players and that it's all about the money. I find that surprising, frankly, but there are a lot of people who would agree with you on that. I just don't happen to believe it's all about the money. I may never be able to convince you or anyone else here of that, but I will express the opinion that playing for a winner does matter to players, when the topic comes up and I believe it's appropriate to express it. I won't back down from that.

i hope it sticks. theyre finally playing better (level of competition caveats apply) but could really use that scoring.

Pay them and they will come. It’s $$$ nothing more. Always $$. Always will be. For most things good and bad.

You also saw it in my post two spots up from your post 😄

We just need to find the equivalent of Fernando Vina.

the irony of thinking something called an 'amendment' is absolute.

Texas gets people to take big money because they offer big money - after finishing 4, 5, 3, 5, 5, 4 the last 6 years.

So am I. I am far, far more optimistic about the franchise than I was last year. I think they can sign players if they want to spend and they look like things are looking up. Hopefully next winter.

There is, and the theme is, “Who wants Chris Ilitch’s money”? I think that’s what people are missing in discussion about payroll: good players who have options simply will not come to Detroit this season. We talk about getting a good hitter on a major league contract as if it's something we can just will and make happen. But good players are sentient beings with critical decision-making skills, and most of the time, if a player can choose to go anywhere, he's going to choose somewhere where he can win, or at least somewhere where the organization looks like they have a clue and might start winning soon. In the eyes of players, that's not Detroit. Sure, we fans who are deeply embedded in the fortunes of this team can see, or at least envision, the improvements the team has been investing in since Scott Harris came aboard, but those are deep infrastructure-level improvements only devotees of the team are aware of, not the kind of surface-level improvements that people who don't live here or love the team can easily see—and that includes big league players. This is probably why the only major league contracts we could bring aboard are Matthew Boyd and Michael Lorenzen. Those guys didn't really have options. That's also why Detroit couldn't push the payroll to even league average—it's tough to do that when good major leaguers prefer just about anyone else's money over yours. So what the organization has to focus on this year is showing and proving that we are serious about improvement, AND that improvement is happening. That's what I think is going to make 2023 exciting: if we can make good progress, win 75 or more games (which I think is doable), and get the players we have in-house to publicly sing hallelujahs to the team, THAT’s when we will be able to compete for good big league free agents, perhaps starting as soon as next year. That, to me, would be a successful season.

John Jaso sighting…

$600 or $28,000. good luck on your ace....

Campuses are open places, because they should be, but that will go away. We'll have to lock doors, have metal detectors in doorways and shit like that. They'll do that before they do anything about these motherfucking guns. What was this asshole's problem? What motivated him? I am interested in this now because of conspiracy theories and rhetoric, where "elitist" means people who read or study now and how people a pumped of full of hate for someone because they disagree or they have something that these assholes don't. I want us to start holding the people who build this kind of hatred responsible. Freedom of Speech? Not when you KNOWINGLY set people off on murderous rampages. I used to work a golf drive away from the Union.

Glad this is over. Could have been so much worse. It’s still not something i can wrap my mind around. It’s just so horrible. I had been through a few major stressful events in my life like this where adrenaline was at max and the headache afterwards was shattering. So far i’m ok, but my Son who was sheltering in place says he has a bad headache so that tracks.

ROMAD, hope all is well man. I see you said you were texting so I'm hoping he's all good.

Positive train control, I assume you are referring to... it took five years beyond the initial mandate (2015) for all of the Class I's to come into compliance as well. It was badly overdue technology and will save lives, but the time that it took to implement shows the flaws of a freight rail system made up of disperate private entities (with a couple of exceptions)... unless the government fully funds the changes, they will drag their heels in implementing... In the policy space, FRA and State DOTs almost universally push railroads to signalize as much as possible. But there are over 200,000 grade crossings in the United States across all different classes of railroads, not all of whom operate at the same scale or profit as the Class I's like NS, CSX, BNSF or UP. And they can be really complicated and costly projects, both from a design perspective as well as ancillary needs, such as traffic control, materials, ability to supply electric to a given location (which is a particular issue in the part of the country I live in, particularly as you go west). Another issue is that a lot of grade crossings are private (upwards of 90,000)... it's theoretically possible that a large industry using a private grade crossing could signalize, but how about private landowners/ranchers who's entrance/egress points require crossing a rail? And in those instances, it's hard to see the railroads paying on their own for those upgrades Not making excuses, but as someone who, professionally, has done some grade crossing design and has done some additional research on them within my state, just giving some perspectives. It’s a more complicated subject than it is given credit for.

I’m 500 miles away and texting with my son…my heart

Who approved this? Misery loves company. You can’t just duck out on the rest of us like that in the middle of this rotten season.

Made my Thai chicken in the crockpot last week. I like it and always question myself as to why I don’t make it more often. Very easy. Very tasty. =======•==================== Coconut Thai chicken - crockpot About three boneless chicken breast (or boneless thighs) cut into 1 inch chunks In bowl mix the following: 1/3 cup peanut butter - creamy 1 can coconut milk (about 13 oz) 1 jar salsa (I’ve used pineapple salsa, but any will do) 2-3 TBS soy sauce 2-3 cloves minced fresh garlic (or dried) 1 TBS minced fresh ginger (if using dried, just sprinkle some in) Note: I’ve also added chunks of fresh pineapple (1 cup or so) to this mix and thought it was a good addition, but you don’t need it. Pour mix over chicken in crockpot, low power 4-5 hours. When done, you can also put fresh chopped peanuts, cilantro, and squeeze lime juice on top. I like it over jasmine or basmati rice, but noodles would work, too.

Not that I would ever condone such a thing, but when you make something not only quite expensive, but also make it very cumbersome and buggy... well, people will find ways around it. If I'm going to be paying a decent chunk of change each month to be able to access something, it better work reasonably well.

This disaster in Ohio sure sounds like a mess, yet little to no coverage in the MSM. I don't get that. I'm glad I don't live anywhere near there.

It’s not at all true that teams don’t care about ad dollars and ad eyeballs that RSNs get for their games. It is true they don’t make any immediate additional revenue if the RSN overachieves on ratings estimates and can start charging higher rates for sponsorships and spots—that benefit all accrues to the RSN. But overachieving on ratings estimates, getting more eyeballs than anticipated, does serve to help the team negotiate a sweeter rights deal when it’s time for renewal. More eyeballs also means more interest for the team, which they benefit from in terms of a boost in attendance, more concessions sold, more merchandising sold, etc., which gooses non-broadcast revenue and could provide additional funds for better players, coaching, infrastructure, et al, as well as the halo effect it provides to the owner’s other business interests as the proprietor of a popular, high-profile major sports franchise. High fan interest driven through high broadcast ratings has a strong effect on all of this. Teams definitely root for high ratings for their broadcasts on RSNs.

It's a long list of broken Tigers that are coming back from injury or need to have their bat/ approach fixed: Meadows Rogers Turnbull Mize (2024) Faedo Skubal (s/b 2023 mid-season?) Kreidler (partial) Eduardo (partial) Greene (partial) Baddoo (broken bat) Torkelson (broken bat) Baez (partial broken bat) Schoop (broken bat). I'm sure there are several others I haven't mentioned. Of all of these candidates, I think only Baez and Schoop are actual regression to the mean candidates. All the others are recoveries from lost time or, too new to the league to actually have an established mean (Baddoo/ Tork). That's why I would call this the Year of Fixing Broken Players. As for Baez, I think he already healed himself the second half of last season, to a degree... and I think the emphasis on approach by the new regime will also help him. So I expect some significant improvement on his part. Schoop I think can regress to the mean both at bat (getting better) and in the field (getting worse)... and he's both getting too old for where this team is at, and is at the end of his contract so I don't really care much about him as a player for the Tigers. Not in a mean way, I'm just ready to move on. Same with Miggy... who has no mean left to regress to. He's just playing out the last year of his career... whatever that amounts to. Probably not a whole lot. And there is also a long list of newbies too new to actually know what their mean is... and I would rather liken them to growth curve newbies trying to establish their mean level... I think Greene can get substantially better and establish a high-level mean, as can Tork! Not certain about other guys like Kreidler/ Baddoo/ Wentz/ Brieske/ Lange/ can amount to. Or how much growth they have left. Haase I think, he is what he has shown himself to be. So no learning curve from him. He has already established, and performed to his mean. Is that the same with Maton & Vierling? Have they shown/ performed exactly who they are at this point...? The Learning Curve Growth Candidates (a mean not yet established) to me are: Greene Tork! Manning (How much better can he get? Can he get better? Has he established his mean or is there still room for growth?) Kreidler Baddoo Carpenter Wentz Brieske Lange (maybe a little bit?) Donny Sands (whatever MLB time he's able to earn this year) Wenceel Perez (whatever MLB time he's able to earn this year) Justyn-Henry Malloy (whatever MLB time he's able to earn this year) Tyler Nevin (whatever MLB time he's able to earn this year) Reese Olson (whatever MLB time he's able to earn this year) I don't even want to get into the bullpen, that will be crazy. Except for Lange and only in the sense that I don't know if he has still some room to grow, or not.

I've said it a few times, but regarding the stat above on major league free agents signed to help the offense, one way to look at it going into 2023 is that Austin Meadows and Jake Rogers both effectively are like free agent acquisitions for this team going into 2023 given that they either didn't play or barely played at all in 2022. How good of a performance they provide remains to be seen, but one imagines that both will produce more this year than in 2022.

What's going to stop it?