Today is Gates Brown day. On this day in 1968 Brown won both ends of a double header by hitting a pinch hit home run in the 14th inning of game one, then singling in the 9th inning to win game two to defeat Boston.
Madden got knocked around his start before yesterday but aside from that he has been straight dominant for almost 2 months now.
Outside of the aforementioned start Madden has given up 13 HITS total in his last 6 starts.
Well, for the first time in a decade next year, the Tigers won't be penciling a sub replacement DH on a bloated contract in the lineup every day. Even before Miggy fell off the map, VMart preceded him.
I'm less worried about the hitting. Most of the hitters are still in the 'getting' better phase of their career, and one or two of Malloy/Keith/Meadows could be in house improvements by next year. I'd wan to pick up at least one bat, but it's not clear what position they'd be looking for - catcher, 2b or 3b depending on what you expected from Keith? OF is already pretty crowded with guys we like.
OTOH - my confidence levels for Manning, Turnbull and Mize are all moderate at best.
I agree on the pitching. They need to extend Erod or replace him with an equivalent talent and add another starting pitcher. The 2024 free agent class of pitchers is much better than position players and the Tigers payroll will be near the bottom of the league. No reason not to be aggressive in roster upgrades this offseason.
I'm fine with Rogers being our starting catcher, he isn't perfect but there aren't a whole lot of guys out there that we could conceivably get that would be an upgrade. Hell there really aren't a whole lot of guys better than him right now period.
Clark at 15, Keith at 26, Jobe at 59, and Jung at 72. So 4 in the top 100. Royals have 0, Twins have 3, Guardians have 4.
They also updated the top 30 with McGonigle rounding out the top 5. Bigbie is 21st.
That's good to hear, ideally I'd like for him to make a few starts this year to workout some of the post TJ kinks. Between that, what he does in the offseason and then the starts he makes in Spring Training maybe he will shed some of the post TJ command issues by the 2024 regular season. Or at the very least maybe they won't drag on too long and he'll be back to normal relatively early in the season.
Bunch of minor league updates in the Tigers injury updates today. Angel De Jesus had TJ surgery. Roberto Campos shoulder strain. Brady Cerkownyk, meniscus surgery. Navigato: shoulder sprain/surgery. Hess is currently out with a shoulder: it was an oblique earlier this year that sidelined him on the way back from TJ.