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What an emotional final game! After an 0-for-3 start and a BS four-pitch walk in his last trip to the plate, Miggy surprises us all with one final appearance at first base, and two pitches in gets the 3-unassisted, and walks off on top. What a beautiful ending to an inner-circle Hall of Fame career that will culminate in another Olde English D enshrined in Cooperstown. Tigers finish the season 78-84, and in full possession of second place, capped off by a nice little 18-10 run. I think they did better this season than the vast majority of people thought they might. They certainly beat my own preseason prediction of 75 wins pretty nicely. I would say that, despite the complaints and objections voiced throughout the season, Scott Harris's first season was a pretty solid success. Let's spend the next six months posting endlessly about what he must, I mean absolutely must, do this offseason to win this division next year and then every year after that for the rest of all of our lives.

With Miguel Cabrera's playing career presumably over, where does he rank historically? He is... 17th in MLB history in hits with 3174. He would have needed 11 more to pass Cal Ripken Jr. for 16th. 8th in team history in hits with 2332. He would have needed 34 more to pass Alan Trammell for 7th. Tied with Mel Ott for 25th in MLB history in home runs with 511. He would have needed 2 more to pass Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews for 23rd. Tied with Norm Cash for 2nd in team history in home runs with 373. He would have needed 27 more to pass Al Kaline for 1st. 13th in MLB history in RBI with 1881. He would have needed 29 more to pass Willie Mays for 12th. 5th in team history in RBI with 1358. He would have needed 70 more to pass Charlie Gehringer for 4th. 13th in MLB history in doubles with 627. He would have needed 6 more to pass David Ortiz for 12th. 5th in team history in doubles with 444. He would have needed 54 more to pass Harry Heilmann for 4th. 14th in MLB history in total bases with 5368. He would have needed 6 more to pass Frank Robinson for 13th. 4th in team history in total bases with 3909. He would have needed 349 more to pass Charlie Gehringer for 3rd. 54th in MLB history in walks with 1258. He would have needed 5 more to pass Jack Clark for 53rd. 7th in team history in walks with 936. He would have needed 70 more to pass Norm Cash for 6th. 57th in MLB history in runs scored with 1551. He would have needed 4 more to pass Hugh Duffy for 56th. 9th in team history in runs scored with 1102. He would have needed 14 more to pass Sam Crawford for 8th. 14th in MLB history in extra base hits with 1155. He would have needed 3 more to pass Carl Yastrzemski for 13th. 4th in team history in extra base hits with 824. He would have needed 61 to pass Charlie Gehringer for 3rd. 25th in MLB history in games played with 2797. He would have needed 12 more to pass Frank Robinson for 24th. 7th in team history in games played with 2077. He would have needed 38 more to pass Sam Crawford for 6th.

you're gonna want to plug "Urias" into your google machine

so long miggy. the greatest tiger hitter of my lifetime. for all the bitching about roster spots and minor leaguers taking his spot, and how he's a drag on the team, i enjoyed following him this last year. time to retire for sure, but i liked one last season of cabrera in detroit. adios miggy. see you in cooperstown.

Irony is officially dead: Microsoft CEO Nardella complaining about Google monopoly power....... https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/technology/microsoft-ceo-testifies-google-search.html

"ben johnson sucks" "how does this idiot have a job?" "we have the worst coaching staff in the league!" "if ben johnson isnt fired at halftime then dan campbell is the worst head coach in football" its chatgTP!

The free agent class is terrible so that isn't the way. It's via trades and unexpected development. Let's see if Harris has the goods. If you say you don't want to block young players, actually follow through.

I hate the idea of investing so much into one player again. He gets injured or declines or underperforms and then what? Then we suck again for multiple years. Build a good balanced team with pitching, defense and hitting. We need a solid 40 man roster, not one superstar.

I gotta admit that I was tearing up after Miggy made the last play of his career at first base and the celebration that followed. Thank you Miguel Cabrera🙏

Allergies are really really bad right now................

They mentioned on the Bally pregame show that the batter clock has not been in use this weekend for Cabrera. I guess I never noticed that. But kudos to the Guardians and MLB for going along with it. I don’t think he was ever one of the hitters to waste time, so that is helpful as well. I noticed the other night when Greinke was pitching, he took a stroll around the mound for Cabrera’s first plate appearance. So, I wonder if the clock was used or paid attention to against Kansas City? The clock has been a good thing. But I’m glad that the other parties involved this past week are reading the room and understanding the situation.

Cabrera was the best acquisition the Tigers made in my lifetime. I couldn't believe they were able to get him in that trade.

Could you imagine Miggy getting hooked for arguing in his last game? - if anyone could do that, it would be Angel - who should be working his last game today. Don't care about their union, it's time to finally do the right thing here. I think umpire performances should be evaluated like players, coaches and GMs. Why should they be totally untouchable? The vast majority of them would have nothing to worry about, but there's always the 1 to 3 that have no business being at this level. These guys are like Supreme Court Justices and they shouldn't be.

1977. Steve Kemp, Lance Parrish, Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell all broke into MLB in 1977. Although only Kemp produced that year. The other 3 were Sept. callups I believe that ramped up in 1978. Oh... Tim Corcoran in 1977 too... 😉

I hope we can avoid the 4A dumpster diving. Let the kids play and/or upgrade via trades. I can’t remember a time when we had 4 legit position prospects that appear to be ready to go at the same time.

no half measures, sign Snell.

Faedo is the bullpen arm

If you want to send me a list of prepared replies, I'll post 'em for you. We'll set up a system where each reply has a number and you can just text me a number and I'll post it. 🙂

bootleg james brown

I think this is right. He was coming off a serious injury onto a team that was in a playoff push. The next two months will tell us more about Jamo than the last 18 months have.

Beside recency bias and the extra drama of being a HR hitter, I would put part of the difference in perception being that during Cabrera's peak years, he was putting up almost 45% OBP's - you almost couldn't get him out, he was hitting every ball hard somewhere. Kaline was never quite that dominant. He had few 400 OBP seasons, none quite as good as Miguel's best, and they were more scattered across his career. And part of that was the ball, the bats, the mound, the 'era' for sure. Mostly the HRs make the difference though I think. When Kaline was playing, he was often the 2nd or 3rd HR threat on the team (Maxwell, Colavito, Cash, Horton, Northrup etc). He only led the team in HR a few times in his career. What can you say, Chicks love the long ball..... Kaline and Beltre were sort of similar in being very good on both sides of the ball for a long time without having many 'led the league in something' seasons.

I was thinking yesterday during the game about how, if Juan Gonzalez would've been happy to stay in Detroit and had the numbers that he had while in Texas, he could've had some kind of ceremony upon his retirement. As it was, he is remembered in Detroit about like that pimple you had on your butt in junior high..............

Yeah only 7 freakin days early before the actual game starts. Shame on you

This is kinda where I'm at.... there's a few players outfield wise that make some sense on a short term deal (maybe someone like Mark Canha, who bats RH and can also back up 1B), but I'd take my chances on the status quo before giving ABs to Joc Pederson lol

Okay, try on Nola and Bellinger. Hell no on the rest. Why are left handed corner outfield bats doing anything except blocking core players? If you are going to get an outfielder or two, somebody who complements the ones on the roster would be a better use of resources.

Bader, JH Lee, Bellinger, Hader, Montgomery, Snell, Yamamoto, Nola, Merrifield, Ursula - all could help in various degrees

Happy to do it. Sorry for the delay on this one, was at a wedding out of state and didn't anticipate not having cell or internet reception to post it.

The New Heatles.

We also have to keep in mind that the Lions are a notoriously aggressive team on 4th downs so our 2nd downs are often essentially like 1st downs depending on where we are on the field. Like if we're in the part of the field where 4 down territory is in play and its 2nd and 10, Campbell may have already told Johnson they plan to go for it on 4th down if he gets it inside say 3 yards so in turn Johnson may call back to back run plays to set up the 4th and short scenario. If they manage to catch the defense off guard with one of them and get a big gain then that's just a bonus.

Maybe if Millen had played the role of Chris Spielman, as a liaison between coaching staff, front office, and ownership, he would have been more successful. He was in over his head managing a scouting staff, contracts, draft board, etc I think identifying that role, and selecting Spielman for it, has been Sheila’s greatest decision as majority owner. Her second greatest decision has been to allow Holmes and Campbell to surround themselves with experienced staff. She really opened up the checkbook to ensure that her first-time GM and HC (don’t bring up MCDC’s interim role) were not overwhelmed by their jobs. Spielman seems to be the guy who makes sure nobody is preening for the owner and who makes sure ownership understands what the team needs. If WCF was smart enough and committed enough, he might have had success putting Millen in a similar role. I don’t hate Millen. He was just overwhelmed by that job that was way too big for any one person. Sheila figured it out.

Few teams are as well positioned to improve as the Tigers. There only have one starting player who is a free agent, they have effectively no payroll tax constraints, and the team is young enough that the natural career arc has more players improving than getting worse. If they can't improve their record by 10+ games it will be a substantial front office fail.

Regarding this, I think a lot of folks are going beyond the false alarm charge and saying that he meant to obstruct an official proceeding. The former seems easy enough to prosecute, the latter would be pretty difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt IMO. Overall, regarding the "whaddabout January 6th people" talking points, I would suggest that, like the January 6th people, I'm perfectly fine for Jamaal Bowman being investigated and prosecuted for whatever crime or crimes he may have committed.

So the bears replace Fields, he signs on/gets traded to a new org and resuscitates his career? Maybe in a big win against....the Bears?

I had the radio call synced with MLB.tv. So this is what I heard. A million times better than the tv guys, no surprise. Dan was really bummed during the 4-pitch walk. I didn’t really mind that, at least he got on base.

I have seen no evidence of Gaetz being a smart guy.

Get the popcorn ready as the MAGAP begins to implode Edit I'd love to see MTG, Gym, and a couple others added to the group

Welp, that's a wrap. Considering the 2-9 start and the 9-game losing streak, there was a lot to like about this season and the young guys developed better than we'd hoped. Hopefully they continue that next year and that next wave of guys do what they did. Gonna need to sign 2 starting pitchers.

LOL Chicago! Edit: LMAO Chicago!!!

Jim Price is looking down and saying “beautiful”. Enjoy yourself today.

I still remember the day they got Miggy. How stunning it was to lands such a superstar. Some thought we gave up too much. LOL. Back in those days the Tigers made such bold moves, it seemed like every offseason. Maybe if the young guys pan out and continue developing in 2024 we could start having that feelin again after next year.

It feels like the play clock should just have some sort of buzzer associated with it. Not sure why the shot clock in the NBA is treated so vastly differently than the play clock in the NFL. The whole “40 seconds isn’t really 40 seconds” philosophy of giving them extra time between the back judge seeing zero and looking for the snap never made sense to me. I don’t want that to devolve into five reviews per game though, because usually it’s not an issue. Only when they give them an extra two seconds to setup an NFL record field goal against the Lions. The game clock though, that should just be reviewable. If they can look at a play and adjust the game clock accordingly, they should be able to look at a play for the purposes of the game clock and determine that the snap shouldn’t have occurred. Games shouldn’t last 60:01 because that extra second can make a huge difference.

We should withhold judgement, it's possible he thought he was on a peaceful tourist visit.

You have to understand, For people like me and Edman, seeing arbitrary end points is like getting kicked in the nuts.

"Grandma was a nice lady. Was she the nicest lady? No. Should we celebrate her life here at her funeral, sure....I guess. I mean people do that. But, lets not go nuts." JK

Maybe insight into why WCF Jr. didn't remain at the top of Ford Motor Co for very long, but honestly Millen is a very smart guy. Bob Quinn is a very smart guy. Matt Patricia (we're told) is a very smart guy. Doesn't mean they were good GMs or Coaches.

Speaking of nutty. Whatever happen to Jeff Moss and the Sports Rag? Guy was insane but kind of like a bad car accident you couln't help but look.