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I don't think they'll take a step back, but I think they are kind of at the point, at 12-5 and an NFCCG appearance, that a lateral step is effectively as good as you can hope for. Teams don't go 16-1 in today's NFL. The best record in the NFL last year was the Ravens at 13-4. A team hasn't even finished with less than 3 losses since the expansion to 17 games. At some point, the difference between 10-7, 11-6, 12-5, 14-3, and 16-1 isn't comparable season to season. It's what you do in January and hopefully February that matters when you're in that camp. I think all I'm trying to say is, if they go 10-7 because a couple bad breaks go their way or they suffer a key injury or two, the torches and pitchforks are staying locked up... I think they're at the point where if they suffer a tough loss in October against the Bears or Vikings, and the instinct is to get angry and complain about how they'll regret that game in week 18, to remember that it's okay, because the real important games should be the ones we are playing come January.

for one random Tuesday game this August, every player AJ uses on the 1st place Tigers will have been acquired by Avila - which will enrage certain people.

This is fascinating stuff...what is coming next from the party of chaos? These guys must really be in-fighting for this to be going on.

Tarik Skubal wins the Cy Young

i would be sick if the lions signed snead to that huge contract. i'd rather have the third round pick. there are 53 guys on an nfl roster and the lions are going to need to pay a lot of their guys a lot of money real soon.

I don't know what makes you think Sneed is a true number 1 when KC doesn't even treat him like one nor do they even put him on the best receiver in games. On top of that he lead all defenders in pass interference penalties and in play penalties overall. Not trying to say he isn't good nor would be an upgrade over what we have but lets not pretend he is Sauce Gardner or one of the true CB1s, he's a good player that is being paid like an elite one. I'm not giving up a 3rd round draft pick for that right.

If we’ve learned any one thing over the years, it’s that spring training means nothing.

Haven't seen one minute of the last 3 games and my life is better off for it. The thing is, the season has been bad enough but there's nothing to look forward to in the offseason. This draft is THE worst I've ever seen and I don't think it's close (maybe the Anthony Bennett draft comes close in terms of hype going in, not looking at Giannis, Gobert, McCollum etc. in retrospect), there's nothing in free agency to get excited about and nothing on the trade market currently that looks all that enticing unless one gets excited about Dejonte Murray. I can see it now, they draft some prospect who is years away from making impact if ever then they see a Bogey-level guy (Tobias?) and run it back with this core. Oh yeah, and the token reclamation project that this bum GM loves to hang his hat on. This makes me long for the Reggie Jackson/Drummond era. Hell, this might be worse than Charlie V/Gordon/Smith. Didn't think that was possible yet.... here we are.

There is this: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34364479/pete-rose-dismisses-sexual-misconduct-questions-phillies-bash-was-55-years-ago-babe

I used to be dead set against Rose going into the Hall of Fame. Given, how incredibly hypocritical MLB is about gambling though, I really don't care anymore about whether he gets in or not.

In order to form a more perfect Union ???

daaaaaang usually you don't see them pull the pin on a grenade and throw it over their shoulders as they leave

As long as one of those is after the 162nd game is played.

All Scott Harris.

Chas is being pure disingenuous. Pure hypocrisy since he's lashing out at all of us "history revisionists..." Here is he ranking of every Org for the past 10 years, by Baseball America: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-farm-system-rankings-for-every-team-in-the-21st-century/ To whit: Detroit 2015: 30th Detroit 2016: 26th Detroit 2017: 25th Detroit 2018: 21st Detroit 2019: 14th Detroit 2020: 11th Detroit 2021: 3rd (Greene & Torkelson) Detroit 2022: 6th (Greene & Torkelson start to graduate) Detroit 2023: 27th (no more Greene & Torkelson as prospects; Jobe & Keith haven't broken out yet; Clark not yet drafted) Detroit 2024: 5th

Is J.D. the mentor type?

First part is already happening, second part will never happen.

Speaking of Titus Young, there's a player this new regime wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

Vierling being exposed a little at 3B today. A couple of questionable throws.

Just more performance. No actual governing from the majority party

I thought it might be a good idea for them to pursue Martinez before they signed Canha, but there is no role for him now. Martinez is little better hitter than Canha, but Canha gives them more flexibility.

I'm glad they didn't sign JD. I like him but this team needs the flexibility of a rotating DH. They need to find out about the guys we have now to see if they are the future.

the other thing to be said in Avila's defense is that ownership matters. In his 1st two years Mike Ilitch's presense likely enforced the status quo. The org was not going to get a major refit while Mike was still alive and even in 2017/18 Chris' attention on the ball club was likely pretty limited getting his hands around all the roles he had inherited. That said, Al still needed to have moved faster once Chris gave him the go head to start changing things.

That was his best closeout in 6 months.

Thanks, I thought what Henning said was accurate and non-controversial. Bascally, Avila inherited a mess, did some things which will help the current and future Tigers, but had weaknesses in some areas - including the same areas where the Tigers have been weak for most of the last three decades. Now, Harris needs to take them to the next level and seems to have the ability to do so.

It may not have been a bad story for him but it woud have been a bad story for MLB to have a player directly pay gamblers. Even if it's not you making the bets, the important exchange is the $$, so it's not leap to say Ohtani is gambling, and then you have to find out if it's on baseball, then the Angels. In this regard it's not about who made the bets but who's bank account they came from. That's who is doing the gambling. MLB wants no part of that so they try to make Ohtani the victim of a "degenerate gambler"

Javy Baez continues to play great defense and surprises with the bat to post a 3 War season.

Hinch doesn't survive the season.

In 2023 the Tigers had 16 different pitchers start a game. In 2013 the Tigers had just 6. Talk about a lucky year when no one got hurt or was ineffective. Wow! Verlander 34, Fister 32, Scherzer 32, Sanchez 29, Porcello 29, & Jose Alvarez 6

2012 and 13, you had some combo of Verlander, Scherzer, Porcello, Sanchez, and Fister with Smyly in reserve. 2014, Fister was traded, and Smyly backfilled until Price was acquired. That core was pretty durable. You had as good of a 1-5 as you will find in baseball history. Yes, they didn't make every start so you may remember some back end guys who filled in, but you are talking about your 7th and 8th guys not your 4th and 5th.

Naw, I can't be the first one to ever notice this ...

The amazing thing is that Al Avila was the disaster happening right in front of our eyes that practically nobody could deny, which all of us with few exceptions agreed on at the time. He took a franchise that had just come off a playoff run and had it floundering for not two, for not three, for not even four, but for seven years, with no respite in between and no end in sight. By the time he finally got ****-canned, other teams like the Orioles and Padres had already gone into their rebuild later and emerged much earlier. Al crippled this organization so thoroughly that it was essentially still at the beginning of its rebuild when a new front office finally came in to clean up the mess. Now, through the gauzy haze of memory, at a time when things are finally looking up two season later, people like Lynn Henning want to give Al more than half the credit for this ray of daylight, simply because out of the gaggle of players he drafted—not traded for, not signed internationally, not picked up off the waiver wire or free agent pile, but drafted, the only player acquisition channel he had even a little clue about—the new regime looks like they might be able to salvage a few. His friends who are writing the history are now casting him as the savvy hero who saved the franchise, instead of an out-of-his-depth Peter-Principled technocrat who ran it into the rocks. It’s a mass gaslighting gone berserk. So go ahead and give the guy credit if you like. At least I still remember how it really happened.

There's a clip going around of James Harden passing the ball to Kawhi and then running over to try to block his corner three. It's the most insane thing I've ever seen. Edit: Here's it is: