Leaderboard

Toledo W 5-1 Meadows 0/4 2K Urshela 1/2 BB Jung 1/2 2BB K 2B Bigbie 2/4 3RBI 3B Dingler 0/3 RBI Hurter 5IP 5H 1BB 9K 0ER Flores 2IP H BB 3K Erie W 3-1 Workman 1/4 RBI BB Lee 1/3 BB WM W 6-3 Anderson 1/4 RBI K Gold 1/3 4RBI 2 K HR Campos 0/3 BB Pacheco 1/4 K Graham 1/2 RBI BB Marcano 5IP 2H ER 3BB 5K Lakeland W 1-0 Gil 1/5 K Clark 1/5 Briceno 2/3 K Campbell 1/4 K Santana 0/3 RBI BB Minton 5IP 4H BB K FCL L 5-1 Perez 0/3 2BB K Rucker 1/1 2B (Pulled from game? Possible injury?) Jimenez 0/2 2BB SB Bastidas 0/3 BB K Montilla 2/4 2B SB If you are wondering who to watch in the FCL based on what I have found via Fangraphs; Juan Hernandez Hernandez, 17, is a sweet-swinging, lefty-hitting infielder who hit .292 in the DSL. He could wind up with a 50 hit/50 power combo, which he’ll need every bit of to profile at second base. Franyerber Montilla Montilla is a projectable switch-hitter who had a much better year in his second DSL season. His swing is explosive but still a little out of control, which I think is okay for a switch-hitter his age. He’s got the biggest ceiling of this group, a potential switch-hitting shortstop with clumsy pop, in the Rodolfo Castro mold. Carson Rucker 4th Rd pick last year; Rucker is a projectable infielder who was signed away from a Tennessee commitment for $772,500. He has a strong top hand that generates impressive pull power when his swing is on time, though his lever length may not always allow for that in pro ball. His present power and long-term power projection are Rucker’s carrying tools, while his relatively grooved swing creates some hit tool risk that will prove more concerning if Rucker outgrows short. For now, he’s a raw developmental infielder with a shot to have corner-worthy power. Enrique Jimenez An international scout cross-checking his own reports on the 2023 international class with players’ 2023 DSL performances told me he thought Jimenez, who signed for $1.25 million, had a strong enough summer to reinforce his bonus amount. The stocky, switch-hitting catcher was tied for the Tigers DSL lead in hard-hit rate (31%), posted a 91% in-zone contact rate, and looks the part from a bat speed and barrel control standpoint, especially as a right-handed hitter. He’s a well-rounded hitter who has a shot to play a premium position with development. Andrew Dunford Dunford signed for just under $370,000 to eschew a commitment to Mercer. He has an exciting combination of projection (he has room for another 30-plus pounds of mass) and athleticism (big drop-and-drive and hip/shoulder separation), especially for a pitching prospect this size. He only threw four innings after signing, but Dunford’s fastball averaged 95 mph out of the chute. Dunford and the Tigers have a ton of work to do on his command and breaking ball situation (he had an inconsistent curveball in high school and is basically starting from scratch in pro ball), but he was a fun mid-six figure pull on the third day of the draft and is an important low-level prospect to monitor.

Speaking of Sparky… This is a piece submitted by Bill Dow on vintagedetroit.com several days ago. Fun read. ——— Begin article: At some point nearly every kid dreams of being a bat boy for the Detroit Tigers. And for Dave Cowart, 61, a retired Ford Motor Company electrical engineer, that dream came true. After his mother saw an article about how to become a bat boy, Cowart, then 16 and a junior in high school, wrote a heartfelt handwritten letter to Tiger clubhouse manager Jim Schmakel who invited him down to Tiger Stadium for an interview. He was hired immediately. From 1980 to 1985 Cowart served as a clubhouse kid and bat boy along with two others which ultimately helped him pay for his college education at the University of Detroit. (Cowart’s son Cody served as a Tiger bat boy from 2015 to 2017.) Cowart revered Tiger manager Sparky Anderson, and recently he shared stories about the beloved skipper. “Every game the three of us working in the clubhouse were always the last to leave and Sparky would always come by and say, “there’s three of the all-time greatest,” and that really energized us to keep working hard.” One time when Cowart had started working in the clubhouse Tiger player Ricky Peters yelled at him leaving him upset and wondering if his job was in jeopardy. When Anderson heard about it, he let Peters have it. If you want to get a sense of Sparky Anderson’s character, the following story by Cowart says it all. In June of 1981 Cowart’s parents were throwing a high school graduation party for him at their home in Detroit. Schmakel gave Cowart permission to leave early after the day game to attend the party. Later that afternoon Sparky asked Schmakel where Cowart was. When the clubhouse manager told him that he left early to attend the graduation party Sparky asked for Dave’s address. “There I am at the party and who shows up unannounced but Sparky, and coaches Roger Craig, Billy Consolo, and **** Tracewski. Can you believe that?” says Cowart., “Before I knew it the whole neighborhood showed up when people heard Sparky was there. He didn’t just make an appearance but stayed and signed autographs for everyone. I can still picture him drinking Altes beer with my dad. He always remembered people’s names. A few years later he sees me and my dad at a CATCH event and greets my dad by name. When my mom was in the hospital with cancer, he sent flowers and when I went to college, he gave me three of his sports jackets.” Years later Cowart wrote Anderson a letter telling him how much he appreciated what he had done for him and what a pleasure it had been working for the manager. “I had included my phone number and one day my phone rings and it showed ‘unknown caller.’ This voice says, ‘this is the FBI we’re looking for Dave Cowart.’ I recognized his voice and I said, ‘how are you doing Sparky?’ He said, ‘I’m glad you included your phone number because I never wrote a letter in my life.’” During the 1984 World Championship season Cowart alternated the bat boy assignment with Dominic Nieto and Bobby Mical and always did the games when Jack Morris pitched including game 4 of the World Series when Alan Trammell hit two, two run homers. “That game was so special for me and being the bat boy I never felt so much excitement especially greeting Trammell after he hit those homers,” says Cowart whose photo of him running back to the dugout with Trammell graced the front page of the Detroit News the following day. When the Tigers won the World Series in game five Cowart was working inside the clubhouse that day and just before the game ended, he went into the dugout to collect the batting helmets but then got back inside the locker room as quick as he could. “Sparky was superstitious and even though we were ahead I was not allowed to start putting stuff away until the game was over,” says Cowart. When the game ended it was like a wall of people coming at you and I was petrified. The celebration was crazy. Those players were so nice to us and it was great to see them so happy celebrating.” A few weeks later Cowart received a phone call from Jim Schmakel telling him to come to the stadium to pick up his bonus check. “I went up to the Tiger offices and picked it up and then got into my car, ripped it open and I was flabbergasted. I received a check for $15,000 and was so grateful that the players had voted to split up one $50,000 share for the bat boys. I used it to pay help pay for my college education.” Dave Cowart certainly knows the 1984 meaning of “Bless you boys.” And in the same breath he would say, “Bless you Sparky.”

The best deals for a team like the Tigers do not give up young for old, they are the ones where you have done your homework on up and comers around the high minors or green rookies that haven't proven anything, like Austin Jackson and Max Scherzer. But of course deals like that kill your roster value if the guys you bring don't pan out. So really - it's the same as it ever was - if you can evaluate talent - especially that others miss, you can build a winner. Or you grow your own, or you can spend $250M on payroll. That's really all there is available to management. I think there is a lot of magic thinking that the right GM can just wheel and deal his team into contention. Well, he can try, but in most cases what looks like short term success is burning a system's future seed corn, the way Dombrowski burned ours.

a good development Steve Bannon is heading to JAIL as appeals court upholds his conviction for defying the January 6 committee subpoena | Daily Mail Online

My son is 37 years of age and does branding/ designing so he always wants my “old man” take on the City Connects as they roll out. Generally speaking, he finds the good and bad in each one and says as much in a tactful way. We haven’t discussed Detroit’s yet but this weekend they’re coming for a visit so I’ll have an opportunity to share my opinions on the unis. Unless I discover something I haven’t seen yet, I’ll have nothing good to say about it. I’m sure he expects that out front. Yes, I’m a Boomer.

I don't think it should take five years from now, or even from August 2022, for us to finally become competitive. My original thought was that if we are not competing for a playoff spot, if not Central title, by 2025, something is going wrong, and I will stick with that.

Questioning your priorities.

Uniforms look much better when the Tigers are scoring runs.

I see these and a quote from Dorothy Parker comes to mind. "Oh, what fresh Hell is this? "

Dude, why do I have to do all of the work? Are you afraid of numbers of something?

Yet create a database of gun owners? GTFO Commie.

At one point this past week Matt Chapman lead the major leagues in errors! His glove was suppose to be the rock solid piece of deal. He has been a total disappointment to date. All three high profile free agent signings (Chapman/Soler/Snell) in SF have been total flops thus far.

Now, do Dean Palmer. Palmer vs Deer is one of my favorite comps, but everyone seems to think that Deer was a joke and that Palmer was OK.

Look....I'm not saying Rob Deer was good or anything... but he doesn't deserve to be some kind of poster child either.

Say what you will about Mitchell, the criticisms are all fair, but he's been absolutely carrying the Cavs this offseason, even on a bum knee. He's been making some absolute highlight reel shots left and right.

I'd expect Crump to be on NPR daily, probably with his own show called 'hands up, don't shoot'.

I am good with Harris and Hinch. No need for DD and Smokes. I like the direction of the team etc but I just wish the urgency was ticked up a bit. By that I mean adding a player or two on short term contracts via free agency. We could have had JD or Turner for one year as an example. They didn't need to play every day and the youngsters could have been brought along with a bit less playing time. They can be traded or just cut when the kids settle in and start hitting. I don't like the blanket statements like "year one is for evaluating what we have" and "this year we will struggle to hit as we provide runway for the newbies ". Both of those can be accomplished while still adding some veteran players to help us win and take some pressure off the youngsters as well. It's ok to platoon your first year in the bigs or play part time. We've had nice start to 2024 but look how much of it is attributed to Mark Cahna and Urshela. We could have had one or two more vets as well and still played Meadows, Keith, Wencel, Tork and Verling etc plenty. Spend a few million each year on one year stop gap players until we don't need to. Make winning today just as important as developing for tomorrow. They don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Thanks LLM, I appreciate the updates.

You really have no idea who Benjamin Crump is?

Tell it, tell it, and tell it some more. Nothing but a cheap money grab.

I get there are only a few NBA coaching jobs. But man, that one is not attractive at all. I guess one upside is Spo wont make him look like an idiot until the finals.

Rob Deer hit the ball over the fence

Nope, I just gave AI the parameters I wanted for the song and this is what it came up with. I told it to compare Tork to Rob Deer and sadly it did. 😕

They could have really stuck it to the jews if they made them rebrand it Hamas Hummus.

this is real

I like complaining better. 😁

Yes, good point

My 16yo ordered one of the strap-back versions of the Connect hats, he loves the design. Oh, did I mention after shipping and tax it was $52!! Like you said they are not looking to impress our generation.

Here’s a great YouTube map showing locations of the top thirty restaurant chains. Even many of the national chains have a regional emphasis, notably Dunkin’.

Whether he went looking to kill a young black man or not is irrelevant. He did. We give cops way too many excuses and outs. They are the ones with the guns and firearms 101 is you are responsible for the bullets that come out and who they hit. This idea that all they have to do is say "police" and they are absolved of any kind of guilt because "well we were scared". is absurd. You want to go rob or kill someone? Go to their door and start pounding on it, then say the word "police". At that point anybody inside should put their guns down and do whatever they say, otherwise they will shoot you.

I think less than two years is just way too early to have Harris on the hot seat.

It's time to get right against a team who is flailing. This is the season. They fall on their face this weekend and this season is toast. Evaluation doesn't have to mean keep losing. If guys can't carry their weight they shouldn't be here. There are some guys in Toledo who are justifying at least getting a look here. Frustratingly they all seem to be outfielders. Where's our next shortstop? Go find one. Find one that can just hit .240, for crying out loud. Can't keep going with the current one if he keeps being a black hole. His defense is good, but is it THAT good? I just want a baseball Summer that matters all the way at least until the last month. Don't think that's asking for too much. At least the Wings made things interesting. Those uniforms are hideous. The Tigers regular home uniform is thing a beauty. It's the best in baseball. It's classy, it's elegant, it's clean, it's simple and it should rarely be toyed with - especially for freaking Nike. The only time they should stray is wearing the Stars unis (which are cool) and Les Tigres. A City Connect uniform without the OIde English D on the cap or front is a crime. I understand the Tigers HAD to do this contractually, but those things are ugly. Don't ever break them out on a hot sunny day.

And walking away from Hardaway and leaving him with the ball for the wide open three.

Who said "compete for a ring?" Not the guy you're quoting. Making moves to improve a bottom-tier offense is not a huge ask, IMO, but maybe it is for you. YMMV.

Okoro is another guy I would throw a bag at. Really good wing defender that shot 39% from three this year. His shooting has improved every season. He won't drive much though. 3 year deal with the third year a team option. Just offer $5m a year more than what you think Cleveland will match. Yes that is an overpay. But we have massive amounts of cap space the next few years and we need players here. Being what is basically a two year deal won't hurt us even with the overpay.

Stormy Daniels walked all over that cross examination...holy crap.

I don’t even think Harris should be on the hot seat. After less than two years of being able to do little more than clean out the rot in the system, and he should be on the hot seat for not having us in a position to contend for a ring? That seems harsh. I would not expect our offense to improve until he can get the players in the system that are actually capable of providing good big-league-level offense, and that’s gonna take more than another year. Although I do expect to have at least a couple more positive contributors on the team next year, whether via trade, FA signing, promotion, or working a miracle on one of Avila’s leftovers. And if Wenceel keeps it up into next year, I will count him as one, because I think it’s premature to consider him a surefire All-Star hitter already.

Season 3 of The Bear comes out on June 27th. Full season will be released that day.

To me, it's less haters. It's more, I am trying to avoid passively consuming misinformation. It's honestly why I unfollowed a lot of Tigers prospect twitter, because if you just follow those people, a few years ago you would think Brock Deatherage would have 100 career MLB homers by now. I'd go so far to say the flowery types are even more of a niusance.

True, although while a team is waiting for the young core hitters to mature in the coming years, they still have to put good hitters in the lineup this year.

They might still be good because the Harris and Hinch administration seems to be skilled at acquiring and getting the most out of their pitchng. I agree that pitching staffs are fleeting though and when you have a good one, you need to try to take advantage of it.

Five years is too long. There's room to add salary (although it wasn't a good free agent offseason). The pitching is already competitive. There are a few hitters to work with currently. I can understand going through some of the prospects to see what's there. But at some point they need to improve the offense, and it shouldn't take five years.

On some days, being 70 reminds one that a) growing older is not for sissies and b) growing older is a privilege reserved for the fortunate few.

As someone who was hemmed in by Non Compete Clauses, I wish this came 25 years ago.

The years 2018-2022 all blend together for me...