Leaderboard

He did 12 days ago in AAA.

Montero and the boys did good. The twins just couldn’t figure out his stuff. I resist the idea that there’s a subterranean aquifer filled with excellent hitting ability lurking just beneath the surface that could become a regular geyser! I’m grateful for games like this, but I would be more grateful for solid performances between these outbursts and a humdrum that is really humdrum. Still a big thumbs up for them tonight. Especially Montero, given that nobody believed in him and for the most part for good reason.

Nope. He's a below average defender at both second and third. Same as Keith. Both have to hit a bunch or they are of little big league value.

Of course he can. But sure, let’s call him up, because why not? Then we can call Scott Harris a steaming pile of diaper poop for not dropping Manning asap. Can’t deprive the fans of that opportunity.

10 base runners in under 4 innings…just terrible. Put him on the dl or dfa.

He caught the air conditioner outflow at the right time.

Even better than Darnell Coles? Now that's saying something! 😝 I just plugged the criteria into the query machine and it turns out Travis Fryman racked up a higher WAR for the Tigers than George Kell did, and George went to the Hall of Fame in a Tigers' cap!

This was the first Montero start I have been able to actually sit down and watch it and I can definitely see where the org sees the potential. The fastball had great movement and the offspeed stuff looked great. He just needs to get a bit more command and he could really come into his own. I will be interested to see if having true access to Fetter and the other coaches helps him out too. I think at the very least I can see a high leverage reliever if he can get the walks under control.

It wouldn't be the 4th without Terry.

They can still evaluate young players while plugging in some short-term veterans via free agency or trade. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. They don't have enough legit young players to fill a MLB roster.

Nailed this.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p946

Hey guys. I get this feeling, and I don't know where it comes from, that signing Kenta to 2 years was a big mistake. Gut feeling.

Aside from the die hards, they are in who cares mode already.

danielson...

Anyway back on the actual topic of this thread which shockingly isn't whether or not Keith should be moved to 1st. One trade chip that seems to have been on the back burner and honestly I hadn't thought about much is Carson Kelly. He has a wRC+ of 108 on the year and has been worth 1.2 WAR (according to FG). Looking at the teams who may want to upgrade at catcher you have Texas, San Diego, Arizona, Seattle, Minnesota, and NYM in the bottom half of the league regarding WAR from the catcher position. Not going to get a premium prospect for him but you may be able to pick up a Hao-Yu Lee type. Also let's not forget this was a Harris signing and honestly a good one.

Yes, almost exactly. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE202106280.shtml

Nah, Manning is Avila's guy, cant blame Scott for him...but yes, Scott would indeed be a steaming pile of diaper poop of a GM if he's too stubborn/arrogant to not launch Maeda out of cannon 🤷‍♂️

Would be alot cooler if after the game Maeda was IR'd with "knee bronchitis" and Wentz was announced as Torks new roomate in Toledo.

We appreciate him just fine.

Time for a torrential downpour please.

Kenta Maeda

lol…that is a beating. Not sure he can get another start in the near future.

Yzerman is so into secrecy that I almost want to assume that anything he shares publicly are intentional red herrings.

Maeda reminds me of those guys who twirl fire batons next to barrels of gasoline.

Light hitting second baseman homers!

SSS

Milt Cuyler, particularly the 91 season his rookie year. He had 41 stolen bases. He was electric on the base path. Even garnered some ROY votes.

Fun fact: the 1951 Browns were 52-102.

I'm having a hard time thinking of pitchers, one guy who comes to mind who I don't know if I would say is underappreciated but a guy who carved himself quite a career that may not have been expected is Drew Smyly. Working on nearly a 12 year career now and over 60 million in salary.

Underrated pitchers: how about Jamie Walker? LH reliever came to the Tigers already in his 30s and was a really reliable arm out of the pen for those really bad teams. Didn't walk many guys and still had decent strikeout rates. I'm glad he got to the Series with us. Then he went to Baltimore on a multiyear deal and fell apart. He'd be a pretty good fit in our bullpen today.

Fun fact: Kirk Gibson also did not make an All-Star team.

So, far I am agreeing with everyone in this thread! That doesn't happen too often. 😀

He was arguably the Tigers best third baseman ever.

The media has an interest in Trump winning. They will make more money that way. It literally is quite as simple as that. Anything that the media can do to make Trump winning a reality - they will.

Greene has a triple, single and homer so far.

Debrincat and Raymond are both RH shots...Tarasenko and Kane are lefties. You probably don't want the LH wings and two RH wings on the same lines.

needs to be

Tony Phillips is another name that comes to mind, not just for the Tigers but in general. Averaged over 5 WAR a season his 5 years here and put up over 50 for his career yet didn't make a single All Star team. Has to be one of the few guys in history that has 50+ WAR without a single All Star appearance.

Does anyone think of Travis Fryman anymore? The guy crushed it for us for seven years. Great hitter for an infielder, plus defense. believe it or not the guy was a 35-win player for his career!

Every Sunday home game, the Tigers should pick a random fan to play SS. Call it a try out. Could it work? Of course it could! If they don't try, they have already failed.

Starting your holiday celebration a little early?

OK, but here is part of the issue at hand. This organization has been going through sink or swim evaluation for too many seasons in a row. I understand the front office has been turned over. What happened prior shouldn't necessarily be on the current's resume. But the current organization needs to understand that this fan base has been through enough of a stretch of uncompetitive baseball. @chasfh astutely went through a laundry list of things that didn't work this season (must be in another thread), a list where if those reasonable possibilities were more 50/50 rather than 20/80, then we're probably in a better mood today. Too many things went wrong as opposed to neutral or right. OK, fine, that's baseball, it happens. But you can't build upon that disappointment with another season of disappointment, a scheduled season of wait and see without addressing known and reasonably anticipated weaknesses during this upcoming offseason. I doubt they could do enough shopping this offseason to acquire too much talent. Should that happen, I think they can move out some current for future. I understand Harris' desire to build this organization with deeper roots to acquire and develop better than in the past. I appreciate that, I implore that, we should all be happy with that. At the same time, the current needs to be addressed. I sometimes question whether or not the current front office understands what the fan base has lived through. Sure, they can look at losing record after losing record after losing record. But does that really resonate with folks that have not been living the entirety of it? I don't want to hear about personal competitive natures on a friendly podcast. Show me that nature by building sooner and later.

So you're calling Greene and Keith and Jung and everyone else little leaguers? You should tell them that. Personally.

I came across a tweet years ago that made a case for Lemon for the HOF. He didn't explicitly say he should get in but pointed out when you compare his offensive numbers to his peers at the time and all of that, he compares favorably with HOFers. His defense did a lot for him.

KCP is a two time-champ who's gone from playoff team to playoff team. He wasn't coming here. Let's be real. Even draft prospects were told not to workout here by their agents. Like I said previously, we have to put out the dumpster fire before we're going to get any players. Raise the floor and build a respectable organization. And we certainly don't have a lot of assets to give away to trade for good players either thanks to Weaver's rebuild strategy. Tobias isn't an All-Star but he's a legitimate starter at a position of need and a perennial 17ppg scorer who's rated as Above Average to Very Good on Synergy at every facet of scoring. He's a neutral defender, unlike Bogie who was a huge minus on that end and got hunted on every play. And he's also been very durable in his career, unlike Bogie. He'll raise the floor.

This is clearly an evaluation year. I don't want to sit through another one next season. Harris needs to add a couple established bats somehow.