casimir

Somehow or another, Andy Ibanez has creeped up to a 99 OPS+. I don't expect him to return as a Tiger, but he might have earned himself a MLB deal somewheres next season.

It just takes one team to overvalue that. Oh, and he's a lefty, too? That just adds to the possible overvalue. Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all saying that he needs to be dealt. He's pitched well, although we need to be honest that he's gotten a bit of BABIP help. So, a repeat of this season with more normalized ball in play results aren't going to yield another ERA in the 2s.

I thought 4 wins on this 10 game road trip was about right. Pick up 1 vs each Los Angeles team and 2 vs Oakland. Flipping that 4-6 to 6-4 should be doable now.

Detroit Tigers vs Oakland Athletics Watch: Athletics - NBCSCA, Tigers - Bally Sports Detroit, National - MLBN (out-of-market only) Listen: Athletics - A's Cast, KIQI 1010, Bloomberg 960 AM/103.7 HD2, Tigers - 97.1 The Ticket

Joe Jimenez is set to be a free agent.

I’ve heard one podcaster bring up Holton for the rotation. I don’t know about that. Honestly, I wonder if the best move is to trade him now at peak value?

Well, providing health and no trades, the rotation includes Skubal around the top and Mize & Manning middle/bottom. I said before I consider this 2 pitchers, although maybe they’re all ready to start off the season. I think Olson is earning a spot with the way he’s pitching. My opinion not too long ago was they needed a top half arm and another reasonable filler, with Olson probably starting in Toledo but probably the first call up. But, he may be getting himself into position to be that latter guy. Gipson-Long has had a couple of nice starts. I’m just not sure I’d be writing him into the Detroit rotation yet. So now how does this manifest itself in the off-season? Free agent 4/5 types might not see an opportunity with Detroit because of how Olson has pitched. So now Detroit might be fishing in the AAAA pond for SP depth more than they thought. But, hey, developing SPs is a nice problem to have. Maybe they can find a Lorenzen/Olson type in those ranks. And who knows, maybe Jobe flourishes enough to where he is ready to make a debut later next season. There are probably worse 8th/9th SP options. I think the rotation days of Faedo/Wentz/Alexander need to be done. Keep them in the bullpen, see if they can handle multiple innings as needed (if retained). Brieske might fall into the bullpen also, and that’s fine. Although if he has options, maybe he starts out in Toledo as SP depth. And obviously Holton, Foley, and Lange are in the bullpen toward the end of the game, but I’d move any of them if a trade presented itself.

I feel shame. It took me a bit to figure this one out.

Time to fire up OOTP and lose a few hours.

Relax, all right? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.

Undefeated. I like it.

Sure, he's not a finished product yet. On the other hand, neither is Manning. I think its fair to suggest they are equal pitchers right now, and perhaps Olson might actually be better.

Chet who?

So, has Reese Olson surpassed Matt Manning in the rotation? https://stathead.com/baseball/versus-finder.cgi?player_id2=mannin002mat&year_min=2023&player_id1=olson-000ree&seasons_type=forall&request=1&utm_campaign=2023_01_wdgt_player_comparison&utm_source=br&utm_medium=sr_xsite&utm_id=olsonre01

Detroit Tigers vs Oakland Athletics Watch: Athletics - NBCSCA, Tigers - Bally Sports Detroit Listen: Athletics - A's Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM/103.7 HD2, KIQI 1010, Tigers - 97.1 The Ticket

So, I, surprised that this hasn’t been brought up in here. Remember when Rob Manfred was asked about expansion and he declined to commit until the Athletics and Rays got their stadium situations settled?

At first glance, I thought this was "rapture". Like, whoa, how did we get there?

TBA, TBD, Bullpen Day, Rehab Assignment, Opener, and Freshest Arm is basically how the six game a week schedule went.

Are they broadcasting the surgery on Bally's?

I hate the save stat. Rivera's career 1.0 WHIP, 2.21 ERA, and 2.76 FIP seem more impressive to me. Heck, beyond the career numbers, he was the same pitcher year after year. At a position that sees its fair share of ebbs and flows, he was both dominant and consistent. The guy truly shortened the game by an inning. Teams had 8 innings to outscore the Yankees. For damn near 20 seasons.

Atlanta has 3 SPs that will toss 30 starts and around/over 170 IPs. Must be nice. But I think even more impressively, they've put together a roster of everyday position players. They'll have 8 hitters with over 500 PAs (4 of whom will be over 600 PAs) and a catcher that will probably get to around 450 PAs.

Yup. There's only uno Mariano. Everybody else better find multiple pitches.

"Now batting for the Tigers, number 31, left fielder, RoboGreene."

I want to use 3 of the 4 emojis on this one.