casimir

Drink stirring straws can be expensive.

The teals are terrible, but I'll play along today.

Atlanta Hawks vs Detroit Pistons

That’s good stuff.

I’ve never really believed this to the case for baseball. Basketball is probably the sport where it is most possible. Maybe hockey to an extent. But baseball is a sport where your chances to determine individual games over the course of a season are very low compared to the plays where you have no input. Ernie Banks comes to mind.

Can Jim Cowan confirm that this is Tenacious D’s stunt double?

I'm too busy focusing on the right date, right time, right opponent, right logo. Now you want bells and whistles for your feels?

Sure, the MLB draft can be a crapshoot, no question. When you were looking at the best player picked, are you looking at the best player of a particular team or the best player of the draft? Keep in mind, the Tigers have been drafting early. So, OK, Brendan Rogers might have been the Rockies first pick (3rd overall), there are 9 other 1st rounders that were picked after him with higher career WAR, including Andrew Benintendi, Walker Buehler, Kyle Tucker, Austin Riley,... If the plan is to bottom out and gather up high draft picks, those picks better pan out. Otherwise, what are we even doing here?

Absolutely spot on observation.

Per the Locked On Tigers podcast, Tampa's drafts during Metzler's time in charge of the amateur draft is 8th in terms of WAR. This is something I eyeballed a little bit last night, but only Tampa vs Detroit. I don't think the difference there seemed to be much, but again, this was just glancing at it a little bit at baseball reference drafts year by year. And that's only a part of building a team. It doesn't take into account trades, free agency, international signings, etc. So, for instance, Jake Cronenworth was originally a Tampa draftee. So how do/should you roll his major league success into that? Additionally, Harris is said to have been impressed with some of the already in place scouting folks (I think that comes from Stavenhagen, but it was mentioned on Locked on Tigers).

Atlanta Hawks vs Detroit Pistons

Yes, but they're wandering around looking for an empty printer paper box.

Maybe he just wanted to Twin.

This is fun. Could Betts move to 2B if LA signs Judge?

Can't you just see 15-15 (all field goals) going into a few OTs to ultimately decide it? Matching FGs in the 1st OT and then nothingness for 2 or 3 more OTs.

Detroit Pistons vs Washington Wizards

He very well may be part of the problem or not part of a solution. He’s been Jeckyll and Hyde in his career. It was said somewheres in this thread, if the new Tiger personnel believe he can be fixed, then, sure, keep him. But that will likely be done through arbitration, not a DFA and lower salary deal.

What roster spots don’t need an upgrade?

Is this the @gehringer_2 plan of only 8 men on the roster type of blow it up?

Only 157 days until Opening Day.

I keep going back and forth on him. Free agent 3Bdudes is pretty shallow. We don’t know what trades are possible. And we don’t know what nontenders could be available. He’s been good and bad. Sometimes I want to write off 2022 because all hitters stunk and the two coaches are it returning. Other times, I remember these coaches were the same coaches in 2021 when Candelario was fine. And regardless of who the hitting coaches were, Candelario’s defense took a step back in 2022.

That point will eventually arrive. We don’t know if Harris decides to just cut to that now or if he still has some evaluation to get through. That’s kind of why I had that group of players labeled as possible cuts. Maybe it happens sooner rather than later, it’s certainly possible. I guess the other aspect to the rule 5 is what does Harris think of the players that are eligible? Who does he think is worth keeping, who does he think could sneak through unclaimed, and who does he think is replaceable?

There's room to grow.

He very well could be right. I just wanted to get to 40 to see which 7 (in addition to the 2 free agents) would be removed immediately. There's no rhyme or reason to cut only 7, they could easily pare it down further. It will be interesting to see what Harris does.