casimir

Not so fast, my friend!

So, now this comment about Ilitch kind of strikes me. Can we correlate this offseason to one of the Dombrowski offseasons? It seems unlikely. But this massive improvement in record that we saw in 2021, does it compare a bit to 2004? I guess ultimately what I am trying to get to is will we find that, after the Tigers have gotten through the reboot, will we find that Al & Chris are better at building cohesive teams than Dave & Mike were?

OK, so this is a coincidence.... Or maybe not?

Wait a minute, has someone hacked CBS Sports college bowl prediction page? When did this new addition hit the bowl season?

Or should it be Seager to 3B and Kiner-Falefa remains at SS?

Oregon goes from the Rose Bowl to the Alamo Bowl. And sounds like a coaching change could be occurring as well.

I think both the OSU offense and OSU defense were still trying to figure things out earlier in the season. The defensive coaching changed was helpful, but I don't think they were a great unit. Stroud had a lot of overthrows in the first few games, and it seemed like he was a much better QB after he came back from injury. The formula for OSU was pretty simple, try to outscore teams. The MSU game was an outlier as the OSU offense (and MSU coaching staff) took Walker's running out of the game early. OSU was susceptible to the run game all season. And like all defenses, if they can focus solely on either the run or the pass it helps them out. So score early and often, try to put the opponent in pass only mode, and on the flip side have the offense burn the scoreboard. That's essentially the 2021 OSU team. So, depending upon what you think of OSU, sure, they could be overrated this season. I think part of the over/under ratings (in general) goes back to assuming everybody has carryover from the previous year(s) and way to early in the season rankings.

It sounds like Fickell wasn’t entertaining anything right now. Maybe it’s different for him if Cincinnati isn’t in the playoff hunt. Or he’s just extremely quiet about it. I know a MAC school had interest in him and interviewed him while he was still at OSU and he was adamant about interviewing only in absolute secrecy.

Too fucking bad for them. Some parents expect to see their children after school, but that’s apparently asking for too much in this fucked up gun happy society.

I don't consider Schoop the 2nd best hitter on the team. I think Candelario, Grossman, Baez, and Schoop are the best current hitters with major league experience, and I'm not sure they are appreciably better than one or the other of themselves. They're different than each other, each with their own strengths & weaknesses. I don't know if you are criticizing the OBP of Grossman or not, but I consider it a positive. If he can maintain that, a decent bump in his BABIP (which was a little below league average last season), that'd be fun. Again, what I don't like about Schoop last season was how volatile his season was. I'm not surprised he had a slow start because he got a late start in Lakeland (I think it was travel or visa issues due to COVID). So he kind of started behind the curve with the bat and then was learning 1B. But after his torrid June, he was just kind of average to below average. So I don't know what to expect. I don't know what to expect out of Baddoo. There's just not enough of a history to feel comfortable. But he did show some skills on offense, some power, lots of speed. He seemingly improved his batting eye early on in the season, so that's good. There certainly are a lot of expectations riding on the bats of Torkelson and Greene. But even if they are above average for the year, there are average to above average hitters accounted for over half of the lineup spots. Maybe Baez is the only all star potential of the bunch, but I like the fact that the "lineup depth" should be longer in 2021. I like what I've seen out of Mize & Skubal, and I like the addition of Rodriguez. I'm not as optimistic on Manning. The bullpen...... ugh,.... can you we ever be confident in a Tiger bullpen? I like Alexander and Fulmer and Soto. But I just don't know about the rest of the bullpen. So I guess I don't know if I'd say the pitching is light years ahead of the hitting. I've never really thought about that in as much as is either side of it good enough on its own vs the rest of the league.

I honestly don't know why Canada hasn't started to build a wall to keep its southern neighbors out. I mean, look at all of the crime and disease south of the Canadian border. Its a country not civilized enough to figure out how to keep its schools safe and its hospitals from being overrun. Heck, they should build the wall and then paper airplane the bill over the wall.

Mine beeped like a smoke alarm does when the battery is low. I think that's a nice feature.

And flip up sunglasses for fielders.

Nice area.

I would say watch your mouth for the sake of the children, but there shouldn't be an children viewing this Pistons' start of the season anyway.

Did he throw 90 last season at all? Did it just completely fall apart during the season or did he never have it? How's his left arm?

I wonder what access to Zoom negotiation calls could sell for?

Today is Opening Day in my OOTP online league, so hey, I got baseball.

I think the writing was on the wall for CastroW when he couldn't get playing time at SS in Detroit this season. Now, if both Kreidler & CastroW are indeed at Toledo simultaneously, they can split time at SS and/or other positions as well. There aren't any other SSs to consider in the higher minors, certainly not playing at AAA. If Kreidler is already accomplished as a SS, let him work around 2B & 3B as well. If his bat is worthy of it, he can be a good piece off of the bench or injury replacement in Detroit. But I would expect a bit of water finding its level. I think the key with Kreidler is where do his BB/SO trend to, AA (32/119) or AAA (24/39)?

I'd look at Greinke. He pitched 170 innings last season, 30 starts. Was he gassed? Maybe. Could it have been because of the shortened COVID season before last season? Seems reasonable. Can the Tigers tailor his work load to last throughout 2022 and into the playoffs? I like the brain trust that would be in charge of those decisions. MLB Trade Rumors write up, just for fun:

This one could get really ugly quickly.

Detroit Pistons (4-17) vs Phoenix Suns (18-3)

Hey, best of luck to him and to Cristian Stewart.

So now with Baez at SS, anyone think that Torkelson might get some more time at 3B? I wouldn't think it'd be for anything other than to give Candelario a day off here and there. Maybe they resurrect it in spring just to see what it looks like? I personally doubt it, but it is interesting how Torkelson was getting time at 3B in the minors until Toledo. Tom Prince kept him on the RF side of the IF, and then was relieved of his duties at season's end.

Minor league deal with the Royals.