casimir

Tampa & Miami are troubling because of long standing fan base issues which aren't necessarily criticisms of the fan bases or metropolitan areas themselves. Tampa's stadium situation was a fail from the beginning. Loria has poisoned a fan base that I would think would take in baseball gleefully because of the culture of the area. I think Oakland is purely a stadium issue. The A's can draw some boisterous, if not sell out, crowds to that dump now. What could they do with functioning stadium suitable for baseball, especially now that they are the only pro game in town?

I'm going to guess that CastroW's exit interview wasn't exactly rainbows & unicorns. Perhaps some advise about making his housing choices for next season be fluid as well.

Good from afar, but far from good?

Wasn't Fetter rumored to be interested only in the Tigers to begin with? Certainly things can change over time, but I thought his preference was the Tigers or remain at Michigan?

I can't believe anyone is complaining about a surplus of pitching (which the Tigers ain't close to). If it happens, trade some! When has there never been a market for pitching?

I don't know. The Lions would be last whether they were in a 3 team division or a 6 team division. Last is last.

I'd realign geographically. It forces the decision on the DH by mixing current AL with NL. I think it reduces travel, but it does keep a majority of times within the same time zone or +/- 1 zone (should benefit Houston & Texas). I left open spots in the West and East for expansion teams. And there's some wiggle room. Colorado could slide to the West, Milwaukee could slide to the Midwest if the expansion teams go to the Central and East (as an example). And I would go further and just go with one league, not two. Two leagues isn't necessary for anything. Make the all star game USA vs World, or old guys vs new guys, or just randomly pick sides. Admittedly, these suggestions are going to make traditionalists into an aneurysm. So, let me keep going with schedule ideas. 🙂 So, going back to what I said about one league, I'd have everybody play everybody. That's right. 13 games vs all divisional opponents (91 games) and 3 vs all other 24 teams outside of the division (72 games) for a total schedule of 163 games. What, an odd number of games? Sure, why not. An odd number of games vs every other team is a built in tie breaker. And you just move home field advantage back and forth annually. Detroit at Colorado this season, Colorado at Detroit next season. Detroit vs Cleveland is 7 games in Detroit and 6 games in Cleveland this season, but 6 games in Detroit and 7 games in Cleveland next season. As for one league playoffs, they can go with 10 or 12 teams total (or 14 once they expand, it'll happen). Division winners and wildcards qualify, but I'm ranking the bracket according to record with no worry about whether a team is a division winner or wildcard. And I would seriously consider reseeding the bracket, definitely after the initial round so that the best record gets to go vs the worst remaining record, second best vs second worst, and so on. Now, if the powers that be prefer to keep two leagues, that's fine. A similar 163 game arrangement can be made. 11 games vs the 7 divisional opponents (77 games). 7 games vs each of the other 8 league mates (56 games). That's 133 games. I would fill up the rest of the schedule with 3 game series vs 10 interleague foes. Now, the interleague falls short by 6 opponents, but you just rotate those opponents in and out of the schedule over time. Detroit play against 5 teams in the West and 5 teams in the Central, and then the next season they pick up the 3 from the West and the 3 from the Central that they didn't play the season before and have 2 holdover opponents from each division. Interleague is 30 games, a total of 163 games, and the head to head tiebreakers for the playoffs remain intact for each league. The two league playoffs would be similar to now, but again, I'm racking teams up according to overall record, to heck with division winner or wildcard. It'll never happen. But that's what I'd do.

I'm all for realignment, but moving the Trolley Dodgers back to Brooklyn seems a little out there.

Trying to think of Rockie hitters leaving in the early to middle primes of their careers with some history after leaving. So, not Nolan Arrenado (only one season out of Denver). Is Matt Holliday a reasonable comparison as to what could be expected of Story?

So you're saying that Atlanta (88-73) has a better resume this season than the Dodgers (106-56)?

How about 2 leagues with 2 divisions and 8 teams in each division?

Even if Turnbull is ready to resume baseball activities, is he going to be ready to be depended upon for much in 2022? I would expect Peralta to look for more than the Tigers should offer. He filled in admirably for the Tigers and it turned out to be a very good signing. But underneath the shiny 3.07 ERA is a lot of luck that the peripherals wouldn't project. I don't mind resigning him for the bullpen as a mop up kind of arm, but he's had a choppy career and he doesn't strike guys out. It's difficult to believe that he figured something out at 32 years old. It'd be interesting to know what Fetter's input would be. We don't really know what to expect out of Verlander, for that matter. It'd be fun to see him in a Tiger jersey again leading the next charge to the playoffs, but he'll be 39 years old when camp opens, coming off of Tommy John. I understand TJ isn't as nefarious as it used to be, but it letting ain't a blister heal over either.

Be honest. You were busy clubbin' with Urban.

I don't understand the appeal of fewer teams per division. I guess I don't think I've heard the rationale for why it would make playoff contention, or baseball in general, better. The aspect that I don't like about it is that there is the chance that an inferior team wins a division and bumps off a better team that just happens to be in a tougher division. Its happened in the NFL a few times. Heck, you look at Los Angeles as a wild card this season even though they have the 2nd best record in MLB. The 2nd best record gets dumped into a one game elimination game. What kind of sense does that make?

Dislike. Oh, this is good. Sent me the wikipedia to read about him.

I wonder if he sounds like Morgan Freeman or Paul Carey?

I’m not sure why I never really liked the Lions, when I’ve been a fan of the Tigers and Pistons. Divine intervention?

They won 2014 World Series after 88 regular season games, yet didn’t even qualify for the playoffs with 103 wins in 1993.

I overheard a Cleveland Browns fan saying that it must be difficult to be a Detroit Lions fan. Uh, hello, factory of sadness wasn’t exactly a stretch.

Regardless if there really is interest by Detroit, I’m sure Correa’s camp will use Detroit as leverage for a contract. It is kind of interesting how we’ve heard of the Houston connection without rehashing how the fallout from the trash cans all went down. I prefer to pass on Correa. He’s not a guy I want to root for.

My guess is it is probably in Boyd’s best interest to rehab with an organization that he is comfortable with. Maybe it makes sense to agree on a one year contract with a one year vesting/mutual option?

I think at this point, Boyd should be considered outside of the top 5 rotation slots simply because of health. Alexander can compete for the rotation, I think he’s earned that much. But I agree that they’ll need two quality free agent starting pitchers. I’m looking at Mize and Skubal in the rotation on Opening Day. I’m not confident in Manning yet, but I think it’s safe to assume the Tigers consider him a part of the rotation. After that, they need the quality major league arms and they’ll need some depth signings to go along with Alexander (could be a multi inning reliever if not in the rotation), Boyd (rehabbing if he returns), and Wentz (Toledo). Another Peralta type minor league signing or two would be wonderful, although easier said than done.

If they play hard & entertaining and continue to develop a core, missing the playoffs for another chance in the lottery would be dandy.

Its crazy (to me) to think the first exhibition game is Wednesday.

I disagree, I think the money matters as well as years, maybe to different degrees depending upon the player. I'm thinking of it in terms of opportunity cost. A player at 4/60 gives the Tigers a chance at filling other holes at 4/60 as opposed to just going with the same player at 4/120.