casimir

The defense last year gave up 40 point quarters numerous times. So, hey, improvement.

Hard to create havoc on the bases when not on the bases.

The fun is not strong with this one,

The no trade clause can probably be waived if they find a deal with a situation that he is amenable to. Cunningham, Ivey, Harris, Fontecchio, Duren. Sasser, Beasley, Thompson, Holland, Stewart. Injuries will remove someone from the above on a nightly basis. The scoring floor has been raised at least. Maybe?

He's been with the organization since the 2019 trade deadline. At or above AAA since 2022. He'll be 27 at the beginning of the playoffs. The old adage about lefties sometimes being late bloomers might be his best bet at this point. He did have a good April, but so did everybody else not named Maeda. If this is a season of evaluation, he stays in the bullpen to show if he can figure it out there. That's his future.

That's a good point. Another variable that popped into my mind was the variance between three mounds and how that release point height could be affected. My guess is that noise is taken out of it, but I'm a hack, I don't know. Or, how does the distance to the batter upon release come into play?

Sure. Just pointing out a "risk" to the stretch him out as a SP in Toledo theory.

Those release points are interesting.

Wentz is out of options. Maybe he sneaks through, maybe he doesn't.

Maeda's line is almost as blue as those trave$hamockery $ity connect$.

Can we call him a floor spacer?

Elly De La Cruz for Javier Baez. Who says no?

Baseball gods having a little fun in the 9th.

This would'of been nice to post in March. Could you give some of the other batter swingers but hitters a lift?

Shouldn't be Ledezma. He was a rule 5 pick. He didn't come up from the Tiger farm.

Wow. Looks like Trayce Thompson is available.

Wasn’t there a general optimism about the starting pitching depth heading into this season? A Gipson-Long season ending injury, Maeda absolute crash and burn, Manning regression, and Madden stall at Toledo later, the depth seems to have gotten shallow.

You’ll be so sorry you ever doubted Al Avila when Daz Cameron makes the all star game.

Maybe they simply need to go to a different bat supplier? Have the Tigers thought about that?

Stretch out Wentz? I love your sense of humor.

I also thought it was a fine signing. But its obvious that he just cannot find what he had to miss bats in the past. I mentioned in another thread that his SO% is down to 17% from a career average of about 27%. HR% is up a bit as well, but that SO% is just alarming. I think there was risk that he would age, but this drop in production seems to be unprecedented.

Yes, I know they wanted to get this game in, but at some point common sense needed to interfere with the proceedings. Unfortunately it came down to a HBP that was dangerously high and tight on an obviously slipped pitch.

Indeed, although Ryan Reynolds never played for the Clevelands. So I'm not sure how that factors in. Maybe I don't want to know.

Have you ever looked at ball players as utility players rather than one position or another for your rankings? Just kind of curious what that list would be. I'm thinking Tettleton would make the list. But then how would one define the parameters of a utility player rather than an IF or an OF or a C? Kind of fun to think that two of those better players in franchise history were on the same team for a few seasons.

True. Unfortunately Maeda's SO% has just completely fallen off of the table this season. Down from a career average of around 27% to 17%. I don't know for sure, maybe one of the more expert statheads can weigh in on effects of aging, but this seems to be an unforeseen level of collapse. In a vacuum, he should be dumped. The problem is the SP depth isn't there right now. And considering Flaherty is going to be circulated in trade talks, even when he returns it probably won't be for long.