1984Echoes

I'm on board. Have at it Harris. Do your best.

PS: There are other players on other NON-Central teams that I like more... I just wanted to ask the question...

Interesting players on the rosters of our fellow Central Division competitors: Cleveland: Bo Naylor, LH Catcher; Cade Smith, RH Reliever at 2.05/ 0.96/ 12.65 (career ERA/ WHIP/ K's/9). Minnesota: Brooks Lee, switch-hit 3B'man; Griffin Jax, RH Reliever at 4.04/ 1.14/ 10.0 (career ERA/ WHIP/ K's/9). KC: Jonathan India, RH'd 3B'man; Steven Cruz, RH'd reliever. CWS: Ed Quero, switch-hitting Catcher, Tyler Gilbert, LH'd reliever. Question: Should we consider a trade with one of our competitors if it's a trade Harris & Hinch like?

No. "Struggling" means losing games. Think 4-6 or 3-7 in the last ten games. That's struggling. "Scuffling" means playing .500 ball. Not surging ahead... but not "struggling" either. It's less bad. More akin to "treading water". In my grammatical opinion.

Also... Roberto Campos or Trei Cruz if someone wants to take that swing, pitching like Melton/ Hamm/ Madden/ etc. so I think an arm or two could be in play. If it's a reliever like Hoffman or Miller or Finnegan as suggested above... I don't think the price is exorbitant but I don't know what other teams' priorities are. A couple of lower-level swings, or one higher level prospect? So... Just guessing...

I still prefer Mason Miller. My highest target.

I like this one. I'm going to keep this on my radar...

If you could get more of his face in that circle so the red slash would go directly across it... I'm in. Oh, and he has to be in clown makeup. Because... he is.

This is my draft ranking for the Red Wings: 1st Tier: Porter Martone. Radim Mrtka. 2nd Tier: Justin Carbonneau. If I'm Yzerman... I'm trading up (if needed... but I think "needed" is definite...) to get one of those three guys. Those are the only 3 draftees this year on my Red Wings Radar. IMO, everyone else that I would want in a Wings uniform, is a sharpy lower tier... And I would be extremely dissatisfied in not getting one of those three. I could do a Lakovic or a Bear or... but... meh. So... heavily on my mind is... moving up in this draft, as needed. Not "IF"... "AS". Wherever Yzerman has to go to at least get Carbonneau... Please. IMO.

No... Grand Rapids competition for him. To... Sort of give him a push. IMO.

He has COMPLETELY... Turned into Mantha.

NOT at Center. Bad idea. That's not a whole lot different than saying "let's rotate our QB's to keep them fresh..."

Toronto is not getting a top 5 prospect from any team for Bichette.

I don't believe Toronto is looking at "ONLY" this year. They're looking at the next 3-5 years. Bichette is leaving as a free agent. So what is his worth to Guerrero & the Blue Jays over the next 3-5 years? Zero. How much value is a compensatory pick to Guerrero & the Blue Jays over the next 3-5 years? Zero, or close to it. It's why the Jays will trade Bichette for "major-league-ready talent" at the deadline.

The "key-est" point. I agree. So Baddoo/ Malloy/ Bigbie would not be a "part of the deal" as much as a "throw-in guy." If Toronto says "give us a throw-in just for..." (no matter the reason)... I certainly wouldn't say no. Maybe they would have a different viewpoint of a throw-in... like another pitcher. Or one low-A guy with some upside, like Strong/ Franyerber/ Santana/ or...? I don't know... I'm just waggin'...

If Buch and Kiisk are in GR... We still have a plethora of smallish skilled players both in Detroit and "AAA" GR. I'd like to see Stevie Y make a trade. Berggren would be easy... I don't know who else. Ras because he's soft? I saw an article suggest Detroit trade Copp similar to a guy last year, we pay lots of salary, but get a 1st rounder back. It said the two were nearly identical in skill and cost and performance etc... (forgot the name, I was just breezin' through...). If he does this, I'd like him to trade up the two 1sts and get the biggest, baddest, two-way playing PF he can get his hands on. I'd like to see him trade for Marchment, not go after Marner. I want to see some serious effort towards making our team "harder to play against". I want to see Stevie Y be as active as necessary this offseason to accomplish that. Be active. Be smart. Get us some two-way players with toughness and experience. Please. With sugar on top.

Slumlord roots. Try as he might. He's still trash. And everyone knows it. Everyone.

Split the series. Best possible outcome.

I think they are specifically looking for potential Major League talent that is "on the cusp" or "almost there"... I mean.. they just signed Guerrero for $500 mill... I don't believe they are looking for a tear-down... Sweeney, Jung, Melton and Baddoo all qualify, IMO. And Bigbie and Anderson are not far behind. They are not getting Basallo and Mayo for a couple months of Bichette. I think your assessment is incorrect. My "package" may also be incorrect... but I think I'm in the ballpark.

Some thoughts: I don't trust locking Baez into one spot... at SS. I don't trust that he won't fall back into old habits, or that pitchers make some adjustment and he starts to get embarrassed again. I like him... I do! Just with... some... reservations. I actually like that Hinch can put him into any spot that he feels helps the team win games... and it seems that Baez has really bought into that as well. And it seems to have inspired him. I want to keep that. He can play 2B, SS, 3B, CF, probably LF too. Maybe even RF? And he can play every single day... or 98% of the time... because Hinch is going to put him ANYWHERE that he needs him and will allow to Baez to succeed. Not to be a broken record... but I like that... And I want to keep that. On that basis... I could go with a Bichette trade. I was interested in that last year. This year... I think we're better prepared for this type of trade. WAG a trade: Sweeney, Jung, (can we add one of Malloy or Baddoo in here, just to give them a shot? Just trying to be nice... Or maybe even Bigbie... just to give him a chance...), Troy Melton, and Max Anderson. For Toronto's: Bo Bichette, Addison Barger (adding Barger opens up Baez to mostly manning SS next year, btw...), Mason Fluharty, and Jeff Hoffman OR Brendon Little.

Anyone see "Imperfectly Perfect"? I watched it sort-of once but was mostly distracted by other things so I wanna see it again where I'm sitting down and really paying attention...

Maybe... But I don't know if he's ready just yet... And Glasgow IS ready. He's done it before. I am perfectly fine with Glasgow starting this year and Ratledge learning... maybe he even takes over at some point in the season, even if not at the start... Specifically, quotes from Hank Fraley: "Center is not natural for him yet..." "He definitely needs more time in there, more training..." That sort of feels to me like... he may, or may NOT be ready for game 1... We'll see what progress he makes in Training Camp and the pre-season games...

Specifically: After the first invasion in 2014, when Ukraine lost Crimea and a portion of the Donbas (but stopped them in their tracks at that point): American and other NATO forces flooded into Ukraine (after the fighting stopped of course) and armed and trained Ukrainian forces in western fighting techniques. Specifically, command structure. We convinced them to stop giving top-down commands for everything (IE: from Vladimir Putin Commander-in-Chief giving all orders for every single Russian movement and the troops being paralyzed when they can't carry out his commands... what now?). The Ukrainian Army took that to heart and started to develop an NCO (Non-Comissioned Officers such as Sargeants, Sargeant Majors, etc.) Corp and allowed their Field Officers (Captains and Lietenants) and NCO's (aforementioned Sargeant-types...) to make battlefield decisions. Why is Ukraine winning this war? Because small groups led by an NCO or Field Officer out-maneuvered superior Russian forces constricted by top-down orders. Small Ukrainian groups kept the Russians out of Kiev. Attacked and defeated the initial Russian paratrooper landing in Kiev Airport. Destroyed a column of Russian tanks headed towards Kiev. They have constantly out-maneuvered, out-fought, and defeated Russian forces far superior in numbers. Why does Russia win additional Ukrainian territory? Because they throw 100,000 Russian soldiers at a Ukrainian position with 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers and try to overwhelm them with numbers. It doesn't matter if Russia loses 80,000 Russian soldiers (in Putin's mind) and the Ukrainians lose 500 over 3 months of fighting... as long as Putin gains 5 more miles and 1 more Ukrainian village... in Putin's mind... he has won. If the United States were FULLY involved... Putin would lose ALL the territory he's stolen from Ukraine, including Crimea. This has been the "half-measure War". Neither Trump nor Biden has offered anything more than half measures. One out of stupidity and corruption, the other out of fear. And Russia has shown the world NOTHING... except that they should be DIMINISHED... not AWARDED for this genocidal travesty. America should be ashamed of itself.

I could see a Manu-Frazier-Ratledge-Mahogany-Sewell being a top NFL starting O-Line for 5+ years as soon as that all comes together. Maybe I'm only dreaming... but I don't think it's too hard to envision... Meaning... I don't think your statement necessarily follows from Ragnow's retirement. They'll always be looking to add to the O-Line... but I don't believe the stress there will be any different than always wanting to add to the D-Line, LB'ers or DB room, or RB or... OBK: "Only Brad Knows..."

If we're good at drafting and developing however... There will have to be some strategic trades of minor league depth (not our potential superstars/ top guys) for Major League depth guys that help us in September and October. Overall I agree with you. But we won't have room for everybody in Detroit either. So I am anticipating some smart trades coming soon... maybe even this year/ deadline.