1984Echoes

Our best FIELDING Outfield next year? Vierling-Greene-Meadows?

No apologies from me as I'm still on the "Believe in Yzerplan", and never left... But how about a HUGE "ATTABOY"?!?!

I'm up there next for the last week in July (next year. so a year to plan...) for a family reunion. I'm going to keep an eye on this thread for ideas...

What source The Bear?

FTFY.

Cheerleading for Anti-American Russia is grotesque. And Trumpian. Maybe vacation plans to Trump Tower Moscow is in the offing...?

In other words: Give Ukraine their F-16's already...

Beautiful.

He seems to be making a series of stupid decisions. It might just be youth and immaturity... But he needs to start getting his head on straight.

That's all I needed to hear...

A choice between DeBrincat or Nylander is easily... Nylander.

They looked at his .203 BA and said: "Nah, we can't do that." Overlooking everything else that you just posted. Aside from that... I would still like to see him get up to at least .230-.240-ish and .800-.850-ish OPS. With his defense, that's a damn fine starting Catcher. And I don't care what the All-Stars says...

That's exactly what it looks like. Also... He's putting a serious squeeze on the roster so that will up the pressure on marginal guys... A lot, I am guessing... Prove it or improve it or lose it.

100%

The only unfair part of this is when your team is down in the dumps it is NORMAL to trade pending FA's at the deadline, and to trade relievers at any point in time because they have little value on a team at the bottom. Also, you can't blame Chafin on Harris... Chafin CHOSE to walk and CHOSE to sign with another team. That's not on Harris that's on the crap team we had in 2022. Candy, on the other hand...

I think this is a very real possibility. I just wish it would have been done in the offseason as it (A) Opened up a spot, just like the clamoring to jettison Candy did to open up 3B for something new... (B) But I would have rather opened up 2B instead of 3B as I thought Candy the better bet to have more value in 2023 than Schoop... and the lesser defensive position to fill is 2B instead of 3B so easier to sift bodies through there trying to find the right answer. 3B obviously is more difficult due to reaction time and arm strength & accuracy requirements. (C) Schoop is worthless, IMO. I think that now and I thought that in the winter. Dead cost, paying the money no matter what... so IMO, just drop the dead weight, meaning drop Schoop from the roster... (D) Even if a trade for Malloy is lined up... Candy can be moved at the deadline if Malloy was ready, or sooner if necessary, or not at all if we needed 3B coverage the whole season. This was an ABSOLUTE no-brainer to me... But I think Sports Freak is right in that part of the off-season decision was money (committed to Schoop versus easily no commitment to Candy) instead of logic. It was a stupid decision IMO so Harris gets one strike (instead of a gold star) against him for that. IMO.

I would definitely be on board with that...

It was only for one year. His only value was as a trade deadline asset in 2023... that's it. After the season he's a FA so... bye bye. Actually, bye bye at the deadline. I bet on Candy (mentally... the Tigers didn't... physically) having value at the deadline and Schoop having 0 value at the deadline so I wanted Schoop dropped from the roster. Just my offseason viewpoint. Candy = One Year ONLY = trade deadline asset (I thought he'd get closer to a 3.5 WAR season than the 1-ish WAR season he was being projected at...). Schoop = Negative value = dump him, November, 2022. IMO. But... what do I know...?

Yep. (Forgot it was just 1 year... put up or shut up time....)

But he's also (Lindstrom) going to get squeezed on the Right Side... Both defenseman they signed are Right shots. That's the squeeze from the bottom. Obviously Seider is at the top... but I think Pellikka will also move quickly. Not this year obviously... he'll be in the SHL... But in 2024 I'm guessing Pellika makes it stateside and starts pressuring for a Red Wings roster spot. Even if he has to go to Grand Rapids for most of 2024... he's going to put tremendous pressure on the bottom of the right side D as he and Seider dominate the top (eventually). Who survives at the bottom? Lindstrom? Can he grow? If not, the bottom level signings we just made will squeeze him out. That's what I mean by pressuring from both the top of the roster and the bottom. Agree on the assessments of Veleno, Zadina & Berggren.

I think Kostin takes over as 4th line Center. Bigger, tougher, and has some offense. That's why I'm also OK with Sprong. Adding toughness and scoring on the 4th line actually squeezes the skill players. Either Zadina improves his touch or he'll get squeezed right off the roster. Same with Lindstrom, Berggren, Veleno and multiple other fringe players... Getting squeezed from both the top level players and the bottom 4th line/ 3rd pairing players can't be comfortable. Especially if guys do indeed get squeezed off the roster...

I don't think we need Eduardo to opt out for a cheap payroll. He's paid extremely low for an effective upper echelon starter. The only reason his salary is currently aligned to his performance is due to injuries or related. He's still a huge bargain. Schoop and Miggy leaving the roster will drop our payroll significantly... $50-55-ish Mill? No reason to look for any further savings. Time to figure out where to invest. And to me, that means buying out Eduardo's option if indeed that is an... option. Holding onto him is first choice to me... If we are able to.

Not to steal Chas's thunder... I remember him strongly making the point that even at the very low end of his expected WAR that his expected salary (from arbitration) would actually be an underpay... I certainly agreed with that as projecting him at 1-ish WAR (IMO) was ridiculous... but I get it... because of 2022. But I think it was the 3 of us politely requesting the Tigers to hold onto Candy. Outside of us... I think there was a strong inclination to dump him. If memory serves that is...

We can either buy out his option or... if he is not open to that then make the assumption that he will opt out. Actually, I'm not actually certain we could do that... it just seems logical. I'm not certain what's in the current operating agreement. He may only be keeping his options "open" and might just as well opt in but... if we can't buy out his option then as an Org I would think we have to operate under the assumption that he IS going to opt out and then we would need to put him on the trade market... IMO. I wouldn't mind keeping him either... if we can offer $10 mill (whatever gets him from current annual salary to... happiness...) to buy out his option and he is agreeable to that then... That would be my 1st choice.

Dude... I was so on keeping Candy this offseason... I was right there with you... I was pegging him at 3.5-ish WAR and I think you had run calc's on maybe 2-War? that said he was absolutely worth the resign.