1984Echoes

Since there's no fast retreat with the bridges blown to hell... A) All those officers had to do that... get east of the river and closer to Crimea/ the Donbas B) There's going to be a Ukrainian offensive to retake Kherson. I'm going to predict that it happens swiftly, once they commence the full scale assault... and that there will be a whole lot of Russian soldiers west of the Dnieper surrendering... as fast as they can...

Yeah, I'm not interested in shiny baseball ref pages. But I am interested in seeing Dingler develop.

PS: I spilled Dr. Pepper all over my keyboard a few days ago so my "A" key is sticking badly, my shift key and sometimes control and Z and X keys re sticking badly... So my typing is not getting worse (well, maybe it is...); but it looks like my keyboard is just about shot and I should probably get a new computer to replace this archaic Neanderthal that I have right now... Please don't mind the crappy typos as I'm blaming it all on the keyboard... You don't even want to see a post prior to my editing/ fixing most of it... it's pretty ugly.

YEP! That was my conclusion at the bottom btw...

I thought it was. Who does? Player development? But also... does the GM set up overall general "rules", in which he would still have influence even if not the call. Or is that PD also?

PS: I forgot the Castrei (easy to do... I don't really think much of them). I think Willi is a goner. But I think Harold is still useful as a utility guy. No more than 250 PA's. IMO.

If I'm the new Tigers GM, I think... 1) The first thing I do is "retire" Miggy. Pay him his $40 Mill and have him sit in the dugout and wave at the fans. Or... whatever he wants to do aside from actually playing. I want the DH spot, and the 40-man spot so I can sift through a boatload of guys to see what sticks. And it may be as simple s sticking Austin meadows there and living with that... 2) Second: Probably nothing. 3) Because... I want a year to see what I really got... no sense in pretending that I can "fill every hole" in one off-season. 4) So... Concerning Schoop and Candy: who are just "playing out the string" as far as I can see. Unlike you, I think both will come back next year (meaning, their bats). BUT... I think that is all relative... Meaning however much their bats DO come back - I don't think that will be to the #'s they put up in 2021... but something in-between 2021 and 2022 #'s... - doesn't matter anyways. They are both "place-holders" at this point. So here's what I DO next year: Schoop and Candy are both deadline trade guys, period. Maybe even this offseason, although I doubt they have any value this year; although, again, I doubt their value improves by the deadline either as at that point they are only rentals anyways. BUT: I want to see if Clemens can steal one of their jobs next ST... But even if not, I'm going to put him at 3rd once I trade Candy. IMO, better to give him lots of starts, at both 2B and 3B, prior to the deadline. 5) I need a serious organizational understanding of Wenceel Perez and Colt Keith. Does Wenceel make Toledo this year? Just a guess but.. I'm thinking Wenceel breaks into MLB next year. Before or after the Deadline I couldn't say. But, I'm guessing he's our new 2B at the very least after Schoop is traded at the deadline. I wonder who he can be in MLB (I Mean, aside from being Wenceel Perez... who is he as player? I'm hoping for more than just a Ramon Santiago...). Colt Keith is a different story. He'll be 22 before he gets back to playing, and hasn't reached AA yet (although that might be unfair as it looked like he was heading there this year without the injury...). But if he's in AA next year and looks like our 3B'man of the future... Does Kody suffice as a placeholder for another couple years (2023/24)? Does the Org wait on Keith? I'd want to have an evaluation. 6) Gotta hope/ depend on Greene and Tork acclimating to MLB pitching and becoming much better players. Also, gotta count on Baez performing better as well. At least i am in 2023 until I see different. 7) Jake Rogers should be back next year... but that still holds a lot of uncertainty. How's his arm after TJ? Does he still have some pop in his bat? If he can be a good D Catcher, including getting his throwing arm back, and hit .240-.250-ish, and pop some HR's (he's shown he has power, but after TJ? and still not really proven in MLB)... He would be enough. But I'm evaluating him, and I want an Org evaluation of Dingler as well, same as Wenceel and Keith. 8 ) Pitching... I'm using 2023 to see who can get, and stay, healthy. And who can pitch in MLB. The cast is endless. But the survivors and thrivers out of all of these pitchers.. who knows? I want to use 2023 to evaluate, see some progress (hopefully) on both the health and learning curve fronts... before I start making plans on who to keep, who to trade/ discard/ replace, etc... I can count on Eduardo and Manning as starters at this point? AND...? Skubal (if healthy), Brieske (if healthy), Turnbull (if he comes back healthy and effective)? So many unknowns here. Gotta resolve. Faedo? Starter or BP? I think Faedo would be more effective out of the BP but... that's just me. 9) I left the OF'ers for last. Greene, for sure. Kerry is tossing his cap into the ring. Baddoo needs to capitalize on this chance. or maybe he just needs some more AAA time? Daz will be close to his last chance, but I don't see him being tossed to the curb yet... just yet. Austin probably needs to DH. Reyes will still be useful as a 4th/ 5th but he's also running out of time (will be too expensive for what he provides; which is... not much). Just a few thoughts there on next year's roster... I think, mostly, more of the same. It will be offseason 2023/24 where a lot of changes get made... I'm thinking. I may be wrong however...

The Org philosophy has always been to keep a player at a level is that team is in the playoffs as they believe it's good for the players development to go through that experience... so you are probably correct... But also, that was under Avila, maybe that changes? Probably not... just thought I'd mention that...

Tucker Mendoza is pissed off that I said that... And Kerry says: "Can I play Steve Kemp in the Halloween play instead of Clete Thomas?"

I think Tucker Mendoza is upset with me for posting this... And... It looks like Kerry wants to "be a somebody... not a nobody..."

Buck Farmer's "skill" was that he could full up innings. Pretty much... that was it.

The minor league Detroit Kittens are definitely more interesting than the major league Detroit "so-called" Tigers (see today's game thread)... Toledo Austin got a hit (1-4). Not much O for Toledo. But Elvin had a nice game (too few of those in '22) with 6 shutout inn's on 2 hits, 2 BB's and an HBP, and 7 K's... Erie Wilmer Flores pitched today & gave up only 4 hits 1BB in 6 inn's, but also 3 runs on a HR, HBP and the other base runners... Not great, not terrible. Only 3 K's... not his usual dominant 2022 performance... But that's OK... Parker got a hit too (1-5). Dingler went 2-4 with a triple, single. Workman had a nice day with a 2-4 on 2 doubles and NO K's!!! WM Crouch is hitting .300 for the Whitecaps, .850 OPS, 1-3 today with a double and a BB. Lakeland Lakeland just started so not much going on there yet except... Carlos Pena is pitching...

Just looked at the bottom of the Tigers lineup today... And see we have: Jeimer Mendoza Kody Mendoza Tucker Mendoza Akil Mendoza That's impressive!

Or better yet... Taiwan!

But I definitely want to kick them off the security council... and there's an easy "in" since they never filed any proper paperwork. they just assumed the position of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union has the official security council seat... Russia does NOT! How about we kick Russia off the council and replace them with Ukraine... just for laughs?!?!

The even crazier thing is... Central European winds are going to blow any radioactive fallout eastward... IN to Russia! Quite possibly over Moscow! WTF are these morons even thinking...?!

No... They just want to treason more without the consequences...

He needs to be guillotined, and his head put on a spike in front of the Capital Building as a message/ warning against further fascist deuchebag violence by his white trash racist scumbag followers. You know... like the good old days...

I'm assuming once Meadows comes back... if he can stay healthy... That he's the 2023 DH. We have other OF'ers who can actually field the position and Meadows will have to sneak into the OF maybe once a week. Other than that, he should DH or the DH should rotate between lots of other players (not named Miggy) next year.

Which doesn't mean Jack for his roster spot next year.

Nope. He is not. And it's not his choice. It's the team's. Miggy ain't playing in 2023. Book it.

Or just reduce him to: pinch hitting only. If he gets a game-winning single then more cheers for Miggy... And if he hits the game ending grounder that every other Tom, Dick & Harry would've beaten out because the defense booted the ball, well, then... oh well. And he doesn't need to pinch hit every game either. 2-3 times a week... The IL if they want to get Daz more PA's (what other RH'er do we actually have that's ready?) Or wait for September call-ups to add a couple more players and just keep Miggy as a PH'er... I would prefer the IL... Just thinking up some alternatives out loud... because who knows what the team is actually thinking...?

We're not allowed to have nice things...

This is what I want. Let him be the "Goodwill Ambassador" of 2023 for the Tigers. Fully retired, fully paid (his $40 Mill), and doing whatever he can to help out the team off the field and allowing the team and the fans to also appreciate him off the field. Or on the field for ceremonies and such... Celebrate him next year... just as not a player on the team... IMO.

Dude... You KNOW I'M NOT the one involved in any Miggy-slobberfest. I've been calling for his retirement since last year. I gave up when everyone pointed out how close he was to his milestones... But about two seconds after he got his 3,000 hit I was back on the RETIRE MIGGY bandwagon. You're calling out the wrong guy... 'cause it ain't me. But... Also... In my honest opinion, he didn't look like he was dogging it to first. He was giving it his best it looked like... even if his best is slow as molasses. And since I'm not a dishonest person... I'm going to call 'em like I see 'em. Now, I hope you don't have a problem with honesty...