1984Echoes

I'm not rushing his development. If he needs to work on some things, that's fine. But at least at-the-bat... he's looking sort of ready... I don't know what they are working on in the field but that would seem to be something that could be done just as easily at WM as at Lakeland. .1500? No. But he's batting .355 with a .938 OPS. At face value... I'd call that looking like he's ready to face/ be challenged by a higher grade of pitching. So I'm fine wondering when he may be getting the boost to A+. YMMV.

ISRAELI HOSTAGES held in... Civilian. Homes.

Fargo & Chernobyl were brilliant! Have you seen Shogun, A Small Light, or White House Plumbers? More brilliance! Also: Andor... if you're into Star Wars. And if you like the Beatles: Get Back and If These Walls Could Sing... (not series but 1-show doc's).

I'm waiting for the answer to that one too...

I think Harris has already made a couple good trades. But when push comes to shove... and we need that "one guy" and he's not in our system, we'll see if Harris can come up with the right answer, by trade or by FA signing. I'm not really worried about that part yet... because we are certainly not yet in that position. That's for the future. For now it's just sift through all these kids and try to find out who is part of a "foundation" and who isn't. And from there... what holes remain...? Can this team get better and start pushing for the playoffs with our "foundation"? Or not? Again... we're not there yet. .500 is a good step forward... need a few more steps.

On board with this 100%. In fact, I have a friend in real estate (residential) and told her when the pandemic hit and all the offices were closing... That commercial real estate would be permanently damaged. I told her she should be glad she's in residential. Everyone was going to find out that there is/(were) zero, or close to zero problems with working at home, if someone is back office. VPN's work perfectly fine for accounting, etc... Not so much for the manufacturing guys... they actually have to use their hands to create... But almost every business was going to find out that they didn't need all that expensive office space... and commercial real estate will never be the same. However much it is able to recover.. it will NOT be the same as pre-pandemic. Other than that.. the economy is AWESOME... IMO. But I will be happy when Wall Street quits stressing about the Fed. They're missing the point... just look at Corp profits which are up, up, and up... If/when they decide to drop a quarter point - September maybe - who cares? Again, don't miss the point... profits are way up. As is employment, wages, inflation is getting tamed... What else do they freaking want?

Don't forget the difference between banking and Wall Street: WS is squirrelly. Layoffs = GOOD! and Big New Employment numbers = BAD!!!

But would he be better than Baez? We do have a pretty low bar at SS... at the moment. PS: even if he ends up as a stopgap until something better can be obtained... As long as he's better than Baez...

Dude... You're talking to the wrong dude. I'm not playing a video game. I don't have any immediate timeframe. I'm not bitching about what did or did not happen this past offseason. I never expected anything but a .500 team this year and lots of sifting through kids to see what sticks and what doesn't. I'm certainly not acting like it's the 2003 Tigers. Did you forget I'm the annoyingly optimistic one...? I think you have me confused with someone else.

I don't want Bichette. I'll take the AAA guy that is blocked by Bo Bichette.

I am NOT criticizing Harris... AT ALL. Is that how you are taking it? Maybe some others are criticizing him... I am NOT. I'm just saying that in order to build a contending team, he will have to make trades or sign FA's to fill holes. I have, personally, said nothing more than that. No criticism whatsoever. It's simply a part of his job description. Why are you taking that as some sort of criticism of Harris? Also... I do NOT think Alex is criticizing him either. He is just saying that that is part of the job. Which is a true statement. I see nothing inflammatory or critical in that statement whatsoever.

Or maybe some possible trades are... Yet to come?

Trump started declining in 1984. When he opened his mouth.

"LOCK HIM UP!!!"

Matt Manning for Leo Jimenez.

Yeah... we KNOW trades aren't easy and it takes two to tango. That does NOT NEGATE the point that in order to build a contending team, Harris will have to have the ability to make trades/ FA signings that fill in holes. Unless you are disputing that?

I'll give a couple potential trade targets (I'm taking this info from another post I made in the May 14th game thread): Toronto - has a SS that they like a lot in Bo Bichette, 2021-23 WAR 14.4 although he's struggling a bit this year. They ALSO have a 23 y.o. SS Leo Jimenez in AAA with a .780 minors OPS and a .837 OPS this year in AAA. He would be a nice target... do we match up with Toronto in any way...? I hope Harris is at least looking into someone like this... whether or not he can actually get him... gotta take a shot, IMO. Houston - has 26 y.o. SS Jeremy Pena with 2022-24 WAR of 10.2. They ALSO have TWO 25 y.o. AAA SS's with a .790 minors OPS: Shay Whitcomb and a .720 minors OPS: Jesus Bastidas. Wouldn't at least one of these guys be available in trade? If Harris looks around, and tries to swing a deal... I would guess that he could land SOMEONE that might be an option at SS... even if they aren't an All-Star SS... who cares. A 2 WAR SS is a vast improvement over Javier Baez. I'm just sayin'...

In other words... You want me to construct a trade for you just so you can shoot it down. No thanks.

It does not have to be an unknown gem. It can be straight up talent for talent. Ore one Org has needs in one area while we have needs in a different area that matches up. There's no need to "Win" the trade or show up another Org. Ideally both teams win (getting what they need) but that doesn't always work hence the media fixation with "winning a trade". I'll give a different example: John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander. We got what we wanted, what we needed... and Atlanta got what they wanted. Whether there was some winner in there (Atlanta wins on WAR... but Smoltz may have not developed in Detroit to that level...); or Detroit is simply satisfied with what Alexander provided that (and subsequent) seasons in 1987 and nothing else matters... We do not have to "WIN" a trade... we just need to get a player that we need or like and give up something else that the other team needs. That's it.

I'm getting really tired of everyone saying "You CAN'T do this and you CAN'T do that..." Seriously? Alex is 100% right. Harris needs to make trades where he sees it as appropriate for the Org. Otherwise, you're telling us we're NOT ALLOWED to trade for Malloy and NOT ALLOWED to trade for Lee. Seriously? Bull****. You guys are being contrarian just for the ****-sake of being contrarian. It's beyond annoying. Where we have holes... Harris has to have the ability to make a trade or sign a FA. That's it. That's the bottom line. To put together a contending team... Harris has to be able to put together a contending team. Being contrarian to that is simply being asinine. IMO.

So what you're telling us is Detroit is not allowed to make trades?

You trade Austin Meadows for Isaac Paredes.

Stealing this from another thread... I think this is the most important thing for Tork: And I think that goes for his fielding too... not just the bat.

Beware of something called Pyrite. Fool's Gold. Tork...?

Beautiful! Well said and I'm in 100% agreement.