Motor City Sonics

Our two 1-1's might finally being showing it.

He just need to unplug this offseason. He needed to get away from it all.

Exactly. HALF the teams make the playoffs and it's been a decade? That's pathetic.

There goes the playoffs. That was it. Tired of this. Yzerman is failing.

Tork is hitting .438. Did you know if he keeps at this pace, he's going to finish the season hitting .438?

Hey, I think a lot of us now realize that Avila had an eye for talent, but no idea about the right way or staff to develop the talent. If Al had the current method/coaches, some of the guys that missed, might not have missed. I worried that it was both not recognizing AND not developing because the track record for position players going all the way back to Randy Smith was dismal. That includes Dombrowski who painted over his failures with fat contracts and a desperate-to-win owner. We all bemoan Chris Illitch as cheap, but hold on - he is spending, but not really on the payroll side of it. They are taking a bit of the Rays approach, but they can't go full Rays because Tiger fans would not tolerate it the way the limited Tampa fanbase does. If they get close, I mean 1 or 2 players away, he may spend the money to go for it. We're just nowhere near that right now. I know we have Max, Kevin, Thayron and Bryce on the way, but we need to be honest with ourselves - if we go 2 for 4 there, we're doing better than most teams would. Best case is probably 1 player is a star and 2 of those other 3 are serviceable major leaguers. Wish it wasn't like that, but it pretty much is.

Justyn-Henry Malloy (R) RF Riley Green (L) LF Spencer Torkelson (R) 1B Kerry Carpenter (L) DH Max Clark (L) CF Kevin McGonigle (L) SS Tharyon Liranzo (S) C Javier Baez (R) 3B Zach McKinstry (L) 2B

And by the way, these legal Torpedo Bats. Why the hell didn't anyone think of this sooner? I mean, it's RIGHT THERE !

Torpedo Bats. For only for the Yankees, Mets and Dodgers (because they need help)

18 runs for the Cubs. Losing all that foul territory might not favor the A's pitchers. They had to get 4 - 6 outs per game from that.

My game-simulator is saying Jobe pitches 5 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 ER

Well, they didn't really make too many changes. Torres and Margot on the hittin' side. We're getting the one starter from Seattle that wasn't All-Star level last year. Better make it count.

Manny Margot BA .556, OBP .500

Confirmed Lineup DH J. Malloy R LF K. Carpenter L CF Riley Greene L 1B S. Torkelson R 2B Colt Keith L RF Z. McKinstry L C D. Dingler R SS Trey Sweeney L 3B Javier Baez R

Well, if Keith continues looking so lost and Malloy continues what he's doing..........maybe a swap would be in order.

But if that were me and Duke was in the championship game - the casino would probably offer you a very nice sum of money to walk away, like 80 grand. I'd just take that and say Thank You. And then take some of that money and bet on Duke to win and then you can make a little more. Yes, you could say I could have won 168K but you still won 80K.

I saw Herb Alpert (and the current version of the Tijuana Brass) last Tuesday at Masonic Temple in Detroit. He's gonna be 90 tomorrow and he put on a great show. It was great. You never know when you might not get the chance to see legends like that. But I don't think he's done. He can still blow the trumpet pretty strong and he moves well and he's sharp as a tack mentally. . His trick to maybe avoid getting winded is after 2 or 3 songs he opens things up for questions from the audience, and it's really cool. Not only does he have his own music history, but he owned a major record label, so he's got a million stories. At one point his wife, Lani Hall came out and sang a medley of Brasil '66 songs, which was awesome too. I got to hear Mas Que Nada live with the original singer !!!! I am sure my teenage self would have never thought I'd like Herb Alpert music and be excited to see him in concert, but my teenage self had underdeveloped taste, like most of us.

Meanwhile, down on the farm - Matt Matting is completely broken.

The league really hurt the Tigers with this scheduling. Why aren't the Dodgers playing a rival or divisional foe to start the real season. Then we have to go to Seattle where we always struggle. Might be starting out 0-6 while playing halfway decent baseball. It doesn't help that our pitchers have to throw it right down the middle to get a strike and theirs don't. I know the pitch-framing catchers (and Rogers is one of the best) would lose a lot of value, but they can't implement the ABS. Tigers were getting squeezed the whole series and then that play at the plate. I thought you needed CLEAR evidence to overturn a call? This league wants the Dodgers to set a record. They want that 117 for their big star (who illegally gambled).

and it starts already. Ugh. Who are we going to get to replace him to stand at the plate and watch pitches outside the strike zone get called strikes tonight?

Did I miss something. Is Torres hurt? Hitting .429 and he's being rested today? 2 games in with an off day tomorrow and he's being rested? That is odd.

I remember Transvision Vamp? What is her name, Wendy James, or something like that?

Is that the play in Chicago? Oh my god, cue the Benny Hill yakety sax music. I thought Dave Collins was a terrible outfielder and then I saw Delmon Young play.

It's strange, though. I almost feels like they did get generational talent in Cade THIS year. The combination of bad teams, injuries and coaches stifling his development meant we didn't get to see the real Cade until this year. And man, he erased any doubts about being a 1/1. Another thing to remember is that Jaden Ivey was having a very good year and they lost him and now they've won 3 in a row without Cade and without Tobias last night, who's been a veteran stabilizer. The Dennis Schroder add has been quietly great. They are absolutely a story and right now, if things lock in like they are, it's Pistons vs. Pacers. Two teams that hate each other. This might be the best Grudge playoff series we've had since the Wings heyday. I know they didn't beat the Pacers this year, but the team now is not the same team from earlier in the year. Plus, the kind of excitement that's building with the team and around Cade might mean they attract some decent talent in the offseason. They have plenty of space to sign their guys and add more. Cade is now a guy that other players want to come play alongside. I mean, they are resting him, over a bruise, and they are still winning. What a story this year. I don't know how they do in a 7 game series against the big 3 (Boston, Cleveland and New York), but they have beaten all 3 this year. Can any other team claim that? (I'm not doing a deep dive like that, but with Cleveland and Boston having so few losses, I have doubts)

There shouldn't even be an argument, J.B. Bickerkstaff is Coach Of The Year. Sorry, OKC