Dan Gilmore

The pitching side of things last year was a mix of bad and good. Injuries to the rotation, but decent fill in service from low expectation arms, plus a strong BP. I wouldn’t say things need to go perfectly there to contend in the next four years. It’s the other side that was and likely is the big problem. If Tork, Meadows and Schoop all repeat 2022 next year, and Carpenter and Baddoo never achieve the success they have flashed, it will be a long haul. Or require lots of outside talent coming in. If several of those guys are good in 2023, the team will still be bad, but I don’t have the feeling of gloom that will last on into the decade.

How many teams are ignoring the luxury tax, or did that change enough in the latest CBA that it has no teeth? I thought that the Dodgers were the only club that didn’t pay attention to the tax due to the enormous revenues. And the other high payroll teams at least made attempts to stay below some of the time and limit the tax. Some of the recent splurges..

My take is that while pleased to see Joe J finally show consistent good outings this year, his history (and that of BPs in general) argues he shouldn’t be counted on to perform that well going forward. And with 2023 being a year where contending seems out of reach even with some upgrades, why not cash in on his 2022 year to get a hitter with real skills? Malloy may never do much. But he does seem to know how to hit. I hope they use this next year to determine if 3B is a possibility for him, splitting time with games in LF. Even if he were to end up as a DH in a couple years, that could be good value for a year of Joe.

Agreed. I think the meetings often just set a preliminary contact/discussion on signing that will be followed up on later (or not). The top FAs get the press, but most will sign later. So I am patient, but also a bit bothered by the high price tags so far.

It’s not binary Chas- either done done (whatever that means statistically) or two-plus-war. I think he could very well fall somewhere in the middle, with a war between .7 and 1.5. The former, not worth keeping, the latter, kinda maybe. Since he had his best year after the greatly reduced workload in 2020, maybe he does have nagging issues that subside when he gets ton of rest and rehab. Guess we’ll see what the future holds.

I’m going to keep on this. The 2020 season was not a full year. Jeimer got 185 ABs in 2020. Yes, those were high production ABs, but only constitute about a third of a regular “year”. I am not in the camp that was glad to see him go. If they had paid him the 7 mil to stay, I wouldn’t have been upset. Just quit using the small sample size of 2020 as if it counts the same when throwing out his performance or expectations for the future. /rant

I think Brieski was called up due to injury long before the normal, ideal development curve. That he didn’t crash and burn means something positive to me. Not that he’s a good pitcher, just one who exceeded my expectations under fire.

Plus you get double points in the MCC - Monkey Cage Club!

Can we stop treating 2020 performance as if it was a normal, full season?

I would like to bring up Candelario’s old wrist injury again. None of us know his medical records that the team has. Maybe they know he has a lingering problem that make it more likely he has years like 2022 in his future, not the 2, 3, or 4 WAR that some here think is a strong likelihood. I guess we’ll see how things turn out, but a doubt the decision was significantly based on money.

So I’m thinking you don’t actually have to catch them all.

The core MAGA delusionals aside, I think the power of stop the steal has lost a lot of its impact on independent voters and the small segment of Republicans that didn’t buy the Big Lie, but voted for deniers. At some point it becomes an albatross to keep claiming fraud and never coming up with evidence of same.

Nuts on top of crazy on top WTF.

Agreed. Any team, including good ones, can have a Castro, or a Reyes as a backup. A backup that sees limited playing time, best stashed at AAA. The list shows the Tigers had a bunch of those guys (plus others of similar value) on rosters for years.

You lost some weight and found it in a pair of pants that fit you again? Congrats.

Are you really counting Oregon State (three wins total in 1986) as a tough opponent?

No timeline on Vrana? He and Bert are big missing pieces. I thought Vrana was a long term thing, but don’t recall details.

Well smote ball.

Are you saying corporations aren’t people? 😎

Gettin’ more of the gang back together. 👍

The cookie store is three blocks from my office (before I went remote).

When my daughter was about eleven or so, she came up with the idea to be a tub of spackling compound for a costume. I was very pleased to assist in making it happen. She is a bit non-traditional.

I am interested in what the new guy says about why they wanted Paredes. Did they see anything that could be of value to the Tigers, when applied to other players or the system. Not expecting anything especially, and doubt there is any dirt on Meadows fitness.

It will be nice to have insight the Rays perspective on the Paredes deal.

😊