Tiger337

"You can't believe everything you read on the internet" is as true as "you can never have too much pitching"

Chance of making the majors 25% Chance of having a 2 WAR season 5%

At this point, I'd be surprised if there was any serious mutual interest in any of the big free agents. I think the only way they might get one is if one of them is still out there in Februray and decides to sign a creative shorter term deal with opt outs.

King is very talented, but had a rough year due to an injury which is why is probably why his statcast card looks bad. The uncertainty is the reason the Tigers might have a chance at him. The other issue is that they would have to give up a draft pick. Edman said it would probably be a third rounder. I wouldn't care about that, but others might disagree.

I am pretty sure there are no Avila fans here. I think if we had a vote on who was the better GM, it would be at least 95% Harris. The only reason I won't say 100% is because I'm a statistician. I believe Harris would also win a vote over Dombrowski. What some people would like is a GM with Harris's brain and long-term commitment but with Dombrowki's boldness.

Definitely don't want Harris fired...but

I think it would only be a third round pick. However, I understand your point. Somebody might do that, but probably not Harris.

I think the only way the Tigers sign a good free agent is if some pitcher is not happy with his offers and signs a one year show me deal with a team with a good pitching coach and a pitchers park. Michael King?

Only when they win the World Series.

Most of you argument here sounds ridiculous to me, but I'll address the part about player development which is the only way I can see where Harris might have contributed to players already here. Which players did Harris develop and in what way? Greene and Carpenter were pretty well developed prior to Harris. Torkelson figured things out on his own working with someone outside the organization. I guess you could say Dingler, but what's your evidence? What did he do for Manning and Mize? Skubal was already getting good prior to Harris and Fetter is widely credited with his becoming elite. Your argument just seems completely biased to me.

Because then they wouldn't get the minor leaguer from the Blue Jays who is going to be a star.

These kinds of "free" players are always worth a shot. I'm mostly just joking about the injured pitcher thing.

Smith objectively had minimal impact on the 2006 Tigers unless you think Inge was the heart and soul of the team. There is really no case you can make that the 2006 team was Smith's team. There is no grey area. There is plenty of grey area regarding Avila versus Harris. Avila provided the manager, the players and the pitching coach. Harris added hardly anything in terms of new players, so this makes the comparison less clear cut than Dombrowski/ Smith. Your argument is all based on intangibles - development and culture - which are probably somewhat true but the extent is questionable and impossible to prove. My argument here is that if Harris acquired the Randy Smith team and made the same level of contribution he had made to this team, they would not have made the playoffs.

Looking at the top 12 WAR players, Inge is the only one acquired by Randy Smith.

I don't agree with that at all. He'd like to have a great team and he may get one eventually. I'm just saying that his impact on the 2024-2025 is being overstated.

I know this by seeing that the manager and almost all the key players on the 2006 roster were acquired by Dombrowski. Dombrowski tore the team apart and built a winner in 4 years.

Chas, last time this argument came up, you provided a chart that showed that attendance or television viewership went up with more victories. Do you still have that? KL seems to be suggesting that you either have a championship caliber team or not and nothing below that will affect fan interest. I don't believe that is true.

Dombrowski had a lot more to do with winning in 2006 than Harris did in 2025. At the same time, I think Harris has a very good chance to be a better GM long-term than Dombrowski.

The Tigers are all set. They just got their injured pitcher:

We didn't even get socks. They took away our tramsistor radio as a punishment and then gave it back as a gift for Christmas.

Still need to sign an injured pitcher.

Yes, in one lost year, it is good to get a high pick, but if it requires gutting your organization to do so, that's going to lead to several lost years. It worked for the Astros, but it doesn't usually work that well.

Chas and I are agreeing on something again. Feels good. 😄

Not the kind of re-building where your team is crap for 3 or more years. That's not necessary.

Average is deceptive, because there is a small number of top players that inflate it. The median player is much closer to zero. It is good to get high picks, but the value gets overstated. I don't believe the risk/reward is worth going through multiple years of crap teams to try to get good again.