Tiger337

I am not too worried about Torkelson's defense. He has poor range, but can catch throws from infielders. Statistically, it seems he was close to average last year. This year he is below average, but has been trending better as of late. I don't think there is enough there to definitively say he's a bad fielder who needs to DH. I am more concerned about his hitting, although indications are that he'll improve.

Yes, they do factor that in, but 3% still seems too low. Still, I don't think their odds are high enough where they should think about winning this year when making deadline deals.

Another Royal Tiger

Ranking in the Tigers top 30 will always get you lots of attention in Tigers social media.

Lynn Jones?

I was surprised that he only played one game for two reasons. First, he was talked about so much on this board. Second, I get him confused with his father.

They have the population to support a team, but they don't have the stadium. Lowell, MA has the same problem.

Not a great team.

Looking back since 2017 when the Tigers started being terrible, I can not tell you which teams won the World Series each year, but I know which franchises were the most successful without looking - Astos, Dodgers, Yankees , Red Sox, Braves, Rays, Indians, Cardinals. Going back and looking I see that I only missed the Brewers (in terms of most wins during that period).

I have just gotten to the point where I don't really care about the playoffs that much. I am more interested iin them having a good team that can consistently win around 90 games like they had during the Dombrowski years. It would have been nice if they had won the crapshoot one of those years but not winning the post-season tournament didn't make them a failure in my eyes.

I am in the minority as I think most fans would agree with you. However, I just wouldn't see a team that played .500 ball for a 162 games as a real champion. Sure, I'd be entertained by the playoff run, but I would look back and know that they were a mediocre team that got lucky in the end. It would be a different feeling for me from 1984 when they were a great team from start to finish and unquestionably the best in baseball.

It would be a really weak division title and even if they somehow managed to win the World Series, that's not the way I want it to happen. When they win it all some day, I want it to be with a great memorable team.

It probably depends on your offense too, but it definitely makes sense in general.

Someone did a study of hockey goalies who were hot and cold and determined that inconsistency was preferable to consistency in the team's win total. Tango theorized that the same was true of pitchers. You figure a team is going to win most of the starts when a starting pitcher gives up 0 or 1 run, but giving up an average number of runs every game is not going to be as good especially if the team can't hit. Tango explained it as the difference between 1 run and 4 runs is bigger than the difference between 4 runs and 7 runs. You are going to lose most of the 4-7 run games, but your chances of winning goes up a lot when you go from 4 runs to 1 run. So, you want to get as many of those really low run games as you can even if you have games where you get pounded.

LOL, Baez. They set up the last two pitches about a foot outside.

True. I am thinking more of the organization's mantra of positional versatility in general. If your roster is set up so that you have multiple guys playing all over the place, it may help you with offensive platoons but you also might be sacrificing defense.

I believe it's hard to excel at multiple positions in the same season. It's nice to have positional versatility, but there may be such a thing as overusing it.

The 70s... Brian Downing.

I agree he should be at 2B nost often, but I really doubt what position he plays affects his OPS much if at all.

Well, if he doesn't make a decision in the next few weeks, then the decision would have been made for him!

I wouldn't be opposed to an extension, but prior to this year he had a history of injuries so I don't know that he is in great physical shape. You are always taking a chance with pitchers on multi-year deals, but it's a chance you can take if you anticipate contention over the course of the deal.

Yes, the play doesn't tell me anything about his skills. Cabrera can probably make one play like that if he gets lucky.

I don't know where he started at the beginning of the play, but based on the timing of the video and the fact that he was waiting for the ball at third base, I would guess that he was shaded very far towards the third base line to start the play. You really can't tell anything about his ability from one play.

I'd vote for a petrified dinosaur bone over Donald Trump. I don't like that Biden is so old, but all the other main candidates are so awful that there is no choice other than Biden. I am still hoping somebody reasonable and younger emerges.