Tiger337

There is still a chance to win the division.

I would say given who they have right now, he'd make the roster. That could change depending what acquistions they make in the off-season and which prospects are ready to make the jump to the Majors.

I don't think players will be hoodwinked by a second place finish when they know that they are the the 10th best team in the league. That is just something teams use to market to casual fans. Losing teams, including the Tigers, have signed top free agents before. Whether or not that would be a good idea for the Tigers is another question.

I doubt that finishing second or losing 89 instead of 90 is going to sway players at all. They will care whether the organization has improved and whether they are seriously building to win in the future. I suspect they get their impressions from talking to other players rather than looking at records.

Yeah, I don't see any reason why Ibanez would not be back next year. Hopefully not as a a regular though.

I don't worry as much about age with pitchers. I know there is an aging curve, but I suspect the confidence interval around the curve is a lot wider for pitchers than hitters.

How about a long reliever who pitches 2 or 3 innings per appearance? I have often wondered why there are so many regular starters who throw 150+ innings and so many relievers who throw 60-70 innings, but not so many in between (not be design anyway). I would think there are more pitchers who could thrive in roles where they pitch 40-50 games and throw around 100 innings.

That's good. A franchise that isn't even trying to win should not get the #1 pick.

They would know. He had his peak party years with them.

But he'd leave with their money.

That sounds like an Ozzie Guillen ploy.

He seems to hate everything about America except for the fact he can profit from it.

All high level politicians (both parties) lie frequently. Some lie more than others. some have limits to their lying. Some know when to stop lying. Some don't distinguish between fantasy and reality.

LOL, good luck with that. It's not worth paying for unless you are trying to build your brand. I know I'm never paying for it. I can live with getting my baseball news a few hours after everyone else.

He's the 5th starter if the season started tomorrow. I am hoping they acquire someone with a track record in the off-season. They need at least 7 capable starters anyway.

I might have tried it when I was younger, but the statistical revoultion is baseball had not started at that time. Later, I was already established and making good money and reasonably happy, so there was no reason to experiment a stat analyst job in another field. Plus, as I get older, I get the feeling that a job in sports probably isn't as fun as it seems. It's still a data job. You're just applying it to a different field. I don't know that it would actually feel like a "baseball job".

Any data point is somewhat useful, but I think you actually need a couple of years full time at a position before you can get any real confidence.

The Tigers had two of those unicorns at the same time. Too bad they let them go.

I just don't know how well the metrics work on a bunch of small sample sizes. I think you'd need several years of data on someone like that.

We can expect him to acquire some devils he knows from his Cubs days.

Skubal seems to be the ace. The concern with him is that he seems like an injury risk. Having him be Freddy Peralta (someone who is very good but always seems to be on the verge of an injury) is not the worst thing though.

We just need to know who to blame when they don't get the players we want. The media will probably decide that.

That's why it's pencil and not pen. He has earned a chance to show what he can do for another year (or as long as he keeps pitching well).

I thought they might keep him based on his age. His walk rate, while still not good, is adequate this year. It is hard to judge fielding of mult-position guys with small samples at every position, but defense was a problem for him in the past, He is playing mostly OF and 3B, so maybe that works for him like Vierling.

Sale also have over 100 wins. He may have been on the IL when you heard it.