Tiger337

He would have gotten one this year. Everybody gets a shot at third.

I have long suspected that Fidrych's injury was caused more by overuse than trying to compensate for his knee injury. Probably Rozema too.

Thanks for pumping up my adopted Tiger all year.

That's a six-game swing, so it might help slightl, but the number one thing will be willingness to spend. I don't expect them to pursue top free agents who are 30 years old. I doubt they'll get him as a bunch of teams will want him, but I'd love to see them aggressively pursue Yamamoto. Short of that, I'd like them to show they are willing to spend now that Cabrera and Rodriguez will be off the payroll. I hear that Jung Hoo Lee can control the strike zone!

I agree it needs to be worked out, but with starters going 5 or 6 innings in every start, you can count on the 7th 8th and 9th innings being open everyday and sometimes more than that. Knowing that, you can kind of schedule your long men ahead of time.

That's how it should be every year now. I want them to try to be reasonably competitive next year. I don't want to hear any more "Harris has to see what he has so they can't do anything" talk. They can try to be competitive and build for the future at the same time.

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.