Tiger337

38 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

WAR is sort of cruel to 1Bs. He was over 2 OWar in '23 and '25 but got pulled down by DWar numbers, which we've talked about a lot for 1Bs. It's just a place where in my view the stat is detached from reality. Torkelson's play at 1B is does not cost the Tigers wins or negate his offense. He is simply not a bad 1B and whatever his dWAR thinks it  is capturing, I don't care about it (e.g I'm not asking him to play SS!)  and I'm willing to bet the analysis the Tigers use internally doesn't either.

I'm not sure how you want to fix that.  Do you want to get rid of positional adjustments and ignore position in evalualting a player or do you think that the positional adjustment for first basemen in particular is too harsh?  I can't really justify the former, but the latter is possible.  

9 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

Le Grand Red was a Wizard at 1B.

He was strictly a DH with the Tigers.  He played a little 1B after he left the Tigers.  He didn't play enough there for me to have an opinion on how good he was, but his career didn't last as long as it did for his defensive skills.  Early in his career, he was a decent right fielder.  

51 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

If you 'incentivize' longer starts, you'll just destroy more arms. It's not the players, it's the game.

Maybe, but it seems like there are just as many (if not more) injuries now than there was in the past.    

9 minutes ago, tiger2022 said:

If they allowed another roster spot, it would just be another pitcher in all likelihood

I doubt it.  I believe they would be more likely to reduce pitchers to 12 max.  Manfred is not happy about the increasingly shorter starts and there has been talk about incentivizing longer starts.  They'll probably do something stupid, but I don't think more pitchers will be the answer.  

11 minutes ago, chasfh said:

A bigger roster would degrade the quality of big league play because, by necessity, they’d have to conclude players on the roster considered not good enough to make them now. So would expansion, for that matter. The $64 question is, can the game withstand such quality decrease? Meaning, is the quality of play high now, versus historical norms? I think it is, but it would be more so with more balls in play than there is now.

Adding a roster spot solely as a negotiation chip might degrade the quality of play slighthly, but adding a player in order to allow more strategic substitution without worrying about running out of players, might improve the quality of play.  

Teams carry substantially more pitchers than they used to carry and it has not necessarily degraded quality of play.  One could argue that top starters sometimes get pulled to soon, but in general fresh relievers pitch better than tired starters.  One could also argue that bigger pitching staffs have contributed to higher strikeout totals and has necessitated all or nothing batting approaches.  That might be considered a degration of quality aesthetically, but not in performance.  

11 hours ago, NorthWoods said:

True enough and I'm old enough to remember the 1972 strike so I've been around for all of them.  I just get the sense that there enough owners out there willing to hold out for a cap that it could create an extended standoff.   Hard to believe?   Yes, but then again I never would have believed the 2 sides would allow an entire post season to be cancelled.

On the positive side it would seem that the owners offering 2 expansion franchises with the accompanying additional jobs and maybe a permanent 26 man roster spot might be enough to get to a deal.  The strikes in general benefit the top players more than the rank and file, it would seem they would vote their own interests.

They already have a 26-man roster, but with teams carrying 13 pitchers and platooning back in style around MLB, I'd like to see more than that. 

39 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I just used 2/28 and 2/35 as an example, rather than my personal benchmark for signing him. I was going off memory and didn't remember that MLBTR is projecting 2/38.

So let's revise what I said earlier to this:

I believe if hypothetically the Tigers offered Bassitt 2/38 and the best of the usual suspects offered him 2/36, he'd take the 2/36. I think in a case like that, we'd have to go way bigger, something like 2/44 or better, to win him.

Which, by the way, would make Bassitt way more highly-paid than Skubal, whom they are trying to pay $19 million. Imagine how well that would go over in the clubhouse.

Flaherty and Cobb both made more than Skubal last year.  

2 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

No one would ever come to the Tigers.

Once they come to Detroit, they seem to want to stay - Flaherty, Torres, Finnegan.  So, it must not be be such a terrible place to play.  

2 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Just about every good player who has options to sign with any of the top eight teams in baseball, yes, I do.

Bassitt is not exactly a premiere free agent, not at his age.  He's not getting 9 figures.  He'll likely take the best offer he gets even if it's the Tigers.  

Not sure whether I agree or disagree with this, but this post on bluesky is beautiful.  My feeling is I don't care which side wins.  Nothing they do is going to make the game better for the fans anyway.  That sentiment is also covered in Joe's post.    

7 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

OK...

Since I'm not seeing much answer in here to my question...

I am just going to Adopt-a-Tiger and report on his progress this season...

Feel FREE to join in whoever has an interest in doing so...!

Could be a very interesting season this year, as more of Harris's guys percolate up to Detroit, or at least AAA, several pitchers coming back from injury, Rainer returning from injury...

But I'm going to go with an unknown minor leaguer that we just signed (I love those long shots...):

Inohan Paniagua.

26 years old, out of the Dominican Republic, 6' 1", 150 #'s... Has never pitched above High-A.

INOHAN PANIAGUA!!!!!!!!!!! TOP TEN PROSPECT BY END OF SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was going to take Harris, but CHAS already too him. 

I am taking Dugan Darnell.  He will get the save in game 7 of the 2026 World Series.   

1 minute ago, NorthWoods said:

True enough and I'm old enough to remember the 1972 strike so I've been around for all of them. 

Me too.  I was 9 years old and could not comprehend how baseball players could go on strike.  It was a like an end to my baseball innocence.  

10 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Once the Dodgers sign Skubal at the end of the season, they'll have more AAV to 3 players:Tucker, Ohtani and Skubal; than the total payroll of maybe 20 teams.

I think there are diminishing returns at this point.  

Every time the CBA expires, there is talk about bitterness on both sides are and how the season is going to be lost, but we haven't had a lot season in 30 years other than the Covid season.  Why is this time going to be different?  

18 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I'm not at all saying I would not want to sign Bassitt, but I will say I think the Tigers won't sign Bassitt and that Bassitt probably wouldn't choose to come here, unless his market dries up.

You say that about every player though.  😀

58 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Maybe. I think it’s not a bad bet that one of those six will be better than Bassitt, though. Melton may be the best bet, Olson if he can stay heathy, Anderson as a wild card, SGL as a dark horse.

It would still be a good signing unless two of them are better than Bassitt.  

55 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Blow it up, man.    That upcoming CBA has to change things.  This is ridiculous.    If it means losing a season, then do it.     This is crazy. 

No way do I want to lose a season.  I am too old for that.  It's going to to be fun meeting the Dodgers in the World Series some year and beating them.  

26 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Nobody has enough.

Baseball's trueist truism.  

6 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

If you don't think you have too much starting pitching, you probably don't have enough. 

And if you do think you have too much, you still probably don't have enough.   

5 hours ago, chasfh said:

I think you’d agree that the big league roster has been in much better shape since 2024 than it was in August 2022

Sure, but it's still mostly players that were acquired from the previous administration.   Nobody can say with certainty how much those players would have progressed under a different GM (and I'm not just talking about Avila).  I would think that Harris had some influence on the development, but it's impossible to know how much.  His acquisitions at the major league level have not particularly impressed me so far.  

32 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I was talking about Bassitt. It’s right in the quote in your post.

I was referring to the first sentence in your post.  

2 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Has Bassitt signed elsewhere? I haven’t seen that yet.

I think the Tigers believe they are in pretty good shape with the rotation. Skubal, Flaherty, Mize are definite; the other two slots are slated to be filled by two of Olson, Anderson, Madden, Melton, Keider, and SGL. Possibly Jaden Hamm? And by the end of the year we should see Jobe make an appearance. That’s eleven guys on the list, so I think I’d be surprised to see them go after an established rotation guy.

What you qouted was about Suarez.  Bassitt has not signed.  I disagree that the Tigers rotation is in good shape for a team looking to make the playoffs.  I'd like to see one more definite.  

3 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

ah - should have looked closer! 

It does sound lke Eugenio is going to the Red Sox soon though.

23 minutes ago, casimir said:

Quarter zips are comfortable, especially fleece ones over a polo in the wintertime.

I wear quarter zips too.  I was just setting up my striped polo reference.  

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I figure Eugenio for 2 more productive years tops So he did really well to score a $65M AAV.  🙄 

It was Ranger Suarez