Tiger337

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

That might be true at the tippy top of the class, but the right now the 90th overall pick gets a million dollars right off the bat, and I'm not sure that would be the case if it were an wide-open free agent situation. As it is, the top guy got $9 million, so I don't know that a bidding war—if one were to develop in the first place—would have pushed that much higher.

I think teams would offer substantially more than the current limits if there was a free market.  The top players would make a lot more and I think the 90th guy could still get a million. A million isn't that much now.    

6 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I consider myself a decently-educated baseball person, and I don't really understand how this works. If anyone can explain, I'd appreciate it.

I am not well versed in the CBA, but if there were not a draft, I assume there would be be bidding wars over the top players in the country.  As it stands now, a player can only sign with the team who drafts him and a team is limited in how much money they can offer.  

Quote

They are a neuroscientist, a software engineer, a laboratory assistant, a registered nurse, and an economics major. All were facing deportation.

All things that MAGA hates.  

When I see the name Ledbetter, I remember Jeff Ledbetter who broke the NCAA home run record with 42 in 1982, was drafted in the first round by the Red Sox and was hyped like he was going to be the next Babe Ruth.  He never even made the majors and was dubbed Jeff "Bedwetter".  

6 hours ago, chasfh said:

His market was ****. That's why he fell to Cincinnati for a single year. At least the team is a devil he knows. I for one am glad Harris didn't sell the farm off to get him last year.

He knows Detroit too! But not very well.  I didn't want him.  He doesn't fit the team well. I was pushing for Bregman last year because he was a perfect fit.  Suarez isn't.  

24 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

Glad to see the Reds spend that $$ and not the Tigers.  Once the Tigers win on Weds and use the savings to sign Valdez the mood around here should improve.

That would be great.  I'd be interested in him too, but I was figuring they wouldn't pursue him.   

On 1/31/2026 at 12:54 AM, Deleterious said:

Fed Chair nominee appears in the latest Epstein file drop. 

Doesn't look like anything bad, at least not yet. Just attending a few dinner parties. 

A Fed Chair nominee would never have anything bad in his backgrlound.  

Trump doesn't like voting in person because he doesn't know how to use the machines.

26 minutes ago, tiger2022 said:

If there isn't a salary floor, then I'm all for eliminating the draft.  I understand it is to help bottom feeders, but those teams typically do nothing to improve their roster. Why should someone like Skenes be exiled to a team with an owner that doesn't even try to put a competitive team on the field?

I know, I know, the Yankees and Dodgers, but people act like the people who own other teams don't have billions of dollars laying around.  They just don't want to spend any of it.

I have always believed that the purpose of the draft was to keep salaries of young players down more than to help bad teams.    

The only remaining pitcher I am really interested in is Bassitt.  Other teams will be interested too.  He may be waiting it out to see how many years he can get.

Eugenio Suarez signs with the Reds - 15 million with a mutual option for a second year.  

42 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Maybe not. Although they seem pretty comfortable with Noem calling shots. To be continued ...

She just an extension of Trump though.  If they rally around her, it's because of Trump.  

1 minute ago, chasfh said:

For anyone seeking to become the first trillionaire, $10 billion can never, by definition, be enough.

He'll never make it.  He's too dumb and wasteful.  

4 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I think the thing with MTG is that she is a true believer in a way that transcends Trump. She still believes that QAnon is real, that Democrats are evil baby-blood drinking monsters who are embedded deep into the Epstein rot, that there are Jewish space lasers, and more. But her true belief is not subject to Donald Trump's whims as it is with maybe, I don't know, 90 or 95% of the other people we regard in that camp as being "true believers". She was willing to completely break with Trump in support of her true belief. That makes her dangerous in a different and possibly worse way because she has a force of personality that has the potential to rally millions of crazy low- and no-information people to her cause. She can't do that today, obviously, but once Trump dies, those people are going to be looking for a new avatar, and I promise you they won't rally under the flag of Just Dumb Vance.

I don't think they will rally behind a woman either.  

Just now, NorthWoods said:

A spare in frame 1 followed by striking out is also a 290.   

This sounds like 2024 Tigers versus 2025 Tigers.  One feels better than the other, but the result is the same.  

5 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Politics makes strange bedfellows, very strange indeed. Here's Majorie Taylor Green. And for once? I believe her. Yes, very strange;

 

 

Of course, "friends" means "people who are useful to him".  Everything is transactional with him.    

It does sound fake, but she always sounds fake. As you said, she has said this stuff before though.  

19 hours ago, chasfh said:

Yeah, it makes some sense. It’s a bummer. They’re not very bright, though, so, hopefully it backfires on them.

Which might save us

47 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Yeah - I don't like it either. I've always felt like if you are not actively getting better, you are getting worse. With a young team maybe you can bank on some improvement, but most of these guys are now already what they are going to be, maybe Dingler has some upside and maybe McGonigle makes the team and impresses, but OTOH, you can bank that some other guys are going to have worse seasons than the last one. Bottom line you should be working to upgrade the bottom 3 guys in your batting ordet, your #4/5 starters every single year, and your BP every single year. 

As a team that won 86-87 games the last two years, I feel as if they are at a point where even 2-3 wins of improvement can substantially increase their probability of success.  Thus it seems like a good time to be adding a good established player or two.  I'm not really expecting that to happen anymore though.   

I remember when bowling was popular in the 70s.  I didn't play enough to get good at it, but it was fun to go once in a while, ugly uncomfortable shoe rentals and all!.  There used to be two alleys in town  - one really big one which everybody went to and another tiny one that looked like somebody's basement.  The big alley is long gone.  The five-lane basement alley is still there - almost 100 years old.  

20 minutes ago, guy incognito said:

yeah, I was thinking something similar.  Why would they release something horrible like this if it's true?  Release something unbelievable which they are able to sufficiently debunk to their base, and the whole story dies.  Keep the real stuff under wraps.  

4 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Derek Jeter is exhibit one for the fact that defense is nice, but hitting is nicer.

 

There is little doubt about that, but I don't think hitting is something that is underrated very often.  It's more likely to be fielding.  

There's a spot open in my fantasy curling league if anyone interested.  We don't use traditional categories though.  It's sabermetric.  

2 minutes ago, Screwball said:

We are not far away. I gave up on baseball. They brought me back a couple of years ago when they went nuts in the second half. Then I found out about Skubal. As an old pitching fan kind of guy, I loved to watch him work. What a treat. So I'm kind of hooked again.

I did the bucket list thing in 2019 and went to Lakeland for a ST game. Booked them the first day - great seats - great trip. Would have liked to see of the old picture in the clubhouse with a cleat mark in it was still there. Shoe thrown by Mr. Leyland. He was my guy.

I'm still here so they have a chance to win one more before I'm in a urinal. 

Florida traffic sucks. 

 

My father and I went to Lakeland for Spring training several times.  It's something every tiger should experience at least once if they get the chance.  You are right about the traffic  Getting from the airport to Lakeland is not fun, but I love the park (and especially the back fields) and love the warm weather after a cold winter.   

43 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Yes, stone, my mistake. Not sure about the Harris thing. I might have confused myself.

The Harris thing was just a joke.  Most of what we talk about in the off-season is about what Scott Harris is doing or not doing.  Nothing much has been happening lately, so we have gone off on tangents.  

40 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

They have already targeted Haitians in Massachusetts.  One of my students had his whole family deported last year.  He gets to stay because he was born here.  Lucky for them, they were sent to Canada instead of Haiti.  I don't know the details.