Tiger337

No, it's been around since 2012. It doesn't happen too often.

Have members of congress always been as stupid as they are today? I never used to pay as much attention. I know they've always said dumb things to please their base, but the abject stupidity is stunning.

Conversely, Comerica Park has deep fences, but had average home run factors for many years. The last couple years, the home run factors have been down, so maybe it's finally playing to its size.

They can only trade competitive balance picks.

Tropicana Field is a a tough place to hit home runs. Comerica won't change him.

Unless you're JD Martinez.

So, I guess Baddoo will be the center fielder with Meadows and Grossman at the corners and Reyes backing up. Meadows still has three years before free agency too. They will have an interesting (good) situation when Greene returns.

Big surprise. Meadows is not a center fielder, but he can slug. I doubt Paredes or the comp balance pick will ever be as good as him. Aggressive move by Avila. I like it.

6 innings of 1 run ball of 7 innings of 2 run ball? That is an interesting question. It depends what kind of team you have? How much can they hit and how deep is your bullpen. I also agree though with not wanting to mess with a young pitcher who can get you 6/1

Zack Short has heart and that's something that you can't teach.

That is actually a pretty clever quote and there is some truth to it.

I like that they are working on fundamentals this Spring.

Granderson was one of the top defensive outfielders during his fantastic 2007 season. Then he lost speed while gaining power which is a common career path.

They need to give 110% every day.

Who are you thinking of? Rudy York Mickey Tettleton Mark Fidrych

Second round picks are shiny on draft day, but most don't amount to much. It's time to start trying to win games. If Conforto gets back to where he was before last year, he is a really solid hitter. The only thing that concerns me is if there an injury.

Harold Castro hits them OK, but I am not sure how well he plays center field.

You are right which is probably why they don't project well as a team despite making improvements. It's really hard to project young players. Torkelson or Greene when he gets back could have a big rookie year and any of their young pitchers could improve a lot which would add a lot of wins. If they aren't ready to take a step up though, things could get ugly. I don't have a lot expectations, but I have a lot of hope which is something I haven't been able to say about this team in a while.

I don't have access to PECOTA's individual projections, so I can't see why they have them with so few wins. Most projections are not optimistic about the Tigers, but 67 looks way too low. I can see things going bad for this team if the young players are not ready, but I think a lot of things would have to go bad to have just 67 wins. I am less optimistic about this team than most here. I feel like they are a much better team with fewer holes than they have had going into any recent seasons, but strangely there is no hitter nor pitcher who can I say with confidence is going to have a really good season. The good thing is that there are lot of players with strong potential which is something they haven't had in a while, although having arguably the best one starting the season on the IL is not a good start.

I agree with that. Unless it shows up in player performance (and there is no way of knowing whether the manager had anything to do with it), then it doesn't matter. As I said, the only exception is bullpen management and I think even that is limited.

Only if Hinch's managerial skills can enhance performance by 10 wins. It is certainly podssible that Hinch and the coaching can improve players significantly. I would look at player projections as a baseline and see which players you think can do better and add wins to the team total accordingly. Of course, if they do improve, we won't know whether they did it themselves or were aided by coaching. I think the only place where a manager can actually affect a team's win total without players actually improving is through bullpen management and I think that has a cap of maybe five games.

Reyes was an absolute black hole through July last year and his stats don't suggest he is a plus fielder, so he was killing them when he played. Of course, unlike Cabrera, if he hits like that again he'll be benched quickly.

I hope the Reyes optimists are right but I still don't see it. Much like Cabrera, if he hits the way he does on one of his hot streaks for the whole season, he'll be good.

PECOTA has them pegged for 67 wins. Even Conforto can't save them! 😆 https://www.baseballprospectus.com/standings/