Cruzer1

*Rant* We need a freaking shortstop!!!!!!!!!! */End of Rant*

What I remember most from the first game against the Bucs was the block of the year. It might be the best block I've ever seen.

If you weren't watching, the NFL is built on speed. Every team is loading up with speed. Except for the Patriots.

Tell that to Tyreek. Speed will always kill, St.Brown and LaPorta are outliers.

St, Brown and LaPorta are both fascinating case studies. Neither has top end speed, and if you went by 40 time alone, you'd probably knock St.Brown off the draft board. Both have a special knack for getting open, and if it was easily taught, then they wouldn't pop out the way they do.

If Decker had reported, the Lions would have the #1 seed right now.

They should announce the games as soon as monday.

The Bears can still finish 2nd in the NFC North...

Now we know where Hutch got the eye-black thing from...

The NFL has rules for the third quarter. They can only enter the game because of injuries.

If this game has no value, then bring up the kids from the minors. It would be awesome experience for Hendon Hooker, Steven Gilmore, Antoine Green, etc.

He wasn't covered up. WR was off the line.

Josina has been missing lately. I don't consider her a good source.

He was a part timer because he only had Michigan. I would guess he made about 35,000 per year or so. Not nearly enough.

It was Clyde Weir... https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2023/10/23/mccosky-tigers-scout-clyde-weir-loving-beloved-man-admirable-career-unreconcilable-death/71289616007/ Detroit — Kevin Tidey sent out the text. It was almost a rite of fall. If he had a player or two or three that he thought Clyde Weir would want to get a look at, he’d reach out and invite him to the first fall scrimmage. Tidey is the head baseball coach at Division II Davenport University in Grand Rapids. Weir, for 37 years, had bird-dogged talent throughout the state, but especially in western Michigan, for the Tigers. “I have the text right here,” Tidey said. “I told him about our scrimmage against Hope.” Weir, unbeknownst to Tidey, had already informed the Tigers that he was retiring. Tidey read Weir’s text reply: “Thanks for the info Coach T. But I think I’m going to hang up scouting. Thirty-eight years is enough. Thanks for all you did for me.” To which Tidey replied: “Oh, man. Sorry to hear that, brother. We’re definitely going to miss seeing you around. You were the best in the business in my opinion.” That was Sept. 20. Twenty-five days later, on Oct. 15, Weir took his own life at his home in DeWitt. He was 73. “I was just in shock; I still am,” former Reds and Braves scout Rick Sellers said. “It baffled the hell out of me. You’re talking about a guy who had some serious energy every day, at least at the ballpark. When you hear about something like this about a guy like that, the baseball world took a huge hit. “Not just scouting and the Tigers. Kids in the state of Michigan took a hit. The coaches in this state took a hit.” It was former Tigers general manager Bill Lajoie who brought Weir into the organization in February 1985, after he’d watched Weir, then with Cleveland, doggedly scout a pitcher named John Smoltz at Lansing Waverly High School. The Tigers drafted Smoltz in the 22nd round in 1985 and famously traded him to Atlanta for Doyle Alexander in 1987. Alexander helped the Tigers win the American League East title. Smoltz went on to pitch 21 seasons and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015. Pretty flashy start to a scout's career. “There are very few guys like Clyde, in baseball or not,” said Bill Killian, who scouted the same western Michigan territory that Weir covered for 27 years with the Padres and Reds. “He was a guy who was loved by everybody he met. He was in tune with what was going on in the game, in the world and with people. “That was his MO. That’s what he did.” Back in 2011, Killian’s son, Dan, a first baseman and catcher, was released by the Padres. Weir reached out to the Tigers and encouraged them to invite Dan Killian to spring training in 2012. “That was the kind of stuff he did,” Bill Killian said. “He was a helping guy, a guy who would reach out to people and try to help them.” Eye for talent Killian, Sellers and Weir were like the three amigos, always showing up at the same high schools and colleges, often being their organization’s first set of eyes on players in central and western Michigan. Players like Scott Aldred, Matt Thornton and Duane Below, all of whom went on to big-league careers. “The way it works for guys in our roles, we’d recommend players and then other guys would come in and kind of take over,” Killian said. “Credit didn’t always go to Clyde, put it like that. But, I’ll tell you, there were a bunch of years in a row where we’d go to West Michigan Whitecaps games (the Tigers’ High-A affiliate) and there’d always be two or three guys on the team that Clyde had something to do with.” Uncovering raw talent in the smaller towns and schools seemed a point of pride for Weir. “That’s what I liked about Clyde,” Tidey said. “Just from a smaller-school standpoint, Clyde was always trying to find that gem. A lot of the scouts want to go to the bigger schools. Like, ‘We’re going to find better players at the bigger schools.’ “But Clyde, Rick, Bill, they were the type of guys where, ‘All right, there can be a gem at smaller schools.’ Some people are too stubborn to go to smaller schools and find them. Those three were at our stuff all the time.” They often pitched the same player to their organizations. Case in point, all three were on Davenport lefty Corbin Clouse ahead of the 2016 draft. The Tigers were set to draft him in 27th round, but Sellars’ Braves, picking just ahead of the Tigers, snatched him off the board. “Clyde really knew this kid,” Sellers said. “I think he’d seen this boy growing up. I got on him watching his summer team in Muskegon. Then the year we drafted him, I must’ve saw him four or five times. Every time I was back in the state, I was trying to line that dude up. And Clyde would be there just about every time.” Sellers was a regional scout, responsible for four or five states. He said he felt like he was always trying to play catchup with Weir. “Every time I came home, and I’m a Michigan guy, I knew that every guy I saw, Clyde had already been there,” Sellars said. “I could always smell Clyde’s tracks. He just took so much pride on covering the state. He had so many resources and everybody loved the guy.” Clouse ascended quickly through the Braves' system, making it to Triple-A in 2018 before a shoulder injury essentially ended his career. Sellers was a rookie scout with the Reds in 2005, when he first met Weir. They were both going after a hot-shot senior shortstop at Western Michigan University — Adam Rosario, whom the Reds drafted in the 12th round and who went on to enjoy an 11-year big-league career. “I’d done some Christmas camps at Western for Coach (Fred) Decker and that player was always there on Christmas break,” Sellers said. “I got to know the kid, and when it got down to it, Clyde was already knee-deep on the dude. I think we were the only two that had him in to a pre-draft workout. “I knew Clyde was my competition because Rosey told me. I just said, ‘That does not surprise me one bit.’” All three were scouting a 6-6, hard-throwing left-hander from Hamilton High School near Holland in 2015, Grant Wolfram. Weir got the Tigers to draft him in the 17th round, but Wolfram decided to attend Central Michigan. Weir stayed on him, though, even after Wolfram transferred to Division II Davenport. But Wolfram ended up being selected by the Rangers in the 18th round in 2018. He finished the 2023 season at Triple-A Round Rock, after going 10-0 with a 2.20 ERA in a relief role in Double-A. In 2011, Weir and then-Tigers area scout Garrett Guest, locked on to a right-handed pitcher, Jake Sabol. Even though his numbers were rather pedestrian in his one full season starting for the Chippewas, they saw a late-blooming, fiercely competitive player worthy of a late-round pick. The Tigers agreed, selecting Sabol in 36th round. “I wish I made Clyde prouder, just in the fact that I wish my pro career was a little better,” Sabol said. “He and Garrett stuck their noses out for me and he stayed in touch with me throughout my coaching career. It just shows the character of those two guys and how much they care about their guys.” Sabol pitched in 18 games over two seasons, never getting above A-ball, but the fact is, he made Weir extremely proud and their relationship grew as Sabol transitioned into coaching — first at Division III Alma, then to Northwood and now as the first-year head coach at Central Michigan University. “What a guy,” Sabol said. “That guy just loved, loved amateur baseball and he loved baseball, in general, in our state. Whether he was around the high school game or the college game, if there were guys to be seen, Clyde was there.” As Sabol progressed through his coaching career, Weir was instrumental in helping him set up a network of scouts and contacts within professional baseball. An unreconcilable death Those who knew Weir best, of course, are finding it almost impossible to reconcile the death of this loving and beloved man, a man with four adult children, five grandchildren and his wife, Patricia. “It’s hard for me to talk about,” Sellers said. “He was another mentor to me. He taught me an awful lot. I just couldn’t believe he could have something wrong that could bother him like this. I never caught him having a bad day ... Not one time in all the years did I catch him pissed off. And he should’ve been, sometimes.” Said Killian: “I was shocked. Just because of his demeanor, his personality, the way he lived his life and conducted his business. A lot of things in life don’t add up, and this sure is one of them.” His friends said he seemed at peace with retiring. “He said, ‘I’ll know when it’s time,’” said Killian, who retired in 2021. “That was his tag line. ‘I’ll know when it’s time.’ I never pressured him on it. I know he was still enjoying it. He really loved baseball.” Weir was cut back to part-time status after the pandemic year of 2020, but even after the organization completely overhauled the scouting department under new president Scott Harris, the club was planning to retain him as a part-time scout. “I don’t see them forcing him out,” Killian said. “Baseball is a cruel game, for the players, managers and scouts, for everybody. But Clyde was revered, to the best of my knowledge, by the people in the Tigers’ organization. If anything, they would say, ‘Hey, what can we do to keep you around in some role, even if you wanted to retire on your own.’” Recently, Weir had undergone major dental surgery and was having a hard time regulating the pain medication. Whether that triggered the despondency he felt on the morning of Oct. 15, one can only speculate. “When I stopped (scouting), I don’t want to say we lost touch with each other, but we didn’t talk as much as we did during the years we were together, watching games five nights a week,” Killian said. “I guess I didn’t think it was unusual that I hadn’t talked to him. “Looking back on it, I probably should’ve talked to him. Because maybe a phone call at some point would’ve made a difference.” There’s an army of people inside and outside of baseball that knew Clyde Weir and whose lives were touched by him that share that same regret. “He was a great guy and he was great for Michigan baseball,” Killian said. “If there ever was a guy who deserved to be in the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame, it’s Clyde. He was an ambassador for the game in this state for 37 years.” Sellers put it in terms all scouts could identify with. “He was an 80 on the grade scale — top of the top,” he said.

The Michigan area scout was an older guy, one of the best of the business, and was let go a while back. Sadly, he committed suicide.

Ownership Sheila Ford Hamp Principal Owner & Chair Martha Ford Morse Owner/Vice Chair William Clay Ford, Jr. Owner/Vice Chair Elizabeth Ford Kontulis Owner/Vice Chair Martha Firestone Ford Owner/Chair Emeritus https://www.detroitlions.com/team/front-office-roster/

Yeah, I saw that too. I think it will be easier to hide Parker's bat than Malloy's defense.

I think there are too many teams, plus the Lions could use the week off. I want the Lions to be in the best shape possible for the run. They don't come around often.

I hope the Lions won't play in the wild card round. Really, the only way to a championship is with the one seed.

Check, please!

1. Max Clark 2. Jackson Jobe 3. Colt Keith 4. Jace Jung 5. Ty Madden 6. Justin-Henry Malloy 7. Parker Meadows 8. Kevin McGonigle 9. Dillon Dingler 10. Troy Melton

Listening to the BA podcast, they call the Tigers system a solid, if not top two system in baseball. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/future-projection-episode-72-the-state-of-al-central-farm-systems/