AlaskanTigersFan

I think your right. But if there's a lockout, they aren't paying players or staff around the park on game days. Just maintenance staff and general maintenance. They could also probably lease their fields for events too. But your point is very valid, just trying to play a little devil's advocate. I agree with you though.

Exactly why the Tigers should trade him now for a kings ransom. Or if he blows out his arm in April.... FML. We are the Angels 2.0.....

The point I am making is these smaller market teams won't be able to keep a lot of their players past year 3.... If their superstar rookies are getting paid $30 mil+ 3 years into their MLB life, how will the small markets do that? You mock about the 97 win Brewers.... Imagine if they didn't have Freddy Peralta, Chuorio, Miz, Uribe, Vaughn, Turang, Durbin..... You think they win 97? Hell no. These small market teams can't and won't recover from this ....... (Yes I understand Chuorio has a long term deal but I'm pointing out that if he knows he can make $35mil+ after 3 years, he wouldn't of signed that deal ...... This is strictly for example purposes to prove the point.)

I have no idea how you think this after today's deal. How will this work for small market clubs like the Brewers, Pirates and Rays who pump out good players? They will HAVE to trade their players after three years of MLB service time.... They won't get six years..... Take the Pirates for example. Three years from now, Skenese will be making $40-50/year, Jared Jones will be making $30-40, Bubba Chandler will be making $20-30 million per year. Throw in Konnor Griffin making $30+ million a year.... That's $120 ON THE LOW END for this club three years from now for four players! Today's ruling just effectively killed the possibility of a smooth conversation for a clean CBA negotiation next year. The owners will DEMAND a Salary Cap after today. A lot of teams won't be able to afford this if every 5-year stud starts making $30 mil+. I'm glad Skubal got paid what he did. He deserves it. But today's ruling just hurt baseball.... and it hurt it deep. I'll be amazed if the owners don't lockout next year w/o a salary cap. They won't even come to the table until the players say that they will at least listen to something on that. Enjoy baseball. Cuz after this year, it's going to be a looooooooong time until you see another MLB game......

Sasaki/Valdez looks really nice to me. Not too far off from Skubal/Valdez. Not to mention the other pieces we'd get as well...... I'll take it. Remember, Sasaki last year had a 75 grade from Baseball America..... thats litearlly one point from a perfect prospect. If he pitches like he did in the playoffs all year long..... sheeeeeeeeesh.

If Skubal wins (which I think he will), there will be no baseball next year. Small market teams will NEVER be able to compete again.

I was just gonna ask if you all think signing Framber means Skubal is gone before the season starts? Or does Harris try running it with Framber and Skubal and see how it goes? Me personally, I hope he gets traded (been saying that all season). But curious on your thoughts on that.

https://www.cleveland.com/guardians/2026/02/tarik-skubal-arbitration-case-could-completely-revolutionize-mlbs-salary-system.html - Amazing article explaining how Skubal is basically representing the players and the Tigers are representing MLB and the owners. I highly recommend. If Skubal wins, it will transform arbitration. Teams will no longer have 6 years of control of players.... Skenes will make $40 million next year..... How will these smaller teams be able to afford good players? Small market teams will be squeezed anytime they get a good player..... Tampa and Pittsburgh will be selling their franchises next year if Skubal wins......... They'd have too.

I-4 sucks. Terrible drive there. Nice ballpark though.

Ok. Very cool segment on MLB on XM today. They were talking about this and how there may be a lockout. Eduardo Perez came up with a great idea. His idea is when a team signs a player at least two years prior to them becoming a free agent to an extension, the team gets to write off 20%-30% of the AAV from the luxury tax. He stated this would allow players to get paid, but also incentivize teams to sign their players. So take a player that makes $40 mil/year. A team could write off $8 million of that from the luxury tax. You do this with multiple players and you can essentially save some entire players salary allowing teams to retain players. Steve Phillips brought up, well what if teams still don't come close to the luxury tax and Eduardo said it still helps them in the grand scheme of things. He said this would allow teams to retain players and the big buyers (like the Mets, Dodgers, Yankees etc...) would have to develop their own players instead of teams like the Brewers, Marlins and Rays acting like a farm club to the rest of the league. While I like the idea in general, I didn't really like the response from Eduardo. But what I'd like to expand on that idea, is allow smaller teams to be able to trade the access AAV they are able to save to bigger clubs for players/draft picks. So for example, the Dodgers are constantly at or above the luxury tax. Lets say Tampa Bay signs three players with a $20 mil AAV. Lets say teams get to bank 20% of that AAV. Well that produces $12 million in luxury tax space. The Rays could then trade that $12 million per year to the Dodgers for a player or draft pick that would then help both teams. Curious on thoughts on that?

I guess I wasn't really clear. I think with MLB players now making $60 mil/year and Hockey players maxing out at $10 mil per year, how do we get MLB to be reasonable? $25-35 mil is a lot of money and should be superstar per year money, but not $60. But how do we go back from this? This is the argument that will ruin baseball. Before these deals, I think there was a legit chance to have a collective bargaining agreement next year. Now, I don't see how it's possible..... How will the owners get a salary cap when some players are making $60 million a year? It's not really possible unless your cap is like $500+ million per year which is totally unrealistic.... I could see a cap being $300 or lower. But you got 28 players and one person making $60 million, that's 20% of your payroll. I guess if you can fit 25 other players under the $240 it'd be possible..... And then it turns into how much do minor leaguers play into the cap? It's turned into a real mess and rather quickly.....

Isn't it amazing. In MLB, there are $60 million per year contracts being dished out. In Hockey, an AMAZING BREAK THE BANK contract is like $10 million a year...... Woof.

I'm confused. I really think the Tigers could get 3 top 100 prospects for Skubal...... I still stand behind Andrew Painter, Justin Crawford and Aiden Miller for Skubal being the comparable price I'd put on him...... ESPECIALLY after the Peralta trade. To put it in perspective. The Dodgers would give up something like Roki Sasaki, Dalton Rushing and Zyhir Hope....... I don't think price wise that is out of the realm.... Do I think it will happen? No I don't. I could see the Tigers waiting until the deadline, being out of it, and giving Skubal up for ONE of those. Hence why I think they should trade him NOW. But just my $0.02.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-power-rankings-inaugural-2026-edition?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage - Tigers are 13th! WTF are we doing. Trade SKubal now.

Just looking for a clean topic to get input. I saw Mike McDaniels was just fired by the Dolphins. If I remember correctly, he was considered one of the most brilliant offensive minds in football which is why he was hired........... Take a shot on him? Who do you guys think would be a good OC for the Lions?

Dudes toxic as all get out. Do you really want him near the "kids" on this team?

Is anyone worried the Tigers miss the playoffs all together? Remember they had the 15th best offense in baseball last year and the drop off from 10 to 15 was ENORMOUS! The Tigers without Skubal would have been top 10, but with him were top four. If the Tigers miss the playoffs, an we get one draft pick instead of three to four bona fide top prospects/young players in MLB, how pissed will you be? I still think if Harris doesn't trade Skubal, he sets the franchise back a decade into mediocrity. We become Angels 2.0 after the Ohtani debacle. History will repeat it seems.

https://thatballsouttahere.com/phillies-most-painful-trade-could-make-before-spring-training-tarik-skubal - Yes please. (Won't happen but at least another writer is almost dead on with what I'm saying!)

Big difference from 14 man rosters and 40 though.

Now he's pitching more before the trade deadline?! Oof. More risk....... Moo to the Moo yo.

I guess, how realistic is the cap to be that close to the floor? Suppose you have a $300 million salary CAP. That means the floor is $270 million at 90%....... That's a fine needle to thread in the baseball world.....

I dunno what EPETD is...... But, this year the NFL is allowing Private Equities to invest in their teams for the first time. They can also have majority ownership from my understanding. MLB has allowed PE firms to buy into their clubs since 2019. But they can't be majority owners. I think they should be able to if theirs a cap/floor. Look at the Pirates owner for example. If he can't afford it, he needs to sell his team...... Just like the Rays, the A's and so on..... These guys are raking in money and just pocketing it. I can see why the players are frustrated. Having said that, MLB players are signing 30/35/40 million per year contracts. One of the best NHL players is considered possible overpay at 8 million per year? MLB players have got to realize how good they got it....... Owners need to quit being such cheap a$.....ses. There can for sure be more balance. Both sides need their heads slapped together though.

- Institute a hard salary cap for competitiveness. No defferred payments. Owners and Players association get a vote and the Commissioner acts as an arbiter. Cap goes up 5% each year. (Owners win - Their biggest ask by far) - Free agency though, comes to players after 6 years of being drafted or originally signed. No more Qualifying offer allowed. (Drastically speeds up process of reaching Free Agency) (Players win) - Salary floor being 40% of the Salary Cap. So example: if Cap is $400 million, the floor is $160 million. (Players win) - Allow Private Equity groups to buy into MLB Franchises (Helps if owners can't afford the minimum salary floor. They should probably sell their team then anyway.) (Owners win) - Eliminate draft pool amounts, but put a floor of draft pool. Something like $8 million. (Players Win) - Greatly increase league minimum to let's say $250,000. (Players win) - 15% of all MLB revenue profit, is put into a pension fund for players. Tiered system based off players time (Players win) - Owners get 20% of all marketing money made by players under their team's logo (Owners win [NIL anyone]) - Create an International Free Agent draft (Owners win) - Allow contracts to be performance based instead of guaranteed in addition to guaranteed contracts (either or); Example: A player has OBP over .350 they get 5 million salary, over .360 is 6 million salary and for each home run is $500,000. (Both Owner and Player win as Owners pay for production and players can bet on themselves if they choose to do so). _______________________________________________________ Just a couple of thoughts there to get started.

Dustin May signed with St. Louis. I really would have liked to take a flyer on that guy..... I think he could be a legit #2 starter still........

Tigers offense is middle of the road, and our pitching isn't much better. Here's hoping to a good year if he's not traded. I'm very happy to have been wrong the last two years in thinking our boys overperformed. So here's hoping they can do it again.