AlaskanTigersFan

Good try by Harris to try and get a draft pick. Part of me thinks he didn't really want Torres to re-sign but wanted the extra pick if he could get it.

Do you guys want Torres to accept the QO? I'm kind of leaning towards no as I want to see some young guys in the lineup and get that pick. But curious what you guys think.

By the way, this is by far the most boring off season in history of MLB so far............

If Jud Fabian becomes a minor league fa, I want him.

I get the sarcasm, but I'll still go with 6 years. 🙂

Only a matter of time I think until Skenes duplicates this. Those two are on another level right now.

Just curious on ya'll's thoughts....... Nick Kurtz - Unanimous rookie of the year. Why do they love platoon players? Sure he hit out of this world versus Righties (albeit with a .364 BABIP). But look at his left split. .197/.261/.423..... Do you think its ok for MLB to overlook such drastics? How many platoon players do you think it's ok to have on a MLB roster? Kurtz for example, if the opposing team brings in a lefty reliever with the game on the line, do you leave him in? Just curious what you guys think.

I jsut hope opening day he doesn't grab his left arm and need Tommy John surgery. That'd be a kick in the knockers. Harris should be fired immediately and Illitch should sell the team. MOo, MOo.

Yep. No fault there. Like I said, I'm of the minority and I know it. But I want you to screen shot this. If come the All-Star break and we are 7 games below .500, just remember this post lol. Naww, I hope I'm wrong and really hope you're right. I just don't see it happening. Not with our lineup. We need help, and the reinforcements we get this year from the farm, might need another year to really help us. So I think it's a moot point. I really hope I'm wrong. I just don't think I am....... (But hey, I've been wrong two years in a row!) If we keep Skubal great. As long as he doesn't throw out his arm on opening day, I'll be happy as a clam. But if he does, I will be the only person really on this board saying "I told you so.........". (Taking a picture now and putting it on my calendar to have this emailed to me mid-year next year. Let see who was right 😁)

Would love to get him, but they want to contend next year. McLean is the furthest advanced between the three. He'd be their #2 starter. (I think the Mets would sign Cease if they got Skubal).

Yes. I would. (I don't think you'd have to sacrifice 2027 as well, but yes, I'd sacrifice 2026). But I also think next year would be an adjustment anyways while waiting for McGonigle, Clark, Briceno and Liranzo to make their debuts and break in. Not to mention, hopefully Jobe should be back in August (fingers crossed). There's your true core to add to Greene, Dingler, Keith and Carpenter (hopefully Tork too but we'll see). Sacrifice next year for a decade run. Boston basically did it with their big 3 this year. I fully expect Mayer, Campbell and Anthony to be studs. Tigers could make plenty of trades with Meadows, Max Anderson (who very well could be our 3B of the future if he keeps this up), Lee, Wencel Perez etc........ to add to their pitching. There's a logjam there which could get us some decent pitchers. Keep in mind though, I'm the minority here by far. Also too, I am legit the only person on this board who thinks we've overperformed the last two years as well. If you look back to the beginning of last season, I posted that I'd be happy if we were a .500 team this past year and that the previous year was an aberration. Glad I was wrong. You can stop reading here, now I'm just bored to prove a point: ________________________ Fangraphs Team Stats for 2025 Tigers were EXACTLY league average offensively - 100 wRC+ (19th in the league) 5th in SO % - 24.8% 19th in BB% - 7.8 21st in Average - .241 24th in OBP - .306 16th in Fielding - -8.2 16th in WAR - at 36.3 Not going to lie, I'm astonished we made the playoffs. The only thing we made a top 15 in as an offensive category was the one thing you wanted to be dead last in and that's Strike Out Percentage....... On Paper, this team sucks. Barely league average. Almost last in OBP. So yes, if I could trade Skubal and get all of those in the top 10-15 range....... I'd do it. I get it WAR is an arbitrary number, and you can make the argument it legit doesn't mean **** since the Tigers were one inning away from the ALCS. But the TOP 10 TEAMS in MLB had an AVERAGE WAR of 51.73. THAT'S 15 POINTS HIGHER than the Tigers. We would literally need to add 3 Juan Soto's to our lineup to be a TINY bit better than AVERAGE offensively to the top 10 teams in the league. Let that sink in. That is why I think the Tigers have overperformed the last two years. And that is why the Tigers should trade Skubal. But hey, just my $0.02.

They are man. Strat-o-matic baseball is the best. Part of a league been going on since the 70's..... Crazy league.

The point I was trying to make is that statistics and evaluation of prospects through advanced metrics make it more likely to "hit" on a prospect than ever before. Bat speed, launch angle, hard hit%, Barrel % etc.... these weren't around 20 years ago. By looking at these and other stats, we can now identify higher pedigree prospects than ever before. Can there still be duds? Of course! You're asking a guy to hit a 2.75" ball being thrown at 100 mph, under in some cases 54 feet, with a reaction time of less than half a second....... Not everyone is super human. But like it was stated in Moneyball, Pete told Billy Bean after he was asked if he'd take Bean in the first round, "I'd have taken you in the 9th round, no signing bonus....." Times have changed............. (That conversation never happened IRL, but you get the point).

Two words: Bill James. The scouting in baseball today is not even comparable to what it was even 10 years ago.... Advanced metrics make scouting more of a science today than ever. Sure there will be misses. But the knowledge on players is on a whole nother planet. Think about going to the moon today versus the 60's when Apollo 11 landed..... They both got there, but how they are done is COMPLETELY different...... (Sorry space week here at UCF). I think a generational trade like this will/could/and should alter the trajectory of the Tigers for the next 15 years......

You already answered your own question. The trade I WANT to happen is Skubal for Andrew Painter, Aiden Miller and Justin Crawford. *IF* the Phillies re-sign Schwarber, this is VERY realistic to happen. They will be all in next year and a rotation of Skubal, Wheeler, Nola, Luzardo........ WOW! This all hinges on if the Phillies re-sign Schwarbs though. They won't go for Tucker as their window of contention is 2-3 years. So they need immediate impact, then Dave can leave an go on to the next team. The two more likely scenarios are a trade to Seattle or a trade to the Mets. Seattle - Colt Emerson, Lazaro Monetez and Harry Ford for Skubal Mets - Benge/or Williams, Tong, Sproat for Skubal. Even though I've been saying this for 3 weeks (look back on this thread), now media must be listening to me: "The Mets might be at the front of that line. A previous report from The Athletic's Will Sammon, noted the Mets "are expected to get involved" in Skubal trade talks. Sammon also opined that the Tigers' asking price may be "two top-level starting pitchers and a position player prospect." And you really can't rule out the Dodgers. I know that's very cliche, but Sasaki + De Pala + Alex Freeland could be a possibility too. The only hesitation I have with this is the Dodgers are trying to be the destination for Japanese superstars. They've invested a ton of money into Japan and now stream every home game in Japan. So for them to give up Sasaki who I really think legit, may be the most underrated player in MLB, would be beyond unfathomable to the Japanese. So that's the only reason I don't list this as likely to happen even though that's the cost. TLDR: If the Phillies sign Schwarber, Skubal better start packing. If not, listen on the Mariners and Mets making the most noise. There could always be a surprise team, but those four in my opinion are in a category all on their own..........

*If* they kept him till next year, they better pitch his ass 200 pitches per start in the playoffs. They aren't getting him backed. Use him to the ground. Skubs will get at least 3 top 100 prospects (or value equivelent of) if not 4. He better be gone.

Tigers should get 3, if not 4 top 100 prospects in return for Skubal. or in the Dodgers Case, two top 100's + Roki Sasaki.

I think I'm going to say this every week, once a week until Skubal is traded or next season starts. Not trading Skubal will be the worst mistake in the history of the Tigers organization.

MLB prolly happy as all get out. I wonder how much money they make for each playoff game...... Let alone a game 7 in the World Series. We probably just added at least $150 million to MLB's coffers by goin to game 7..... Sheeeeeeesh.

Good, it wasn't meant to be lol.

How would you guys feel about the home team catching foul balls for outs (not in playoffs)? I love that for the Savannah Bananas.

Baseball America - I recommend their prospect Handbook Fangraphs - Does a great job even though I think they are always conservative ProspectSavant.com - Very in depth, just like baseball Savant. When you look at all three and they all rank players above 55 FV (which raaaaaaaaaarely happens), they usually turn into good players. When one gives a FV of 45 and the other two are at 60, then it gives you pause. Basallo from the Orioles for example. Baseball America gave him a 65, Fangraphs 60 and Prospect Savant has him at 60. His slash line this year .165/.229/.559. Most people would call him a bum. Yet if you look at the underlying numbers with his barrel rate and BABIP, he very well could have been 100 points higher in every category. I want to put the disclaimer that this isn't always 100% accurate. Andrew Vaughn was supposed to be the next Miguel Cabrera as was Torkelson. There's no underlying metrics that disagreed as they came up. Tork like many others have Torched college and Minors (Torks MILB numbers are .253/.370/.864[OPS]). Yet his career MLB line is .227/.310/.722(OPS). No one can say for certain a prospect is "can't miss". But there are definitely ways to hedge your bet. I like many others would have bet the house that Paul Skenes would turn out the way he did. Anyone who followed the media going after him for being the best pitcher since Strasburg would. But when you look at his underlying numbers with 8" movement on the LOWEND(!), you're going to get some nastiness......... I remember WhiteCapWendy took me to lunch when I was in college (if anyone knows her, please send her back to the forums!!!!). She got me a lunch with Dallas Trehern who was part of the package traded for Miguel Cabrera. At the time he was in the system with Andrew Miller and said he's never seen movement like his. Everyone thought Andrew was the next best thing in baseball..... He didn't turn out that great (at least not the first half of his career, but when he moved to the BP he had 4 decent season). Looking at his MILB stats, nothing goes to show that he would be great. Fangraphs wasn't available back then to track it. My point being is that you can follow the media, you can read the stories, and take it for what its worth. Or you can look into players, see what's actually under the hood, and hedge your bet. The underlying metics on Painter show that he could be a #1 or #2 pitcher if healthy. Ball movement, low hard contact rate are unbelievable. He throws 6 pitches above 100 in psstuff+...... Thats INSANE. His PS Score is 95.72. (He also had a .352 BABIP against him when the average pitcher sis .225). Add all that up, especially coming off injury, dudes a stud. Look at Justin Crawford - https://www.fangraphs.com/players/justin-crawford/sa3020240/stats?position=OF - STUD, Look at Aiden Miller - https://www.fangraphs.com/players/aidan-miller/sa3022609/stats?position=SS - STUD. If Dave Dombrowski resigns Schwarber, he's going for it again. If the Tigers trade Skubal to them and they can get all three of these guys (which is actually realistic), this could set our team up. Again, there's no such thing as sure thing. One or all three of these guys could be busts. But EVERYTHING points to these three players being well above average and being potential All-Stars. I'd take three well above average players (average age 21 coming to the majors) over a pitcher that's going to be 30. Even due to health concerns. Skubal pitches, elbow hurts, we're F'd. Hopefully it doesn't happen. All I'm saying is, I hope Harris hedges the bets. I cant even dream of what resources they have, to do prospect research...... But my dream is this trade. I don't think the Tigers would go wrong. I could be wrong, dead wrong. But I'm guessing I'm not. And I'd put that $1,000 dollars on it because I like looking at the stats that back it up. Betting with underlying stats gives me an edge, and I'd be willing to take that bet all day long.

Considering how much time I spend looking at advanced stats and tracking, I think there's a realistic chance. Besides, I'm not just saying Painter. I'll bet you $1,000 right now, that in two years, Aiden Miller, Crawford and Painter will have > 4 WAR per season than Skubal. Whole forum can be my witness.

This is the best post I've read in weeks on here. And I agree 100%. Which is why I'm a proponent of trading Skubal to Add to McGonigle, Clark, Briceno, Tork, and Carpenter. I'm also not sold on Dingler. I want to be. But this might have been a career year for him. You add Aidin Miller and Justin Crawford to our team though, and bring back Painter (who realistically can be 80% of what Skubal is next year) and add that to the core thats here/coming up, you have a perenial divison winner. Good post sir. I concur 100%.