Longgone

Reed is better than he showed in an injury plagued year, he's a likely starter outside.

They picked late in the draft and ended up with three starters in their rookie years. If they got a starter in Teslaa with a late 3rd and two picks after the 3rd round that is a steal. If any of the other picks end up helping at all, that's a bonus.

How do you call the last draft questionable?

Last year wasn't so bad, Reed much better before he got hurt, Lopez, Ya-Sin, Maddox, Allen, Stewart all pretty solid, got some immediate help and at least 3 solid starters out of the draft, not all bad for tight budget and drafting late.

We do need another dt, and he needs to be a brutish block eater like Reader.

If Clark goes 6 for 20 and catches every ball, he's still the same player, with the same abilities, at the same level of development, and he'd be in the exact same situation. The coaches understand this and are not basing their judgements on superficial stats. Same with McGonigle, if he was hitting a buck fifty, but showing the same abilities and development, he'd be in the same position.

Talent matters, ability matters, developmental progress matters, performance matters. Spring training stats don't matter. Can they be an indicator? Sure, but small samples are notoriously unreliable, especially in an uneven environment like spring training.

He's not ready, and if he'd hit .500 in spring training, he'd still not be ready.

Do you think you are making some point? Valencia hit .353 and got sent back. Clark wasn't making the team no matter what he hit. They want the younger guys playing full time in minor league camp, and there isn't enough playing time anymore for the younger guys in the big camp as they ramp up for opening day. You can't read any more into it than that.

He's slow, isn't shifty or elusive, his instincts aren't great and he's dinged up. Whatever reps the #2 back gets, I'd like them to be more of a threat.

I'd like to see them do better than this, he's tough, sure, but other than that, there's not much to like. He's not a Montgomery replacement.

He was 30th out of 134 idl according to PFF, but I believe he was better the year prior.

Of course players are competing for spots, that was never the point. The point is small samples of stats in spring training are not a reliable indicator of ability or competitive status, and fans grant them way too much importance.

It has nothing to do with "riding the hot hand", it's the exact same sweet swinging Kevin McGonigle, but facing different pitchers and circumstances and randomness that produces very different results in small samples. Baseball is a frustrating game where you can do everything right and still get negative results over the short term.

Hypothetical for you. You clone Kevin McGonicle. Exact same player in every way, and alternate them through the first ten games of spring training. One goes 1 for twenty and makes several errors in the field, and the other goes 10 for 20 and is flawless at short. Which one goes north and which one to AAA?

You can be the exact same talent and go 1 for 20 or 10 for 20, proves nothing, especially early in the spring. Coaches know who has ability despite the stats, fans have only stats to go by and so assign them way too much importance.

Unless there's something seriously off with his swing or his health, the Tigers would be worse off. But you won't know that from his batting average.

Every year fans go up and down with ST stats, thinking someone is winning or losing a job, and then the season starts and they forget all about it. Spring training stats don't matter, the samples are too small, the talent too variable and the players are making adjustments and ramping up. Mechanical adjustments that correct weaknesses matter, increased velo and improved pitches matter, health after an injury matters, etc. Stats, they just don't matter. They may or may not reflect an underlying issue, but staff will be well aware of it whether the stats reflect it or not.

Brad selects players on which he has conviction. He should continue to do that even though they won't all hit. He also is willing to gamble a few picks on high risk/high reward players, and the nature of those types is that most will fail, but keep doing it anyway.

Manu needs to play to progress, and unfortunately that opportunity was lost this past year due to the injury. Development isn't linear, and his ceiling is still unknown. Whatever the outcome, taking chances on high risk/high reward players is going to have some innate failures built in.

You are a genius if you can determine this after 7 initial spring training games that you likely didn't even attend.

Anzalone is more suited to be a will, and he will be difficult to replace.

Connor McGovern might be the best fit at center. Charlie Kolar and Logan Hall are good fits at the lower end of the market. Jedrick Mills may be a good bounce back candidate, if recovered.

I believe what they were saying was the option of moving Ratledge to center opens up the opportunity to sign a guard if that is an easier position to fill, not necessarily that they were staying in house.

The whole concept of the WBC during spring training, during players ramp up period, has always seemed disrespectful to players health, especially pitchers, putting them in intense competition before they are 100%. I don't blame a player for wanting to stick to his routines.