Hart

I've always wanted the Lions to have an outdoor stadium. But Ford Field is about as good as you can get for something indoors.

If he can stay healthy, he should have a big season.

The big debate at the time was whether Stafford was part of the problem or the solution. I think we have our answer on that now. If he was willing to play for us, then the rebuild should have started with him. You can turn things around quickly in the NFL but you really need a quarterback and that is by far the hardest part of the equation. I really wanted to see what Stafford would do once we moved on from Patricia.

Do you really think Stafford was ready to retire? I think the Lions had some leverage there.

You have to have a good back seven against the Eagles because Hurts negates your pass rush with his legs. And the Lions don't.

Make him sit out the season.

The moment we traded Stafford, this became a four or five your rebuild. That is unacceptable in the NFL and also why it was a bad trade. Two years wasted on Goff and then two or three more years trying to figure out if we found our qb of the future.

I bet Hutchinson lined up in a three point stance less than 25% of his snaps last year at Michigan. He is 100% in a three point stance so far for the Lions, as he was in the pre-season. You are not going to get #2 pick production out of him if you don't line him wider like a quasi rush linebacker.

Too bad one of Rogers or Haase does not hit left handed. It would make that a more natural platoon situation.

I also wonder if Haase is actually bad as a defensive catcher as people think. That's a hard thing to measure as a fan. A guy gets a reputation as a bad defensive catcher early in his career and then it is hard to change people's minds.

Should we feel good if we go into Spring Training next year with Eric Haase as our primary catcher? Seems like nobody ever talks about him as anything more than a backup. But a .750 OPS from a catcher over roughly his last 700 at bats is nothing to sneeze at. I don't watch enough games at this point in the season to really notice his defense but I have a hard time believing we could do better than him in the offseason.

I was initially against the defensive shift rules. But I saw some quotes from Carlos Correa that mentioned fans like more action at games. Which is true. We do need more action and this is an easy way to get it. I'd be curious to know how many players favor it vs how many are against it.

He did have over 80 pithes after 6 though. That's usually grounds for taking a young pitcher out so he ends on a positive note.

Earlier in the season, I think Manning would have come out after 6th. I wonder if the Tigers are saying screw it...babying these guys as much as we have certainly has not been working.

Carpenter with two fly outs today. Seems to put the ball in the air a lot when he makes contact which is a very good sign. That was a really nice piece of hitting on that sac fly.

I always loved Andrus. I doubt he has a resurgence in him at this point in his career but I would love to see him in a Tigers uniform to find out.

Maybe we just need to build a ballpark that fits Carpenter's home run swing.

Schoop has one year left on his deal. He's got enough of a track record I'd bring him back with the idea that a bounce back is a good possibility and Wenceel Perez is waiting in the wings. If the first month goes poorly next year or Clemens has a big spring training, then maybe that would be the time to cut bait. Candelario is the biggest disappointment this year in my opinion. Seemed like he might be the answer long term going into the season. We could probably get a throw away prospect for him and maybe you take that. I hope the Tigers spend some money but even with that, there are going to be some positions we have to bring back our own guys.

Torkelson hit .238 at Toledo last year but it came with power and good obp. That seemed like the floor. Clearly, he is not the same hitter he was last year and there is something going on mentally or mechanically. I don’t think it’s just an issue of not being to handle the next level of pitching because we have seen enough abs at Toledo now to draw some conclusions.

Nobody wants to give up cost controlled top prospects for the chance they become an all-star in the near future. But it does seem more often than not it goes the other way. Look at CJ Abrams. Would the Padres have been willing to trade him in that deal before the season started? Doubtful.

This is what I am expecting as well. I think the only reason he backtracked a little bit recently was because he wants to make sure he gets his paycheck next year. I think he is ready to be done. And it would benefit the Tigers not to force him to come back just to collect his salary next year. Pay him his money and do what's best for Miggy and the team.

I only watched the first quarter and don't know if Hutchinson played after that but I was disappointed he was almost exclusively in a three point stance. If you watched him at Michigan last year, he was in a two point stance the majority of the time and that is when he made most of his plays. Time will tell if this matters. But it is my belief that Hutchinson is a better as a quasi rush linebacker and the Lions used him as more of a traditional defensive end the first quarter.

Parker Meadows looks like Aaron Judge with that height and batting stance.

I thought letting Scherzer walk was the right move. Turned out to be a mistake. Verlander is an interesting situation because he got traded from the Tigers to Houstan at the perfect time. I think if he had stayed, things would not have gone as well for him the last 5 years, even with missing pretty much all of 2021-22. Pitching for a winning team is more motivating than pitching for a losing team. Now I am starting to wonder if he has a chance at 300 wins. He doesn't seem like a guy that is interested in retiring and is going to play as long as he can. Nolan Ryan pitched till 46 and had 71 wins after the age of 40. Verlander plays for the right team to have a chance of getting there.

I hate to defend the Tigers but that does seem a reasonable defense in this case. Most scouts thought he had top of the rotation stuff, maybe as a number two more than a number one. Obviously, it looks like everybody missed on him. The problem for Avila is there seems to be a common theme of misses over and over and over again.