Hart

So far, the only guy who looks like he has improved this year is Ron Holland. I hate that Cade is our point guard. It takes away his aggressiveness as a scorer.

The Pistons just look slow. That is one thing that Ivey could definitely help with.

Theoretically, Robinson should be able to replace Beasley. But until I see Robinson on a nightly basis, I am skeptical. Beasley could get up a three very quick and was very clutch.

As far as controlling the strike zone from a hitters point of view, I get impression the most of the hitters today are guessing a LOT of the time. They are guessing if it is going to be a strike. And they are guessing what the pitch it is going to be. There are not a lot of guys that are really good at identifying a pitch quick enough to swing or not swing after the pitcher releases it. Gleyber Torres seems like one that can do this to me. The key for most guys is choosing to shorten up your swing at the appropriate time so you can at least make contact to put the ball in play or foul it off. Just my opinion.

I'm surprised by people being down on Harris. We are clearly a bottom half team in payroll. No GM is going to trade top 10 overall prospects for rentals or relievers in that situation. And you are basically relegated to lottery tickets in free agency. Until Illitch spends some money, he has very limited flexibility.

Of course. The question is would you take that or two top prospects with a lot more years of control.

It Cade makes another leap and truly does because an ALL NBA first team type of player, that definitely would raise the ceiling of this team and I feel like there is a lot more riding on Ivey then. Need a jump from him also to become a true championship contender. I am trying not to get too caught up in Cade's preseason. It is still preseason.

That's kind of what I was thinking also. Seems like a steep asking price for a rental.

I think you got to get Aidan Miller in any trade with the Phillies. Not sure if he will stick at shortstop but third base is a need for us as well. And he was great the second half of the season.

This is such a hard decision. One thing I hope the front office does consider before deciding to let Skubal go is that if he does continue to track for a hall of fame career, he goes into the hall of fame with another team. It's nice to have great players to celebrate 30 or 40 years from now. We have that with Whitaker and Trammell and Morris. We will have that with Verlander and Cabrera. We are going to lose that to a large degree with Skubal if we move on from him.

I think Kerry Carpenter may be getting off a little easy by fans. He had a .291 obp. That's worse than Greene's .313 obp. His strikeout rate is not near as bad as Riley's but that walk rate is hurting us. Combine those two with Javy Baez/Trey Sweeney, and that's a lot of ab's used up where guys are not getting on base. I do agree with others we should shop Greene to see what he would bring back.

Keith still somehow managed an OPS of .746 this year, which I would say is solid for a 23 year old in his second year of development. I do think his overall statistics are better than what it felt like watching him everyday (which happens with a lot of players when you platoon so much). Next year is a big year for him. I think we need to see a big step forward from him before he becomes just another strong side platoon guy that doesn't play good defense. The Tigers probably won't give him enough of a chance to hit lefties though.

So many questions with this team. Oddly enough after last offseason, Javy Baez is probably one of the guys most locked into a secure starting spot. He still makes too much money to trade, we still don't have a good alternative, and he did enough this year that I think the Tigers will just roll with him at least one more year. I don't if McGonigle will end up at third base or second base but I don't think it will be shortstop.

It just doesn't seem like Greene even tries to shorten up his swing in crucial situations to put the ball in play. So frustrating. Malloy was raking in Triple A before this latest call-up. Please start him the last two games.

Not that I watch a ton of NBA outside of the Pistons but I would rather have THJ than Levert.

It is true that we have downgraded as far who is staying and who is going but it is also true that the core of this team remains intact and the development of Cade, Ivey, Ausar, and Duren was going to make or break this team regardless of those other guys.

Which we knew all along. But the Knicks aren't that good either. It might be different if Stewart was healthy.

What the heck is going on with this defense? We may need Schroder to save us.

This is the problem with basketball. It has the potential for never ending replays. You could review every call the last two minutes but it would ruin the games for spectators. And the refs are not good enough to get it right the first time around.

I look it as more a Cade issue that has nothing to do with Brunson. He doesn't have the athleticism or quickness that you want in closers so he has to make the mid range shots and three pointers. At this point, he still defaults to trying to create something off the dribble. I was happy with that last shot he generated. The turnover with a couple of minutes to go though was brutal.

We haven't been relevant in forever so it's easy to forget but missed calls in close games are one of the big drawbacks of basketball. You can't let it get to that point.

The fact he shot it that early kind of saved us. No way THJ even gets a shot off if he waits to 4 or 5 seconds. I would rather play defense with the lead or extend the game by fouling.

He for sure got fouled but it's basketball...this is what you get when you leave it up to the refs to decide. Cade needs to make that. And we have to do a million other things better leading up to that moment.

Cade got a good look at least.

Here we go. Can Cade create a decent shot for himself or a teammate in the biggest moment? That is the next step for him. The stats to this point don't define the great players.