gehringer_2

24 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Players will move around to different positions and there will not be strict platoons.  If Meadows can't hit enough, Baez might play some centerfield, but necessarily be the regular centerfielder.  Since Valdez is a ground ball pitcher, perhaps Baez will play shortstop when he pitches and Vierling or Meadows will be in center field those days.  

Since they have Baez and Vierling, will they will even carry Meadows if he doesn't hit and McGonigle or even Anderson are knocking at the door with good sticks? I think the clock is ticking for Parker - my guess he gets some PA early but it's going to be a short leash he doesn't do anything with them.

33 minutes ago, tiger2022 said:

If he is as good of a hitter as people believe, they'll find a position for him.  I can't believe his glove can be worse than Colt Keith's.  Dude was on pace for about 50 errors a few years ago until they pulled him off the field.  Torres won't be back next season, so that opens up 2nd base.

TBF, the year Keith came up he made a bunch of errors early but the error rate in the second half was not an issue and there were things he did well as a 2B - e.g. his DP turn is very fast. 

In 250 innings at 3b last season his Rrds was zero and -2 OAA on statcast. Not great, but not end of the world either. His throws from 3B peaked at 86mph - again, not great but not terrible and in his favor he is pretty accurate. 

He's not going to be fielding asset but I don't think his play at 3b is going to be something that hold them back. Honestly I'm more concerned about the OF if Meadows doesn't hit. Greene fell off a cliff defensively last season, Perez makes a nice play now and then but he also makes mistakes. Kerry throws well but catches like a DH. Vierling and Baez could end up our best OF and Hinch won't play them enough because they are RHH.

39 minutes ago, tiger2022 said:

f Baez plays center field, shortstop will be McKinstry.  

I'm on the skeptical side, but Rdrs actually grades McKinstry positively as a SS, statcast has him neutral. The weakest link potentially is McGonigle. I've yet to hear anyone say they were impressed with his glove work. If he hits his way on to the team but can't hold down short, that does lead to a messy situation.

3 hours ago, pfife said:

Lol

 

Speaking of Cornyn, looks like there is very good chance Ken Paxton will take him down in the primary. One of the consequences of the disaffection for Trump among independents is that GOP primary electorates are likely to get even more MAGA. That should put general election races in play for the Dems that would not have been.

do our GOP apologists even know that the CA redistricting move was designed to not even take effect unless Tx went through with theirs? How's that old song go?: "One of these things is not like the other....."

So they called the tune and now they are sorry when they find out the others guys can dance it better then they can.

1 hour ago, smr-nj said:

So let me see if I have this straight.
 

We’ve got people losing their damn minds over a 15 minute halftime show, when 6 million pages of child abuse, rape, and murder produces nary a “peep” out there.

What ****ing world is this? 

this is the same country that brought you the Salem witch trials, where half was willing to go to war to keep people enslaved, that produced the KKK, interned it's own citizens because of their heritage, produced Joe McCarthy, was fine with bombing the 'gooks' back to the stone age (until they weren't), and never met a social democracy in the third world it wasn't ready to overthrow in the name of corporate profits. This is us baby! Just like we've always been. One half of every American generation has to spend its energy trying to keep the other half from being the terrible people they're always willing to be.

Just now, chasfh said:

I believe him. As far as he’s concerned.

🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆

(been used before but bears repeating)

On 2/5/2026 at 6:38 PM, Stormin said:

Some random thoughts:

There are currently 5 MLB teams operating in a space significantly above the luxury tax thresholds.   4 of those teams(LAD,NYY,NYM,PHI) are the only teams paying a player more than a luxury tax AAV $40M.  Toronto is the 5th team.

Most of the league is moving away from long term contracts.  Teams have seen the results of these type of contracts.   People don't seem to want to say this out load, but Miggy's second contract made the Tigers a non competitive team from 2017 to 2023.  Only one team,  Toronto, has signed a player for more than 5 years this off season.

If contracts longer than 5 years are going away,  short term high AAV contracts will be the route for star players.  I could see Skubal getting $60M AAV for 4 or 5 years, but there may be only 4 teams who can pay that amount. 

In theory,  if a harder cap was implemented, and the league continued to pay the same % of revenue to player salaries,  the wealth would be spread among a larger group of players. There may not be any players making more than $40M,   but there would  probably be more players making $10M, $20M, $30M, and $40M.

 

For a long time the players union has operated (apparently) under the assumption that rising top contracts raise all boats, but that seems to objectively untrue and the union has manifestly not operated to the benefit of the majority its membership. Alex Rodriguez's $250M/10yr deal has morphed into $60M AAVs but the major league minimum is still sitting under $1M. I don't know if the union has sold it's players a bill of good or if the agents like Boras have managed to sell the union a bill of good, or maybe both. 

1 hour ago, IdahoBert said:

Eric is a good guy. When he was in Missoula, he had part with some of his books and he sent me his best philosophy books.

Giving someone philosophy books is not necessarily a favor.....

4 hours ago, guy incognito said:

I’m registering Capt. Louis Renault levels of astonishment on hearing that the Klansman-in-Chief shared something racist online and that America’s Herrenvolkisch Party and its base are okay with it.

 

 

recent polling show independents deserting Trump in droves  but he's still got 85% approvals from GOP. 30% of this country have checked their brains at the door. That's pretty sad.

4 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Oh yeah. 

And we also had Grapes who would post a long post with no punctuation and mis-spellings that caused his words to make no sense and I would spend 10 minutes trying to figure out what he was saying that usually made no sense anyway and was sometimes racist or sexist when he did get a thought across from his rambling brain to his keyboard while many people argued with him so I always wondered if he was for real or just a troll. Whew...that's exhausting. 😅😅

Eric Coe wanabes

6 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

At a huge cost, much more expensive, but out there to sign.

if the cost goes to huge, then how do they remain available to most teams in practice? Sounds like heading back to the reserve clause days with the Yankees stashing whole major league teams worth of players in the minors to keep them away from other teams except now it will be the Dodgers.

6 minutes ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

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.)

Right, even if Buddha is happy with the amount of imbalance now, if teams start losing guys at 3 yrs, the Tigers wouldn't have made the playoff either of the last two years.

2 hours ago, slothfacekilla said:

Ya that's one of the rumors I was alluding to, nothing confirmed and it still isn't a great look for him honestly. 

ESPN has confirmed his arrest, the charge and that he made bail.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/47831110/top-nhl-prospect-gavin-mckenna-charged-assault

2 minutes ago, buddha said:

yeah who knows, the poor brewers might just have to go out and win 97 games again like last year.

HOW WILL THE POOR BREWERS COMPETE?????

One team is not an argument for the system though. Any team might have a run of draft picks that hit, trades where a a throw-in becomes a star, whatever - basically has a lot of stuff go right and ends up competitive a few seasons - for instance the Tigers incredible pitching health in 2006. That fact that can happen doesn't mean the system isn't highly biased, it only proves its not impossibly biased. Not much of a bar.

21 minutes ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

I'll be amazed if the owners don't lockout next year w/o a salary cap

It could get very bizarre. You are going to have the rich teams in strange alliance with the players against the rest of the teams. And in the end the larger numbers of poorer owners may not be able to hold out because they can probably least afford a year without revenue. I suppose that will be the ultimate tell as to whether those teams are losing money or not. They'll be a lot more willing to take the shutdown if they weren't making any money anyway.

4 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

My point being Tater said the dems were leading the charge to end Gerrymandering by… More Gerrymandering. Also note dead red Indiana chose not to play these reindeer games.

your arg is unserious. Dems moved toward reform in multiple jurisdictions, GOP moved toward abuse, Dems forced to react. There is no ethical culpability on the part of the left for playing self defense nor even a fundamental change in the preferences of the left to do away with all of it. 

11 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

If true, McKenna is a good boy. 

Maybe not so funny. McKenna has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

7 hours ago, chasfh said:

Harris is not declaring for the White House, and even if she is, this party will absolutely not nominate her.

wishful thinking but I believe the best strategy for the Dems would be for no-one to declare for '28 until the midterms are over.

Right now the AI race is a spending black hole across the M7. Maybe one or two of them will eventually make money at it, the rest will likely never recoup their losses. Which is fine, they can afford them, but a lot of investors will likely be hurt.

41 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Gerrymandering for me but not for thee.

Basic game theory. When your opponent won't play fair you may absorb the 1st hit. After that the optimal stratagem is to hammer back harder to show them their decision was counter-productive. It's just being practical.

4 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

15 years ago blue states like California in good faith set up independent redistricting commissions. Not a single red state did. Democrats cannot unilaterally disarm themselves. Republicans have shot down all attempts at nationwide redistricting commissions. Democrats can't stop here. I'm looking at you New York. If Republicans want a ceasefire, than pass a nationwide redistricting bill. 

Where does the Federal gov get the authority to pass a redistricting bill? Plus this SC would invalidate it.  I'm afraid the best solution is a Supreme Court that will outlaw both Gerrymanders and overturn CU. The next Dem admin must increase the numbers on the court to make the current Conservative axis irrelevant. It's a terrible solution but probably still better than any other.

22 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

Ilitch now has the Tigers with a Top 10 payroll and less than 17M from the first competitive balance tax line.

Someone needs to reign in his irresponsible spending!

is that with or without Skubal’s 20 or 32 M$!

2 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

"Headquarters"? 

That sure rings of Gen Z doesn't it?

2 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

I still think they are a RH bat short, as Jones is unlikely to repeat his 2025, Vierling is just solid and coming off multiple injuries. Maybe they do something at the end of ST, or maybe they wait and see how it goes, possibly with Anderson or Lee.

agree they are still too left handed, esp if McGonigle makes the team.