gehringer_2

9 minutes ago, Shelton said:

Yeah, I don’t think the ability to use non-arb comps in the party’s remarks has as much of an effect as it would seem. It’s still a fact that Cole’s contract was a FA contract and Skenes is pre-arb

have to agree. Pre-arb salaries are by definition completely divorced from any connection to a player's value. It would be an odd player evaluation system that gave them any weight. But then again, what's not odd about the way baseball players are paid? 🙄

8 minutes ago, Shelton said:

Their job is to pick the salary that is closest to the “true” arbitration value.

maybe also notable that Price's number was a settlement, not the arbitrator's pick. Do we know what numbers the two sides submitted in 2015?

2 hours ago, Edman85 said:

But the arbitrator can only choose one of the two numbers, so if the team knew Boras was asking for 30+  why not go low and try?

indeed. And the numbers aren't only for the arbitrator, they set the frame for any negotiations before the hearing. Once the numbers are public, each side has to evaluate if they think the other made the more reasonable proposal and how that affects the strength of their own position on settling before arbitration.

3 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

🤔

 

I heard a radio report today about a Gen Z survey - they aren't bothering to save because they don't believe they can ever afford a house and the ones that do invest like stuff like cryto.......🤷‍♀️

3 minutes ago, Nate7474 said:

Highest pitcher arb ever was Price at 19.75. I don’t think the a tigers are wrong here. It’ll get worked out. 

Skubal is better now than Price was then and there has been about 25% inflation since 2015,  so Price's award was closer to $25M in today's dollars. 

28 minutes ago, GalagaGuy said:

I'm a bit surprised Kane was okay with #500 coming on an empty netter.  

It's not like it will be his last. I think then it would have mattered more.

Canuck aren't very good, but these are the ones you have to win.

40 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Jordan living rent-free in that idiot's head

 

I do always wonder what Jordan's game would have looked like if he had played in today's defensive rules. I'm pretty sure he is probably the greatest one one one player ever, but would that still get you to GOAT status in today's game against the kind of doubling Cade regulary sees? 

34 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

That's less than what David Price got in arbitration 11 years ago. Skubal is good as gone if they are going to lowball like this in arbitration. 

gamesmanship.  I imagine the Tigers figure Slubal wins arbitration almost no matter what he submits, to the team is going to lowball just to encourage him not to get so greedy he could lose. 

1 hour ago, buddha said:

however, imo, the court is still wrong on occasion

one thing they have to fix if US politics is ever going to get better is Sullivan, Which tragically isn't even on anyone's radar really. It has simply destroyed any standard of responsibility in US media and politics. It's one of those relatively obscure 'process' issues that sit below any public conciousness where the general public has no concept of the havoc it wreaks on responsible civil discourse. It was a poorly reasoned decision made for short term purposes in a highly stressed environment and it needs to be fixed. Probably worst in terms of ultimate impact than even CU, though I can go either way on that.....

1 hour ago, CMRivdogs said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6955733/2026/01/08/mlb-fanduel-sports-network-teams-cancel-contracts/?campaign=16403141&source=athletic_breaking_targeted_email&userId=213687

 

if they already negotiated down in 23-24 I won't be surprised if at least at least a few teams are willing to go in a different direction instead of signing on for more give backs when it was supposedly  a pretty good yr for baseball overall.

2 hours ago, Edman85 said:

Next question...

If they charge him, and the rat****ers in the current admin squash it as we anticipate, would he be protected from double jeopardy laws in 2029 when adults are in charge again?

2 hours ago, buddha said:

my initial thought is yes, however we dont know what the feds will do this time.  it feels like uncharted territory, like most of this second trump administration.

depends on how far it goes before the charge is dropped or dismissed doesn't it? I suppose they could certainly deliberately try to take the case to the point of jeopardy just to force it to collapse there, if they were that clever. Can't say the legal people around Trump have been all that clever but maybe they could always get lucky, esp when you  have 3 1/2 stooges for the Admin already on the SCOTUS.

4 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I think a lot of time when people mock minor league or waiver acquisitions, they are just being humorous and not being critical.  

It's not the MiLB signings per se, it's the fact that's the only place anything is happening. So each MiLB signing hightens the contrast to the silence on the MLB side. That's what is being mocked (at least in my case, as I definitely poked fun at the Smith signing. But there is also a bit of information in Edman's post that I don't take as so rosy, which is that the Tigers seem to have an excess of  MiLB pitchers that reached minor league FA without ever sniffing the majors. 

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

I'm struggling to understand Ivey. His injury should not have been debilitating, but he doesn't seem capable of getting downhill anymore and has been relegated to being a spot up shooter. 

Maybe it's mental.

yeah  - unless they messed something up and left him with a slight misalignment of his ankle or some weird thing, otherwise there aren't may injuries you would expect a more complete recovery from than a broken fibula. 

I will be seriously surprised if both the DetNews and DetFreePress are both still in business in 5yrs.

I find it depressing there are enough evil people in this country to populate any agency with the number killlers and abettors of killers that something like this can take place. This is rapidly becoming the same kind of morally bankrupt, ethically exhausted population that mid war Germany was and we are seeing and will keep seeing the same symptoms. What is the dynamic that turns a society from one with a strong internal sense of morality into one so cravenly willing to lie, steal and murder? What ever it is, we are in the middle of it.

Quote

The Detroit Tigers continue to add pitching depth.

Right-handed reliever Burch Smith signed a minor-league contract Dec. 23 with the Tigers.

The deal includes a non-roster invitation to MLB spring training and pays $1.5 million if he makes the MLB roster, plus $250,000 available in incentives-- https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2026/01/07/detroit-tigers-free-agency-burch-smith/88064602007/

If there is a route to wining a WS by being the team to sign the most MiLB pitching, the Tigers are going to be in fantastic shape.

41 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

She ended up losing and I am pretty sure the process the dems took hurt her chances of winning. 

I think this is true, but not because of the way she was nominated per se, but because  she didn't have the benefit all the things she would have learned and the support she would have developed as a candidate running a primary campaign. And of course you never know, a stronger candidate might have emerged, defeated her and then been stronger against Trump. The reason the parties started doing primaries was to make sure the people they nominated actually had voter appeal. Of course the primary process today is pretty screwed up in term of the ability to actually do that, but it was the theory.

For the Dems the die was cast in 2019/2020 when Biden picked a candidate for VP who had not been a very successful campaigner and then compounded it by never setting her up as a virtual co-president so she could easily succeed him after one term. 

34 minutes ago, buddha said:

i cant imagine ron holland has too much of a market right now.  maybe because he's still young?  at least ivey has shown the ability to score at an nba level in the recent past.

The question I go back and forth on with Ivey is how much better will/can he get? On the one hand in terms of calendar time he's been around long enough to be pretty close to a finished product, on the other hand he has missed significant injury  time and all the young players were probably wasting development time under Monty. And given that question how much more of him do we want/need to see to decide?

2 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

When the left gets caught grifting they point the at the other side. 

Note that Walz himself is NOT accused of grifting anything , he is accused of running a poorly administered program. There is an ocean of ethical distance between the two situations.

57 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I think the long drought and two playoff appearances make it even more likely that fans would complain.  They are eager for a winner and they have seen that those opportunities have not been all that common for the Tigers over the years.  Fans might not see the Tigers as a team on their way up with the best pitcher in baseball leaving after next year.  Some fans might see the Tigers as being there already rather than up and coming.  They can win a championship this year and with Skubal leaving we don't know that their chances are necessarily going to better in 2 or 3 years.  The future is now.  

I think the losses in the two previous trips to the WS also make fans more attuned to the idea that when you get a chance to get there, don't scrimp. As we've discussed on the forum many times, it's doubtful how much you can improve your odds of winning a WS once in the playoffs no matter what you do, but it's also doubtful the majority of fans, being less statistically immersed, think that way.

My own preference to build a WS team would be HR power and pitching depth, but that's the best way to build any playoff team.

Tiffany network has gone to Jared's.

34 minutes ago, Shelton said:

The Pistons only have 13 fans, but for the most part seem pretty chill.

They wanted both SVG's and  Monty Williams' heads pretty badly, and they were right!

the only question is how bad can it get before it has to start getting better?

29 minutes ago, Screwball said:

 

The Permian Is Drowning in Its Own Wastewater - OilPrice.com

Quote

Potential solutions, such as treating the water for release into rivers, face regulatory hurdles and would add significant, unwelcome costs to producers operating below $60 per barrel West Texas Intermediate.

This is the crap that frosts me. We let them operate dirty because they pay everyone off out of current profits, then walk away, off load the  depleted asset into an empty shell, declare bankruptcy and leave the public holding the bill for the cleanup. Americans have been suckers for big oil from the word go.