gehringer_2

If Reyes flops at the plate that seems the inevitable outcome, though it's hard to look forward to, Harold is not a good outfielder.

They are daily raising up a stronger army against them. The morale and motivation difference the Russians have created by their actions more than counter balances the 3:1 population ratio theoretically supporting their army's numbers. With continued western support I don't see any possibly way the Russians can prevail in this conflict at this point short of starting WWIII, which they would also lose (which they also well know). The question we all pondered in this forum before this all started was "Would the Ukrainians fight." Well damn if they have not answered the bell beyond anyone in the West's wildest dreams.

it would be second round? He might be worth it IF he is healthy - depending on how many years he demands. The Tigers don't have much close in the way of OF prospects after Greene. The top position players in the minors now will be IF, (Kreidler, Santana, Pachero, Paredes), and C (Dingler). The first OF left in the Tiger prospect list is Campos at about 10, who is not close, and Meadows at about 20, who is probably not going to make the majors. Tigers have shown in the past they don't mind working with Boras, but that said the asking price will very likely be a non-starter...

Right. Robson is LH and has been known to go on hot streaks. I think that is pretty much it for LH OFs. Clemens maybe? He and Robson are both a stretch..

It won't help that he will end up facing more RHP. Hinch is going to have to pick his poison for the OF because none of the candidates have shown they can hit RHP well.

I assume it was Greene's front foot (haven't seen it confirmed either way) so maybe he will at least be able to start hitting again before he can resume running.

yup - we signed him for 6yrs in 2016 so by my math we would still be paying him this year if we still had him. The Angels 'extended' him but that deal was 5 yrs in 2017 so was still only through this season. In fact looking at it, it doesn't make a lot of sense on the surface. His Det deal was 132M for 6 yrs. A yr later the 'new' LA deal was 106M for 5yrs. Obviously other details may have changed but just on the money it was a non-move.

I'm sure that was in part Peralta, who way out pitched his, but how many innings will we see from him? With young pitchers you sort of expect them to out pitch their peripherals, in particular their walks will fall and their K's go up as they learn hitters and umpires and sequencing and repetition sharpens command, but that doesn't mean they didn't have the good stuff to get out of trouble to begin with. Which I would say amounts to what Lee says is 'taking the next step'

yeah - Greene or Tork or one of the young pitchers may become a star, but for now it is ironic that Avila seems intent on going with the philosophy of "win with 9 good players" instead of 3 stars, 3 ordinary Joes and 3 bums. At some point I think we need to put to rest the persistent idea the what the Tigers did under Dombrowski was somehow all Al Avila except for Dave's trades. It seems at every point Al has attempted to run a completely different operation and build a very different type of team.

1st in for 2022 to say "I hate the contact play"

Sportrac says they own him $28M for this year. He's been under 100 OPS+ the last three seasons.

Rodriguez gives up one on a HR to Gutierrez

Woodbery reports that when they called Tork in to tell him the made the team, Cabrera came in and presented him a 1b glove.

another good swing on a fastball by Cabrera (93 on that FB -- not that great though....).

when I wrote the post I was estimating - i was off by the -019 and added that after. But honestly, he was pretty screwed up in his rule 5 year, so I would take his floor as his career since then which is pretty much right at 700.

Rotation just looks too good to be in that range. Rodriguez seems solid. Mize and Skubal may not be aces, but they will mostly keep us in their starts. How often, even when we had Verander and Scherzer, did we ever go into a season with the 4th and 5th starters as well set as they are now with Alexander, Manning and Pineda? Depth in the BP still looks pretty sketch, but the back end led by Soto is not bad. They have the luxury of having enough position depth that if guys slump there are guys behind them that can pick up more ABs but I do wonder how they will cope with an extended slump by Cabrera.

I'm guessing she's so far out of the ship channel into shallow water they can't get any suitable ship near enough to her to partially off-load her.

it sucks because Haase, Reyes, W. Castro are all worse against RHP, they really need a bat that is better against RHP. I guess that will end up being Harold Castro.

true - his april 21 was as bad as Cabrera's, but TBF, he is ~700 (681) ops over his career and that includes his terrible rule 5 season. To me the question is which is more likely to have another terrible slump - I'd guess Miguel just because his physical condition is so precarious. Maybe it's gotten to the point where they will be more willing to sit him down, but I find that doubtful.

I think the difference is that we know Victor's floor with the bat is at least a 700 OPS, and he can run the bases. He'll be at least replacement level and if we get lucky and the bat is better now, the deviation from that will be be to the upside. So he's not going to kill them. Cabrera OTOH, could give us another really terrible stretch like the first 5 wks last season, and that really would hurt - again. (and interesting how much of a pass Miguel has gotten over his very significant contribution to the terrible start last season. It all gets blamed on time for Hinch to put in his system and the clean-up hitter hitting 100 gets ignored - I suppose it's not worth talking about since there is nothing anyone could have done about it!)

You know, with Hill and Riley both gimpy, that opens to door for W Castro to start the season in Detroit.

you have to imagine he shoots well enough in practice (of course remember those videos of Drummond making threes in the gym.....) I guess at 21 I wouldn't want to say his shooting couldn't improve but yeah - it would be hard to refuse an decent offer. Of course given the Pistons history of giving up too soon on serviceable guards, maybe caution is in order.

interesting to see Livers making some noise. I thought he tended to be under-appreciated compared to his teammates at at UM, though Franz Wagner is also doing a good job of living up to his rep.

Amazing now much this is looking like Vietnam compressed into weeks instead of years. The Russian can't hold ground but continue to harry Ukraine from the air as their remaining bargaining leverage to try to gain at the table what they cannot hold on the ground. As noted, the #1 priority now should be high altitude air defense capability for Ukraine. Manpads can(have) stop(ed) the Russians attaining tactical air dominance for ground operations, but can't protect the Ukrainian populace.

Promising legal retribution to your political opponents. Amerika. What a country!