gehringer_2

this will be another pitching centric team. They'll go as far as pitching health lets them. The fly in the ointment is that if Gleyber and Keith can't hold up the right side of the IF, the pitching might not look as good as it should.

Player options or team options? Chas laid out a deal where the team had options as well as the player - as in the Tigers had the option to buy out Cabrera's last season. Actually that might even the answer to the question if Cabrera was a Boras client -- but I have no idea.

just one question: has a Boras client ever signed a contract with a team option? Serious question - I have no idea but I think it possible the answer is never, and if that's the case that would be your answer.

Oh boy 🫤

I've been waiting for them to make a move to shore up catcher behind Rogers other than Dingler, but this kid is 20 in A ball so he's not that guy. Went to Australia to play this winter - certainly shows some ambition.

I do somewhat. I know there was a lot of 'consensus' talk but GMs aren't paid to to put their finger in the wind. Too much of Mize's college success was based on his split thrown out of the zone, and it was always a possibility/likelihood, that MLB batters would have better discipline. Despite having good velo, he really didn't have a plus fastball and that's what I expect an MLB org should have been able to suss out. Now Otoh, if they were determined to take a pitcher anyway, it was still either Mize or Singer and Singer hasn't been great either, and to be perfectly honest, no-one from the top of that draft has done much. You have to go all the way down Hoerner at 24 for player that has gotten to 10 WAR in the 7 years since that draft.

That's a non-starter with Ilitch.

I think the most likely scenario for Mize is if he can at least get good command of a slider and FB, he can be a serviceable reliever against RHH and in shorter outings maybe he keep his frustrations more in check. You know he wants to start and that means getting command of three pitches, something we have yet to see him succeed with.

and not to forget that that baseball ownership is a quintessential old boy's club, where the most important rules don't even show up in "informal" tallies.

I agree with the logic of this as Matt's success seems so directly tied to his FB velo. It's one of the more counter-intuitive things that with Manning's frame and this coaching staff's smarts that they can't get him over 95mph. You kept waiting for it to happen but it just doesn't seem to be in there. Then again, at 6'8" Doug Fister couldn't throw harder either.

Interesting encounter. I wonder an Asian's experience of Australia is different than an anglo's? i.e - are Aussies less interactive with Asians than with anglos? We spent a little time in Australia and generally found people pretty outgoing - at least enough we never noticed a difference, but (and this was about 15 yrs ago) Aussie society was still in the throes of their struggles with racism - issues were on the news basically every night - reminded me a bit of the US in the '60s.

QFT

My experiences in French Canada were that they were much happier to speak English to an American than an Anglo-Canadian - . Of course the US and Canada were on good terms then.

Well maybe. He may be coachable but he has never had good mound presence and is too prone to emotional meltdown. It's a performance business and In the end intangibles take a back seat to getting the job done. I root for the guy, but just my IMO, I will be more surprised than not if he makes the starting rotation.

Casey is frustrating because the big arm is there, but the pitching skills to get the most out of it have yet to come around. He'd be in a stronger position if his pitching had improved as last season progressed with distance from the injuries , but it didn't seem to, and he was another step worse when he came back after the hamstring, which I thought was just an add insult to injury king of thing. How do you pull a hamstring coming off the mound for a pop fly?

good luck with that.

I think ST will be as important for Mize as for Torkelson. He will start the season pitching where-ever his performance merits, which could be anything from the rotation to the pen to Toledo.

It's not like Davis is chopped liver - but you'd still think there should have been more return to Dallas just based on the age difference. Maybe the '29 1st rounder from the Lakers will end up a lottery pick. We can hope!

6 pts in the books on this trip. Playing with house money in Seattle Tuesday.

McLellan has him at center the last two nights and he's winning face-offs.

opening bell in the morning going to be worth watching.

if Harris lands Bregman and Flaherty, he gets his GENIUS cap back, even with Torres.

I can understand the Mav deciding to move on from Luka if they think they are stuck in not good enough purgatory. The question is whether this deal reflects a strategy that gets them anywhere.

This adds some resilience against the inevitable pitching injuries - YCNHTMP!

This is not a that large an economic commitment, I wonder if an offer to Bregman remains on the table.