Edman85

Also, the political media really needs to focus more on delegate counts as opposed to "winning" states or what place.

Back end of the top 40 or so... I'd even rank him lower because of the general lack of success of players of his profile signed at his age.

No might about it. I don't have it off hand, but in recent days came across a Randy Smith quote where he was very blunt with a veneer of passive aggression discussing it.

The pejorative use of dog gives it away.

Gonna remind people in as many spots as I can before they fly off the handle over the Tigers still staying out of the deep end of this pool despite Harris and Metzler taking over. Most of the high end deals signed today were agreed to 2-3 years ago. Even if they wanted to reverse course, that isn't happening. The new facility and ensuing upgrades in the DR are no small investment, likely exceeding a year or two of Miguel Cabrera's salary when all is said and done, which should help the churn of some of these players, but we are talking 3-4 years before that machine is up and running, and another 5+ until those guys are knocking on the big league door. There really are no fast answers down there, short of a shift in priority in the types of players signing to five-digit bonuses you want.

Is the false start call the missed HBP?

Progress isn't always linear.

I finally watch some NFL games this year after giving it up after the Pettigrew PI call was clearly phoned in by the league office, and the officials are still putting their thumb on the scale.

Yes.

His performance has been meh at best. Definitely not befitting of a 1-1... No maybe about it; they weren't.

Probably some of that. The antiquated player dev that cost them so much under Littlefield likely had parallels at the Dominican Academy. The disruption from the Venezuelan shutdown didn't help matters. It should be noted, when Littlefield got scuttled for Garko, there was also a change in the Latin American Player Development Director at the same time. The 2017-18 and 2018-19 classes look like complete busts so far, and you can't blame the bonus restrictions from the 2013-14 through 2015-16 classes on that. There may be some issues with who they are prioritizing and how they are developing them. Having said that... Don't forget that a lot of these deals are agreed to 2+ years in advance, so even this class the Harris/Metzler regime is unlikely to have been able to put their fingerprint on. Purchasing land for a new facility is no small deal, and needs to be remembered when people inevitably complain about the small payroll. They are putting the money to good use.

Similar to analytics, the Tigers have been playing catchup on this front forever. Also similar, there is significant investment happening right now. It will take a while to pay off. I am curious why they have struggled or took so long. Racism? Domestic scouting was going so well in the 70s and 80s that they just put eggs in that bucket? Miserly owners? Schembechler's reign of terror cutting the legs out? Pena's abrupt dismissal? Investing in Venezuela only for it to become an untenable firestorm and having to pull out? Antiquated scouting and development methods? Bad timing with the bonus rules? Playing within the rules while other teams paint outside the lines? All likely factors in some way.

If they would have included Castellanos in the Price package instead of Adames, would that salvage their international results? I'm not saying throw an asterisk on Acuna et. al., but, my hunch is the stuff that got the hammer dropped on Coppolella was only the tip of the iceberg, and it is entirely likely some of their success in that era was done outside the rules.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=hernan006jua https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=hernan003jua Different guys.

He came back to the Tigers asking for money, but the Diamondbacks beat their offer. He went on to have an ERA in the high 4's and a negative win probability added. Harris was right to not give a blank check. I don't see why this is a demerit. At all.

THIS And he wasn't that good last year.

I know for sure after somebody credible got in my ear to confirm.

Welp, part one is ready. (I still am waiting on the 2007 guide and will add some names when it arrives)

I don't remember this, but that would be hilarious.

You don't know they were $25K apart in negotiations. Just $25k apart in what was filed later in the day.

And Burnes went and pitched fine last year, and agreed to a deal yesterday to avoid arbitration this year. As for Hader, the quotes I found weren't really at the team, just at the state of the arbitration model at the time which undervalued somebody in his relief ace role.

From 2012: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/17566/overthinking-it-does-arbitration-drive-players-away/ McCosky yesterday mentioned this has gotten a lot less contentious over the years, but consider the source. A lot of consternation in here over something that will likely be forgotten by late March.

A lot of hyperbole in here this morning... It does strike me as penny wise, pound foolish though, but there's no tangible evidence out there that going to arbitration has any effect on performance or relations with a player going forward. I just wonder if preparing for and attending the hearing comes close to exceeding the salary gap. It's also possible Mize's camp was pushing for a higher number during negotiations, or the negotiated contract was a deal with some kind of incentive structure, and then filed with a much lower number than he was asking for originally.

I did not know the new front office was "File and Trial"