Edman85

Not sure, but I'll say this. The Harris/Metzler regime likely won't have many if any fingerprints on this class.

Highest draft signing bonus on the roster: Spencer Torkelson Lowest draft signing bonus on the roster: Beau Brieske ($75,000) Highest international free agent signing bonus on the roster: Luis Garcia ($2,500,000) Lowest known international free agent signing bonus on the roster: Harold Castro ($29,000) Unknown undrafted free agent bonuses: Luis Castillo, Jose Cisnero, Angel De Jesus, Jason Foley, Rony Garcia, Elvin Rodriguez, Jonathan Schoop, Gregory Soto

Welp, I calculated the median initial signing bonus of all the players on the Tigers 40 man roster (49 total, 60 day IL included)... A lot of the lower profile Latin American UDFA's don't have bonus info available, but safe to assume it is below the median, so I marked them as zero, same effect. It came out to a nice round number: $500,000

10th round picks rarely get slot, too. The newest CBA curtailed some of the really low senior sign deals, but under the slotting system, it's not uncommon to see some seniors popped in rounds 7-10 and getting a 4 digit bonus.

Most players who make the show? No. Turner got a 4.7M bonus and (now not allowed) a major league deal with some guarantees. A very small fraction of draftees get that kind of bonus.

The Tigers signed Miguel Del Pozo, their first free agent signing of the offseason. He hit HA early as a twice outrighted guy.

Yes. That is what I read between the lines when Harris said he hasn't started interviewing candidates.

I also suspect teams like to hide players they want to try to slip through the Rule 5.

FYI, a lot of those restrictions are no longer in place as of 2019. See here https://www.thecubreporter.com/arizona-fall-league-az-instructional-league

David Stearns stepping down in Milwaukee and James Click's contract expiring in Houston. Reading between the lines, I wouldn't be stunned if Click was brought in as GM.

Development is less assigning players to levels, more teaching them the right things. Avila/Littlefield/Chadd appeared to be stuck in their ways. I recommend reading the MVP Machine. Ironically, I believe there was a picture of that book in Avila's office, but it shows what teams like the Dodgers and Astros were doing way before the Tigers played catch-up.

A few things: I haven't had the time to go through and evaluate the Rays drafts 2016-Pres as I would like to (apportioning value to traded draft picks, etc.). The Tigers have been drafting high since 2016, so they should have gotten more in that time. The Rays have, however, been getting competitive balance picks, that the Tigers didn't start getting until 2020. The rule of thumb I've observed looking at drafts is it takes 7 or so years to judge them, unless the players have flamed out. Most of Metzler's Rays drafts are before that threshold. Compare with caution, especially with the Rays "low and slow" development philosophy. Yes, there is some player development failure to blame for the drafts not pumping out much talent. Putting Dave Littlefield in charge of that was Al Avila's greatest failure.

Not sure Metzler would have been involved on that one at all, unless he was pushing for the extra pick.

Well then it must be true... 😃

Yes. This is a Chadd backfill. Teams average about 5 AGM's.

I met Metzler 10 or so years ago when Baseball Prospectus held and event and Q+A with members of the Rays front office at the Trop. Nothing more to add, but this is an upgrade on Chadd.

They also still think we care about their college drinking stories.

Worth pointing out the new CBA makes arb salaries fully guaranteed.

Maybe hirings/firings... Releases, no. If you release a player you are restricted in bringing them back next year. This is different from outrighting a player for them to hit free agency or non-tendering a player. A player straight up released can't be re-signed and put on the active roster until May 15. The only player movement you will see between now and the end of the world series are waiver claims and international free agents. Maybe they try to slip some guys through waivers this week, but there's really no point. Just wait until after the Series, especially with the new guy in charge still getting up to speed.

No. Maybe a GM or Scouting Director hire, but no free agents have hit free agency, and trades are still closed until after the World Series.

Because they may not be worthy of 40 man roster spots, but you still want to try to get them in the fold. It is something teams have done a lot of lately. Get a player on waivers and pass then through yourself later. Palacios has more than 6 years in the minors under his belt and would be free agent eligible if outrighted, but Papierski wouldnt.

Get the analytics staff, player dev staff, and new hitting coach together. If they are confident that Candelario can be fixed, hang onto him. If not, bye.

Papierski is way near the top of the chopping block. Don't be thrown by him (and Palacios) being a Harris acquisition. The whole point of claiming guys like that is to bring them in and try to slip them through waivers later.

After reading Lords of the Realm a couple years ago, it's pretty clear where these guard rails came from. The Mariners and Orioles had owners in the late 80's go belly up. It was a common thing. Less of an issue now with revenue sharing making that very difficult. Still, we have had some situations like the Rangers under Tom Hicks, McCourt and the Dodgers, and the Wilpons getting Madoff'ed. There are some other things in the section on the Debt Service Rule that ties the league's hand from restricting spending on players. But, let's say the Tigers wanted to go all in and blow through the international slot budget in the 2012-16 range when that was allowed, I think any such deals could have been quashed. Also, that rule has been eased up a bit the past couple years as it is known some teams had reduced cashflow in 2020-21. The commissioner also has some latitude and I don't think they flex often.

The ads running during the playoff games on Fox make my blood boil.