Edman85

There was similar rhetoric this time last year about how they wouldn't be doing that kind of stuff, but attrition happened and they ended up doing it. I don't think you plan for bullpen days, but know that in a pinch you can do it over signing an abundance of veteran pitchers. Between Skubal, Webb, Jobe, Olson, Mize, Manning, Hurter, Madden, Montero, and Maeda, chances are you have five starters somewhere in there.

I agree but they have 7ish starters as is, with one due back mid-season from injury and a few prospects on the farm close (Hamm, Melton). From a pure numbers standpoint you can never have enough, but I will say there are plenty, especially when the worst case scenario is buffered by that break glass emergency strategy. You are better off with the bullpen day than throwing out a 40 grade pitcher. The risk with Verlander and Scherzer is they may be Maeda without the humility to accept a role demotion.

If it ain't broke...

I'm 100% out on Santander. Career OBP of .308. That just reeks of somebody who is going to fall off a cliff.

First down arm punt?

Yeah our meeting was finally spiked

Meeting starts Tuesday elsewhere in Maryland. My supervisor says he's okay with me opting out even if others want to make that drive from the airport. I'm assuming the flight gets cancelled.

My grandfather did that for years in the Detroit area. He's been gone for almost 30 years now, otherwise I'd ask if that was the case.

I mean you can. I still wouldn't do it, because he would be first on the chopping block for the next addition.

I have to fly into DC for work on Monday, and... well... if the weather forecast this weekend is what it was four years ago, history would be a whole lot different. Jan 6 wouldn't have happened.

Other teams have more fat on the back of their 40 man they can trim. I don't see the need to jump the line here.

They could, but why give anything up for him?

Serven is probably your third catcher. Doesn't really matter if he is on the 40 or not. I'm not sure Cartaya is an emergency option anyways. He's more a of a stash-and-hope, and I don't think we have the 40 man space to play with to justify that. Yeah, you can lop Englert and Kreidler, but you would need to drop one of them if you sign Bregman or a reliever. They didn't protect Hicks, who is a more viable third catcher option in 2025, imo. The Tigers are 19th in waiver priority, so 18 teams would have to pass anyways. I don't see him getting past the Rockies, Marlins, Blue Jays, Rays, etc. Either way, looks like the Tigers got the right Dodgers catching prospect for Flaherty.

I don't see him getting to us via waivers, and if we are going to add another couple of players, the 40 man roster is getting tight in terms of players you can lop off and not feel pain.

There's no reason to drop Tork now, none, zero, nada. If he was out of options or about to get expensive, yes. Otherwise you are just selling low out of short-sightedness.

Last I checked, and I still think this is true, the Rockies are the only team that has never gone above the draft pool. Keep in mind you get 5% where you pay a tax and do not lose any picks. Most teams are 4.5%-5% over their pool. The Rockies do not pay that tax.

Good stuff

Spenser Watkins was thrown to the trash heap during the 2020 shutdown. He bounced around and ate some innings for the Orioles and A's, and is off to China for this season.

I'm willing to occam's razor the cybertruck being a POS until further information comes in.

Honestly, I'm not big on the "don't speak ill of the dead" stuff. If somebody was a bad person, they don't deserve tongues to be held. In the past year or so, we lost Pete Rose, Bob Knight, OJ Simpson... people for different reasons who were pieces of crap and to me it's not wrong to point out as such. Having said that, by all accounts Jimmy Carter was one of the best human beings to hold that office and he's not worthy of partisan scorn at this point, even if he clearly did have shortcomings in the position.

The early episodes, they are (first two seasons at least. That's where I am). I know the Peacock streams of a lot of the 2000's eras are like 20 minutes because of rights issues. I made a spotify playlist to add songs as I come across them in my binge (if available):

12 pack large eggs, $4.49 at Publix this morning. I think I could have gotten them for $3.39 at Target, but I needed them for breakfast this morning and Target opened too late.

In fairness, the schadenfreude enough might make that worthwhile.

Worth noting the Mariners sold off some of the pool money after not getting him and got some useful pieces. I guess this is to say, if a team is trading players for pool money come January 15, it's likely a sign they think they have a chance.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2025-international-signing-bonus-pools-for-each-mlb-team/ Every team gets a set bonus pool. The top two pool amounts are tied to the opposite of the previous year's competitive balance picks. Teams who picked in the second round of the balance picks get the highest pool the next international pool (this is a relic of the international period starting in July and trying to stagger that benefit). Teams that lose a draft pick (in the 2023-24 offseason) also lose some money as well. The Tigers are in the highest pool. Tigers (and others): $7,550,000 2024 Draft Comp A: $6,908,600 All others: $6,261,600 Astros (Josh Hader), Cardinals (Sonny Gray): $5,646,200 Giants (Blake Snell and Matt Chapman), Dodgers (Shohei Ohtani): $5,146,200 Back in 2012-16, you could go over and pay a tax on that. You cannot do that any more. Contracts under $10,000 do not count. You can acquire up to 60% of that money in trades. The Tigers have an agreement with one of the top pics in this class (Cris Rodriguez), who is likely taking up about half of this. The Angels and Mariners made a bunch of trades leading up to Ohtani's posting to free up space. Those trades aren't always logged as such in the transactions logs. If you are going to move space around, you will either have to reneg on contracts resulting in long term damage, or make some trades to acquire that $4.35M in cap space. Bear in mind the Mariners in 2017. They moved money around, Ohtani didn't sign with them, and they were left holding the bag.