mtutiger

Again, this guy is supposed to be the "mainstream" alternative... at least that's what the NRO conservative Twitterati keeps telling us anyway lol

Maybe because its because life is busy at the moment, but I honestly have no knowledge of Jason Aldean or what he did or didn't do.

She was really trying to will that into existence.... geesh.

As much as we all hated the trade at the time, Gipson-Long has been a solid pickup.

It's hands-down the best city in California, IMO.... just no shortage of good weather and stuff to do!

I think this is a fair read. In a lot of ways, I think he understood the problems, and even did a few useful things for the Org to try to move the ball forward. But ultimately he was just out of his league when it comes to the actual operation of the club and making the moves necessary to rebuild and compete. We fought this out a while ago, but Randy really was the worst GM in franchise history. I really can't think of any moves he made that were redeemable, at the time or in retrospect.

Honestly, the Castros come to mind too... after a while, it ends up about as old as watching Matlock reruns when you run those guys out there over and over again and expect different results. It really came to a head in 2022 in that, despite fielding quite possibly the worst offense in the modern history of the game, there just wasn't a ton of transactions or waiver wire activity. I'd argue that the cart wasn't really fully shaken up at all on last year's team until Kerry Carpenter was promoted, and that occurred on the day of his firing (which leads to questions about whose doing that actually even was). Harris, for his part, is completely different in that he has worked the wire a decent amount and has, in a couple of cases, actually found useful players in the process (Tyler Holton maybe the best example). For whatever reason, it just wasn't something Al would do.

At least going off of Ratko's numbers, suggests that Farris and Stewart might be a bridge too far for sure. But IDK.

I'll go back to what I said, I believe, in a different thread regarding Avila.... he moved WAY too slow, but he did bring in some PD guys from outside of the system, many of whom were retained after Harris was hired. Garko being the most notable, but others as well. And I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that some of the improvements we have seen from some of Avila's guys (Parker Meadows maybe the best example) is tied to that. It's not an excuse for his failures, and heads did roll after Harris took over, but because of those hires being in place, it wasn't a total gut job for Harris either. In that respect, it could have been worse.

Taking a step back again.... Granted a lot of it is the division that they play in, but the fact that it's late July and there's actually a not-totally-unserious debate about whether to sell or buy among the fanbase seems like a win for what we expected going into this season.

Lorenzen is really the only piece of evidence that I have (not an insider at all), but I don't think he was BSing when he said that the Tigers appealed to him as a place to be better as a player. Leads me to believe that they are at least respected in the pitching department.

My guess is that they are going to sell, but they are going to attempt to do so in a way that returns ML-ready or close-to-ML ready talent. Easier said than done, but that's why Scott Harris got the contract. I do think it's worth taking a step back and recognizing that Michael Lorenzen, overall, has been a success for this front office... there was a lot of skepticism when they signed him, but one of the things Harris discussed when he was hired was becoming a place where players could go to get better. And that vision largely played out with Lorenzen, which will benefit the team as he will likely will return more at the trade deadline than what one would have expected he might back at the beginning of the season.

It's also not good enough to take players off the table (ie. Colt Keith). For someone like Arenado, I'd have to imagine he'd have to be on the table for the Cards to be interested.

Not that it matters, but I believe this would make the NL West the only "Bally-less" division in baseball, at least at the moment.

It reminded me a lot of a Early 2021/2022 Detroit Tigers game.... just hideous ABs and, not once, did one ever think they would get back into it. Don't want to take anything away from Lorenzen/Holton/Foley, just calling it as I see it.

Yeah, the other guys are a factor here as well for sure.... Overall, I don't think they draft McGonigle if they didn't think they could reel him in. Not too concerned about it yet.

KC hitters ABs suggest that they don't want to be at the ballpark today....

Just bizarre

I do think he deserves some credit for getting the ball rolling on getting new PD people into the system. There was turnover after he left and Harris came in, but a lot of those hires from a couple of years ago (Garko being the most notable one) were retained.

Really need to add Colt Keith to the equation as well...

Really begs the question of, if not Haase, who? His spot on this team is guaranteed at the moment by having the skill of catching. If Donnie Sands were hitting better in AAA, it would be one thing, but I suspect that they feel they can wait him out because he plays the position and the alternatives aren't exactly great either. Overall, I do think that given his issues with fielding coupled with his lack of hitting, he probably needs to stay behind home plate and not be put into the outfield going forward. That was ugly.

Don't read the comments, Exhibit 1 million

It's particularly bad with Tiger writers IMO. Some of that is likely the lack of quality baseball around these parts

What a tragedy. Good Lord

And you can be sure that Donald Trump would make a lot of noise to this effect if they did as well.