mtutiger

I wrote a longer post about the Rangers above, but last year's club that went 68-94 didn't have the contributions from quite a few homegrown players that it does right now. Their investment in free agency was a bet on their young core... it was risky, there were a lot of reasons to be skeptical, but there was a logic to it... And it is working for them right now. Mea culpa. Bringing it back to the Tigers, would anybody here bet in that kind of way on the Tigers young core? Especially after seeing how the first year and a half of Tork and Greene have gone? I would also add, living in the area and listening to Dallas sports radio frequently, prior to the 2022 offseason, Ranger fans directed the same level of ire toward Ray Davis as Tiger fans do toward Chris I... because they went through a few seasons without spending money as well. It stands to reason the investment happened because the org was in a position where the investment felt justified. And that requires real belief that you have players that are gonna come up and be worth building around... which, again, goes to the question of what the Tigers young core is at the moment. And as far as I can tell, very few are confident on that front.

The Detroit Tigers v. Zach Gallen. Good for my fantasy team, bad for the Detroit Tigers lol

As much as people in Detroit bitch about Chris I, and not entirely without reason, I don't think his reputation among the rest of baseball is nearly as poor as it is among Tigers fans. And objectively, I'm not even sure he's bottom five for owners; especially when you have guys like John Fisher, Arte Moreno, the Montforts, Jerry Reinsdorf, etc. in the club. As far as how the owner approaches this year, I'm guessing he's sympatico as well. And views AJ as a part of the braintrust, not as the holdover employee under evaluation

Its hard to know the minutiae of what specific changes they need to make, but at a high level, they need to be able to produce more talent internally that actually makes it to the major leagues and is useful. And that is the case regardless of how Chris Ilitch or Scott Harris use the checkbook going forward. Even the good teams that spend big money produce players internally. And this team has done a pretty poor job of it for a long time. People don't like hearing hard truths, but until that changes, the beatings are likely to continue.

I tend to agree with Chas here... there are always a lot of inferences of friction between the two of them (a certain cohost of "Days of Roar" seems to always suggest it), but really there is little evidence they arent simpatico. And I'm guessing both of them knew what this season would be like and that it was likely to be an evaluation season / clean slate after the departure of Al. The other thing is this fanbase, for better or worse, loves AJ. Making him the scapegoat for a 90 loss season, particularly when most expected a 90 losses or more, would seem to be really terrible PR.

The owner of Twitter apparently thinks that we have to hand it the Unabomber. Checks out

Colt Keith may be the real deal, but I do worry that the way certain folks in Tigers media and fandom discuss him is, perhaps similar to Torkelson and Greene, setting expectations way too high upon initial callup. Like, do we not trust the people in the org (some of whom are new) when they make evaluations of where players like Keith, Malloy, Meadows, etc. are when needs arise on the 26th man roster? In Keith's case, it's great that he has a .1000 OPS + in the Eastern League, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's big league ready yet either. And the last thing this org needs is another player called up before they are ready only to subsequently struggle and have the fanbase turn on them

On another note, how bout dem Mets and Padres?

Is the outrage all the Bankers Boxes of classified documents or the interior design choices? That carpet is hideous

Regarding the Rangers, given that Ratko brought them up as an example of building through free agency, the impact of their young core on their record today cannot be overstated. Josh Jung, Zeke Duran, Leody Tavares, Nathaniel Lowe, etc. And of course Adolis Garcia, who was a cast-off from another org. It's not to say the free agents haven't helped, they have despite injuries to some of their signings (De Grom has been a non-entity; they have been without Corey Seager much of the year), but simply put, they made a bet on their young core with the free agent signings and, to date, it has worked out. So, where's the analog to their young core with this Tigers team? Riley Greene started to come on before his injury, but Tork has been underwhelming. And past them what is there... Parker Meadows and Justyn Malloy are probably the next guys up, but idk how confident we are there. Colt Keith looks good, but despite the "call him up!" cries, is it really wise to bring him up at this point? They theoretically could do some stuff around the edges with free agency to pick up 5-10 more wins, sure, but at this point, until the they have a young core that is producing, it's seems to me that all of these debates are over the difference between 65-70 wins and 70-75 wins. I just don't see the way around that... they have to acquire more talent and better talent through the draft and other means.

Have you considered the possibility that they did, in fact, extend offers to players and they elected not to sign here? That's the thing... I'm not against them signing free agents, but realistically, there are no guarantees that free agents will sign if you extend them an offer... even if it's an overpay. And as far as I can tell, there's a ton of inference and little actual evidence one way or another about how they pursued last offseason. Put another way, the fact that they didn't sign many players is generally used as proof that they didn't actually try to sign anyone. I dont know that is the case.

Do you think money talked in Brandon Drury's case? Or Mitch Haniger's case? We don't even really know all the specifics of Chafin leaving, but even if it was over money, that doesn't mean that's the case with every other free agent name that gets thrown around.

And again, the other part I never see addressed is that free agents have agency... maybe they did actually try to bring some folks in, but ultimately free agents have free will. They do not have to sign here. We continually hear names like Brandon Drury and Mitch Haniger thrown around, all of whom seemed intent on staying on the west coast, for instance.

1. They would probably be right in the same soup they are right now. 2. The Rangers wouldn't have the record they have had if they did not have talent from within come up and succeed. Last I checked, they didn't sign Ezekiel Duran and Josh Jung in free agency. Something that really hasn't happened in the Tigers case.

I would add that this doesn't absolve Harris from trying different things to effect a different outcome. But aside from the fact that mediocre free agents aren't exactly guarantees (see Wil Myers, Jordan Lyles), he also didn't have a ton of tradable assets going into this past offseason either. One hopes that the players he acquired, particularly Malloy, turn into some value. After seven years of losing, it's understandable why people are angry about the state of the franchise and wish it could be turned around overnight. Just wish there was a little more recognition that, by any objective measure, the Tigers weren't exactly positioned for a big offseason after 2022... and that has as much to do with the players not playing or playing to their potential as it does the owner or team president

In detail, can you explain which stars analagous to Pudge or Magglio you would have signed this past offseason, and to what terms, and how you would expect that to have effected a change on the overall results? The situation is what it is... it's easy to sit on a message board and talk about bringing in free agents like it's rolling down to Meijer and buying a six pack of Two Hearted Ale, a little harder in reality when free agents have agency and when bringing in the mediocre types require significant overpays.

Those big free agents and Polanco were all on the team when they sucked in 2005.

Yeah, frustrating as he's been, he shouldn't be written off at this point either.

Jace Jung is heating up.... a double and homer tonight!

Some things never change...

What I am failing to comprehend is why he went to such great lengths to both take and avoid returning these specific documents. Stuff as sensitive as these documents. Like, maybe it's just vanity, but man it looks way more nefarious than that.

Holy ****

Really the same as yesterday as well. Sure, Cisnero was Cisnero, but if you cannot put up a major league effort at the plate, you aren't going to win many ballgames.