mtutiger

I'm not sure fans should be emotionally invested in any prospect making it tbh.

I rest my case.

LOL

Does Shep have to sound surprised every time someone hits a homer?

Multiple posters have suggested that they don't expect anything from him going forward. "Write him off" seems like an appropriate euphemism for that position. Given that this is a message board and people are allowed to take differing positions, I am expressing that while I understand tempering expectations, I think that it is premature to take that position that we shouldn't expect anything from him going forward. Others are free to disagree, as always.

Trust me, I'm aware.... this conversation has been covered endlessly since he was drafted. First of all, even before Harris was brought in, we have seen in a couple of cases (Parker Meadows and Wenceel Perez most notably) prospects who were written off have some of their stock recovered, and that Garko and others may have had a hand in that. (Certainly Stavenhagen and others seem to think this is the case) Second, just because the administration is new doesn't mean that they shouldn't be afforded time or some faith to implement their program. As much as people gripe about Pizza Jr., I'm pretty sure he didn't hire the guy with the expectation that he would be a failure. They have had a lot of turnover in their medical and strength and conditioning staffs since Harris took over.... this was widely reported at the time.

I'm not concerned. I just think it's premature to write him off and it shows a lack of faith in the new administration. Others are free to disagree.

Isn't that where he was prior to the injury as well? I get it, people don't like the draft pick, we've had the conversation endlessly about that. This is just another log on the fire. But the guy who drafted him is gone, there has been a lot of turnover in the development and strength and conditioning staff since his ouster, and I would like to at least give them time to work with him and see if he will improve before writing him off completely. That was my feeling before the injury news yesterday, and it's my feeling now.... others may feel differently.

It's fine not to expect much from Jobe going forward - really there's a large variance in results that happens with MLB Draft picks and it's probably best not to have too high of expectations anyway, particular when Avila was picking them - but wholesale writing him off seems premature at this point. And at some level shows a lack of faith in the new people the org brought in after Avila was fired.

Shot: Chaser: If we are going off merit here, Wentz has pitched better than Manning this spring.... and Manning shouldn't feel safe and secure in that spot.

Incredibly Anti-American statement from a guy who purports to wants to lead the country

According to McCosky, AJ apparently went thru each AB in his 1-13 WBC effort. Yeesh

The same could be said for Casey Mize, fwiw... he had a similar surgery.

That's fine.... but I don't think either Carpenter or Baddoo are good enough offensively to carry both of them. And I don't believe the organization thinks they are either.

As an aside, I tend to believe that Vierling isn't going to be a pure platoon - he'll get some looks against RHPs as well. I think we are underselling him some. The thing about Maton is that while he's extremely versatile, he will likely be the only serviceable backup to Baez as well.... Baez will play most days, but he will get days off here and there, so if Maton has to cover SS, or if Baez has to cover 2B and Maton SS, it would help from a versatility standpoint to have a second utility IF as opposed to dedicating that spot to a second LHH OF

No question.... but ST playing time, and how players are being stationed in the field, is probably the best piece of evidence that we have in regards to the Tigers thinking at this point, along with the words of the people in charge (ie. AJ). And neither piece really shows much evidence that Carpenter and Baddoo are likely to both make it.

Versatility is great, I'd rather they have a lot of it than not. I just don't see them carrying one true infielder on the bench and having four LHH OFs. And given how they have distributed playing time during games this spring at the 1B position, I haven't seen much indications from the Tigers that they plan on leaning hard on alternative sources at that position. And regarding how "AJ likes it", he's said a lot of really positive things about both Nevin and Ibanez as well and seems to like those guys. Either way, if we are looking at what the team is saying and some of the decisions they are making in regards to playing time during games this spring (because teams tell you what they think by the decisions they make on this front), they aren't signaling a likelihood to carry both Carpenter and Baddoo IMO. That's what I see, maybe what you see is something different.

This all can be true simultaneously with the idea that they aren't likely to carry both Carpenter and Baddoo out of camp.

Vierling, Haase, Carpenter, Maton etc. have yet to put on a first base glove this ST as far as I can tell. When that changes, maybe I'll start giving credence to the idea that they are going to back that position up from alternative sources.

I don't believe they are going to use an otherwise starting player as their backup plan at 1B, and I really don't think they should.... let alone Jonathan Schoop, who people seem close to writing off anyway. Even setting that aside, think about it logically, despite all of the versatility they like to say they have, do people think it's really smart to carry only one IF who can actually play on the diamond (sorry Miggy) on the bench come the regular season in general? I just don't see it happening.

Disagree, if you bring both Carpenter and Baddoo, you don't have a true corner infielder backup.... Torkelson and Maton aren't gonna play every single game, and they aren't sending out Cesar or Kreidler (or Miguel) to man 1B. One of Nevin or Ibanez will make the team, IMO... with Nevin at least, he comes with the ability to cover a corner OF position as well, and is an additional right handed bat to balance out a heavy left handed OF to the extent that they need him out there. Ibanez is also versatile in his own right and can play 2B.

If the cordyceps ever did collapse civilization, like in The Last of Us, it's pretty clear the GOP would blame wokeness, right?

It's the most "2023 GOP" clip ever... a conservative commentator who supports the "Noun, Verb and Woke" party.... who can't even provide a cogent explanation of what the word means. Jonathan Chait and a few others have defended her and stated that she more just froze up, but that kinda misses the point, which is more that "woke" for the GOP largely just applies the term to everything they don't and blames it for everything that happens regardless of how irrelevant it is (ie. the SVB fiasco)... it's merely a buzzword to elicit a "five minutes hate" from the base

The passage of time is only a part of it - the geographic separation is also a factor as well. When we went on our honeymoon six years ago (over in Germany and Austria), even though the same 80 years have passed, the lessons of that war remained in the places we went. In the form of monuments (both in terms of literal monuments as well as infrastructure, such as concentration camps, that were operational during that time), scars (buildings that retain damage from that time or had to be rebuilt), and as well as the psyche of the population to this day. All of whom are taught a more visceral history of what happened in WWII and, at least in Germany and Austria, have had to accept their role in the war and that their leadership was on the wrong side of it. Americans, including family members of people here on this board I'm sure, went and fought during the war, no question. But outside of Pearl Harbor, the war never really reached our shores and we had a level of separation from it on the mainland that Europeans, both Western and Eastern, never did. And my takeaway is that separation explains the level of memory loss that Americans in the macro have versus Europeans.

Despite the ambivalence that Brits have for baseball, the sport was actually invented over there lol