mtutiger

Does this guy have to make everything political? It's just a movie lol

Seattle would only get in with a Detroit win... Green Bay owns the tiebreaker with them

The Lions and Packers are both objectively superior to them at this point, yet they have 12 wins. I'm sure there are other examples, but they seem like one of the bigger high-seed frauds of the past decade at least.

Good Lord the Vikes are absolute trash...

They'd still go with that game, as buddha suggests, because of the Packers.

If it's down to Titans Jags or Pack Lions, the network would take the latter with little hesitation

The Big 12 isn't good either, fwiw

Admittedly I root for the other team in-state, but when it comes to this setting, I root conference. Maybe it's because I live in SEC/Big 12 country, but the losses for both of these programs reflect poorly on the conference as a whole and how it is perceived... they are objectively the next best conference after the SEC in terms of talent, but continually watching B1G teams **** the bed on the big stage isn't a positive for any of its programs.

Ohio State didn't... most seemed to think that Georgia would win. Michigan? They should have beaten TCU... they are a more talented football team and (despite some of the bad officiating) just made too many mistakes.

Bobby Higginson?

He's a cash consideration acquisition, so one would think that makes it a pretty low risk proposition either way

Before everyone freaks out, I would guess this is more of about roster depth than about filling actual holes.

Phil's kid! lol

Yeah, I'd be wary of anybody burying the Wolves at this point. TCU didn't play significantly better that Michigan in that half, and Michigan's mistakes are a big factor in the score.

If Hosmer goes to Chicago, wonder if that opens up Trey Mancini as a possibility as a RH OF/1B depth. Cubs seemed like his biggest suitor

Doesn't take walks and doesn't field well at any position. It was the right decision to walk away... I'd rather see Kreidler or even Andre Lipcius over another year of Harold.

Hold the phone... You mean to tell me that Donald "Nobody tougher on Chy-na evah" Trump, who assured everyone in one of his debates with Joe Biden that he didn't have any bank accounts in China, did in fact maintain a bank account in China during at least part of his Presidency?

On the free agent side, spending a ton of money, the 2022 Texas Rangers are kind of a good example imo of how free agents can only take a team so far. Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and Jon Gray, all worth around 10 WAR combined. Add in Martin Perez, who had a career year, adds another 5 WAR. But at the end of the day, they went from a 60 win team in 2021 to a 68 win team in 2022. The reasons are a little more complex than just that (I live here and follow them a decent amount), but at their best, they probably were never going to win more than 70-75 games. We will see what they do after spending a boatload of money in this offseason plus whatever they get out of the younger players like Duran, Huff and Jung, but it's still kind of a cautionary tale as to how free agency won't cure all of a teams woes.

Hence the use of the term "relative"

I think you are largely right on where this team lies... it's closer to a 75 win ballclub than a 65 win ballclub, the combination of injuries (Greene, Meadows, the pitchers), sub-par rookie performances (Torkelson), and vets shitting the bed (Baez, Schoop, etc.) did a number on their record. Maybe some performances will be replicated in 2023, but they have a decent amount of upside going into next year. The difficulty for the Tigers isn't just about money or Chris Ilitch, it's that when you are a 66 win ballclub, there is a massive gap to close. Individual free agents may be worth a couple of games on average, so how many big splashy signings do you need to make to close that gap realistically? Maybe they will overperform expectations, win 80 games and leave us wishing they had done more this offseason. But realistically, not landing Jean Segura or Brandon Drury on a 2 year deal isn't gonna make a huge difference with this team. Certainly not more than better individual performances from vets already on contracts and younger players.

I was honestly kinda surprised at how down some folks were about the Joe Jimenez trade, not so much here but elsewhere on social media. That's the exact kinda trade that our new PBO should be making, and for a player who has a decent chance to contribute in the long term. That was probably a foreshadowing of how negative people would be at this point if there wasn't a ton of action.

It's difficult because, on one hand, we all were dismayed and decried how Avila set this org back years after he was fired. Yet we expect big bold moves to put them into contention or even .500 in the upcoming year. It's a reality that we all seem to not want to face, but the best chance this team has to sniff .500 are the guys that are on the roster today. To be clear, I would be pretty disappointed if they went in with JHM only at 3B and didn't bring in anybody to compete, they need to do more to fill the 3B and OF holes, but in the grand scheme of things, they need better performances from those who are already on this team to reach that next level. This team ain't a Jean Segura or Jurickson Profar away from competing

Outfield definitely isn't a strength at all... hence the word "relative". But at the upper levels, they have more options there than in the infield at the moment. Either way, just because there are more "options" doesn't mean they are any good or are more than AAAA players. Regarding Keith or JHM, also assuming neither guy sees the bigs at least early on this season. Particularly Keith.

I do think the article does correctly ascertain the outfield as an area of relative strength for the Tigers on the position player side (especially if they can add a righty OF bat in free agency), but they conflate that with depth. There are wayyy too many question marks among the "depth" to be trading away someone like Austin Meadows, who if healthy is likely to be one if their best offensive performers. At least with respect to position players, the Tigers just don't have the kind of organizational depth to be handing away players of that caliber at their lowest value.