mtutiger

I kind of agree with this, although I still think we're a Scalise nomination away from them seeking Dem votes. We're still a ways away, although it's fair to ask whether it's easier for someone to get there with D votes over the 20 or so insurgents.

What a split-screen

Spartz voting present is interesting... I don't understand what McCarthy's path is

Scalise is a non-starter as a compromise candidate. Upton or Larry Hogan seem more in the vein of who it would need to be.

Meanwhile, in Kentucky...

I agree with this, and do still expect them to bring someone in at their couple of positions of need. Even if they aren't big sexy names.

I agree... but in the larger discussion, there's this implication that seems to exist among some of the fanbase that: Scott Harris is just sitting back playing tiddlywinks versus actually working to try to bring some guys in Scott Harris is being knee-capped by Chris Ilitch, who must think giving $17 million to Brandon Drury (after handing out $200 million dollars + worth of contracts last offseason) is too much And people appear to take the lack of success on the market + the lack of rumors by the JP Morosi and Jon Heyman types as proof that one or both of these things are happening. I get that fans are inclined to do it, but not all of us are just going to accept that lack of discourse from the front office and/or the lack of rumors surrounding the Tigers and/or lack of actual signings means that nothing is happening behind the scenes or that they aren't trying to get better.

As wistful as people are about the DD era (and there's a lot of reason to be), people should go back and look at that first year after he took over. The "you try and trade them" first year. And it took four years to get out of that mess. I don't think the org is in that bad of shape in it's current form but this organization faces a lot of challenges right now with injured young pitching and lack of organizational depth that negatively impacts their ability to compete. That isn't going to be solved in one offseason, and it wouldn't have been solved by Brandon Drury or Wil Myers.

I would understand pitchforks and torches 2-3 years in, not 3 months in. And not coming off the firing of a GM who, almost everyone seems to have accepted, helped run this franchise into the ditch. IOW, Avila and Harris are kinda apples and oranges at this stage, hence why nobody is sharpening their pitchforks.

This is the other part.... maybe we got accustomed to Al shooting his mouth off at press conferences, but it's probably a good thing that the PBO isn't out there broadcasting a bunch of information to the public. Not to mention that fans likely use guys like JP Morosi and Jon Heyman to judge how active teams are, which in and of itself is kinda problematic since a lot of what gets repeated there often gets repeated for a reason.

Trey Mancini, AJ Pollock, Andrew McCutchen, Brian Anderson, Edwin Rios, quite a few others. Guys like that matter to me if they bring them in on short term deals to fill holes and make this team more watchable. But then again, I didn't come into this offseason assuming that the Tigers would be among the most active teams in free agency either. Chris McCosky is a company man, but a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. Improvement on this team is going to largely come from the pieces it has assembled, not from a collection of sub-2 WAR free agents.

lol

Also it's a question of people's expectations going in - one person in the comments section of Cody's article said that while they didn't expect Correa, they expected them to be in on Cody Bellinger, Michael Brantley, Andrew Benintendi, etc. Despite the fact that Harris has continually stated that the need in the OF is for someone who bats right handed. Or JD Martinez who only makes sense in a world where Miguel Cabrera is put out to pasture. The Tigers need bats, but the need doesn't mean they should be taking a scattershot approach and just signing anyone and everyone on the market - they still need to be discerning within those needs, focusing not just on production but who also makes sense based on platoon splits and the like. The other part is that, again, the offseason isn't over yet. People hate hearing it, but there is still time left and it's hard to prejudge without knowing what it will look like when the cake comes out of the oven.

The headline writer for Cody's piece makes it sound a lot harsher that it actually is.

The one big difference between The Squad and the 20 here is that maybe The Squad are just more pragmatic in general? There was some concern around the time of Pelosi's last Speaker election as well as at various points during the 117th Congress about whether their demands would ultimately kill or impact the ability to govern, but to their credit, when it came time to take a deal, they were generally there and willing to play ball. Whereas I seriously question whether any of the 20 are interested in deal-making in general, not just as it pertains to getting McCarthy across the line but just generally.

Again, not sure that the Taliban 20 are operating off the same incentive structure that mainstream pundits think they are

Not sure where if Kevin is expecting the present voters from the Dems or the Taliban 20, because he'd need some from one or both groups given that Jeffries keeps winning pluralities.

lol

Says a lot about today's GOP...

I could have swore Kevin said he was gonna keep it all on the floor all day and night....