mtutiger

This is a good post. The glass is half full take is that, pitching wise, they are in a better position depth wise, even with injuries, than they were at the end of last offseason, which at least likely means that the focus on the front office until the end of the offseason will be on improving the offense. And there is still time to accomplish that... if today were Jan 20 and not Dec 20, it might be different, but there is still time to improve offensively.

No argument here in terms of Conforto being an upgrade over Carpenter or Baddoo, but in general having an all lefty outfield is a legitimate problem (ie. one fans that should be concerned about) that would likely still need to be addressed with a hypothetical Conforto signing. In that respect, though he's not as good as Conforto, AJ Pollock may still be the better signing because he fills that need for a RH bat and adds versatility to the roster.

100%, Mitch made a lot of sense IMO if it was ever a possibility.

Chris isn't innocent and made a multitude of mistakes that led us to this point in terms of extending Avila and keeping him around as long as he did before actually pulling the trigger and removing him. The dude is also a PR nightmare and can't give a good press conference to save his life... and that sets aside all the off the field/District Detroit stuff that people don't like the guy for. There's just a lot of inherent things about the guy that make him an unlikable figure. But one can acknowledge the flaws while acknowledging some of the successes. That his team managed to outkick the coverage in terms of PBO hire; they basically exceeded expectations in hiring a guy that most didn't even think was an option, which is a pretty big success considering how disastrous 2022 was and the mess that Avila left behind. And, prior to 2022 when it looked like this team could theoretically have a chance to compete, he went out and spent a bunch of money. We can argue whether the guys were the right guys, but contracts were in fact issued. I don't like Chris, but our fanbase treats the guy like he is Bob Nutting, and the evidence doesn't really suggest that is accurate.

Spot on. I would argue that all the angst about the offense crowds out how the injuries to the young pitchers, particularly Skubal, impacts their outlook for next year. And why, despite the precieved strength of the group over the offense, they needed to add a couple of starters on short term deals.

I dont know if it's a lost season or not.... they play in the worst division in the sport after all, so may be there is a tail risk they can win it if a lot of things go right. The point I'm continually trying to make here is that if it doesn't end up a lost season and they start to progress toward or even past .500, it's largely gonna be because of improvements on the roster as it already exists. It wouldn't because of individual free agent signings, and certainly not someone on the level of Brandon Drury

I watched almost every game last year. I dont know if they will be better or worse next year. Probably better if I had to guess, because (a) the offseason isn't over yet and (b) I expect some mix of improvement from younger players and underperforming players to progress closer to their career means.

Baseball is my sport and the Tigers are my team. And I'm not quitting them and jumping on someone else's bandwagon. Beside that, I am interested in longer term progression of this team and it's young players. And I am interested to see what impact the new PBO has on the team going forward. I understand the angst that everyone has about where they are at and frankly share it. But the new PBO deserves more than three months before throwing him to the wolves.

Why would I voice concern over not signing players I never expected them to sign?

It really should go without saying that everyone who is a Tigers fan hates the situation they are in and wants to be out of it. But for whatever reason, not flying off the handle every time a free agent is signed by a team not named the Detroit Tigers gets perceived as not caring. The reality is that people can want the situation to end while disagreeing with the best way for it to end.

LOL, there's a hive mind going on here, but it ain't coming from me.

What does signing Brandon Drury, in MCS' words a band aid, do to "get the car out of the ditch"? Second, it's December 21. Can we at least get into January until we determine what is or isn't actually happening behind the scenes?

There isn't a single person on this board who isn't tired of the rebuild.

You realize it's only December 21, right?

I get it, this team was run into the ditch by the previous General Manager. We literally all know this, most of us anyway seemed to acknowledge that this thing wasn't going to be fixed overnight after he was ****canned. So we all know this, and yet we somehow expect the new General Manager to be the next coming of Jesus Christ and turn this team from a 96 loss ballclub into bon-a-fide contender. The situation absolutely blows. But signing Brandon Drury isn't going to change the trajectory of this team by more than 2-3 games over the course of a season. Carlos Correa? Probably not more than 4-5 games of the course of a season. Simply put, if you want this team to succeed faster, the fastest way to get there is for guys who are already here, including some guys that didn't play much last year (Meadows, Turnbull), guys who underperformed (Schoop, Baez, ERod if he isn't traded), and younger guys (Greene, Tork, various young starters) to put up solid years and play to their potential. That's gonna make up a lot more ground than Brandon freaking Drury ever would.

Even setting aside the NBA, the EPL, which has been discussed at length (and whose system of relegation has been held up by some) has had 7 Champions since it's inception 30 years ago... three of those teams (Man City, Man U and Chelsea) own 24 of those titles.

Honest question: can you express in detail who you would have signed that has gone off the board thus far, and at what price/years. Thanks.

I've also been seeing a lot of Texas politicians using a bullhorn to talk openly how are borders are open, yet wondering why so many migrants might attempt to come here. Strange.

Profar is interesting, I honestly don't know what the market is for the guy at this point.

It's the lack of knowledge or insight that makes it difficult. It's even worse on social media than on this board, but a lot of folks seem to have a visceral reaction to each time any free agent is signed without even knowing whether the Tigers wanted or were even interested in that particular player. Drury is a great example: there's been a ton of speculation about Drury and how, at least on paper, he might be a fit here. But we don't know whether the team was ever interested. And honestly, given what he ultimatley signed for, a lot of teams (including those not named the Tigers) may not even really believe in the guy or think he's Jonathan Schoop 2.0 in terms of consistency. Which is fair given how far out of norms for his career his previous season was (both in terms of production and actual games played). I get that it's the nature of the fan to react in this way, but ultimately outside of Jace Peterson or maybe Mitch Haniger, I'm not sure anyone has come off the board who I would have expected the Tigers would be in on during this offseason.

Maybe they didn't want Brandon Drury?

It really hurts the Mets as a trading partner for one of the bigger names that they kind of are set at starting pitcher. Without that being a need, I'm sort of skeptical that the value is there for the Tigers to pry loose someone like Baty. But nonetheless something worth asking about and would ultimately be worth taking on McCann.

But as to the complaint that owners (be it of the Tigers or whoever) aren't motivated enough or interested in competing, how exactly does relegation help in terms of making non-competitive teams more interested in competing? Or to the extent that it does motivate relegated teams, how does it help in attracting talent to come sign with the club? When I started watching EPL, I started following a team that was ultimatley relegated during the last season in the Premier League (Burnley F.C.).... they are currently leading in the EFL Championship League and stand a good chance of coming back, but guess what? Whenever they do get back, they are more likely than not gonna be cannon fodder again because in any given year, only 6 teams out of 20 in that league have a chance of winning anything. And they are the lucky ones, some relegated teams never come back! The culture of English football is different and fits within it's context I guess, but as a fan of Major League Baseball and of a team that plays in the league, I do not want that and do not see how it benefits fans in general.

It would probably take more than Soto for him, but they should ask what the price is.

What does relegation do to solve the problem such that it exists? Imagine trying to sell free agents on coming to a relegated ballclub, for instance.