mtutiger

Mets still need some relief help as well. Really, along with Mark Vientos, I'd be asking about Brett Baty... he bats left handed and if they have Correa manning the hot corner now, it's hard to see where he fits into the plans. And honestly he'd have a legit shot at being an opening day starter on this team. Not sure if it's possible, but if they took on McCann and somehow could pry loose a guy like that, I'd be a fan

Really they are playing with house money at this point. Even if they make it, they likely wouldn't make it far anyway. The playoff appearance would be good for the psyche of Detroit sports fans in general, but it may just be the appetizer for this group if they make it

Relegation is to sports what term limits are to politics: they sound great and hit the right populist notes, but are pretty terrible in actual practice.

It's funny: we all ended the Avila era wanting to run him out on a rail, and yet we're still really conditioned to expect them to do the things that he would have done and get anxious when things develop differently under the new regime.

Yikes

But also, in terms of making up ground toward climbing back .500 (or at least shouting distance of .500), it's still gonna take better performances of those already under contract over signing individual free agents. Free agents are sexy because they are something new to envision in your uniform. It's less sexy to look at the pieces you have on the roster, who you've already developed opinions on and to expect or hope that their play can improve going into the next year. The Tigers do have some candidates for guys who can improve, starting with Austin Meadows and Spencer Turnbull, who functionally may be like free agent acquisitions if they come back and can perform at a reasonable level. Riley Greene can obviously improve (and most seem to expect that), Spencer Torkelson can improve, Jonathan Schoop can improve (and hopefully become a trade piece). Maybe you get a full season of your guy Eddie Rodriguez, assuming he isn't trade bait, etc. Some areas are dicier than others on that front (the outfield outside of Greene concerns me some, third base) and they should look to improve in those areas as they can, but in terms of what would hypothetically deliver the most bang toward overperforming expectations in 2023, it's always been about getting performances out of guys under contract over individual free agent signings.

I hadn't thought much about AJ Pollock, but he kinda does make sense for the Tigers. RH OF bat with a little pop, could be a tradable asset at the deadline if he plays well enough.

At least among those who would make sense, AJ Pollock and Edwin Rios are with Excel. (Pollock probably more worthy of a "sweetheart" deal, although I do think Boyd/Lorenzen aren't steep overpays either way). I suspect I'd take that account with a million grains of salt though

I think it's less about Candelario and more about the fact that it's 20 Dec. and the hole hasn't been filled yet.

I get it.

Some of the exuberance is that the schedule, frankly, isn't the hardest remaining, particularly compared to their competitors. No games against the Chiefs or 49ers or Dolphins or Vikings. That doesn't guarantee success, but they have a legitimate path if they play their cards right.

Beau Brieske joins the rare single-digit starter club...

Oh My Goodness

This is in all likelihood what happened here, and it's a sound way to make the decision. I think where it runs up against a lot of friction / criticism is that, as sound as the business decision is or whether it is on paper the right thing to do doesn't help fill the hole that the fanbase currently sees on the roster. Certainly as evidenced by the many "what are the Tigers doing / why is it taking so long" articles written / circulated among fan sites and the beat writers in the past few weeks. Obviously they need to fill the hole as best they can and will be judged if they don't, but they clearly didn't see Jeimer as worth the investment at the arbitration figure. And if decisions are based on logical processes or formulas, they shouldn't be arbitrarily carving out exceptions to their logical processes out of fear of the unknown.

Damn, Lugo scored with that deal lol

Drury would make a lot of sense here, particularly (although unlikely) if he were interested in a short term deal.

What a scrub, he's being fought over by the *checks notes* Dodgers and Padres lol

I woudn't have been "angry" had it gone the other way (have stated many times that it's kind of a jump ball decision), but I think one can be a fan of the team and be a realist in understanding how the business of baseball works and that teams often focus on maximizing the value of the assets on their roster. And by doing so aren't generally in the business of overpaying players by 40% or more over what the market pegs their value at. As a fan of the team, bringing back Jeimer if they believed him to be a 1 WAR player at $7 million is no skin off my nose because it isn't my money. But it would objectively be a dumb decision to do so if they believed that to be the case and would have no problem calling it out as such as well.

From a post yesterday. Given how overheated the market is, and with guys like Zach Eflin getting $13 million, Boyd/Lorenzen contracts look pretty reasonable IMO

TBF, he probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to say anything to the contrary because he would have never taken the job if he felt that he didn't feel that he would have the resources needed to succeed with this organization.

Harris' own words suggested that he didn't feel money/budget was an issue when he took the job, that he would be given the resources that he needed, and I will take him at his word on that until there's some indication otherwise.

Why not both? You can be there to "spend the budget" while also not paying dudes money that they aren't worth on the open market.

Stavenhagen on his podcast today sounds pretty bullish on Malloy.... saying things like we might be seeing him sooner rather than later and that a stopgap Brian Anderson type with him waiting in the wings might not be the worst thing in the world.

You're right, my bad.