mtutiger

Pitching wise they've held up about as well as they can under the circumstances. Bullpen has performed well and they have gotten some reasonably good performances out of guys who needed to make steps coming into the year (Lange, Jimenez, Foley) as well as guys who weren't even on the radar going into camp (Vest). And regardless of how quality one thinks a lot of the young starting pitching in the minors can potentially become (guys like Brieske, Faedo, Hill or hopefully Wentz when he gets some starts), there's been enough of it to keep the wheels from flying completely off the cart for the most part. Where Al deserves criticism is on the position player side.... obviously no one could have foreseen Candy, Schoop, Grossman (he deserves mention) falling into obliviion or Meadows injury, but by this point in the rebuild, one clearly would expect that they would have more options at the upper tier of their system, particularly in AAA, that could really push for playing time at the bigs in a pinch. And that hasn't happened. There's Carpenter who, despite his meteoric rise, still lhas reason for skepticism and Kreidler, who hasn't played much this year because of a fractured hand. Put another way, if the Tigers system had the kind of talent at the upper ranks of the system that the St. Louis Cardinals have (among others), they would have had more options and flexibility to deal with the trio of players whose offense fell into oblivion and Meadows being incapacitated most of the year. But they do not. I've been watching 84 Lives for days (in multiple threads) talking about a lot of the prospects and I hear him and all, but even if one feels like their drafts have been better the past couple of years and that they have brought some guys in who have reasonable enough chances for success moving forward (such as Pacheco, Jung or Graham), these guys are still years away. Even a lot of the guys who have seen performances pick up, such as Wenceel Perez or Parker Meadows, are still in AA and all still seem to warrant skepticism. So aside from hoping that Al gets canned, we're kinda left living off lottery tickets for at least the next year and a half and hoping a couple of them pan out lol

Another "accomplishment" to add to Al's resume.

It's honestly one of the dumbest lines imaginable when you think about it. If any normal person stole classified documents from the government, no shit we'd be in a lot of trouble. What makes Donald Trump so fricken special?

Wouldn't there have been a itemized warrant served when they showed up on premises? And what prevents Mar-a-Lago from releasing it, as opposed to DOJ or the judge or whoever?

Yeah, so much "we're gonna be in a civil war" crap, which reads like deranged fantasies. Let's just put it this way: if one is out there advocating for or suggesting a "civil war", they are lunatics.

The GOP responses tonight have been lame in part because they all sound a lot like declarations of what they would do regardless... I mean, I've always assumed Garland would face heat and that they'd launch specious investigations into Hunter Biden for no reason in particular if they win back the House. I guess they'll be double secret hard now?

I remember Rush Balls ranting about Sandy Berger back in the day. I'm sure all the Dittoheads have abandoned their concern about classified documents by now though lol

Credit to the manager on that one!

So what's the best comparison to Al Avila's rebuild? Al Capone's Vault or Fyre Festival?

AJ's been on the whole a big positive for this franchise IMO. But he's not perfect or above questioning either, and when the team is 24 games under .500 one week into August, the mistakes tend to get amplified and noticed more. I will say that I think he's a unique enough figure and someone who understands the front office side enough that there's a decent shot he survives regime change even in the event of an outside hire. Wouldn't be surprised if he was part of the discussion in terms of making the decision, tbh.

Agreed, it's speculation but not completely uninformed. My bad. My response was more in regards to buddha's comment about AJ's agent getting out in front of this mess... I suspect that's going to someone like Rosenthal or Passan if that's the case, not to a writer at Fangraphs.

Not that anyone wants to be in the situation of a Pittsburgh where you are constantly churning guys into and out of an organization, but the Tigers are a team that probably should be doing some of this to an extent. Look at the Baltimore Orioles - they have been a surprise team this year, undoubtedly much of which speaks to the performance of younger players they have developed in their system. But they also employ some useful players who were waiver wire pickups or released players that other orgs casted off. Spenser Watkins (who we all know about) and Jorge Mateo, among others, come to mind.

He's on the older side and clearly isn't a future piece is the most likely answer. But they easily could have selected him, particularly given that he was in the org right around when Grossman went down with injury and they were rolling with W.Castro as an everyday CFer. I know there was some push back yesterday when we were debating about guys like Zack Short remaining on the 40 man, but my perception is that the Tigers are far more conservative than other orgs when it comes to working the waiver wire or being willing to DFA someone when you know that they aren't going to help out.

Before becoming manager in Houston, AJ had gained some front office experience over the years with AZ/SD, enough to say he has skills in both areas. I'm kinda with RandyMarsh though, seems better to bring in someone from the outside. But going with AJ would at least be better than status quo anyway.

As interesting as it sounds, the blurb reads as uninformed speculation.

Somebody has been reading MTS... Chas and I have both mentioned this in the past iirc

Brieske generates a lot of skepticism, but I dont have a great read on how much of that is how he has outkicked his coverage in terms of performance related to his draft position. I do think he has work to do in terms of the quality of his pitches, particularly fastball and slider. But his demeanor, coupled with improvements of his arsenal, I'm not sure why that couldn't be in the mix for a #5 on this staff provided he has a decent finish. Particularly when they have so many holes on the position player side of things.