mtutiger

I just took Avila's comment to mean that he desires to build a roster that is successful and financially sustainable. Which, IMO, is a reflection of the constraints that, as a GM, he has had to live with as the Tigers have been working through past deals. However one feels about his abilities as a GM, no doubt, payroll constraints have probably been a source of frustration and haven't made the job any easier. I don't think it was meant as a deliberate shot at Mike I or DD or anyone else. Nor is it necessarily an excuse for how bad things got at points in the rebuild. But perhaps a window to a source of frustration for him over the past few years.

The question I have is "why now?"... is this a long term five year plan or just some sort of philosophical change for Avila that he wasn't practicing earlier on? And while some changes were made pre-AJ, how much influence has AJ had?

I'm the rare non Dodger fan rooting for the Dodgers tonight. I like Scherzer, I loathe the Cardinals, and I don't have the same level of dislike for the Dodgers as I do the Yanks or Sox

About 15 mins from the house...

Al's body language with that comment wasn't great for Willi going forward, no doubt

Can you elaborate? I enjoyed it as well, just curious your takeaways

I dont think there's a ton to draw from the press conference, but the general tone of talking about additions from the outside is definitely different from years past. Whether the names are big and splashy enough for the fan base? Remains to be seen

Paraphrasing, but he basically said that he's very sensitive to the idea of trading top prospects or guys he views as long term cornerstones at this juncture. Every player has a price of course, but if a top prospect or a new graduate like Mize ends up traded, based on what I took from his comment, its because someone else paid up. I dont think he's gonna actively look to add with those pieces

This is going to be an interesting question.... it's sort of Tucker Barnhart or bust in free agency. So trades may have to be an option.

Al's response to the question about trading prospects makes Lynn's comment about trading Mize look even dumber in retrospect

Challenge accepted (I hope!)

Illinois is really bad on property taxes. Only Jersey and NY are worse, IIRC

Definitely pulling for the Brewers in general... getting one in Ueck's lifetime would be fantastic

Honestly, he was solid as a game caller too. Much better than Greiner.

Relative to expectations, Garneau is definitely a B... nobody expected the offensive numbers or that he'd fill in as a respectable ML backup catcher. Heck, they DFA'd him and had to trade with Colorado to get him back in the org! Lange would have been more of a C had he not looked so solid in his last callup... aside from Victor Reyes, I'm not sure another player saw his stock rise more in the last month than Lange.

Lange and Garneau were both in the Bs. But otherwise these look reasonable.

Rays / Dodgers (again)

I've been more defensive of Haase than most around here, but if they do see themselves on the periphery of competition, they'll need to add another catcher to the mix. The last 45 days were rough for Haase

Nooope. 7-5 Red Sox

I just want as much chaos as possible. Let me have it lol

Go Nats!

77 wins!

Seeing these posts leads me to believe that the response to the Jan 6th worst case scenario (ie. Multiple dead politicians / even more dead police) would be something along the lines of "so what? that didn't represent everyone there that day, nbd"

So? The fact that there were any people there at all with the intent of harm or assassination of people is unsettling. I'm surprised that you seem not to understand that