Arlington

I never really thought of that. I guess you can be better off exposing someone in the Rule V rather than protecting them as the 39th or 40th man and having to eventually outright them and lose them on waivers.

Isn't that why he played 2nd, to keep him away from the walls.

Ditto

You have to remember that DD came on to a feckless team and developed them into a contender very quickly, providing perhaps the longest stretch of competitiveness for the team since probably the 1934 - 1940 period. DD's last acts were the start of the tear down and in July 2015 he picked up some good prospects, including a future ROY. Avila had a wealth of material to trade and we came out of it with Jake and a handful of WAR from a few other fringe major leaguers. If DD and the Tigers were dedicated to rebuilding in 2015 I doubt it would have put us into the decade long drought we've seen. I put that entirely on Avila. Anyway, Harris does seem to be the anti-Dombroski so far, but there might be a time and place for Dombroski's methodology and I'm not sure if Harris will entirely ignore that going forward. I have a lot of faith in Harris and I trust he will take the right direction.

Trading prospects is the way to go right now, but replacing those prospects will be a little harder now that the Tigers have had success and are picking later with less available money. It will be interesting to see if Harris goes the path of restocking through trades ala Tampa Bay or depleting through trades ala Dombrowski.

Wonder when they are going to give Jace a 1st baseman's glove. Yea, third is relatively new and it needs to be his focus but just think of the flexibility it would provide.

Baseball is talking about a Golden At-Bat It was described as "A manager can use one Golden At-Bat per game to slot their preferred batter into the order for a single at-bat. I’m in the on-deck circle with the bases loaded, and Juan Soto is on the bench. So you simply send Soto to the plate instead of me." I think they should allow a pitcher a free toss at a batter each game. If they hit him, it's counted as two balls. If they miss, just one ball. The pitcher has to signal the throw and it will be broadcast by the stadium announcer. The pitcher will get an extra 20 seconds to build tension and give fans a chance to get a viewing point. Anyone else have a totally stupid idea to make the game more entertaining?

The connection between global change and the Tigers season. Have we had a discussion here on Hinch not getting even 2nd in MVM voting? I thought he was a shoe-in. He truly lead a team of young, malleable kids to the playoffs despite being at 0.2% odds. Those odds reflect an event that happens once every 500 years. He then managed the team into a 2-1 advantage into the ALDS, again against the odds. Not only did he lead them through a once in a 500 year-olds life event, Hinch did more play-calling than any manager I've seen. I don't need to go into detail on how he used a much inexperienced bull-pen and lead them through pitching match-ups to produce. His bullpen days strategy has to be a subject of study for managers/coaches/analysts everywhere. And his match-ups on the other side produced a lot of memorable events. Is Hinch being black balled because of the Houston scandal or is it more like global climate where events that were once in a lifetime event are occurring awfully regularly so that we don't have to go that far back to find the last once in a lifetime flood, or hurricane, or other weather event. A once in a lifetime comeback isn't all that astounding perhaps because it's now a fad were we are presented with rarities regularly. "Jake Hardhelmet is the first player since 1937 to get hit in the head twice and hit two homers in a game." Anyway, I thought Hinch would win unanimously.

I'd like to buy a "D:" "The doldrums of late November"

Granted JHM in 61 PAs blows Carpenter's results in 32 PAs out of the water. In those 93 PA we did much better with HMH. But JMH had a -.4 WAR. He had value only as a hitter in 61 PAs against LH pitching. Is it worth carrying a -.4 WAR player to upgrade a few Carpenter ABs. I understand JMH is in development. But we might be leaving something behind by not developing Carpenter's capabilities against LH pitching.

Carpenter may be our best hitter, but he is being platooned. And his splits show that it has been justified, at least based on the small sample size of 38 PAs against LH pitchers this year. Are we getting the best production we can by continuing to platoon him? Would we benefit if we gave him more of more of a chance to establish himself against LHers.

Today's players are so much better than the past. Stronger, faster and most importantly, more finely tuned. In the past, pitchers could ease up with off speed stuff, keeping hitters off balance and giving themselves a break. Today the off speed stuff has a focus on optimizing spin and that too is taxing on the arm. No break.

KC is looking for a 2nd baseman. Could they be considering Jung?

Any idea as to what caused the fall-off? Seems like the league figured him out and he couldn't adjust

I couldn't readily find his stats, but it's good to remember Chris Shelton was the league's MVP in 2004. I wasn't able to watch many games back then so I don't have a good sense of why Shelton failed after his historic start. What the heck happened to one of the hottest rookie starts in Tigers history?

Possibly the career peak for all but Flowers and Blalock. Age and OPS distinguish Briceno, but it is far from making him a likely star. It's nice to see.

Amid all the excitement it is good to remember that after the Tiger WS run in 2006 the Tigers did not make it back into the post season for 5 years.

There's a lot going on with Baez. Perhaps his back did affect his ability to protect the outside of the plate. Maybe he had to commit earlier. I'm sure he will be on a short leash but there is the possibility that the surgery corrected that problem.

This comment is going to get a lot of ptooeys, and it all depends on whether the back surgery fixed what was ailing him for the last few years. He has been a horrifically bat batter getting beat by the same set of pitches repeatedly. Baez played a lot of positions his first few years with the Cubs. If he could reestablish his bat, he could fit in well with the Hinch concept of multi utility playing. His spits don't show a particular advantage against left handers, which is an argument against this, but a weak side platoon with Sweeney - who might be too much of a glove first ss - might be useful, and then using him as a right-handed option at the other three infield positions. Granted we have Ibanez doing the same thing. My guess is that the Tigers are giving him a short leash next year. At least I hope they are. I do see the possibility of him fitting in well with the team if he solves his bat problem.

Wasn't Jung getting accolades for his D at 2nd at one point. The transition to third has been a disappointment. Jace maybe on Harris' list of touchable prospects. A left-handed bat with power at second would appeal to some teams and we might do better with a right-handed infielder. Colt is a tremendous worker which probably was a big factor in his extension. He is running better than projected and his range is significantly better than projected. He'll keep at it at and become a plus defensive second baseman.

I wonder if there is a regimen for strengthening the ability to hit shapes.

At one time Keith was a potential pitching prospect. His arm rated out as plus at 60 and he started out as a 3rd baseman in part because of the arm and partly because of a perceived lack of range in the middle. Now Baseball Savant rates his arm strength at the 10th percentile and his range at the 64th. With a 10th percentile arm he's not going to see the left side of the infield. His defensive value is at the 59th percentile so he is a plus at second. I hope his arm is still in recovery.

If Liranzo and Briceno continue to develop along the same path we could possibly have two star c-1b and that could be particularly valuable. Not sure if anyone has had two regulars equally share the catching duties before. Starting catchers these days such as Contreras and Rutschman get in about 110-120 games games behind the plate and DH another 30-35 games if they can hit. If Liranzo and Briceno each get about 80 games behind the plate and roughly the same at 1b, they both could get in full seasons at the plate and prolong their catching careers. And the team frees up a roster spot because there is no reserve catcher sitting on the bench. That spot can go to a player with a more useful skill set.

Tork playing in his Aug 2023 form would be huge for this team. He certainly would get his chances against lefties hitting among Keith, Greene and Carpenter. Grabbing a right-handed third baseman who could fill the void at 1st if Tork is moved would be an option.

Totally agree. And their trajectories are in opposite directions. That 1.2 difference in WAR probably will be less of a difference in 2025 and even moreso in 2026. Seems emphasis is on 3b but the least productive spot is 1b. It's being held for Tork for the time being but it would be ideal to get a right handed hitter with power and the ability to get from 1st to 3rd who can play multiple positions including 1st if Tork can't pull it together. That sounds more like a trade than FA.