Arlington

I liked that Harris decreased Maeda's salary from $14 to $10 for the second year. Unusual but it would make it easier to move him had he not turned out so utterly useless. just wasting time here looking through Baseball Reference. See that Miggy signed his big contract extension in 2014 and it started in 2016. He had a HOF caliber 2016. For the rest of his $248 million contract extension, Miggy had a -2.7 WAR. He actually would have retired with a higher WAR had he retired 7 years earlier.

I remember when they signed Humberto. It was a pleasant surprise - a draft and follow. He was projected to go pretty high in 2002 draft. Baseball Reference's transaction line - June 5, 2001: Drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 31st round of the 2001 amateur draft. Player signed May 27, 2002. Here's a statistical oddity: Tigers traded Sanchez, Anthony Claggett, and Kevin Whelan to the Yankees for Sheffield in 2006. Each pitcher eventually made it to the majors to pitch in two games for the Yankees: 2, 2.2, and 2.2 innings, respectively. DD was great in the 2000s in obtaining contributing players for Tiger draft picks that never panned out.

LOL, and DD sucked too when it came to the draft. He was able to sign a few like Porcello and Castellanos because he broke the rules and signed them well above slot. DD's antics was probably a major impetus for the strict allotments today.

I'm a little mystified with the Carpenter platoon. How can such a successful hitter against RH pitchers be so terrible against lefties? Is this a bit self-fulfilling? Has Hinch's match-ups stymied his development?

And I remember DD referencing it among others in his infamous what can I do with this contract and that contract speech shortly after he took over.

Disappointingly vapid comment from Law. Hope we are better than the 2000s, when the Tigers produced a couple of Stars. The rest was pretty much garbage. Take away Verlander and Granderson and their draft produced barely 10 WAR from the decade. Law could have addressed depth a bit. Last year the Tigers got some good production from some players that were not all that high in the prospect lists and I think they have set themselves up to see a good amount of help this year, particularly in the relief corps.

Flaherty did fail the Yanks physical 6 months ago. That could be tainting his chances at a long term contract. Maybe he's a 1973 Vega

If that's the case, they are going to want Flaherty if Skubal stays as well.

True, should have said "could see" rather than "saw". But honestly, I have never seen such an forward looking evaluation before.

Law said he saw McGonnigle having a long career and getting 2,500 hits which only 3 other Tigers have accomplished as Tigers. Wonder if the Tigers are considering any Colt Keith like contracts here. With so many players coming within a few short years, it might be well worth their money to pay a little bit more early so that they can have a more manageable budget when they are all peaking. Also, thought the Max Clark commentary was particularly interesting. Apparently Max had lost a significant amount of speed since high school. At draft time he was rated a 70 but that has fallen to 55. Thought that was unusual.

I thought I had LordStanley's post quoted. This is in reference to it. We had moved to western NY in 1969 and the Tigers were out of range except by a WJR broadcast that was dependent on atmospheric conditions. The Tigers on national TV was a rare treat. I still can picture in my mind Rodriquez' dribbler that made it over second and through the infield to plate the winning run. That was the game, wasn't it. It still is a cherished memory for me and it was just a game on tv that I watched alone.

Twins wouldn't have needed to fall off the cliff like the Lions (sorry) had the Tigers not gone 8 under. The May Tigers and the September Tigers just don't compare. Just look at up the middle defense. Sweeny was above average, Keith improved tremendously and needless to say, Parker. Defense after Urshela might have dropped at 3rd. Limited action by Carpenter and Green. Maybe the only position that didn't see an overall 2nd half improvement might have been catcher. Dingler might have been a step down from Kelly. What should propel the Tigers in 2025 is pitching. We have a possible lock down 1 and 2 in Skubal and Jobe, and then 8 more starters who could fill the other three slots. There is a lot of pitching talent in the minors who could be part of an effective fluid staff. And we have numerous plan Bs and probably plan Cs and Ds with the talent to accomplish them.

Fydrich is my favorite what might have been. You don't associate him with the '80s but he would have been in his prime when the Tigers were. A healthy 30-year old Fydrich leading the 1984 rotation?

Bernie Williams is a pretty good comparable to Chet and he's not in.

Jaden Hamm must have been knocking on the door. He made BA's list. The list gives us a complete infield including catcher, a starting pitcher and CF.

I wish someone told Avila that!

If we keep getting into the playoffs, we'll have to look elsewhere to pick up from the drop in draft rank. International is really a lightly tapped resource for this team

Also, not really buying into the need for right side batters philosophy. Left-handers have an advantage in that the bulk of pitches thrown are by right-handed pitchers. Some teams don't have a left-handed starter and few have no more than two in the pen. Seems you could press an advantage by having a LH available for every AB.

Just catching up on posts and saw this in the Newsweek article linked a few pages back. "They're starting to creep into the free-agent market, with Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press linking them to Alex Bregman and Anthony Santander," Rymer wrote. "Which is good, but the problem is that only one of those guys is a full-time right-handed hitter. Here's why this matters: In terms of total run value, the Tigers got +27 from the left side and -63 from the right side in 2024." Can anyone see an iota of logic in rejecting a switch-hitter because you need a right-handed bat? Truthfully, I'm kinda dumbfounded by this. Would telling Santander to bat only right-handed solve the problem?

I could see Tork going in a change-of-scenery change where a like-underachiever is sent here.

Awhile back I say a similar breakdown of the top three teams in each state and the Yankees were in practically, if not every state, top 3, most often second if not first. Montana going Cardinal red is the most surprising to me, but then maybe it's the kids from two large displaced families going to the site over and over again.

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.