monkeytargets39

He at least has the right attitude about taking accountability for his performances and dedicating himself to work to improve. He was miserable to watch most of last year but I can’t dislike him as a person and root against him. Hoping he bounces back to respectability not for our sake but for his

If I was a voter, Jeter and Ichiro are both no brainer first ballot HOFers. In my opinion, Ichiro (among several others) was a more complete high level player among all facets of the game—and reached significant milestones despite not coming to MLB until he was 27. If Ichiro starts in the MLB at 21, he’s the hit king. Jeter was a superior power hitter, but he benefitted heavily from many years of all-star hitters behind him and his defense was actually quite a negative.

I think Whitaker/Evans etc would’ve been in already if there wasn’t division on PED users being allowed in. How many worthy players aren’t in because guys like Bonds/A-Rod/Clemens are on the ballot for the full length of time instead of being first ballot?

Brant Hurter could continue to emerge as well

Even if we signed Flaherty and each year of the deal he is only healthy half of the year but performs as we’ve seen him recently when he is healthy—that could be a big help to a team with a lot of young arms and a lot of untested arms. if Olson, Cobb and Mize had been healthy and/or consistent last year, I’d say going out and getting a potential high level arm maybe wouldn’t be necessary. But with those two having injuries and consistency issues, along with upcoming unknowns in Jobe and SGL….I’d rather risk bringing in another arm. if we are going to “waste” money, I’d rather it be on pitching. If the guy ends up sucking, at least he’s only hurting the team every 5 days instead of daily….

Assuming the PED suspects are once again all snubbed…. I think Schilling, Kent and Whitaker should get the most consideration off that list.

And a small contingent of online Tigers fans will both expect him to be interested in coming to Detroit and upset at Harris/Illitch for him signing elsewhere

No.

There’s a lot of guys better than Morris who aren’t in.

Agreed. Although I understand why some voters would be hesitant to put known Steroid/PHD users on their ballots, I can’t support the idea of someone being left out just because they’re a jerk. Schilling was a legit ace and one of the top pitchers in the NL for a long stretch of time. He deserves to be in.

I think Felix Hernandez was the better pitcher than CC also. Put him on teams that can give him league average run support and he’d be a multiple time 20 game winner

I get it, but let’s say hypothetically the Mariners didn’t already have Mike Cameron at CF when Ichiro came to Seattle and he played the bulk of his career defensively in center. Is he all of a sudden a much better player just because his offensive numbers stack up better against other CFs instead of RFs? We would all probably say yes because CF production is more valuable, but the butterfly effect complicates that a lot. If Cameron isn’t there and they put Ichiro in CF—now what…does Stan Javier or Raul Ibanez play a lot more RF….and how much more does that hurt the team defensively than Ichiros comparative offense in RF vs CF.

Don’t ignore his elite defense/arm and baserunning.

Wasn’t the big selling point for Paquette was that he was Mark McGwires backup—so he must be good by the commutative property of talent.

The one voter who didn’t vote for Ichiro needs his credentials revoked

I remember the Detroit media being so excited that we signed a free agent when we got Paquette….

5 years and 90+ million bucks for a .246/.307/.469/.776 slash line and negative range, arm and baserunning

If you have a cap, then they should also have a floor. The thing that has been jumping out at me is the absolute massive advantage the west coast teams have in being able to appeal to the Japanese players—and there are a handful of teams that are basically in line to acquire plus MLB ready talent without having to invest time in developing them. Clearly I understand why they’d want to go there so I don’t fault them—but mlb maybe needs to take a look at setting up something that levels the playing field in that regard. In the NBA you have to draft the player in the foreign league in order to get them as opposed to them just signing wherever they please. Perhaps something like that could work for MLB. You can use your draft pick on a player in a foreign pro-league and you then have their exclusive rights for maybe like 3 years. You’d have to pay them X amount times the typical slot price for it—then if that player wants to come to the MLB they can only do it with that team and have to be in that teams organization for their first X amount of years in the league. If they decide to stay abroad for those 3 years, then they can be drafted again by another team in the next draft.

*IF* Meadows plays like he did after his call up, and Greene/Carpenter stay healthy all year, and if Vierling, Wenceel, and Gleyber can play like they did last year- then I think our offense is solid enough to contend for the division when you consider our pitching depth. Also, the Twins have done nothing and the Guardians have shipped out several guys without bringing a ton back. The Royals are now the team to beat in the division IMO

Btw….the start of last year had lots and lots of playing time going to folks like Gio Urshela, Carson Kelly, Javy Baez, Matt Manning, Alex Lange, Akil Baddoo, Joey Wentz, Shelby Miller, and Mark Canha. Once all of those players were dealt/injured/released, we started winning. So I wouldn’t necessarily say that we couldn’t win with the current group we have—most of them just don’t have an established track record.

Minnesota fans don’t exactly have credibility to tease anyone else….in any sport

Padres couldn’t land Sasaki, so they signed their backup plan: Niko Goodrum

It’s a shame that the original Dream Team took Laettner instead of Shaq

If that’s the case, offer him half when he comes crawling back