monkeytargets39

And if Tork doesn’t have a “big offseason”, then what?

Maeda at least can serve a purpose as a no-leverage mop up guy at worst. He showed flashes of effectiveness to where I believe there’s an outside shot that he could provide actual positive value if they work with him a bunch in the offseason. Baez is a lost cause. His hips aren’t what causes him to swing at pitches 2 feet out of the zone or not get back to the base on a pop fly.

Yep. No reason not to go after the upgrades we need to make the team better, but those players must have a vibe that matches the teams. No different than what Dan Campbell has been instilling with the Lions.

All very true, but there are plenty of examples of teams that spend plenty of money on talent and none of it plays well together. Gotta find a happy medium between talent and cohesiveness—-and unfortunately for a team like the Tigers, we need to skew more towards the cohesiveness end of that medium rather than the big payroll talent end.

Perhaps…… but there are much better ways to spend half a billion dollars to improve a team.

It’s also important to consider that this is a tight knit group right now who will run through walls for each other. They cheer for each other when they get pinch hit for. A massive part of the success the second half of the season was guys being willing to take on any role in any situation and have a good attitude about it when it was their turn to take a seat. Is bringing in some high priced free agents going to shift that attitude back more toward selfish individualism? We are at a point in the rebuild where Tiger Culture is a thing and is an important immeasurable to consider when we add outside help to the team.

And it’s one thing if he’s down 0-2 because he’s putting some good swings on foul balls or the pitcher dots the corner…….but it’s usually because his timing is off for weak contact fouls or he’s just watching a hittable pitch blow right by him.

Yeah I was just getting at the idea that there would be corresponding decisions to be made on current guys if we picked up an every day 3B. I don’t see the organization bailing out on Perez or Vierling based on their performance this past year and their versatility (Perez as a SH and Vierling defensively). JHM had a .900+ OPS vs RHPs, so I don’t know that we just push that down to Toledo either without adding two or more strong RH bats to put in the lineup. The lineup has a lot of unique flexibility as it is now, but I sort of feel like it’s a house of cards where if you remove or switch out much of the roster, it could have a lot of consequences for how Hinch has come to manage them. The exception would be if we go get some big name, big price tag guys to fill the question mark spots—but I don’t see us going in that direction. There’s good reason to see if we can run it back for next year based on how long the sustained success was.

Looking less at overall stats and more at things like the number of times he’s down 0-2 in the count or fails to advance runners/hit situationally is what has consistently stood out to me his whole career. Its just really hard to have any confidence in him and it feels like any production we get out of him is a bonus or a surprise…..which is fine if he was a defense first catcher or shortstop….but not a first baseman.

The thing about a new full time 3B is…do you really want to cram Vierling into an already crowded outfield? I think we all agree that Greene and Meadows will play most days out there next year regardless of matchups—then you’d have to revolve RF/DH between Vierling, Carpenter, Perez and Malloy. Or have Malloy in Toledo which hurts the Platoon option vs LHP a lot. If we move Keith, I’d rather move him to first and play Jung at 2B with Ibanez so Vierling can be in the lineup at 3B. Or keep it the same and move on from Torkelson and just go get a 1B option.

It’s a lot easier to do what we did down the stretch with a 28 man roster instead of a 26 man one. My hot takes for where to go from here: 0.) Gonna assume that the price tags are gonna be unnecessarily astronomical for guys like Alonso, Adames, Burnes, and that they’ll all go to big market teams. That’s ok because there are other options. 1.) Gotta upgrade 1B. Hate to say that for Torkelson, but he got dominated in the post season. If he will do it, have him start the season in Toledo and make him mash his way into the roster. Otherwise, let’s find a trade partner. Sign Christian Walker to be the every day 1B. 2.) Run it back with the Keith/Ibanez platoon at 2B, but let Keith get plenty of cuts against LHPs. 3.) Cut Baez. He doesn’t fit the mold of the team. No reason to waste ABs and time trying to find out if he’s gonna improve after surgery. Sign Kevin Newman and platoon him with McKinstry—Sweeney starts in Toledo until he either mashes his way up or McKinstry flops again. We know Hinch is gonna want McKinstry on the roster. 4.) Vierling the every day 3B. Jung starts in Toledo for regular ABs. 5.) 5 man outfield of Greene, Meadows, Perez, Carpenter, JHM. 6.) I’m fine with Rogers/Dingler as the catchers. Maybe sign Reese McGuire to a minor league deal as a lefty hitting catcher to have a future platoon if one of the two are injured. *13 man positional roster: Rogers, Dingler, Walker, Keith, Ibanez, McKinstry, Newman, Vierling, Greene, Meadows, Perez, Carpenter, Malloy. 7.) Gonna have to go get a starter. Personally, I think I saw enough from Montero and Hurter to be ok with them in the 4/5 rotation spots and we start Jobe in Toledo with a quick hook for Hurter. Need to get a legit #2. I’d do whatever we can to bring back Jack Flaherty. 8.) Mize needs to convert to the bullpen and throw his fastball harder and develop an out pitch that way. Maeda can stay and work out his contract as the mop up guy/emergency starter. Asking them to cut Baez and Maeda probably won’t fly, so I’d rather cut Baez. If Maeda flounders again, it’ll be pretty easy to drop him by the deadline since he’s an expiring contract. 9.) Vest, Brieske, Holton are obviously mainstays, but we need to get them help so they aren’t over exposed again. Honestly, if Foley wasn’t considered a good matchup vs Cleveland, then trade him. Maybe target Jose LeClerc, Tommy Kahnle and Danny Coulombe. If you can get two of those three and then have Hanifee as a multi inning reliever, that gives us flexibility. 13 man pitching staff: Skubal, Flaherty, Olson, Montero, Hurter, Mize, Maeda, Vest, Brieske, Holton, Hanifee, LeClerc, Coulombe. Tigers spend on 1B, SP and a couple RPs. Eat Baez’s contract. SS is still a concern here but you upgrade most of the other weaknesses in the club. Keep most of the youth while also setting up situations where the other young guys not on the ML roster aren’t completely blocked from coming up if they perform well enough.

Have we gotten Kwan out once this series?

Vierling has been trying to do too much lately

Re-Sign Carpenter to whatever he wants

We are scoring this inning. They blew their big chance. Time to go for the demoralizer.

Re-Sign Skubal for whatever he wants. Do it.

Walk Ramirez. Please. Just walk him.

Riley……bro

I’m really wanna see JHM get a good look next year. He’s got good upside

Stop wasting opportunities

Tigers in a blowout. 11-0

I feel like we should be able to hit Boyd hard but they’ll struggle with Skubal again for that very reason. It’s about as ideal of a matchup as we could’ve gotten here.

Can we sign Jim Adduci to take Carps roster spot?

Even then….if she doesn’t understand the gravity of you needing to watch the Tigers…then cut your losses cause she ain’t the one.