NorthWoods

And hopefully Harris won't cling to the memories......

Batting 7th? Possibly an upgrade.

I really don't think you can attribute all of it or even a majority to weaker hitters.

Think what an outlier Nolan Ryan would be today? What would a pitcher throwing 100+ for 332 innings with 367 K. 26 complete games and a 2.89ERA be worth? That was the 1974 season.

Ted Williams was in combat as a pilot.

Is different. But is that from lowered mounds? Juiced balls? Smaller ballparks? Those and many other factors come into play. The higher rate of HR's would seem to be poking a hole in the earlier argument here that pitching is better today. If the pitchers are so far superior how are they getting taken deep more often?

I'm not smart enough to know how to argue this but I certainly didn't get the impression that pitchers were letting up on anyone. Sure there were weak spots in lineups but that's still true today. Using your let up theory pitchers today could certainly let up on Perez and Rogers. Looking at middle of the pack teams from 68 they seem similar to today. The Twins had Carew, Killebrew, Oliva, Allison, Tovar - the Pirates had Stargell, Clemente, Clendenon, Alou.....both essentially .500 teams. They had some weak spots in their lineups but certainly batters no one wanted to face.

So Hinch is a Harris lackey?

The pitching stats compared to today are absurd. 10th best ERA Koosman 2.08 Innings pitched McClain 336. Complete games - Marichal - 30, Gibson 13 shutouts. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/1968-pitching-leaders.shtml

Vacation

I think JV should be the closer.

Ray Oyler would have put that in the seats.

Hopefully he'll stay awake unlike Vierling.

It was the year of the pitcher after all. But also smaller population base offset by fewer teams, fewer latin/asian players but possibly more black players as a percentage. A ton of factors there.

Probably true even with the consideration that Oyler was probably facing better pitching from higher mounds and suspicious substances.

Ray Oyler hit .135 in 1968

Most would be an improvement over the all they'd be replacing.

Seabold brings us a lefty with a 5.87ERA in HighA https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/05/blue-jays-acquire-connor-seabold.html

And I'd be happy for him. I don't wish him ill, it simply hasn't worked out here like we all hoped it would.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-trends-jacob-misiorowski-brewers-tigers-batting-average/ "Dillon Dingler, Riley Greene, and rookie Kevin McGonigle are a three-man army on offense. They combined for a .276/.370/.440 batting line with 17 homers and 5.5 WAR through 54 team games. The rest of the Tigers were hitting .213/.288/.336 with 29 home runs and minus-2.2 WAR. Three players who were important platoon bats in 2025 have been poor in 2026:"

I think anyone but Dingler & McGonigle would be available for the right deal. I doubt they're seeking to trade Madden, Melton, Greene or Keith. Skubal, Mize, Valdez, anyone in the BP, Torkelson, Carpenter, Vierling, McKinstry would be among those they seek to move with any value at all and the latter 4 have very little value imo.