chasfh

Top export trading partner for each U.S. state.

Color the writers at Yahoo unimpressed with the Tigers' offseason. https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-offseason-grades-grading-every-teams-winter-from-an-a-for-the-dodgers-to-fs-for-the-mariners-and-padres-221333389.html Detroit Tigers: C+ Signed 2B Gleyber Torres to a 1-year deal Signed SP Alex Cobb to a 1-year deal Signed RP Tommy Kahnle to a 1-year deal Signed SP Jack Flaherty to a 2-year deal As with Kansas City, Detroit’s surprise run to the playoffs dramatically shifted our perception of where the franchise sits in its competitive cycle. In turn, there were expectations for the Tigers to ratchet up their spending this winter in hopes of bolstering an ultra-young roster that proved its mettle against Houston and Cleveland in October and appears eager to take the next step. Instead, the Tigers have run a similar playbook to recent offseasons: little to no trade activity and short-term free-agent contracts for veterans trying to reestablish their value. Strangely enough, the team’s first two additions cost the same: 1 year, $15M to Torres and Cobb. Torres should provide much-needed reliable production to a troublingly thin lineup. I quite like his addition, even if it prompts some uncomfortable questions about the future of former No. 1 pick Spencer Torkelson, with Colt Keith expected to move to first in deference to Torres. Kahnle should be a nice veteran complement to the bevy of younger arms who shined in various bullpen roles in 2024. Cobb, though, is more of a head-scratcher. Yes, he was an All-Star as recently as 2023, but he has had hip surgery since then, and that rehab plus myriad nail and blister issues limited him to five total starts in 2024. How the 37-year-old Cobb performs relative to Charlie Morton and Justin Verlander — who also received 1-year, $15M pacts this winter — will be one of the more interesting subplots this season. The Tigers clearly needed rotation reinforcements beyond Tarik Skubal. I’m not sure Cobb will provide such support, but the February return of Flaherty should help in that department. Free agent Alex Bregman looms as the most obvious opportunity remaining for Detroit to make a big splash, given his relationship with manager AJ Hinch and clear positional fit on a Tigers roster that has a lot of intriguing young infielders but nothing resembling a cornerstone. Bregman would seem to check a lot of boxes for the kind of veteran star a team in Detroit’s position could build around, but the Tigers have thus far been unwilling to meet his hefty contract demands. If that changes and they spend big to land him, the whole narrative about their winter will shift. If not, this offseason could end up feeling like a fairly big missed opportunity. Of course, the writers (who are the Cespedes Family BBQ guys with their hyperfan cred) are grading the Tigers on the same criteria as those fans who believe all the Tigers have to do is stop going to the Hyundai player dealer for their free agents and start shopping at the Rolls Royce player dealer and simply pick a player off the shelf from there. They also stop just short of explicitly stating that they'll give the Tigers a good grade only if they sign Bregman.

I think it’s more they believe the Twins are the clear favorites in the Central. But they do have us at 80-82, same as the Guardians.

Thank god for PLTR.

We are—from 2027 on. At the moment, they could use a better second banana than Dillon Dingler.

We already it’s not going to happen for that and other reasons. I’m looking for logical flaws if you have them.

OK, here is a completely wild contract idea that I’m sure no one’s thinking about and would never be offered. But tell me whether do you think this doesn’t make sense, and then tell me why not. Offer Bregman 6/180. Front-load it to be 40 in each of the first two years, and 25 in each of the last four. Give him a player option after the first year, and give us a team option after the second year. If Bregman declines the option after year one and the Tigers exercise the option after year two, the last four years become guaranteed. This gives Bregman a super high salary for this season, and if he slays, he can opt out and try his luck on the market again. We will have gotten a tremendous season, and we can keep our current prospects in the wings to try again in 2026. If Bregman does poorly enough to not exercise his player option, he could come back for another year, and if he slays, we can then pick up the rest of the contract guaranteed, and if he doesn’t, we can let him go. It would have to be basically an All-Star season in year two for us to pick it up. Then I feel like we could get close to pretty good value from him for his remaining years here at the price of 4/100. I doubt he’s going to have a Javy drop off because his skill set is much more solid than Javy’s was when he came here. This won’t happen, of course, but tell me why this won’t work.

Also, the outright rooting for Russia and against America by lurkerholic is just bonkers.

No way is this going to get by the Trump people. It's going to get strangled in the crib.

MRGA

It wasn't a player currently in the major leagues, so baseball had no incentive to shield the guy.

no promises ...

Between this and stopping payment of all federal grants and loans as duly appropriated by Congress, if SCOMAGA were to undermine the principles of separation of powers as explicitly delineated in the US Constitution by upholding each of these, then there is no other way to put it: we will have become a monarchy. Full stop.

PECOTA hates the Tigers.

Congratulations to 2025 All-Star starter Alex Faedo.

Yeah, I’ve been hearing a lot about that system the last couple weeks and I kept thinking there’s no way Trump is going to allow that to stay operational.

Stop trying to make me hope! It won't work! 😂 We won without him. We can do it again. And if we don't win, then we can lose with him as well. That's the way it goes with replacement-level pitchers. They add nothing. I will believe he will help when he actually comes in and helps.

I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, he might as well be Austin Bergner. 🤷‍♀️

nm

Manning who?

I taught myself a fair amount of French some years ago and refreshed a bit before going to Quebec. The first and only time I tried to stumble through an exchange in French with someone, they replied in rapid-fire French and ended their reply with what obviously was a question. At that point I had to give up the ghost on the whole thing, admit I was just trying but was not good in French, and he smiled slyly and continued on in English. It was embarrassing, but I wasn't mad. I deserved that.

I was in Sydney (Australia, not Nova Scotia) some years ago and walked into a store apparently run by an Asian lady. I took something to the counter to buy and tried to make light jokey conversation with her. She seemed somewhat nonplussed—she clearly wasn't used to that kind of thing from customers. Then she asked, "You American?" Because really, who else but an American would be so bold and brazen? And I could sense in a microsecond that it would be suboptimal if she thought I were, so thinking fast for a change, I replied, "ah, Canadian actually." And she smiled and said, "ahhh, Canadian, good!" It wasn't complete cosplaying on my part. I did grow up in north Windsor, and I did take a Canada History course at Michigan State as an elective. Got a 3.0, too.

My experience in small town Quebec and Quebec City was that if I asked people parlez-vous anglaIs and they could, they would. I remember only one time going into some small store and the clerk claimed no English. I also learned that being an American in Quebec was an advantage over being a Canadian anglophone.