chasfh

Speaking of facts and avatars, this happened for a fact.

Please, god, don't let it be a blowout on the way out.

Yes, and I hate it too, but I have to respect the reasoning behind it. New York is the biggest DMA and the Yankees are the bigger team within it. They are the symbol of baseball as a sport throughout the world, and more people in the US identify as Yankee fans, rightly or wrongly, than with any other team. It sucks and it's never gonna change, but lemonade, it also makes seeing them lose that much sweeter.

What does Dan Dickerson's wife do that she is in a position to mentor Daniella Bruce?

Nicely answered. I'm not sure how we can go back in time and draft Wyatt Langford with so clear a 20-20 hindsight crystal ball at our disposal ... I think Harris might have been looking at the disaster that Avila left behind and figured, reasonably so, that we would not have had the horses in house to support Skubal during his remaining 3-1/2 years (at the time) with the team; that we could not have bought our way to immediate contention with either money or the prospect capital we had at hand; and that by the time we could have built up to a level of contender that a front-liner like Skubal could headline, he would be choosing from among multiple offers from Big Six teams. So, in a way, our contending way ahead of schedule kind of ****ed up that part of the plan. Who knew when Scott Harris came aboard that we were going to win well into October the very next year with guys like Javy and McKinstry and Wenceel and Carpenter and Parker Meadows and a bunch of waiver wire and one-year guys leading the way—and hell, with even Tork? No one in August, 2023 could have foreseen that. So it made sense that we were planning on building more slowly than that, and would probably have to start fielding the winning Tiger teams with Skubal already having a foot out the door. I think that would have been a fact of life most of us would have accepted up to and including July of 2024. But then, out of nowhere, we start winning and surprise the whole baseball world last year—so why not throw all the chips onto the table and go for broke, 2025 or bust? That's what Dombrowski would have done, right? Damn right that's what he would have done. And that's fine if all anyone cares about is 2025, and that the following year is for 2026 us to worry about. But that's not how Harris, and now Baby Doc Ilitch, see things. They know stuff fans generally don't, such as, there was no chance on god's green earth Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto were ever going to come to Detroit. Heck, you even said yourself that we tried our damnedest to get Bregman, who's clearly a cut below Ohtani/Soto, fielding the best offer by far, and he still wouldn't come to Detroit. Now multiple that by every top-tier free agent of the last ten years. And we don't know what what kind of trades Harris has been turning down that past two years, but I would bet money they looked a lot like the trades Al Avila was falling for and became the laughingstock of baseball over. So, I guess in the end, the answer would have been for Harris to thread the needle perfectly and get the deadline exactly right, such as trading for O'Hearn but passing on Suarez; or somehow getting the Twins to send us Duran while we pass on pundit favorite Helsley. As it was, Harris scored huge with Finnegan, but all anyone will be talking about is how he failed tonight. In the final analysis, no matter what he does, Harris sucks. That's the nature of his job, I guess. As for what I think about it, all I know is this: Scott Harris has gotten us to back-to-back LDSes well ahead of schedule. And I'm going to trust that he's going to continue to move us forward, until he proves to me that he isn't. And when that happens, I'll get big mad at him, just like everyone else is doing now. But until then, I'm going to look at 2024 and 2025 as a bonus and not a birthright, and I look forward to seeing what's in store for us in 2026. And I will go out on a limb and bet that Harris surprises us by demonstrating that we are not just another Tampa Bay Rays after all.

Last night’s lucky duck hit notwithstanding, I think McStinky has reached his sell-by date.

OK, guys, here’s the plan: score two; get three quick outs on them; go home up 2-0 in the series. How’s that sound?

What, so now the Finnegan pickup is a complete failure? dag

And now everything is falling in for them. God damn it.

This is what happens when you can’t pitch Skubal nine innings. *sigh*

He was waving at those sliders and I thought he might get burned again. He did intersperse those wings with a couple really goods take as, though. He is definitely a different hitter from 2024.

Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!

What if McGonigle is not ready to come up? What else could be done?

Do you think we should done whatever it would take, liquidate whatever prospects it would have take, to win the trade deadline, picking up Eugenio and Correa and Mason Miller and Ryan O’Hearn and Cedric Mullins and Ryan Helsley and whoever else, putting all the chips on the table to go all in this year, and just let next year be 2026 Scott Harris’s (or his replacement’s) problem? IOW, do you believe a team should always go all in 100% at all times whenever they;’re not rebuilding? It’s OK if you feel that way—a lot of fans feel this way, that you should never let a chance to compete balls out every chance you get, because it may never, ever, ever, ever happen again. Is this you as well?

You misspelled should of.

Is that the one bar you and I met up in when I passed through Eugene?

The Bananas’ schtick is designed to appeal to an audience that doesn’t particularly care for or about baseball.

I mean because the numbers being reported or revised are all terribly embarrassing for someone.

Giving practically a tearful postmortem of the Seattle loss.

TORK PICK FOR THE WIN!

POPPED UP CAL!

Keider Montero?

and he swipes a bag too

woooooooooooooow ...

Will Vest is most definitely born-again hard.