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You articulated exactly and succinctly my impression of this.

Yeah, well, “waste” is a relative term in that case … 😉

I just don’t see EV having any chance of overtaking gas cars until (a) we can get 500+ miles on a charge; (b) EV recharging stations are at least close to being as plentiful as gas stations, and preferably more; and (c) we can recharge from zero to full in no more than 15 minutes.

That’s probably most baseball players.

As do we all.

Pretty much what I was going to say. It doesn't matter if an investigation completely exonerates Tucker, he is through at this school, nd he's probably going to get mighty paid on the way out.

“I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.”

“It sucks. That’s why everyone should carry a gun.”

If we go outside, I'm thinking probably, yes. But I'm limited based on what I believe might be important to Harris right now, which I have be assuming is to continue to develop the guys at the top of our system to hone in on those worth keeping and those he might perhaps trade. But he might also do something we don't expect, like, I don't know, some "blockbuster" in which he deals two or more of your guys and others for top major league pitching now. But I think I'd be surprised to see that because we are still a chronically under-.500 team. If we were missing the playoffs by just a couple games, I could see that kind of trade as more likely. But since we're out of it by double digit games, I'd probably be surprised by it.

One way or another, we will have a good idea of what the Tigers think of Eduardo Rodriguez well before spring training starts.

There's no chance Armenia is working with US on this to gather intelligence and pass it on to Russia, right?

I think he was a weasel in that moment for what he did. I still think that. I don't think that makes him a bad person overall, because I know him only from his behaviors as reported by the media so I don't know him as a person.

Who said he was a bad person? Aren't we talking about difficult people? You are right that he has the right to reject a done deal at the last second—there's no law that says he must accept it, just as there is no law that organizations must ignore his doing so, or ignore his other behaviors, when considering whether to commit multiple years and nine figures to him.

There are different types of difficult people. Some people who are regarded as difficult are simply unpleasant to be around. In that way, Barry Bonds and Reggie Jackson were difficult people. Eduardo's difficulty was the type that affected both the product on the field (by his absence; by his refusal to follow team direction on PitchCom), and the business of multiple organizations (by leading them on to the last minute during the trade deadline). That's a line the front office may draw. If Eduardo does leave, I think I'd be surprised to see teams willing to give him five or six years at 20+ per. I wouldn't be surprised to see that his behavior during the past couple of years has really hurt his market. OTOH, all it takes is one team to ignore all that.

I think this is the overwhelming favorite, but then it becomes Scott Harris's responsibility to make up the difference in performance with a replacement, and irrespective of the challenges of bringing a top-level free agent pitcher to a perennial 90-loss team, he will be judged harshly for it if he does not.

I’m thinking it’s to the point where they would let him go and take their chances on replacing him on the open market, since he indicated he’d be surprised if, consider Eduardo’s particular brand of being Eduardo since he’s been here, this front office were to throw extra years at him.

I hope it’s not that bad this time! If it is then that means no progress! We definitely have guys taking a step forward, and we should have a few more do so next year. I don’t think we’ll be able to plug in a free agent at the top of the market though, possibly excepting another pitcher, since the Tigers have been establishing a reputation for advancing careers on the mound. We’re probably looking at one-year guys once again, especially at the plate. FWIW, I talked to someone recently who’s regularly in the Tigers press box and he thinks the consensus there is that Eduardo will be allowed to walk.

Maybe this is semantics, but I think of Mookie as more of a unicorn than a utility player. Only a handful of guys in history that good at so many places. Craig Biggio was one. Ben Zobrist and Tony Phillips were a couple others. Heck, Mookie might be the greatest true multi-positional player of all time.

Weird, double post

I doubt any organization sets a strategic course to try to win pennants with a roster made up primarily of utility players, and I don’t think the Tigers or Scott Harris or even A.J. Hinch are any different. I don’t believe anyone in the game sees a team of utility players as a way to win by zagging while everyone else is zigging. We want everyday regulars to help us win pennants, same as everyone else wants, but we’re simply not in a position as an organization to effectively make that happen yet. The rot went very deep and it was always going to take more than a single season to fix it all and start winning rings. I think we can reasonably complain about still having to be in this boat seven years after starting a failed rebuild, and I think we can reasonably moan about having to have so many of those players on the roster at all, and groan at seeing them flail around and lose games more than we would like. I don’t think we can reasonably blame Harris and Hinch for torpedoing our chances to win a pennant this year by being too cute signing a roster of AAAA utility guys and playing million-billion-D chess moving them all over the field, instead of signing and trading for a roster full of All-Star bats. That’s just where the Tigers are in 2023, and it’s probably not going to be a lot a lot better next year. But I think it will get better after that, and if it doesn’t, then something else is going wrong.

I thought SGL (may I call him SGL?) did wonderfully yesterday, but he wasn’t exactly killing it in AAA, given up great gobs of homers combined with an elevated walk rate, and he will have rough days, and posters will call for his head. It’s all part of the plan. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride! 😄

FWIW, nobody thought it was a good decision at the time, and same page you called for Al to be replaced basically because of it.

Beautiful.

Makes me think how badly the Avila administration would probably have botched his developmentent. 😉

Fun Fact about Jose Urena, ex-Tiger who's today's starting pitcher for the White Sox: he has already been released this year by both the Rockies and the Nationals.