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I would bet most people who go to Tigers games either don't know you can look up lineups before the game, or don't care enough to bother to. I think a lot of people coming to the game just assume Miggy is going to be in the game. Lots of people, maybe most people, who show up at Comerica over the course of a season are casual fans who go to only one or two games a year, not diehards who go to dozens. They probably don't watch them regularly on TV, don't listen to games on radio, or read any beat stories or columns about them, so they may not even know Miggy doesn't actually play every game. So it might be less about "let's look online to see if Miggy is playing, if he's not then forget it", and more like "this is Miggy's last year, we should go see him play before he retires!" If that's the case, then a general announcement that Miggy is not playing for the rest of the season, and by extension never play for the Tigers ever again, will probably keep a lot of those people home.

People don't want to pay big money for tickets to Tigers game to watch Miggy ceremonially coach. He will play all year, at least once a series, unless he gets too seriously injured to hobble up to the plate at all. This is price the Devil is extracting for making the deal with Papa Doc back in 2014.

Sure, why not? Meijer is already on the hockey helmet the players wear after home runs. Totally unsurprising that Tigers' ownership would whore out to corporate sponsors what is supposed to be a spontaneous celebration. Part of the reason why it sucks.

Schoop might end up in Asia.

I'm not sure if Rodriguez is a good candidate for an extension. He can be very good, and he can be not so good. If he were more consistently decent from year to year, I could be on board for that.

Ahh, dirty water, schmirty schmwater. Smells like money to me.

Thank you for putting "pennant race" in quotes. I want to win and play in the playoffs as much as the next guy, but despite that we are in second place and only 2-1/2 games out, we are still just 22-25. That's substantially below .500. Not only that, but our pythag record, an estimated winning percentage based on runs scored versus runs allowed, is 18-29. That's equivalent to a .383 winning percentage. We are 29th in runs scored, and that's not due to being unlucky, because we are also 27th in on base, 29th in slugging, 29th in wOBA, 27th in wRC+, and 29th in base-running runs. We come by our offensive futility honestly. Our run prevention is only marginally better. We are 20th in ERA, 21st in FIP, 22nd in xFIP. We can't strike guys out (25th) and we can't keep the ball in the ballpark (24th in HR/9). The one thing we can do is pound the zone (9th among teams in that) and not walk guys (4th lowest rate), but that mainly tells me how much worse the run prevention would be if our walk rates were even league average. In short, we are not ready to be a playoff team. Not close. I'm frustrated with the past seven years, too, just like everyone else. But what would frustrate me more is if this front office were to make moves now to trade future assets for marginal players as rentals in a quixotic bid to squeeze into the playoffs with a barely .500 record as the third division-winner, only to get smoked in the wild card round. (I get that the playoffs are a crapshoot yada yada, but come on, let's be real: we would get smoked by the AL East 3rd-place team in the wild card round.) And the the rental leaves in the winter and we are out not only him, but also whatever prospects we would have traded to get him. I do not want to mortgage the best of what little future we currently have in-house in order to Dombrowski our way into the postseason at all costs. That's partly what got us where we are in the first place! I won't speak for anyone else here, but I am happier with our situation knowing that we are not yet a playoff team, despite our current relative standing in the division. We are a still a rebuilding team—in fact, a rebuilding organization. If we can make the playoffs by sticking with the Harris-Hinch plan and without making any trades to get there, I would be beyond thrilled. But that's so unlikely that I'm not even hoping for it, and that's OK. It's a beautiful dream, but that's not the goal for this team this year, which is why I am not all in on winning this year. It's simply not our time yet. In the meantime, I'm not going to get too attached to the Kreidlers and the Wentzes and the Nevins and the Workmans and the Lipciuses and the Shorts and all those guys similar to them that are littering our system today. Most of them will be gone in 2024, perhaps all of them in 2025. This organization is going to look vastly different by the time 2026 rolls around, and by then our top prospects will be names we don't even know today. That's the day I'm really looking forward to. And if Harris does it right, we'll be looking back at 2023, remembering how much faith we put in guys like those I listed above, and we'll be asking ourselves, "Jesus, what was I on?"

Haven’t we recently seen the effects of rushing minor leaguers before they are ready and trying to force them to learn at the big league level?

Man, even when Lange is kind of bad, he’s really good. It’s his time.

Ha ha ha ha haaaaa naw

Counter-rationale: with just one more out to lose the game, put the guy with the best chance to get on base up first. If he gets on, then send Haase up to hit the grand slam, or maybe 3-run double. Either way, Haase still struck out to end the game.

Their current political champion has publicly called for the U.S. to default on its debt. because after all, they reason. who's going to get blamed for it when next year's presidential election comes around? So, yes.

Just a recent example that no one escapes streakiness: Last season, from June 24 through July 3, Aaron Judge had a ten-game period in which he went 4-for-34 with 11 strikeouts and a .118/.231/.324 slash. This was in the middle of one of the 25 greatest-hitting seasons of all time.

If they even live to use them. If they don’t, they paid in for nothing, except for meager survivor benefits, if they even apply. By the way, here’s a tip: as soon as you qualify for 100% Social Security benefits, take it. Do not wait until age 72 or whenever to get 125% benefits or whatever it is. That’s an enticement to get you to delay and gives the government five more years to hope you don’t live to take even a penny.

Agree. It is far less important to actually prove malfeasance than to just loudly allege malfeasance. In the end, all they will remember is the loud allegation.

I’m not clear on whether this is actually bad for US and how much, but either way, I don’t know, I just can’t bring myself to become indignant over technical violations by a country trying to preserve its very existence.

Some people simply cannot abide sharing equality with “lazy” people. After all, if everyone ends up equal no matter what, what’s the point of working hard to get what you can?

Why am I just a little surprised that rather than ”request a meeting at [his] earliest convenience”, they didn’t simply demand that Garland immediately come to Mar-a-Lago alone for a little chat.

You may remember I mentioned that Miggy is the last player standing who played regular season games in Montreal. There is only one other active player who played against the Expos, and he’s starting against the Tigers tonight.

Because Chapman is left-handed, and if there’s one remaining thing Schoop can do, it’s hit left-handers. He’s actually better against southpaws than Haase is. In any event, we can’t simply never play Schoop ever again as long as he’s on the roster.

We already know why one boat anchor in particular is still playing. Owner fiat. The best we can hope for is 60-day IL, which seems unlikely unless he becomes literally debilitated.

Most hitters are streak hitters.

He also spearheaded the rescue of the economy after the Bush crash, passed Dodd-Frank, stopped Iran from nuclearizing, normalized relations with Cuba, improved America's image abroad dramatically, and, oh yeah, 86'ed bin Laden with extreme prejudice. And he did all of it without even a whiff of any scandal. Obama was no joke.

Not for me. Never heard it before.