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I didn't mean to imply that I would have preferred Mario overexplain what his eyes see, which I guess would be just a supercharged version of a dry recitation of the action on the field. And I also didn't mean to imply that I don't want him to have discussions with Rod. I like it when TV announcers talk in depth about the strategies and tactics of what they are seeing on the field, or about how our players or other players or other teams have been trending lately, or about the big picture issues or changes in the game. That's exactly what I like in a broadcast. What I was trying to get across was that Mario, with Rod, did almost none of this. Mario would dryly recite the action, Rod would provide cliched commentary, every once in a while they would share a chuckleheaded jocularity between them in a way apparently meant to show an easy camaraderie that to me was unconvincing, and they spent the rest of their time doing live reads or throwing to people outside the booth. Of course, Matt Shepard was much worse than Mario on these and a bunch of additional measures, but just because Mario is the taller m***** doesn't mean we have to re-hire him for the circus.

I don't think Malloy is going to be playing on the dirt with the Tigers.

In the old days, maybe before we were even born, they may have looked at Lorenzen's 4-2 record since the trade and said yeah, he's been pretty good, so he's in. These days we look at his 5.51 ERA and 5.81 FIP, his strikeout rate barely better than five and walk rate pushing up against four, his home run rate and hit rate higher than any season since his rookie year, and we can totally see why they left him off.

No, he was not. Beyond any problems Mario may have had that led to his departure in the first place, my main issue with his work is his lack of personableness (personability?), as well as his inability to provide any actual baseball insights during the broadcast. Everything Mario says about the actual game in progress is either a basic description of the pitch or play that just happened; a reciting of the batting or pitching line the player has achieved during the game thus far; or a snippet from the media notes about the team or the player in question. Practically everything else Mario says during the broadcast is either a live read promotion, a throw to the field or studio announcers, or a forced attempt at banter. I don't fault him for the live reads or throws or even the attempted banter, but the bare bones description-only nature of his game commentary is where he really lacks. Mario apparently neither talks to the players, which Jim Price or Rod did, nor digs into the numbers, like Dan does, which leaves only the dry recitation of what he sees in front of him or reads from his notes. Mario is perfectly competent, technically, but I get no sense that he's at all engaged with the game going on in front of him. tl;dr, Mario is not a baseball guy so much as he's a professional announcer. I'd prefer an announcer behind the mike who's also a baseball guy.

The early returns on the length of playoff baseball: three games went between 2:40 and 2:46. Only the D’Backs Brewers game went long at 3:36.

Not a fan of Mario. We can do better. I like someone’s suggestion about stealing Len Kasper, especially since he’s a native, but he left Cubs TV to do White Sox, radio, because he wants to do radio. But considering the disarray that organization is in, and depending on his contract, maybe he can be had.

That makes him the perfect minor league play-by-play guy.

Craig Kimbrel did a genius move tonight: 4-1 lead, bottom of the ninth, man on second, two out. He needed more time than just the 20 seconds, so he deliberately spiked the ball on the mound to force a balk and reset the timer and get that extra time so he could concentrate on the batter. The runner moving the third doesn't matter. His only concern is the batter. And he needed that extra time. Again, genius move.

I think I see what you mean, but I also think the Tigers are farther ahead on pitching than many, if not most. They might be in a position to try it and succeed at it, if they so chose.

I know how some people around here sucks ass—I don't know where you stand on him—but Jeimer had a 3 WAR season this year, and a 3.7 WAR season just two years ago. That's worth more than two years, for sure. I think the more likely question is whether someone will give him four. Since 2020, Max Muncy is only marginally better at third than Jeimer Candelario, who is three years younger, and I don't think Max is getting less than three years, either.

Twi things: (1) Do you think the Dodgers are going to decline Max's option and are ready to hand the job to Michael Busch? He had a rough go at the top this year; (2) Do you think Max will go for anything less than three years?

OK, if you want lower-commitment guys with a proven stick to fill a position of immediate need, and not just a bat to put somewhere anywhere, then Jeimer is your man, and I don't think he takes less than three years. Are you OK with that?

I think even seriously submitting Trump for a vote is akin to setting Congress on fire.

I think the names are going to be those of one- or two-year guys for this organization in this stage of our development.

That's how thin the market is, but don't we gotta make the spend-everything-on-everyone-now people happy? 😉

Talking out of my ear here, I wonder whether the Tigers could be on the front lines of exploiting some sort of market inefficiency by developing pitchers specifically to go two to three innings, as a bridge between the starter and the back of the bullpen? You know, starter for five, long guy for three, then short guy for one, using three pitchers, as opposed to a string of one-inning guys after the fifth inning and using five pitchers for a typical game? I wonder whether a team getting one or even two of these long guys on their staff would relieve the pressure of having to use a bunch of one-inning guys in back-to-back games too often? I would think one thing that would have to happen is the development of a training regimen distinct from that of starters and short guys, such that these long guys could be planned on for maybe 40-50 games a year and 100 or even more innings from the pen. Faedo might be a guy they could go in that direction with.

East coast teams also have a harder time luring Pacific Rim players because of the time difference at home for games.

Which is a good reason why we can't pencil four of them in for 30+ starts and 150+ innings. I think they are going onto the market for at least one starter. It would not shock me to see Lorenzen come back—I think he certainly would like ti—although I could see them going with someone else as well.

That doesn't sound like the kind of 31-year-old I'd want to commit 5/100+ to.

Amnesia about his unreliability, for starters.

Who’s going to be your new team next year? 😉

If you’re thinking Nola the hitter, he’s not a free agent. Nola the pitcher is a front-of-rotation horse and has current playoff/Series experience. He’ll be 31, and I don’t know how many years/money he can command, but even with a down year, I gotta think it’s five years and nine figures. He can probably get that from a contender, if not the Phillies. Bellinger has been raking, but he’s also been hurt and playing first. He was an MVP in 2019 and he’ll get down-ballot votes this year, but in between he was also literally one of the worst position guys after his shoulder surgery, so much so that the Dodgers non-tendered him. Despite that he now has a knee injury history, which is always a concern, Boras is probably going to get him something close to 8/200, and they’ll probably get it from a contender before they have to consider the below-.500 Tigers. The other guys, you don’t really want. Peterson is trending toward permanent DH; Conforto is merely a gimpy, average-ish corner OF without a glove, exactly the kind of guy Dombrowski might sign; Garver is also primarily a DH at age 33 who’s also gimpy; and do you really want three or even four more years of Jeimer? We are all frustrated by our bottom-of-league hitting and we all want it fixed yesterday, but realistically, there are no All-Star/MVP level hitters out there who are young, cheap, and fill a position of immediate need for us, and if there were, it’s unlikely they’d be willing to go to a perennial non-contender for years on end. Speaking of position of immediate need, the only two I think we have in that category are third and second, and we have at least one guy banging on the door to get his look at one of them. If they do sign a position player this winter, it might be a guy who’s looking for a career rebound, someone like Kiner-Falefa, and I wouldn’t see him getting more than two years, if even that.

That would definitely be a political Kristallnacht.

I hope we get something better than two playoff appearances in the next ten or so seasons.

It would be a **** move to forbid him to interview. I would bet they let him.