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Flip side, if you are at a function where the other person is present (e.g., family holiday or work function), it is your job to make nice with them, if not exactly be friendly with them, out of respect for everybody else in the room. That doesn’t mean you have to seek them out for conversation, but you do need to avoid provoking them. And if they start in on their nonsense, then, if you can’t comfortably remove yourself from their presence, you just need to ignore them and concentrate on something or someone else.

Right. If you try to ignore certain topics and they keep throwing it back in your face even after you ask them not to, that demonstrates a basic level of disrespect on their part, and you can’t base any kind of healthy relationship on such lack of respect.

They might be preparing for a post-Schoop world by figuring out whether Ibanez could handle second semi-permanently going forward.

Multiple years was not on the table. I wanted him back for a single year.

Looks who’s #5

Two of the American fascists’ favorite words when it comes to elections is “at large”.

It’s the redirection toward the grubby serfs, grubby unions, and their supposed grubby Democratic patrons that allows the greedflation to proliferate under the radar.

Month of May: Still outrunning that pythag.

When it comes to considering reliable options off the bench, yes, but it’s even worse in high-leverage situations, because at least a missing player can’t end the rally getting overwhelmed at the plate or grounding into an easy double play.

Theoretically, I would agree, but just not right now. Carpenter is still hurt and Malloy is probably not ready to throw into the fire. And even when Carpenter does come back, the easy switch is optioning Short.

Cabrera, unfortunately, is a given. But even if we could magically wish him into the cornfield, we don’t have anyone in the system to replace him that’s much, if any, more reliable than he. The cupboard was left bare, and it’s gonna take time to stock it back up to a point where we have the luxury of having to make hard choices among good options.

Had it in the bag the whole time. 😁

Three on-base events for Nick Maton out of five plate trips. Good for him. Hopefully good for us.

I want them to win, and I think we are serious about winning. I also understand trying to figure out the best mix of players out of the green roster we have, and the value of starting bench players either to rest regulars, or to exploit favorable matchups. I’d love to find nine solid guys we can run out there all day, every day, 162 days a year. I just think we don’t have that with this particular squad, at least not yet, and even if we did, here in 2023, we may not see that all that much anymore anywhere anyway.

Now we get to try out the Foley setup/Lange closer combination.

I would not have minded Haniger for two years, no options.

Players are streaky sometimes? Whoda thunk it?

I said in my earlier post that the point when we can say, OK, we're definitely in the division race would be the second half of the season, and probably closer to August than July, and that would be the point when Miggy's playing time would really start drying up, so I will stick with that.

I'm glad we didn't throw four years and $60 million at Mitch Haniger just so he could post a 39 OPS+ for us!

Here's one more curious thing that strikes me about Miggy: I sense he has done so much damage to his legacy with his terrible performance for seven years running now, having dropped from being at the level of Mike Schmidt and Rickey Henderson, to being at the level of Jim Thome and Harry Heilmann—still Hall of Famers, but certainly not early in the conversation of greatest hitters in history as the first two are. And many of us here have discussed that very thing. And yet, I have never heard this idea expressed outside of this forum by anyone else. Everyone talks about Miggy not only as though he is on the ten-finger list of greatest hitters ever, but also as though he is still a threat today. I have heard opposing team broadcasters, this season, talk about Miggy coming up in close-and-late situations as someone you have to work around very carefully because if you slip up even a little, he will end the game on one swing. This absolutely floors me, because I know, and you know, and certainly the opposing pitcher knows that all you have to do is pound him in the zone with your regular stuff, no tricks or gimmicks necessary, and he'll either strike out or ground out. I wonder how much of that is being respectful of his overall career accomplishments, and how much of it is ignorance of his decline among people inside the game, the latter of which would just knock me out if that were true.

You got me right. And I would further stipulate that until the Tigers demonstrate that we are actually in serious contention, It's kind of futile to rant about it, since (a) he is already barely playing these days, and (b) he's not forcing clearly better hitters to sit and make room for him.

And the flip side of this is, if we do not move into serious contention, which is the more likely outcome, then I believe we will see as much of Miggy in the last couple of months as we do now, provided he's not actually injured.

Because we are not in serious playoff contention yet, they are motivated to recover as much of Miggy's remaining $40 million as possible in merchandise, extra tickets, concessions, parking revenue, and the like as they can. It's all they have left with the guy.

Nobody else has. Not even close. Here all the Hall of Famers at hitting positions (outfield, first base, DH) and how they did in their last seven seasons, sorted by oWAR cumulative for their last seven seasons (min 2,500 PA): And here's Miggy as of yesterday: Miggy is setting a new standard for Hall-of-Famer career collapse that will be talked about for generations.

It's a tricky situation. We're not going to DFA Miggy, and we're not going to simply bench him for long stretches of time. I had thought, even predicted, that the 60-day IL would be likely, but that was based more on his gimpiness than on situational expediency. If he's not injured, and he's not going to leave, and he wants to play, and perhaps most importantly, fans want to see him play—well, he's gonna play. Simple as that. I also believe that if the Tigers were a serious contender for a playoff spot, Miggy would be playing a lot less, and I think fans would be OK with that (especially fans on the road, which, who gives a **** what they think anyway). The tricky part of that would be mollifying Miggy, and that's where the manager comes in. An unhappy Miggy could/would be a very disruptive force in the clubhouse, so Hinch would have had to set expectations with him upfront, beginning in spring training. And I've read accounts that he has done that, or at least has claimed to have done it. So if I had to guess, and this is just a guess, I don't think we are at the point where we can say, OK, we're definitely in the division race, Miggy, so nail yourself to that bench and root us on. If that were to happen at all, it would be the second half of the season, and probably closer to August than July. I think it would be at that point when Miggy's starting assignments would mostly dry up, and his pinch-hitting assignments would come mostly in blowouts (although probably not all of them). The good news is that we are at the very beginning of the process of remaking this team into an annual contender. It's not as though, if we lose out on the playoffs this season, that's it, the organization is done. Chances are we get better next year and/or the year after than this year, and Miggy will be looooong gone by then. So even if we miss out on the playoffs this season by just a few games at the end, I wouldn't see it as an existentially lost opportunity, and regardless of what you or I or anyone else here would like, A.J. ain't getting fired for it.