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I’m not really making a value judgement here as much as trying to reflect how I think the front office might be seeing things. That’s generally my approach in discussions like these. I’m always very interested in the business side of how players are valued. Maybe I do miss working after all. 😁 As for what I actually want, I want the Tigers to keep Skubal for 2026, and I think they will. I don’t know how bad it would have to be for me to want to trade Skubal at the deadline, but if we’re playing sub-.400 ball by the end of next July, I guess I’d want to trade him for a major-league ready top 100 guy in AAA who can start in April 2027. I don’t know that two months of Skubal would give us that kind of return, and I also don’t think any team would sweeten the pot just to take Mize (as currently constructed) in a package. That’s almost always not how deadline deals work. Also: I’m not against being aggressive to win, per se. I just don’t think it has been the right time for Harris/Ilitch to push all the chips in to “win now” yet, and not because I wouldn’t like to win now—I’m as much of a meathead as anyone when it comes to winning now—but again, I am trying to see it form the front office point of view. If we start trading all the top of our system for proven veterans, as so many fans want to see, that means we are trading the future for the present, and if it fails, we might be right back to 2015 all over again. I wouldn’t want to see that, so yes, I’m glad they did not go all in this year, and I don’t want them to go all in next year, if trading Max and McGongile and the others is part of that bargain.

He is going to be 30 next year, and 31 the year after, so he might want to try to cash in on years while he still can. Plus there’s no guarantee the ball bounces his way in 2026, so if he has another year with bad topline numbers like this, he might not be able to get years at 31, whereas he probably could now. Worst case, he could always go out onto the market and if it doesn’t shape up quite his way, he takes another single-year contract which he could probably get at least 20 for, and then try again for 2027. I think going out is the better option for him.

But he’s been really good under the hood, and that will probably be really attractive on the market. I think we offer him the QO and be happy if he takes it.

Damn, it's an historic live ball span for Cleveland.

If they trade the last two months of Skubal at the deadline for whatever they can get, they might as well say **** it and start another rebuild, and that goes double if they dump Mize along with him. I don't see them doing that and foregoing their comp pick if Skubal leaves.

I've got a 930pm softball game tonight, during the second half of the Lions game, but at least I'm not missing the Skubal start tonight. Nope, that will be tomorrow night because I committed to a September 23 Mets-Cubs game with a friend. </grrrr>

Devotees of the Prosperity Bible approve.

I could have posted this same thing. I made the mistake of seeing both Book of Mormon and Spamalot at one of the theaters downtown here, in the balcony both times. I picked up maybe a third of what they were saying, the sound was bouncing around so much. I guess you have to pony up the bucks to sit behind the orchestra pit to be able to pick out the lyrics.

That's completely backwards from me and my wife. We see the monologues and bits and skip the guests unless we are really interested.

nm

The tricky part is that the way the oligarchs and their surrogates have gotten us to hate and distrust the media, it might be he’ll of a job to get people fired up about restoring and preserving it.

Harris and Hinch haters, rejoice: FYI, this appears to be a stolen article, since it was written by Cody Stavenhagen for the Athletic and neither are credited within.

Are there posters fearing a rebuild? I think it’s more like posters wanting another rebuild since they want to trade Skubal and Riley and maybe anything else decent that moves.

Now 1-9, but still, I didn’t need to hear this.

Maybe more like points and gasps, since the awesome power of the United States makes them very influential as to what direction the rest of the world takes.

We’ll never know, but I think it’s just as likely that they would stay on the track they’re on regardless of whether we win the World Series or miss the playoffs. Scott Harris famously has a plan and I think there’s a good chance he’s sticking to that plan, unless Baby Doc forces his hand, which I doubt would happen since he’s not Papa Doc.

All we need to do is win the next three and we win the division.

Yes, I did some cursory analysis, and this would be by far the biggest—meaning combination of fastest and most precipitous—collapse in baseball history, supplanting even the gold standard of the 1951 Dodgers. But remember: massive collapses are never one-sided. It takes more than the first place team losing a lot—it also takes a second-place team winning a lot. In 1951, the Dodgers went 27-24 after August 11, but the Giants went 38-8. So the Dodgers didn't even suck then like the Tigers do now. They were simply up against an irresistible force. There's always two sides to a massive collapse.

I have done really, really well on AI-fueled stocks in the past two years, although I have not yet locked in the gain. I am about to set some trailing stop limit orders through ToS so I don't experience a repeat of the Sun Microsystems Debacle of 2001 (where I watched $140,000 in paper wealth shrink to $30-something,000 before finally cashing out—still not bad for an initial $7K bet).

All we have to do is sweep Cleveland in Cleveland, and we will win the division.

Ah, I thought you meant scroll down the page whence I got the screenshot or something. Totally missed that because I was replying to your earlier post, the one before you mentioned that.

OK, I'll bite, what am I missing?

Twins surprise the roaring Guardians with a 6-2 defeat, and now our magic number has dropped to:

Much as I don't disagree in principle, we really didn't have much in the way of options, especially since we've already used Hurter, Kahnle, and Holton, and Sewald was probably already a little gassed from Friday:

At least they're giving us a little something to go to Cleveland with at the end here.