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That's a really big part of it, I think—it's about whether players believe the team they're signing with can win. For all the money they spent on Semien and Seager and Gray last winter, they won only 68 games, so what happened this winter? They then signed deGrom (and Eovaldi and Perez on a QO for high AAV) this winter. With so many good guys on the team, how can they not win, right? Who wouldn't want to play for a team like that? I remember the team preview programs on MLB Network in the early 2010s, and they would have guys like Harold Reynolds and Mark DeRosa and Carlos Pena predicting, every year, that the Tigers would win the the World Series. They were right on the pennant one year, but no rings. Didn't matter: basically every year from 2011 to 2014, and maybe even 2015, it was going to be the Tigers hoisting the trophy at the end. And the reason they always gave for that was because the Tigers had all the superstars, and players believe in the power of superstars to make winning happen. I think that provided a pretty good window into how players view things. I think that's a big reason why the Rangers are able to get good players to go there even without a recent track record. Another reason, mentioned here, is that Texas is a preferred geography for a lot of players: it's in the South, which American southerners like, and they have an embedded Hispanic culture there, which appeals to Latinos. Detroit has neither of those things. And, of course, the Tigers weren't going to throw 5/185 or 10/325 or 7/175 at anyone, anyway, so there's that, too.

Once again, I'm talking about this year. Not last year, not 2016, not 2013 or 2012 or 2011. This year is not anything like any of those years. If you like, you can believe that playing for a winner doesn't matter to players and that it's all about the money. I find that surprising, frankly, but there are a lot of people who would agree with you on that. I just don't happen to believe it's all about the money. I may never be able to convince you or anyone else here of that, but I will express the opinion that playing for a winner does matter to players, when the topic comes up and I believe it's appropriate to express it. I won't back down from that.

Well, that went without saying. At least for a couple of minutes.

Give me liberty or give me death. Unless we can decrease the chance of being shot by 5 or 10%. In that case, forget liberty and give me lockdowns.

It knocks me out that any cop would be a 2A absolutist, as though he would prefer that the civilian crowd he is monitoring for trouble all be carrying concealed weapons rather than being unarmed.

I admit I wanted Trevor Story over Javy. I thought he was a good bounce-back candidate to return to a consistent 120+ OPS+ level for the next several years, and he'd had zero injury issues before that. It was bad luck, and could not have happened to a nicer team.

So am I. I am far, far more optimistic about the franchise than I was last year. I think they can sign players if they want to spend and they look like things are looking up. Hopefully next winter.

Plus even that guy with injury concerns was never coming to the Tigers, anyway. The disinterest is certainly mutual.

Last year because it looked like the Tigers were about to take a big step forward toward contention, and not this year because they'd just taken a huge step backwards and upended their front office as a result. To people not deeply embedded with the fortunes of the franchise as fans or beat media, it all looks like chaos. Players have a precious short amount of time to play and win. Why waste it with a team that looks like they're on the treadmill to oblivion? I agree that Harris also did not want to spend big long-term money on players when we're not in a position to win now, but players who deserve big money want to go to teams that look like they are on the way up, not teams that look like they're floundering.

2A fanatics give less than a shit about liberal elitist socialist college kids, the kind of kids who in a flat second would murder their liberty to arm and defend themselves, hanging out at a student union.

Not this year.

There is, and the theme is, “Who wants Chris Ilitch’s money”? I think that’s what people are missing in discussion about payroll: good players who have options simply will not come to Detroit this season. We talk about getting a good hitter on a major league contract as if it's something we can just will and make happen. But good players are sentient beings with critical decision-making skills, and most of the time, if a player can choose to go anywhere, he's going to choose somewhere where he can win, or at least somewhere where the organization looks like they have a clue and might start winning soon. In the eyes of players, that's not Detroit. Sure, we fans who are deeply embedded in the fortunes of this team can see, or at least envision, the improvements the team has been investing in since Scott Harris came aboard, but those are deep infrastructure-level improvements only devotees of the team are aware of, not the kind of surface-level improvements that people who don't live here or love the team can easily see—and that includes big league players. This is probably why the only major league contracts we could bring aboard are Matthew Boyd and Michael Lorenzen. Those guys didn't really have options. That's also why Detroit couldn't push the payroll to even league average—it's tough to do that when good major leaguers prefer just about anyone else's money over yours. So what the organization has to focus on this year is showing and proving that we are serious about improvement, AND that improvement is happening. That's what I think is going to make 2023 exciting: if we can make good progress, win 75 or more games (which I think is doable), and get the players we have in-house to publicly sing hallelujahs to the team, THAT’s when we will be able to compete for good big league free agents, perhaps starting as soon as next year. That, to me, would be a successful season.

Jose Iglesias, Robbie Grossman, Travis Demeritte, Justin Upton, Anibal Sanchez, Jose Alvarez, Matt Moore, Daniel Norris, Corey Knebel, and Justin Wilson are all still out there! 😁

Those same people also used to be virulently anti-Russian.

If you guys like the classics—by which I mean the Great American Songbook—I have a YouTube Playlist I'm working on. It's not done yet but there are a couple hundred songs in it, so I feel pretty good about sharing it. I'm up to the Ls. https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnPS2bK2eU3a6Zk4ulSjCuwPbWeO9IO84&feature=share

Thank you, officer. I didn’t see it. But then again, since Spring Training wasn’t open yet, I wasn’t even looking for it. If a mod could combine the threads or kill this one, that would be cool.

The most correct answer so far. There was talk that Buddy’s was going to break into the Chicago market with a location in Schaumburg (!), which i would have totally traveled out to to get a Buddy’s ready-to-eat pizza. (I can only get half-bakeds in Kalamazoo while driving home and they never come out the same). But then COVID, I guess, killed that idea dead. I can’t even find the news story about it from about four years ago.

It’s not at all true that teams don’t care about ad dollars and ad eyeballs that RSNs get for their games. It is true they don’t make any immediate additional revenue if the RSN overachieves on ratings estimates and can start charging higher rates for sponsorships and spots—that benefit all accrues to the RSN. But overachieving on ratings estimates, getting more eyeballs than anticipated, does serve to help the team negotiate a sweeter rights deal when it’s time for renewal. More eyeballs also means more interest for the team, which they benefit from in terms of a boost in attendance, more concessions sold, more merchandising sold, etc., which gooses non-broadcast revenue and could provide additional funds for better players, coaching, infrastructure, et al, as well as the halo effect it provides to the owner’s other business interests as the proprietor of a popular, high-profile major sports franchise. High fan interest driven through high broadcast ratings has a strong effect on all of this. Teams definitely root for high ratings for their broadcasts on RSNs.

lol But hey—I’m totally ready!

I maintain three Twitter accounts: one for SABR baseball stuff, one to follow news, and one to follow entertainment and media and pop culture stuff. I like to keep the three silos of information separated and distinct. All three of them had Musk’s tweet about people believing the press in the For You. I had never interacted with him, his tweets, or anyone who ever retweeted him, not even once, not even the news account. Yet the tweet just showed up. That’s a little bit of a problem, I think.

Remember the phrase "too cheap to meter"? As in, "[commodity_inserted_here] will be so plentiful it'll be too cheap to meter"? I'm pretty sure they used that phrase about Internet service way back when. lol

I have DirecTV and they just raised my regional sports fee, for the two channels here (Marquee, NBC Sports Chicago), to $14.99 a month (!), and I almost never watch either of them. But we keep the service because (a) I negotiate deep discounts every year, and (b) it's just so darn convenient to use.

Another thing about Harris and what he did this offseason is that he his talent acquisition options were severely limited by the mess he inherited. Any free agent who had options was never going to choose to come here this winter, and Harris had very little in terms of talent to deal from on the trade front. So really, his main two acquisition options at this moment are waiver churn and minor league free agent deals, and given that it’s hard to put together a shiny offseason that you can show off. But we’re in the baby steps stage, so patience.

Cubs have had quite a good offseason. I know the projections continue to be down on them, just as they are on the Tigers, but if they stay healthy and things break the right way, Cubs could take that division.