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It would take me exactly half a nanosecond to decide to vote for Al Franken for president.

These are essentially the same players we are losing 100 games with right now. Looks like you might be suggesting the problem isn’t the players themselves, but some combination of bad (current) coaching and bad luck? That an immediately-changed approach to player development and a karma reset can save this crop of guys? Does that basically sum it up?

I’ll be there with my wife, meeting my brother and his lovely spouse. It’s my at-least-once-a-year annual trip to Comerica preceded by a short detour to the potato chip factory.

This is the latest: RotoWire News: Brieske (forearm/biceps) is playing catch and doing well, Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic reports. (8/20/2022) Injury: Biceps, 60-Day IL

Mize was a defensible pick, given he was considered the consensus 1/1 can’t-miss pick by practically everyone. Come back in four years and let’s talk about taking Jackson Jobe over Marcelo Mayer.

I don’t think Meadows will leave of his own accord because he is still hanging out with the team, or at least he said he would in the statement his camp released. I would think if he’s burning out on the game altogether, he’d be off by himself dealing with his issues. He’s going to any least try to have a spring training next year.

Not quite: about 50% of all Americans live in the Eastern time zone, and only about 17% live in the Pacific zone

It happened, I liked when it happened, and I wish it hadn't gone away. That's how I feel about it.

Happened enough for me. I liked when this happened. Although I guess it’s a good thing we’re shielded from such horror now so we can leave the ballpark after the game at 10:23:45 PM instead of 10:24:15 PM lol

Coolbaugh and Hessman probably can’t fix flaws.

Eric Haase is the hottest hitter in baseball since Wednesday.

For the second straight game a Tiger hitter comes up to the plate late in the game a triple short of the cycle …

It solved no problem at all and took away one of the more entertaining possibilities in the game. It was a bad, dumb rule change.

Also, have you all actually read the pitch clock rules? This was printed in today’s The Athletic: Pitch clock, stepping off the mound and other timing matters • The catcher must be in the catcher’s box with nine seconds left on the timer. • The hitter must have both feet set in the batter’s box and be “alert to the pitcher” — meaning he has his eyes on the pitcher, and can quickly take a hitting stance — within eight seconds. • The timer starts when the pitcher has the ball, and the catcher and the batter are in the dirt near home plate and play is ready — meaning, runners have retreated if there was a foul ball, or exited the field after an out. (The pitch timer starts with the second pitch of the game.) • In between batters, there is a 30-second clock, except for the final out of an inning. The timer for inning breaks and pitching changes is 2 minutes, 15 seconds. • Pitchers who violate the clock are charged with an automatic ball. If a catcher violates the clock, an automatic ball is charged as well. Batters in violation receive an automatic strike. Umpires can also award a ball or strike if they detect a player circumventing the clocks, and the commissioner’s office could issue discipline beyond that to teams whose players or staff violate rules, as well. • If the defense requests time, a disengagement is assessed to the pitcher, with several exceptions, including mound meetings, an object on the field, injuries, or an appeal. Catchers giving signals to infielders doesn’t count as a disengagement as long as the catcher is back by nine seconds. • Pitcher requests for a new baseball with nine seconds or more remaining on the pitch timer do not count as a disengagement, but do if there are less than nine seconds. • Mound visits have a 30-second clock starting when the manager or coach leaves the dugout, or whenever the defensive player leaves their position. If a manager joined a mound visit in progress, the timer resets if there are at least 20 seconds left on the timer. The umpire has discretion to grant additional time if a manager or coach is dealing with a physical ailment. There is no timer if a trainer goes out with the manager or coach for “a bona fide medical issue.” • Batters can ask for and be granted time once per plate appearance, and have to ask for time orally. That resets the pitch clock. A batter who requests time a second time or more in the same plate appearance is to be charged with a strike — unless the batter stays in the batter’s box, then the umpire has discretion as to whether to charge a strike. • The length of batter walk-up music cannot exceed 10 seconds. Music between pitches is to be limited so hitters aren’t encouraged to leave the box. • “Extended inning events,” like the playing of “God Bless America,” or anything that stops all action in the ballpark, requires approval from the commissioner’s office, and advance notice of those approved events has to go to the MLBPA. • The pitch timer cannot be reviewed on replay. • Umpires have sole discretion to direct the start, stop or reset of the timer if the clock operator makes a mistake or a special circumstance applies, such as a catcher not having enough time to put on equipment after running the bases or a medical concern. (They would reset the clock to 20 or 15 seconds). Holy needless complexity, Batman! No wonder the Lawyer Commissioner likes it!

I hate the banning of the shift, although it’s not the dumbest rule change. The dumbest is allowing intentional walks by waving four fingers and pointing, which in addition to solving no problem at all, takes away the possibility of a botched IBB which could change the calculus of the game substantially. It was basically a lawyerly efficiency change. Athough the limiting of throws to first is very nearly equally dumb in the sense that it also solves no problem. It was merely Bill James’s hobby horse, as far as I can tell.

Yeah, this is why I don’t get invited to parties, weddings, graduations, or funerals … 😏

If you’re saying the lesson to take from this is to “win”, as if he could flip a switch to do so, then by that logic that means Ilitch has not been trying to win, since he has been losing in historic fashion ever since taking control of the team.

While I believe it is a 100% certainty that he will be on the 40-man roster to start the season, I think it’s 50/50 that he will get even one game a series for the whole year. We all know that Miggy won’t retire and leave the money on the table, because duh, and we all are pretty certain that the Tigers would never DFA or otherwise cut him, because that would legitimately make the Tigers organization look bad in the court of public opinion, and would drive a pointless wedge between the player and the team that would last in perpetuity. Chris Ilitch to all appearances is not a smart baseball owner, but he’s definitely smart enough not to uselessly shoot his property in the foot. I think the Tigers will look for reasons to place Miggy on the IL as early and often as possible next season, and that there’s a very good chance he will end the year on the 60-day list. He will then have his big day at the stadium on October 1, last game of the year against the Guardians; ride off into the sunset in the relative good graces of the fans, the organization, and Baseball; and enter Cooperstown in a Tigers hat in 2029.

Yes, exactly! I’ve been trying to get a grip on my feelings every time I hear that Pujols has hit yet another home run. I knew I wasn’t feeling quite angry or upset, which were way too strong to describe it, but man, you nailed it: it depresses me, mainly because I want to be as happy about it as my Mets fan and Red Sox fan friends are, but I’m not, and I wish I were, which made me feel even worse about it, and I couldn’t quite articulate why. But you’re totally right: it’s totally depressing to see Pujols, whose record since 2017 through last season (.241/.290/.410, 87 OPS+ in 2,138 PA) was surprisingly far worse than Miggy’s (.264/.335/.401, 99 OPS+ In 1,992 PA), experience this amazing fountain of youth last act, while we Tiger fans know that it is literally completely impossible for Miggy to have that same last hurrah. GAAAH!

This post makes perfect sense as it stands. Counterpoint: Tigers increased their Opening Day payroll from $80 million to $135 million this year, and they are going to draw basically the same 1.5 million fans with their 100-loss product that they did in 2019 with their 114-loss product. What lesson is a conservative business tycoon to take from this?

Your keyboard to God’s monitor.

This is probably true, although I am under the general impression that the increase in revenue versus spend may not be enough to warrant the spend, nor would the increase be guaranteed.

It bears remembering that like every other federally-protected big league franchise, the Tigers are making money hand-over-fist in terms of direct and indirect income, national revenue sharing, and especially franchise valuation. So, from a strictly business standpoint, as long as they’re making good money and the franchise value is going up, there’s no incentive to spend on capital improvements such as expanding the analytics department, deepening coaching and training staffs and equipment, or spending on even effective free agents in order to win games now (as if any decent free agent would choose the Tigers over any number of contenders anyway). The Tigers will make money and increase in value even if they continue to field 100-loss teams year after year. The only reason an owner would direct the organization to invest heavily, despite the lack of business imperative, is if they have a burning personal desire to put a consistent winning team on the field.

1901 to present is considered modern baseball in terms of research, because of the game’s structural resemblance to today as well as the completeness of information that’s available to sift through. Within that time period, it’s appropriate to divide the game into eras to reflect the way it has changed over the decades. The most commonly-defined are live ball era (since 1920), integrated era (since 1947), expansion era (since 1961), divisional era (since 1969), and wild card era (since 1994 or 1995). I’ve also seen various names for the homer-happy era that’s existed since 1998—I like to call that the Chicks Dig The Long Ball Era—or even the millennial era (since 2000 or 2001). And of course, people like to divide the game into eras based on decades (“winningest pitcher of the 80s”) for none but calendarial reasons. All of these eras are subsumed into the broad designation of modern era (since 1901). This merely reflects a set of accepted definitions for the purposes of research nerdery, though. Fans are obviously free to divide baseball into any era they want for their own personal purposes. My personal live ball era starts in 1972, because that’s when I started seeing games live.

And if that happens, that’ll be the nail in the coffin for the Ilitch Tigers. It will be dead franchise walking until he sells.