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I know we're not punting for the next three years. What I'm saying is that we don't have the depth of system to fill the holes we need to compete, so we will either have to make trades or sign free agents to patch those holes, and it's going to be on Jay Sartori's team to provide the data we need to do it right. I don't think we have the depth to trade for an known All-Star performer right now, but we might have the depth to trade for a unpolished gems that the Sartori team can uncover. We'll see. We'll also see whether baby Doc will pony up the dough if it is established All-Stars we're going after.

Ty Madden and Dylan Smith are 21 or 22 and both at A+. I would guess that projects to a cup of coffee in 2023, shuttling between the minors and Detroit in 2024, and making the roster for good in 2025, when they may make WAR-positive contributions. That is, if all goes well. The organization is just now starting to balance the system with position players a bit more, but again, if as you say, that hyped-up talent is currently at Lakeland, we're probably looking at 2026+ for getting starting-level two-win performance out of one or more of them. If all goes well. Meanwhile, the window is cracked open now, and will swing wide open in 2023 and 2024. We don't have the system we need to feed us for that period, so we will need to patch holes for those next three seasons if we want to compete for divisions. That's the basic point I was making. In the meantime, the system can percolate with the prospects you named so they can come to Detroit in the three seasons after that. But if we punt for the next three years while we wait for that, then really, what the heck are we doing here?

Unsurprisingly, when we look at umpires who have called 60 or more games at the plate across the past six-plus seasons, we see that Angel Hernandez is in the bottom third for accuracy. I'm sure you'll recognize lots of other old-timey names on the list, too. Consistent with research we've all seen showing younger umpires are much more accurate calling to the basic strike zone than older umpires.

We are a long, long, long way from getting anything from Ty Madden, Wilmer Flores or Dylan Smith. Probably nothing decent until at least 2025. We're going to need something in 2023 and 2024 as well, now that the window has opened. Who do we got? And at this point in time drafting and international signings is a strategy to help us in 2027 and beyond, not in the next few seasons. Plus those three, as well as Brieske—a 27th-round pick who has pitched exactly five major league innings, so I'm going to hold off on agreeing that he's the guy we need even at #5—are all right-handed pitchers. I know you're not advocating building our entire system on right-handed pitching, but if these are the best examples of guys who are on the brink of helping us that you can provide, might that not suggest that the system, even as you characterize it, is still too weighted toward the right-handed pitching basket? Where are the impact position players in the system who are close to helping us during this window?

Maybe Xi sincerely believes the Trumpian theory that COVID will simply go away in a few weeks.

Assuming the Committee couldn’t simply subpoena email providers or ISPs for the emails—which, I don’t know why not, but let’s pretend that’s the case—wouldn’t all Eastman have to do is destroy all the evidence? I would guess the criminal liability of destroying evidence would be far less than the criminal liability of being found to have plotted the overthrow of the United State government. Plus, I assume he would be protected by the mob family while in custody.

The irony being that singles have been disappearing from the baseball landscape like passenger pigeons.

And here lies the object lesson about the danger of having a top-heavy system: your top prospects all come up at once, and if they are not exactly ready to go at that moment, there’s nobody of consequence coming up behind them to further strengthen the team. So to fill the remaining holes, the Tigers will have to either make impactful trades, and who knows whom they deal to make that happen; or they sign impactful free agents, and who knows for sure whether Baby Doc will spend what it takes to make that happen. It may not be now-or-never quite yet, but given the way the Tigers constructed the rebuild, it’s definitely the beginning of now. With the Sox gimpy and stumbling, we would normally have a golden chance to pounce if we weren’t so gimpy and stumbly ourselves. Maybe this is the year we start to find out just how serious and competent Jay Sartori’s team is at setting us up to move assets and patch holes Rays-style.

What made it bad was the the strike zone was morphing around all game, as it does with Angel and as was noted by the announcers; and also, it was a 3-2 count with one out in the ninth and Schwarber’s team down a run.

Kyle Schwarber is definitely up there with George Brett now in the pantheon of losing your shit during a game.

I sincerely love how he brags that everyone calls him "Sir".

I meant to come in here and guess 4/23 but I got waylaid by other things and didn't have time to get around to it. I will still take my victory lap. 😎

Apparently, Chris Fetter is making better progress with the pitchers than Scott Coolbaugh is making with the hitters.

So far this pitching staff has performed like one of the best in baseball, and that's not because of the defense, which is still among the worst in baseball. But while we expected some improvement from the rotation (and have gotten it), it is the bullpen that is really surprising me. And the interesting part of that is, Soto has done nothing to contribute to the improvement.

Well, at least Javy didn't strike out that time ... Yeah, this is the Javy who will frustrate you.

We would also have accepted “lose”. 😅

”Did I say win 90? What I meant was …”

That was the platonic ideal of a Javy Baez strikeout.

Safe as can be.

Torkelson so far looks to be at best an average defender who has the advantage of youthful athleticism. Yes, he’s made some great diving catches, but so did Derek Jeter. Unless he works hard on his defense and makes substantial improvement in his overall defense game from average at best to actual good, once Torkelson’s body ages and thickens they’ll probably have to move him off the field and into the DH slot permanently.

Carlton's close all right. Certainly in the top 25. If Skubal could be within even the top 1,000 pitchers of all time, that would be way more than anyome could expect from a typical ninth round afterthought pick. That would make him basically Brian Moehler (who basically had to career-collapse his way down to that). That's probably as good as any benchmark minimum to hope Skubal exceeds and be happy for his career if he does. If Skubal could be top 100 of all time, he'd be challenging for a plaque in Cooperstown.

Steve Carlton ... good eyeball comp.

And all on just the two homers. The bats must be able to overcome giving up three runs. We may be in a new Year of the Pitcher, though. Average scoring is under 4 runs per teams for the first time since 1972, and they adopted the DH rule in the AL after in response to that. It’s all because the natural response to two decades of Chicks Dig The Long Ball: pitchers used technology to supercharge their arsenals to maximize swing and miss, and defenses shifted to turn the mistake of not pulling homers over their heads in to outs that used to be hits. Deaden the ball so that all nine guys are no longer a home run threat, and this can all be fixed. It might be painful for a couple of years as pitchers and defenses adjust, but it would get fixed.

I feel bad for you folks who don’t have the choice to have a Dan-and-Jim radio overlay on the video like we out-of-towners do. It seems like they’ve really ramped up the in-booth and in-stands interviews with non-baseball randos this year. How many innings did they spend with Matt Stafford? Two, maybe? And who was the one kid they were talking to in the fourth inning? Some high school football guy or something? There were several other instances of that as well—every time I looked up it was the guy in the stands sticking his microphone in yet another who-knows-who-that-is’s face. And the camera lingers on these interviews more than on what’s happening on the field. I mean, it’s almost as though the baseball game is secondary to the whole broadcast. If I weren’t able to hear Dan and Jim talking about the game itself over these inexplicable video choices, I’d definitely be tuning into the opposing team’s telecast, just to avoid all the nonsense. The Tigers have a clear claim to being the 30th-best baseball telecast in the majors.