microline133

20 minutes ago, chasfh said:

"There was never going to be a deal"? Wow. now I want to know what's behind that statement.

I think it's simply that Passan has trended more and more pro-player and there's a feeling from MLBPA (who is far more his source than the League) that the owners never actually wanted to get something done. I'd wager that's the long and short of it.

1 hour ago, Edman85 said:

Dingler was removed after a HBP yesterday.

Not just any HBP; he was hit in the face. He was still on his feet and didn't look like there was any blood, so it may have hit the helmet first.

For all but the deepest and most well-rounded (strong MLB roster with a deep developmental system) teams in MLB, the 40-man roster squeeze is far more fan creation than reality. There's a significant portion of the Tigers 40-man roster that is still sub par at this point, meaning they have plenty of flexibility to manipulate the roster in any way they need to this off-season, with or without Miggy in the mix.

27 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

Yeah this is kinda what I was thinking just from reading between the tea leaves of some of the scouts I read and follow particularly the pitch tunneling. BTW I mentioned him in the farm thread but I was wondering what your opinion of Austin Bergner is? His numbers in AA look really good but doing quick google searches I can't find much in depth about how his stuff actually looks or if he is somebody worth monitoring or a non prospect. 

edit: I should say I have seen reports on him preseason but statistically he seems to have taken a step forward this year so I was wondering if there was any improvement stuff wise or projection wise over what people thought going into the season. 

I'm not avoiding this...just recognize that people get sick of me shitting on prospects. It's the nature of the beast.... odds are, any prospect you ask about isn't going to be successful as a big leaguer.

In terms of Bergner, he's more an up and down arm that could see some time as a back end starter if he's effective when he gets an opportunity. There's enough there to turn over a lineup once if he gains consistency, but I wouldn't go much past that. It's hard to say how he'd play in shorter stints given the differences I'm usage these days, but that could be a viable backup option for him.

1 minute ago, RandyMarsh said:

Another thing I heard just from reading chats from the various national pundits is that some teams namely the Indians who have had a ton of good starters the last several years target guys with great command with the thought that they could potentially coach or get more stuff out of them vs. the old Tiger mindset of drafting guys with great raw stuff with no command in hopes of coaching them to develop that. 

That was the old Twins approach too and they ultimately walked away from it. When Rick Knapp came over to the Tigers from the Twins he was giddy at the idea of working with so many high powered arms and trying to coax more out of them... He could do things with those arms he could never do with the arms in the Twins organization. You can rationalize either approach, but one clearly had the potential to yield more impact arms.

It's purely that people have figured out how to quantify concepts that have been around forever. Scouts aren't dumb, the good ones just have the ability to see shit that most can't.... It's human nature when you can't see it yourself, you don't believe it and ultimately criticize it. Scouts have been the victim of that for years.

2 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

lol. Speaking of spin rates I can't remember who it was, I think it may have been Scottwood or G2 but they brought up a good point. About 5 or so years ago spin rate was what all the "smart" teams were looking for while teams like us at the time were still focused on velocity. Now in the past 2 years we start paying attention to that and chasing guys like that and it seems like teams have moved on from putting emphasis on that.

I mean it's not that they don't care at all but they don't fawn over those numbers anymore cause hitters have already adjusted and are hitting the once unhittable high FB regardless of the spin. They will of course go for the guy with more spin all things else being equal but they now look at different factors when targeting guys. Of course the Tigers are late to the party on that. 

I'm not so sure teams have really moved past spin rate as much as they are now evaluating it in conjunction with other things....pitch tunnelling, an interesting (and quiet) slight shift back to physical characteristics, etc. They won't let "just" spin rate drive decisins, but instead look for these other things along with that. Many are still using it as an entry into the discussion and then considering other data.

40 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Now that was one seriously fucked up draft!!!

And that draft netted Avila and Dirks. By most measures it was a successful draft just by virtue of those two players, even with Dirks' career ending quickly, add without considering the Tigers got 100+ appearances of effective relief work from Perry in 2009-2010. It just illustrates the point that it only takes 1-2 solid players to make a draft successful, the rest is noise.

It's org hype....

31 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

I'm curious about Chris Meyers... anything there or is he more org depth? Can't really deny the numbers in Lakeland or WMI so far

Org player.

Thinking about flying in with a friend from out here for the opening week game against the Eagles (he's a huge Eagles fan). May be looking for recommendations on lodging and what to fit into a quick weekend centered around the game. I haven't been back to Detroit in at least 7-8 years.

And that stretch at West Michigan includes a promotion to High-A.

The Bunek's that I knew in that area always had a little tendency to be out there. All the kids attended the Catholic school in Leelanau County, very vocal about their beliefs, , occasionally confrontational on the matter, etc.

On another note, I'm amused by the statement later in the article discussing the millage for Leland PS. It references school buildings, plural. That's a very loose interpretation of the plurality unless something has changed since I went there.....one building, K through 12. I believe they added some temporary classrooms on the noth end of the building shortly after I left, which could result in the plural, but interesting nonetheless.

Well, it took 2+ years, but it finally got me. I was required to travel for work this week, started feeling ill and excused myself from my meetings. Stopped on the way back to the hotel for an at-home test....now I'm stuck in my hotel room in Alabama at least until Monday.

Pretty classic symptoms....headache, fever, chills, general soreness, cough, stuffed up....certainly don't feel great.

Wasn't that Grinnell College, or something like that?

23 minutes ago, Jim Cowan said:

Thanks for the Dean Green reference!  I remember someone once said of him "can hurt you with his glove, even at DH".

I think I made similar remarks about Green (and Billy Nowlin back in the day), though I tended toward the idea that they could hurt themselves with their glove, hence the reason they should only DH.

11 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

Would be nice to see our bat-first recent draftees (Bryant Packard & Daniel Cabrera), start to hit.  Neither profiled to have big power, but they were supposed to hit for average. Obviously early this season, but they haven’t shown a lot prior to this year..

Any honest post-draft assessment of both players would have yielded, at best, a bench bat or fringe regular projection. The gap between that outcome and let's say, Dean Green, isn't very large, so even the slightest bit of skill degradation against more advanced pro arms and you're looking squarely a two org players that can hit a bit on occasion, or someone not unlike Dean Green.

Interesting look at the evolution of safety value. Pretty relevant if rumors of the Lions interest in Hamilton are to be believed.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2022/3/28/22996666/kyle-hamilton-nfl-draft-top-pick-safety-value

https://youtu.be/fPcoFK8jem8

I wish there was a video of my friends faces as I walked out of dinner that night. I was a nervous wreck, stood up from dinner, left, walked to a random NYC bar, ordered a drink, saw the Maggs homer, chugged my drink, and went back to dinner without saying a word.

Some friends came by tonight and their middle school aged son was talking about his new adventure into sports cards. After a while I ventured upstairs and grabbed my last remaining box of cards (I purged and sold most of my collection about ten years ago). I started showing him what I kept....my expansive Lou Whitaker collection (literally every card ever produced, including those that I know of with only overseas distribution), the Jordan rookie, multiple Griffey '89 UD, Kaline rookie, Gretsky rookie, Shaq rookies, Jeter, Bonds, all the autographs, the jersey/bat cards, etc.

Then, toward the end, I find this. I honestly completely forgot I pulled this in a random pack a few years ago, particularly since I've generally stopped collecting the last ten years. Turns out it's actually selling for some decent coin...

4 minutes ago, pfife said:

I think one of the things that has made gridlock in congress way worse was the banning of earmarks.   You basically removed the one thing they actually all agreed on.   

John Boehner said exactly this years ago. Once these were eliminated, he lost negotiating leverage with his members. It was one of the reasons he had such difficulty controlling the rise and disruption of the Tea Party....he couldn't offer earmarks that could entice them to come around on bigger issues of the day.

With the introduction of "Community Project Funding", which is essentially a new name for earmarks, I'll be curious to see if we can get some momentum back in that regard.

1 hour ago, casimir said:

He's limited on tools and I think he is being swept up into the SS FA frenzy because of the timing of his FA. 

You mention his OBP sucks and he Ks a lot but still has power.  What happens if he loses his power?  How much salary should a defense only SS get?

Or, what happens when his defense regresses and he becomes a middle infielder with power being his calling card?  What will his worth be then compared to his salary?  Does his bat play if//when he has to move from SS to 2B/3B?

I guess my point is I think he's a pretty incomplete player and I would imagine he is probably going to get a long term deal.  He just seems to risky to me.

We can debate how Baez stacks up to other shortstops in this free agent class, but to say he's limited on tools is pretty incorrect. 

Even with a step back defensively this year, he's still an average or better glove that I think bounces back to plus. He has easy plus power, plus speed, and an easy plus arm, all with tremendous game instincts. The hit tool can be an issue at times but he likely hits enough for the next 4-5 years for his speed and power to still be a factor.

He may be a step down from Correa/Seager, but let's not pretend he's not an impact player.

On 10/13/2021 at 2:47 PM, pfife said:

I reserve the right to change my mind later and haven't heard anything about this except for the words in that tweet, but in a way I can see it being ok.  I think it is common for journos to send subjects of their writing a manuscript and ask for comment.   Whether "ask for comment" = "additions, changes, tweaks" is definitely debatable.... but I guess I'm saying I can see a path where this isn't as sketchy as it looks.  Is it his way of saying "is this all factually correct?" 

I'm 99% sure Trump is given the opportunity to consume woodwards manuscripts and whatnot and asked for comment before they go out.   I think Michael Wolff said the same him his books too.  So maybe is similar to that but his word usage wasn't ideal?

Or it's sketch AF, obviously totally possible.

I've done that once....a minor league player (may or may not have been a service academy graduate) laid some shit bare when it came to treatment of soldiers in Iraq and the leadership they were receiving. It was all part of a discussion about why he left baseball to deploy to Iraq....I was factual, quoted him honestly, but also knew he had the potential to get in a bunch of trouble from the article. I asked him to review the article and give me his blessing because it was his ass on the line. He made one minor tweak to the article, actually making a two sentence sequence more critical of the situation and was adamant I publish the piece immediately.

5 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

Completely off topic from this but as a scout can you explain whats up with Mize's splitter? Like that graded as a 70 pitch when he was drafted now its non existent. How does something like that happen?

Any dozen things can happen there....he can lose feel for it, they can tweak an arm angle or body position in the delivery that inadvertently has a negative effect on that pitch, or even they could ask him to shelve it because of perceived negative health impacts....depending on org philosophy, they could simply push him in another direction.

34 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Micro the one thing I saw that went against what you're saying is that I read he actually has a curveball that is generating 51% swing and miss. So... is that just against lower levels but doesn't have enough spin to get the same results at higher minor league levels? Or is that an error in reporting (my apologies, I don't remember where I read that...)?

It's largely a function of low level guys can't hit even below average breaking balls.