Will Tigers Pony up for Skubal

[RedTeamGo!]

19 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Sure, I said it in a flip way to be entertaining, and of course soccer is a sport that requires great skill to play at the highest level. I would never say otherwise. At the same time, a sport in which several players with multiple teenage years remaining can play in the very top league in the world can’t be as challenging to master at the very top level as, for example, baseball. Most of the guys who are athletically gifted enough to play big league baseball even in their early 20s are considered to be too inexperienced to play at the top level, requiring additional seasoning to master the sport so they can play at that top level.

Honestly, I think baseball certainly takes a lot of skill and practice but all the great hitters have one thing in common - extremely freakish perfect eyesight. One could be just as flippant about baseball and say "I mean, Ty Cobb had freakish eyesight, whoopdy do"

[gehringer_2]

4 minutes ago, RedTeamGo! said:

Honestly, I think baseball certainly takes a lot of skill and practice but all the great hitters have one thing in common - extremely freakish perfect eyesight. One could be just as flippant about baseball and say "I mean, Ty Cobb had freakish eyesight, whoopdy do"

I'd add you have to have the reflex speed to go with it, but I agree that hitting is a genetic gift. You can do things to augment it if you have it, but if you don't it's been proven that you can be Michael Jordan and it still won't get you to the majors.

Edited 2 hours ago by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

5 minutes ago, RedTeamGo! said:

Honestly, I think baseball certainly takes a lot of skill and practice but all the great hitters have one thing in common - extremely freakish perfect eyesight. One could be just as flippant about baseball and say "I mean, Ty Cobb had freakish eyesight, whoopdy do"

Except Ty Cobb also had to learn the requisite skills to be able to hit the best pitching in the world to the level that he did. It was more than eyesight. I had 20-15 eyesight once. I couldn’t catch up to a decent fastball to save my life.

OK, Ty Cobb is a bad example for me to defend. He started playing at age 18 in the early 1900s; there was no coached developmental path for the guys who played it; the game was not mature enough to filter all the best athletes who could have been pro baseball players toward it; it was not yet a truly national sport in terms of drawing talent; and large swaths of American were prevented by custom from playing it at the highest level. I’ll update my defense of the eyesight thing to Mike Trout. 

[Sports_Freak]

On 1/26/2026 at 8:23 PM, Edman85 said:

Also, the $60M a year numbers are a bit inflated. The deferrals in some of these deals really drop the NPV of them significantly. The league has Tucker (4/240) at something like $57M factoring in deferrals. Ohtani's is on the order of $47M despite the (10/700) price tag.

I do anticipate Skubal getting nominally 50+ AAV. Deferrals would depend on jock taxes in the locale he signs. It does seem like teams are using signing bonus to get around player income taxes as well.

Not only that, but it can't be said that players are making $60 million a year. Its a couple of guys making that big of a contract, other players have to live on $20 million a year or so ..🤣🤣

[Sports_Freak]

12 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Except Ty Cobb also had to learn the requisite skills to be able to hit the best pitching in the world to the level that he did. It was more than eyesight. I had 20-15 eyesight once. I couldn’t catch up to a decent fastball to save my life.

OK, Ty Cobb is a bad example for me to defend. He started playing at age 18 in the early 1900s; there was no coached developmental path for the guys who played it; the game was not mature enough to filter all the best athletes who could have been pro baseball players toward it; it was not yet a truly national sport in terms of drawing talent; and large swaths of American were prevented by custom from playing it at the highest level. I’ll update my defense of the eyesight thing to Mike Trout. 

I would say it's not just good eyesight but also hand-eye coordination and lightning fast reflexes. Now umpires? They ALL need glasses...😅😅

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Not only that, but it can't be said that players are making $60 million a year. Its a couple of guys making that big of a contract, other players have to live on $20 million a year or so ..🤣🤣

The interwebs just informed my that in any given year up to 60% of MLB rosters are at the MLB minimum salary of ~$825K

[Sports_Freak]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

The interwebs just informed my that in any given year up to 60% of MLB rosters are at the MLB minimum salary of ~$825K

And All Star games are full of the younger players who are still under team control and not making big huge dollars. Even though many of us consider $825 a year as...kinda rich. But yes, I realize these guys have a short shelf life...40 year old are mostly washed up. 

[Tiger337]

35 minutes ago, RedTeamGo! said:

Honestly, I think baseball certainly takes a lot of skill and practice but all the great hitters have one thing in common - extremely freakish perfect eyesight. One could be just as flippant about baseball and say "I mean, Ty Cobb had freakish eyesight, whoopdy do"

I wouldn't say that to Ty Cobb.