2025 Detroit Tigers Magic Number Thread

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Tenacious D said:

We were spoiled and perhaps deluded with the first 100 games.  And it was fun. But this is a very young team and these guys are still developing. Whatever happens this season is a bonus. Next season is when we should push our chips in.  I’ll be disappointed if we don’t approach the roster creation that way this offseason.

This is a fair and defensible assessment.

[Motor City Sonics]

18 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

We were spoiled and perhaps deluded with the first 100 games.  And it was fun. But this is a very young team and these guys are still developing. Whatever happens this season is a bonus. Next season is when we should push our chips in.  I’ll be disappointed if we don’t approach the roster creation that way this offseason.

Well, the status of baseball after 2026 is going to make this a weird offseason.    A work stoppage/lockout/strike is all but guaranteed after 2026 and this one is going to be much nastier than 1981 or 1994.     There's so much uncertainty with  television contracts and streaming and salary cap/floor and two teams that really haven't solved anything yet.   I mean, have the actually started really building something in Vegas yet, or are they still moving dirt around.    Last I saw it looks like they are building something that could be converted into a parking garage or hotel.  Nothing looks like close to a baseball stadium yet.   And the Rays situation is a mess.    I mean, any mention of the words salary cap ends negotiations with the players, so I don't know where this is all going.   I'm pretty sure it means we won't get April or May baseball in 2027, at the least. 

 

 

[Tenacious D]

1 hour ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Well, the status of baseball after 2026 is going to make this a weird offseason.    A work stoppage/lockout/strike is all but guaranteed after 2026 and this one is going to be much nastier than 1981 or 1994.     There's so much uncertainty with  television contracts and streaming and salary cap/floor and two teams that really haven't solved anything yet.   I mean, have the actually started really building something in Vegas yet, or are they still moving dirt around.    Last I saw it looks like they are building something that could be converted into a parking garage or hotel.  Nothing looks like close to a baseball stadium yet.   And the Rays situation is a mess.    I mean, any mention of the words salary cap ends negotiations with the players, so I don't know where this is all going.   I'm pretty sure it means we won't get April or May baseball in 2027, at the least. 

 

 

More reason to go all-in for ‘26.

Regarding a possible work stoppage, baseball can’t afford to alienate any more fans.  It’s the Cracker Barrel of professional sports—an older, white audience that will eventually die off.  Pissing off any of their younger fans is very risky and irresponsible.

[chasfh]

10 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

More reason to go all-in for ‘26.

Regarding a possible work stoppage, baseball can’t afford to alienate any more fans.  It’s the Cracker Barrel of professional sports—an older, white audience that will eventually die off.  Pissing off any of their younger fans is very risky and irresponsible.

Open an MLB-branded book and get all the young superstars of the game to promote it and give prop betting tips. That’ll keep the youngs coming back.

Edited Monday at 01:14 PM by chasfh

[kdog]

I would almost guarantee they are not going 'all-in' on 2026. The entire ethos is about sustainability and long term success. What I want to see them do is make some baseball trades and improve their pitching depth.

[chasfh]

9 minutes ago, kdog said:

I would almost guarantee they are not going 'all-in' on 2026. The entire ethos is about sustainability and long term success. What I want to see them do is make some baseball trades and improve their pitching depth.

I also think this is correct. The old bust-then-boom-then-bust-again ethos is a relic of past administration. I suppose there's always a chance Harris gets canned and Ilitch hires another analytics-agnostic type, and then we can slide back into that pattern, but I sense that won't happen for numerous years. It's certainly not going to happen this winter even if we were to somehow against all odds cough up the division to the Royals and miss the playoffs entirely.

[chasfh]

[oblong]

A good opportunity to point out that if Bill Freehan were in the HOF he'd be far from the worst person to be in there. He'd not even be the worst Tiger in there.

 

 

[CMU97]

[Edman85]

If Cleveland does well in this week's series, that may put an end to any confusion resulting from Chaz's stubbornness to embrace the new rules. 😃

[Tiger337]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

A good opportunity to point out that if Bill Freehan were in the HOF he'd be far from the worst person to be in there. He'd not even be the worst Tiger in there.

 

 

George Kell might be the worst Tiger in the HoF.  

[romad1]

Looking good for our magic number to drop a bit tonight with Guardians up big.  

[oblong]

Would it go down since Cleveland then leap frogs them in the standings?  I legit don’t know and can’t figure it out now. 

[romad1]

Guardians pitcher working on a no-no? 

[lordstanley]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

Would it go down since Cleveland then leap frogs them in the standings?  I legit don’t know and can’t figure it out now. 

The magic number over Cleveland is 11 

The magic number over KC is now either 9 (when the league would recognize and the Tigers would celebrate) or 10 (Chas’ outright). 

So it’s 11 now. 

[oblong]

On 9/7/2025 at 5:24 PM, The Ronz said:

that is when I became aware of and started reading Mitch Albom. He wrote a column about it.  Then I discovered writers could be cool.  That was before the mustard.

[CMU97]

47 minutes ago, oblong said:

that is when I became aware of and started reading Mitch Albom. He wrote a column about it.  Then I discovered writers could be cool.  That was before the mustard.

This led me down the Jim Walewander rabbit hole this morning. If you have 30 minutes and want to hear everything you never wanted to know about Jim, listen to this podcast: https://www.suburbspod.com/2024/09/30/episode-1960-jim-walewander-punk-rock-ballplayer-part-1/.

He owns his own restaurant with his son now in Virginia. Very interesting guy.

[chasfh]

9 hours ago, lordstanley said:

The magic number over Cleveland is 11 

The magic number over KC is now either 9 (when the league would recognize and the Tigers would celebrate) or 10 (Chas’ outright). 

So it’s 11 now. 

The magic number to win the division outright is 11.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

that is when I became aware of and started reading Mitch Albom. He wrote a column about it.  Then I discovered writers could be cool.  That was before the mustard.

I used to like Mike Downey a lot, too.

[CMRivdogs]

2 hours ago, CMU97 said:

This led me down the Jim Walewander rabbit hole this morning. If you have 30 minutes and want to hear everything you never wanted to know about Jim, listen to this podcast: https://www.suburbspod.com/2024/09/30/episode-1960-jim-walewander-punk-rock-ballplayer-part-1/.

He owns his own restaurant with his son now in Virginia. Very interesting guy.

This lead me down another rabbit hole this morning. Those alumn who have been around here a while may remember William Speelman, aka Eastside Billie. Evidently his band recorded a song called  Jim Walewander Blues that received a bit of airplay. Especially in Lakeland during Spring Training

[Biff Mayhem]

4 hours ago, oblong said:

 That was before the mustard.

One of my all-time favorite contributions to this community. Thanks for the reset. It put a smile on my face 

[romad1]

So, tonight we want KC to beat the Cleves.  And for Detroit to win.  

[oblong]

Tonight we want KC to win because Cleveland’s elimination number would drop to 10 with a loss.  

[Edman85]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

So, tonight we want KC to beat the Cleves.  And for Detroit to win.  

Yeah, we want the Royals. This has nothing to do with current standings and everything to do with remaining games. The team with six games left against the Tigers has more chances to catch up than the one who has none.

[lordstanley]

If the Guardians win tonight and tomorrow and the Tigers lose tonight and tomorrow, the Guardians will control their own destiny with respect to the division title.