2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[theroundsquare]

3 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

If I remember right, the Astros trade that netted Jones and Brocail was a win. I am trying to remember if that is the one that cost Lima, thought.

It was.  Lima Time was one of my undergraduate-self's favorites

[Tiger337]

19 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

If I remember right, the Astros trade that netted Jones and Brocail was a win. I am trying to remember if that is the one that cost Lima, thought.

December 10, 1996. The Houston Astros traded Doug Brocail, Brian Hunter, Todd Jones, Orlando Miller and cash to the Detroit Tigers for Brad Ausmus, José Lima, Trever Miller, C.J. Nitkowski and Daryle Ward.

[monkeytargets39]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Why not both?  

Was that an option?

[monkeytargets39]

Frank Catalonotto > Juan Gonzalez

[Tiger337]

15 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Was that an option?

It's always an option!

[chasfh]

3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

One of my least favorite Tigers ever.  

Practically from the moment they announced the trade. The haul we gave up for him ...

Got a couple good years out of Dany Patterson, though. But Gregg Zaun was flipped over to the Royals before he stepped onto the field for us and had a pretty good run with the Jays we could have used. (Although that would have precluded signing Ivan.)

I remember being especially hopping mad to let Catalanotto go, and he did have a fairly decent career after that, but Francisco Cordero was the real kick in the balls from that trade.

 

[Screwball]

Hearing the name Juan Gonzalez ruined my night. He drove me nuts (short trip) more than any baseball player who ever walked the planet.

[casimir]

12 hours ago, Shades of Deivi Cruz said:

We both know this isn't true. That's Cory Snyder.

D’oh!  How could I forget Cory Snyder?

[casimir]

1 hour ago, Screwball said:

Hearing the name Juan Gonzalez ruined my night. He drove me nuts (short trip) more than any baseball player who ever walked the planet.

Fortunately he turned down the 8 year extension offer.

[Screwball]

6 minutes ago, casimir said:

Fortunately he turned down the 8 year extension offer.

OMG that guy just killed me. I remember the neighbors telling me they heard me two door down. It was because of him. Nuts.

Since I'm here, I have a question for you. I think you are from around the Toledo area. Do you remember, way long ago, and you might not be old enough, a baseball team in Toledo Toledo Merchants? They played in a league with teams from NW Ohio. Sandusky, Mansfield, Mt. Gilead, Tiffin, and others. I want to say it was called the Federation league but I don't remember. I can't find anything by searching either.

[casimir]

1 minute ago, Screwball said:

OMG that guy just killed me. I remember the neighbors telling me they heard me two door down. It was because of him. Nuts.

Since I'm here, I have a question for you. I think you are from around the Toledo area. Do you remember, way long ago, and you might not be old enough, a baseball team in Toledo Toledo Merchants? They played in a league with teams from NW Ohio. Sandusky, Mansfield, Mt. Gilead, Tiffin, and others. I want to say it was called the Federation league but I don't remember. I can't find anything by searching either.

I think so.  I think there was a summer league for high school ball players by that Fed League moniker.  I know I saw those line scores in The Blade.  This was probably mid 80s that I remember.

[Screwball]

5 minutes ago, casimir said:

I think so.  I think there was a summer league for high school ball players by that Fed League moniker.  I know I saw those line scores in The Blade.  This was probably mid 80s that I remember.

Incredible - thanks. It would have been (what I remember) mid-seventies on. I remember delivering the Toledo Blade on Sunday. When I was done, the first thing I would do is read the sports page. In the stat section you could see the MLB stats right along side of the the Federation league stats, if that's what it was called. I remember the guys who I knew were in there. I don't remember about the International league then, though. I think they had a team in Toledo back then? Swayne Field?

These teams traveled around the ball yards in their own cars. Probably a 50 game schedule. They called them semi-pro teams. Little ball yard in the middle of nowhere has a few hundred fans because these guys were pretty good.

There were also high school traveling teams then too. Around here they called them legion teams because the American Legion sponsored a bunch of traveling teams, or helped. The good old days.

[Tiger337]

18 minutes ago, Screwball said:

OMG that guy just killed me. I remember the neighbors telling me they heard me two door down. It was because of him. Nuts.

Since I'm here, I have a question for you. I think you are from around the Toledo area. Do you remember, way long ago, and you might not be old enough, a baseball team in Toledo Toledo Merchants? They played in a league with teams from NW Ohio. Sandusky, Mansfield, Mt. Gilead, Tiffin, and others. I want to say it was called the Federation league but I don't remember. I can't find anything by searching either.

If you go to newspapers.com, they've got a bunch of articles from that league.  It looks like it was around for a long time - 60s through early 90s?  If you want to go down memory lane, you could get a free trial.  I had a subscrition for newspapers.com a few years ago when i was writing a little about Tigers history.  It's a fun site.

[Screwball]

22 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

If you go to newspapers.com, they've got a bunch of articles from that league.  It looks like it was around for a long time - 60s through early 90s?  If you want to go down memory lane, you could get a free trial.  I had a subscrition for newspapers.com a few years ago when i was writing a little about Tigers history.  It's a fun site.

Thanks.

I would love to find more about that era. There was some really good baseball back then. Some of the guys who played in that league were on their way up, or down. They traveled all over the area in their own cars to play a couple or three night games a week after work, and a doubleheader or two on the weekend.

Back then fast pitch softball was big too. I never understood that. From the distance they pitch, the reaction time isn't much different - milliseconds. But the balls didn't hurt as much.

Edited October 23 by Screwball

[casimir]

9 hours ago, Screwball said:

Incredible - thanks. It would have been (what I remember) mid-seventies on. I remember delivering the Toledo Blade on Sunday. When I was done, the first thing I would do is read the sports page. In the stat section you could see the MLB stats right along side of the the Federation league stats, if that's what it was called. I remember the guys who I knew were in there. I don't remember about the International league then, though. I think they had a team in Toledo back then? Swayne Field?

These teams traveled around the ball yards in their own cars. Probably a 50 game schedule. They called them semi-pro teams. Little ball yard in the middle of nowhere has a few hundred fans because these guys were pretty good.

There were also high school traveling teams then too. Around here they called them legion teams because the American Legion sponsored a bunch of traveling teams, or helped. The good old days.

I might be remembering the American Legion line scores.  I'm a baseball and numbers nerd, so I was like a moth to a light with those in the Sunday Blade.  I know I remember the quirk where there were doubleheaders and teams would alternate home/road for the two games.

[chasfh]

11 hours ago, Screwball said:

Incredible - thanks. It would have been (what I remember) mid-seventies on. I remember delivering the Toledo Blade on Sunday. When I was done, the first thing I would do is read the sports page. In the stat section you could see the MLB stats right along side of the the Federation league stats, if that's what it was called. I remember the guys who I knew were in there. I don't remember about the International league then, though. I think they had a team in Toledo back then? Swayne Field?

These teams traveled around the ball yards in their own cars. Probably a 50 game schedule. They called them semi-pro teams. Little ball yard in the middle of nowhere has a few hundred fans because these guys were pretty good.

There were also high school traveling teams then too. Around here they called them legion teams because the American Legion sponsored a bunch of traveling teams, or helped. The good old days.

If I could hop in a Time Machine and go back to experience life for a little while, one of the things I would do is see a town league game from the 1900s or 10s or 20s. There were literally thousands of them littering the American landscape, and every burg of over 500 people definitely had at least one team representing their town in a league spanning a couple or three counties. I think most of them were semipro, players making a two or three bucks a game. Maybe teams hire a ringer from a competing town and pay him five bucks to help them win the league. The quality was probably at least the equivalent of D league ball, but it was probably the best quality ball the vast majority of the country had available to it, and towns celebrated these teams and the players who played on it. They would look forward to the new season all winter, talk about the local league around the hot stove, and tell stories (and tall tales) for decades about the men who played for their towns.

It all seems very romantic to me.

[Screwball]

3 hours ago, casimir said:

I might be remembering the American Legion line scores.  I'm a baseball and numbers nerd, so I was like a moth to a light with those in the Sunday Blade.  I know I remember the quirk where there were doubleheaders and teams would alternate home/road for the two games.

 

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

If I could hop in a Time Machine and go back to experience life for a little while, one of the things I would do is see a town league game from the 1900s or 10s or 20s. There were literally thousands of them littering the American landscape, and every burg of over 500 people definitely had at least one team representing their town in a league spanning a couple or three counties. I think most of them were semipro, players making a two or three bucks a game. Maybe teams hire a ringer from a competing town and pay him five bucks to help them win the league. The quality was probably at least the equivalent of D league ball, but it was probably the best quality ball the vast majority of the country had available to it, and towns celebrated these teams and the players who played on it. They would look forward to the new season all winter, talk about the local league around the hot stove, and tell stories (and tall tales) for decades about the men who played for their towns.

It all seems very romantic to me.

I'm going on old memory so I don't know how accurate my years are (close). I'm also going to date myself.

Like I said, I don't remember the name of the league but I thought it was the Federation league but I could be wrong. Our little town of around 20k had a team in that league. They played other teams from Ohio; Mansfield, Toledo, Sandusky, Mt. Vernon, and a few more I can't remember. They later named a field in town after the coach. He had a direct connection to the Cleveland Indians. One of their pitchers played in the Indian's farm system. Another was in the Pirates system. They came from all over the area to play in this league.

They drove their own cars to the games. I remember the league from the late 60s to the mid to late 70s when they went away, so it lasted quite a few years. There were a couple of coaches over the years but it finally went away. I don't remember when. Today, as sad as it may be, the field they played on isn't even there anymore. At one time there were probably 250-300 people watching the games on a given night. There was also a 16-18 year old league that played there, so the field had something going almost every night.

These guys in the Fed league were all out of high school except for a very few of the best high school guys around. Most of the good high school guys played on a traveling team, many times sponsored by the American Legion. That was popular around the area at the time.

[CaliforniaDreaming]

Andrew Graham out as manager of Erie. 🤷‍♂️

[casimir]

7 hours ago, Screwball said:

 

I'm going on old memory so I don't know how accurate my years are (close). I'm also going to date myself.

Like I said, I don't remember the name of the league but I thought it was the Federation league but I could be wrong. Our little town of around 20k had a team in that league. They played other teams from Ohio; Mansfield, Toledo, Sandusky, Mt. Vernon, and a few more I can't remember. They later named a field in town after the coach. He had a direct connection to the Cleveland Indians. One of their pitchers played in the Indian's farm system. Another was in the Pirates system. They came from all over the area to play in this league.

They drove their own cars to the games. I remember the league from the late 60s to the mid to late 70s when they went away, so it lasted quite a few years. There were a couple of coaches over the years but it finally went away. I don't remember when. Today, as sad as it may be, the field they played on isn't even there anymore. At one time there were probably 250-300 people watching the games on a given night. There was also a 16-18 year old league that played there, so the field had something going almost every night.

These guys in the Fed league were all out of high school except for a very few of the best high school guys around. Most of the good high school guys played on a traveling team, many times sponsored by the American Legion. That was popular around the area at the time.

Pretty sure whatever league I was thinking of had a combo of high school teams and sponsored teams.  So, you'd a see a line score of Whitmer HS vs Toledo Merchants.  And pretty sure that those kind of line scores were only in the summer.

[Screwball]

59 minutes ago, casimir said:

Pretty sure whatever league I was thinking of had a combo of high school teams and sponsored teams.  So, you'd a see a line score of Whitmer HS vs Toledo Merchants.  And pretty sure that those kind of line scores were only in the summer.

Circa 1987 I got a job in Toledo for Spicer Transmission on Bennet Rd. One of the guys who worked there played in the league and Toledo. Lost contact after all these years. He would remember. He played for Toledo. That was pretty cool.

Things were so much different back then.

[Tenacious D]

5 hours ago, CaliforniaDreaming said:

Andrew Graham out as manager of Erie. 🤷‍♂️

Too much winning.

[Tenacious D]

[chasfh]

We’ve got so many guys on the verge of coming up that it’s hard for me to imagine Harris taking a big swing at any of these guys. Especially true on the infield, but even in the outfield we have Max on the verge, Riley there for sure, and I don’t know whether they’ll want to cut bait on Parker just yet. But maybe they will.

I know lots of fans are eager for Scott Harris to prove his big boy bona fides by trading away top prospects for top controllable big leaguers, but I don’t know if that’s going to involve position players. If anything I could see trading Thayron and change for a solid starter who’s controllable for a couple years. Still, even if we were to do that, if we don’t sign a guy off that list, I think a lot of fans will regard the winter as an abject failure.

Edited October 24 by chasfh

[Edman85]

I don't know that trading Thayron is a good idea right now after his play absolutely plummeted down the stretch. His bat fell off the map, and he became so unplayable down the stretch he was DH only. I am not even sure he is worth protecting on the 40 man.

[Tenacious D]

1 hour ago, Edman85 said:

I don't know that trading Thayron is a good idea right now after his play absolutely plummeted down the stretch. His bat fell off the map, and he became so unplayable down the stretch he was DH only. I am not even sure he is worth protecting on the 40 man.

Hope we don’t surrender him, but agree we would be selling low.