2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

IDK about that. Outside of Stavenhagen and Jason Beck I'm hard pressed to think of any Det baseball writer that hasn't doesn't get savaged here. Back in the day I think Tom Kowalski was pretty widely liked, but that's been about it.

I get a kick out of Beck because he's been around for three decades and still looks like he's in college.  It's amazing how long he's been around without pissing people off too.  He doesn't really do anything except calmly confirm any important Tigers news.  When he talks, you know it's true.  

Edited Friday at 03:15 PM by Tiger337

[Edman85]

The one I've gone after most is Sakowski, because he straight up got caught red-handed plagiarizing Tigstown and faced zero consequences and was granted legitimacy by legit outlets.

[IdahoBert]

Beck is steady and reliable. I hope whomever pays him treats him well. I don’t know if it’s the Tigers or MLB or what. 

[Edman85]

21 hours ago, kdog said:

Maybe real baseball trades don't exist any longer? The only one I've seen this offseason is Semien for Nimmo..which was each team offloading a bad contract.

You spoke some trades into existence...

[Stormin]

20 hours ago, Longgone said:

Like everything in life, it depends. You trade if you get back more organizational value/fit than you give up. Myself, I would lean more towards accumulating young, ascending players, and less on older, descending ones. I also admire a GM who has the patience and discipline to wait for players on which he has full conviction, and not panic and settle for what's available to address immediate perceived needs.

Peak trade value for a prospect seems to often be right before they are put on an active MLB roster.  If a highly rated prospect does struggle initially, the team is almost obligated to keep him on the 40 man roster for a while and try and let him figure is out because the trade value drops substantially (Jace Jung,  Coby Mayo, ..).

Edited Friday at 06:18 PM by Stormin

[Stormin]

1 hour ago, IdahoBert said:

Beck is steady and reliable. I hope whomever pays him treats him well. I don’t know if it’s the Tigers or MLB or what. 

Agree on Beck.   He is good.

Reporters I can't stand are the ones in the business of creating news as opposed to reporting news.  Classic Example: Buster Olney makes a comment that negotiations between Bregman and Tigers may have become "Nasty" because Harris (and Hinch) said the Tigers can win without Bregman.   Several other reporters pick this up and say the Tigers will struggle to sign Skubal because he is also a Boras client.   No first hand sources, no insider information, just reporters reporting on the opinions of other reporters.   A certain Detroit Free Press writer comes to mind ...

[oblong]

She's not a good writer.  She uses too many words just to make a word count.  Redundancy.  And will throw in random stats that don't really have meaning or sense.  "Second consecutive day of drawing a 3 ball count twice before the 6th inning"  "Had 3 Runs Batted In for the third time in the last 9 games"

She plays the influencer game where she over tags people and topics to draw clicks.  

I applaud her for following her dream and passion but being critical of her work is fair game. We've ripped tons of the Tigers twitter folks here over the years.  We don't have to be extra nice to her just because she's a girl.  She gets paid for some of her work and has asked for donations to support it.

[oblong]

I put very little stock in what reporters do now because the marketing and structure of the game has changed so much.  The leagues have their own media now.  The players are well paid and are walking corporations. They do not need the media to promote their business like they did before.  We don't need to pick up a copy of the News to find out when the Tigers are going to be on TV next or to check the box score from last night.  It's not just the manager, a few coaches, and the GM running things.  There's a dozen coaches, dozens of front office staff, a POBO, a GM, Assistant GM's, etc. etc.  Nobody's going to risk their career to help Chris McCosky with a scoop.   We don't need them to tell us what happened or what's going to happen and the players and orgs don't need them to promote themselves or do their jobs. 

Their job now is to tell us who got married.  We might get some interesting, but yet boring and uncontroversial, info if anyone shows up on Benetti and Dan's podcast.  But they're all Tiger employees so they don't want to hurt the brand.

Gone are the days of whispers at the Lindell AC and knowing about Rozema and Gibby's shenanigans with the trapeze sisters. 

[Edman85]

I mean Baz has three years of control so this isn't a full comparison, but wow if that is the package he netted, I'm not sure any team has what Skubal could command.

[RatkoVarda]

22 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

I mean Baz has three years of control so this isn't a full comparison, but wow if that is the package he netted, I'm not sure any team has what Skubal could command.

it is basically one 1st round pick, two 2nd round picks, one 3rd round pick, and a late round flyer

for 3 years of a mid-rotation dude.

[ewsieg]

2 hours ago, Stormin said:

Agree on Beck.   He is good.

Reporters I can't stand are the ones in the business of creating news as opposed to reporting news.  Classic Example: Buster Olney makes a comment that negotiations between Bregman and Tigers may have become "Nasty" because Harris (and Hinch) said the Tigers can win without Bregman.   Several other reporters pick this up and say the Tigers will struggle to sign Skubal because he is also a Boras client.   No first hand sources, no insider information, just reporters reporting on the opinions of other reporters.   A certain Detroit Free Press writer comes to mind ...

A quick google search today to see if there was any talk on Bregman and I saw this too from multiple websites which I wouldn't have generally considered spam, at least at one time.  Then read that Harris quote, mind you he said it soon after it was widely reported that the Tigers almost signed him, so all he's saying is he believed in this team prior to the season.  Oh the horror!  Like you say, someone determined that was an insult to Bregman and now there is no chance the Tigers will be in on him and it'll likely affect Skubal as well and they all run with it. SMH.

[Shelton]

Our beat writers and bloggers might be the worst in the majors. I can’t think of a single one that is even remotely good. 
 

For the record, Stavenhagen sucks as much as the rest. He’s just so damn vanilla it’s hard to muster up sufficient vitriol for it to register. 
 

Petzold may have exceeded McCosky in my hack index. Probably because he continued to associate with sportz for as long as he did, and now he’s a callow facsimile of his mentor. 

[SoCalTiger]

3 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

it is basically one 1st round pick, two 2nd round picks, one 3rd round pick, and a late round flyer

for 3 years of a mid-rotation dude.

Yes I was surprised Elias made that trade after refusing to trade prospects  when he had Burnes and the Orioles were having a hot season. Perhaps pressure from the new owner. Maybe Harris will also have a change of heart. 

[romad1]

2 hours ago, Shelton said:

Our beat writers and bloggers might be the worst in the majors. I can’t think of a single one that is even remotely good. 
 

For the record, Stavenhagen sucks as much as the rest. He’s just so damn vanilla it’s hard to muster up sufficient vitriol for it to register. 
 

Petzold may have exceeded McCosky in my hack index. Probably because he continued to associate with sportz for as long as he did, and now he’s a callow facsimile of his mentor. 

I don't have a problem with the Tiger beat writers.  I have a problem with Carlos Monnarez having a paying job. 

[holygoat]

13 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I would argue that a lot of people are nice to Waldon because she's a woman which makes some posters push back.  They rail on Lynn Henning and Chris McCosky (Hackosky) all the time.  There is a whole thread here dedicated to making fun of McCosky.  Jerry Green was another one.  

Yeah, Waldon has a long way to go to reach the level of vitriol targeted at Henning and Hackosky from this board. Sometimes women are bad at their jobs just like men are.

[Shinzaki]

My problem with Waldon is her lack of objectivity...comes off as more of a fan than an observer.  I also question her status as a minor league baseball writer when she offers little in the way of analysis of player development.

Seems like a pleasant enough person though

[Tiger337]

9 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

My problem with Waldon is her lack of objectivity...comes off as more of a fan than an observer.  I also question her status as a minor league baseball writer when she offers little in the way of analysis of player development.

Seems like a pleasant enough person though

Right, if she was a random blogger, there would be no problem.  Baseball America giving a job to someone with no qualifications just seems odd to me.  I had a subscription to BA for a long time, but dropped it when she became the Tigers minor league writer.  I am not going to pay for that when I can get better analysis for free.  

[oblong]

That’s the conundrum of sports journalism. So many people are doing the analysis for fun, like what we see here.  I personally don’t feel the need to pay for anything unless I was in some kind of fantasy league or gambled.  If paying gave me access to data that I used, then sure.  But that is what I have all of you for.   

[romad1]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

That’s the conundrum of sports journalism. So many people are doing the analysis for fun, like what we see here.  I personally don’t feel the need to pay for anything unless I was in some kind of fantasy league or gambled.  If paying gave me access to data that I used, then sure.  But that is what I have all of you for.   

The Harlan Ellison video where he's bitching about all the amateurs ruining the writing profession is amusing about this. 

[Tenacious D]

[papalawrence]

Skubal throwing t-shirts at MSU game today. 8/350. Get it done

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CjgP72TM1/

[Tiger337]

31 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

Skubal throwing t-shirts at MSU game today. 8/350. Get it done

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CjgP72TM1/

Hope he doesn't hurt himself throwing tee shirts.  

Edited 18 hours ago by Tiger337

[Tigermojo]

Keep him away from the wings game.

[casimir]

5 hours ago, oblong said:

That’s the conundrum of sports journalism. So many people are doing the analysis for fun, like what we see here.  I personally don’t feel the need to pay for anything unless I was in some kind of fantasy league or gambled.  If paying gave me access to data that I used, then sure.  But that is what I have all of you for.   

We’re cheap entertainment?  I guess there’s a compliment in there somewheres.  😆

[casimir]

22 hours ago, Shelton said:

For the record, Stavenhagen sucks as much as the rest. He’s just so damn vanilla it’s hard to muster up sufficient vitriol for it to register. 

I think I’d like to hear Stavenhagen and Chris Brown talking Tigers.  I feel like both are pretty knowledgeable, Stavenhagen has a bit more of an official link with the Tigers while Brown just seems to have a pretty good grip of things from a fan standpoint.