I believe we may be entering a new dark era for Detroit pro sports. Unless you wanna put your heart into the Lions like a god damn fool :cry: Atleast we be Harballin'.
That Ilitch asked Avila on Saturday and Dombrowski was apparently blindsided makes this seem like a knee-jerk shithead reaction to the record and farm system. A dick move against a respected executive who led a very successful stretch of baseball.
When 2015 ends without a parade it will be the longest such stretch since before '84. 8 championships in 25 years from '84 to '08. Unless the Wings get hot in the playoffs and shock, it will probably last a while.
Ya, he's been here 13 years and took us to 2 world series and the ALCS 4 times. We set the record for most losses in a single season in 2003 and he then took us out of the cellar, then you blind side fire the guy because everything isn't roses anymore. Sorry Illitch but you can't just hand out huge contract after huge contract, trade the farm away and expect to compete year in year out. not very cool imo
The Wings could possibly pull it off before Dats, Z and Kronner leave, also depending on how much of an impact Mike Green makes...but don't hold your breath on that one.
I'm really confused by all this. I'm not surprised that Avila is the new guy (it would have been really shitty of us if he wasn't, because we've blocked him from interviewing at several places), but I don't get why they'd basically decide they don't want Dave anymore to hire him without a search. Isn't hiring Avila based entirely on his time with Dombrowski? What, exactly, is going to change if this has anything to do with performance? I have to think this is because Illitch didn't think Dombrowski was coming back and just wanted to pull the plug now, as DeToxRox has said. Tony Paul also says he thinks Ausmus will be out because he was Dombrowski's guy. Can't wait for us to be back on the "anyone but Lloyd McLendon" watch in the offseason after he gets canned by Seattle.
In a sense we're probably going to see a lot of changes, but it'll be because Dave takes guys like Chadd with him to wherever he goes. In that sense Avila is probably going to have quite a different team around him. I also expect us to go with a Latin American manager this time around. In fact I'd be stunned if we don't hire Manny Acta.
His comments after the trade were pretty cool, seems like a good kid. I'm paraphrasing but it was something like "when I was drafted my goal was to help the Mets in any way I can, I'm happy they got the outfielder they needed." Hope he turns into a stud for the Tigers
Solid work by Morosi, who tweeted this am that Mike Smith would have an elevated role as the stats guy in the new FO. Lynn Henning then tweeted that Smith had resigned last week for a job outside of baseball. Cliffs: Morosi got scooped by Lynn Fucking Henning.
Well, Henning is a local guy and basically spends all of his time reporting on the Tigers and retweeting things about politics. So, it's not that bad. Morosi should have checked on that one before he wrote it though. However, as long as Morosi's sentiment is correct (that analytics will play a larger role in the new FO), then that seems like good news. Avila is an old school scouting guy though, so we'll see.
If we're not using more analytics we're almost assuredly getting a lesser version of Dave's organization. I wonder if real info will leak as to what happened.
Would have liked to see some more K's and fewer fly ball outs, but really impressive outing. Seemed to have some good command, but struggled at times with location.
The flyball outs are fine. Flyball lefties are actually more likely to beat their FIP than any other non-knuckleball profile (because they can control the run game and suppress their BABIP). Coupled with Comerica, that should be a solid combo. Like you said though, the K's need to be there too. His history suggests that they should come. I'd like to see him keep his velo deeper into the start too. He started out hitting 94 pretty regularly (which is great news), but was sitting in the low 90's/upper 80's after like the 4th inning.
Yeah, unless the curve or changeup develops into a swing and miss pitch, he has 4th starter upside. But he could be a solid, inexpensive 5th starter or a good trade piece.
I missed the 3rd, but by the second inning he was already down to 91. I got excited when he was throwing 94 in the 1st.
I only heard a couple of innings, but they suggested that he was overthrowing at 94, and losing his movement. FWIW.
Yea kind of odd people predicting his future off of one start... David Price only start against KC this year, he only struck out one. It was a nice first start but I am not making any crazy reactions one way or other off of one start
According to Dombrowski, there were no talks about an extension at any point this season. Makes me think they were just ready to move on, which is still very weird.
The performance is in line with the scouting reports I've seen, though. HR are very likely to be a problem, but hopefully he can be good enough in other areas to make up for it. We'll see. He's probably not a long term answer, but maybe he can be a stop gap until he potentially finds something as a reliever down the road. As the #2 piece behind a potential #2 or 3 starter for a rental at the deadline, that's just fine.
So our top 10 prospects consist of 5 guys traded for at the deadline and 2 guys we just drafted...man our system was awful going into the year
And that, more than anything else, is why they were sellers at the deadline. If they had anything to trade that other teams might have wanted, they would have gone out, acquired multiple pitchers and tried to make a run.
It is based more on scouting reports than one start, and the idea that maintaining the velocity he had early could help him break the glass on the ceiling the scouts have placed on him.
I think Mark Anderson undersells guys a bit. Which is fine, because most prospects don't end up meeting their potential, but if "things come together" for Daniel Norris he's a potential 1 or quality 2, not a potential "quality third starter." JaCoby Jones definitely profiles as a uitility player, but the pop in his bat is why he might be more than that.
I kinda thought Norris had ace/#2 potential ... would that only be the case if he regained his FB velo in the 95/96 range? Any rumors out there on why he's dipped a bit?
He had his elbow scoped last winter, so maybe that's it. He said he was going through a dead arm period early in the year and his velo is fine, but he was definitely in the 92 range last Sunday.
Avila says Ilitch told him the pedal is still pushed "hard." With that in mind, OF options in free agency seem to be: Tier 1: Jason Heyward Yoenis Cespedes Tier 2: Justin Upton Tier 3: guys like Gerrardo Parra, Colby Rasmus, Dexter Fowler, etc. Boras is going to hold Upton until somebody overpays him, so Heyward and Yoenis are really the only two good options. Parra is probably getting a decent payday after this season, everybody else kinda sucks. Steven Moya shitting the bed this year wasn't good for us.
He definitely does. He's the guy who writes that someone is going to be a #3, and then says "that's really good" when fans complain to him that he's underselling them. I think he undersells the ceiling of Norris a bit, but I think he just tries to be really scout-y in the way he writes and it defaults to conservative projections. Since he's generally very consistent with that style, it's fine as long as you get that.
Are we strictly thinking a corner OF, or a guy that can play center too when we play lefties? Let Collins take over LF, find a guy that can platoon a bit for Gose?
I am NOT ready for Collins to be a regular, or even a platoon player. He's a terrible leftfielder and Comerica's LF requires somebody pretty good out there.
Well, he can't hit lefties either, so I guess he wouldn't be playing if we sat Gose down anyways. I think he's been good enough to warrant a bench spot though .... Get Yoenis back would be my #1 preference. Love that Cubano
Tier 1 Jason Heyward Tier 2 noboody Tier 3 Denard Span and Cespedes - if they're not overpriced on the open market, and if Span doesn't cost a #1 pick Tier 4 Dexter Fowler - again, if he's cheap I'm honestly not sure they could give Heyward a contract I would be upset about. Anyone but him just seems like a likely waste of resources at a time where we need to be smart about every dollar we're spending.
MG2 Cespedes is out WARing Heyward by almost a full win this year, you're not allowed to put him in tier 1 and Cespy tier 3 ...
Heyward is at least 4 years younger and this is Yoenis's career best year by a wide margin - Heyward is easily going to top Yoenis's previous career-best WAR of 3.3 for the 5th time in his 6 seasons - so I can see it. But I'd be more comfortable dropping Yoenis into a second tier behind Heyward than a 3rd.
If Brad sends Anibal back out there at 98 pitches after he's worked extremely hard to get through 6 innings, I might head over to Comerica and murder him.
I just want no part of Cespedes for the money he's looking for. Paying someone with his (lack of) OBP skills $100+ million over 5+ years on a deal starting at age 30 is not something I'm down with. We could give Heyward 10/$200m and I would be happy about it. We could give Cespedes 5/$100m and I would be disappointed. Essentially, my point was that Heyward is the only hitter on the market I have any interest in signing for big money this offseason. In pretty much every other case, I'd rather they spent that money on pitching (or saved it for some flexibility moving forward).
Ausmus can lick my ass. Cost Sanchez the QS by putting him in to pitch the 7th after eclipsing 100 pitches in the 6th. Gave up a HR and pulled him immediately. What a twat