We signed Neftali Feliz, who was cut by Texas last week. 5 years ago, this would have been pretty exciting.
Dombrowski talked today. Said he's "not particularly pleased," but haven't seen a quote suggesting anything about dealing some of the vets. Also, it came out this weekend that he's in the last year of his deal and it doesn't sound like extension talks have happened to this point. Seems like Avila would take over as GM if he left (would be pretty shitty on our part if he didn't, considering we've blocked him from interviewing at a lot of different places). Would seem a potentially lame duck GM with this team over the next 3 weeks might not be a great idea, though.
I'm ready for DD to go out in a blaze of glory and trade everything we got for a starter/reliever. Fuck it, the next few years will be rough regardless ...
This week could not have gone any better for those that are team fire sale. 9 back, and 4 back of Wild Card.
What do you think the chances of a fire sale actually are? And, if you're on "team fire sale," who do you think they are going to move and how long do you think it's going to take for them to come back from this? I get wanting to sell instead of buy, because buying is likely pointless at this stage, but wanting a fire sale over competing for a playoff spot is a pretty stupid thought process.
Probably less than 50%. Dombrowski is a lame duck, so who knows what direction they go. And hoping for a Wild Card spot is not a good idea. tigers currently have 16% chance of making playoffs. They can accelerate the rebuild by dumping price and cespedes. A team like the Dodgers, Royals, Jays, Cubs would probably pay a hefty price for those 2. Why not get something for them, instead of losing them for nothing. I don't care about a comp pick that Price would bring in. tigers have like a 20% success rate with their first rounders.
This team rebuilding is going to take a long time and it's going to be really hard with the contracts on the books. Cheering for anything other than winning now is just stupid. The % chance of making the playoffs was higher before this weekend, which was a disaster any way you look at it.
I wonder if trading Price or not could be the difference between him re-signing here or not. I'd prefer to keep him and re-sign him than trade him, if those are the two options. I would trade Yoesnis and Soria for whatever they'd bring.
Last years first round pick Derek Hill went on the DL for the third time this season. Definitely would be one of our more desirable assets to move but I'd be leery of trading for him with these injuries.
This team can still be competitive next year. Why not get something that can help the team next year? the core of the lineup will still be all set. They will need 2-3 starters, and 2-3 relievers. They will have money to spend with contracts coming off the books.
He and Steven Moya aren't doing anything to help the cause. Danny Fields turned out to be a piece of shit. We're about out of starting pitching suspects, let alone prospects. I wish we had Robbie Ray in the system right now.
Because this team's window of being able to compete for a title is really small. This year really needed to be one of the years where they were still good because it's going to get harder moving forward. I understand and support the idea that, if we're going to be like this, we have to be open to moving guys like Price and Cespedes if the right return is there. Cheering in any way for the team to lose because it makes that more likely is just bad thought process for this group. We needed to get our shit together the last few weeks and hope for a big second half, because the chances of us getting much in return for the assets we might be willing to move aren't that great.
Yeah, Moya isn't having the kind of season that makes you say "we don't need Cespedes anymore." Hill was always going to be a work in progress at the plate, and I saw some reports suggesting he was hitting better before this latest injury.
Let's say 88 wins gets you the Wild Card. Tigers would have to go 44-30 to get to 88 wins. It's not going to happen unless they get a starter, and two bullpen arms. tigers don't have the talent in the minors to acquire what they need to even have a chance at getting to 88 wins. Especially with Miguel out until late August. And this team can still competitive with JD, Miggy, V-Mart, Iglesias, McCann, Kinsler and even Castellanos. That's still one of best lineups in AL, even with everyone a year older. Their bullpen is a dumpster fire, and so is their rotation. They have given up the 5th most runs in the Majors. Fix the pitching, and they have just as good of a shot at winning next year, as anyone else. They need to target some young pitching, and OF help in any trade that they make. FA class is loaded with starting pitching help, and Tigers have money to spend...
Fix the pitching becomes harder to do if Price is dealt and not signed in the offseason. My point is basically that you're not talking about a fire sale. You're talking about trading two players (Price and Cespedes) who are entering FA and together might net you a combined two top 100 type guys who are relatively close to the majors (not a given) and maybe an interesting guy who is 2-3 years away. Given the choice of the team improving over the last few weeks to put itself in better playoff shape or losing like they did to put themselves where they are now, I would have much preferred door #1.
There are more options than David Price in free agency. And you can still re-sign him in the off season, even if you trade him. And I would trade Soria, Davis, Avila, even Kinsler if some team would take him. Face it, this team is not going to make a run. Trade your assets, and get something in return. The only thing we will get for them at the end of the year is a comp pick for Price.
Unfortunately, the team most likely to trade a bunch of prospects for rentals these days is us. The odds of getting a couple of MLB-ready Top 100 guys for 2 months of David Price are low, and non-existent for Soria and Cespedes. Those guys might bring a quality AA guy and a lottery ticket in the rookie league. The Cubs don't have the pitching to trade, and the small market teams like the Pirates and Astros aren't going to whip a future ace our way to win now.
The fucked thing is we're 4.5 back of the two wild card teams, who are Minnesota and Houston. Does anybody expect Houston and Minnesota to hold up all year? Meanwhile, we're in a group with with Baltimore, Toronto and TB, 1 game back of B'more and .5 of the Jays and Rays. The WC is very much in play with 4 games against the Mariners, 3 against the BoSox, 3 agains Rays and 1 more against O's before the deadline. Baltimore is a half game over .500, the Rays are .500 and falling, and the BoSox and Mariners are shitty. A modest 7-4 roll could have us 2 back of the WC on the 31st. On the other hand, our pitching is shitty and our hitting is inconsistent, so who gives a fuck. But I bet we're still looking to buy.
I get the rationale behind not selling on the chance they put things together enough to get a WC spot. It makes sense, given the likely value of the players they have to move. Buying much of anything seems ridiculous at this point unless it's someone on a longer term deal they can use beyond this year. Given the rumor that adding salary is probably an issue right now with our current payroll, that seems unlikely to happen.
A buddy of mine went to a luncheon that Ausmus spoke at a month ago and he said he was terrible. Someone asked him what he's learned over the last year and his answer was "nothing".
We certainly don't have enough pieces to trade for the two starters we need. I'm guessing the market will bear enough to justify dealing Price and Yoenis and Soria. That $10M+ in salary savings can go toward next year.
Retool at the deadline and hopefully make a push next season. Would also allow us to not rush Miggy back
Wilson was really the only guy he had left, with Soria not being able to go more than an inning after pitching yesterday. Maybe he should have gone with him, but he probably had to save someone in case this went to extras.
Stark Hold that "seller" talk on the #Tigers. Teams talking to them say they won't make up their mind on Price, Cespedes, etc. until after Sunday I get holding out hope but just cave already.
Verlander, Simon and Greene this weekend. If 2 of the 3 pitch well and we're 2 games over .500 on Sunday night, I bet we'd look to add a starter and a reliever and go for it. When it doesn't happen, we'll look to sell.
Asking for two of the three to pitch well and then also have the bullpen pitch well seems very daunting.
Price trying to take this one out of the bullpen's hands with 61 pitches through 5. Win today and they could be 2 back of the Twins (Santana vs Richards at the Angels) and 1 up on the Jays (Dickey vs Pomeranz at the A's). Of course, the dead part of the rotation is on tap for the BoSox, so I still think winning of 2 of 3 with at least Verlander pitching well would be prerequisite to not selling. If Verlander has another outing where he's solid for 2-3 innings and then blows the fuck up again, and they want to go for it, they'll have to seriously consider moving him to the 'pen for the rest of this year and trading for a 3rd starter, while hoping Lobstein can stretch back out quickly to take Greene's spot.
The Yankees are pounding away at the O's and the Rays are in a basic freefall, going 8-19 over the last month. Man, while I'm pretty interested in what the Tigers could get for Price, Yoenis and the rest of them, I'd rather make the playoffs. Seems like nobody but Houston really wants to win that 2nd wild card. The AL is a fucking mess right now. There are 5 teams currently over .500 in the league.
Davis pinch runs for Krauss in the 9th - caught stealing. Gose walks to lead of the 10th - caught stealing. This team sucks. Sell sell sell.
I think this about does it. No chance we sweep the BoSox in Boston and even 2 wins just has us at .500 heading to Tampa for the second leg of a 10 game road trip. I'm assuming some team will spring their good offer on Monday/Tuesday to get an extra start out of Price before the deadline, and then Yoenis and Soria will go at the deadline. I wonder if they'll trade Alex with his dad upstairs.
If Al Avila is a strong candidate to succeed DD (assuming he walks), might be best to move his kid out of the org. LH catcher with solid defensive skills ought to be worth something. Hard to imagine anybody gives up much to take that contract on.
Kinsler's contact gets better going forward. He might be tradable, but we'd end up just trying to find another Kinsler.
I think he could hit .250. Trade Kinsler, and we have 2 months to see what we have with him. Looks like Giants are interested in Davis. Andrew BaggarlyVerified account @extrabaggs #SFGiants checked in w/#Tigers and found reports they are in sell mode a bit overblown, at least for now. OF Rajai Davis interests them
I'm not in a "sell everything" mode. That's just an overreaction by fans spoiled by a long string of success. But I'm more interested in setting up next year's recovery than in pushing all the chips in to get into a 1-game playoff. Sure, we can win that with Price, but then what? Price must go. He should get somebody ML-ready, hopefully an arm. Plus maybe another crapshoot piece. I like Cespedes, but if they get a good offer, deal him. Doesn't seem much point to dealing Kinsler. As taylor said, who's gonna replace him? What about Ausmus? Is Leyland still alive? I'd be fine with taking Donny Kelly back to get him in uniform.
There is no guarantee Price even pitches a WC game. He may be forced to pitch game 162 just to get to a chance at a WC spot. And if you're going to trade Price and Cespedes, then you should trade all your pending FA's (Soria, Davis, Avila). What's the point in keeping them around? Even if you get a low level prospect, the farmy system needs all the help they can get.