Very interesting offseason. Team really needs 2 impact bats minimum and 2 starting Pitchers. Illitch has no excuse not to open his checkbook, but we all know he wont
I hate this ownership so much, and part of the sadness i have about today is i don't expect us to have another chance for a while. We are going to be too cheap to keep Skubal, won't add any real talent in FA, and the strategy we had this year i don't think can catch the same magic.
I don't expect Ilitch or Harris to go all in this season like I would like them to. They're not trading for Vlad or signing Soto. They're almost certainly not spending the big money to get a legitimate top of the rotation guy next to Skubal. They're mainly going to work in the margins and hope the young guys improve, and I kind of get it. But if they think anything like this season is happening again next year without adding at least one legitimate middle of the order right handed bat, there's just no way. That's not just a very obvious hole on the team for this year and next. It's a very obvious long term need with no solution anywhere in the minor leagues. The only person you could even dream could become that sometime in the next 5 years is Liranzo, who switch hits.
Agree. All in is not required but last year’s free agent/trades not sufficient. They need to go bigger and it’s not unfair to get pissed at ownership if they don’t IMO
Where do they go with the bat? Bregman plays 3b, but I think we aren't paying that money and the contract he gets won't age well. We aren't paying Soto nor would he likely come here. Don't think we pay for a SS (Adames or Kim) with Baez contract and I think they like Sweeney there. Cant see us getting Alonso. Santandar or Hernandez? Can either play 1b? We seem OK in OF short and long term. Maybe Christian Walker? Think we could go for a guy like Walker Buehler at SP. Seems like the kind of guy we've targeted
I would stay away from Walker, unless it’s only a 2 year deal. His stats have been declining past 2 years. Gonna be 34 on opening day. I’d sign Bregman, seems like has at least 4 good years remaining. Don’t see them adding an outfielder.
I brought up Bregman as someone I wanted months ago, but his second half was almost too good and I think he's going to end up getting 5+ years at $25M+ and I don't think that's a good idea. If it's 4 years I would be in. More than that and I think you're getting a very diminished hitter by the end. Hernandez and Walker make the most sense to me. Santandar is kind of weird as a profile and I'm not a big fan, but he would at least bring some pop.
Doesn't seem like there are many managerial vacancies at the moment (I think it's just the Marlins and White Sox), but I would think Lombard is going to start getting closer looks pretty soon.
I see the opposite, I see this as a cop out for their cheap owner. "He's not cheap, we just prefer cheaper players, we don't think the expensive players are fits"
Harris also made the "he's not cheap, he just spends it on technology and amenities instead of players" defense today, which is funny.
Sucks watching your team getting knocked out even when it was painfully obvious they had no business being there. Amazing season. Couple Tigers on the Baseball America Hot Sheet from the Arizona Fall League. Looking forward to seeing them live soon. 3. Thayron Liranzo, C, Tigers Team: Scottsdale Scorpions Age: 21 Why He’s Here: .556/.600/1.111 (5-for-9), 2 R, 2 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 3 RBIs, 1 BB, 2 SO, 0-for-0 SB The Scoop: The Scottsdale roster is loaded with power hitters like Bryce Eldridge, Josue Briceno, Termarr Johnson, Peyton Williams and Liranzo. Among that group, the Tigers signed the brightest. Liranzo showed off his switch-hitting power this week, particularly in Thursday’s home game where Liranzo hit doubles from both sides of the plate, as well as his first home run of the AFL season. The Tigers acquired the 21-year-old catcher from the Dodgers in the Jack Flaherty trade, and he looks like an excellent return at this point. 4. Josue Briceno, C/1B, Tigers Team: Scottsdale Scorpions Age: 20 Why He’s Here: .375/.444/.938 (6-for-16), 5 R, 0 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 6 RBIs, 2 BB, 5 SO, 0-for-0 SB The Scoop: Entering Saturday’s showdown against Glendale, Briceno was an afterthought for the Hot Sheet. However, a three-home run performance—including a shot versus one of the top pitching prospects in the game in Andrew Painter—cemented Briceno’s place. It was the first three-home run game in the AFL since 2015, as the Tigers young catcher enjoyed a truly historical performance. The home runs accounted for half of Briceno’s hits on the week. Briceno has strong plate skills for a power hitter and doesn’t sell out to get to his easy plus raw power.
No "big" FA you sign's contract will age well. If you want to bring someone impactful in, you basically have to be okay with their contract being bad value at the backend.
Sucks that Briceno missed time this year because he seems like he's got the kind of hitting profile that can move pretty quick. Especially if he's moving off catcher entirely, which seems like it's already happening.
it is also nice that we have a huge hole at 1B and DH. just need some dudes who can hit the ball bc Sweeney cannot
Law on the AFL: Josue Briceño and Thayron Liranzo, C/1B, Detroit Tigers(Scottsdale Scorpions) I mentioned Briceño briefly in my first AFL notebook, and all he did after that was hit and hit. He’s not catching in Arizona as he was only listed as a first baseman, with Liranzo sent as a catcher and thus taking up the reps behind the plate, but he’s probably been the most impressive bat in the early going, hitting all kinds of pitching — left and right, all pitch types, and to all fields. It’s a very easy and quiet swing coupled with strong pitch recognition, which seems like a pretty good foundation for someone who’ll hit for average and power. Liranzo, by the way, can really, really throw, and has gone 8 for 16 with a homer and four doubles in limited playing time. I saw one game from him, and it is such a smooth, easy, powerful swing that if he keeps the strikeout rate in check, he’s going to be a star.
Curious if Briceno will be on the next grouping of top 100 lists. He was getting some buzz before the injury and stuff like this is easier to get visibility
I think he'll be on the back end of some lists because of the AFL stuff. And then he'll make a huge jump into the top 40 if he backs it up in the first month or two in the minors next year. Some people don't put much stock in the AFL because of the conditions and the lack of pitching. But if he starts off well in WM next year I think people will give him more credit for what he's currently doing after the fact.
Heard Stavenhagen talk about this today and he said it’s not crazy to think he’s seeing superior pitching in the AFL than he saw this past season. I choose to believe.
He's probably seeing more advanced pitching than he saw this year because he was only in low A. But he's also a bat only prospect if he's not catching, and you're dealing with conditions conducive to hitting like being in a desert at slight elevation that is going to prop up numbers no matter what. And teams generally don't send good pitchers down there unless they need them to hit some innings quota set for them this year or something. What he's done so far is definitely worth noting. Same with Liranzo. Just saying that I think the prospect guys are likely to wait to go all in there until he does it in more normal circumstances.
Some contract predictions from Jim Bowden at The Athletic for some of the FAs we've talked about in here or elsewhere: Fried - 6/$174 Alonso - 7/$204 Walker - 3/$72 Bregman - 7/$185.5 Santander - 7/$150.5 Snell - 3/$105 Flaherty - 3/$68 Hernandez - 3/$75 Wacha - 3/$54 Buehler - 1/$10+ incentives O'Neill - 2/$32 Torres - 4/$44 Kikuchi - 3/$42 Severino - 2/$32 Goldschmidt - 1/$15 Hoskins - 2/$34 That seems light for Flaherty and Snell, very rich for Alonso, Bregman and Santander. I would take my shot at O'Neill for that price. Goldschmidt is another one I could see us going for as a bridge to see where the kids are in another year.
It's so hard to predict the market for MLB deals because every winter seems different. Sometimes teams go nuts, and then others there is just no movement and people scream collusion. The Bally Sports disaster is another complicating factor in trying to predict it. On Bregman, it's hard to project because he's in the class of player that has tended to get murdered in FA the last 5+ years, but he has a pedigree as a star player on title teams and has performed in the playoffs while also playing every day. Those are the kinds of things that sometimes gets teams to overpay in years compared to other guys in that tier.