I think he is. If Marsh was discussed and the talks are now dead likely means either... a) LAA offered Marsh and we asked for more on top of it and LAA told us to fuck off, or... b) we asked for Marsh and LAA told us to fuck off Either way, that doesn't seem great in terms of getting a deal done.
I don't get why the Detroit papers constantly play musical chairs with beat writers and the sports they cover. Seems counter productive. Not sure what the history of writers jumping from one Detroit paper to another is, but would think Tony Paul should be all over that opening if it's possible since the DetNews just keeps wasting him as a fill in everywhere else.
It would be very amusing to me if Fenech got taken off the beat because of his temper tantrums of the last six months.
Also weird that they'd buy out Ellis. Never been a huge fan of his personality because he seems like he doesn't really enjoy the job, but he was one of the better beat writers in Detroit in terms of getting info. Seems like he had a pretty good idea of trade and FA info compared to others.
FUCK did the Tigers force the Free Press to remove him? Didn’t he trash the Tigers for getting rid of Tigers fest?
Some dude on Athletic ranked his top 100 prospects. Didn’t really give any analysis on players. Probably just looked up box scores 5) Casey Mize, RHP, Detroit Tigers, Grade A-: Previously No. 5; 2.55 ERA with 106/23 K/BB in 109 innings between High-A and AA; had some rougher outings in August before being shut down for precautionary reasons; no question about his ability but injury risk remains an issue. 18) Matt Manning, RHP, Detroit Tigers, Grade A-: Previously No. 15; very impressive campaign in Double-A — 2.56 ERA in 134 innings, with 148/38 K/BB rate; all markers positive, status holding. 40) Riley Greene, OF, Detroit Tigers, Grade B+: Previously No. 43; first-round pick in 2019 hit .271/.347/.403 in 221 at-bats; already in Low-A and he’s just a few months out of high school. 42) Tarik Skubal, LHP, Detroit Tigers, Grade B+: Previously No. 44; breakthrough season with 2.42 ERA in 123 innings between High-A and Double-A with 179/37 K/BB and only 87 hits allowed; legit stuff to back up the numbers with low-to-mid-90s fastball, plus breaking stuff, excellent control; this is an aggressive ranking compared to other sources but I don’t think the strikeouts are lying to us; he’s a legitimate top prospect, impressive for a ninth rounder in the 2018 draft. 64) Isaac Paredes, INF, Detroit Tigers, Grade B+: Previously No. 66; hit .282/.368/.416 in Double-A; strong second half and still just 20; main concern is mediocre defense but I think there is a bright future in this bat.
I would be curious in the difference in salaries between the two positions there, because I'm not sure what "assistant hitting coach" does for Rabelo. Honestly, if this is Gardenhire's last year, Rabelo would have been in the top 3-4 names to replace him in all likelihood. I guess he still could be, but it was obvious they thought highly of him. That's a big hole, and I wonder if they try to stuff someone like Trammell there because of the short notice.
If I'm a 61 year old Hall of Famer you'd have a hell of a time convincing me to spend 5 months riding buses between minor league towns on the East Coast.
I agree, and I don't think Trammell would or could do it, realistically. I think they're going to have to find someone within the org to fill that role, though, and there aren't going to be many good options. This is why organizations get pissed off at teams like Pittsburgh this year or Baltimore last year for messing around and having no urgency in hiring managers and coaches. Kelly is the bench coach for the Pirates. He's not going anywhere until someone (probably us) hires him as manager because of his ties to the Astros.
StatCast just came out with new infield defensive metrics. Was surprised to see Niko actually graded out well at SS. Schoop, Cron and Candelario were also above average at their positions.
Breakdown of the #1 pick heading into the college seasons next month from Kiley McDaniel's chat today at Fangraphs...
He also said in another answer that Martin is rumored to be off the charts in terms of exit velo stats last year at Vandy. The more I read on the players involved, I'm not really sure why there's a ton of debate. Even if Martin is a 2B instead of a SS, his hitting ability seems to be the kind of stuff you don't pass on for a 1st baseman or a RHP.
After yesterday's events with the Astros, I'm looking for a hero to come forward and go on the record to Rosenthal about the Tigers cheating using electronic devises the last 3 years so Avila can be fired.
The Tigers have to trade Boyd before spring training. The Twins just signed Donaldson. The White Sox signed Encarnacion and Grandal. He's going to give up an insane amount of HRs in this division next year to these RH power line-ups.
he has an ERA over 5 the last 4 months of season. They should have traded him At deadline. He has minimal value now
Jim Bowden (maybe not the greatest source for prospect rankings, but whatever) did a top 50 prospects piece over at The Athletic. He has Mize #2 overall and Manning #42 overall. Greene didn't make the list, although everyone else drafted right before him did, and CJ Abrams, who we passed on for Greene, was at #16 overall (which, to be fair, is much higher than he is pretty much anywhere else).
I wonder how the Greene/Abrams ranking would be if they played at the same levels last year. Abrams had a monster stretch in rookie ball with huge numbers and elite contact rates, but only played 2 games above that level. Greene also posted huge numbers at that rookie ball level, but played a month in advanced short season (and hit well) and then a month in Low A (where he hit poorly).
Acquiring all the minor league catchers is the new market inefficiency. Curious to see if Hall makes something of a career there.
I think there's a path for Hall to make it as a reliever. Not sure we were the org for him to carve out that path, though.
That's the second list this week with Manning over Mize. Fan girl's list for The Athletic also had Manning first, although this write-up was much more positive about both pitchers than Emily was. The Fangraphs list is about as positive a report as you can find on Manning, which is nice. Other stuff... - Sounds like a lot of people are basically out on Cameron, which is bad. - They were never big on Faedo, which makes him being #6 interesting to me. - Was surprised they had Jose De La Cruz ranked higher than Adinso Reyes. Most places have that flipped. - Alex Lange being #13 seems really odd. We don't have great depth, but that's a weird profile to go ahead of some of the higher ceilings below him. - They really seem to like the org's recent work with pitchers in terms of development and pitch design. I've seen them mention it 3-4 different times now.
Had my kid at a hitting lesson this past weekend and got to see Werner Blakely out of Detroit Edison hitting. Instructor opinion is a top 15 draft pick and says his hitting is the weakest part of his game. His opinion is that he is the best prospect out of MI since Jeter. Anyone know much about him?
I've never heard of him until your post. Fangraphs ranks him #101 for 2020 draft, and those kinds of guys seem to usually end up in college unless they can get picked in the first 2 rounds (or get top 2 rounds money).
I hadn't heard of him either. He is committed to Auburn currently I guess and the instructor said he will never step foot on campus based on his ability. Who knows.
I'll be following him moving forward just to see what happens there. I'm not sure how good a judge of that stuff someone from Michigan is considering how rarely a HS kid is good enough to get that kind of money. I remember Nick Plummer from Brother Rice went in the 1st round 4-5 years ago, and it was a big deal a Michigan HS kid got drafted that high. Not sure he's even in baseball anymore after some injuries and bad performance.
I agree. It was a surprise to me. Instructor is Casey Smith out of BKC. I know he works with Michael Chavis and DJ Lemahieu at least so should have some perspective. He is from the South living up this way until later this year.