I don't think it's that he's stupid as much as baseball is just complicated when you're going through something like this. The team you own is rebuilding and it takes a long time while those young players develop, and where can you go to get a legit/honest opinion of that progress if you don't have a long history in the sport with significant contacts? The only hope I have for a change being made is that Chris didn't hire Avila, and if the fans get loud enough with their displeasure maybe he's willing to make that change.
Now that the Wings have Yzerman, I can see Illitch spending more time trying to figure out what to do with the Tigers.
Avila keeps mentioning 2021 as the year we start competing. Wonder why he’s using 2021? Is it because his contract is up in 2020. We are going to lose. 100 games this year. We will likely be worse in 2020, and there are no signs of improvement on the horizon. Sure Manning and Mize are good. But we have no impact offensive prospects in the minors. And Avila and Chadd have a history of awful draft picks. Check out the 2017 draft for shits and giggles.
I appreciate the sentiment, but I think it's more likely that he just goes all in on the Wings and lets Avila be the face of the Tigers while hoping the rebuild works enough to get people back to the ballpark by 2021. I guess the other side of that could be that the park is going to be so empty this summer that it could get him to run out in FA and make a couple stupid signings like his dad did.
I think he's using 2021 because Zimmermann's deal runs through 2020, which hypothetically puts them back in the game for free agents because Cabrera's deal is all that would be left. I'm sure he's also banking on all these young arms being on their way to stardom by then, which sounds great in theory but rarely works out in reality with the injury rate to pitchers.
If he and Gores want that regional sports network of their own, they need to have mostly good teams over the next few years to maximize their dollars.
MLB app shows tigers lost 1 in a row. I can’t think of the last time they won. Maybe I have Altemers at 30
I get that Candy was awful so far but I cant believe we are talking about any of these dudes over him at 3B