2023 Tigers

[softailrider]

I think that the sooner the Tigers get rid of the shadow of Miggy the better off the Tigers will be. This is a baseball team playing in a baseball season trying to compete - this isn't the side show of a circus. The guy is now a grossly overweight former power hitter reduced to hitting singles. They're not supposed to be paying him to hit base hits.

Is he the greatest Tiger player of all time? Yes, I suppose he would be considered superior to Al Kaline or Ty Cobb. Did he ever take the team to the promised land? In my opinion, he did not. I think he left it on the table in the 2006 World Series, or maybe he left it in the bottle.

I don't know what made me think Miggy was with the Tigers for both those World Series appearances. Thank you sirrealone for setting the record straight.

[Smirnoff]

With the new regime addition [[Scott Harris) & another losing season, anyone believe AJ's timeclock is running out as the Mgr? Some basic fundamentals of solid baseball are still lacking. . . ...

[softailrider]

This team is showing some promise, nobody is more surprised than I am. They have a tough portion of their schedule coming up. I hope they can play 500 ball for the next month or so, or close to it. Keep this thing interesting.

[softailrider]

Nick Maton hit's a bomb on Monday night for a 3 run HR. after he gets into the dugout he starts clowning around with a hockey helmet on. The team is like 8 and 12 or something like that. I wonder how that would have gone over with Sparky Anderson or Jim Leyland. Probably never would have happened.

[sirrealone]

Sparky and Leyland also knew the importance of having the guys able to keep their chins up and to stay loose. Sometimes a little fun is exactly what a team needs, and I'm pretty sure they would have known when and where to draw the line.

Matt Patricia already showed us what it's like when a team isn't allowed to have any fun. No thanks.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Nick Maton hit's a bomb on Monday night for a 3 run HR. after he gets into the dugout he starts clowning around with a hockey helmet on. The team is like 8 and 12 or something like that. I wonder how that would have gone over with Sparky Anderson or Jim Leyland. Probably never would have happened.

That's normal nowadays. All teams have HR celebrations.

[Lowell]

Since this thread went dormant, I have detected a significant turn around with the Tigers. Several young players have turned corners in the past two months.

The Tigers had next-to-zero hitting last year and it started out looking like the same this year. Now they arguably have a "killers row" with Greene hitting over .300, Torkelson with 22 HR's, and Carpenter with 18 HR's. In the last road trip the team hit 18 HR's. It's been fun watching these "kids" suddenly getting it.

Same for Jake Rogers, a great defensive catcher, who is surprising everybody with 15 HR's. Akil Baddoo, who arrived with a bang then fizzled, seems to be joining the 'getting it' gang too.

Starting pitchers Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, and Reese Olson are looking like the real things as is reliever Tyler Hilton.

Lots of positives but sorry to see Downriver local boy Eric Haase released amid the youth movement but it's been fun to watch the farewell tour of Miggy who to everybody's delight has started hitting like of old, minus the HRs.

[sirrealone]

Ever since they opened that stupid stadium, every GM focused exclusively on drafting pitching, with hitting practically an afterthought. They wasted decades trying to build this rotation that would somehow prosper in the ridiculous expanses of Comerica Park, only to see prospect after prospect either get hurt or fail to develop. Harris has reversed course on this, understanding that hitting prospects have a better chance of succeeding, and I think it's starting to pay off. And let's face it, fans would rather us give up a couple of extra runs if we can see our guys knock the ball around the field.

[401don]

Ever since they opened that stupid stadium, every GM focused exclusively on drafting pitching, with hitting practically an afterthought. They wasted decades trying to build this rotation that would somehow prosper in the ridiculous expanses of Comerica Park, only to see prospect after prospect either get hurt or fail to develop. Harris has reversed course on this, understanding that hitting prospects have a better chance of succeeding, and I think it's starting to pay off. And let's face it, fans would rather us give up a couple of extra runs if we can see our guys knock the ball around the field.

Except that Tork, Greene, Carpenter, Meadows were all drafted by Avila.

[Lowell]

And they've move the fences in twice since they built the new ballpark. Fans would rather see a slugfest than a pair of two hitters any day.

[softailrider]

If the season started now, I really think this team would be competitive. They’re kind of fun to watch. Amazing how some of these Al Avila boys seem like they’re gelling.

[softailrider]

And they've move the fences in twice since they built the new ballpark. Fans would rather see a slugfest than a pair of two hitters any day.

The question I have is why did they build that stadium the way they did? It’s a stadium built for small ball in a home run world.

[401don]

The question I have is why did they build that stadium the way they did? It’s a stadium built for small ball in a home run world.

When it was designed in the late 1990's the Tigers were still in the AL East. It was thought they could better compete with the big market teams, Yankees, Red Sox, etc. by stressing pitching, defense and speed similar to the Royals rather than try to sign power hitting free agents. They never did draft and develop players with those skills however. It's very hard to draft high school players with those skills when you should take the best player available. Then in the early 2000's the game became much more power focused. Just be glad it was designed after Camden Yards. It's a much better park than the horrible Guaranteed Rate Field, which was the last park before the retro ones. White Sox are now talking about a new park already.