Gucci Mane

July 29th, 2019 at 3:08 PM ^

They are rebuilding, why do people care that they suck ? It’s perfectly fine. Now if you want to criticize the farm system and young players, that’s valid. Need to make some good deals by the deadline. 

The Maize Halo

July 29th, 2019 at 3:16 PM ^

Except they aren't re-building. They are just cutting money and being terrible. Rebuilding would mean actually making moves outside of what is available automatically from the annual draft. You or I could do the same thing Al Avila has done the last couple years.

dcloren2121

July 29th, 2019 at 7:25 PM ^

It absolutely would be but I believe they both are under team control at least thru next year and they supposedly are asking for a huge return.  

All in all, does anyone really have faith the front office won't screw this up?

Ihatebux

July 29th, 2019 at 4:33 PM ^

Before '06 the Tigers hadn't had a winning record for 13 years.   Using this trajectory they won't have a winning record again until 2029!!!!   That's what we have to look forward to.   At least we can look back at the last decade.  

GoBlue456

July 29th, 2019 at 3:13 PM ^

Anyone who still follows the Tigers nowadays is a sucker. 

By watching the Tigers, you are basically consenting to have hundreds of Little Caesars ads invade your conscience for 2.5 hours. For me to voluntarily consent to a questionable situation like this, they would need to put a significantly better product on the field.

Reggie Dunlop

July 29th, 2019 at 3:14 PM ^

Well, actually...

Tigers are 30-71. Sean Baligian (radio host) tweeted that if the Tigers go 12-49 in their remaining 61 games, they'll eclipse the '03 team and tie the '62 Mets with 120 losses - most in the modern era.

Apparently their record in their last 61 games is?... You guessed it: 12-49.

It's possible. They're pretty much on pace. We are possibly watching the worst pro baseball team of all time. And I kinda half-ass defended Al Avila last month. Whoops.

 

Maize N' Ute

July 29th, 2019 at 3:30 PM ^

Very plausible that they match or even surpass that record down the stretch considering that Nick Castellanos, Matt Boyd, Shane Green, and possibly Joe Jimenez are all on the trading block.

This Tigers team is pathetic and a disgrace to the great fans of Detroit.

This isn't a rebuild, this is a pure dumpster fire with no end in sight.

NittanyFan

July 29th, 2019 at 3:55 PM ^

The 2003 Tigers --- bad as they were --- at least had some charm.  Bonderman and Maroth were young pitchers who you wanted to see develop.  They theoretically were going to be part of the Tigers' next good team.  Dmitri Young played hard and well in '03.  You were hoping for good things as Alan Trammell's managerial career progressed.  They went 5-1 down the stretch and played hard that season's last week, to avoid the 1962 Mets' record.

The 2019 Tigers don't just stink - they're also un-interesting and apathetic.

The 2003 Tigers also under-achieved a little bit.  6 games under their expected win-loss record (based on run differential).

The 2019 Tigers are 30-71 ... exactly where they should be.

Ihatebux

July 29th, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^

Maybe they just want to ensure that they get the #1 draft pick?   

Houston was horrible for many years and they finally developed a killer farm system that allowed them to get where they are now.    Also, the terrible early 2000's Tigers teams helped build the early 2010's teams.   A lot of their roster issues now are due to the high cost long term contracts they signed 5-6 yrs ago.

dcloren2121

July 29th, 2019 at 7:36 PM ^

The wrong high cost, long term contracts I might add. 

In addition, they waited too long for the rebuild to begin.  Would you prefer to pay 5-6 years of a high cost bad deal and get nothing in return, or at least get SOMETHING for those bad contracts even if it means paying 50% of the remaining deal?  

PLUS---why give Cabrera a massive deal 2 years before he needed to be extended? Why let Scherzer go to then sign guys like Zimmerman, Upton, Sanchez (extension) in the following 1-3 years?  Weren't they letting Max go to cut back on payroll? Not dump it into worse players.  All in all, Dombrowski helped build the team, then promptly screwed it up and ran it into the ground, then split before it really hit rock bottom.  Then basically did the exact same thing in Boston except they managed to win a WS there. Given he's a limb on the Dombrowski tree, I don't have a lot of faith in Avila to be much better. 

We'll suckkkkkkk for a few more years, Avila will get fired, and hopefully the next GM can set the right course.

NittanyFan

July 29th, 2019 at 3:24 PM ^

They haven't won back-to-back games since May.

July's not quite over --- but just for reference, neither the 1962 Mets or 2003 Tigers had multiple months where they couldn't put together a 2-game winning streak.

andidklein

July 29th, 2019 at 5:38 PM ^

It doesn’t matter. Avila is such a useless POS he won’t get shit for either player. He really fucked up by not trading Castellanos during the winter. He also screwed the pooch in regards to Fulmer. The Yankees were willing to take him when his stock was at its highest. Ilitch really needs to sell the team. 

mGrowOld

July 29th, 2019 at 3:45 PM ^

FWIW the Indians were 11.5 games behind the Twins when we started playing the Tigers on a regular basis.  We've gone 12-1 against them and have moved within 2 games of first place since then.

I dont think we have enough games left with you guys though the rest of the way.  Now Minnesota gets their turn playing Detroit on a regular basis so my guess is we'll be hard pressed to take over first.

drjaws

July 29th, 2019 at 3:59 PM ^

Shoulda won the Series in either 2006 or 2012.

Now they're going to have to wait until 2033 to try again.  I hate how long the Tigers "down times" are.  Most other teams will have a bad 4-6 years then bounce back and at least be competitive and in the playoff hunt.

Tigers seem to be competitive for 3-6 years a few times a century then just be bottom feeders 20+ games from a playoff spot by August 1 the rest of the time.

I'll always have 1984 though.

mGrowOld

July 29th, 2019 at 4:41 PM ^

Close.  Owner wont spend money wisely.

My Indians have a team payroll 4MM lower than the Tigers this year (89 to 85MM) but they've won 32 more games this year. Plus we've got a pretty damn good farm system-lost Kluber, Carrasco & Clevinger but still kept winning.  And have rookies now playing well in the everyday line-up.

The key is the farm system.  We've got a VERY good one - Tigers not so much.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/cleveland-indians/payroll/

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/detroit-tigers/payroll/

brmarsh07

July 29th, 2019 at 4:07 PM ^

I have ZERO faith that Avila could ever pull this team out of obscurity! He has proven to do nothing but trade off any player with any ability to hit or throw a baseball for the cast off dead weight of everyone else's farm system. And Chris Illitch does not have the passion for the game that his father had! He is basically baseball's version of the Ford family. As long as the cash is rolling in, who care if the team sucks!

Booted Blue in PA

July 29th, 2019 at 4:50 PM ^

AA is actually pretty good, for the first time in several years, not sure how the mudhens look, but the SeaWolves kinda look like a baseball team.   

I think they could have been better, but it seemed like Lance was just cashing a check and coasting to retirement.

 

ckersh74

July 29th, 2019 at 6:42 PM ^

Toledo is 47-59 this year. Erie is 59-45, 28-10 in the second half of the season.  

AA has pitching. When you look at AA and AAA, only two guys are hitting: Dawel Lugo and Willi Castro. No one else is putting up numbers that make you want to rush them to the next level. 

As for the Whitecaps and the Flying Tigers, wake me up when those kids get to AA and start to produce. I'm not going to get all giddy about A-ball production. 

blueandmaizeballs

July 29th, 2019 at 5:00 PM ^

I expect hm not to give away all of our tradable assets for pennies on the dollar.  He didn't get anything good for Verlander anything good for Martinez aand matter of fact hasn't got anybody any good.  All his trades and Freeagent signings have been awful.

Qseverus

July 29th, 2019 at 5:05 PM ^

I still don’t understand how the two guys largely responsible for the Tiger’s miserable farm system, Avila and Chadd, got promoted to GM & Assistant GM. After years of drafting pitching first the Tigers not only needed to trade for some half-way decent pitching (Fulmer, Boyd, Norris, etc.), their 'pitcher first' mentality has resulted in very few position player prospects of note. How that translated into a promotion is beyond me.

JBE

July 29th, 2019 at 5:12 PM ^

Part of that is our farm was gutted a few times during the championship window. Ray, Adames, healthy Knebel, Suarez, etc. would be nice to have now. Jimenez, Turnbull, Farmer, and even Alexander - all drafted by the Tigers - look like pieces that could stay, and there is definitely more pitching on the way.