Detroit Tigers - From Worst to First

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What a season for this guy. Led the league (not just AL) in hits (203) and batting average (.328). Finished 31st in OPS (.853) and 24th in WAR (5.3). Played league average LF and had 10 SB with 1 CS.

Still cannot believe he was DFA'd by St. Louis.

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He has been hurt since late June with an elbow injury. He made 15 not so good starts prior to being hurt. He is looking like a non-tender candidate since he will probably get between 6 and 7 million this offseason.

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The Tigers were able to get to Porcello early, limit the Red Sox offense and win the AL Wildcard Game!!!

It was strange of them to leave Poyner in as long as they did. Plus they pulled him to use Eovaldi for the last out of the 8th.

We are going to use Willi Castro in RF over Gurriel Jr. for the rest of the playoffs.

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We managed to work our way to a decisive game 5, but ultimately came up short against a very strong Cleveland team.

They went on to win the World Series!!!

Lindor and Bauer had unbelievable seasons respectively. They have a wealth of upcoming pitching talent we will be competing against routinely going forward.

[WarningTrakPower]

After looking at the team, prior to free agent filings, it appeared obvious we had no need for Lourdes Gurriel Jr. anymore.

We were playing him in RF and after 1400 MLB plate appearances his OPS was .738.

His brother is arb eligible also, but will be non-tendered.

So I shopped Lourdes around and the Yankees offered up Albert Abreu. I was going to trade him back to the Jays, but you can never have too much pitching.

Both our scout and OSA give Abreu ratings of 70 for 3 pitchers (fastball, curve and change). I am going to give him a shot in the rotation, but worst case scenario he is a late game relief option.

He has one option remaining, less than 1 year of service time and just turned 25.

Also, we were able to add "Kyle Zurak". He is a (soon to be) 26 year old reliever with 3 star potential and 3 above average pitches. He only has 8 innings in AA so far, I am going to start him in AAA and see how he makes out.

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Follow up about Max Schrock, he won the AL Rookie of the Year for 2020!!!

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It's the free agent filings day ... and we are making a trade!

Niko Goodrum didn't have a spot on the team and was taking away at bats from others in AAA, so we shopped him. Plus he was making 670k haha.

Dodgers were only team interested. Kendall might be an option for 4th OF, or a guy we can callup from AAA if needed. We don't really have a CF at this point, but we are leaning towards using Braden Bishop as the starter. Maybe they can platoon?

Marcus Chiu was a total throw in. He will be 24 and hasn't played about high A. We will start him AA and see how he does.

I like when a trade comes together and both the opposing GM and our assistant GM are happy.

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Must have missed this back in August, but apparently he had a setback in his rehab and will miss all of 2021 now.

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We have made it through the offseason and are ready to start 2021!!!
I tend to avoid free agency and go for a "moneyball" type franchise. Find value that may normally get overlooked.

Only roster notes are: waiver claims of Shed Long ("2B") and Eric Hanhold (RP).

We also signed Juan Lagares to a minors deal and he will start the season as our 4th OF. I didn't notice until I added him to 40 man that he can refuse a minors assignment. The plan was for him to only hold down a roster spot for April anyways.

Matt Boyd is on his last legs with us with pending MLB callups of a few notable pitchers.
I shopped him this offseason a little bit, and there was some really interesting offers, but ultimately I decided to hang on to him for the time being.

We have Casey Mize and Franklin Perez ready when needed.
I am going to give Albert Abreu a look to start the season since his service time clock has already started.

Turnbull and Cionel Perez will be arb eligible this upcoming offseason for the first time also.

Can never have too much pitching!

Both Fulmer and Daniel Norris signed with the White Sox (albeit Norris on minors deal with an opt out).
Also, a majority of the players we let walk have yet to sign (Hamilton, Galvis, Gurriel, Zimmerman). Will Smith signed with the Yankees.

I will post an update once we get to the 2021 draft!!!

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I thought it was worth sharing, somehow he managed a -1.7 WAR in 2020. Why would Texas give him over 500 plate appearances? Haha

Texas had Mikie Mahtook in AAA almost all season (after claiming him off waivers) and he had an OPS of .810. They also had Scott Heineman in AAA with a .782 OPS.

They even had Zack Granite who hit well in AAA without much power for a slashline of .296/.371/.376 for OPS of .747.

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Preseason predictions have us going 73-89. I don't expect to win 90+ games again this season, but somewhere around 80 to 85 wins / potential second wildcard team is what I am hoping for.

And look at how much the predictions favor Cleveland. 5 of top 10 hitters in AL and 2 of top 10 pitchers haha. Plus they lost Bauer to the Dodgers haha.

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Miguel Cabrera is the newest member of the 3000 hit club!!!

He picked up a single in the 8th off Dallas Keuchel!

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Below are a few pictures showing stats through the first 55 games. We are currently sitting atop the AL Central at the draft!

I made a few minor roster changes by sending down Albert Abreu and calling up Matt Hall to temporarily fill the #5 spot in the rotation.

Also, we sent down Jake Robson and called up Myles Straw for the first time (since we traded for him, he did have cup of coffee with Astros in 2018).

Sergio Alcantara hurt his foot yet again (contusion this time), so we wait for him, but Cecchini has been fine as backup IF.

Kapler won't use Jace Fry except as a lefty specialist, so I going to shop him around just to dump him and callup another reliever (or potentially try to find one via trade block).

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So ... we shopped around Jace Fry and the best offer on paper appears to be Corbin Martin.

He was the 56th overall pick in 2017, but in this save he hurt his elbow in early 2019, missed an entire season and lost all his stamina.

Prior to 2019 he was the #98 prospect in MLB.

I am going to try to revive his career as a starter since a few our of pitchers have gotten injured. Fingers crossed he can regain some of the stamina he lost.

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So... gone through a few options and I think I have settled on Seth Halvorsen. Below are his ratings from our scout and OSA.

Our scout appears to like him a bit more and values him as potential 2 way guy, even though the "potential" from OSA is 3.5*.

As a hitter he would probably be more of an infielder than a outfielder which is interesting.

He could be a quick riser if he pans out and he has a "durable" injury proneness.

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Just noticed he won batter of the month in the AL for May.

He has developed in to a beast with very short stays at all minor league levels!!!

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Phillies wanted to trade us Adam Haseley (former 8th overall in 2017).



So we countered and came up with an agreeable trade.



Here is a snapshot of Adam Haseley



He was added to Phillies 40 man already, so he has two option years left. We are going to try and train him up in RF in AAA for now.

James Beard was a decent enough prospect (10th round pick of ours), but we didn't think he was going to hit enough to make it through the MiLB ranks.

We claimed Shed Long off waivers after a monster AAA season in 2019, but ultimately those at bats in AAA can go to others as he was not needed on our MLB team.

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Forgot to make a post earlier, but we picked up Sean Doolittle around the start of July.





Now we are late July and we pulled off a trade for Tommy Kahnle.





Both pitchers will have their entire salaries paid by the teams we acquired them from.

We were able to dump a few extra relievers on NY that were not long term pieces. The only one I didn't really want to trade was Zimmer, but he is now "fragile".

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July 31 and I am looking at the trading block to see if I can find any good players to add to the team.

We don't have a need, but Biggio is having a down year, so we are trading for DJ Lemahieu!!!

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We finished 87-75 and captured the second wildcard in the AL. We will faceoff against the Astros!



Here is the final pitching stats for 2021!



Cionel Perez had a very strong year and I think we will give him the start in the wildcard game.

Mid-season callups of Casey Mize and Beau Burrows showed they are clearly MLB ready.

Spencer Turnbull had a down year and was sent to AAA when we called up Casey Mize and Beau Burrows.

Here is the final batting stats for 2021!



Our offense was lead by Ryan McMahon (led AL in BA), Paul DeJong and midseason callup Daz Cameron.

Grayson Greiner was also having a down year, so he was optioned to AAA in order to free up at bats for Jake Rogers. He didn't hit much better when in AAA unfortunately (albeit in a small sample size).

Adam Haseley won IL player of the year in AAA.