MLB '24 Postseason thread

The only way the Battle of Lake Erie could be better was if there was a player named Edmund Fitzgerald.

 

Well maybe one….

 

The Giamatti quote is delayed by one day.

Whew.

 

Dammit Moddy ...oh.

 

Agreed on the torture part. It seems absurd to think a 91-win season was painful and torturous, but it really was because the hitting was so bad so often.
As to changes, I still think it would be unfair to whack Hyde.
I don't know about re-signing Santander because I fear we could be looking at another albatross contract similar to the Chris Davis deal: big bucks, long term, diminishing returns. I'd love to see him re-signed, but not if that undercuts any ability to retain others in a couple of years.
Pitching has already been gutted for 2025, in which we will have to settle for player development (Holliday, Mayo) and accept that postseason is not realistic.

 

That's the only possible Tigers rematch in 2024. The Cubs and Tigers have played in 11 World Series, four of them against each other (2-2) and none since World War II. The Tigers have also played the Cardinals three times and the Pirates, Reds, Padres and Giants once. So the Dodgers would make all three California-based NL franchises.

But that's getting way too ahead of ourselves. They have at least three more games to watch this season, which still seems astonishing.

 

Jackson Chourio is the god damn balls.

 

Finally exhales.
No McArthur/Harvey helped a bunch. Those two couldn’t get me out. Erceg nutted up. Baltimore picked a bad time for the bats to go quiet but off to NYC to face the bums.

 

The Tigers season is all gold already.

But this is the time Chris Ilitch has to step up and make the decision his dad did in about 2005. There are huge profits to be made.

-- The future is here. No more fire sales at the trade deadline. No more lowballing or fooling around with service time. Baez must be bought out. C'est la vie.

-- During the offseason, you've got to be at least players in the free agent market. Not just throwing money at people for the hell of it (ie Baez), or going balls out for all the big names, but making competitive offers on two or three middle level high potential guys.

-- You have the youngest team in MLB with the best pitcher in the game at the moment. In addition there are several (three) highly ranked pitching guys who are pitching now and should be fully recovered from TJ-related layoffs by the spring. If one of those three guys comes back strong, the pitching staff will be excellent; if a second one comes back, dominant.

-- At long long last there is a pretty much established regular lineup. Still a couple of fairly serious gaps where the targeted free agents should go.

Most importantly the team in concentrated in age between ages 22-26. They should collectively improve for two or three more seasons.

 

I'm obviously in a better frame of mind than I was last night.

There's no world where the playoffs aren't realistic, considering you only have to finish about 8-10 games above .500 to get in these days. And the AL East isn't the grind it used to be. Not sure Tampa and Toronto will be any better next year, though Boston showed signs of being a team on the rise at times. The pitching isn't as gutted as you think. Bradish, Wells, Rodriguez will all be back. So will Felix Bautista. Povich actually looked decent in his second run back, much like GRod did when he yo-yoed last year. There's still a year left on Eflin's contract. Burnes? Who knows. I don't think he'll resign but maybe Rubenstein opens the checkbook for him. I agree on the reticence on Santander. I'm 50-50 on him. Less on the fire Hyde bandwagon than I was last night, but there has to be a hard look at the hitting approach team-wide -- and some of that is on the players, too. The Orioles were too easy to get out in pressure situations both down the stretch and in that series. They could not manufacture runs at all. Whether that's on the coaches or the players, I don't know.

I do know there is a fan base on the edge, where simply getting to the postseason is no longer enough. Two years of just disappearing in the playoffs is hard to take.