42 thoughts on “Say What??”

    2. Jim – those were my thoughts exactly…well the WTF! portion anyway

      and i agree w/Tony’s assessment that Avila/Illitch/JL may have concluded that Ausmus is under contract for another season, and based on the re-tread mgr’s available, that Ausmus is as good as any of those recycled mgrs

      well, i was pretty optimistic going into the ’15 DET season, and got that totally wrong – so let’s hope the pessimism i feel for the ’16 DET season is as totally misguided.

      i will say that the acquisition of Norris, Boyd & Fulmer, etc may be the saving grace for the ’15 season – because ‘finding quality pitchers’ has to be this off-season’s mantra for DET

      I also agree w/Jud in that this Ausmus also indicates that Avila Sr will bring back Avila Jr next yr

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  4. They are totally happy with. .500 if they can get there!!!…in fact FIRE ..AVILA…he obviously knows nothing about baseball!!

  5. I hope there is method in this madness! Is there a top-notch manager’s contract that’s over after next season, that the team will then hire? If not, then this is another screw-up by Senior Avila since he was named GM, and the management of the Tigers is in complete disarray!

  6. This move assures us the Alex will be resigned…Neither Brad or big Al have the cajones to tell Alex he is done!…a big reason Ausmus is back!

  7. I think the decision to bring Brad back was actually made several days ago when Gibby and Mario started telling us he deserved another chance. Our announcers except perhaps Jack Morris are company men. No matter how poorly Casty plays or how much lack of effort there is, or bonehead base running, you’ll never hear it from our announcers. My favorite announcer is Hawk Harrelson in Chicago who is universally hated, it seems, by everyone. There is even a website devoted to removing him. Wonder if the White Sox management is behind that because he doesn’t cut anyone on the team any slack?

    Keeping Brad is not a good decision, it was the only one available. I think it unlikely that the Tigers will be contenders for anything except early tee times on the golf course next year. If you look at all the names that have been thrown around as a replacement, none could be considered even mediocre. Why bring in anther slug to disrupt everything only to have to can him in two years? From a management view, it would be better to continue to build a competitive club and hope someone really competent becomes available next year.

    1. I do agree with you on who is available. That list is pretty lean. When we missed on Francona two years ago Ausmus almost became the best available. Now that were basically stuck, maybe he will actually get better. After all where do you go from rock bottom last place.
      Its totally understandable why the players want him back, you don’t have to do anything.

  9. I see the boys were so inspired to show their backing of the skipper that they managed 2 runs out of 13 runners…..less than 2…#58…get used to it boys!

  10. You wanna get JD out —–just throw him 3 pitches in the dirt = 3-swing K. Earlier, I thought he would get to 40 bombs. Now —-looks pretty doubtful…

  12. Gee Gibby, another mental error? That is the bad news about keeping Brad. Little things like hitting the cutoff man probably will not improve much, although the coaching staff should at least share the blame.

  15. This just in: Castallanos has improved from the worst defensive player in all of baseball to the Worst Third Baseman in all of Baseball. Onward and upword…Congrats Nick!

    (Side note:. If he isn’t the worst anymore, who could possibly be worse)

  16. Tigers new,strategy..instead of wasting 12-13 hits to get their 1-2 runs the are using 6-7 hits to get their 1-2, thus saving time. Just doing their part to help MLB on their way to #59…..

    1. I applaud the decision to bring Brad Ausmus back, not to mention this announcement being made before the and of the season. I was impressed by how the pre-firing leak, true or false, didn’t get turned into a circus, thanks to Al Avila, Ausmus, and – especially – the players. Don’t know about you guys, but that told me something.

      The fan talk case against Ausmus is pretty much just that. If only “blame the manager for everything” applied everywhere. My job would be stress-free. I’m just a “player.” So what if I gave up a 2-run homer, struck out, made a terrible throw, ran into an out? Brad put me in that position to fail. He didn’t teach me fundamentals. He didn’t teach me not to swing at pitches Gameday would reveal to be low and outside, just off the plate.

      Aside from the mid-season trades that torched the season prematurely, it all boils down to one thing: Pitching. The Tigers didn’t have it. Take away Price and Soria and see what the stats look like. God-awful. Historically bad, maybe one of the worst staffs in franchise history. All the other stuff would have been mere bumps in the road with SOME kind of MLB-caliber pitching. Verlander was all that was left after the trades. I wouldn’t mind if he was the only one back for 2016.

      1. I’m not as enthusiastic as you are about Ausmus, but I do agree that if you are going to bring him back, it’s a nice touch to announce it now and not after the season.

        1. I don’t know that I’ve ever been enthusiastic about any manager, Coleman. (Well, there’s Sparky Anderson in 1984, of course. He could do no wrong. Didn’t hurt that his team could do no wrong either, one supposes.) I do think that the manager’s role in winning or losing any given game is wildly overestimated, inflated beyond belief. The manager is there to make the day to day and in-game decisions that have to be made by one person, not improvised or put to a vote. Where the idea comes from that much more than 50% of these decisions are going to be both good in result and worthy of note, I don’t know. A coin flip would probably make an average MLB manager.

          So there’s my second choice for Tigers manager: Coyne Flippe. No MLB experience, but a long NFL career of high-impact decisions. Followed closely by Magic 8-Ball. They need a baseball version, though.

    1. Max has same number of wins as Big Pasta and one loss more. All that and Big Pasta is $$$$$$$$$$$$$ cheaper! Baseball is a humbling game!

  21. Just catching up. I’m shocked. And appalled. I’d say that there is a 5% chance that we are all dumber than we think, and a 95% chance that Avila is dumber than we had hoped.

  22. If you play in 60 games and score 2 or less runs, it doesn’t matter how bad or good your starting pitching is. It doesn’t matter how bad your bullpen is. This team is a mess and they re-upped the most unimaginative manager in baseball to try and fix that 60 games 2 or less!

    1. Well, you know, the teams that are going to the playoffs are going there because they played better, not because their managers imagined runs for them, or even because they have some insurmountable edge in talent. Some of those genius managers will be bums next year when their teams don’t make the playoffs, or this year already when they lose in the postseason.

      Yes, 60 games of 2 runs or less is bad (but going 10-50 there is a bit uncalled for). I’d still say that 78 games of allowing 5 runs or more (17-61) is the more appalling of the two.

      And then there’s the strange case of 3 runs scored (1-10), which includes losses of 12-3,12-3,14-3, 9-3, 9-3, and 10-3.

  23. Meanwhile, the Lions may have a decent shot to tie their 0-16 record. Oh wait, never mind, they play the Bears twice.

  24. Hi Kevin…me too on just getting caught up…Well…given Avila’s tweet, its good to know that they have the same goal of bringing a World Series championship to Detroit!

    Meanwhile Kevin…I am hoping for your Rangers to do some good.

  25. Tigs will lay down for your,Rangers Kevin!…they are saving themselves for the last place battle this weekend!…or fishing, or golf!

  26. Sorry Kevin, I’ve never forgiven Cruz and the Rangers for the time we met in the ACLS. I hope we sweep them! I bet the thought really scares you!

  28. To be clear friends, Tigers are #1. It’s just hard to be a huge baseball fan and not get behind your home team from time to time.

    I was crushed when Cruz crushed that ball.

    1. I totally understand. As a native New Yorker I have become a Tigers fan but am enjoying the Mets surge and still hate the Yankees. Go Mets, Go Jays!

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