Tigers offseason moves

[Lionlifer]

We all know that the season didn't end the way we wanted, but the offseason gives us an opportunity to get better.

Lets keep track of what we have done so far:

All the coach's - They are back, for better or worse
Valverde - Peace out homie
Young - Good luck as a free agent
Worth - Hope you get a new team and don't end up in Toledo

[chrbal]

AP source: McClendon interviews for Marlins' job
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ap-source- ... --mlb.html
Dear god let them choose him

Dotel and Peralta got both their 2013 options picked up

Don Kelly. not official, but he'll be a mudhen next year.

Ryan Raburn. not official, but I can't honestly imagine him being with the Tigers in any way next year. My real question though is. When/if he gets taken off the 40 man roster, is he a canidate for the Rule 5 draft?

[Lionlifer]

List of arbitration eligible players:

Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Doug Fister, Rick Porcello, Alex Avila, Phil Coke and Brennan Boesch

Going to be an expensive offseason.

[Lionlifer]

AP source: McClendon interviews for Marlins' job
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ap-source- ... --mlb.html
Dear god let them choose him

No such luck it seems:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/miam ... ger-110112

[TSE]

Going to be an expensive offseason.

It wouldn't have been if they went with my "swimming in profits" strategy. Over a long period of time I would have boosted this franchise's value by hundreds of millions beyond what DD will do.

And to McClendon not leaving yet, well I agree he is not a good hitting instructor as I think that's obvious and you can see lots of bad habits in our players when they're in the batter's box, but unfortunately for us he might be our best option. They picked him because he was the best of every guy in the organization at teaching these guys how to hit!

[Manocad]

TSE, I've noticed that all your strategies are after the fact. When do we see exactly what the Tigers should do BEFORE they do it? And obviously, I'm fully aware that you've created your own loophole; if the Tigers don't do what you've suggested, you then have an easy out for explaining why they failed even though you have no proof that doing what you suggested would have succeeded.

[TSE]

^
I've been contributing on the Internet about the Tigers and Lions for many years, and well before I was even on this site. And I talk to everybody that's interested in my opinion as often as they ask for it and I render my analysis after each and every transaction that those teams ever make and I'm right on the money virtually every single time in having a logical opinion of whether it's a good move or not. Logic is infallible, and my strategies are based upon not making any logical mistakes. That gives me a tremendous advantage to beat the odds or any insufficient and illogical GM.

[Manocad]

So that being said and you being so great, what moves should the Tigers make in the offseason?

Again, I'm fully aware that you're giving yourself an easy out, but I'll play along.

[TSE]

^
I already listed my feelings on every offensive player in the thread by g-mo. I also deferred on talking pitchers since those moves are highly contingent upon who we can move and who we can get on offense first. The guys I don't like are currency as are the pitchers, and I'm looking to target any improvements we can get on offense, with Cabrera/Fielder/AJax being the 3 lowest priorities unless somebody wants to give us a deal we can't refuse for either of them. It's all summarized pretty well in that thread.

But none of that matters since DD is seemingly projected to not make very many changes there. I advocate a complete redesign of our team, and I only look to possess offensive players that pass my OE% formula test, which I have threads on here that are older.

[Manocad]

You listed your feelings on current players. You did not make any mention on what players the Tigers should acuire and how they should go about doing so.

Are you able to answer my question? If not, you're not worthy of running the team.

[TSE]

I am able, but it's not up to me to pick the players we get, there are over 50 players I would target and the ones we would get would dependon on which of those teams are willing to part with those 50 guys for the lowest price, or vice versa will view our guys that I want to trade as worth the most. I want upgrades in the OF, and the IF (2B, SS, Catcher). So any guys in the game that are the best players with prefernce to those that have lower contracts or are younger are the guys I want. So you get that list of 50 guys and you can make the list yourself if you want to rank the players. If you and I have a difference of opinion on the ordering of them, then I would rather you go with YOUR order, not mine, so you can see the quality of what I'm looking to bring onto the team. That would be more impressive in your mind than the guys I pick as the best players at least for getting an idea of what I'm trying to do.

For Catcher, well there's not many great players available, if I was in charge I would have went after Posey very aggressively after he had his down year the year before last because his stock was clearly less than it is after this big season he had last season. The name of the game is timing and you need to target moves when they make sense. So now's the tiem to figure out which of the top 50 offensive players out there we can get now for the best price paid, using all of those 13 guys AND ANY pitchers or minor leaguers we have to start building a new young core for the future.

[Lionlifer]

Lets keep this on track with what the Tigers have actually done, no need for non-specific blanket statements on strategy here.

Sp this is off topic, but does TSE remind anyone else of Sen. McCarthy during the red scare? "I have a book with 50 names of communists in Washington" yet he never actually released a name.

Anywho back on topic. Castellanos looked good in the AZ rising stars team, he has a good shot to make the roster I think.

[TSE]

^
I don't follow you, I can release names all day, but that doesn't make sense for the context of the question since every good baseball player is somebody I'm open to taking on. Which specific players they are is contingent upon negotiation and how the other teams value each player. You want some names, ok here's a few guys I'd like to go after to improve our OF for starters:

Ryan Braun
Mike Trout
Andrew McCutcheon

And I already mentioned Buster Posey would be my #1 Catcher choice. Ok so there's a few names, how does that help you in any way and why did you need me to list those guys for you when you could have easily identified them as clearly good players? It's about the strategy and the philosophy of how you manage your assets, and you can't just pick players off a team you want, you have to take steps and make moves and constantly be determining if you are taking on a player that makes sense and if that player has an exit strategy that makes sense. It could take a large number of players through multiple transactions to get any of those players since we might have to send a few guys to one team for some of the ingredients of what any of those teams might want in return and it becomes a highly complicated process.

Again the point is we have about a dozen offensive players I don't like, and our entire minor league system and ALL of our pitchers are currency. I advocate the idea of putting all of them into auction and using the totality of what they are worth to get new players and the best ones I can find, starting with improvements in the OF, Posey or maybe Molina at Catcher, and upgrades over our 2B and SS positions which are the weakest in the IF.

[Manocad]

You still haven't answered the question I asked. You feel you'd be an excellent GM of the Tigers.

Now tell me--exactly who do you get in the off-season and how do you go about doing that? Because you can bet your bottom dollar Dave Dombrowski already has an initial strategy that he could lay out. So what are the moves you would make? Running the team properly is not about speaking in generalities as you have done; it's about making specific moves. If you can't tell us what specific moves you'd make, you're not qualified to run the team. Pretty simple concept.

[TSE]

^
You have already disqualified me many times in the past and you don't take me seriously, so it's a moot point to have that discussion with you. I can't tell you exactly who I would get because that is the result of negotiations of the dozens of players I have mentioned that I'm prepared to sell. And once we get one trade then the next trade could be different depending on what we get from the first trade and so on. There are many combinations of players we could get that are different that depend on what the market prices are for all targeted players that can improve this team. I have no interest in trying to convince you of my GM abilities or my plan as that's irrelevant based upon previous positions you have taken against me that I deem to be very unfair and inappropriate and I don't recognize you as wanting to have a serious conversation.

[Manocad]

^
You have already disqualified me many times in the past and you don't take me seriously, so it's a moot point to have that discussion with you. I can't tell you exactly who I would get because that is the result of negotiations of the dozens of players I have mentioned that I'm prepared to sell. And once we get one trade then the next trade could be different depending on what we get from the first trade and so on. There are many combinations of players we could get that are different that depend on what the market prices are for all targeted players that can improve this team. I have no interest in trying to convince you of my GM abilities or my plan as that's irrelevant based upon previous positions you have taken against me that I deem to be very unfair and inappropriate and I don't recognize you as wanting to have a serious conversation.

You're right that I don't take you seriously. This post is a perfect example of why; there's nothing to take. You make big claims yet when challenged on those claims you fail to produce anything substantial.

If you feel it's unfair and inappropriate that you be challenged about your claims of being able to do incredible things, I've got news for you--get ready to be upset with the world, dood. Strangely enough, people will expect you to back up your claims and when you don't, you'll be disregarded. This is not something isolated to just me.

[TSE]

^
No I don't think it's unfair to be challenged, I said your previous positions and comments were unfair and inappropriate, thus you are not a qualified person to challenge me, by your own admissions from the past you don't take me seriously in addition to much worse characterizations.

[Manocad]

Of course I don't take your claims seriously; you refuse to substantiate them. You can play the victim card all you want, but all I've ever done is challenge your claims (outside of saying that based on your posting behavior I didn't think you were really a Tigers fan; if that really bothered you then you've got some pretty thin skin, dooder). Everything you've ever posted about your ability to be a better GM than anyone else ever has amounts to nothing more than "I have a great deal of ability and I know I could do a better job than anyone out there." That's not any sort of substantiation; it's easily debunked by me saying that I know that no matter how good a job you did, I am certain I could do better.

[TSE]

^
Well then when you are in charge of hiring the next GM of any sports team then I guess I will be out of luck since I have failed to reach you or convince you. Such as life, I will move on and work towards trying to convince the actual decision makers when I'm able to secure that opportunity to do so. Hopefully they will not require of me to have an endorsement letter from Manocad of RealGM as a mandatory requirement to secure an interview.

[Manocad]

^
Well then when you are in charge of hiring the next GM of any sports team then I guess I will be out of luck since I have failed to reach you or convince you.

You've refused to even try.

Such as life, I will move on and work towards trying to convince the actual decision makers when I'm able to secure that opportunity to do so. Hopefully they will not require of me to have an endorsement letter from Manocad of RealGM as a mandatory requirement to secure an interview.

You need a proven track record to secure an interview. Not my endorsement, not "strong highlights." This is how the world works.

I should check the Red Wings and Lions threads; maybe we can do this there too!