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So Avila says the Tigers are looking to sign a veteran catcher to help Greiner and Rogers out at the MLB level. Just a thought, could Alex Avila be that guy? I’m seeing that he is a FA now.

I seriously wonder, as he continues to make headlines in Houston, which hat he would wear going into the HOF.

I had forgotten about Fryman’s cycle in 1993 against the Yankees until I read your comments. I recalled the morning after his hitting for the cycle I was so stoked about it. At the time I was supervising a day crew in a pharma production facility. I remember explaining to the guys that morning in the shift meeting what hitting for the cycle entailed. They probably wondered where that came from but I was still living it. Man, the Tigers had some bats back then.

At face value, this statement is totally unfounded.There is not an ounce of evidence to support your assertion. If you have anything, I mean anything, that you have that could substantiate this claim, please share it with everyone. I would like to see where you draw this conclusion from.

Rogers, Griener, nor Hicks is anything to rely on going forward. Rogers is slated to be the starter when all is said and done if nothing else changes. Why not sign a Matt Weiters or Steven Vogt to a contract for the sake of helping Rogers and/or Greiner along. If they had some guy to lean on a bit at their stage of development it would be an investment for the future. To wait for one of these guys to just figure out on their own isn’t going to work out I don’t think.

Actually he did an interview that was posted on MLB this morning. He answered whatever he was asked.

Actually he’s saying, “Thank goodness we got the **** out of Detroit.”

Verlander is no Mickey Lolich!

When is Fulmer due back?

Like Ausmus.

SF is interviewing Joe Espada and Gabe Kapler a second time. I don’t really care for Kapler but I’d definitely look at Espada. He is the kind of guy I would like to see. I think he’ll get the SF job.

My impression of Gardenhire is that he doesn’t know what’s going on. What information that does get down to him he doesn’t really understand it. I’d prefer they had a manager that was already fluent in the “cutting edge” approach used today but still had some time in the dugout in a leadership role. I know Gardy is a temporary babysitter but I’d prefer a manager that can sit at the table with the GM and be an informed voice. I hope the little talent in the system doesn’t get exposed to Gardy.

Jason Beck’s response, in part, to an inquiry about where the Tiger’s analytics department is nowadays. My concern from the beginning is expressed below. “So far, the Tigers face a recurring problem on the analytics front: Every team is in on it, and most of them enjoyed a significant head start. For all Detroit is doing, other teams also are advancing, meaning Detroit is still playing catch-up according to many outside the organization. If and when the Tigers catch up, simply doing the same thing as everyone else isn’t going to gain to edge, at least in terms of player acquisition. The initial purpose of the analytics revolution was to identify market inefficiencies that others were missing. When every team does the same thing and reaches the same evaluation, there’s a risk of groupthink. The Tigers need a creative edge, a distinguishing factor.”

The whole Bochy retiring thing was too obvious. The sole reason he announced his retirement is because he was in the last year of his contract and knew very well that Farhan Zaidi was going to want SF to go in another direction. Everyone was happy and saved face this way. He never wanted to leave managing to begin with. He’s a good baseball man and I’ll be anxious to see where things go from here. With Bochy gone I don’t know what Bumgarner thinks of returning to SF if the chance is offered. Some local here-say is that he wants to play somewhere closer to home.

Bruce Bochy has indicated he wants to manage again after this year.