06-05-12--DETROIT VS CLEVELAND--7:05 PM

[John_Brian_K]

+100

When the tigers stunk up the joiGnt this was seriously one of the best places to read about baseball in existence. Ever since the tigers made the playoffs it's been downhill. When they got prince this year it became way worse overnight. I still enjoy reading a lot of the posters but there's a lot of trolls.

There is an ignore feature. Again, IMO, you get out of the place what you put into it. Take the time to ignore the 'trolls' or 'bad posters' or people who just get under your skin, it will make a difference.

And maybe show your Tigers fandom and put up an avatar of something Tigers....and maybe change the name to show your love for them. I am not telling anyone what to do, just offering suggestions.

Just a question: Do you spend some time on Reds forums also?

[Shelton]

Red team go has been a valuable member to this community for years. He doesn't need to change his avatar or have a tigers themed username for his opinion to be valid.

I know a few posters that no longer post in the forum or at least have significantly reduced the frequency with which they post due to the increasing number of trolls and mlive style commenting. Red's point is a good one. I don't think I agree with the idea of a separate forum, but there is nothing wrong with discussing the state of the board.

[Vonlenska]

I'm starting to wonder if people just like messing with you about that.



Well, Grey at Walkoff Woodward made some salient points here. (If you follow him on Twitter, you know he's not prone to bouts of optimism.)

As for me, I'm mostly optimistic because there are 100+ games left (yes, I'm one of those people). I also don't think the Tigers are as terrible as they seem right now. I do think they'll have to make some moves, such as getting rid of some of the dead weight (Like DFAing/releasing/etc. Delmon? Sending Boesch to the minors for a little bit? /shrug) and maybe making a trade or two to upgrade the pitching staff or the middle infield, but I truly think they're a better team than they've shown to this point.

I don't think the Tigers were as good as we wanted to believe when they signed Prince, either. I seem to recall someone on this board (I am possibly mistaken and it might have been a different board) said they should easily be a 108 win team; I didn't even think they were a 100+ win team. I thought somewhere between an 88-92 win team was realistic, and could easily take the division. I also thought Cleveland and Chicago would be improved; as of now, I'm not too sure about Cleveland, but Chicago seems to be doing well and getting contributions from unexpected sources, such as Adam Dunn, Alex Rios, and Jake Peavy, to name a few. Can the Sox keep it up? Will they fade? Maybe the luck will start turning in the Tigers' favor. Maybe not. Who knows?

Semi-relatedly, I really don't think they should have a fire sale and punt the rest of the season like I've seen suggested on Twitter. I saw someone the other day say the Tigers need to unload Prince on the Dodgers for whatever they can get, which didn't make much sense to me because I can't imagine they'd get close to equal value in return. I also saw someone suggest the Tigers should trade Cabrera too, to restock the minors. I think Verlander was the only one no one on Twitter suggested we trade.

Also, has anyone given a thought to signing Jeff Francis? He is apparently primed to opt out of his minor league deal with the Reds. Saw this suggested on Twitter and was not immediately repulsed by the prospect; he's also doing well in AAA for Cincinnati. Could send Crosby back to Toledo and insert Francis in the fifth spot in the rotation until Fister's ready to return.

Apologies.

/tl;dr

Good post. Perspective is definitely needed; I remember after the 3 game sweep over Boston some people were certain they'd break records; a poster suggested the 35-5 record start was in jeopardy.

It's not too late. There's not a whole lot of hope outside of the fact that there's so much time left.

[Vonlenska]

Also, alwaysthrowheat has the same avatar as sportz did. That is probably the only reason they're associated.

[John_Brian_K]

Red team go has been a valuable member to this community for years. He doesn't need to change his avatar or have a tigers themed username for his opinion to be valid.

I know a few posters that no longer post in the forum or at least have significantly reduced the frequency with which they post due to the increasing number of trolls and mlive style commenting. Red's point is a good one. I don't think I agree with the idea of a separate forum, but there is nothing wrong with discussing the state of the board.

I never said he was not a valuable member, but he is ragging on 'newbies' (rightfully so in most cases) and those 'newbies' may look at his name and avatar and think he has more interest in another team...which MAY skew their opinion on his allegiance. I was just making an observation. Baseball is baseball.

Once again my post comes off sounding way worse than what I intended it for. Sorry RedTeam.

[T&P_Fan]

Back to baseball. The Tigers have to start winning some series. A 5-6 game winning streak would be nice, but lets just start by winning 3 series in a row or 6 out of 9.

The tigers have played such bad baseball, they need to start heating up, it is july now and time to get going. Figure it out boys.

[MotownWebGuy]

I'm a long the lurker here on Motown and starting last season the whining has gotten really bad. It's funny, the better the tigers got on the field the worse the posters have gotten on motownsports. 9-10 years ago this place was one of the best places to read about baseball on the Internet and it is almost ruined because of posters like this guy.

RedTeamGo!, this response may be directed to you, but your comments are something that we have often heard over the years, so this response is really directed to many more people.

We've always been challenged with difficult and/or negative posters, but it's always easy to forgot about the problems of the past when you're dealing with the issues of the present. We're still a great place to talk baseball, even if we have a few extra oddballs in the mix. If you're really disappointed with the quality of posting, the best thing to do is to make a quality post. Instead of popping up here and there to complain about the state of the message board today, how about adding a post of value to change the focus to something positive? Piling on with more negatives just adds to the problem... Show others by example the type of quality posts you miss reading when you visit this message board.

As for your idea that is used on the Red forums you frequent, I don't think that is something I would be interested in trying at this point. We're an established forum, and changing to that format and/or expectation might not be the solution for us. We have always tried to avoid things that seperates usergroups (with the exception of a VIP forum for paid customers) or singles out users based on their popularity or time spent on the message board. This is why we don't use features built into this board such as post ratings or user reputation.

As for me, I'm mostly optimistic because there are 100+ games left (yes, I'm one of those people). I also don't think the Tigers are as terrible as they seem right now. I do think they'll have to make some moves, such as getting rid of some of the dead weight (Like DFAing/releasing/etc. Delmon? Sending Boesch to the minors for a little bit? /shrug) and maybe making a trade or two to upgrade the pitching staff or the middle infield, but I truly think they're a better team than they've shown to this point.

I don't think the Tigers were as good as we wanted to believe when they signed Prince, either. I seem to recall someone on this board (I am possibly mistaken and it might have been a different board) said they should easily be a 108 win team; I didn't even think they were a 100+ win team. I thought somewhere between an 88-92 win team was realistic, and could easily take the division. I also thought Cleveland and Chicago would be improved; as of now, I'm not too sure about Cleveland, but Chicago seems to be doing well and getting contributions from unexpected sources, such as Adam Dunn, Alex Rios, and Jake Peavy, to name a few. Can the Sox keep it up? Will they fade? Maybe the luck will start turning in the Tigers' favor. Maybe not. Who knows?

Semi-relatedly, I really don't think they should have a fire sale and punt the rest of the season like I've seen suggested on Twitter. I saw someone the other day say the Tigers need to unload Prince on the Dodgers for whatever they can get, which didn't make much sense to me because I can't imagine they'd get close to equal value in return. I also saw someone suggest the Tigers should trade Cabrera too, to restock the minors. I think Verlander was the only one no one on Twitter suggested we trade.

Also, has anyone given a thought to signing Jeff Francis? He is apparently primed to opt out of his minor league deal with the Reds. Saw this suggested on Twitter and was not immediately repulsed by the prospect; he's also doing well in AAA for Cincinnati. Could send Crosby back to Toledo and insert Francis in the fifth spot in the rotation until Fister's ready to return.

Apologies.

/tl;dr

Great example of a quality post that adds value. Thanks catswithbats! We need more of this here!

[Yoda]

MWG - Stop complaining about everyone and post something Tigers-related for once. :)

[MotownWebGuy]

MWG - Stop complaining about everyone and post something Tigers-related for once. :)

As soon as they stop sucking, I might.

[Casimir]

Back to baseball. The Tigers have to start winning some series. A 5-6 game winning streak would be nice, but lets just start by winning 3 series in a row or 6 out of 9.

The tigers have played such bad baseball, they need to start heating up, it is july now and time to get going. Figure it out boys.

This. And especially find a way to win series within the division. Cleveland is a bit dinged up right now as well, so there really are no excuses to not take 2 of the next 3.

[Antrat]

This season was over once the Tigers passed on Damon.
I figure they'd be in first place by 15 games by now if they had Damon Power!

[Biff Mayhem]

Bert determines the bad posters. Then Biff kicks them out.

Close. Bert is wearing the argyle sweater.

[T&P_Fan]

I can't stop watching that.

[Sports_Freak]

This. And especially find a way to win series within the division. Cleveland is a bit dinged up right now as well, so there really are no excuses to not take 2 of the next 3.

Santana may be back tonight. It seems like he kills our pitching.

[thefunk]

Well, thanks to the off day and opinions, this game thread has been quite the ride.

There's baseball in a few hours, remember.

[pyrotigers]

Berry 8, M. Young 7, Cabrera 5, Fielder 3, D. Young dh, Avila 2, Peralta 6, Boesch 9, Santiago 4. Smyly, P

Matt Young will go hitless in his Tigers debut (0-0, 5 walks of course)

[thefunk]

Not hard to look at that line up and wonder where the runs will come from. Here's to a new beginning!

[Casimir]

Matt Young minor league career 516 BBs vs 454 Ks, .390 OBP, and has played 2B 20% of the time. OK, cross that position off of the trade deadline wishlist.

[MC24]

Matt Young hitting 2nd lol. That's funny.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Matt Young hitting 2nd lol. That's funny.

Why?

[Antrat]

He couldn't be any worse than Boesch.
Well, he could, but the bar is set very low.

[MC24]

Why?

Because there are more established players that could bat 2nd?

[thefunk]

Because there are more established players that could bat 2nd?

I think this team has done a good job of debunking the batting order myth so far this year.

Stick 'em anywhere, we ain't hitting.

[Who is the Drizzle?]

Because there are more established players that could bat 2nd?

nice one, i lol'd.

[john doe]

I think this team has done a good job of debunking the batting order myth so far this year.

Stick 'em anywhere, we ain't hitting.

Yep.

[tiger337]

Tonight's line-up with the two speedsters at the top is more exciting than just about anything else they have tried this year.

[Sports_Freak]

Dirks is missed, that's for sure. Berry has done a very good job filling in for Jackson, he's probably outproduced what Jackson would have given us. But, IMO, we're going to need the back end of our BP to get their act together, and soon!

[T&P_Fan]

Almost baseball time, finally.

[ToledoTigerFan]

I personally guarantee a win tonight. Final score........

Tigers 7
Injuns 4

[jonjd]

Here's to the beginning of a big, big winning streak.

[ToledoTigerFan]

PLAY
WINNING
BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MSUBrian11]

Looks like we lost another poster, jz has been banned :(

[T&P_Fan]

Smyly starts with a K.

[T&P_Fan]

Strikes out the side.

[Shelton]

Fantasy question:

Who woul you rather have? Garza or hammel?

[thefunk]

Looks like we lost another poster, jz has been banned :(

Good 1/2 inning for Smyly!

[jonjd]

Another grown man going after a foul ball, only to look foolish. Not to mention staring at a young girl and refusing to give it to her. Shameful.

Nicely done Berry/Cabrera.

[thefunk]

Delmon, you'd better homer.

[T&P_Fan]

Cabrera is good.

[jonjd]

Always nice to score first. Our odds of winning have greatly improved. Indians are 17-8 when they score first. 11-17 when they do not.