Bless You Boys: for Detroit Tigers fans

The Tigers set their 40 man roster, and protected just about every likely suspect this week. We'd like to encourage them to sign Travis d'Arnaud or some other decent catcher please. The Astros punishments should be coming soon. It's going to be very interesting to see how a year of blunders and reprehensible conduct is dealt with by MLB. Finally, Commissioner Manfred sounds an awful lot like he's daring the players union to strike, and we're not thrilled with he and the owners right now.

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Ashley MacLennan and Brandon Day are back with a new episode as the offseason speculation begins to warm up the ol' hot stove. We'll talk the Washington Nationals' party, Lou Whitaker's long awaited shot at a much deserved place in Cooperstown, and start setting the table for roster moves and free agent signings for both the Tigers and a few of the bigger names in the game.

-The Nationals are on a pretty epic post World Series bender

-Lou Whitaker leads the new Modern Era Committee ballot and is the early favorite to finally get his rightful spot in Cooperstown.

-Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, and Anthony Rendon lead another strong free agent class into another very uncertain offseason.

-Yasiel Puig to Detroit? On a one-year deal? We're not convinced on MLB Trade Rumors' Tigers predictions.

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We're back after our postseason break to take a brief look back at the postseason, and a much more in depth reflection on the World Series, the Washington Nationals' incredible October run, the Astros and their self-inflicted wounds, and the coming out party for Juan Soto and to an extent, Stephen Strasburg.

-General impressions from the World Series

-The rise of Juan Soto

-The Trea Turner play and other strange moments

-Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez get their ring, produce all the feels (shoutout to Fernando Rodney too!)

-How the Astros may have lost the World Series before it began

-Not a great show from the umpires

-The Tigers fired Doug Mientkiewicz as Toledo Mud Hens' manager

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In the second part of our overview of the 2019 season in the Tigers farm system, Bless You Boys prospect writer Jay Markle and host Brandon Day take a look at the position players. The situation remains somewhat grim despite a few bright spots. 

We discuss Riley Greene, Isaac Paredes, and the crunch of mediocre outfield prospects destined for Toledo. Can Parker Meadows or Wenceel Perez take the next step into guyhood? Should we be panicky about Daz Cameron's down year? The system has a number of interesting positional prospects, but very little of the top tier talent they need to power a future contending team.

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Host Brandon Day and Bless You Boys prospect writer Jay Markle get into reviewing the 2019 Tigers farm system. This is going to be a two part episode, with each running roughly an hour, but it still feels like we barely scratched the surface. 

This episode starts with an overview of the system, but we'll heavily focus on the top pitching prospects, and save the position players for part two. 

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Host Brandon Day is joined by Dan Szymborski, creator and operator of the ZIPS Projection System and writer for FanGraphs. We commiserated over the duel misery of the Tigers and Orioles franchises and took a look at the Tigers rebuild. The discussion ranges over projecting baseball players, the future of sports gambling,  the impact of data on player development, and a host of tangents and digressions from Tom Selleck to Len Koenecke. You can find his latest piece on the Tigers' season here and you'll find his work at ESPN as well as at FanGraphs. 

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We’re back with our latest episode as the 2019 season mercifully enters its final weeks. Brandon Day and Ashley McLennan survey some of the disappointing starts for the Tigers callups this year, and advise everyone to chill just a bit. We’ll also check in with our favorite former Tigers, and look at the fallout from the Boston Red Sox surprise firing of Dave Dombrowski.

Intro: “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House” -Yo La TengoThe young Tigers have been a disappointing group, but there’s nothing to do but be patient with them. We spend most of the first hour discussing the youth movement, the immediate future, and whether or not the Ilitch family has a plan other than waiting to sell the team.The Tigers and Athletics caused Baseball Reference to blow a fuse.Justin Verlander had a wild couple of weeks, for both good and bad reasons. We’ll breakdown the Verlander kerfuffle with Freep writer Anthony Fenech, and Verlander’s savvy PR move in throwing his third no-hitter in the aftermath.Nick Castellanos is blooming like a desert flower in the love of Cubs fans.Dave Dombrowski someone gets himself fired in Boston, and no one wants to talk about it.

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In the wake of the Tigers stunning takedown of the Houston Astros, host Brandon Day flies solo to unpack the rash of injuries, the shutdown of Casey Mize, Isaac Paredes, Travis Demeritte, and much more. 

There are three segments to this one, roughly 30 minutes each.

 

-In part one, we'll look at the Tigers incredible victory over the Astros, and the rash of injuries and shutdowns plaguing the organization.

-Part two is a look at the coming roster crunch in pitching at Toledo and Detroit next year, the possibility for some creative usage, and the potential for a deep bullpen in 2020.

-In part three, I'll discuss Travis Demerrite and Joey Wentz and the strong early returns they've provided for the Shane Greene trade. And finally, Isaac Paredes isn't exactly neglected, but he still seems to be flying just a bit under the prospect radar. Tigers fans should be excited for him anyway.

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We're back after another somewhat grim week in Tigers baseball. The losing has ceased to feel grim, but rather is expected, with wins being savored where possible. But the loss of JaCoby Jones, Christin Stewart's concussion issues, and rough outings from Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd have rubbed the salt in. Of course, no one is rubbing the salt in more than our dear friend Nick...

-Matt Boyd is giving up homers. Nick Castellanos is hitting them.

-Blaine Hardy and JaCoby Jones are probably done for the year. Can we at least try an actual CF now please?

-David McKay and the Tigers attempts to identify pitchers with upside.

-2020 Tigers schedule preview

-A quick look at the AL Central in the near term

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Well it's been a long, bleak season with only a few exceptions. We'll talk about a couple of those exceptions, but more importantly, we're finally seeing some of the Tigers young talent making the jump to the major leagues. Debut stories are suddenly an abundant resources as young men fulfill their dream, and in some cases, make an immediate impact on the field as well.

-Nick's new gig is going well, while Shane Greene is struggling.

-Jake Rogers and the new guys are finally giving us something to watch for.

-Rehashing the 2017 deadline only hurts us.

-It's no mystery what Al Avila has to get done over the next calendar year. Bats, bats, bats.

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