1st sim in the bigs and things were impressive from CF Eugen Bozeman. Ideally would would have liked to see some better numbers versus lefties but for his 9 games in MLB we hope he can continue to get on base as he is project to. Very capable outfielder as well thus far. Great news considering Detroit ranks 14th in defensive efficiency. On Friday August 25th, in a game vs Oakland Confucius Rex decided to intentional walk Bozeman in a 8 hit, 7 run 5th inning.
Robbins has been pitching great over the past two months. The only guy we have seen any consistency from in the rotation. He, of course, is due his first arbitration pay next season and looking at an estimated $4.5 million raise. Get that cheese
Very happy to see LF Pedro Serna decided to play up to his ability at the end of the season in which we are out of the playoff race
We'll see how he turns out after surgery with that new 5 year contract... At least its a pretty low cost deal.
You know it's the end of the season when a Detroit pitcher goes down for extended time while sighing an extension. I offered him the amount estimated he would have received through arbitration and he was won a lot of games every though his ERA isn't spectacular. I'd like to hang on to him so we gave him his due.
Welp, this sucks. Detroit's #4 prospect (#78 OA) decided to retire this off-season. The news is not great as he was expected to develop into a OBP machine. Times are getting tough, and cold, in the D. He broke his elbow last season and this may have resulted in Thian having to leave baseball for good. The Tigers organization wish him well in his future endeavors.
2024 April Review Started out 9-17 to open the season. Terrible -- a lot of turmoil in the line-up as we have been ravished by the injury bug on both batting and pitching side. Batter of the Month 3B Ruben Maldonado .314 / .344 / .430 Pitcher of the Month MR Santos Rodriguez 1.80 era over 10 innings, 15K, 10 hits allowed
2024 May Review Things were much improved from April to May. The team was able to post a .500 record for the month with the help of SP Chris Sale getting into the rotation after spending a month in Toldeo on a rehab assignment. We also got some bats back in the line-up that helped the team 9-4 in their last 13 games. Currently sit 8 games back on the Wild Card but that is our goal for the season. Can we overcome such a terrible start? Time will tell. With two top AL East foes on the schedule for this next sim we could make some serious ground up quickly with a great sim to start June. Most importantly CL Dan Parks and OF Brandon Hanson will come off the DL next sim and give a huge bump for the team. Batter of the Month C Ron Schloss .371 / .485 / .744 6 HR, 15 RBI, 1.233 OPS Pitcher of the Month MR Brenden Kline 13.1 IP, 3-0, .068 era
2024 June Review What a rough month. Not much positive to begin the month that saw us at 3-15 on the month with the offense in a downward death spiral. Due to roster moves and injuries the lack of power left in the line-up has become fully evident. None of the batters outside of a few are challenging opposing pitchers. We did see light at the end of the tunnel at the end of the month while going 5-4 in the last sim. Batters of the Month 3B Ruben Maldonado .347 / .357 / .432 CF Don Parsons .320 / .350 / .493 2 HR, 20 RBI, 9 EBH Pitchers of the Month SP Chris Sale 6 GS, 1 CG, 1.40 era, 83% QS CL Ken Smith 6 SV, 1.00 era, 6 K/BB, 0.2 FIP
2024 September Review The good - The offense managed to move from dead last in BA to 10th by season's end. We still were unable to produce much of anything in runs last year but it didn't matter as we gave up the 12th most in the league. We also had our first winning month in September. The bad - Worst season in history for the Tigers organization. The the offense was turned over to the youth this year and they simple did not produce. Outside of one or two guys everyone managed to take the season off, minus September. I would assume in attempt to save their jobs but I know who will and won't be around next year. One way or another. The early devastation to our pitching line-up really was disappointing. Batters of the Month C Ron Schloss .333 / .396 / .633 OPS - 1.029, 7 HR, 18 RBI, 18 R CF Byung-Sik O .375 / .379 / .589 OPS - .969 Pitchers of the Month SP Chris Sale 7 GS, 4-3, 3.08 era CL Dan Parks 8 saves, 0.54 era, 21 K/BB
2024 Off-season Questions Will they sign their player option or not?! CF Virgil Hilts $12.5 million Player Option He lost his spot in the starting line-up at CF due to his continued failure at hitting LHP. He was much improved from last year but still is currently very angry and has asked for a trade through his agent. He is a very popular player and we can not afford to get hammered in team interested after such a bad season. Likelihood staying with Detroit - 20%. SP Anthony Duncan $5.5 million Player Option 2.9 WAR this season while leading the team in strike-outs. His 18 losses though are tough to swallow given his sub 5.00 era. Tough to tell if he will sign his option or not. I would assume Duncan sticks around before Hilts does.
He picked up his option. Than he followed that up with a great ST hitting .303/.370/.394, only to go down for 4 months with 4 days left in ST with a ruptured finger
2025 Spring Training Notes Record: 16-6 Tigers had: 4 players in the Top 10 in # of hits in MLB (Serna, O, Maldonado, Grinaldo) Two players in top 10 in # of doubles in MLB (O, Serna) Two players in top 10 in runs scored (Maldonado, O) Two players in top 10 in stolen bases (Hilts, O) Two players in top 10 in total bases (Serna, O) Things went good in development. David Arias is looking for MLB at bats... he is also available on the block as is Martinez
International Player Spotlight Signed for $170,000 out of Cuba in 2023, the "Honker" is progressing well thus far and will pitch in rookie ball this year. Signed for $1.5 million in 2022, "Tricky" looks more and more like a MR in the future. Tricky started 10 games last year in rookie ball going 2-3 with a 4.6 era. Signed 2023 for $200,000, Ordonez is also progressing nicely and is playing in SA this year after posting a 3.03 era last season in rookie ball.
2025 April Review 2025 got off to a great start, posting a 6-1 record in the first sim. Since, we have struggled to find consistency. While we're happy our team is hitting much MUCH better than last year, it's simply only keep our head above water. The pitching production is below expectations and we have been in 9 one run games already in 26 games. Hopefully we are able to stop blowing saves and Dan Parks gets his act together. We getting the services of Ken Smith back off the DL after the next sim. Hitter of the Month Byung-sik O .302 / .352 / .587, 4 HR, 9 SB in 20 games Pitcher of the Month SP Chris Sale 2-1, 3.14 era
2025 May Review May showed signs that this team can compete for the AL Wildcard. It's been all but assumed that the White Sox will run away with the division due to years of tanking and building one of the more ridiculous talent ridden roster. While getting Ken Smith back from the DL has reduced the number of blown saves we were having, even in a reliever role Dan Parks managed to blow another save that would have provided a solid double sweep of two NL divisional leaders in the Braves Timpegoose and Pirates PAgamer07. The Tigers are 4th best in the AL in runs allowed while being 11-7 in one run games. Our offense has yet to be spectacular this year and we will need to continue to rely on the 4th best starting rotation per era. Batter of the Month Byung-sik O .300 / .358 / .470, 17 RBI, 8 XBH, 4 HR, 6 SB Pitch of the Month (R) Joe "Cool Papa" Brooks 3-0, 1.71 era, 2.53 FIP
2025 June Review Both the offense and pitching/defense took a step backwards in the month of June. June and July always seem to be a struggle for any Tigers team. Although we managed to only go one game under .500 for the month, being swept by the lowly Twins last sim was a kick in the nuts. We've had guys go from hot to cold and vice versus on this team so far this year. Right now we are sitting 3 GB of a WC slot behind Toronto, who we always play well against, and Texas, who we don't. We are also neck and neck with TB - but they allow every base-runner to score somehow. Batter of the Month Francisco Grinaldo .325 / .395 / .416 Pitcher of the Month John Mitchell 7 GS, 3-1, 3.56 era, 3.11 FIP
2025 June Review The significant strategy decisions that were made after July seemed to have paid off very well. We had to play a very tough month playing the likes of a playoff worthy team except for the 6 games against Cleveland. To their credit, going into the month they were very much in contention and we only feel slightly bad about taking 5 of 6 from them to all but eliminate them from the post-season. We swept the series with OAK which helped with our WC standings but still dropped 2 or 3 to Texas, one in 12 innings that really hurt. The pitching and defense is playing great, with everyone being healthy it helps. We now look towards September with Texas holding a 2 game advantage for the last WC spot with Toronto having a 2 game/win advantage over Texas. Behind us TB is one game back, with Oakland 1 game behind them. But it looks like Baltimore is dead! Batter of the Month C Ron Schloss .341 / .445 / .769 / 1.215 10 HR, 30 RBI, 9 2B Pitcher of the Month (R) SP Joe "Cool Papa" Brooks 6 GS, 4-1, 2.47 ERA
International Player Spotlight ** UPDATE ** SP Oliver "Honker" Medina Signed in 2023 for $170,000 out of Cuba Currently in his first year in the Tigers organization playing in the Gulf Coast Rookie League for the Lakeland Tigers SP Zhao-Ji "Tricky" Ran Signed for $1,500,000 out of Taiwan in 2022 Currently in his second year pitching in the New York-Penn League (SA) MR Julio Rivera Signed for $1,500,000 out of Cuba in 2022 Currently in his third year pitching for the West Michigan White Caps in the Midwest League (A) SP Jamie Ordonez Signed for $200,000 out of Puerto Rico in 2023 Currently in his third year pitching for the West Michigan White Caps in the Midwest League (A) MR Don Oglethorpe Signed for $65,000 out of USA in 2021 (via Nippon) Currently in his fourth year pitching for the Lakeland Flying Tigers in the Florida State League (A)
April 1 - May 10, 2025 A mediocre start to the season after the fire sale that was the off-season. With that in mind, this could be considered a great start after all. We shipped out both our two best pitchers in the off-season clearing nearly $30 million in cap space and opened space for a couple FA and eventually call-up and John O'Finn. SP Marcelino, who came over from SD NeuroticTruth, has dazzled in his 6 starts thus far posting a 2.77 era. Detroit sits a 1/2 game out of the division lead with major injuries crippling the start to the season. Due to injuries we have not been able to get a healthy starting line-up on the field yet this season. Batter of the Month C Ron "The Castle" Schloss 2.1 WAR already on the season w/1.113 OPS Pitcher of the Month SP Anthony Marcelino
2026/2027 Off-season Tiger would like to welcome Jesus Rosa who comes from the baseball vacuum of the Dominican Republic. With no previous history to go off of the MLB scouts found themselves in awe when they identified the talented ace. It's no secret the Tigers organization has had to deal with a handful of busts coming up through the system and have decided to play with the big boys and fack trying to develop players. Long live the wealthy! Meanwhile this chode will likely struggle to keep a .500 record and an era under 5.0
Not sure how I landed him for $13 mil/year when Yankees signed MR Chavez to a $16 mil/yr contract. See how these work out for both clubs with no previous stats to go off of
