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Tigers plan for 2017

The Tigers’ plan for 2017 is pretty simple. Make the playoffs, try and shrink the payroll, run with some young guns, and don’t sign another Mike Pelfrey.

Payroll limits will be worked out between Tigers owner Mike Ilitch and general manager Al Avila. But even ahead of a firm number, it is the clear understanding by Tigers brass player salaries will shrink from this year’s nearly $210 million.

None of this is surprising as most of us saw 2016’s two major signings as the last for a while. Add in the relative lack of prospects in the Tigers’ system, and this will probably be a quiet off season.

Not that that is a bad thing. Most of the positions are set moving into next year, and the team showed that it is capable of making a run at the playoffs. Expect Al Avila to take a more nuanced approach centering around the bullpen and depth.

Plan out your TV time

The ALCS and NLCS schedules have been set, so mark your calendars accordingly for optimal baseball watching.

In other programming notes, Chris Archer will again be a guest analyst for the World Series. Which is good, because Chris Archer is not only the man, but also the hottest broadcasting prospect in the game.

Vintage Pete Rose

Gym rat, coaches son, and all of the hustle

It’s usually lazy journalism to label the small white guy on the team as gritty, but I’m not sure there is a better description for Dustin Pedroia. After another productive season for the Red Sox, it was revealed that he was battling a damaged meniscus for the last month of the season. Considering the surgery usually requires a removal of most of the meniscus, it’s amazing he was able to perform at such a high level. Let’s wish him a speedy recovery.

Parity? Parity

In eight years, basically the whole league has made the playoffs. If you have any friends that are Mariners, Padres, or Marlins fans, give them a hug next time you see them. Especially the Marlins fans.

An annual links tradition

Where I point out that this is still the most racist things in sports and should not be used anymore:

Along those lines, Jerry Howarth, the play-by-play announcer of the Blue Jays has not used “Indians” in over 20 years. Barry Petchesky of Deadspin has a thoughtful article on usage of the team name that echoes my opinion. But I think we can all agree that Chief Wahoo really really really needs to go.

Cleveland Rising

Only took about a week to go from the Indians are way too injured to, the Indians base running advantage and exploitable Toronto pitching could put them right into the World Series. But such is life with October baseball. As Tigers fans know well, the best team almost never wins.

For your free time

Yasiel Puig would play for Mexico over Cuba at the World Baseball Classic. Which playoff team is most likely to give way to the Tigers in 2017. Interesting valuation article on payroll vs. production. Mike Trout is basically a Hall of Famer already.

Baseball is awesome

I don’t have a great video, but Clayton Kershaw coming in for the 9th was one of the coolest post season moments of all time. Also, goodbye and good riddance.