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Lost 17-3 to A's today, been outscored 41-9 this week.

This team might have trouble winning in Triple-A.

Avila has been a disaster as GM. He needs to go.

And Cabrera is done. He can't turn on a fastball-hit for power or stay healthy.

Fans aren't paying money to watch him anymore but Tigers are on the hook for $30 million a year (child support and alimony)!

I thought Gardenhire would push better discipline at the plate and on the mound, like his teams in Minnesota had, but too many of our pitchers have a habit of not attacking the strike zone until they are already behind in the count (giving opposing hitters the chance to sit on a pitch), and our hitters are swinging early at pitches out of the zone, then guessing after being behind. This was never going to be a good year, but at least get everyone focused for every play. You dont have to be super talented to play with discipline and focus, and that is what the staff should be emphasizing.

Cabrera seems like he doesnt care. And he has been one of the worst offenders at swinging at bad pitches. I honestly dont think he is too old to hit, but I do think he is unmotivated, and probably still wants to play elsewhere. We are saddled with that anvil of a contract too, so you cant even ship him someplace to clear space.

I was never a fan of Avila as our GM. I get the concept of building talent within the system, and eliminating , at least as much as you can, the burdensome contracts, before investing in free agents to build a high level team, but he said after last season it will take five more years, and I think that is BS. He is building an umbrella for himself. Turnarounds can happen far more quickly than that, and could have been far less drastic than Avila's approach. JD Martinez, for example, was a young player in his prime, and was the type of player who appreciated his opportunity in Detroit. I think he would have stayed. There were several other players like him who we could have built around, while still working on getting quality players into the system. There is no higher likelihood of success in a longer term plan than a two or three year plan in my mind. I think Avila just wants to be able to say that he needs five more years.

Illich felt a lack of loyalty out of Dombrowski, because he thought Dombrowski was shopping himself to other suitors. And maybe he was. But Dombrowski was and is a smart guy who understands how to build a top team. We miss him.

The Tigers needed to sell long before they did. My suspicion was always that Dombrowski wanted to re-tool and plan for the future and Illitch wanted to win before he croaked. So we ended up with a really bad baseball team because of the whims one one rich pizza merchant. They're so lucky they sold some in 2015 (Price and Cespedes) or else they'd have never gotten Norris, Fulmer, and Boyd. They should have sold in the winter before the '17 season when Kinsler and JD Martinez had value. They ended up getting very little back on those trades. The same thing almost happened with Verlander, but he turned it around and ended up getting them quite a bit in return. Hopefully they end up getting something good back for Boyd at the deadline this year.

Back in like 15 or 16 I predicted they wouldn't make the playoffs again until 2030. Like the Phillies, they held on too long and dug themselves a hole. I really hope I'm wrong about the 2030 thing. They have some really good young pitching in Erie right now. Manning and Mize have been awesome this year. They're gonna need to get some bats though. Hopefully they get a good one in this year's draft.