The Future of Pitching in the 313

News broke this morning that Max Scherzer has signed a contract with the Washington Nationals.  The level headed Detroit Tigers fan had long since said goodbye to him after he did not accept the contract offer they offered him this past Spring Training and was not shocked that he is gone.  Best of luck to him.  I'm glad he is pitching in the National League.  The Tigers won't have to face him unless it is during interleague play or the World Series. 

With that said, I need to call all the over reacting Tigers fan back off the ledge as everything is going to be okay.  As long as the Tigers are busy this year or next with signing pitching.  If they don't do anything, then we can all panic together.  So where does the rotation sit right now?  They have three starting pitchers (Verlander, Sanchez, and Greene) under contract after this year, and two that can walk after this year (Price, Simon).  I'm not saying that the Tigers are in a rebuilding stage, more like reconfiguring.  When you hear the words 'rebuilding stage' you think of a team trading off all their big name players for younger talent and a team that won't contend for four or five years.  The Tigers still have a win now mentality.  What will get them through the upcoming year is depending on a mixture of veteran players and younger talent.  Much like how the Red Wings managed last season as their young players learned to play at the top level.  The problem is that the Wings' farm system is vastly superior to the Tigers'.   

They traded for both Price and Simon this past year.  One would assume that they did not give up players just to have these guys for one year (or more than one year as is the case with Price who came over from Tampa Bay during the season) and let them walk just a year later.  David Price is obviously a big name pitcher.  When they traded for him last season, I figured it was because they knew they would not be getting Scherzer back.  They trade for Price and offer him a contract to keep him around long term.  That is how I saw the trade.  This makes sense in my mind.  They signed him to a one year contract just recently to avoid arbitration and have him locked up for the upcoming season.  There has been rumors that he is not comfortable in Detroit (whatever that means) and could possibly want to test free agency next year.  There are some baseball minds out there that think the Tigers can use Price to lure James Shields (a free agent this year) to Detroit.  They are very close friends and if they could bring Shields into the fold, this could entice Price to stay long term.  However, Dave Dombrowski has been quoted as saying they are staying with the pitchers they have now.   

Alfredo Simon I don't know much about, honestly.  That's what happens when you pitch in the NL Central.  All I know is that they gave up some prospects to get him during the Winter Meetings and that he has had mixed results during his MLB career.  A lot of ups and downs, and they traded for him after one of his 'up' seasons.  All I do know is that a lot of Tigers fans were either confused or pissed about the trade.  Maybe he is only going to be a stopgap this season and they let him walk after the year.  Or they move him to the bullpen where he has pitched in the past.  Or, Dombrowski knows something that we fans do not (which happens from time to time) and likes the potential that he sees.  You know what I see?  A 33 year old pitcher with mixed results during his MLB career.  For a team that needs younger talent and younger arms, this is not the best candidate for a long term contract.  

Another option is to let both of the pitchers walk after the year is over and go after some free agent pitchers during the next off season.  Again, the Tigers only have three starters under contract after this year so maybe they are playing the long game and looking to make a splash next off season.  There is going to be a fair amount of good to great pitchers on the market next year.  Players like Doug Fister, Jordan Zimmerman, and Johnny Cueto are sure to be top targets along with David Price, but there are other pitchers out there that can (and will) draw attention.  It would make the Tigers fanbase rejoice if next year they sign Fister.  I know I would be happy.  Seeing as how that trade was just horribly lopsided.  Another free agent pitcher next year is Rick Porcello.  I was surprised when he was traded away, but how devilishly delightful would it be if the Tigers signed him next off season after he spends the upcoming year with the Red Sox?  I don't think that'll happen though.  He has Scott Boras as an agent and he will be going after big money.

Whatever the pitching future holds for the Tigers, the upcoming season will be interesting.  Personally, I would like to see them sign Price to a contract and go after another big name free agent next off season (coughcoughcoughDougFistercoughcough).  And that is what I think most Not only because this pitching staff is intriguing, but because the rest of the AL Central got better.  Even the Twins.  I see this year being one of the most fun, entertaining, frustrating, demoralizing, and satisfying for the division in a long time.  Because all the other teams got a little better this off season, it will make for a division where you could have three or four teams playing for the divisional title into the late days of August and beginning of September.  Of course it would be great to see the Tigers win another divisional crown, but it won't be as easy as it was two or three years ago. 

Pace of Play

I love baseball.  I could watch it all day.  I have watched it all day.  I have requested Opening Day off this year to enjoy the crack of the bat and excitement of the game.  That's how much I love baseball.  It has never bothered me how long games are.  With that said, there are plenty of opportunities to improve the pace of the game for the casual fan.  Not everyone wants to sit around for two and a half to three hours for a game.  And these are some of the same people that will sit through four hours for one football game.  That, if you ran the game clock with no stoppages, would be one hour.  I don't fully understand it either, but what are you gonna do?

I was watching the MLB Network today and they were discussing the introduction of a pitch clock at the minor league levels.  Same idea as the shot clock in basketball, but for the pitcher.  Once they get the ball back in their hand, they have only a certain amount of time for the next pitch.  It would be beneficial to the speed of the game, I believe, but this is not where the major problem of the game slowing down comes.  It comes from the batters.  Pitchers would benefit from a quicker game as they seem to want to work quickly, some pitchers notwithstanding, and get into a groove.  Batters always want to seem to disrupt that groove.  And the easiest way to do so?  Stepping out of the batters box to readjust the batting gloves, tap your spikes, check with the third base coach as to what your next move should be.

Keeping the batters in the batter's box is more important for speed of the game than using a pitcher's clock.  I know, I know, it's a combination of the batter and the pitcher.  But I think that the batters benefit from slowing the game down because it doesn't really allow pitchers to get into that groove that they want.  The pitchers want the ball back as soon as it hits the catcher's mitt and they want to stay focused.  They don't want to stand around and wait for the batter to scratch his balls another time before stepping back in.

With all that said, I like the idea of having a pitch clock in the minors.  It teaches the pitchers to pick up the pace.  The minor leagues is where players develop.  This is where they learn to play at a professional level.  So, if the pitchers have the pitch clock, it has to be up to the umps to keep the batters in the batter's box.  You cannot have one side of the game learning a new way to play with a new rule set without having the other half learning as well.  

Decommissioning the Tree

We still have out Christmas tree up.  Is that a problem?  Are we clinging on to the holiday that was a little over two weeks ago?  What is the acceptable time frame for leaving it up and taking it down?  There are a couple of things to consider.

The main thing to consider is whether or not the tree is real.  My wife and I both grew up with real trees at Christmas time.  The main issue, of course, are the needles.  You can only deal with falling needles and bare looking branches for so long before you can't stand it.  The nice thing about having a fake tree is only dealing with falling needles when the pets chew or swat at them.  I should say that, they do fall off when we take the tree down as well.  Just not as much.  Having a fake tree, we are not in any kind of rush to take it down because we don't have the needle falling off issue.  Plus, this year we put it up kinda late so we want to get our time's worth out of it.

I'm sure there are people that put their trees up the day after thanksgiving that are eager to take it down the day after Christmas.  And of course, because it's been up for over a goddamn month.  I don't ever remember having our tree up before the month of December as a kid and we flat out refuse to do so as adults now.  Same goes with the music.  If you don't put your tree up in November, you won't be sick of it by the end of December.  Normally, we have our tree up in the middle of December and it's back in the box in the middle of January.  So about a month. 

There is always this big build up to Christmas, I don't understand why people wouldn't want to keep their tree up as long as possible.  It's always a great time of year.  Everyone is happy and nice to each other.  Why wouldn't you want to expand that a little bit longer into January?    

Sentimental Present

It's 2015!  We've made it!  I guess.  Wasn't the world suppose to end a couple of years ago?  Anyway, Christmas came and went.  It didn't feel like Christmas because we didn't have any snow on the ground.  So that sucked.  We got snow a couple of days later, so at least now it feels like winter.  So much so that not only do we have some snow, we also have a wind chill advisory this morning!  It's negative ten out right now, and it feels like negative seventeen.

Other than not having any snow, we had a pretty decent holiday season.  However, it came and went too quickly.  Part of it was because the month of December came so quickly after Thanksgiving.  Usually there's a week in between the two, but with Thanksgiving being so late in the month, there was a holy shit moment a week into December.  My in-laws came into town for Christmas.  It's always nice to spend time with family.  We have spent a couple of Christmas days by ourselves, and it was okay, but it didn't feel like it was anything special.  Christmas time should be spent with family, and when you don't have that, it feels weird.  Like there should be something going on, but there isn't.

I got a wonderful present this year from my parents.  Here's a picture of it.

So, it doesn't look like much.  I got a chuckle out of it because I knew what it was.  It's an ornament that I made when I was a kid.  What was more important was what my mom wrote on the bag. 

 'To Mike,

This ornament has been on our tree every year since you were in preschool.  We think it's time to hang on your own tree!'

Love, Mom & Dad'

As the saying goes:  'Right in the feels!'  It kinda caught me off guard and made me even more sentimental than I was because that's what Christmas does to me.  The rest of the day, I was thinking about Christmastime from my childhood and how great it was.  All about how our extended family spent even more time together, about waking up at two or three in the morning and trying to sneak a peak at what Santa brought us without waking my parents up...and then trying go back to sleep afterwards.