KingJustinian

Aybar has a higher career OPS+ than him.

I seriously thought it was an April fools joke when I first heard it, but it's on major news sites. I guess the average salary isn't that much though, it's just a long contract but he's young.

EDIT: Didn't realize this probably included bullpen, I was just talking about starters because I just read the other thread and didn't pay close enough attention. I'm a bit more optimistic than most people with our starting pitching. Weaver should perform like one of the top pitchers in the league, I think Wilson will rebound similarly to after the last time he had this elbow surgery and be ace caliber, giving us one of the best 1-2 punches. Vargas will be pretty good with our defense and at least be an average middle of the rotation starter. Blanton will be no worse than he has been in his career, possibly better given our defense/ballpark/being in better shape. Hanson is a huge question mark but I think Richards could be a decent #5 right now if Hanson has problems. Of course 2+ injuries could make this staff significantly worse, unless Williams steps up. As it stands in the AL I only see Oakland, Tampa Bay, and Toronto being better than us for sure when healthy (1-2 others you could argue for) and will almost certainly outperform our staff. I predict they'll finish between 5-8th in ERA, right around the middle of the pack.

With Blanton and a questionable Hanson I would want as many relievers as possible.

They need a utility player that can play shortstop so I don't think that will happen.

True, but that could change once Aybar is back

This might be the opening day lineup with Aybar in for Romine obviously

Possibly Scott Kazmir #2

Yeah, we don't see what actually goes on so it's tough to judge. All we see is the results which depends on many things other than what the pitching/hitting coaches do, but when the results aren't there they are often scapegoats to keep the fans happy.

No one knows what happened there. Probably mostly mental. We'll see how Rodney does this year to see if it's a fluke. If you say it's Butcher's fault then you should also be criticizing the Tigers pitching coach.

Definitely not Butcher's fault. It was pretty well known that Kazmir'z elbow wasn't letting him put the sharp break on his slider and his velocity was down.

I've never seen him pitch but this is what wikipedia says "Hanson throws four main pitches: a four-seam fastball at 89–92 mph, a slider at 78–82 mph, and a curveball at 71–73 mph. He occasionally throws a two-seam fastball and changeup, mainly to left-handed hitters. His slider is his most common 2-strike pitch to right-handers, and it responsible for a plurality of his strikeouts. His curve has the highest whiff rate, at 38% over his career."

Oh ok. I'm not following super closely but one was with runners on 2nd and 3rd with less than 2 outs right? That was probably "intentional"

Frieri and Hanson?

Haren had back problems last year so I wouldn't blame Butcher for that. And Santana has been inconsistent, so I'd wait for him to put up at least 2 good seasons before judging Butcher for that

Backing up Iannetta at catcher is different though. Iannetta won't play more than 110-120 games at most so that leaves a good deal of games for Conger.

He probably does well in Spring training because he's a fastball hitter and pitchers are throwing more fastballs now to get their arms in shape.

In the AL, the next worst record is Texas, then the Yankees, then Detroit, then Toronto and Oakland. And Cincinnati is last in the NL.

That's why Texas and their farm that everyone says is awesome is 1-5...

That's fine with me. It takes longer to get your arm up to full strength than it does for a hitter to be able to swing a bat to start the year.