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2020 - 2021 Free Agents and Offseason Moves

https://www.mlb.com/tigers/news/casey-mize-competing-for-tigers-rotation
Mize eager to compete for rotation spot.
Tigers official site

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/s...d-defined-rough-7-start-mlb-debut/4305914001/
Battle-tested: Tigers' Casey Mize not defeated or defined by rough 7-start MLB debut.
Detnews

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/...asey-mize-chris-fetter-statistics/4308201001/
Why Detroit Tigers' Casey Mize knows exactly what he needs to improve. with 12 minute webvideo.
Freep
 
https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/2021/01/29/the-saturday-survey-119/
THE SATURDAY SURVEY.
Totally Tigers

The Saturday Survey offers the opportunity to weigh in on a relevant topic.
So here is a poll to gauge the pulse of our passionate readers.
Today, we center the discussion on the Tigers? 3 major league free agent signings.
As always, we welcome your comments, so please vote and then submit your reasons (4 sentences max!) for how you voted in the usual comment box. Don?t forget to come back later and view the results!

So far this season, the Tigers have signed 3 free agents to major league contracts ? Robbie Grossman, Jose Urena and Wilson Ramos. They also signed a number of veteran free agents to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training.
In 2020, Detroit spent over $20 million for free agents who are no longer with the team. This year, their free agent payroll is half of the previous year ? just over $10 million. Additionally, they are no longer paying $25 mill to Jordan Zimmermann or $6 mill to Prince Fielder.
But MLB is coming off a year in which every team lost money. And there is still much unknown about the 2021 season ? whether it will start on time and if and when fans will be allowed. Almost every organization is showing some caution in preparing their rosters as a result. The Tigers have been one of MLB?s fewest teams to sign free agents.
Are the Tigers simply being cautious? Do they believe the season will create more red ink because of pandemic factors?
Are they planning on bringing up their young prospects, who will be making the major league minimum, sooner rather than later?
Could they see this season as another rebuilding year that doesn?t warrant a more serious investment in roster pieces? Do you think they are stringing out the rebuild as long as possible?
There are a lot of factors in play. Some directed by the new reality, some directed by the team. Multiple factors are at play in the organization?s decision-making.
Given all of these factors, please consider every one of them as you select the single best option to describe your feelings about the team?s moves in preparation for spring training.

Select the single best option to describe your feelings about the team?s moves in preparation for spring training.

1. Happy that FAs were signed.

2. Believe prospects will take over this year.

3. Realistic given pandemic factors.

4. Could have done more.

5. Disappointed.

VOTE
 
https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/2021/01/30/open-mike-82/
OPEN MIKE!
Totally Tigers

Readers on deck to take the wheel! Here is another opportunity to comment on the Tiger topic of your choosing.

Today, we open up the comment parameters for you, so you can really get those juices flowing. Comments can be expanded to a maximum of 8 sentences. So pick a topic and let us hear from you! What?s on your minds?
 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-taijuan-walker-would-be-nice/id1266543495?i=1000507103524
Tigers SRD Podcast: A Taijuan Walker would be nice. 70 minutes.

(This was recorded on Thursday, January 28, and warning, a few swear words do happen for this episode).

Adam Dubbin and Brandon Day of Bless You Boys.com join Chris and Roger this week to discuss the passing of Hank Aaron, the Tigers signings of Wilson Ramos and Derek Holland and the campaign for Taijuan Walker continues.
 
Verticality in Mind, Casey Mize Has Designs on Being Better.
Casey Mize plans to be a different pitcher in 2021. Not just in terms of results ? the rookie right-hander had a 6.99 ERA and a 6.47 FIP in seven starts with the Detroit Tigers last year ? but also with how he employs his arsenal. Not surprisingly, data will be playing a role. Mize has a history with pitch design that dates back to his days at Auburn, and those efforts have only increased in pro ball.

I asked the first-overall pick in the 2018 draft what technology has taught him about his pitches, and how it?s shaping his efforts to improve.

?It?s pretty much a horizontal profile,? Mize responded. ?We?re starting to take the four-seamer up a little bit to add a little more vertical, because it played so well last year. My splitter is super vertical, and we?re trying to really maximize that, because my slider has more of a horizontal break.?

Mize acknowledged that his two-seamer profiles as horizontal as well, getting more arm-side run than depth. It?s a pitch he?s favored, but that?s one of the changes currently in the works. The 23-year-old hurler not only plans to elevate more four-seamers, he intends to up its overall usage. His two-seamer will be used primarily ?to mask the splitter,? a pitch he likes to have diving below the zone.

Mize isn?t a spin monster, a fact he readily admits. His four-seam spin rate was a pedestrian 2,245 rpm last season, yet while that ranked him in the 33rd percentile among his peers, he?s not particularly concerned.

?My vertical approach angle is pretty good on the four-seamer, so we think ?I?ll be able to maximum that up in the zone,? the righty reasoned. ?Increasing spin is pretty difficult to do, so I?m just going to maximize location. The axis will tick up when I throw it up in the zone.?

And then there?s his slider, which is classified as a cutter on his player page. What exactly is it?

?Technically it?s a gyro slider,? explained Mize, who developed the pitch while working with Caleb Cotham back when the now-Phillies pitching coach was employed by the Bledsoe Agency. ?I call it a cutter, which I do in order to think [throw it] hard. But what you?ll see this year is going to be a little different.?

Ditto his curveball, which also grades out on the lower end in terms of spin rate. Mize said changes can be expected with that pitch, as well. He wasn?t sharing specifics, but once thing is certain: new Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter is playing a key role with each and every adjustment. None may be more important than getting the ballyhooed prospect to command his pitches better.

?The four-seamer was pretty good, but the two-seamer and splitter got hit around pretty good,? admitted Mize. ?A lot of it was count and leverage; there were lot disadvantage counts. I think the four-seamer will play better, and everything will play better, in advantage counts.?

Along with increased verticality, that?s a big part of that plan going forward.

Sticking with the Tigers, SABR?s Southern Michigan chapter held a Zoom meeting yesterday that featured some great anecdotes and opinions from days of yore. One of the guest speakers was Larry Paladino, who covered the Detroit sports scene for the Associated Press, and various publications, for several decades beginning in the late 1960s. Paladino was asked about his favorite, and least favorite, players to interview.

Aurelio Rodriguez was name-checked as his favorite. ?At least as good as Brooks Robinson defensively,? in Paladino?s opinion, the Sonora, Mexico native played third base in the big leagues for 17 seasons, nine of them in a Detroit uniform. The erstwhile journalist called Rodriguez, ?a great guy?. just an easy guy to talk to.?

And then there were the not-so-easy.

?I couldn?t stand Kirk Gibson,? Paladino said. ?He just jumped down your throat. You?d ask him the simplest, basic question, and he seemed to get upset. He was really high-strung. Another one, who was also a Michigan State guy, was Mike Marshall. The pitcher.?

Gary Gillette, who chairs the Southern Michigan chapter, proceeded to share a story about the eccentric reliever-turned-pitching-guru.

?He got a degree in kinesiology from MSU, and would work out with the MSU baseball team,? Gillette said of Marshall, who pitched for the Tigers in 1967, and then for eight other teams from 1969-1981. ?Marshall, one time, got in a fistfight with one of the MSU college ballplayers over something, which is just insane. A major leaguer getting in a fistfight with some guy who probably had no future as a baseball player.?
Marshall was subsequently barred from the Michigan State campus.

Fangraphs
 
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/s...eject-delay-vow-start-season-time/4350286001/
MLB players reject delay, vow to start season on time.
Detnews

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-statement-on-start-of-2021-spring-training-season
MLB statement on '21 Spring Training, season.
MLB.com

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/02/mlbpa-rejects-mlbs-154-game-proposal.html
MLBPA Rejects MLB?s 154-Game Proposal.
MLBTR

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30816958/mlbpa-rejects-mlb-proposal-delay-2021-season
Major League Baseball Players Association rejects MLB proposal to delay 2021 season.
espn
 
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