The boldness is killing me.

It was a bold move.

Clearly Szym wants you to know that these are bold moves.

It wasn't supposed to be viewable yet!

Top Comps: Josh Kroeger, Roger Maris

Heh.

Some nice, low-risk moves by the Tigers. I'm still picking the Indians in the AL Central, although any team in the division that picks up significant talent at this point will be a contender in 2009.

Some nice, low-risk moves by the Tigers.

Yep. Low-cost moves designed to improve run prevention. Not sure they'll work, but they make sense.

I see Trevor Hoffman signing a one-year deal to close for the Tigers.

Yorvit the Terrible is a good nickname.

I see Trevor Hoffman signing a one-year deal to close for the Tigers.

Link? Or just a hunch?

Given the desperate search for innings, I'm surprised there wasn't a team out there fooled enough by Jackson's 2008 (180 IP, 101 ERA+ for a 24-year-old) to give up more than this.

I'll always have a fondness for Edwin, he was my first damn-the-TINSTAAP love. Good stuff, good makeup, good numbers.

When I have time to do a baseball sim, I usually try to pick him up and have him fill out the bullpen or the minor league club.

Here is a sampling from possibly the most ignorant exchange I have ever heard on the air, illustrating why DFW sports talk people never talk about baseball (NAMES COULD BE WRONG):

GREG-0: Don't the Rangers still have 19 "star catchers" to trade for something?

BRIAN: Yeah, they haven't traded any of them yet.

GREG-O: They traded Laird, didn't they?

BRIAN: Yeah, but he's nothing special. I don't count him.

GREG-O: C'mon. He had a pretty good year last year.

BRIAN: He's a spare part. He wouldn't have caught more than 35 games for any of the eight playoff teams last year.

GREG-O: No, no, no. He was good last year. He'd have played.

BRIAN: Name one team from the eight playoff teams where he would have caught more than 35 games.

GREG-O: I think he's better than that Soto. Soto from the Cubs.

BRIAN: The National League Rookie of the Year.

GREG-O: Yeah, right now I'd take Laird over him. He's a better player right now.

Yorvit the Terrible is a good nickname.

It confuses me. Now I'm wondering if there's someone out there called Yorvit the Good, Yorvit the Adequate, or Yorvit the Not-Quite-As-Terrible-As-The-Other-Yorvit.

Here is a sampling from possibly the most ignorant exchange I have ever heard on the air, illustrating why DFW sports talk people never talk about baseball (NAMES COULD BE WRONG):

I'm guessing Brian is actually Brian Estridge, who actually has a clue about most sports (and is a decent-enough guy). Greg-O is Greg Williams, formerly half of the hottest sports talk show in DFW (The Hardline). At one point he actually did postgame for Rangers games...but I never got much of the vibe that he knew anything about baseball.

Just in case you're curious, here's something for you to read re: Greg Williams -- The Hard Lie

p.s. Suff - I was going to recommend that you stay away from The Ticket for your sports talk fix...until I realized that this was on ESPN radio...man, I'm glad I have XM these days...

BRIAN: Name one team from the eight playoff teams where he would have caught more than 35 games.

Laird was probably better last year than Carlos Ruiz. He was probably better than Varitek and Kendall although he wouldn't have taken their jobs. And he might have platooned with AJ in Chicago and gotten to more than 35 games. Soto was, of course, actually the best starting catcher on one of the 8.

Laird was probably better last year than Carlos Ruiz. He was probably better than Varitek and Kendall although he wouldn't have taken their jobs. And he might have platooned with AJ in Chicago and gotten to more than 35 games. Soto was, of course, actually the best starting catcher on one of the 8.

Yeah, the point was that one guy made a stupid assertion (that Laird was not in the class of any of the starting catchers for last year's playoff teams) and the other guy's choice as to who he was better than was the best of the bunch (with the possible exception of Martin). I assumed it was just because he couldn't think of any of the other guys' names.

I have turned on the Ticket a few times, but unless it's Norm H (and his grating voice), they never actually talk about sports. It's always "gay or not gay" or something inane like that. I really only listen to ESPN now. There used to be a Fox Sports station out of Cleburne that would play Jim Rome and then Chris Myers, and I usually listened to that. But then they went all-local for a couple of months, and now they're old-time country.

MMM... OLD-TIME COUNTRY....

Link? Or just a hunch?

It has been rumored/speculated about in a few places--BPro for one--but it is just a hunch. Shapiro had talked about Hoffman a lot, so when Cleveland signed Wood, I thought that made Detroit the logical landing spot for Hoffman--they are looking at a 2009 push, and IMO Hoffman (I live in SD) will want a one-year deal if he has to relocate (and of course teams would want that length too).