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[Ed. note: This preview was split between two of our resident Tigers fans, AD and Mark Sands. Enjoy!] A song to play while reading about the Tigers: “Rich Kid Blues” by the Raconteurs. Led by… Read more »
Posts by Mark Sands
Do you remember the face book? Not TheFacebook.com. We’re talking about its localized analog predecessor: an actual book schools printed and circulated to incoming students to help them get to know their new classmates. After… Read more »
Every April, nothing steals hours of my sleep on a work night quite like the latest version of Out of the Park Baseball. For the uninitiated, OOTP 18 gives you total control over almost any… Read more »
AD and Mark Sands collaborated on this preview. Despite extended absences from the team’s two young sluggers, J.D. Martinez and Nick Nicholas Castellanos, deciding to allow Mike Pelfrey to pitch 119 innings, using Mike Aviles… Read more »
Eric Roseberry and Mark Sands join Ryan Sullivan to look back on the co-host changes at Effectively Wild, then discuss extra innings, the Reds, the Nationals, the PECOTA projections for 2017, and Eric’s own On Baseball Writing podcast.
The annual rite of Spring is upon us–the release of the 17th iteration of the Out of the Park Baseball sim, out for the general public Tuesday. Much like the other nine versions of the game I’ve… Read more »
Mark Sands and AD are back to preview the upcoming Detroit Tigers season. While the Bob Seger lead-in to our 2015 season preview still feels on-point, we missed pretty badly on our prediction that Detroit… Read more »
Sam Miller described the San Diego Padres entering the 2015 off-season as “the boringest franchise” (Effectively Wild, episode 591). But after spending much of the 2000s mired in the range of 70 wins, General Manager… Read more »
Ben Suissa and Mark Sands join Ryan Sullivan to talk about the Toronto Blue Jays, San Diego Padres, Dexter Fowler, Ian Desmond, and baseball Steph Curry.
Writers Mark Sands & Stephen Shaw join guest host Brandon Lee to talk about the World Series, hold a free agent prediction draft, discuss offseason diversions. and look back on memorable offseason moments.
Staff writers Mark Sands and Simon Gutierrez join host Ryan Sullivan to talk about the Tigers, Rangers, Mariners, and Red Sox, as well as Johnny Cueto going to the Royals, and the upcoming trade deadline.
Watching the Tigers send out recently DFA’d Texas reliever Neftali Perez in the 8th inning, only to give up a grand slam in their July 21st loss to the Seattle Mariners, was emblematic of the… Read more »
The future is now in Houston. After losing an average of 108 games over three seasons in 2011-2013, the Astros took a big leap forward last year going 70-92. The pre-season consensus, including here at Banished… Read more »
The Tigers featured the 2nd best offense in baseball in 2014, scoring 757 runs and accumulating an MLB-best 1557 hits.
The Tigers had the 2nd most extra-base hits in the majors in 2014 (506), were 4th in isolated power (.150), and 7th in home runs (155). The offense was led by superstar Miguel Cabrera, who was 10th in MLB in wOBA (.384) and wRC+ (147) and 16th in ISO (.211) despite a pedestrian (for him) 25 HRs.
Fans of mediocre teams have, from time immemorial, dreamed of trading all their high-priced talent for prospects, and then “giving the kids” a chance to show what they can do in the majors. But this is better in theory than in practice, just ask the 1998 Marlins (54 wins) or 2003 Tigers (43 wins). After losing 106 games in 2011, the Astros hired GM Jeff Luhnow, who promised to rely heavily on advanced metrics to rebuild the entire franchise, from the farm system out.
The 2013 Detroit Tigers starting rotation has a strong argument as the best rotation of all time–or at least on par with the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies rotation (which had Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole… Read more »
The Tigers upgraded the lineup and their bullpen, but was the price too great?
