Detroit Tigers Baseball is back, baby!

It is Opening Day for Baseball and all is right with the world. The Detroit Tigers have set themselves up nicely to be competitive this season and things are finally starting to look up!

A.J. Reilly: Let’s take a deep breath because today baseball’s back, baby! It’s opening day, Thursday to be exact. MLB is kicking off now; the Detroit Tigers and the White Sox do not throw their first pitch until Friday, tomorrow. But man, oh man, it feels good to have baseball back.

And the Tigers, when I saw the news come down about the Austin Meadows trade, I was like yes, finally, we have a move that was made. A good move too. 

Matt Bassin: See? There’s your Javier Báez hate again. 

A.J. Reilly: Huh? No! Get out of here. 

Matt Bassin: “Finally! We have a move that has been made!” That’s what you said!

A.J. Reilly: Okay, let me back up, and let me say, a shrewd move has been made. Truthfully, when Meadows was released from the Pirates and went to Tampa Bay, that was the year that the Detroit Tigers should have gotten it. So they’re two years late on getting him, but at least they got them. Listen, is Meadows the best player in MLB? No, he’s not, but he’s 26 years old. He’s cheap. And he still has team control for a couple of years.

Now. What’s being missed in this whole situation, Matt? Yes. Riley Greene went down with a fractured foot, out for six to eight weeks. Okay? But if they don’t make this move, in my opinion, if Derek hill is also not on the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain because they had players that were ready Hill, Victor Reyes, Grossman, and Badu that could have handled the outfield while Greene got back in, then they option Hill or Reyes, right?

But Hill is already down two. Plus, if you think about it, Meadows is sitting there in Tampa Bay. Isaac Paredes has no place on this team at all because his bat is not forcing him into the lineup. He’s not going to stick at shortstop. They’ve tried him at second base but that hasn’t worked out and he’s not going to beat out Jeimer Candelario at third base.

So why not use that young player to get someone like Meadows? It was a shrewd move and listen, there is an article that came out by W.G Brady on DSN today, about how Alex Avila thanked Chris Ilitch for letting the move happen.

Listen, you read that report, and Avila said Chris’ statement was ‘if you and A.J. think you need him, go get him’. 

Matt Bassin: Oh, they included you. That’s nice. 

A.J. Reilly: Not me, A.J. Hinch, but whatever. That just still pissed me off. Because I’m like, do you not understand? Thanks for your blessing but your dad would have been like, we need this guy, go get him!

Matt Bassin: Well, that sounds like some Jerry Buss stuff right there. That sounds brilliant. Listening to his coaches and saying, wait, you need him, we’ll get him.

A.J. Reilly: Listen. And I appreciate that. So I’m not going to hate on Ilitch. I appreciate that he gave his blessing for it to happen. But my goodness, what kind of lip service are we doing here Al? Why do we have to say, ‘You know, I know Chris got raked through the mud with the whole competitive bargaining agreement, so let me make sure that he gets some good press and say he signed off on it’. Of course, he signed off on it. You get dingbat. Of course, he did. It’s his team!

Matt Bassin: Maybe they had a conversation about it first? 

A.J. Reilly: Well, of course, they had to have a conversation because they’re either paying Isaac Paredes minor league money or they’re paying Meadows $4 million. So are you going to spend the boss’ money? Of course and knowing the penny pincher that he is, you had to probably be like hey, just so you know, this is a good thing.

And he’d be like, oh, okay. Right.

So I don’t know. It was a brilliant move. I love the fact that now we have a left-handed hitting power bat in our lineup. It has really kind of catapulted the Detroit Tigers to be near wildcard contenders. Shadow sleeper, maybe they could contend for a lucky division win? But I mean, it’s exciting.

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