Heading into a new Tigers season that looked as if it might be better-suited to crash dummies, in the dugout and in the stands, there was an early sense that the most entertaining month in 2018 would be July.
It’s when trades most often are made during the six-month game calendar.
That all changed a few weeks into April.
You could see the car-wrecks piling up: Baltimore, Kansas City, Chicago (White Sox), Florida, Texas, Toronto, Cincinnati, etc., and, as anticipated, Detroit.
There was going to be too much July merchandise clogging baseball's aisles. Worse for selling teams, prices were dropping by the week as clubs that might have been on the fence about buying or shedding began posting subtle messages that their guys were on the market and available to anyone but looters.