The Tigers are going through a bit of a bullpen crisis, and late Monday night, Detroit News​ columnist Lynn Henning took to Twitter to speculate that the team might have to make a 40-man move to bring in a fresh arm. According to Henning, the most likely guy to go looks like right-hander Thad Weber, who pitched four innings for the Tigers in April but has otherwise spent the last couple seasons allowing a whole lot of homers for Triple-A Toledo.
One possibility for Tigers minor-league DFA is Thad Weber, right-hander, 28, who might be least likely to match long-term needs and talents.
— Lynn G. Henning (@Lynn_Henning) July 3, 2012
Here's the surprise twist: Thad Weber is on Twitter! And not only is he on Twitter, but he follows Lynn Henning. He probably wasn't pleased to see his name bandied about as a candidate to be cut, but rather than respond to the speculation, he chose to check Henning's facts.
I'm 27 RT @Lynn_Henning: One possibility for Tigers minor-league DFA is Thad Weber, right-hander, 28
— Thad Weber (@thad_weber) July 3, 2012
To his credit, Henning owned up to the error.
So, happy endings all around! Except for Thad Weber, who might be about to lose his roster spot.
Thank you for reading
This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.
Subscribe now
If I gave a damn about Nyjer Morgan wishing himself happy birthday, a prospect correcting his age by one year, a woman talking about life throwing you curveballs, or ANYTHING Buster Olney said then I'd have an account over there.
At least this post warned me it was about Twitter in the headline, and that's the only reason I clicked on it: To ask the editorial staff to flag all future Twitter summaries in the headline exactly as this post did so I know not to waste time clicking on any of them moving forward.
There's already one writer on this site whose articles I had to stop reading because they're never about anything other than himself and/or Twitter, but fortunately the byline lets me exercise freedom of choice. By a similar token, if recaps of Twitter-related garbage are going to start infecting this website like a cancer then I'd simply like to be warned so I can stay as far away as possible. Thank you!
All I can tell you is that we're not getting rid of anything you do enjoy about the site to bring you more posts like this. We're still producing as many articles and detailed analyses as we ever have. We're just making an effort to be more active on Unfiltered, and Unfiltered is a place for quick items. If you stop reading Unfiltered, you'll stop seeing Twitter stuff. Of course, I think you'll also be missing out on a lot of good material.