bobrob2004

And now they say that Eduardo Rodriguez, Javier Báez, and Akil Baddoo are the best clubhouse guys ever. What a coincidence!

I asked AI to generate an image of the Detroit Tigers celebrating a baseball win.

Collectively the AL West is below .500 and it's all due to the A's. The A's are on pace to lose 133 games, which would crush the AL record set by the Tigers in 2003 of 119 losses.

I looked at the stats today and I was mostly surprised that he has 10 steals already. I'd like to see him get more playing time against LHP to see if he can be an everyday player. Although Schoop is hitting over .300 against LHP and Hinch likes playing matchups.

This is a good analysis, but I was mostly asking about those particular players. Maton and Rogers have above average walk rates and are leading the team in home runs, but both are way below .200 in batting average. Both are below average with Rogers at 73 wRC+ and Maton at 68 wRC+. Would they have better performance if they didn't try to walk so much?

Are the Tigers too patient? Don't get me wrong, walks are great, but Maton, Rogers, and Schoop also have above average walk rates and are not hitting very well.

Since May 9th.

But I thought Hinch was the chess master?

Hinch must be playing checkers tonight instead of chess.

I do have one concern with the bullpen and his name is Jose Cisnero. He has a pretty healthy 3.55 ERA, but a 6.78 FIP. Hinch likes to use him in high leverage situations and one of these days he's going to implode.

Greene, Torkelson, and Baez all heating up at the same time probably contributed too.

I think if they do anything it'll be a reconstruction of the whole deal instead of years being tacked on.

I take a lot of things that announcers say with a grain of salt. Most of the time they are saying things that the audience wants to hear and not what's actually happening. Not that I don't think Rodriguez hasn't been talking to Wentz, but I do question the "mentor" part.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him traded for a hitter or 2 at the deadline. His motivation is based purely on how much money he can make and if there is even a slim chance of him making more money elsewhere, he's going to opt out. I don't know how much Harris would want him on the team anyway. Loyalty and teammanship isn't something that Rodriguez posses.

There's been a few changes too. Baddoo replacing Meadows. McKinstry getting more playing time over Schoop. I don't think Ibanez has suddenly figured out how to hit at the age of 30. Detroit Tigers Player Splits: May Rk Name G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+ Team Total 97 81 340 314 44 84 20 0 10 43 8 1 19 69 .268 .318 .427 .744 134 4 5 0 2 0 3 .312 126 104 1 Andy Ibáñez 9 8 28 27 6 11 4 0 1 4 0 0 1 0 .407 .429 .667 1.095 18 1 0 0 0 0 0 .385 159 198 2 Eric Haase 8 7 30 28 7 11 1 0 2 7 1 0 2 8 .393 .433 .643 1.076 18 0 0 0 0 0 1 .500 184 193 3 Javier Báez 9 9 40 35 7 11 1 0 3 5 1 0 2 4 .314 .400 .600 1.000 21 1 3 0 0 0 0 .286 185 172 4 Riley Greene 9 8 37 34 5 12 3 0 1 8 3 0 3 9 .353 .405 .529 .935 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 .458 167 156 5 Spencer Torkelson 9 9 38 36 4 12 4 0 1 6 0 0 1 7 .333 .368 .528 .896 19 1 1 0 0 0 0 .393 169 144 6 Akil Baddoo 6 5 22 21 2 7 2 0 0 2 1 1 1 5 .333 .364 .429 .792 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 .438 141 119 7 Zach McKinstry 9 6 30 22 5 6 0 0 0 2 1 0 7 3 .273 .433 .273 .706 6 0 0 0 1 0 1 .300 89 102 8 Jake Rogers 7 6 20 20 1 2 1 0 1 4 0 0 0 8 .100 .100 .300 .400 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 .091 11 5 9 Matt Vierling 8 8 34 32 3 4 0 0 1 2 1 0 1 6 .125 .177 .219 .395 7 1 1 0 0 0 1 .120 23 9 10 Nick Maton 8 5 24 22 1 3 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 9 .136 .167 .227 .394 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 .214 33 8 11 Miguel Cabrera 4 4 16 16 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 .188 .188 .188 .375 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 66 5 12 Zack Short 6 3 10 10 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 .100 .100 .200 .300 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 -36 -20 13 Jonathan Schoop 5 3 11 11 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .091 .091 .182 .273 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .091 9 -27

The Tigers are 10-7 since Hinch moved Maton out of the leadoff spot, so there's one right move.

Well, except for that one game where they left 12 runners on base and didn't score any runs.

And that's after they made four errors yesterday!

Niko Goodrum Nick Gordon is hitting .143/.155/.300 with more playing time than Schoop. So I guess it could be worse. Edit: Read his name too fast, it's actually Nick Gordon. Aaron Hicks, Jean Segura and Cavan Biggio are also having terrible starts this year.

How about we compare the 2023 A's to the 2003 Tigers? Through 35 games: 2003 Tigers: 8-27, R=106, RA=169, pW/L = 10-25 2023 A's: 8-27, R=137, RA=261, pW/L = 8-27 The A's are averaging 7.46 runs allowed per game this year and have a team ERA of 7.25.

The Tigers (15-18) are 3 games better than their pythagorean record (12-21). Only the Marlins (17-18) have a better positive differential (11-24) of 6. The Tigers have had a better record than their pythagorean record ever since Hinch was hired as a manager (2 games better in 2021 and 3 games better in 2022). There have been suggestions that teams that outproduce their pythagorean record is indicative of a good manager, so maybe I've been too critical of Hinch. On the other hand, the findings have been inconclusive: https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/3/17/5504652/manager-pythagorean-wins

Because when Short homers the Tigers win and when Nevin homers the Tigers lose.

Somehow Zack Short has returned.

Yes, they probably lose regardless of how he used his bench. But why take out a guy with 2 hits and leave someone like Schoop in the whole game? We can't ignore that Hinch doesn't have any input here. Why does his lineups constantly look like he is pulling names out of a hat?