gehringer_2

The big issue is BB. nobody stays in the majors long at a rate of 22 BB in 25 IP. He either gets that under control quickly or the Tigers have a very expensive water boy on the staff - or of course more likely on some excuse to the DL.

yeah - he misses too much, but he still has a beautiful classic swing. And he swung at the 1st pitch - which I've always though he should do more of.

Not a lot of options are there? if they don't come back today they will have lost 4 of Jack's 6 starts.

so jack was giving up too many walks but not so much hard contact, now he's still at 1BB/IP and 3 long balls in 2 IP. So for his next start we get what?: walks, HRs and maybe wild pitches too? 🤷‍♂️

someone up thread said they miss Meadows - but they played most of last season without him - maybe they are missing McKinstry as much as anyone. Of course pitchers' errors are another problem. Hinch's rep is that they work this stuff hard, but I guess it's not taking.

I always hate to see my team sign old pitchers. The probability of fall off or injury is always higher. We've already had one and can only hope last night is not a sign of the other.

don't underestimate the smaller K zone. Walks are up all across the league, and the Tiger pitchers are actually about average overall. Of course given that Skubal is WAY below average that means everyone else is a bit above, but as a team they are not an outlier (yet?). These guys all need to pitch to the smaller zone - and I don't think anybody should expect to see last yrs ERAs. That said, the converse is that the offense has to better than last year as well because everyone else's will be.

Unfortunately, if looks as if this team is not going to do anything this season unless a couple of pluses do appear.

the natural consequence of the overall lack of talent on the team.

right - that sort of has to be the case for the rule to work, but you can ask why that should be true when a ball that hits but bounces off a uni is not a dead ball - in that case the uni is considered completely in play. I suppose you can get to the rule by making the logical distinction that the outside surface of uni is in play and the inside surface is not! 🤔

If you look at what Holmes does in FA, he tries to patch at least enough so his needs don't totally dictate his draft. He tries to keep open the option for taking a player that is really high on his board if he falls to them even if it's not his *number one* need, because he tries not to have a desperate *number one* need by the time FA signings are done. That doesn't mean he's not going to draft for need, just that if there is a BPA head and shoulders above a higher need position, he wants to give himself the option of taking a great talent. That's what signing Borom was - it gave him the option of not taking an OT if it meant passing a player way higher on his board than the best remaining OT. In this case, he didn't need/want to use the option.

good for Tom Tillis

The other question is how long does Ausar's extreme athleticism last? Rodman's did for a long time, but it's never a given that a player won't grow or be injured out that athleticism sooner rather than later, and if there is no corresponding increase in skill level to compensate, you have a declining asset. No choices are risk free.

So he had to fire one of his idiots because he couldn't do something even more idiotic. Perfect symmetry.

I would assume that rule assumes the catcher is out of play when the ball gets stuck in his apparatus? There had to be rule of course, but that doesn't mean I have to think it's a good one. It's a much simpler rule book if the batter is just out if the ball hasn't touched the ground. The problem with that is you know it would get abused and pretty soon guys would show up in the field with big bags of fabric around their arms or the like.

Duren is 22 which is still young for a big - has improved his defensive and offensive stats every season he has played so far. Have we seen peak Duren yet? You can make the same argument for Thompson based on his age with the caveat that Thompson's problem is shooting and the odds of a guy who can't even make a decent % of FT improving his shooting much don't excite me. OTOH, Duren can still become better by becoming a better defender. Which do you want to project?

ask and ye shall receive!

This. We've gone way overboard with a kind of theological reverence that seems to taken even the idea of amendment off the table. The amendment process was a pretty regular thing right up through the middle of the 20th century. Our refusal to keep up with the times legally/consitutionally is big part of our gridlock.

Torkelson's got to be better, the BP needs to be better, Flaherty needs to be better. 2 out of 3 might be enough.

Skubal's average start ends somewhere in the 6th - past that with Tarik is bonus - he's a guy with 1 CG in 139 career starts. The difference is the BP isn't shutting anything down. You won't win anything in today's game without the BP depth to deal with that.

This team has no hope if it can't win Skubal starts. Hinch in the classic dilemma of a manager with a bullpen he doesn't trust. Left his starter in longer than the might have and then had the BP fail to perform when he did bring it in.

Really it all comes down to not making outs. If enough guys don't make outs, or you get an XBH, a run is going to score before 3 outs are made. You can add a lot of complexity getting to the second decimal point effects but the basic logic isn't that complicated - High on base, high XBH up front is what gets you there. And also obvious that if more your productive players get more AB, you get more production, so you start with them.

Have had to listen to this week's game on radio - have to say I'm pretty much completely off Bobby Scales by now.

Yup - The pitcher's uni is not the ground and it's out of play, the batter should be out.

I'm not real big on the 'challenge guys to play better' strategy. Maybe you have a player here or there that needs to change approach, e.g. Raymond shooting more, but in general guys are how they play. You're dreaming if you think they are going to turn into what they haven't been.