gehringer_2

If you like Rogers as your primary you aren't going to do a full blown L/R platoon at catcher because that gives 75% of the PA to the LH guy. You really just want a backup for Jake, and that doesn't have to be a LH bat as long as you can find a RHB whose OPS platoon split isn't completely terrible (say even 625-650) since you're going to prefer to give Jake most of his days off against RHP (his OPS is 960 against LHP!) Which BTW, is the big opportunity cost of Hinch's even handedness doling out PA against LHP between Jake and Haase. He's trying to get Haase going but he's giving up the damage that Jake could be doing.

Yeah - I'm on board with this. Don't do a lot of Venmo - have had issue with the app, but we do keep an account at a separate bank from our regular accounts for paypal so we always have an absolute limit on our liability there. It may be overkill but seemed like a good idea at the time....

The penalty stuff is bad, poor discipline and looks like in a lot of those he either never got the snap count or couldn't remember it. I think the catching on the body critique was a little overplayed, some of those were poor lead throws where he didn't have a lot of choice. Definitely a project for the staff though. To me the most worrisome thing about a change for the worse in having his head in the game would be that it immediately makes you question whether there is a substance issue. You hope they did their homework on that already

Also Ironic that the PPI rule is now acting as much to keep Colt Keith at AAA as is it to help him get promoted now. Not that I'd call him up now anyway. I just don't want to see them give up on Harris' supposed commitment to give guys their shot this season. They aren't going to catch Minny/Cleveland with this offense anyway and if they sell pitching for offense they won't have the pitching for a serious run Their best month this season was about 550 and if they play 550 the rest of the way that's still only 80 even, and that's not likely to do it. So if I'm sitting in Harris' chair I want to use the rest of season to see Meadows and maybe Malloy and maybe even Perez, Kreidler if he's medically cleared, and if you happen to catch lightening in a bottle and both Cleveland and Minny collapse, that's gravy, but waiting for that wouldn't be my plan A.

The big difference was that Jones would walk guys because he was being careful and consciously deciding to risk working a little too fine. Lange is just completely losing his command.

I think it may have already reached the point where AAA would be doing more good for Baddoo than Meadows, and Meadows would be doing more good for the Tigers, which is why I would make the move. You can always option him back and maybe even rotate Malloy in for a stretch if need, despite the handedness swap. At 23 1/2 it's not like you need to preserve Meadows' options anymore. The other aspect is I would want to see at least a little of what I have in Meadows against MLB pitching this season because it's going to help you plan for next season. I would think they'd want a better idea of whether he is a viable MLB player before the off-season. He might not be able to prove he is with much certainty, but he could well prove he isn't.

Unusual anyway. I guess Dontrelle was sort of similar in terms of being a pitcher that had an unfixable delivery, but IIRC in Dontrelle's case it also ended up being compounded by injuries.

I can understand being able to pick someone's pocket with Norris. He was one of those 'hope springs eternal' guys because you knew there was good arm in there if you could just find the formula for him to deliver the ball like thousands of ordinary pitchers do everyday - how hard could it be? Too hard apparently.

Since it's not my team, my money nor my roster to manage, I have no qualms about saying after 6 or 7 yrs I'm ready for them to stop giving such long leashes to players that would be pretty flawed even under their best upside....

Green, Meadows Vierling, Carpenter, Cabrera are sharing 3 OF + DH and Cabrera only plays 50% and they want to rest Riley more the rest of the way so the other three can all have >80% of maximum AB. Works for me. I like Baddoo, but he's done pretty close to zero since June other than the one game this week. It's not enough.

Greene interview by Kane exhibit B on how bad the Bally broadcast is. Try thinking up a question or two before you start an interview JK.

Tigers owe Isbel a Bally Short One. Completely bailed out a Lange that couldn't have thrown him a called strike. But we'll take it.

CMo is terrible. Two things bother me about Shepherd. 1st, he's just not that good an announcer - mangles sentences, starts phrases without knowing where he is going etc. But I could live with that if he would just finally claim his competence as a baseball guy instead of constantly, repeatedly, endlessless refusing to express a baseball take of his own without asking his color guy a question like wet behind the ears schoolboy. It makes for a constantly stilted broadcast. By now he should know enough baseball to be able to express an opinion and just have a normal conversation with his colorman. He doesn't need to constantly act like he's a total baseball moron.

Parker 2/3 HR. K rate for July <25%. It's time.

Javy trying to bank an out for the 9th.

Yup. The first time I saw it the Biden campaign had put up a link to C-Span or some source with her whole commentary - then Lincoln project took it from there.

some confirmation that the Tigers' Bally broadcast are indeed, bad. https://www.blessyouboys.com/2023/7/19/23800246/detroit-tigers-broadcast-rankings-bally-sports-matt-shepard-craig-monroe

Trades were absolutely the worst. They lost so much roster value in the teardown that they needed to have converted to viable youth and instead just squandered.

They keep giving him ABs hoping the switch flips, which is pretty much what they did with Schoop for over a year before finally giving up. I suppose if you give enough slumping guys enough time sooner or later one of them will start to hit again for you, and Haase did finish last season with a hot bat so he's not been cold anywhere near as long as Schoop had been. But it's easy to get pessimistic that a guy who took until 28 to reach the majors will recover from a 1/2 season slump at almost 31 years old. And Hinch has been scrupulously fair about giving Haase and Rogers equal time against LHP, but the result is that Haase's OPS platoon split against LHP is 421, while Rogers' is 960.

I've had family and close friends in SoCal for 30 yrs and have spent a fair amount of time there. My overall impression is that if you had moved there with the Dodgers in 1958 it was probably pretty close to paradise. It would still be an amazingly nice place to live if only half the people that are there weren't.

Right, the problem for the Tigers is they didn't find many good hitters to throw that money at. My question would be how do we re-evaluate Avila if his last three top hitters taken, Torkelson, Greene and Jung, all make the majors? Did he finally actually have a decent scouting staff in place just in time to get himself canned?

yeah - pretty close comp. Torkelson's HR rate is trending higher, esp if you discount his poor April, and somewhat better walk rates - also higher K rate. I think AZTF has him right. His ability to pull the ball and then shoot the 1B line is going to mean lots of doubles and the HR stroke is pretty classic, combine the XBH with the good walk rate you have a player that should generate a good a OPS. But at least as of now, he's not very good at extending ABs when he gets behind, which is fairly often, so it's hard to see the makings of a high BA player - at least yet.

4 + 1 = 3.5 Subtraction by addition!

Brilliant Pat. Glad you found your way to BR game logs.

IDK - I think a lot comes from pitchers always complimenting their catchers in post games - but it's become almost more of an insult by ommision than a meaningful compliment. It could also be that Rogers has a little less 'patience' with his pitchers. You do see him fire a heater back at one sometimes after he makes a bad pitch. Of course whether a pitcher likes having his catcher 'on his case' is a different question than whether it's better or worse for his results!