gehringer_2

that will be their dilemma with Malloy. If his bat starts becoming valuable for him to stick, which it showed some signs of doing, then he's pretty much going to monopolize up the DH spot, which I think the Tigers were hoping to avoid, though a team can have a lot worse problems than that.

Agree that has definitely been his his issue and I imagine that he was sent to Toledo with the mandate to learn to take fewer strikes. I would have liked to see Torkelson go to winter ball.

9IP at WM, a very quick promotion to AA Erie where spent most of the season. He threw 73.2 there plus his DL stint, then promotion to AAA for a mere 9 IP, before being called to Det where he got into 2 games for a total of 4IP.

Now to be fair, he was a AAA player when they called him up!

Torkelson was 348 OBP/781 OPS after his return and played solid D, improving his Rdrs from -10 last season to +3 this season. I don't think the Tigers are as down on him as many fans who only see his season stats that include his terrible early trouble.

could be for some guys, but there certainly have been plenty of good hitting catchers. The thing about batting lineups though is that I would rather upgrade a 600 OPS position to 700 than upgrade an 800 OPS position to 900. I've always thought that holes in the line-up kill your offense more than high spots help it.

True, but OTOH, everyone has to play the whole schedule. If we had played those 'easy' games earlier in the schedule it might have been the Twins chasing us.

people have to remember we were facing the best pitching staff in the AL. You weren't going to see too many guys put up good averages in the series. We scored about as many runs as I expected, but we gave up too many in two of the games. A lot of randomizing drivers in baseball. Tigers hit several off the wallers that easily could have been dingers. That kind of stuff can always go either way which is why short series are always random outcomes.

I'll echo SFK's wish that he were as good as Glendening at his age. Luke had more useful speed and was a better forechecker. I will admit Veleno's game does improve - but it's been at a glacial pace. And despite a pretty depressing level of ineptitude getting the Preds out of their zone in the 3rd, I will note without further comment that they turned in a shut out on a night when Petry did not play.

If a guy can catch, I'd keep developing him as a catcher right up to the minute you move him to 1st if you have to. Catchers that can hit above average are too valuable. Teach him 1st but don't move his primary gig.

Manning finished with a couple of decent starts at Toledo. I'm guessing at this point they have reservations about temperament with both Mize and Manning - I sure do.

right - Hinch had decided who he was going with going in. We're just talking speculative what if's at this point.

I liked seeing Seider moving the puck so well late in the 2nd, and a nice move by Edvinsson to save possession before the 3rd goal. Also good to see Joe Veleno hasn't lost his knack for shooting the puck right into the center of the goalie's chest.

I know Keith tweaked the arm again this season but given that it came back pretty quickly I still wonder if they don't have to try him back at 3rd next season. His fielding grades are confusing, Statcast has him as plus, BR rates him badly. By the eye test the hands and arm are fine but he does appear to be just too big to cover the kind of ground a quicker player could. IMHO, all that argues maybe 3rd is the more natural position for him. I guess we'll see.

so maybe Hinch should have sat Brieske and Holton and used Mize and Foley because the G's hadn't seen them recently? As good a theory as any. I certainly believe it. If you look at Brieske or Holton, neither has the kind of top shelf stuff that would make you think on first sight that they could sustain the success they have been having unless they continued to get better themselves, exactly because once hitters see more of them, they are going to have to show better stuff to keep getting them out. OTOH, at the top tier, you do have the guys whose stuff is so good that the familiarity effect is going to be much smaller - Clase being the prime example, or maybe Aroldis Chapman in his heyday as well.

yes - a good org should be able to sustain for a while, but the exception would be around pitching injuries. Even a good FO isn't going to be able to overcome that kind of multiple pitcher losses that are not uncommon for teams to face.

it's been the Cleveland singles hitters, Kwan and Rocchio, that have done the damage. OBP, don't leave home without it.

too many K's

keep chipping away. After all Skubal has done for them this season it would only be fair if they get him off the hook today.

but I'm not dead yet!

oh well

baseball gods have decided to smile on Cleveland. Ramirez with the bases juiced.

Bunt attempt makes ump miss the pitch.

it's a dilemma. In a low scoring game where hits are hard to string together a HR can obviously be all the difference driving the ball makes sense, but the truth is you aren't going to hit more HR's over swinging either.

gameday had that as a very 50/50 pitch, not a clear ball at all. Maybe the TBS zone looked different.