gehringer_2

a little luck there - IIRC two sack were cancelled by penalities.

Tork was having a great month up to about the 20th - 890 OPS, then he went cold. Probably among the guys that started pressing.

It's the 1st time it happens - you just have to assume you are dying.

he practically took out the whole secondary.

Local guy - went to Mackenzie HS. He and my uncle ran in the same crowd of ne'er-do-wells back in the day.

yeah - last years Vierling was big add. Unfortunately when he did get in the line-up this season he didn't do much - maybe he was never right.

Agree Rob, I don't begrudge the guy anything. He's had a tougher go than I imagine most of us ever had to face and if that drives him to get as far as he can in the business, good for him. We could as easily ding a guy who is local, Mike Tirico, for not deigning to take the job that would have been his for the asking if he had asked.

and Keith is almost no loss, his production had already tailed off badly in the 2nd half before the injury. Colt made some progress this season, his overall offensive numbers slightly better than last year - but I expected more progress than we've seen. Showing he could still play 3rd is a big positive for the future, and he's only 23 -- so we can still hope for more improvement - but as of right now he's not a big loss.

I don't think he's ever going to get close to that, but if could at least get under 25% he'd probably raise his value.

something...something..switch hitter.... something.....

the thing with Riley is that he doesn't have to hit the way he does now - he certainly didn't last season. And this is kind of where I wonder where the Tiger coaches are. Earlier in the season everyone was talking about how Riley had shifted to the most extremely inclined swing in the majors. Now there is reason outliers are outliers, it's because you almost never find optimum performance at the extremes unless there is something extremely unusual about the player that makes him a physical outlier. Riley runs a little funny but there is really nothing that would lead you believe that he would be likely to be successful in a batting style that NO-ONE else succeeds with. I mean probabilities aren't rocket science. You better be able to prove your choice of an outlier style gets demonstrable results or your coaches should be on your case to get back to what normally works.

The relevant organizational question is whether this year's approach change has been without or without the blessing of his coaches. The Tiger org certainly understands that HR alone a productive player do not make. I guess maybe early on it looked like he could swing for the fences and be better overall, but the reality caught up with him - most likely in the form of pitchers adjusting to a guy they know is going for broke. Riley has to learn what Tork had to learn - you have to be the best hitter you are, even if that's not the hitter you'd like to be.

Riley has sold out to hit HRs and has succeeded in hitting more of them, but at the cost of a reduction in every measure of his overall offensive value. Dumb.

I think you can view it two ways 1- injuries are not a GM's fault - the starting pitching looked solid going into the season. There was no sense throwing away the future at the deadline - there was no possibility of adding enough to repair it all. 2- Thinking the pitchers that made up last years BP could repeat what they did was wishful thinking. He went into the season with a BP for which implosion was a high probability. Then he bungled the deadline by adding a lot of quantity but insufficient quality.

And they carry Salmonella.

Should be a great season for GR. 🥱

Time of possession was always an issue - maybe a better or just deeper defensive team that could have subbed more and they get over the top. But the Lions FO had no idea how to build a winning football team. They were all about flash - and especially flash at RB. Barry was the end of a long line of over reliance/over investment at RB. But beyond that they had little clue to team building.

It is fair to ask if in their efforts to filter player procurement through the 'good guys in the clubhouse' lens they forgot to obtain the requisite percentage of junkyard dogs to bite some kneecaps.

Here is another display of the same data given as % change Yr over Yr. What stands out in this view is how steep the recent lines are in both directions. A lot of over and under compensation/reaction around Covid and what looks like the beginnings of another rapid run up in the making.

LOL - should have moved him there already, might have encouraged him to opt out. Just sayin'.

another typical Flaherty outing. Good WHIP, good K rate, 6+ ERA.

so here is a thesis. The Tigers over-emphasize hitting mistakes. Makes them overly vulnerable to when a team pitches well and doesn't make many. IIRC this was Tork's whole problem last year - he had to go back to Toledo to basically learn to cover more of the plate. But where did he develop that habit of being too selective in the 1st place - the Tiger org. And in fact early in his career Hinch always stressed Tork had to "find pitches he could drive". OK that's true as far as it goes, you do have to hit the mistakes. But what do you do when the mistakes are not there in quantity? Is the Tiger hitting philosophy flexible enough to produce hitters that are competitive against good pitching and don't just beat up on the bad? "Command the zone" is a two way street for hitters. You have to let the balls go, but you also have to put strikes in play - at least after strike one, even if they don't happen to be HR potential level mistakes.

FIFY

I think GM has a big piece of LAC.

Somewhat of a return to normal. Looking at the longer term trend, July/August would normally be the best months for homes because of the large number of people who want to move before school starts. The outliers have been the last couple of years when there was virtually no July/August bump at all.