gehringer_2

Pretty ironic that the big knock on Scherzer early was that almost no-one believed he would be durable. Still, give me a guy that throws FB, change, curve and keeps his slider %low and I'm going to feel better about his future. JV had never thrown more than 30% sliders in a year until the year before his UCL gave out. Just sayin'. In fact Scherzer, despite a reputation as a slider pitcher, actually throws it < 20% of the time.

good to see him put a barrel on 98 mph. At 39 you can't get your hopes up for anything, but he's off to one of his better starts in a few years.

that is the problem. Reyes and Hill don't hit RHP either, but at least are reasonable OFs. I suppose it depends on the upcoming pitching matchups mostly. Are there more LHPs in the offing? Willie will probably crash once we see a string of RHP, and about then an OF gaff will cost another game.

Because I still tend to believe Willi's hot streaks with the bat will end up a mirage and there is no place safe in the OF to put him. If we want to ride a hot streak till it ends, sure - why not, but I'm still unconvinced he is a long term solution to anything. They've been able to give him ABs against LHP, but LHP are only 25-30% of the AB that eventually have to be played. You need OFs that can catch and hit RHP.

LOL. In the end, pitching will out. It's still the name of the game in Baseball.

We've lost 3 starters - now a forth, plus a reliever here and there, and the team ERA is 3.52. But Avila is incompetent.

that's part of his charm.

They need to stop screwing around and let Peralta stretch out from this outing to take Pineda's spot.

he's getting caught on in-between hops. He could either try to be more aggressive charging the ball when he can instead of letting it get to that in-between hop, or take another step back and take the ball after the hop - but maybe his arm isn't up to that.

That slide by Schoop is the first that I've seen that is serious competition for Prince.

when did Peralta come up with 97?

well, this doesn't look like it's going to age well. Mize back to Lakeland, Pineda hit in the hand with a batted ball...

another broken hand?

It looks like he took C Mo's advice to simplify and just do one thing, and right now that is pulling the ball, which is fine. He can expand his comfort zone on varying his approach once he has the 'get out front on the fastball' thing down.

I've always pretty much assumed this lyric was John's: "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow"

I'll go back to what I said about the hitters - one of the things that keeps guys keyed up when things are going bad is fear of losing their role. The take the role away so they can't worry about it any more. That may be the quickest way to get them back to where you can give them the role back.

Was it Gardy that said, "your role is to get guys out when I give you ball"?

Yeah - and once Gates Brown had a hot dog.

g...o...t......t...o......d...o...u...b...l...e......d...o...w...n.

AA: Dingler with a double for 4, Daniel Cabrera with a 5 game hitting streak (but 3 Ks tonight) A: Colt Keith's 15 game hit streak ends.

again, how do explain Hinch's thought process when you have 14 pitchers on the staff and you keep using a guy north of 7 BB/9IP to close? I'm really getting tired of the hope over reality approach to things this team seems locked into. And I suppose because Wiili had a hit tonight the terrible route he took on his one chance in the field will be conveniently ignored as well. And just a side note, it will never show up in his stat analysis because Baez managed to come out and make the play for him.

I think Fulmer is mostly rusty but I don't know how you work relievers back into form when your team never gets a comfortable lead. Soto is over throwing everything - just dumb because he has great stuff. Maybe need to turn off the radar gun when he pitches.

At least he can find the plate.

Fulmer and Soto need to work some 7 and 8ths.

Tigers have issued 7 walks. absolutely.