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Maybe he wanted to see whether Wingenter is a guy you can trust in that kind of high leverage situation, although that's a lot more defensible as a move that failed this time if the team is 5-5 versus if a team is 2-8 and on a five-game L streak.

That's a fair point about who was due up. Maybe Foley pitches until a guy gets on base, and if so, bring in Lange to try to shut the barn door?

Alex's post gets me thinking: I wonder how much Miggy influences the team, their levels of concentration and effort, and their relationship with the manager and coaches? I'm not suggesting anything concrete, but I gotta believe that a slam-dunk Hall of Fame elder on any team has got to have a tremendous influence on the other guys, particularly the young guys. I don't have any real feel for whether the rest of the team would be any better, any worse, or the exact same were Miggy not on the team.

It’s true, this should be done in spring training, although it takes longer than just a few weeks and also exposing guys to games that matter to see what it is we really got.

I have a feeling that once Miggy retires, Detroit will be firmly in his rearview mirror, and he will contemplate us only once more.

Thank you for this, but there’s more. Beyond just not being able to make chicken salad out of chicken **** on trades, as well as an owner who is just now waking up to the effect his baseball business unit is having on his entire enterprise, there’s also the fact that Scott Harris couldn’t simply sign an impact player or two as though he could just go to Walmart and pick them up off the shelf. Players are sentient human beings who have a say in where they sign, and no decent player would have chosen to come to Detroit and lose big, instead because of going literally anyplace else and winning, or at least losing less. The sad fact is that Al Avila’s Reign of Error basically destroyed this franchise, and it’s going to take probably half a decade to get it on its feet and start to contend. And I know a lot of fans refuse to believe this, but we’re going to have to do it without being a team that impact free agents are willing to sign up to play for, or being able to make good trades due to our lack of organizational depth, for at least two years.

I really like this idea and will wish upon a star until it happens.

I think it’s fair for Hinch to try different guys in different situations early in a season to see who can do what, particularly when you have a roster that is basically turned over from the previous year. But he definitely should have saved Lange for the ninth for this game, because we really needed to win this game. And every game until we win again will also be this game.

Holy shit, Matt Vierling, trying to steal a base and going in standing up so you can get tagged out? What the everloving fuck … ??

Umpires 1, Tigers 1, Blue Jays 0.

OK, E-Rod, we got you your run. It’s all on you now.

I wasn't. I thought we gave up too much. But I also thought it was better that we got someone to start on the big league club than to keep Paredes languishing away in Toledo.

It was known back way back when.

I think what he's saying in the article is that the staff doesn't going over the numbers in depth with him, but instead give him some high-level tactics that the data indicate that he can work on.

What improvement through analytics is supposed to do is for the hitter to practice committing changes in approach to muscle and reaction memory so you don't have to think about them when you're at the plate in a game.

Game is at 7:07 pm ET.

Looks like High-A Mason Englert showed up tonight. It would be 9-0 except for a single hit. I’m out.

I agree that their careers were not the equal of Nick, but they were all named All Stars, and I know that was the criterion MCS established.

I remember On TV! Channel 20, right? 😉 Yeah, for some inexplicable reason, the syncing last year between radio overlay and the video was perfect for road games, but the overlay was a split second before the video for home games and you could hear the crack of the bat before seeing it. I think they pretty much fixed that now.

Nick Maton trying to prove me a liar with that jack! Go on, Nick!

If you're on MLB.tv, you can do a radio overlay and listen to Dan Dickerson.

It is approaching worst-in-history territory. Listening to Hawk Harrelson was not nearly this bad.

Well, now, after that Kiermaier catch, to rob the homer off Kerry Carpenter, there is no way we can win this game.

Man, I spent ten accidental seconds on MLB.tv listening to Craig Monroe growling about the opposing pitcher "walk[ing] the walk" and "talk[ing] the talk", and man, I couldn't reach for the switchover to the radio overlay fast enough. You people who live in the Tigers territory—I feel sorry for you.

That's how I interpreted it—or misinterpreted it, if you prefer—so OK, I'll concede. If we're going to offer up one-time position-player All-Star-with-another-team Nick Castellanos as counterpoints to the original post, then we might as well offer up one-time position player All-Stars-with-other-teams Eugenio Suarez, Avisail Garcia, and James McCann as well, and, probably this year, Willy Adames.