04/22/2023 7:05pm EDT Detroit Tigers vs Baltimore Orioles

[Tigermojo]

I love the Schoop pinch hit in the ninth. Weak pop up to second. Sit back down and collect your $8 million.

[kdog]

 

[Tigermojo]

Maton had 85 pretty good plate appearances for the Phillies last year. His BABIP was .325.

For the Tigers in 65 PA so far this year, his BABIP is .135! Wolfman has the worst luck on the team.

[Tigermojo]

Torkelson looks like he's improved most areas compared to last year but his walk rate has plummeted so far. With his normal walk rate, he would be close to his projections which predict 1 war in 480 PA.

[gehringer_2]

One thing true the last two nights was that when faced with an umpire that was expanding the zone, the Tigers didn't follow and paid the price for it in called strikes. Maybe they are so focused on 'staying in the zone' they are not adapting when they should be. Once an umpire shows you what he's going to call, you'd best go with it as best you can.

Edited April 23, 2023 by gehringer_2

[bobrob2004]

9 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

Maton had 85 pretty good plate appearances for the Phillies last year. His BABIP was .325.

For the Tigers in 65 PA so far this year, his BABIP is .135! Wolfman has the worst luck on the team.

Maton has weird stats.  His walk rate is 11.6% and his ISO is .180, both above average.  His barrel% is 15%, more than double than last year and in the 85th percentile in all of baseball.  His wiff% is only at 29.7%, in the 29th percentile.  His hard hit rate is 40%, which is better than what he put up last year, 31.1%.  These are all great numbers, and I'm sure the reason why Hinch keeps batting him leadoff.  We are very much in small sample territory and everything should even out, eventually.  

However...

His batting average is .131.  Only Nevin has a lower average on the active roster.  His on-base percentage is at .232, only Cabrera's is lower at .231.  

At what point do you keep calling it bad luck and when do you start going by actual results?  I think sometimes Hinch over manages and goes by the stats too often instead of moving Maton down the lineup for awhile until he can gain some confidence.  Maybe it's a little bit mental?  He only led off 5 games with the Phillies last year.  Does he even want to be a lead-off hitter?  Has he changed his approach at all while leading off?  

[SoCalTiger]

5 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Baltimore hitters adjust to Wentz. Tigers appear to be incapable of in game adjustments.

It's something that's impossible to quantify but watching this team over the last three season I always wonder if there is such a thing as too much game planning. Not enough just relax and see ball -  hit ball? 

It does seem systematic. Looking at todays box score our batters are all bad to awful statistically. It’s worrisome. 

[SoCalTiger]

4 hours ago, Tigermojo said:

I love the Schoop pinch hit in the ninth. Weak pop up to second. Sit back down and collect your $8 million.

Did you hear Dan Dickerson describe the AB ? I quote “ you can’t hit a ball any softer “. 

[Dtrain72]

So I keep touching this chancre sore I have with my tongue and making it worse, anybody ever have that problem?

[casimir]

11 hours ago, Tigermojo said:

There's the problem. Our home run celebration is a hockey helmet and a hockey stick?

They score about as often as a hockey team.  About, what, 10 times per week?  So if you look at it from that angle, it makes sense.

[Klondike]

8 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

It does seem systematic. Looking at todays box score our batters are all bad to awful statistically. It’s worrisome. 

Total WAR  last year's team had a 8.3 for the whole team(batters) led by Baez with 2.6. to be honest I dont see them getting there this year. wonder if Baez will get above zero even though I expect a small power spell a couple times.

Edited April 23, 2023 by Klondike

[Tiger337]

10 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

One thing true the last two nights was that when faced with an umpire that was expanding the zone, the Tigers didn't follow and paid the price for it in called strikes. Maybe they are so focused on 'staying in the zone' they are not adapting when they should be. Once an umpire shows you what he's going to call, you'd best go with it as best you can.

I think they lack talent.  Bad hitters can't adjust.  They hit just as bad before the organization stated focusing on staying in the zone.  

[gehringer_2]

5 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I think they lack talent.  Bad hitters can't adjust.  They hit just as bad before the organization stated focusing on staying in the zone.  

leaves you wondering what the point of it all is if the most you get out of it is PR for the fans to make the org look like it's doing something.

[gehringer_2]

I also wonder though, the Tiger brain trust puts the equation as "don't swing at pitches out of the strike zone", but how many hitters are trying to do that? How much good does it do to coach players to do something they are not capable of doing? Isn't the real question pitch recognition? It seems if you can give a player some kind of tools to help him recognize when a pitch is going to be out of the zone, then you are giving him something he can use that helps him stop swinging out of the zone, but to just tell him to 'be disciplined" and not to swing out of the zone? What does it do for him if the player doens't know how (or in then end doesn't have the capacity) to get there? Besides make him a tentaive hitter anyway. I can believe there are a few guys who just have to focus better but I doubt that is the case for most.

if you do something like help a guy develop a swing that gets him to the ball quicker so he can wait longer on his swing decision, then you might get better K zone control as the secondary benefit.

When I look at Javy, I see a guy with a long, huge swing who commits before he knows the pitch is a slider. No amount of 'discipline' fixes that without a mechanics change. If I'm coaching Javy, I'd almost rather just work on helping him go ahead and hit the bad pitches he's going to swing at.

Edited April 23, 2023 by gehringer_2