4/7/24 1:40PM EDT A's @ Tigers

[chasfh]

16 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Torkelson has been a total disappointment far, not so much even the results but that he is doing exactly the opposite of what he needed to do this season, which was become a better hitter - higher OBP, a tougher out with men on base. Instead he has gone completely the other way, swinging out of his shoes, pulling everything, making a ton of outs. The sell out for the long ball may get him 30HR in the end but he'll just turn himself into Rob Deer with a buzz cut.

Idle speculation: TORK! spent at least a year being regarded as the Next Big Thing and that can really go to some people's head. I do kind of wonder whether he is the kind of guy who is so full of himself and such a believer in his press clippings from college that he feels he doesn't need to take any serious direction on his hitting. After all, it did get him eight million bucks before he ever put on a professional uniform. Maybe he thinks he can become the best hitter in the game by doubling down on what brung him to the draft in the first place: swinging out of his shoes and hitting homers. I'm sure it'll all just click one day, right? Hope I'm wrong about that, but we're going on, what, four seasons by now? And he did miss an entire season due to the pandemic. More snake bites.

[HeyAbbott]

After watching Sunday's game, my question is, have they made Javy Baez the hitting instructor?

The general overall hitting approach was not FCL league standards. Absolutely disgusting.

I think with TORK!, we have seen the second coming of Rob Deer. Spencer Deer, ugh. Here's hoping he doesn't become Spencer Oyler.

[mtutiger]

For me, it would be one thing if Tork were the only guy struggling, but for the most part (outside of maybe Riley Greene and the free agent vets), they all are.

Like, Parker Meadows must love being Tork's teammate now... he's the most lost hitter on the team at the moment and it never seems to get discussed 

Edited April 8, 2024 by mtutiger

[gehringer_2]

5 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

For me, it would be one thing if Tork were the only guy struggling,

That's why I'm more bothered by the approach. 

But outside Torkelson, the fact is that here we are 9 games in the Tigers are 25th in OPB and OPS in MLB. It drives me back to my old theory: Tigers hitters have talked about how they don't get much scouting info in ST, they just hit,  so maybe the Tigers overload the guys once the season starts and it knocks them off balance - they all end up tentative until they re-establish their individual equilibrium. It's just a theory but how many slow starts do we have to see before probability tells us it can't be an accident.

[1984Echoes]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

... Tigers hitters have talked about how they don't get much scouting info in ST, they just hit,  so maybe the Tigers overload the guys once the season starts and it knocks them off balance - they all end up tentative until they re-establish their individual equilibrium. It's just a theory...

That's an interesting theory if it's true they receive nothing in ST...

Also, to your point, it will be the younger hitters that struggle because they'll need to rely on those reports more than the veterans will who have, been there/ done that.

It would be interesting to compare vets versus youngsters out of the gate for the Tigers. Although, IIRC, everyone has struggled on this team out of the gate.

It could be as much as we have warm-weather hitters on a cold-weather team.

[kdog]

I don't want to hear about holding open spots for JHM and Jung when the young guys you already have aren't consistent. 

You add reasonably priced vets to up the floor of the team. Then you sort out which young guys are good, and the ones who suck.

[1776]

28 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

It could be as much as we have warm-weather hitters on a cold-weather team.

Tork is the exception. He didn’t hit in ST either. To date, I’m seeing what I expected to see from him.