6/1/24 4:10PM Tigers @ Red Sox

[Dtrain72]

3 minutes ago, Dtrain72 said:

Come on Riley, get that run back!

Or dont even swing at three straight strikes 😑

[Tigermojo]

No way

[Dtrain72]

Yep, def a whelp game.

[Tigermojo]

That sucks 

[Toddwert]

7 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

No way

Fenway giveth and taketh

[gehringer_2]

that should do it for this one. You shouldn't be out of a game at Fenway down 4, but this team is.

[Tigermojo]

Guy with 500 OPS gets two homers and a double.

[AZTigersfan]

Olson with a clunker, didn’t have his usual stuff smh. The human tee Mize up tomorrow yuck!

[Tigermojo]

Geez baseball gods are angry today 

[Dtrain72]

[gehringer_2]

Another bad day for Torkelson. Ahead 3-0 in that AB, took a pitch he should have swung at, got multiple additional fastballs reasonably center cut, couldn't barrel up any, then had to swing at a pitchers pitch low and it and made a weak out. In the 2nd AB he was immediately down 0-1 (at least it was on a good pitch) and was fooled on a low change up. In the 1st AB, he took the best pitch of the AB for a strike on the 1st pitch. Whatever process he is trusting, he needs to figure out that it is broken, quickly. His claims his matra is only swing at what you can drive, but he consistent takes better pitches than he swings at. It's his whole problem in a nutshell.

Don't see how the brain trust can watch what he is doing right now and not see the issue, or more likely they do, how they are not fed up with him not responding to coaching enough to send him down.

 

Edited June 1, 2024 by gehringer_2

[Tigermojo]

Feast or famine team.

[Tigermojo]

Incredible play by Javy.

[Tigermojo]

Gio loves the green monster 

[Toddwert]

and Tork K's to end it 6-3 Boston

[gehringer_2]

27 minutes ago, Toddwert said:

and Tork K's to end it 6-3 Boston

Fouled off a middle-middle slider in that AB. From a mechanics standpoint, I would suggest he needs to become more comfortable hitting across more of the zone. If you look at Torkelson's heat map what jumps out is how small a zone he is doing damage in this season, even smaller than last season which was not large to begin with. By comparison his hot zone is about 1/2 the size of Carpenter's. So maybe it's chicken and egg, but he has to get more aggressive in more of the strike zone and he has to be able to hit strikes in more of the strike zone. He's not doing either.

[gehringer_2]

And just to finish the thought, Hinch constantly talks about Torkelson swinging at better pitches, but to me that's exactly backward for Tork. He is already too selective. Tork has to stop looking for 'his pitch' and decide that more balls in the strike zone are going to be 'his pitch' and go get them. You can't give pitchers 70% of the zone and hit with any success in the majors.

[chasfh]

15 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Another bad day for Torkelson. Ahead 3-0 in that AB, took a pitch he should have swung at, got multiple additional fastballs reasonably center cut, couldn't barrel up any, then had to swing at a pitchers pitch low and it and made a weak out. In the 2nd AB he was immediately down 0-1 (at least it was on a good pitch) and was fooled on a low change up. In the 1st AB, he took the best pitch of the AB for a strike on the 1st pitch. Whatever process he is trusting, he needs to figure out that it is broken, quickly. His claims his matra is only swing at what you can drive, but he consistent takes better pitches than he swings at. It's his whole problem in a nutshell.

Don't see how the brain trust can watch what he is doing right now and not see the issue, or more likely they do, how they are not fed up with him not responding to coaching enough to send him down.

 

Maybe all the hitting coaches should be fired. Or maybe the hitting coaches are doing the right thing and Tork’s just too broken or even not good enough to execute the plan right.

[chasfh]

15 hours ago, Tigermojo said:

Feast or famine team.

Fifth youngest team in the majors.

[Tigermojo]

7 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Fifth youngest team in the majors.

Cleveland, Philadelphia and Seattle have very young teams.

[chasfh]

13 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

Cleveland, Philadelphia and Seattle have very young teams.

OK, I quit, we suck. 😉

[chasfh]

14 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Fouled off a middle-middle slider in that AB. From a mechanics standpoint, I would suggest he needs to become more comfortable hitting across more of the zone. If you look at Torkelson's heat map what jumps out is how small a zone he is doing damage in this season, even smaller than last season which was not large to begin with. By comparison his hot zone is about 1/2 the size of Carpenter's. So maybe it's chicken and egg, but he has to get more aggressive in more of the strike zone and he has to be able to hit strikes in more of the strike zone. He's not doing either.

Maybe hitting instruction during a major league season is a little like navigating a ship in the ocean—the captain can turn it only a little a time, and not on a 180 standing in place. The coaching may have established a plan during spring of for Tork to take first pitches if they are not in his happy zone, and then think about looking primarily for pitches he can drive. But maybe now that it’s not working, it’s nearly impossible to change his entire approach on a dime right ****ing now, while he is facing flamethrowing big league pitching literally every single day.

If coaching were to tell Tork, today, forget everything we told you this spring and simply change your approach immediately and swing at everything you think your bat can get to, not only is that going to call their entire coaching approach—one that is consistent with their organizational philosophy and that is working for other players on the team—into question, but it’s also going to butt up in his head against the instructions he got in spring that are still firmly in his mind, and create a confused mental state in which he is guessing and flailing on every pitch, instead of on mainly strike-two pitches.

I’m not speaking as an apologist for the hitting coaches here, but simply to the difficulty of revamping an entire hitting approach which almost always either takes place at the big league level only during the offseason, or on an extended developmental trip to the minors, which Tork might well benefit from. The monkey wrench here is that we do not have a regular first baseman who can man the spot every day for several weeks while Tork is away completely remakin g his hitting approach, especially now the Canha is down. And just going out and acquiring the warmest body available and sticking that guy at first base every day at least until at the break is almost certainly not going to make Tigers fans any happier when they see the results.

Go ahead and blame Harris if you like (and Hinch while yoou’re at it, because hell, why not) for not anticipating that Tork would completely stink up the joint and having a league-average starting first baseman just waiting around on the shelf to take over just in case, although I don’t think any team would have a contingency like that just ready to go. That’s a fan’s prerogative. But really, this looks like this is something Tork will just have to withstand for the next few weeks and try hard to figure out for himself at the major league level. This is definitely one of the hard parts of the game that every team goes through at some point.

 

[Dan Gilmore]

Some weeks back @gehringer_2 mentioned that Hinch could push Tork to go to right field by some means-I think it was kind the kangaroo court thing. Some small fine (but big in terms of pride) every time he doesn’t go the opposite way? I don’t know if that would actually work, plus you’d need to not fall into a new, just as bad habit. The idea would be to have him apply himself to what he isn’t doing-repeating it and, one would hope, having success. But maybe Tork can’t change. He had years of success before getting to MLB. 

[gehringer_2]

38 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Maybe hitting instruction during a major league season is a little like navigating a ship in the ocean—......

 

You pay MLB staff big bucks because just like the players, they are supposed to be the best in the world at what they do. It may be a hard task, but that's the portfolio. Pro sport is not an excuses business - figure it out or get people who can.

[chasfh]

11 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

You pay MLB staff big bucks because just like the players, they are supposed to be the best in the world at what they do. It may be a hard task, but that's the portfolio. Pro sport is not an excuses business - figure it out or get people who can.

Maybe it's not the coaching, maybe it's the player. But sure, fire them all, I guess, and keep firing them until things improve.