2025 Detroit Tigers Spring Training

[casimir]

5 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

I could see him getting dealt for OF depth.

I wonder if Jahmai Jones is that OF depth.  8 don’t know what he looks like in CF and I know spring stats aren’t the greatest barometer.  But it sounds like he’s making the most of his opportunity.

[IdahoBert]

8 minutes ago, casimir said:

I think in 2021 MLB was real particular about not having the Florida teams travel too much outside of those pods because of COVID.  It seems like the Central Florida and Gulf of Mexico teams had their 5 team pods and rotated a team from each to cross into the other pod every day.  The 5 Atlantic teams stayed on their side, maybe having split squad doubleheaders to fill the void of the odd team not always having a day off.

It’s kind of interesting to me the evolution of teams moving from Florida to Arizona. It used to be 18 teams in Florida and 8 teams in Arizona.  Now it’s split 50/50.  I kind of wonder if more teams will migrate to Arizona.  It’s certainly a better geographical standpoint with reduced game to game travel and it seems like the facilities are probably newer.

When I lived in Tucson, the Indians had their spring training there but all the other teams were in Phoenix and it was a 2 1/2 hour drive and eventually Tucson lost the Indians (when they actually got good, which was a pain). Having all the teams concentrated in the Phoenix area really makes good logistic sense. A new ballpark was built in Tucson after I moved from there and it was quite a facility and the Cardinals and the White Sox shared it, but I don’t think they were there for more than a couple years.

[casimir]

1 minute ago, IdahoBert said:

When I lived in Tucson, the Indians had their spring training there but all the other teams were in Phoenix and it was a 2 1/2 hour drive and eventually Tucson lost the Indians (when they actually got good, which was a pain). Having all the teams concentrated in the Phoenix area really makes good logistic sense. A new ballpark was built in Tucson after I moved from there and it was quite a facility and the Cardinals and the White Sox shared it, but I don’t think they were there for more than a couple years.

I remember Cincinnati and Cleveland being in the Grapefruit.  I think the Reds might have actually been the closest competitor to the Tigers.  Plant City, Florida?

[chasfh]

5 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

☹️. Chalk that up as one nut the pitching brain hasn't been able to crack. There were flashes of a pitcher in there often enough to tease there should be something there - but he could never hang on to whatever it was he would find when he had a good outing - and the good outings are too rare.

Are you additionally chalking this up to coaching doesn’t know what they’re doing, or pitcher isn’t good enough to save?

[IdahoBert]

55 minutes ago, casimir said:

I remember Cincinnati and Cleveland being in the Grapefruit.  I think the Reds might have actually been the closest competitor to the Tigers.  Plant City, Florida?

Yes, I think the Indians left Tucson in 1988 or so, and moved down to Florida. I lived in Tucson for 13 years and I never met a single person who considered themselves in Indians fan, so being there 50 years did not leave much of a trace amongst the populous. They also pretty much sucked almost the whole time and they didn’t give people a lot to get excited about.

[gehringer_2]

19 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Are you additionally chalking this up to coaching doesn’t know what they’re doing, or pitcher isn’t good enough to save?

not at all, just noting that so far they haven't found the key for him to achieve reproducibly what he has done occasionally - and for the majority of guys it probably just isn't there, which is why there are so few good major league players. It's one of those things you can do an XY graph with one axis being max talent and the other being how often max can be achieved and you can have some combination but you have to stay somewhere in the +/+ quadrant to make it.  Manning has shown flashes of high level talent, but has never been able to bring it consistently. He's maybe the opposite of a Holton - who doesn't have great stuff, but is generally steady as a rock at the level he achieves. This is maybe even a better paradigm for hitters, some of whom can have a monster month one every year or two but just can't bring that level to the 162 game grind  or have 4/4 days when everything feels right but it's only twice a month - and such guys never really excel

Edited Sunday at 10:00 PM by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, casimir said:

I wonder if Jahmai Jones is that OF depth.  8 don’t know what he looks like in CF and I know spring stats aren’t the greatest barometer.  But it sounds like he’s making the most of his opportunity.

Spring training stats mean practically nothing, but when you've got injuries and a non-roster invite has a big spring, they might take on some meaning.  

[casimir]

1 minute ago, Tiger337 said:

Spring training stats mean practically nothing, but when you've got injuries and a non-roster invite has a big spring, they might take on some meaning.  

It could be worse.  The injuries aren’t good.  But at least the Tigers have someone in the fold that seems to be playing well enough that breaking camp with him on the roster wouldn’t be a terrible thing.

[gehringer_2]

 Jones turning into anything at this point is a definite long shot, but if he has one hot month and it gets us to Vierling, it will be a good acquisition.

[Tigermojo]

2 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

 Jones turning into anything at this point is a definite long shot, but if he has one hot month and it gets us to Vierling, it will be a good acquisition.

There's room on the roster now with SGL and Urquidy on the 60 day IL. Jones seems like the perfect fit right now.

[chasfh]

15 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

not at all, just noting that so far they haven't found the key for him to achieve reproducibly what he has done occasionally - and for the majority of guys it probably just isn't there, which is why there are so few good major league players. It's one of those things you can do an XY graph with one axis being max talent and the other being how often max can be achieved and you can have some combination but you have to stay somewhere in the +/+ quadrant to make it.  Manning has shown flashes of high level talent, but has never been able to bring it consistently. He's maybe the opposite of a Holton - who doesn't have great stuff, but is generally steady as a rock at the level he achieves. This is maybe even a better paradigm for hitters, some of whom can have a monster month one every year or two but just can't bring that level to the 162 game grind  or have 4/4 days when everything feels right but it's only twice a month - and such guys never really excel

Manning may have been showing one of those flashes the one time one of Avila’s eyeball scouts saw him throw in a game.

[roarintiger1]

16 hours ago, casimir said:

I remember Cincinnati and Cleveland being in the Grapefruit.  I think the Reds might have actually been the closest competitor to the Tigers.  Plant City, Florida?

Yes, the Reds played in Plant City.  The Royals played at what was called Baseball City, which was about 15 miles or so east of Lakeland. I believe it was at the I-4 and Rt. 27 interchange.   The baseball stadium there is no more. I think it's all a shopping and condo area now. I went to games at both locations years ago. 

[gehringer_2]

9 hours ago, chasfh said:

Manning may have been showing one of those flashes the one time one of Avila’s eyeball scouts saw him throw in a game.

In fairness, IIRC in 2019 when Mize, Manning, Skubal and Faedo were all at Erie, it was Manning who was doing some of the best work of the group, so it's not like there was never a good reason to think there was something there to work with. But it seems he he never took the next step after the Covid year. He's just sort of faded since then. C'est la vie.

Edited Monday at 10:26 PM by gehringer_2

[Motor City Sonics]

I hope Manning does alright for the Reds, Pirates, Marlins or A's       I, like Gehringer_2, thought he might have been the best of the bunch a few years ago.   

 

We always love to rate how good our prospects are and all teams do, but if you look back through MLB history at any given year - out of a team's Top 10 prospects, if 3 of them wind up being above average Major League players then you are doing pretty well.    

I remember hearing the greatness of Mize, Manning and Skubal, but also thinking that in the real world, the best we can realistically hope for was one to really become a star.   Skubal's the star,  Mize is a 4th/5th starter and Manning is probably done as a Tiger.    If we can get anything above average out of Mize, then we're doing really well. 

[1776]

12 hours ago, roarintiger1 said:

Yes, the Reds played in Plant City.  The Royals played at what was called Baseball City, which was about 15 miles or so east of Lakeland. I believe it was at the I-4 and Rt. 27 interchange.   The baseball stadium there is no more. I think it's all a shopping and condo area now. I went to games at both locations years ago. 

Haines City. Was there for a ST game in 1988 when the Royals were there. 

[Tiger337]

31 minutes ago, 1776 said:

Haines City. Was there for a ST game in 1988 when the Royals were there. 

I may have been there that day too.  

[1776]

8 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I may have been there that day too.  

The Royals were playing the Astros that day. As I recall, either the infield or the out field was an artificial surface. 

[Tiger337]

22 minutes ago, 1776 said:

The Royals were playing the Astros that day. As I recall, either the infield or the out field was an artificial surface. 

I only went to Tigers games, so I would not have been there that day.  I remember that it was a lot different from Joker Marchant.  

[casimir]

On 3/10/2025 at 9:36 AM, roarintiger1 said:

Yes, the Reds played in Plant City.  The Royals played at what was called Baseball City, which was about 15 miles or so east of Lakeland. I believe it was at the I-4 and Rt. 27 interchange.   The baseball stadium there is no more. I think it's all a shopping and condo area now. I went to games at both locations years ago. 

Baseball City.  I had forgotten about that.

[Arlington]

One of the most interesting things for me about this season is going to be Hinch's handling of the pitching staff.  Bullpen chaos was based on the idea of not letting batters get comfortable.  This involved matching strengths against weaknesses, limiting the pitches a batter saw against a single pitcher, and varying the pitching styles batters faced.  Hinch may have the luxury this season, knock on wood, of 6 to 7 stretched out effective starters very few of which are seasoned enough to go full out all season.  For example, Open with Holton, go to Cobb for three or four and finish with Jobe.  Really looking forward to seeing that kind of manipulation.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, Arlington said:

One of the most interesting things for me about this season is going to be Hinch's handling of the pitching staff.  Bullpen chaos was based on the idea of not letting batters get comfortable.  This involved matching strengths against weaknesses, limiting the pitches a batter saw against a single pitcher, and varying the pitching styles batters faced.  Hinch may have the luxury this season, knock on wood, of 6 to 7 stretched out effective starters very few of which are seasoned enough to go full out all season.  For example, Open with Holton, go to Cobb for three or four and finish with Jobe.  Really looking forward to seeing that kind of manipulation.

I believe pitching chaos was based on not having more than two pitchers who could reliably start game. I believe the effect of pitching chaos was to keep other teams off-balance and affect their ability to prepare for the game—to your point, not letting get hitters get comfortable.

[Shinzaki]

Pitching chaos =Rowdy Roddy Piper saying "just when you think you have the answers...I change the questions"