5/6 8:10 Tigers @ Astros

[IdahoBert]

[Jim Cowan]

3 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

And the thing which just adds to the frustration is that all this crappy fielding is supposedly in the pursuit of positional flexibility - Well how many substitutions did Hinch make tonight? Exactly Zero. How many did he make last night, Exactly one - he pinch ran for Cabrera and the player never hit or went to the field. Just WTF good is all this positional flexibility doing for us?

I hadn't even thought about that, now I am even more frustrated.  I just don't understand how this guy's mind works. 

As for not having much to work with we have been assured by many people here that as soon as Hinch got here he assumed an influential role in acquisition and development...pure fantasy of course and mercifully we don't hear that  much lately.  Those people now suddenly allow Hinch to play Pilate on talent acquisition, he can wash his hands.  The Castros are here but it isn’t his fault.

[SoCalTiger]

When your not hitting as a team..always field your best defensive players. When your not pitching well as team..always field your best defensive team. When you are hitting well..always field your best defensive team..when your pitching well...always field your best defensive team. In Summary..keep Willi Castro the "F" off the field !!

[gehringer_2]

10 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

When your not hitting as a team..always field your best defensive players. When your not pitching well as team..always field your best defensive team. When you are hitting well..always field your best defensive team..when your pitching well...always field your best defensive team. In Summary..keep Willi Castro the "F" off the field !!

I think there is justification for playing lesser defender, if the defender is at least adequate and you are going to get a bona fide bat in the lineup (i.e. Nick C), but subbing out Hill for W. Castro is barely justified on the bats before you even consider the D and Willi has shown limited fly ball judgment. I don't know how you can even think about playing a guy in the OF who doesn't have a decent sense of where the ball is going - it negates every other skill he may have as a defender if he takes them all to the wrong place. And OF mistakes are expensive - usually cost multiple bases.

Edited May 7, 2022 by gehringer_2

[Jim Cowan]

3 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

When your not hitting as a team..always field your best defensive players. When your not pitching well as team..always field your best defensive team. When you are hitting well..always field your best defensive team..when your pitching well...always field your best defensive team. In Summary..keep Willi Castro the "F" off the field !!

Willi in the outfield, and Hill on the bench.  Genius.

[Hart]

This is nuts.  I am so frustrated with Hinch and the front office right now I am close to wanting this season to go into a nose dive so somebody gets fired for this huge disappointment. 

[mtutiger]

1 hour ago, Hart said:

This is nuts.  I am so frustrated with Hinch and the front office right now I am close to wanting this season to go into a nose dive so somebody gets fired for this huge disappointment. 

I'm sure the Mets will be firing Buck Showalter any day now so they can go out and steal Hinch from the Tigers.

Seriously, I like Hinch, but his lineup card in last night's game is a great reminder that the guy doesn't walk on water.

Edited May 7, 2022 by mtutiger

[casimir]

13 hours ago, Jim Cowan said:

And, especially, the guy who filled out the lineup card.  Knowing that the team would probably have trouble scoring more than 2 runs, he keeps the best outfield defender on the bench and puts one of his "versatile" guys, God this is driving me crazy, into the outfield instead.

Every single person in this forum would have had Hill in center and Baddoo in left.  Without exception, every one of us.  And, by the way, every player who dressed for the game would have done it the same way too.  They earned a win, they didn’t get one, and they know why. They are not angry at Willi, they already knew that he is a bad defender.

Even the fly outs before the bloop gaffe were kind of ugly.  Damn near crouched down to a knee on one of them.

This roster is awful right now.  They need to dump CastroW down to Toledo and pull up Clemens (ideally) or Short and just deal with CastroH as the backup SS.  Schoop kind sit behind Clemens, or Clemens can move around 2B/LF/DH.

Unfortunately, there aren't other moves to make.  Candelario is showing signs of coming around.  The OF is going to be Meadows and Grossman in the corners with a CF of Baddoo/Hill.  Baez's bat might not be what we wanted, but damnit if isn't glorious to have that glove at SS.  Cabrera is going to be the DH.  Torkelson just needs to grind through and find it.  They could try swapping Cameron for Baddoo (please, no more CastroH in CF, no more CastroW in Detroit's OF), they could try Short instead of Clemens.  But that's essentially it.  The position players are simply underperforming or didn't have room to underperform to begin with.

And, yeah, the CastroW in OF crap.....  Look, the offense is struggling, the pitching is holding it together and at least giving the team a shot.  Let's not add another obstacle to a win by putting a horsebleep glove out there if it can be avoided.