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The problem with all of Hinchs platooning and pinch hitting is that it’s become super predictable. You know Keith will hit for Jones the minute a RHP comes in. You know McKinstry will PH for Lee in the same scenario. I have zero data to back up this claim, but I feel like the element of surprise with those sorts of things helps keep the opposing manager from countering as well as they’d like to.

Looks like Fubo and DirectTV have it in Detroit. Curious to see what local stations pick it up on the west side. We're going to be out of the country the first three months of the year, so I guess it won't matter much for me. I'm the opposite of Duren. Take the regular season off and show up for the playoffs.

I am not much in favor of platooning especially young players. I also don't like the constant position changes. I believe in defined roles , consistent positions and making a decision on a player that lasts longer than the next game. I guess I'm out dated but if a player knows when he will be playing and where he will be playing and that he is given some commitment to both I think they will perform better. This team plays very tight and I think it's at least partly due to thinking every at bat or opportunity might be your last.

Our eyes hurt from watching this month.

There is a lot more of that in baseball that there was 20 years and I can't really say if Hinch does it more than others. I think a bit more than average, but I'm not sure. I agree that the practice probably costs some runs defensively.

Agree, not sure why Keith was extended and is only a platoon player now. I realize his lack of power is disappointing, but he’s sitting vs a LHP for Workman? Come on. At this point, I’d have McGonigle, Greene, Keith, Dingler, Torkleson, and Vierling in the lineup everyday. Sink or swim with them. Not sure what else they can do at this point. They could dump Jones and call up a Malgeri or Jelks or Navigato or whatever. But whatever likely changes they could make are still not going to matter unless other parts of the lineup get themselves going.

So Warsh is now sworn in - the next Fed meeting is Mid June and at least one governor just came out for removing the guidance that the Fed 'bias' is toward another rate cut. So when Warsh was on Fed the before (during Bernanke I guess?), he apparently was strongly opposed to QE, wants big reductions in the Fed balance sheet to get it unwound finally. I suppose that is one way to fight inflation without actually raising interest rates, so maybe that's the needle he wants to thread. Problem is that when the Fed starts selling its holdings faster, that depresses prices, and since banks hold a lot of the same kinds of securities, that stresses bank reserve requirements and the bankers don't like that. At one time Powell tried to increase the rate of unwind in the Fed's balance sheet the banks screamed bloody murder (and IIRC one bank went under or had to rescued or some such) and he backed off. Should be interesting if Warsh goes that way again.

All of them are “completing rehab daily” Meadows is probably out at least until the all-star break I would assume. Torres apparently isn’t swinging a bat yet but is doing defensive work somehow. Dunno any details on Carp and Javy-but I wouldn’t expect Javy back for at least a few more weeks just because of the nature of the injury and he will probably need a week or more of rehab assignment time.

I wanted him at the deadline. But I think this is enough to pass on him now.

So, I really hope Garcia is eligible for compensation. Maybe he'll be covered in that Trump slush fund. Or is that only for actual criminals?

Might as well roll Bernie Lomax out there. At least he wouldn't swing at pitches nowhere near the strike zone.

If I'm Ausar, I don't engage the Pistons in extension talks until the Duren situation is settled. Ausdar was the better player in the playoffs by quite a wide margin. He has the better future IMO. If Detroit gives Duren $30million+ then why would Ausar entertain any offers below the max? Which would start the first year at just over $40 million per.

Baltimore's record is barely better than ours and Baltimore's pitching is pretty bad (at least the starters). If not now, then when? We're all waiting for Carpenter, Baez, Torres and Meadows to come back, but are any of them close?

6 guys in this starting lineup are hitting .200 or lower. I'll forgive Lee because I don't think he was ready for MLB yet. And I know there isn't much else on the bench with Veirling (.200), Rogers (.159 and short (.067). But Keith hits .246/.299 vs. lefties in his career. He's only 1 for 9 this year because Stanford Boy won't even let him see lefites. But Keith vs. Lefties is better than most of thes right-handed hitters. So stop babying him. You are paying him like a major leaguer, treat him like one. Perez, Workman, Jones..........why are they even here. Okay, maybe Malgeri, Julks, Jung, DeJong and Max Anderson wouldn't be better, but they can't possibly be worse, can they? Can we give it a shot and find out? Can we shake this thing up? Maybe some of these guys come out of their coma if they see other guys getting sent to go eat the Tony Packo's diet. Jones is on the team because he's out of options. That's their hangup and that absolutely shows you just how bad this team really is. It is worse than 2003. In 2003 we had no expectations. Sometimes you need to change for the sake of change and I've never seen a clearer example of it with the Tigers. And I've been paying attention since May 15, 1976. This is just brutal roster management and the lineup and game decisions aren't much better. Jones .175 / .254 Perez .160 / .212 Torkelson .194 /.306 Lee .200 / .250 McKinstry .193 / .253 Workman .179 /.179

Which mythical team is giving him $30 million per? Only 2 or 3 teams have enough cap space to do that. One of them being the Lakers and that only is true if they cut ties with LeBron completely. If he retires, sure. But if James plays basketball next year I find it hard to believer he wont be wearing purple and gold. The Hawks could in theory get there. But they have to cut ties with CJ and Kuminga to do it. So I rate that as unlikely. That leaves Chicago and Brooklyn. Nets have a center so unless they trade him, they are probably off the table. Chicago is a legit threat with over $60 million in space to play with. One thing to remember, almost nobody signs offer sheets anymore. Six players since 2019 have signed offer sheets, combined. I don't think anyone has since 2023. It is a bad way to acquire talent. The big problem is, your cap space is tied up for the 48 hours Detroit decides if they want to match or not. It actually could be longer if you agree to a deal on July 1st because you can't sign it until July 6th, then Detroit has until the 8th to decide if they match. In a class that isn't great to begin with, it will be slim pickings on July 8th if Detroit matches. The second reason nobody signs offer sheets is cost. You almost always have to overpay the free agent to entice his current team not to match. Overpaying for assets is rarely a good move.

I guess if we win our next game and he rolls out the exact same lineup the next game, we will have an idea. Haha

There was clearly enough optimism to extend Keith before his first MLB game….so why has that shifted after age 22/23 of being an above replacement level player? It’s stupid, but I think it’s where they were drafted. Riley, Tork and Mize being top 5 picks and not panning out represents top to bottom organizational failures. A guy like Keith not panning out can be written off easier.

There haven't been more than 1 or 2 in the last 20 years. This is great...you have one guy this century: Willy Adames, a decent but forgettable player as the only example of a success in this century. Outraged? Hardly. More amused at how all the players were from the 80s and 90s. 85% of the league wasn't even alive when almost all of the guys you listed were traded. And the main one you list, Smoltz, it will be 40 years next season.

LOL - touche! Moving guys around a lot is maybe one where I think there is some consensus around here that there is at least some defensive cost involved, but how do you quantify it and decide if it's a net plus or not? Again it's coming down to someone's (mostly Hinch's) judgment because it's just too multivariate a problem with too shallow case data to generate useful analytical guidance.

I don't know. Given that he has a new batting order every day and moves players around to different positions, you could also say that he takes the short view.

I can't argue that from where we sit, the decision that young Riley was an everyday player and young Colt is not seems pretty arbitrary. I suppose it was at least partly because Riley graded very well in the field the first couple of years - though that's seems to be over now.

Right - at some point you just have to decide what you believe. I'm sure there are guys out there on team analytic staffs doing exactly what you are talking about, trying to figure out what term is optimum to get the best predictor for particular outcomes, The problem is that like Soylent Green - IT'S PEOPLE! and they tend to confound whatever you do to try to predict them. My personal observation would be to always down weight previous seasons at least when you see guys do things in the off season that result in them coming back as very different players - for instance Riley two seasons ago and Keith this season -- and pitchers in general because they always seem to vary from year to year just because almost no pitcher can stay 100% healthy season to season -they almost always have something not quite right. Other than that a manager just has to figure it out as best he can! In Hinch's case I think you can make the argument form watching him that he likes to take the longer view. Is he right? IDK - It's not working now, but that doesn't mean it's his choices that are the reason.

Well in his rookie year, Keith hit .305 vs LHP in 84 ABs. That was enough for us to only give him half that many ABs vs LHP the following year and basically none this year. So we gave up completely on our 23/24 year old prospect hitting vs LHP despite some data suggesting that maybe he could be solid. We’ve replaced a bunch of those ABs with a journeyman minor leaguer who he got for next to nothing. He only got 100 or so ABs vs LHP last year and did great—but now he’s got 48 this year with 16 Ks and is hitting under .200 and that’s supposed to be his calling card. Wouldn’t the long term data suggest that Jones just isn’t a good player seeing that none of the other 29 teams in the majors ever gave him any real MLB at bats? If it’s just gonna be about long term data and trends, be consistent player to player with it.

I tend to agree. I use it mostly to help describe what has happened in the past. Some of the elements of the various WARs are indeed predictive of the future, but when you try to mix all the parts together, there are a lot of things that can change in the future. For the future, it only works as baseline.