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It's like crawling through the desert, no runs. Drinking our own urine for a run. Today we arrive at an oasis. Drinking our fill of runs. Reese Olson jumps naked into the water because he has been the most run deprived. Tonight we sleep, satiated. Tomorrow we wake and realize we are still in the middle of the desert and the Phillies are on the horizon.

There are two players in Tiger history who have as many four hit games as Colt Keith before the age of 23. Their names are Ty Cobb and Al Kaline.

I mean, he's not wrong that it isn't the worst idea he's ever had.

Start building that Keith statue now!

Let’s all remember this the next time we’re pining for him to replace Baez.

I got back from my walk at the botanical garden, heated up a couple egg rolls and kept checking, but the game hadn’t started yet and suddenly when I do check I see we have a 9–0 game going on. Once again when I’ve absent, the team does better.

This team just lacks major league caliber players, particularly on offense. I get frustrated with their approach and how they just seem too pass up too many good pitches but the fact is most of this lineup quite frankly shouldn't be in the major leagues at this point. You look at today's lineup for example and it featured only 2 guys who were blue chip prospects and 1 of them in Keith looks to not be ready for major league pitching. The rest were guys like Perez, Kriedler, Malloy and Rogers who were all viewed as fringe major leaguers at best and washed up vets that likely wouldn't be in any teams every day lineup in Urshela and Cahna. Granted I still would expect more than 6 runs for a week's worth of baseball like they put up this week but with this little talent you're never gonna produce consistent results. With Carpenter being injured, Tork turning into a pumpkin and Keith not hitting like we hoped any preseason hopes we had for this team to be competitive have gone out the window. If those 3 were performing like we hoped going into this season the offense would be looking a lot better.

Hamm looks promising

I think he's been streaky. And that's probably the result of adjustments going back and forth between him and the pitchers trying to shut him down. He hit .342 with a .881 OPS in May... that seems positive. Followed by a .536 OPS in June. But .306 and a .787 OPS in the last 15 days...

I agree that BA has been replaced by better measures of a hitter's *productivity* but BA still measures an important skill, especially for a young player who has not grown into his full power potential. Contact skill is still fundamental to every other productive thing that happens on offense. So to me a young hittter's ability to maintain a good average is still important. And I think that is born out by what we are seeing in Malloy. In the minors his excellent walk rate pumped up his projection by higher level measures, but his inability to put the bat on good pitches in the zone is a problem for him against MLB pitching.

Some crazy box score numbers from top to bottom (I'll stop at Lakeland though... lower than that is a bridge to far for me...). So... The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly... although today was more like the Kick-Ass, the Good, and the Ugly. There's also the Inconsequential (Bad) but I'm not going to waste my time on that...: The Kick-Ass: Detroit: A Colt Keith 4-5 with a double, HR & 2 singles = Kick-Ass! A Reese Olson win is Kick-Ass! 6 1/3 Inn's, 4 H's, 0 BB's, 2 ER's Riley Greene 2-4 with a HR and BB is Kick-Ass! Wenceel Perez 3-4 with 2 doubles and a BB is Kick-Ass! West Mich: Jackson Jobe with a rehab start at 3 Inn's, 0 hits, 0 BB's, 4 K's... Good enough for a Kick-Ass! Toledo: Parker Meadows with a double & HR in a 2-5 with a HBP. Kick-Ass! Dillon Dingler with 2 HR's and a single in 3-5 with a SF as well and 7 RBI's... definitely Kick-Ass! The Good: Detroit: A Vierling 2-5 with a triple is Good A bullpen with 2 2/3 Inn's, 1 hit, 4 K's and no ER's (even though Vest gave up Olson's 2 runs, he DID come in with men on 2nd & 3rd and one outs...). Good. McKinstry & Baddoo chipping in with HR's is Good Lakeland: Andrew Sears is one of a several interesting Pitchers at Lakeland (see, it's not only hitters Briceno, Clark & McGonigle...). I don't know if any of them turn into real prospects... but they're doing well, at least at Lakeland this year (includes Joe Adametz, Jake Miller, Rayner Castillo, Zach Lee, and...): Sears pitched 4 SO Inn's today with 0 H's, 4 BB's (ewww... yes, he gives up too many BB's: 34 BB's in 47 Inn's) and 8 K's. Good. Not kickass. West Mich: Colin Fields pitched 4 shutout Inn's coming in after Jobe, he's an undrafted 2022 free agent (basically a 21st rounder), and gave up 7 baserunners (but a 1.09 WHIP this year) and got 5 K's... Good enough for Good! Erie: Workman hit a HR (and 5 RBI's) in a 2-5 today. Good! Toledo: Vilade went 2-6 with a HR and double (.318 BA and .933 OPS on the season) today. That's Good! The Ugly: Toledo: Madden got rocked today with 9 runs (8 ER's) in 4 innings and 10 hits & 5 BB's given up... UGLY!!!

I respectfully have to disagree. He’s still within prospect age and has missed considerable development time due to injuries over the years. Kelly is a free agent after this season and Dingler can slot in (or be promoted in the event Carson gets traded at the deadline). I think he’s fine.

you can do 25-15 minutes a night split for this year and see if duren gets better.

I've been watching him since Politically Incorrect. I think he overdoes outrage at the left, mainly because the hard left is not nearly the equivalent to the hard right in power or influence, but I still watch him.

I think the one guy was just celebrating Max's win in Spain today.

LOL. Let me guess: he's a "nice guy." And is that a ring on his left ring finger?

So funny you say that because when my wife and I are at a restaurant and they're dragging their feet on getting our meal to us, she'll tell me to go to the bathroom so we can get it sooner.

I’m one of the few I think who likes Maher. His podcast is good. I like long interviews. People on the left and the right get mad at him sometimes. Good.

Look, Bert, we love you and everything, but ... can you take the hint, pal? 😉

I just hope they are not scoring the rest of week's runs as well.

Or you are just seeing their real opinion of the player's future. Riley plays full time, but even with the investment they have made in Keith and their supposed faith in him as a hitter, he been allowed only 28 PA against LHP so far. Don't like that. Maybe the team would claim that since he hasn't been off a great start they are trying to protect him, but it's still coming at a cost of him not getting to see that pitching.

Almost as though they have no idea what they're doing

OK, these are the real Chicago White Sox.

I for one am keeping receipts for when Colt has an above-average second half.

COLT BOMB!

If you strictly platoon young players out of the gate, you guarantee the inability to hit same side pitching will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I am mildly surprised that a team supposedly committed to development would take such a short term gain at the risk of long term loss approach. But if you follow the numbers to win today, that's where you end up.

Manning pitched yesterday. Montero pitched Friday. Neither were good. In fact, Manning’s not exactly endearing himself to the organization with his AAA work.

they lost yesterday so I dont think they are wearing them today

Yes, Harris has the responsibility, and he’s working through it now, still trying to figure out which players are redeemable and which are not. There are a lot of detritus we have already let go since 2022, and there will be more. That process is going to take more than a couple months into the season, though. I’m guessing he doesn’t think it makes sense to start releasing guys en masse and run a revolving door of players through the team and releasing more guys if they can’t make it within a week. Guys like, say, Malloy, who some posters here were ready to cut bait on right away after clamoring all year for him to be promoted. Revolving door roster management would be chaotic, and that would make us all unhappy, too. It’s OK for our patience to thin dramatically with every loss, and that’s OK, because we have no responsibility for this organization. All we want is win, now, and wake me when that starts happening. That’s what fandom is about. It wouldn’t make any sense for Harris to operate the business like that, though. He has to be deliberate, thoughtful, and measured in how he guides the evolution of this team, and given where the organization stands, he has to prioritize long-term objectives over short-term objectives. We don’t have to like that, and we always can take a break and quit paying attention for a while any time we want. Harris doesn’t have that luxury. The tricky part for him is determining when the short term is so borked that we have to do something off-plan NOW to address it. Apparently, he doesn’t think we’re there just yet. But if this recent malaise keeps up much longer, I would bet we’re getting close to something.

If they wear the fugly dark blues again, Ima bitch and moan about it to no avail.

But CA has - or would have, no reason to want to leave, especially if Tx and a couple southern states did and left CA's political preferences in the ascendancy of the remaining nation. CAs economic might stems from their exports into the rest of the country - everything from electronics design to movies to brussel sprouts. The rest of us are their market.

Live free or stay put.

if momentum existed in sports the panthers would have won in 4. after all, they won the first three.

This was a great response ….