casimir

Actually, it was Jim's post I was thinking of. But to add to it, sure, I am not surprised you were optimistic about ENTER PROSPCT NAME HERE.

The Nuggets may have won the series, but the Lakers have that sweet, kick ass inaugural midseason championship banner.

Yup, here it is.

I don’t think it has to be a pitcher. I think it can be anyone on the 40 man roster. The bullpen should be in good shape. There are a few Thursdays off here (last week, this week, next week). They could simply push the SPs back a day and use another bat for the doubleheader. It just ends up as someone else for Hinch to PH or PR with. Or there is the catching situation (which as @gehringer_2 mentioned, at this point just put Kelly on the IL and call up Dingler). On the other hand, recall Manning and let him pitch another MLB game. He’s pitching fine in the early going and so this is a bit of a reward for him. This helps reduce the workload on the starting 5 by another game, for whatever that is worth. Everyone gets pushed back another day, so a little extra early season rest.

Drat. Was really looking forward to some baseball tonight. So, I wonder how Carson Kelly is doing? The Tigers probably dodged that this weekend, but they definitely need two catchers tomorrow. In theory, the bullpen should be in good shape and Thursday is an off day. They could pull Dingler up as the 27th dude just in case. But this would break protocol with Manning as the designated 27th man.

Remote control shock collars?

Indy has his number.

Well, he did pull off and avoid a collision. So there’s that bit of positive. I don’t know, I only saw it on TV. Perez didn’t yield even though you could see Meadows calling it. Did Perez hear Meadows and forget who was the CF? Was Meadows not loud enough for Perez to hear? Tough to know for sure. The CF is supposed to take charge, but if the communication doesn’t work out, how do we know for certain where the breakdown was?

I don’t know when Urshela is due back. Things could be different by then. To me, Meadows looks more lost at the plate but has been the better asset on defense. Perez has been playing and they’ve used him in CF a bit. So they could cover CF with Perez and Vierling with Urshela (and Vierling) at 3B and Keith and Ibanez at 2B. If they send Keith down, that’s Meadows and probably a little Vierling in CF, Vierling and Urshela at 3B, Ibanez and McKinstry at 2B. Urshela hasn’t played much 2B, but maybe it wouldn’t be tough for him? I don’t know, it seems like the playing time and depth charts are more amenable to keeping Keith, but again, what will things look like when Urshela is ready to return?

He’s already had an error. It was one of his first games with Detroit. He was in RF and Meadows was in CF. There was a fly ball between them, Meadows was calling for it but yielded to Perez. Neither caught it, multibase error to Perez. I remember noting how most of Perez’ OF experience was in CF and questioned if they were both calling for it.

The problem is nobody bunts. We saw Vierling try it earlier this season. Complete failure. I doubt Meadows, or anyone, has done much bunting in the minors.

Concur.

Is Kennedy out of options? I would think he gets the Hens hat when Ibanez comes back. Ibanez could factor into the 2B/3B mix without upsetting the OF apple cart much at all right now.

I just want Meadows to be a reasonable bottom of the order hitter right now. Torkelson needs to provide offense. I expect Keith to catch on at some point this season. That should make an average top half of the lineup with Greene, Canha, and Carpenter. Hopefully Rogers/Kelly can form a respectable catching duo. Baez, just get around 100 OPS+, play that defense and create havoc when on the base paths. I think Vierling can have a nice slightly above 100 OPS+ at 3B. That should allow Meadows to play defense and not worry about offense too much for now. I think if the Tigers can get that type of production, they’ll be fine.

I agree with you about the football mentality not working for baseball. I think it shows with some folks in here. It can be aggravating at times. I did the math on my theory of winning and splitting series. They have 40 three game series, so that’d be 80-40. Split the rest and the final record is 101-61. Probably a little bit aggressive of a goal, but if they were to hit it, they’d definitely be a playoff team. I do think as a team encounters a series, taking a three game series is probably the general goal in mind unless that team happens to win the first two games of the series. Obviously there are other variables at play that teams are mindful of. What does the pitching staff look like, are they rested well, can they take advantage of the opposition’s pitching staff? What about the position players, are they fully loaded? Case in point, it sounds like Kelly is a bit dinged up right now, and given the nature of catchers, Hinch probably had no choice but to keep Rogers in the games this weekend. If a situation were to come up with the game on the line, it probably wasn’t going to lend itself to pinch hitting for Rogers. And of course the Royals were probably aware of this as well.

I love speed on the base paths to create that press and speed on defense to take away some of marginally open areas. For as long as they’ve been playing at Commercial Park, I’ve wanted to see range in the outfield. Greene and Meadows can provide that. Hopefully Meadows can climb out of his slump and avoid a refresher in Toledo.

Win the three game series and split the two and four game series. Play around that kind of record that throughout the season and it should be a playoff team.

Wenceel Perez is living the dream. His post game interview with Trevor Thompson, man, you can just tell he’s on cloud nine. He mentioned calling his folks after the game and hoping they could come see him play. The Tigers need to make that happen and presumably they’re working on it. Then they showed Perez meeting the 6 year old who “caught” his home run ball and his family on the field. That’s good stuff. Perez seems to have brought a bit of a spark to Detroit. For sure he’s passed by Baddoo on the depth chart. Someone else mentioned it elsewhere, but he kind off fell of the radar a season or two ago but resurfaced as a prospect. Got to love it.

The last time the Tigers didn’t have a losing record in April was 2017. 12-12 was the record. The last time the Tigers had a winning record in April was 2016. 13-10. Ironically the 47-114 2019 Tigers finished April at 11-12.

Random stat of the day. Baez has 27 SB to only 2 CS as a a Tiger.

Soto drove me bonkers with his lack of control. Sure, maybe he threw hard and had great stuff. Nobody knew where the pitch was going. His over 5.0 BB/9 isn’t anything I want out of a pitcher, in particular a pitcher that is used in higher leverage situations. Kudos to him, he got that to 3.3 last season. But it’s back to the typical 5.0+ neighborhood this season. Nope, no thanks, pass. It’s funny you mention podcast hosts about Vierling. There were podcast hosts that slurped Soto’s credentials, and I just couldn’t understand it. Again, throws hard, great stuff, can’t throw strikes. So, great, two time all star, mostly to fulfill the every team represented requirement. Whatever. I think right now that Vierling looks comfortable enough at 3B and the plate to play him more often than not right now. Greene, Canha, and Carpenter should be in the lineup every day hitting 1 through 3. Perez seems to have a bit of a spurt right now. Vierling is an everyday player right now. Heck, maybe that’s the top 5 in the order right now?

I don’t know, this is a completely amateur arm chair opinion, but I wonder if he’s thinking too much or waiting for an absolutely perfect pitch and it’s simply working against him right now.

Send Nabozny down?

I do like ex-player good perspectives. Unfortunately I think the commentary it comes with an amount of cheerleading and/or cliches. And I think we understand the degree of either will differ depending upon who is offering the commentary.

His burner account on Twitter.