Tenacious D

When you have a team of Punch and Judy hitters, you have to bunt that runner over. Hinch showed Maton, and then Short, undue respect.

Yeah, I think his future is at 2B. Has to learn to hit more than fastballs, though. I still like that trade, though. Vierling has done some good things.

I understand. I’m assuming he could be ready in a week or two. And I concede that Harris has his work cut out for himself. But he also put himself in this position to some degree with his offseason moves. There really haven’t been any real surprises, save for the ERod and Greene injuries, which I don’t want to trivialize. I think he was hoping on bounceback seasons or improved development from younger players. Baez and Schoop have been consistently bad year over year. Could not have expected much from Miggy. Had to expect some injuries along the way. It will be hard to improve externally at this point. He’d have to be willing to move Colt Keith, likely, which would be a mistake. When healthy, I’d bring up Carpenter, Lipcius and Kreidler in place of Ibanez, Nevin and Maton. I still like Maton, but think he would benefit from some time at Toledo. It’s just unfortunate that we don’t have better organizational depth to plug holes—the division is very winnable this year. Unfortunately, we’re not in much of a position to capitalize.

I have no issue if they go Skenes. If you’re looking at our system, all of the pitching in the minors is questionable. If Drews and Langford are gone, he’s a viable option.

How have I never seen this? That’s awesome.

The offseason dumpster diving was both a noble and necessary effort. However, most of these guys need to be returned. I know Lipcius isn’t tearing the cover off the ball, but I’d rather see him and Kreidler called up. They might not do better (would hard to be worse), but at least it would be developmental.

If Harris is interested in taking advantage of a weak AL Central, he’s going to need to find a few more hitters. Carpenter may be one, but this team can’t sustain giving so many AB’s to Maton, Ibanez, Nevin, Marisnick and Schoop. I’d include Miggy in that list, but he’s not going anywhere.

Yeah, unless they think the college catcher will hit and be able to stay there. With our dearth of catching, it would be nice to upgrade there.

This and the underperformance, so far, might lead to a fire sale. How can they sustain moving forward with 3 players making $30M+ (Soto, Tatis, Machado)?

Great pitcher for us, but if we’re being honest, kind of a doucher, too.

Don’t know what you’re missing

We’ll always have May, ‘23

Cherish this one, boys. I’m not very bullish with Nevin, Ibanez, Miggy, Schoop and Marisnick comprising a big chunk of our position players. And I’m being generous to Maton and Rogers by not lumping them in. No Bueno

2024 will be interesting with all of these players who are injured and under team control coming back. The rotation candidates: Mize Skubal Turnbull Manning ERod (if he doesn’t opt out) Brieske Faedo Wentz Guys knocking on the door: Flores, Madden, Olsen and Hurter.

But I also agree it’s way too soon to give up on Jung.

I always try to root cause when you see this type of consistent performance. Was college pitching down and/or an influx of pitching injuries that somehow inflated these college hitters performance while in school? Seems odd that each have underperformed.

Not second guessing Austin’s situation, because I think mental health is generally not treated respectfully, but you have to wonder if the deluge of injuries will have any impact on his ability to get back sooner. Also, if Parker gets called up, would that help? Again, I’m in no position to understand the challenges he’s facing, but he is still out there.

Same thing when it comes to Tiger pitchers.

#nerdalert

Colt Keith is absolutely bored at Erie, after a 3-5, 3 RBI performance tonight. The only thing possibly keeping him down is that he and Malloy each need reps at 3B. Dingler needs to move up to Toledo soon.

I would have been in favor of bringing up Parker instead of Marisnick, but if Riley goes on the DL, they might need both now.

So, let me get this straight—we lost our best pitcher and, now, maybe our best hitter in the span of 24 hours?

If ERod can’t be traded, the injury might impact his willingness to opt out of his contract.

Our version of Trayce Thompson.