SeattleMike

8 minutes ago, kdog said:

Tigers were 19-21 after 40 games last year; 20-20 this year....the 4 game losing streak did not get extended longer...but they have a long way to go.

One big difference is the run differential. Last year after 40 they had a significant negative RD. This year they are +3

Just now, Tigermojo said:

Ibanez and Carpenter had a great week as well.

Greene had a quiet series. It's always something

1 hour ago, microline133 said:

The average OPS in the Florida State League so far this season is .663. Clark is fine.

So Briceno and McGonigle are even more intriguing than one would think, based on their results to date? 

1 minute ago, kdog said:

Every game is life and death....and they were probably overused.

True. But the bullpen has now blown its last 4 late leads. 

Just now, gehringer_2 said:

Right now there is almost nothing to pick between Foley, Lange, Chafin and even Vest. Hinch has his match-up tables that pretty much as complicated as it gets. Foley had a nice stretch early when he was lights out but in general he does gives up contact. He wanted LH'er to close against a heavy LH team and the RH hitter in the mix got him. You can't use pitchers for one hitter anymore - that's life.

Foley was giving up some pretty hard contact as well. For years fans complained that managers managed their bullpens too rigidly. Along comes a manager who shows flexibility and the fans are still unhappy. You play a lot of low-scoring games and your bullpen will blow a few. How about the Tigers stop playing so many low-scoring games. 

4 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Foley in the 7th was NOT the problem.

Chafin in the 9th was.

AVAILABLE in the 9th: Lange, Wentz, Holton.

Who was the best choice for the 9th?

And Foley BLEW his last two games so... NOT Foley.

Or maybe Jake Rogers doesn't airmail that throw in the 9th. Or the Tigers score in more than one inning. In any event, three blown saves in last week. Pen is pretty deep and versatile but definitely lacks that Emmanuel Clase type.

44 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

He never does anyhing when it counts.  He doen't start hitting until they are already out of the race.  He just doesn't care.  Too soft. 

He's just another Tony Clark

9 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I don't even care if our rebuild is for a World Championship. If we consider the only successful rebuild is to win it all, it's been 40 years. I just want to see a team with a deep playoff run and to be competitive for several years. If Chris isn't willing to spend, I won't ever blame Harris. But how long should it realistically take? 5 years? 7?

He did spend, in 2022. One worked, kind of. The other didn't. He also spent in 2017. Same result. Spending big this offseason, especially for a bat, just didn't make sense, for various reasons. I'm not worried about Illitch spending, because he's already done it.  He will likely be more prudent than his father though. 

27 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

you also notice more in games that are winnable. When you give up 8, whether you scored 2 or 5 isn't much remembered. We've given up 23 fewer runs this April than last and scored 24 more but it almost seems worse because we were in more games we might have won.

Going 1-3 in games that entered the 9th inning with you up 1-0 does sting. I would guess the wins probability for this scenario would be about 3. 

51 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Runs scored is all that matters. There's only 4 AL teams that have scored less. And one (Seattle) is in first place. Time to shake things up, send Meadows and Tork down and call up whoever and whoever. 

Tigers are 19th in runs per game. 

1 hour ago, Dtrain72 said:

Lol at Tigers team OPS

Oddly enough the Tigers are 19th in the MLB in runs scored. Last year they were 28th. Understatement to say lots of improvement still needed, but things are moving in the right direction, even for the offense. (Run scoring is down this year, making it more difficult to discern the offense's improvement this year).

Doubtful that all 6 guys currently sporting an OPS+ below 50 will turn it around, but if 3 of those guys do, a real possibility, the offense will take another step. The next question is will the pitching hold up? I like the rotation's chances to be solid all year. The pen will have its ups and downs, but don't they all. Still on track, I believe, to winning around 83-85 games, definitely a successful season in context. 

16 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

the problem is that these guys who are not performing in the majors have by and large already outperformed the guys in the minors folks are clamoring to bring up. The gulf from AAA to the majors is massive. I don't see anyone at Toledo right now that I think is any kind of lock to hit 225 in the majors. Maybe Baddoo if the brain trust believes he has materially improved since the last time he flamed out in Det. (and you don't want to replace Canha/Greene/Carp/Perez right now anyway - Meadows might as well go down if he is going to sit but you still don't need another OF because you have 5 with Vierling who goes back to mostly OF when Urshella returns )

I'm not against a move per se, I just don't see any particularly compelling candidates. There is certainly no 2023 Colt Keith there.

Badoo had an 86 OPS+ last year. Replacing Meadows 30 OPS+ with something like that would help the offense. But the defense would definitely slip so the net result might be zero, in which case you probably don't make the swap. 

1 hour ago, Motor City Sonics said:

We keep talking about who could be good if given the chance.   We just don't know.   What we DO know is that Spencer Torkelson, when you take offense and defense into the equation,  may be the worst starting player in the majors right now and it doesn't seem to be getting better.    Sending him down to Toledo may not be a punishment, it might be the thing that saves his career.  I feel like AJ hinch is looking at the crumpled hood of the car and saying "my dad's a TV repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools.......I can fix it".   

 See, the team is 18-15 now and they are in the thick of it in their division and continuing this course with Tork/Meadows/Keith sends a message that it's okay to fail on a massive level and that's terrible.   This 18-15 should probably be 22-11 based on the number of fantastic pitching performances that have gone for nothing.   

Skubal a Cy Young candidate,  Olson is pitching great with 0 wins,   Flaherty just struck out 14 and they lost,  Kenta has turned the corner and looks how we hoped he would and maybe the weakest in the rotation is Casey Mize, who has pitched really well, actually.   This is his return from almost 2 years off,  he's not even really fully back yet, but what we've seen so far is extremely encouraging.     This is being wasted for 3 young players who seem to have been deemed "untouchable".   That's ridiculous.        I don't care what McKinstry hits, he's the swiss army knife.  I don't care what Rogers and Kelly hit,  Rogers is a big reason for our pitching.     The righty/lefty matchup thing is getting old.   Ibanez, Perez, Vierling all need to be in the lineup every single day because they are actually earning it.   Take 'em out when they cool off.   This need to prove a point is costing them games and we only need to look back at last year to know that if you can just get in the playoffs, you can do some damage,  especially with pitching like ours.    LETS NOT ****ING SQUANDER THIS!   We haven't had a meaningful post-May game in years,  lets not fall off a cliff over 3 guys who haven't earned it.  

I've never been convinced Meadows will hit, but I have seen Tork show power and I do think Keith will be a serviceable major leaguer, but maybe Keith's just not ready yet.  Maybe Meadows needs to tweak things that can't really be fixed against big league pitching and maybe Tork will start to do some good things at a lower level to at least remember what that feels like. Tork can't hit a fastball right now and that's so freaking bad.  Is it a vision problem?  Is it mental?    The Eric Munson comparison is so good.  Almost exactly the same stats.  How did that end?      Baddoo and Malloy deserve shots at this point, but they shouldn't be blocked by 3 players who aren't doing much of anything.   I know it's an evaluation year, but winning now should matter too.       Canha and Ibanez can play first and both are probably better at it than Torkelson.    

The glove/range and lack of any other real option are the things keeping Baez here, but based on performance he shouldn't be here anymore.   We'll just have to live with that like a drug side effect. 

 

Maybe the Tigers are just thinking "Well, half our fanbase can't even watch right now, lets sneak these guys in".   (that's just a joke).   

Let's not spoil this Summer early please.  Stay in this until September.  

Munson vs Torkelson PAs comparison is not exactly apples to apples. Munson hit 3 HRs through his age 24 season. Tork had 39 though his age 23 season. I still think there is something there, but Tork probably does need a reset. Or it could just be a horrific slump. There are a boatload of guys throughout MLB with great tracks who are struggling mightily right now. A few examples: Jrod has one HR and only very recently lifted his OPS above .600. Corbin Carroll has one HR and a .534 OPS. Gleybar Torres one HR and .571 OPS. Randy Aronzarena with a .507 OPS. 

33 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

I hope the bad old days when we could lose 18 games a year to Cleveland will never happen again. There needs to be some serious karmic payback to make up for that. I’m not hoping for something like out of “Fallout.“ I would just like to see us win more than we lose against Cleveland. 

Tigers went 9-4 against Cleveland last year. Hopefully it was the start of a trend. 

2 hours ago, Dtrain72 said:

Hope Tork has an apartment line up in Toledo for a June lease

He was worse last April. Then posted a 115 OPS+ the rest of the season. Think he will start contributing with the bat. 

6 minutes ago, kdog said:

Aside from 3-4 games out of 21, every outcome has gone to the late innings where either team could win. If they could ever get separation on offense, we would be in business.

The optimistic take is that the Tigers have been in just about every game without much if any offensive contribution from a guy who hit 31 HRs last year. 

Jackson Jobe wins Rookie of the Year

5 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Tony Clark also hit 30 homers three times, but none of them came when it counted.  

He may be one of the least appreciated (by fans) power-hitting Tiger of all time. 

2 hours ago, HeyAbbott said:

I want one SP for sure,maybe 2. Maybe Mize makes it back. Maybe he doesn't.

We need a longer lineup and a quality bat is indicated.

Chris I , you have Miggy, (32m),Schoop (7m), Boyd (10m), Meadows (4m), probably Erod (15m), and that's 69 million off of payroll. Spend some money wisely.

On who? Few position players available. Hopefully they will add a premier pitcher if Erod opts out and another Lorenzo type. 

8 hours ago, LongLiveMaroth said:

Appreciate it! It is honestly something I really enjoy doing and am definitely going to miss the every morning check of how the boys did. I mean we could close it and then create a 2024 version once ST hits as I am guessing most info around other things would be posted in the off-season thread.

No offense but I'm looking forward to when the Farm System reports are no longer the highlight of the day. 

23 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Congrats to your 2nd place Detroit Tigers.

Two games over .500 since the break. Two games under since starting the year 2-9. How the heck they managed to be respectable despite the 29th worst offense in MLB is remarkable. 

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Lynn already has Torkelson traded before any of the guys he has lined up to replace him have hit their first MLB HR, let alone 30 in a season. I think it's nice that he has the ambition to cover the Tiger minor leagues - and I doubt the News is paying him much to do it, but his writing has become caricature, both content and style wise.

He's also been trying to trade Skubal for a couple of years now. 

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

this is a truly terrible offense. We tend not to notice as much as we should because our pitching keeps us in a lot of games that we have no business being in at all so how bad the runs scoring is by league standards isn't so striking.

 

Well the Tigers did move up from 30th to 29th in runs scored. Progress?

3 hours ago, 4hzglory said:

I think Kieth is more likely to for the simple reason that he is a top 100 prospect and has the long shot possibility of netting a draft pick if he would be ROY.   I think they’re likely to bring him north unless he shows he isn’t ready in the spring.  If he shows he is overwhelmed they can always send him down, but they have no chance of the pick unless they bring him north at the beginning or he keeps rookie eligibility through 2024.  If they think he’ll be ready by say June, I think he’s up opening day just because of that caveat.

The Tigers were conservative with Malloy and Keith this year, at least compared to the rest of the league. Of the top 50 hitters (based on OPS) in the IL, 19 were 24 years or younger. Of those 19 only 3 remained in the minors all year: Johathon Rodriguez (23 years old) from Cleveland and Malloy and Keith. There really is no reason that both should not be on the MLB roster at the beginning of 2024. 

4 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

There is still a chance to win the division.  

Who thought the Tigers would still be mathematically in it into September 22?