SeattleMike

It certainly doesn't seem it's worked much in the second half. But that's probably just vibes. Then again little has worked in the second half and that isn't just vibes.

I really don't understand why Melton is in the bullpen. Are they trying to limit his innings? I would have swapped Morton for Melton a month ago.

Can Cleveland keep winning these one and two run games? At some point this has to bite them.

According to a recent Keith Law article about the Arizona Fall League McGonigle's BABIP since August 1 is .125. And yet he still has a wRC+ of 155.

Baseball is crazy. Greene and Dingler crush balls for outs and Mckinstry bloops one for a double.

In fairness his BABIP is 160 points lower in AA than A+. No doubt his contact quality is lower in AA, but a some of this, maybe a good deal of it, is simple bad luck.

I'm not sure what options Hinch had. He has one reliable starter and two reliable bullpen arms. How do you navigate something like this?

Sort of a perfect storm. Team coming in on an incredible heater offensively against a pitching staff with more questions than answers right now.

Tigers don't have a reliable lefty in the bullpen right now. That is serious problem.

Carpenter won't be a free agent until his age 31 season. Dingler is under team control through his age 32 season. I wouldn't bother extending either. Most guys who start late tend to fade pretty rapidly by age 32 or so anyway. The only guy currently on the roster (not named Skubal) worth an extension is Greene, who will be a FA as a 28-year old. I suspect, however, that window may have closed. Greene has little incentive to agree to a long-term deal unless it's comparable to what Vlad Jr. received. And I doubt the Tigers want to commit to Greene into his late 30s.

His BABIP is 100 points lower in AA than it was in A+.

Has he had one swing and miss?

Saurez with a 10 OPS+ since joining the Mariners. What would the reaction here be if Harris had acquired Saurez and these were the results to date?

He seems to be maxing out at 96. Hmm.

First half of the season that is a bases clearing double by Perez. Great catch by Roberts.

Hopefully they will keep him in the rotation.

Really hate pinch-hitting for Carp in the 6th. Thankfully he didn't this time.

14 HRs (in 5 games) allowed so far on this home stand. Hard to win games with this kind of pitching.

So the rotation is basically Skubal and 4 days of Keider Montero (in the sense that you have no idea what you are going to get).

It’s that of kind of pitching staff these days.

In fairness, he pitched 39 innings for Texas's AAA team, which is in the very offensive-friendly PCL. 3.34 ERA with 12.1 k/9. Once a highly thought of prospect who has battled injury the last three years. But has pretty good stuff, including +95 fastball. I like his chances better than Jackson.

Interesting thing about the Twins. They traded everyone with a pulse from their bullpen. They didn't really tear down the offense, other than shedding a bad contract in Correa (who wasn't hitting) and dumping Castro. Twins offense has been around middle of the pack all year and they kept 5 of their top 7 hitters (by wRC+). So to see them score a few runs is not surprising (not to excuse the god awful performance by Tiger pitchers in this series). The real surprise is that the Tigers couldn't dent their bullpen. That was depressing.

I agree. Another back end reliever and mid rotation starter probably won't mean much if Mize and Flaherty continue to get nicked regularly. And Holton, Vest, Kanhle, and Hurter struggle. And it sure would be nice if Greene could snap out of this funk.

You forgot the estimable Jose Urquidy.

Today’s starting lineup (wRC+ thru today): Keith: 112 Torres: 129 Carpenter: 123 Greene: 128 Torkelson: 119 Perez: 119 McKinstry: 120 Dingler: 107 Baez: 102 Not bad