Tiger337

7 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I don't like the stupid ghost runner either but it's the same rules for every team. If MLB is so worried about extra innings using too many pitchers or results taking too long, just end games in a tie. 

Exactly!

Quote

But as it is, the results are important to a teams season success. To ignore a game after watching 9 complete innings doesn't make much sense. Put it this way, if Detroit needed to win game 162 to make the playoffs and it went to extra innings, would you turn the game off and ignore the results? 😅

I would watch it, but it would be a lot less satisfying than getting into the playoffs without that BS.  

1 hour ago, tiger2022 said:

Its all about getting the games over quicker.  Maybe play an extra inning and call it a tie?

You could have a new pitcher stat, ties if you were the guy in the 10th inning.

I would be fine with ties.  They could have two extra innings and then call it a tie.  If you can't decide the game playing real baseball, then just call it a tie.  

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

The results matter. So whether your opinion is you like it or don't like it, the results go into the record books as a loss. So in that regard, it's not "fake."

It's fake because putting base runners on base for free is not baseball.  I know it counts the same in the standings which sucks, but when I am sitting there watching a game and I see a base runner on base, it is no longer a baseball game for me.  

25 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

And this manager works with the Illitch companies now, I assume? Seems to be in the water there these days...

I think this kind of crap happens in a lot of places, especially in the male environment of pro sports.  It's good that the Tigers organization is addressing it.  

Extra innng losses don't feel as bad because it's fake baseball.  I did watch it this time...mostly because I wanted to see McGonigle and Dingler bat.    

6 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

I'm probably with you on that.   We didn't have nearly the information or the cynicism we have now.

Can you imagine the webz today if a team likw 1968 was running out a ss/3B combo batting .135 & .200?    With OPS of .399 & .556?    Yet somehow that team won 103 games.

I thought then with all the youngsters coming up Les Cain, Tommy Matchick, Wayne Comer, Jon Warden that it would go on for years.....but alas.

Others were talking about their 1st game, I knew mine was in '67 and a DH vs the Indians.   This seems to have been it since it was around my birthday and on a Sunday when my Dad could have taken me.  And all through my younger years he liked getting value for his dollar and going to doubleheaders.

 

I have no special memory of my first live game.  It was at Fenway, but I don't know when it was.  What I do remember was becoming a Tigers fan.  We lived in Massachusetts, so everyone in the neighborhood was a Red Sox fan.  However, my father was a huge Cardinals fan, so I learned to hate the Red Sox in 1967.  I was a Cardinals fan for a while, but my father told me I couldn't be a Cardinals fan because that was his team.  The Tigers were good, so I chose them.  As my family was spending a week in Cape Cod, I was listening to the games on the radio with my father.  I think there was one TV game.   In seven games between the Red Sox and Tigers, I remember the Tigers going 5-2 winning the middle 5 games.  This would make it August 9 - August 18, 1968.  I remember it as a 7-game series, but it was really back to back weekend series.  I have no memory of the Cleveland series in between.  Anyway, my team beat my father's team in the World Series and I never turned back.  

3 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

On the MLB website for today's game;

I saw "Fluharty 5.40 ERA" and though "****, didn't he just pitch?"

38 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

I remember having high hopes for Dave Lemanczyk

At that time, I had high hopes for every player that was called up.  

On 5/13/2026 at 5:01 PM, CMRivdogs said:

But he isn’t “taking a salary”

Probably another lie the Right is telling the American populace 

My MAGA and semi-MAGA friends are more proud of the fact that Trump "doesn't take a salary" than anything else about him.  They think they are going to get me on that every time.  

Tork might be batting .180 and can't field, but he's clutch.  That's something you can't teach.  

6 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

It has always been that way and always will.  

1 minute ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Skubal is allegedly already playing catch.  I don’t know if that’s good news or not.

I don't know either.  If seems like when my fantasy baseball players comeback earlier than expected, they usually have a set back which keeps them out longer than originally expected!😀

57 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I promise you Gage Workman and his .454 BABIP at Toledo will not be the player that finally dislodges Tork from this team’s future. It will be someone else, like Josue Briceno, although he will have to hit enough to overcome his own minus defense. Either that or go on the market for a short-term guy until we develop a guy in-house. 

Never say never about marginal prospects finding themselves for a period of time, but I agree Workman is very unlikely going to be involved in any decision to dump Torkelson.  

7 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

And just like that, it disappeared 

What exactly have they achieved in Epic Fury that they didn't already claim to achieve last summer?  

34 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Looking at defensive stats in Fangraphs:

The 2024 Tigers were a legitimately elite defensive team. Last year we were by most measures barely above average. In 2026 we're on pace to be one of the worst defensive teams in the league. The projected OAA of -87 would be historically bad. Even accounting for small-sample noise at six weeks in, the direction is unmistakable.

This is more of a range problem, than an error problem. The fielding percentage has dropped some (.986 → .986 → .983), and errors are on pace for a normal season (~99), so we're not making dramatically more mistakes on batted balls we get to. We're simply not getting to as many batted balls. Team zone rating (RZR) for 2026 is .795, down significantly from last year (.815) and 2024 (.804).

Where the collapse is coming from:

• Tork is the single biggest culprit, -4.7 Def, -3 OAA, -7 DRS in 358 innings. First base is supposed to be a defensive non-event, but Tork continues to actively cost us runs there.
• Wenceel in RF has flipped from a plus defender (+2.7 Def in 2025) to a significant negative (-4.6 Def, -4 OAA) in 2026
• Riley in LF has been a consistent negative (-3.9 Def, -2 OAA) and his numbers have been poor for two years now, so this isn't new. But it does factor in.
• Kevin at SS and 3B is a combined -2.0 in Def across 355 innings. He's a rookie finding his defensive footing, and the metrics reflect it, although we all know he won't long-term at shortstop anyway.
• Carpenter in RF has been poor in limited time (-3.5 Def, -3 OAA in 150 innings).
• Hao-Yu Lee at 2B and 3B is a combined -2.3 Def, also a young player.

There are some bright spots:

• Dingler behind the plate continues to be excellent (+5.9 Def, +6 DRS, +5 FRV in 272 innings), on pace for another elite defensive season.
• Gleyber Torres had been a genuine surprise at 2B (+0.9 Def, +2 OAA, +2 FRV) before going out, and was better than expected from a player not known for his glove.
• Matt Vierling in CF (+1.2 Def, +2 OAA) and Parker Meadows in CF (+1.0 Def, +1 OAA) have been fine in their center field work.

The story is that our defensive identity was built around our infield athleticism and outfield range, and both have deteriorated, partly through personnel changes, partly through young players who haven't found their footing yet, and partly through positional mismatches. The 2024 team was exceptional—this one is looking like a genuine defensive liability, which matters a lot for a pitching staff that relies heavily on ground balls.

I have long thought that range is one of the most underated things in baseball.  Range is to run prevention what getting on base is to run scoring.  

11 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Well, not all of them ... 😉 

No, a lot of them aren't, but the ones that are viewed as geniuses by fans tend to fall out of favor over time.  There are very few that are universally admired throughout their whole career.  

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

We are less than a year out from “Chris Fetter is a genius”.

coaches, managers, GMs, all geniuses until they're not.  

26 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

With Mize something unforeseen is getting to be foreseeable.

Well, he is a pitcher.  

He definitely looked safe, but camera angles are tricky and the views I saw all had the glove partly hidden.  I think the intention of the replay is to overturn calls which are so obvious that there is zero doubt.  This was close to 0 but not 0.  

27 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

Any of the above.   If he's not contributing he needs to go.

As a former 1B, I am always protective of 1B's including Torkelson, but I agree it doesn't matter for a fan how they get rid of somebody who doesn't contribute.  

I don't think the Tigers hitters are playing below their optimum as a group.  The following players with 50 or more at bats have played ABOVE their PECOTA projections:

Greene

McGonigle

Dingler

Baez

AS EXPECTED

Carpenter

Keith

Torres

Torkelson

BELOW EXPECTATIONS

Vierling

McKinstry

Perez

Jones

Lee

They are just an average offense with some injured players right now.  They are not going to carry a team which has been decimated by pitching injuries.  

4 minutes ago, Biff Mayhem said:

That’s more of a trophy. 

Right,  The experience would not have been complete without a correction from Shelton.  

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Taking French in high school is certain to lead you to mispronounce “Gratiot”.

yes, I just looked it up and it's grass ****.  I can't remember whether I pronounced it as a French person or an ignorant Bostonian.  

1 hour ago, IdahoBert said:

I’m turning over a new leaf and if I can’t say something positive I’m going to STFU. 

The Tigers are just 1 1/2 games away from the 3rd wildcard spot!!!