kdog

3 game losing streak cannot turn into a 9 game streak like last year. They need to grind out a win or two in Cleveland.

Tigers and Yankees both have good pitching and run prevention. They just have more hitters who can do damage and work counts.

That was the difference this weekend.

Skubal was excellent against a good offense. I wish we had an average offense that could give him even a little support.

They had to score early with the rain coming in. Now that it’s an official game, the sweep is locked in….let’s see if they make any roster moves before Cleveland.

Skubal has been just fine. The offense is substandard obviously.

Rain is forecast for the entire afternoon in NYC.

My guess: if Tork doesn’t show a pulse in the next 4 games, he will be optioned before next weekend’s home stand

Tork discussion aside, the catchers are awful at the plate. Also McKinsty should be on dfa watch IMO.

6 minutes ago, AZTigersfan said:

It’s funny how another 1:1 disappointment avoids criticism. Why is Mize above that?

Wut??? Mize has been decent this year after two huge surgeries.

10 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Totally, it is from a place of frustration or even desperation... it's uncharacteristic of them in the Hinch era to air this stuff out in public and even sort of goes against his philosophy (which he sort of got into with Benetti and Dickerson on their pod).

He was on 97.1 3 days ago saying he wasn't getting sent down...backed him pretty strongly. I'm not sure if something changed.

3 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Fans will love this comment, but I really think this is a mistake to air this out to the media.

I think they've tried everything..this is probably just frustration. Nothing they do in the cage or on video is translating to the field. 

I'm pretty confident that Tork is broken enough that he won't be a consistent hitter. There's something in his swing decisioning or mechanics that doesn't allow him to barrel up the ball to get the .800 minimum OPS that he needs to be consided a core guy. 

It should not be this hard.

7 walks...takes a special kind of crappy offense to only score one run haha.

I think the first step in a Tork demotion will be pinch hitting for him late in high leverage situations. That should probably start happening.

5 minutes ago, holygoat said:

Tork's in his 3rd year and completely lost in all phases of the game. I fail to see how allowing him to continue to fail at this level helps build his confidence for the present or the future, and letting him figure it out in a low leverage atmosphere just might salvage his value going forward. The Detroit Tigers will still be here when he's found his game.

It shows to me how little they think of the options in Toledo. Hiura is there if a guy gets hurt IMO.

7 minutes ago, holygoat said:

Too many guaranteed outs in this lineup. At a minimum, Tork needs to be in Toledo, because he's worthless right now. Hinch not sending him down to protect his confidence doesn't seem to be helping his confidence. Finding his swing and raking at AAA just might. This is a game they absolutely should've won but their offense sucks so bad.

Aside from Baez, they need to figure out if the guaranteed outs will provide value in 2025 and beyond. Their entire offseason posture was about developing these guys in the majors. There's a reason Harris undersold all optimism.

Quote

"It’s definitely fixable," A.J. Hinch said Wednesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "This guy’s still really young and learning his way. He didn’t hit 30 homers last year by accident. The talent is in there. The consistency has been tough this month and he’s paying the consequence of it with less performance than what he's capable of. We’ve stayed really patient with him and we’re going to continue to stay patient with him, but there’s no doubt that he needs to be better for us to be the best team (we can be)."

"I think some of it is timing, some of it is, he gets caught in between quite a bit, and that’s a very natural mistake for a hitter who’s trying to do a little bit too much and cover everything," said Hinch. "He's late on fastballs where it’s either swing and miss or a pop-up, or early on breaking balls where he has to commit without seeing the pitch. In some ways I think Tork could sell out either way and have a plan to attack something, as opposed to try to cover everything."

https://www.audacy.com/971theticket/sports/detroit-tigers/a-j-hinch-detroit-tigers-wont-demote-spencer-torkelson

Also hitting prospects sometimes fail. Greene is a huge hit, maybe Wenceel is too idk. Out of Tork, Meadows, and Keith, who knows which guy will be able to stack good offense together? 

They need time to figure it out.

The difference between AAA and Major league pitching is substantial. Harris and Hinch want to develop and trial by fire these hitters in the majors. They want to win, but they also need to know if these guys can adjust/adapt, and figure it out. It's not going to be linear development. And the replacements in Toledo either aren't ready or aren't part of any long term plan.

Cardinals won a Tigers style game earlier...Tigers returned the favor and won with Cardinals sloppy softball.

Do they need a fresh bullpen guy for tomorrow? Seems like they are a bit overextended right now.

Two Tigers legends.