bobrob2004

And that's after they made four errors yesterday!

Niko Goodrum Nick Gordon is hitting .143/.155/.300 with more playing time than Schoop. So I guess it could be worse. Edit: Read his name too fast, it's actually Nick Gordon. Aaron Hicks, Jean Segura and Cavan Biggio are also having terrible starts this year.

How about we compare the 2023 A's to the 2003 Tigers? Through 35 games: 2003 Tigers: 8-27, R=106, RA=169, pW/L = 10-25 2023 A's: 8-27, R=137, RA=261, pW/L = 8-27 The A's are averaging 7.46 runs allowed per game this year and have a team ERA of 7.25.

The Tigers (15-18) are 3 games better than their pythagorean record (12-21). Only the Marlins (17-18) have a better positive differential (11-24) of 6. The Tigers have had a better record than their pythagorean record ever since Hinch was hired as a manager (2 games better in 2021 and 3 games better in 2022). There have been suggestions that teams that outproduce their pythagorean record is indicative of a good manager, so maybe I've been too critical of Hinch. On the other hand, the findings have been inconclusive: https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/3/17/5504652/manager-pythagorean-wins

Because when Short homers the Tigers win and when Nevin homers the Tigers lose.

Somehow Zack Short has returned.

Yes, they probably lose regardless of how he used his bench. But why take out a guy with 2 hits and leave someone like Schoop in the whole game? We can't ignore that Hinch doesn't have any input here. Why does his lineups constantly look like he is pulling names out of a hat?

Miggy and Schoop both had 5 AB in last night's game. Hinch could have easily put a pinch hitter for one or both of them. McKinstry had 2 hits and Hinch decides to take him out of the game. Did I miss something? Did he get injured or something? Maybe he pinch hits for them and they still lose. But nothing he did in last night's game made any sense.

Sure. They had 8 hits and 10 walks and should have scored more than 4 runs last night. Some of the blame goes to the hitters, and some goes to Hinch.

If anything that makes Hinch more responsible for the loss, since he's also in charge of the lineup construction as well as other offensive strategies (bunting, stealing, hit and run, pinch hitter/runner, etc.).

But you also cannot say that Hinch didn't manage the bullpen well either. Just because the offense didn't score more runs doesn't mean Hinch gets a free pass.

Maton has weird stats. His walk rate is 11.6% and his ISO is .180, both above average. His barrel% is 15%, more than double than last year and in the 85th percentile in all of baseball. His wiff% is only at 29.7%, in the 29th percentile. His hard hit rate is 40%, which is better than what he put up last year, 31.1%. These are all great numbers, and I'm sure the reason why Hinch keeps batting him leadoff. We are very much in small sample territory and everything should even out, eventually. However... His batting average is .131. Only Nevin has a lower average on the active roster. His on-base percentage is at .232, only Cabrera's is lower at .231. At what point do you keep calling it bad luck and when do you start going by actual results? I think sometimes Hinch over manages and goes by the stats too often instead of moving Maton down the lineup for awhile until he can gain some confidence. Maybe it's a little bit mental? He only led off 5 games with the Phillies last year. Does he even want to be a lead-off hitter? Has he changed his approach at all while leading off?

They don't even know what sport they're playing!

Sure, any of them. Why have the guy with the lowest on-base percentage lead off when his #1 job is to get on base?

Can we stop the Nick Maton leading off experiment? He went 0-4 tonight and is now batting .140. Are there really no other options?

I think you can just tell by the moves that were made (or didn't get made). 2002 was also a really bad year for the Tigers, 55-106, and they did nothing to improve during the off-season. They had 4 rookies in their regular starting lineup (Ramon Santiago, Eric Munson, Craig Monroe, and Alex Sanchez) and 2 rookies in their starting rotation (Nate Cornejo and Jeremy Bonderman). The other pitchers in the rotation, Mike Maroth, Adam Bernero, and Gary Knotts had very little ML experience with very little success. They may not have been actively trying to lose, but they sure weren't built to win.

That's right, I had forgotten about the off-field issues with Weaver and Fick. This was only Dombrowski's 2nd year with the Tigers, so I think he wanted address the off-field issues first before getting the players that were ultimately get for winning (although Pena and Bonderman were big names at the time that didn't really pan out. And Bonderman was rushed to the Majors). The Weaver deal was a mid-season trade, so it only happened a few months into the Dombrowski era as opposed to the off-season. 2004 was the first year that Dombrowski made a few splashes with Rondell White, Carlos Guillén, and Ivan Rodriguez.

Were they though? Their big acquisitions were Ernie Young, Steve Avery, and (strangely) A.J. Hinch. They let go of their best starter, Jeff Weaver, and starting players, Damion Easley, Robert Fick, and Randall Simon. They hired Alan Trammell as a gimmick more so than his managerial abilities. The 2003 team was set up to fail.

Comerica used to be very Detroit. It started out as the Detroit Savings Fund Institute and then The Detroit Savings Bank, The Detroit Bank, and then The Detroit Bank & Trust Company. They didn't change to Comerica until the 1980s. In 2007 they decided to move their headquarters out of Detroit and to Dallas.

Same thing with Great American Ballpark. Doesn't feel like it's a corporate sponsored name, but it is.

#TigersThreatenButDoNotScore

I see no reason why they couldn't call it Tiger Stadium. They call it Yankee Stadium, even though it's not the original one.

I don't think it overrates durability. WAR doesn't say which player is more talented. It states who contributed more to the team winning. The guy who plays 150 games is going to contribute more than the guy who only plays 75 games. But that doesn't mean that the second guy isn't a better overall talent. Fielding, sure. I agree with @Tiger337. There can be a lot of discrepancy between fielding stats. I haven't really heard anyone say that baserunning is overrated before. It's pretty straight forward. Steals are a positive and caught stealing is a negative. A guy that has more net steals is going to contribute more than the guy that doesn't steal. Of course it also covers things like tagging up and taking an extra base and getting thrown out on base. But again, pretty straight forward stuff.

I understand this thinking, even though I don't agree with it. The Tigers don't have the type of team where they'll have a lead in the 9th inning very often, so I'd like to see Hinch try to win the game at hand instead of trying to predict what'll happen tomorrow. I think Hinch got very lucky in this case and isn't indictive of how much of a genius he is. And even if the Tigers had a good bullpen, they would have probably won both games regardless of who pitched when.