gehringer_2

2 minutes ago, kdog said:

Tyler Alexander has thrown 7 perfect innings vs Toronto.

Jinxed it. Jansen with a single

EDIT: LOL - and then a 2 run dinger to Schnneider. 

55 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Ibanez can do that too.  

until he faces a RHP?

Seriously though, the difference was that almost to the end Miguel could still hit whenever the knee settled down so there was always that tease/hope that if somebody found something that helped him drive off the left leg again, he'd be able to be more productive. So he would have those stretches where you saw him pick up the front foot again and you knew he was going to hit - for a while - and it got to where it might only be game or two and you'd see him go back to trying to hit flat footed. The overall result may have looked the same in BR as a bad player that had an occasional hot streak, but the feel of it was a lot different for me seeing that the talent was still there but for a  piece of bum orthopedia. It's does happen to a lot of players and I always think itis a sad thing.

26 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Crockett's response was no more mature.  LOL 

although she did have the sophistication to frame it as a hypothetical. The real bad guy here is Comer - who is no better than a carny barker with the whole preceding and wouldn't know decorum or want or know how to enforce if it slapped him upside the head.

The only thing with Miguel is that he could still flash a little brilliance now and then. Just to remind you. But it got to be so seldom. Even as late as '22 he could tease a month hitting 320 and being productive, but he couldn't sustain it and soon enough he'd be back to futile.

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Counterpoint, FWIW:

https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=the_histories

The other big single event that hurt Ford a LOT was the 'Poland is a free country' slip (not be the exact syntax but is was along that line). That was a pretty serious error at the point were the cold war was still pretty frigid and it wasn't just a misspoken word - there was a thought there but it so muddled and poorly executed it had to make you wonder.

9 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I didn't articulate my thoughts quite exactly but that's basically what I meant. Ford and his advisors may have concluded that prosecutions would have overshadowed his entire presidency and would definitely have cost him the election (which it ended up doing anyway), and he would have to weigh in on it every single day, because as you say it would have been all anyone would have wanted to talk about. Instead, Ford thought it better to rip off the band-aid, pardon Nixon, take the immediate blowback, and get it over with so he could move on to some semblance of a normal presidency, which, of course, could never be because it was still overshadowed by Tricky ****—as well it should have been.

We all do it, but maybe we give Watergate too much credit for the outcome  in '76. It was going to be a tough climb for Ford anyway. Carter was the more appealing personality and much better in front of the cameras - stagflation was already setting in. If Ford hadn't carried MI as a favorite son, which another Repub probably would not have, Carter gets 318 EV.

3 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

Ibanez has already proven he's better right now. Keith is the future but why not have the best player at each position?

I think they believe Colt is close enough to being a better hitter against RHP than Ibanez that it's worth it to give him the rope. For now I'm OK with that. Ask me again in another week. 

30 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

Well they should stop that. Let him rip. I’ll trade a non existing obp for some slugging. 

according to Tork, the team has a set of things they preach. How can you hold the line if you tell Javy to go ahead and do it his way? Of course to me, having any single approach to hitting for a whole team is a mistake out of the box. Every hitter has different abilities to do different things in the box and likewise different things they will fail at if you ask them to do. If a guy has good pitch recognition but holes in his swing -sure don't swing at what you can't drive - you can afford to get down in the count if you are not so likely to get fooled.  If your pitch recognition is not so good but you have some plate coverage, way better to swing at a FB on the outer third for a single at 0-0 or 0-1 and put in in play than take it, let yourself get in a hole and K or roll over on a breaking ball that fools you. You need your hitters in the box doing what they do best and forget everything else. You'd never ask the average hitter to do what Cabrera did, regularly taking FBs to right and breaking balls to the pull side because most guys simply don't have the pitch recognition or strength to do it. We all understand that - but conceptually the same is true for all hitters - they will all reach their optimum with an approach tailored individually to what they can to. The logic argues there are some hitters you shouldn't ask to take pitches, or tell not to swing out of the zone, or whatever it is, because for some hitter that is what they need to do. So to have a team wide approach in some particular direction sets up some hitters to fail.

Now in 5 years, when they have only drafted or traded for hitters that already fit the mold of hitters that hit like they like, then they will look brilliant, but they will have to pass on a lot of productive players to get there.

1 hour ago, Tigermojo said:

Javy should just agree to go to Florida to work on his game like Abreu did.

There's nothing wrong with sending Keith down to Toledo. It doesn't mean he's a bust. He's 22 and has some things to work on.

I'd stick with Colt another 10 games or so. He's been getting better results in his last 10 and I'd let it ride to see if it continues. If he holds a 600 OPS, which is where he is in May, that's as much as you could expect from any of the current candidates at Toledo. If he slides back down, pull the trigger.

11 minutes ago, oblong said:

and slightly related... a long time small business closes after the owners get old... 

"Oh, that's a shame. I loved that place.  So sad"

"When was the last time you went there to shop?"

"I don't know... 1996?"

 

Time flies when you get old!

3 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

one thing that might get Harris in trouble with Ilitch is if Javy is cut and goes elsewhere and rebounds to a 75 OPS+ level. Ilitch would be pissed to pay 75M for that.

That's true, but on the other hand it *should* piss him off if that happens because it says "you and Hinch screwed up a player I paid good money to get for the team and it took another org to fix him."

If the org believes the current crew are the geniuses that they are given credit to be (and have demonstrated they are with the pitching!) then there should be no fear Javy will suddenly rebound somewhere else, right?

18 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Yeah, the solidarity of the crazies isn't the endorsement that Trump thinks it might be.  

Melania is no Maureen Dean.

(BTW - John and Mo have been married for 52 yrs -  props!)

38 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

Well I have supported Baez more than almost anyone on this board but it has reached a boiling point. But I still wouldn't release him until we have an acceptable replacement player. You can not expect an owner to eat 85 million dollars with the chance he plays better someplace else or worse harms your team in the process. However if Baez has "checked out" then you are forced into corner. Do you think Baez has given up ?

I think he's trying to do what they want him to in his ABs - evidenced that the K's are down - he may even believe in trying to do what they are telling him, he just can't make it work. 

At this point I'd release Javy just so he has some shot at saving something of his career somewhere else because there is no hope he turns it around here. It's practically reached the point of cruelty.

It makes perfect sense really. Javy was a guy with great power who made accidental contact. In encouraging him to K less and shorten up, you now have a hitter whose pitch recognition is no better than it ever was but who now no longer can do any damage by accident. The wild approach was actually part of what made Javy functional as a hitter. Take it away and he's left with nothing. It takes a lot of hubris to tell major league hitters to change what got them to the majors, and in as many cases as not, it fails anyway. These guys have spent their whole lives finding a way to hit that worked for them. The odds there is something they've haven't already tried is there, but not that large. The number of times you change a guy for the better is real enough, but shouldn't deceive anyone into thinking it can happen more than very occasionally. And to be frank, the one guy who did find something that helped turn him around (Carpenter) found it outside the Tiger system.

28 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

Baez has, by far, a career low K rate this year; Harris must be thrilled

Maybe there is a lession for the Tiger hitting brain trust here that one size does not fit all wrt hitting?

4 minutes ago, romad1 said:

My guess on all things that involve Senators, is that the senate staff are driving the bus on anything that involves a member who is a lame duck or geriatric member who can't tie their own shoes.   Is that the case here or is Mitt just really out of touch with reality because of any number of reasons.  One thing is for sure, he's no fan of Trump's. 

he's no fan of Trump the man, he was/is a fan of Trump as a right side President. He still wants to defend/protect that aspect of the brand and apparently sees them as separable.

26 minutes ago, pfife said:

https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/detroit-population-increases-first-time-since-1957/

Detroit sees population growth for first time since 1957

Nice to see the trend finally turn. Of course there is still empty space for another million.....

2 hours ago, oblong said:

You don't do a panic move like trading your pitching depth because if we are being honest 3 players aren't quite living up to their expectations.  That's what this whole thing is about... 3 players.  Torkelson, Keith, and Meadows.  If you expected the other hitters to be better then that's on you.  They weren't good.  But these 3 mentioned players are the only ones hitting worse than I expected them to.  

I agree panic moves are always terrible - but the problem is worse than 3 guys. These are current OPS deficits with respect to career:

Gio - -120 (granted very small sample - but not off to hot start)

McKinstry - -80

Kelly - - 100

Jake - -150

Javy - -150 and this one is not even vs career - it's just compared to his already terrible last season

Tork - -70 (but improving)

Vierling - -30

and Riley started hot but is now slumping badly - 633 OPS for May.

Keith is actually coming around a bit. OPS was 387 in April, 584 so far for May.

Bottom line the team is trying to stay afloat with only Canha, Carpenter and Ibanez hitting their career averages and two of those are platoon bats. -- plus Perez.

If Tork gets hot that will obviously help, but I need to see more before I believe he is out of the woods.

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

Yeah so it’s even worse. Romney said Biden should have pressured local prosecutors to drop charges or he will replace them. I seem to recall Mittens impeaching a president for trying to do a shakedown. What an absolute disgrace and tool. 

 

He's a peacock that has reached a point where no-one is looking, so he's fanning his 'look a me!" feathers.

2 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Biden's fault. 

and appears to be leaking crude oil. 

33 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Yes, that. Or, we could continue to build on the plan that’s surely in place and give it a chance to work.

Tiger offense has been terrible for 3 yrs under Hinch and there virtually no sign of improvement or cases of hitters making unexpected progress. It's hard to make a case for this management around the hitting. To me the issue is how to avoid throwing the baby out with the bath water. The same people are running the pitching side very well. Can we get them to delegate to different sub-group who can bring more to the hitting without losing the rest? 

I really don't know - it's a muddle right now.

5 minutes ago, chasfh said:

You mean, like, now? In the middle of the season? Bring in all new coaches and break down the players and get them to forget everything they know and rebuild them to learn entirely new systems all while trying to get them to score runs in live games? I don’t know, sounds like a tall order to me. 

IDK - team change coaches mid season all the time when things aren't working. The hitters may be bad, but clearly whatever they are doing isn't helping them much, so try something different. What is there to lose? Look for a guy who has had concrete success somewhere else and give him a shot. The downside is exactly the situation with Harris and esp Hinch. If they are so totally committed to keep doing exactly what they they are doing, there is no point in making a change. If they can bring someone in who gets buy in from Harris and AJ to do it differently  then it can make sense.

20 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

 Maybe make a coaching change? This approach to winning the battle to two strikes isn't working...

I don't see there can be much to lose by staring over with a new hitting staff and a different approach. If someone can come in and persuade AJ there are better methods I would not be averse.

38 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

What a lifeless corpse of an offense.

If this gets much more desperate, the league offices will be watching for trash-can lids on Tigers purchasing cards statements....