gehringer_2

FIFY.

Greene and Torkelson with decent swings, Young pitcher did OK. Other than that nothing. I guess in 162 games there will always be days when a team just seems flat altogether as a team, but the Tigers seem to have more of them than they should. There's a skill in baseball in bearing down to be a tough out when you have to - you're not necessarily even tying to do damage, but your're just up there to make the pitcher suffer - do whatever to extend an AB even if you are giving yourself up in the end . You need guys that will do that in a game like this just for the benefit of rest of your lineup. Make the other guy work, change the rhythm, generate a little energy for your bench, make a statement that your team is still here, give your own pitcher a chance to recoup. Tigers don't have anybody that can/will.

yup - That's is another thing with Maybin, he knocked around the league long enough to have played with a ton of other good players.

I was disappointed to see Anderson Cooper's defense. It was a complete straw man exercise. Yes, Trump has to be covered exactly because he is real and is out there doing his damndest to win again. But that isn't close to being the question in play with the other night. That question is 'does a news org cover him like THAT'?, to which no journalist worth his keyboard should agree.

Even in one game, as long as you see all the numbers for both teams you're going to get a really quick idea what the ranges are.

I still prefer a non-pitcher as a general principle though. One of Maybin's strengths is that despite his career having been largely derailed by injuries, he was pretty close to being a true 5 tool player - he can talk about anything guys are doing on the field from the 1st person perspective of someone who knew how to do it right and do it well. I think that brings a value we have been missing - we really haven't had a guy like that in booth since Kell/Kaline. None of Rod/Kirk/Craig were ever that kind of player or could bring that slant. Gibson for base-running, but that was about all.

You really know how bad it is when I tell you that Shep is probably better with Gibson that with any of the others! Actually they normally do OK together, you might have caught Kirk on a down day - he's having more of those as time goes by.

I wouldn't think they have a hard decision in place that he can't be brought to Det if his fielding does comes around. If he gets to 'passable' where the value of bat carries the glove, there's nothing that says his fielding can't continue to improve with extra work in Detroit as easily as in Tolelo. The hard decision would be if he just doesn't show the aptitude at Toledo so do how long to you keep him there working at the IF instead of sending him up to be aDH? In that case I could see them giving him a whole year at AAA as the last chance to prevent being a career DH.

I don't know if Schoop has passed his final expiration date as an MLB player or not, but unless something changes quick, he's profiling like a guy that is going to get waived out of the league and have go to play in Japan (or equiv) for a year to get his swing back if he can before we see him back in the majors anywhere.....

The ol' "Make two outs in the same inning" for Hernandez.

Englert gets the DP ball, Javy self detructs..

Boyd is no Cy Young, but you still don't normally see a guy come in have zero ability to throw any of his pitches for strikes.

Schoop handcuffed pn a hot grounder. Hinch should try handcuffing him to the locker room radiator...

Boyd every which way but lose. Not finishing on the fastball, holding the breaking ball too long.

Schoop has had only 11 PA in May. Coincidence? I think not.

I think he has a real talent for BP management. He keeps guys on schedule, he normally stays ahead of the game on his sequencing, and he understands how to sequence guys to maximize their different looks. Sure, sometimes a guy blows up and messes up the plan, but in general I give Hinch a lot of credit on BP use. But that said, I still have a susupicion he messes with his hitters' heads too much and I can't escape the feeling that the guys that are beginning to come our of their funks are doing so because they are beginning to tune out all the 'advice'.

Next few weeks in Ukraine will get very interesting. So far AFU seem to be pushing back around Bakhmut, possisibly threatening the RU forces three with encirclement. Since this would be such a huge embarrassment for Putin, MOD, and Wagner, it could also be that it is the perfect feint to draw RU strength away from where the real blow lands...

The least you can say about ERod is that whatever motivates him, it may be more complex than the average jock. A guy interested only in money or his own success doesn't walk away for a season = for whatever reasons he did.

you remember the duct tape/bailing wire fixit guy whose handle was something about Inge? Also a gun nut. Just waiting to be a statistic in such a study. Had little kids at home and it sounded like he slept with a loaded shotgun behind his bedroom door.

There's a balance to strike though - you have to keep a good clubhouse, but if you throw every athlete that's only in it for themselves overboard, you're going to have a whole team of James McCanns and lose a lot of games with it. There are a lot of selfish players out there with a lot of rings.

I think they complained about that in the Baroque era.

correct.

Truly. OTOH, in his limited MLB AB he's holding a 700 OPS. That not anything to get excited about and even that may not be sustainable, but for now it is at least in the ball park of major league. Compared to what we are getting out of a Schoop or Cabrera that's a big improvement!

Bingo. He's another closet fascist trying to keep just enough lipstick on his pig so he can't still travel in A-list circles without being hissed at by the glitterati.

So semi-realistically , beyond Torkelson and Greene, we have McKinstry doing a good job OBP wise, and Baddoo also has potential to keep up a decent OBP. With Javy playing more to his career averages (which he actually has been doing since mid-season last year) you could have 5 guys with a reasonable chance not to make an out. That's marginal but should not be record breaking bad like last season. If Carpenter gets back you *might* approach reasonable. But yeah - even under the best of circumstances they are going to have to rely on success keeping runs against below average. It would be nice to have some confidence that we are going to get something out of Maton or Vierling, but right now that's not easy.