gehringer_2

some things stablizie rapidly, some don't, somthings thing generate large sample sizes relatively quickly, some things don't. At 400 AB Tork has probably seen 1500 pitches. Trends on 1500 pitches are not meaningless. Now note that saying that is not the same as saying Tork is a finished product by any means or not capable of changing the player his is now/has been. Obviously I don't think any of us think that, but but he has played enough for some things to be meaningful observations about what he has been doing.

the difference in their heat maps is not. Tork has been an easy out above mid K zone.

IMHO there is more of a fundamental difference though in that Greene has better K zone coverage right now than Tork does, so the BaBIP difference is not all just luck. I see a situation where Tork has to be able to do damage on more different kinds of strikes, that he's giving the pitcher too much of the plate. I wonder if part of it is just developing more mental toughness. It's seems when he has bad BaBIP luck, and he has had plenty, he then loses some of his aggressiveness and that feeds the pop-up machine.

just about 13mo.

The question would be how much better a recruiting area the population concentrations at Chicago/Milwaukee may be for Wisconson than Minneapolis is for Minn. I would guess if there is a structural difference that is it. Also, Madison is more of a college 'destination' than Minneapolis. It's sort of like WayneState is just part of Detroit whereas UofM is AnnArbor. Madison is the state capital but it is stlll much more a college town than Minneapolis is because of UMinn.

expanding on what Saber has already covered - Riley has a 323 OBP and plays a premium defensive position well. Torks is a great 1B but generally no-one gets excited about 1B D. Greene lacks ISO but has been pretty consisten, has not fallen off as teams scouted him and he is also 21 yrs old and should easily develop more power so you see the straight path to being an above average player. Torkelson is having major funks where he can't get on base (281 OBP for the season). One difference (as Saber also noted about their general FB rate) between them is their IFFB rate - Tork on the high side at 15% compared to Greene on the low side at 2%. It's deceptive, watching Tork, the number of LD outs he make might make you think he doesn't hit the ball in the air enough (which I thought at one point earlier in the season), but the numbers say he does (40% FB) and the high IFFB rate would mean he tends toward being on the bottom of the ball too often if anything. Couple that with a -5.1 FBrunsaboveave and I would guess what you have a is a guy that is not compensating for (swinging under/late) the more live fastballs he is getting in the majors. His heat map also shows most of his success at the bottom half of the k-zone. This is where maybe I don't read it like Saber does, I think he may be too much on the bottom of the ball on strikes in the upper part of the zone. But that's what the team is supposed to be able to analyze!

In news from over the pond, Truss collapses. (tee hee) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/world/europe/uk-tax-rate-cut.html

There are two explanations for what we saw, that is one, the other is that the Lions didn't have the personel to match up to what Seattle was doing without leaving worse vulnerability somewhere else. Even if that was the case, you can argue they mis-judged the relative risks, which is still bad enough, but it seems doubtful to me the Lions staff didn't understand what Seattle was doing to them well enough.

Patreaus on his view of the most likely NATO response to a Russian use of a tactical nuke: Probably not enough - but it would be start. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/02/us-russia-putin-ukraine-war-david-petraeus

I'm really curious to see what the Wings look like defensively under Lalonde. Under Blashill, they played like they were the slowest skating team in the league - sooo soft and cautious in their own end it was hard to explain short of them all (maybe excepting Bert, Larkin and Seider) believing they were going to get beat if they played any more aggressively - i.e. they either couldn't or at least didn't have the confidence they could skate with the other team. If they actually do have enough speed to play successfully like a 'normally' aggressive team, it's going to be a huge indictment of what Blashill was coaching. If they really don't have the speed and end up constantly getting beat, Lalonde is going to be one unhappy camper!

When Hutch played at UM they had linebackers.

That would be an interesting move - almost too close in terms of the rivalry. But Fleck could probably do better by the end of the year if Minn wins the West.

LaLonde quoted about Veleno in today DetNews: This could be Blashills epitaph for the whole team for the last couple of seasons.

IDK how much you can expect in terms of existing playes getting better. The first year away from Patricia where you had bad schemes and bad lockerroom culture maybe more so. But from last year to this year I wouldn't expect to see many players turn into something they hadn't already shown other than an Okudah coming back from an injury. A few might but in general you replace poor players with better players to get a better team. The one place where you get the most growth from reps in the O-Line, and that's been pretty good.

This is the Lions coming off a historically bad period. They are scoring a lot of points and they have another possible star receiver joining before the season ends, that's the good news. And the D is terrible - and its next off season's project. NFL teams often turn things around fast, but that's usually because they went through a year where their record was worse than the team 'really' was in some way - for instance a bunch of injuries to good players who would be back the next season or a completely incompetent QB. The Lions earned their 3-13 last season the old fashioned way - they were bad. You're not likely to bounce back to playoff contention in one year from that.

he has plenty of power, but 99% of the time his lower half is so far in front of his swing that by the time the ball gets there he is all upper body. The HR today he kept his lower half back and was in full rotation as he hit the ball. He could be a good hitter if he did that all the time. And if pigs had wings.....

no way Victor Reyes should have only 2 HR in 300 AB.

BaBIP gods pissing all over the Tigers today.

LOL - overcompensation for air-mailing it way past the cut-off man yesterday. Baddoo's arm is a completely randomized variable. I assume he must work on it but it hasn't done any good so far.

Wentz gave up two runs and in the end only saved the BP having to get one out - how is that a good trade?

Wentz aiming the ball and missing. Walks Correa for a run. It so seldom does any good to try to squeeze more out of a pitcher who has lost it that the insistence of managers to keep trying to is hard to understand.

Baddoo calls off Greene only to have the ball hit his glove right in the palm and bounce out for a double. 🤬

it is understandable that this is always attractive, and there are some cases where I would agree - for instance a toxic clubhouse where too many players with attitudes have to be removed - a situation like the one that did in Francona in Boston. But my brain tends to tell me the best way to get better is to prune and build carefully, making sure each move is actually an improvement and makeing sure you don't waste any value out of haste. Sure you can overdue it with that - and I think unwillingness to move on from marginal players was certainly be something you can accuse Al Avila of being guilty about. But in the case of three Tigers who have the most question marks right now - Kriedler, Torkelson and Baddoo, you have three guys who are really short on major league PAs to be making any final decisions - they aren't like the Niko Goodrums of the world still around after well over a 1000 PAs of proven futility.

also a measure how dumb the Tigers have been with their roster.

Torkelson spends half a season getting into a funk in Detroit, goes to Toledo and in a month he is raking. Comes back to Detroit, hits for 3 weeks and ends up back in the same too tentative at the plate funk. Who/What/TF is wrong in this picture?