gehringer_2

Wentz tends to be as good as his FB, which has ticked up more than 2 mph across the last two seasons.

well, I think it's a little more than that. I'll give you the example my fellow Ann Arborites. Ask any mother in Ann Arbor if she has taken her kids to the zoo, and she will say - "of course!." Ask which zoo, it will invariably be Toledo, not Detroit, even though the former is about 25% further away and the two zoos are generally rated closely.

But harder to get to even 200 if you can't get the ball in play in 40% of your AB!

So I think I've made this post before, sometime during the Dombrowski era, but the Tigers have been a pitching first team ever since DD and even if Harris has a mind to change that, he hasn't done much to do it yet - and here is the problem: If your minor leagues are full of young almost ready hitters, you can bring them up, move them in and out of the lineup, play them part time while retaining a veteran, and build their trade appeal - which you can then use to go get the pitching prospects you may lack. But if you are building a huge stable of starting pitchers, which is certainly a great thing to do, you still have the problem that all but 5 of them are stuck in the minors. You really can't bring guys up to validate their big league potential without creating rotation havoc, so they don't build the kind of trade value you need to get the top hitting prospects you lack. I think once way back in the day I heard DD say he liked drafting pitchers because the metrics were more reliable-projectable, and I think that is certainly true. Spin, velo and strike rates are what they are on any diamond at any level. Of course that is only putting aside the greater injury risk for pitchers which probably negates most/all of that advantage, but one can still see the logic. But the problem remains that it's still not easy to leverage excess MiLB pitching into MLB hitting, so if you can't draft hitters, you are still up the creek - like the Tigers.

We do have a lot of guys hanging around the margins of make it/break it. The Covid year was obviously a factor, but lack of break through picks like Riley is also too much of the problem.

The K's have been Parker's problem all through his career. He seemed to have turned a corner on that last season which is what got him called-up. Regression strikes again.

and to be honest, I can't even agree with Ted here anymore. MLB pitching has reached a point where you don't always get a good pitch to hit in an AB anymore. You better be ready to hang in there against spin and good location or you're just going to give away too many ABs.

If that's still so it really is all in their heads because it just isn't that big anymore. We have had an unusual amount of east wind this spring though - which means in from left instead of the more normal summer west wind out to left. That could a factor this year, but the crappy offense out the gate is now in it's 3rd yr. If I had one wish for a change in the Tiger hitting approach it would be to change the mantra from 'control the strike zone' to 'defend the strike zone'

Admittedly hard to evaluate a guy on a terrible team, but league ranks by the numbers: Assists: 8th Scoring: 21 FTA: 33 TRB: 101 EFG: 126 TOV: 5

With the old regime, a guy who was ~26 might get the 'last chance' call because it was time to put up or move on. Vilade is still maybe year short of being there but in any case I don't have much sense yet on Harris' thinking about cutting bait on older AAA players.

Under the radar guy. Definitely on a hot streak. Also not on the 40 - so the plot thickens.

1st Domino Baddoo, Kennedy, or Malloy Hiura = dark horse - to see him before the mobility thing kicks in

I have a hard time believe Cade is here after '25 short of total FO teardown NOW. I don't get the impression he is anyone's fool, let alone Gores's, who will be reduced to searching for players able to pick up Cade's contributions to building the community after he takes the QO

It's not as glamorous and he's already past it but it strikes me that Hinch is really cut out to be a pitching coach. You listen to him talk baseball and he lights up talking about pitching and pitchers, both his own and the other guy - but it's like hitting is terra incognita to him.

well, another evening's dental work is done.

It is the PCL, but Andre had some good stretches in the minors with the Tigers, he just didn't sustain them. If he turned the corner - good for him.

Last ups..

another of my AATs. It's the kiss of death.

Because the Tigers are in fail mode.

The degree to which pitches move laterally while over the plate is greatly exaggerated by the center field camera view. Even if a pitch moves 2 feet laterally in 55' on its way to play, that's an Inch or two across the 17" of the plate - so some but not that much. A good slow curve can be dropping fast enough that it finishes at the catchers glove below the box line though - and umps miss a lot of those!

6 more outs to work with.

everybody trying to hard. This may be one area where it turns out Hinch is a fail as manager - the art of pulling up a team that is emotionally down en masse. I was never that big a fan of Leyland but he could keep his team loose.

He actually is having slightly better ABs, don't know if it's enough to start a turn around but he's managed a few 95s off the bat in the last few days.

Torkeson covered the distance to get to it, but didn't come up with it on the dive - so sure, I say a guy with better hands could have made the stop.

You've got to be kidding. HR on the 1st pitch of the game then 3 guys K?