mtutiger

Yeah, it's more boxscore than anything... as awful as they've been offensively production wise this year, they are better than that 2022 version.

He's coming off of injury and AJ isn't going to expose him in a noncompetitive game. That's my guess

It's a much different team now, but it's more the reminder that even the bad offenses can experience a dead cat bounce from time to time. There's still some upside here though.... Tork and Keith turning things around would make a huge difference on this teams trajectory.

Skubal's efficiency along with the run scoring may make this one of the easiest games AJ has ever managed.

The main thing that scares me about tonight is that there hasn't been a ton of home run power.... it reminds me a little bit of the Miggy 3000 game in that regard from a couple of years ago. (although they have at least had more extra base hits tonight) https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET202204231.shtml

Bob Brenly now speculating that you'd think they got the playbook lol

Damn, that kid just got Torked lol

Wow....

I really think they've found something in Wenceel Perez....

As bad as the hitting has been to start the year, there was always a glass-half-full view where Tork (and Keith) weren't likely to continue to be as bad at the dish as they have been to date. I need to see more, trust but verify, but even before the homer on Sunday, both with the bat and the glove, it's been apparent that Tork has been playing better. Just need to see more consistency

They badly need Tork to get going, and he chose a good moment to do something.

I will never understand why our fambase hates Matt Vierling so much...

They are two games above .500 and have a positive run differential. All despite multiple players not playing to their potential. You'd think we were talking about the 2019 team with the way people talk about them.

Ump show baby

The relative lack of hard hit rate differentiates this year from last year, IMO.

I don't know what his ceiling is at this point.... but I do think he is capable of turning it around. Regardless, I don't see how he recovers his standing with the fanbase even if he does turn it around. To borrow a phrase from contemporary politics, it's appears to have gone beyond "frustration" into "negative polarization" with a lot of folks, at least on Twitter IMO

Frankly, I hope he's not listening to anybody on Twitter.... the amount of anger he generates, geez, even if he turns it around I'm not sure he'll ever be accepted here.

My expectations was that I would hate the entire kit, so the fact that I only really hate the hat and think the actual jersey is solid seems like a win overall lol

I could have lived with the "MC" abbreviation as well.... but just writing out an entire word on a baseball hat, I just cannot get around that

I just can't believe the hat.... it just gives me serious "Washington Football Team" vibes.

The jerseys are OK... I really do not like the hats though. Mostly I'm with Rob though, I really don't care much one way or another. I'd rather they just wear what they have always worn (except with the correct "D" on the front)

In all seriousness, I'm aware, and Maton didn't end up a viable replacement. But the commentary around that particular deal tends to lack context.... one reason being that Gregory Soto isn't that valuable of a commodity and has demonstrated that in a Phillies uniforim for the most part, the second being that despite Maton and Donnie Sands leaving the organization, the one remaining player from the deal has been a more valuable piece than Gregory Soto would have been to this team. Especially early on in this season. I know it's not necessarily the point that SF was trying to make, but it really irks me that that deal sort of gets treated like a Scott Harris failure... in terms of results, it just clearly not. Even if Nick Maton didn't work out.

I'm aware. We only debated it about 23085722 times last year.

Maybe I'm hallucinating, but didn't they get Matt Vierling as well in that deal? People love to bitch about Nick Maton not working out, but FFS, there's a pretty good argument that despite 2 of the 3 players being gone, they clearly won that trade anyway.

My only real complaint is that Vierling probably needs full time ABs at the moment. AJ likes his optionality and all, and maybe Vierling gets more exposed as a full time hitter, but I think he's been earning that. Otherwise... you're right. The Top 5 hitters cannot do it all, and three of the remaining 4 (Tork, Keith and Meadows) are younger players whose success are necessary to moving the hitting to the next level. That's on them, it's not on AJ.