mtutiger

I didnt, although he has hit some balls hard lately...

Derek Hill breaks up the no XBH streak!

18 pitches, 7 outs

Beau was locating his fastball/chageup much better that inning.

Nice to see that Chris Taylor decided not to give the umps an earful...

Are the Dodgers gonna ***** and moan every time they don't swing at balls down in the zone? They did it all night last night too, even with balls in the superimposed box They are the best team in baseball, but they arent entitled to preferential treatment

Don't throw this guy another change up lol

What exactly does firing AJ Hinch accomplish? I get that fans want blood, but it's not like AJ or Coolbaugh or whoever can go take Candy or Schoop's ABs or field second for them. And it's not AJ's fault that there aren't exactly a ton of alternatives to them at the moment, given that roster sizes are limited, as are the options in Toledo. And it's not AJ's fault that Ryan Kreidler broke his hand earlier this week. The situation sucks, but firing AJ over this wouldn't accomplish anything at all.

Where's Bert's 2 runs?

Sure enough... I assumed the same thing. Now would definitely be a good time to change it up. Give Short another cup of coffee.

Is there anyone internally who can fill that void at this point? Defensively, Short probably can cover all the positions (except maybe 1st, which Miggy can cover), but despite the good performance in Toledo with the bat, is the expected drop off there worth it? Part of me wants to say 'yes', but I remember when folks wanted to run him out of town last year when every plate appearance was a K or a flyout.

I hate playing the "what-if" game, but at least on eye test, the offense is the biggest offender so far. My guess is that they would have at least a couple more wins if they were performing at league average. Even the game Tuesday that they threw away defensively in Minnesota, they had opportunities to score earlier on that they didn't cash in. They havent hit many homers or even had extra base hits with any sort of consistency. Their last extra base hit was a double by Robbie Grossman on Wednesday night (in garbage time). It's just not a recipe for success... and no amount of good pitching or even good defense can win you a lot of games with the kind of offense they are playing right now. Even the Dodgers pitching staff would struggle with it.

My guess is Option C...

Probably to an extent. Things like not giving up a bunch of walks probably helps too.

Interesting. Probably more of a topic for the Media Meltdowns thread over in the political forum, but even outside of politics and in sports, journalists really have to walk a fine line between reporting the facts and letting advocacy or bias seep into their work. I don't want to say anything mean or speak out of turn though, I don't subscribe to BA and subsequently don't follow her work much. I just saw the tweet and shared it here.

Tigers have also not been blessed schedule wise so far.... Not making excuses for them, particularly with hitting and defense people should expect better, but to an extent all of this stuff (weather, schedule, injuries, etc.) may at least provide an explanation for some of the struggles.

I dont know if this is the case with all Detroit sports teams (admittedly I'm sort of baseball first at this point), but in the case of the Tigers, what frustrates me is that when things aren't going well, and particularly when it is not driven by all phases of their game, it tends to overpower any aspects of their game that maybe aren't going poorly or actually going well. On the whole, the pitching staff has held up well in spite of injuries. Losing Mize and Manning was a setback, but this franchise isn't the only one dealing with pitching injuries in this league. And there's more depth in that department than there has been in past years. The bullpen, meanwhile, has actually been one of the better units in the American League, and there's reason to believe it's not a complete fluke. The reason that all matters is that it demonstrates that this isn't Cincinnati or Baltimore; there is reason to believe that when the hitting comes around (and it will), they will win a decent amount of ballgames. The situation sucks, everyone wishes that there wasn't yet another massive slump to start the season. But they will have opportunities to get going. The Tigers org isn't perfect and there is plenty to complain about. Particularly with position player depth. But the picture isn't totally negative. It ain't perfect, they likely aren't contending for a playoff spot this year, but there is reason to believe that this team is better than last and can push for .500.

I would just add that, overall, the pitching has held up well despite setbacks of their own. Particularly the bullpen, and unlike last year, they may be real because a lot of the standouts (Lange, Fulmer, Vest, etc.) don't have Funkhouser-esque peripherals. If they can start hitting, they'll easily be in contention for .500.

And replace him with who? Lloyd McClendon? Considering the improved walk rate, I'm not even sure Coolbaugh is doing a bad job, let alone whether he should be worried

This is right, Alexander isn't unlike an Anderson or Pineda in that they are all kinda both 2x thru order max pitchers who don't throw hard and whose success relies on being able to locate their pitches consistently. When any of these guys can't locate, in or out of the zone, problems will arise. And Alexander has struggled here... particularly in the last two starts where he's struggling in the zone and putting way too many balls out over the plate. In the long run it may be correctable, but if he keeps it up, whenever Mize or Manning come back and/or when the Tigers want a look at Faedo or Wentz, he may be the one losing starts.

There are a lot of reasons to be upset with the way this team has started. Signing ERod and Mike Pineda instead of Tyler Anderson isn't one of them

If we weren't missing Paredes, we'd be missing Austin Meadows. Although the broader point is well taken

They also brought in Pineda, who is basically a righty T. Anderson

This is true... Related, but the Tigers have some hard decisions to make on the bullpen after this series, with rosters reducing back to 26 man. There really isn't anyone there who deserves to be shipped out, but at least one, possibly two, guys are gonna be on the short end of the stick. Given how he pitched tonight, its gonna suck to see them ship Vest out just because he has options and Drew Hutchison doesn't lol