mtutiger

It's early, but gotta imagine Kenta is on thin ice these days

Another way to look at it: who else on this team would you trust at the plate with runners on base more than Mark Canha at this point? Argument could be made for Gio Urshela just because he's had a knack for getting the big hit and having decent bat to ball skills, but other than that, I'm not sure there is one. That includes Riley Greene as well

To this point, I wonder if they manage to stay in it or above .500 over the next month or two (and if some of their core start producing as expected) if they don't try to look outside the org to improve their lineup. Frustrating as this org can be, they have some actual bullets to use for a change in terms of trades. Particularly with pitching.

Exactly. Mark Canha is performing about one would expect from him based on his career thus far (small sample size), the issue is that there are a lot of other guys on this club that aren't meeting expectations at the moment. Canha has also been a pretty big factor in some of their wins as well... they don't win on Opening Day at Comerica without Mark Canha's homer for instance.

The Tigers have 99 problems.... and Mark Canha ain't one.

It's a very small sample size, but Carlos may be my favorite color guy that they've had since Gibby's first run.... just really fits the role well, polished, insightful, etc.

Kudos to the pitching staff again.... the offense may be sucking wind, but they have generally done a great job of keeping them in close enough to win some of these ball games.

Correa may or may not have made they play, the Kelly hit looked fairly legit in real time, that's not an easy play to make at all. Statcast has it as a 0.510 xBA as well. Mark Canha's double I can see more of an argument for needing to be made, but even there, watching the replay this morning, I wouldn't assume that a double play gets turned there because of Riley Greene's speed going between first and second and how quickly he would have needed to get the ball over to second. I guess if we are playing that game too, Javy Baez "only" hit that home run because Theilbar sequences his pitches poorly? Or didn't quite get the location right on on his sweeper? Or _________? The made less mistakes than the other guys and they were able to capitalize on the mistakes that the other team did make and won. A lot of baseball games in this league are won in this way.

And even after the blown play, they still had to go and get the winning run in... Capitalizing on mistakes.... believe it or not, the good teams win games like these too.

The offense isn't good, but there were positives today. And they did earn the win, full stop.

I'll never understand being angry after a win, I'll leave it at that

Maybe, maybe not... sometimes you BABIP, or you get BABIPed. Thats the sport. Either way, Javy and Tork showed a little bit in their finals ABs imo. Javy for showing a little power, Tork for actually displaying some situational awareness for a change.. Nothing wrong with being happy about that

That's baseball...

Feels like their biggest win of the year, and unlike the one in Pittsburgh, it feels like they actually instigated the comeback.

I can't speak for the majority because I've always been a little bit concerned that this could happen with regard to Meadows. It doesn't mean that it cannot be fixed or that he is doomed to failure, but Meadows struggling was always a possible outcome here. He'll get more runway, but it's not gonna last forever

I think Meadows' defense matters, but the hitting matters as well. There's an inflection point where the lack of hitting outweighs the defense and, small sample size caveat applies here, it's currently outweighing the defense. He'll probably get more runway, but things are going to have to turn around because they just aren't going to tolerate the status quo forever.

Meadows is currently in territory where the drop off might be worth it.

Yeah, if they put this one away an inning or two earlier, Wentz probably would have got Faedo's innings

Willi Castro gonna lob some baseballs tonight?

At least Meadows has options and theoretically can be sent down... Baez? Jesus take the wheel, hope he figures it out lol

Its really early, but I dont know if there's a team where preseason expectations versus early performance is more off base than the Minnesota Twins. Injuries are a big part of the story, but if the Guardians, Tigers and Royals are better competition than expected, they are in a lot of trouble

Feels like the Tigers have scored half of their runs against Michael Tonkin this year...

Michael Tonkin... lol

Box score stats aren't everything, but it'd be nice if Baddoo were doing a little better...

Thats the Willi Castro we know and love....