05/08/2023 6:10pm EDT Detroit Tigers vs Cleveland Guardians

[casimir]

Eat it, Cleveland.

[lordstanley]

16 minutes ago, Hart said:

Cabrera should be getting one start per series…if we are going to play along with this farewell tour.  Now that we are winning, it’s even more important to minimize the number of his at bats.  

He should be no more than our Gates Brown, at this point.  In 1974, Gates had 99 ABs in 73 games.

4 HRs, 17 RBIs, .242 BAA, .696 OPS.

[Fat Bastard]

Nice start to the series! A sweep would be massive, looking forward to tomorrow evening.

[Tenacious D]

[Tigeraholic1]

 

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

This team has been fun to watch. Didn’t think I’d be saying that a week ago. 

I tried to tell everyone we were really good but nobody ever listens to me. 🤣

Maybe Avila drafted better than we thought? We seem to have some SP depth. No Mize, no Manning? No problem...

[SoCalTiger]

Our “streak” is greatly facilitated by Erod pitching out of his mind which won’t continue unfortunately so We will need some other starters to step up. 

[casimir]

9 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

Is there anything worse than Kyle Schwarber in the Cure Insurance commercials?  Horribly written + stiff athlete spokesperson.  A commercial director’s nightmare, through they are complicit, too.

I thought Baddoo's caught stealing was worse.  Actually, I bet Baddoo knows that caught stealing was worse.

[casimir]

6 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

Our “streak” is greatly facilitated by Erod pitching out of his mind which won’t continue unfortunately so We will need some other starters to step up. 

The lack of SP depth and game stamina is worrisome.  I'm afraid the bullpen might get overworked because of it.  But Hinch and Fetter seem to be good at getting the most out of a bullpen, so that is a bit comforting.

[mtutiger]

7 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

Our “streak” is greatly facilitated by Erod pitching out of his mind which won’t continue unfortunately so We will need some other starters to step up. 

Wentz did today, so that is a start.

Also hasn't hurt that the schedule got easier earlier than expected.... the Mets/Cards/Guards are playing much worse baseball than people expected them to be when the schedule was published.

[TigersForever1256]

9 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

The recent performance has been surprising, but it shouldn’t be.  The offense is starting to hit like it should.

Imagine if we can get contributions from Turnbull, Skubal, Meadows and Carpenter?

I'd heard recently that Skubal was slated for some bullpen sessions but no word since. Anyone heard anything further? Imagine him healthy in the rotation at this point. The way the boys are seeing the ball, good things are happening. If not for the meltdown inning Sunday in St.L, we'd have a 7 game win streak right now.

Also, anyone heard any word on when Carpenter is due back? I see he's on the 10-day IL dating back to his crash on the wall. That should be up by now.

[TigersForever1256]

8 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

I tried to tell everyone we were really good but nobody ever listens to me. 🤣

Maybe Avila drafted better than we thought? We seem to have some SP depth. No Mize, no Manning? No problem...

I'm starting to believe. It's like DP said in the booth: "Tigers are playing like the season started on May 1."

[TigersForever1256]

Has anyone taken the time to look at our record outside of AL East?

Against AL East: 2-14 (.125)

Against all others:14-4 (.778)

AL East is far and away the best division in baseball, and we had most of our early games against them. Tigers could be in 1st place easily by June if they continue this pace, and they're just starting to gel as a team now.

[RandyMarsh]

Andy Ibanez strikes me as one of those guys 10 years or so from now that will be a great answer in a "name a random Tiger from the past" game. 

[romad1]

.500 by game 40.  Please. 

[Tigermojo]

1 hour ago, TigersForever1256 said:

I'd heard recently that Skubal was slated for some bullpen sessions but no word since. Anyone heard anything further? Imagine him healthy in the rotation at this point. The way the boys are seeing the ball, good things are happening. If not for the meltdown inning Sunday in St.L, we'd have a 7 game win streak right now.

Also, anyone heard any word on when Carpenter is due back? I see he's on the 10-day IL dating back to his crash on the wall. That should be up by now.

Skubal had one bullpen, no issues. Carpenter, end of the month.

[mtutiger]

1 hour ago, TigersForever1256 said:

Has anyone taken the time to look at our record outside of AL East?

Against AL East: 2-14 (.125)

Against all others:14-4 (.778)

AL East is far and away the best division in baseball, and we had most of our early games against them. Tigers could be in 1st place easily by June if they continue this pace, and they're just starting to gel as a team now.

The record outside of the AL East thing screams of being something that will normalize as more games are being played, although clearly it's the best division in baseball and the Tigers may just be an extreme example of how that it is the case.

I do think just looking more broadly at the division, while the Tigers have some risk factors roster wise (SP has been mentioned, hitting got off to a slow start and may have a tendency toward being streaky), and I cannot believe I'm saying this, but they may actually have less question marks than every other team in the division except the Twins.

The Guards have been ravaged by injuries to their starting rotation and a mediocre offense that has regressed into one of the worst offenses in baseball in 2023... the White Sox basically have no reliable pitching right now and a mediocre offense that has seen it's fair share of injuries.... the Royals have no pitching and, outside of Vinnie P, Bobby Witt and Sal Perez, not exactly the most reliable offense either. 

If the tick up in the Tigers offense is water reaching it's level, I definitely think second place is a good goal for this club, even with some of the risk factors it otherwise possesses. But they will need to keep improving offensively, and really that could potentially come down to Greene and Tork continuing to progress as hitters. And the starting pitching will have to hold as well.... hopefully getting Skubal back could be a plus in this regard.

Edited May 9, 2023 by mtutiger

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, TigersForever1256 said:

Has anyone taken the time to look at our record outside of AL East?

Against AL East: 2-14 (.125)

Against all others:14-4 (.778)

AL East is far and away the best division in baseball, and we had most of our early games against them. Tigers could be in 1st place easily by June if they continue this pace, and they're just starting to gel as a team now.

The Tigers may be within a game of 1st place at the trade deadline and Harris will pull an Yzerman. Trade away anyone of value because he doesn't see this team as competing for a championship. Another 5 year rebuild. 😔

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, TigersForever1256 said:

Has anyone taken the time to look at our record outside of AL East?

Against AL East: 2-14 (.125)

Against all others:14-4 (.778)

AL East is far and away the best division in baseball, and we had most of our early games against them. Tigers could be in 1st place easily by June if they continue this pace, and they're just starting to gel as a team now.

The Tigers may be within a game of 1st place at the trade deadline and Harris will pull an Yzerman. Trade away anyone of value because he doesn't see this team as competing for a championship. Another 5 year rebuild. 😔

[gehringer_2]

20 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

(SP has been mentioned

yeah big question marks. Rodriguez is a solid pitcher but I don't think we can bank on him winning the Cy Young in a walk, which is where he is about now - and Manning's inability to stay on the field is looking chronic. OTOH Wentz is threatening to turn into a useful piece of a rotation and 50 IP at Toledo might bring Turnbull's command back to a serviceable level. So many questions.

LOL -I know everyone is really down on drafting more pitching, but you don't anywhere without it either! You're never going to fill a 13 man staff purely via acquisition.

[Tiger337]

5 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

yeah big question marks. Rodriguez is a solid pitcher but I don't think we can bank on him winning the Cy Young in a walk, which is where he is about now - and Manning's inability to stay on the field is looking chronic. OTOH Wentz is threatening to turn into a useful piece of a rotation and 50 IP at Toledo might bring Turnbull's command back to a serviceable level. So many questions.

LOL -I know everyone is really down on drafting more pitching, but you don't anywhere without it either! You're never going to fill a 13 man staff purely via acquisition.

 You can't fill in 13 position players via acquisition either.  Pitching is no more difficult to acquire than hitting.  They key with pitching is to have your good pitchers healthy at the same time.   

Edited May 9, 2023 by Tiger337

[gehringer_2]

1 minute ago, Tiger337 said:

 You can't fill in 13 position players via acquisition either.   

I figure you more or less have to draft in pretty much the same ratio as the roster and it will probably work out in the end. Ptichers get hurt more, but hitters seem to be less projectable so you are going to lose more of them on their performance ceilings. Maybe the practical question would be just looking at 1st round strategy. Most everyone past the 1st round washes out anyway, but it is a reasonable question to ask if you should skew your highest picks toward or away from pitching - basically the question is whether your internal data tells you that your hitter projection uncertainty is less than your pitcher health projection uncertainty.

[TigersForever1256]

50 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

The Tigers may be within a game of 1st place at the trade deadline and Harris will pull an Yzerman. Trade away anyone of value because he doesn't see this team as competing for a championship. Another 5 year rebuild. 😔

 It's been mentioned by Tigers' broadcasters how different this team seems since the Baez benching against Toronto last month.

 Before: 2-9

 After: 14-9

 They seem more cohesive as a unit. More relaxed and seeing pitches much better; taking more pitches and making more solid contact, up and down the lineup.

  I don't share your pessimism, and I've been following since 1967. So long as no one (esp the media) expects anything out of them, I think they're going to exceed expectations this year. I wouldn't rule out a division title yet at all, but not much beyond that.

[mtutiger]

47 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

yeah big question marks. Rodriguez is a solid pitcher but I don't think we can bank on him winning the Cy Young in a walk, which is where he is about now - and Manning's inability to stay on the field is looking chronic. OTOH Wentz is threatening to turn into a useful piece of a rotation and 50 IP at Toledo might bring Turnbull's command back to a serviceable level. So many questions.

With respect to Manning, I'm not sure this last injury should be held against him given how fluky it was.... that could happen to anyone.

My overall point is that we are mostly focused on the Tigers here, given that it's a Tigers board, but there's added perspective in understanding the difficulties that other teams in the division are facing. Never would have predicted it prior to the season, but the Tigers seem relatively settled / stable in comparison to most of their division mates.

Edited May 9, 2023 by mtutiger

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]