2025 Detroit Tigers General Discussion Thread

[IdahoBert]

Hmmm… nine hours in a row without a single post on any thread in the Tigers board and 17 hours on this particular thread. We have sort of reached the nadir. I hope the band snaps back and stings our adversaries.

[Tigermojo]

15 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

Hmmm… nine hours in a row without a single post on any thread in the Tigers board and 17 hours on this particular thread. We have sort of reached the nadir. I hope the band snaps back and stings our adversaries.

Calm before the storm. Hurricane Tarik.

[romad1]

41 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

Hmmm… nine hours in a row without a single post on any thread in the Tigers board and 17 hours on this particular thread. We have sort of reached the nadir. I hope the band snaps back and stings our adversaries.

The narrative we have held up until mid-July has been broken.  We need the team to do something to prove they are that plucky young group from October 2024.  That will mean, more production from Riley and more crazy energy from everyone.   That's hard to sustain. 

[HugoD]

3 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

Hmmm… nine hours in a row without a single post on any thread in the Tigers board and 17 hours on this particular thread. We have sort of reached the nadir. I hope the band snaps back and stings our adversaries.

Mental health break 😩

[papalawrence]

4 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

Hmmm… nine hours in a row without a single post on any thread in the Tigers board and 17 hours on this particular thread. We have sort of reached the nadir. I hope the band snaps back and stings our adversaries.

Been busy binging Hogan's Heroes

[Sports_Freak]

Tork likes facing Hendricks;

 

[Sports_Freak]

Didn't Harris say some of our young tradable talent in the minors would be up here to help us? Doesn't Max Clark play center field? Just sayin'...with Meadows, Vierling and Perez all hurting...maybe the Tigers will surprise us?

[holygoat]

None of the Big 5 will get Sept callups. With Sweeney back, I expect Baez to get the bulk of the reps in CF until one of the the injured guys returns, if not all of them.

[chasfh]

Harris wants the top prospects to be ready for the majors when they are promoted to the majors, and the Tigers have a process to prepare them, and especially after the Tork debacle of a few years back, I respect that.

[romad1]

question for people who might have a sense of these dadgum pitching injury things: Jobe back early or later in 2026?  

[1776]

51 minutes ago, romad1 said:

question for people who might have a sense of these dadgum pitching injury things: Jobe back early or later in 2026?  

From Evan Woodberry in June-

DETROIT -- Detroit rookie starter Jackson Jobe will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of the 2025 season, the team announced Wednesday.

Recovery from the elbow procedure typically takes 12 to 18 months, putting Jobe’s 2026 season in jeopardy as well.

[romad1]

21 minutes ago, 1776 said:

From Evan Woodberry in June-

DETROIT -- Detroit rookie starter Jackson Jobe will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of the 2025 season, the team announced Wednesday.

Recovery from the elbow procedure typically takes 12 to 18 months, putting Jobe’s 2026 season in jeopardy as well.

Yeah, Casey Mize basically was not an asset for 24 months after his I guess.  Sometimes they come back sooner and have "command" but that usually takes a bit. 

 

[gehringer_2]

9 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Yeah, Casey Mize basically was not an asset for 24 months after his I guess.  Sometimes they come back sooner and have "command" but that usually takes a bit. 

 

Yeah - Casey had the bad luck of being at the outer end of long recovery times. There is also a newer variation on TJ that reconstructs without the full transplant procedure  that is less traumatic and generally has a somewhat shorter recovery time. Not sure but I think both SGL and Jobe both underwent the newer style procedure.

Edited Monday at 02:13 PM by gehringer_2

[Timmitch55]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

Yeah - Casey had the bad luck of being at the outer end of long recovery times. There is also a newer variation on TJ that reconstructs without the full transplant procedure  that is less traumatic and generally has a somewhat shorter recovery time. Not sure but I think both SGL and Jobe both underwent the newer style procedure.

JONES AND SWEENEY? OR CLARK SND MCGONIGLE????

MAKE THE MOVE NOW!!!

[1776]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

Yeah, Casey Mize basically was not an asset for 24 months after his I guess.  Sometimes they come back sooner and have "command" but that usually takes a bit. 

 

As I recall, Casey had surgery on his back as well, or something along that line?

[HugoD]

1 hour ago, Timmitch55 said:

JONES AND SWEENEY? OR CLARK SND MCGONIGLE????

MAKE THE MOVE NOW!!!

Now that would be something, not exactly sure what, but something.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, 1776 said:

As I recall, Casey had surgery on his back as well, or something along that line?

that is correct, but I don't have any idea one way or the other if the back played into the setback he had that prevented him from making a return before the end of '23, which had originally been hoped for.

[papalawrence]

Not sure how to resolve the TJ issue. So many guys throw 100+ with 2000+ spin rate now. 

[chasfh]

The game has evolved over time to where pitchers chase higher velocity and better stuff while exerting maximum effort more often, both in-game and offseason. They know they’re gonna have short outings, so they go balls out from pitch one, which is some thing pitchers never did before just recently. Pitchers also throw a lot more in the majors than when they do in the minor, where their workloads are managed more carefully, and they come into the bigs unprepared for the workload.

One of the ideas being batted around is incentivizing longer starts by pitchers by having a double-switch rule where a team that removes its pitcher before end of fifth inning loses their DH. The idea is supposed to be getting pitchers to pace themselves early knowing they have to go longer than normal. It may or may not work, but that’s the kind of change Baseball is considering.

[IdahoBert]

33 minutes ago, chasfh said:

The game has evolved over time to where pitchers chase higher velocity and better stuff while exerting maximum effort more often, both in-game and offseason. They know they’re gonna have short outings, so they go balls out from pitch one, which is some thing pitchers never did before just recently. Pitchers also throw a lot more in the majors than when they do in the minor, where their workloads are managed more carefully, and they come into the bigs unprepared for the workload.

One of the ideas being batted around is incentivizing longer starts by pitchers by having a double-switch rule where a team that removes its pitcher before end of fifth inning loses their DH. The idea is supposed to be getting pitchers to pace themselves early knowing they have to go longer than normal. It may or may not work, but that’s the kind of change Baseball is considering.

That might work, but it also sounds a bit like when a serial killer gets the itch to kill in a situation where they are likely to get caught so they wear a rubber band around their wrist and snap it really hard every time they think of killing in a disadvantageous moment. 

[Timmitch55]

22 hours ago, HugoD said:

Now that would be something, not exactly sure what, but something.

The ONLY move we have

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, chasfh said:

One of the ideas being batted around is incentivizing longer starts by pitchers by having a double-switch rule where a team that removes its pitcher before end of fifth inning loses their DH. The idea is supposed to be getting pitchers to pace themselves early knowing they have to go longer than normal. It may or may not work, but that’s the kind of change Baseball is considering.

I don't see that working particularly well. Managers will  just pull the starter and double switch their way through their relievers so they never come to bat. But more to the point, the immediacy of the need to get the batter in the box out NOW is just going swamp all other medium (will I cost my team the DH) or long term (will I blow out my arm!) concerns a pitcher is dealing with. 

I think you need to attack the need for strike outs - somehow make them less valuable or just harder to get so less worth chasing? So to the first side, as we've all discussed, deaden the ball->cut HRs -> make the ball in play less catastrophic for the pitcher. But maybe there is a possibility from the other direction. What if you cut down the K zone - particularly the width - say you call that the middle of the ball has to cross over the plate and not just any part? My guess is that devalues the big breaking ball and increases balls in play - again it would have to be coupled with a deader ball, but with more balls in play you'd still get a reasonable number of of HRs for the fans even with a deader ball. The question is would it be less worthwhile to chase Ks if they are harder to get? Not really sure but I think it would be an interesting experiment for a minor league.

But the more depressing thought is that there is no way back. It's just training techniques and metrics are showing guys how to be more effective - and once you know how to do something, there is no way to unknow it again even if doing it isn't good for you.

And consider the incentives also. Maybe if you put an end to guaranteed contracts it *might* make pitchers worried enough to dial it back, but if someone is going to pay Skubal $400M at 31, how imperative can he feel about pitching to into his late 30s?

Edited Tuesday at 05:04 PM by gehringer_2

[HugoD]

2 hours ago, Timmitch55 said:

The ONLY move we have

I don't have a say in it, but I vote no.  To not rush those guys  - which this would be - is also a move.  I know it's been said a lot already, but Tork is an example of that type of move, and he was in AAA already.

[Graterol]

2 hours ago, HugoD said:

I don't have a say in it, but I vote no.  To not rush those guys  - which this would be - is also a move.  I know it's been said a lot already, but Tork is an example of that type of move, and he was in AAA already.

Is there any evidence that rushing players hurts long term ability? Most of the top players make it to the majors early. Tork continued to develop in MLB. I am in favor of McGongile (not Clark) because I think he is the best of many poor options at short. I don’t think mcgonigle playing 30 games in MLB and potentially playoffs will in any way stunt his growth. No need for Clark to come up because he wouldn’t be better than existing options.

 

Merrill, Chourio, Wood, Caminero, Holliday,  Roman Anthony. That group collectively has done well at McGonigles age. Is McGonigle not that tier of prospect?

Edited Tuesday at 08:42 PM by Graterol

[Sports_Freak]

I know it's a small sample size and it really doesn't have any meaning at all, but this is kinda amusing;