9/27/25 4:10 pm ET: Tigers @ Red Sox

[Motor City Sonics]

Who will the Astros start in Game 1 on Tuesday in Detroit? 

[Hongbit]

4 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

But you have to realize he'll go up against some other teams #1. Start him in game 2 for a sure victory? No...

The reward for pitching him tomorrow doesn’t seem big enough to risk that we lose a series 2-0 that he never gets to pitch in.  

[Sports_Freak]

So the only chance Houston has is to win out and Cleveland lose out? Or...does Houston have the tiebreaker over the team that used to be the Indians?

[Sports_Freak]

Just now, Hongbit said:

The reward for pitching him tomorrow doesn’t seem big enough to risk that we lose a series 2-0 that he never gets to pitch in.  

Agreed. I don't care who or where we play, I want my ace in the mound.

[Arlington]

5 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

But you have to realize he'll go up against some other teams #1. Start him in game 2 for a sure victory? No...

If he can start game 1 of the ALWCS he could reasonably be available for games 1 and 5 of the division series.  Hold him back and likely only 1 ALDS game. 

[oblong]

35 minutes ago, chasfh said:

If Guards lose tonight and tomorrow and we win tomorrow, CLE @ DET?

Yes.  But I don’t think our win tomorrow has to happen for Cleveland at Detroit if they lose both games. After tonight the Tigers are a game up if they lose.  

[holygoat]

I'm happy they made the playoffs, and pissed that they gave away a first round bye. With that said, they were great in June, terrible in July, great in August, terrible in September, so... October?

[chasfh]

10 minutes ago, oblong said:

Yes.  But I don’t think our win tomorrow has to happen for Cleveland at Detroit if they lose both games. After tonight the Tigers are a game up if they lose.  

Yes, that is right. Magic number is 2.

[chasfh]

This may be an unpopular opinion—or maybe not, we’ll see—but I’m actually glad Jason Benetti wasn’t here to call the game that clinched the playoff spot for us. 

Yeah, I know what Benetti’s contract says, what it allows him to do, but to still take off for such an important game shows just what it all means to him. He’s not a Tigers guy. He’s not an ambassador for the team. He’s not one of us. He’s a mercenary, here only because we were the first team to call after he got run out of town by his hometown team, and he’s obviously gunning for a 100% national career. And he’s good at announcing, really good at it, so he’s going to get that all-national job, whether it’s next year, or the year after, or the year after that. But it will be sooner than later. And when he does get it, he will bolt with pleasure, and then Detroit will be as much of a blip on his career radar as Detroit is on Howard Stern’s.

Benetti can stay in West Virginia tomorrow, too, for all I care.

[IdahoBert]

I know the playoffs are volatile, and like a brand new season, so to speak. But I find it hard to believe that the Tigers will start firing on all eight cylinders now when they’ve been faltering for so long.

Back when they were genuinely good and I gave up during a particular game, they proved me wrong so many times with their seeming miracles. I hope they can do it again.

I would rather win with solid play, instead of relying upon seeming miracles, by not squandering leads or leaving tons of runners on base.

[gehringer_2]

48 minutes ago, Arlington said:

We are standing pretty good health-wise with our position players. Only Vierling and Keith out.  

and Keith is almost no loss, his production had already tailed off badly in the 2nd half before the injury.

Colt made some progress this season, his overall offensive numbers slightly better than last year - but I expected more progress than we've seen. Showing he could still play 3rd is a big positive for the future, and he's only 23 -- so we can still hope for more improvement - but as of right now he's not a big loss.

[oblong]

12 minutes ago, chasfh said:

This may be an unpopular opinion—or maybe not, we’ll see—but I’m actually glad Jason Benetti wasn’t here to call the game that clinched the playoff spot for us. 

Yeah, I know what Benetti’s contract says, what it allows him to do, but to still take off for such an important game shows just what it all means to him. He’s not a Tigers guy. He’s not an ambassador for the team. He’s not one of us. He’s a mercenary, here only because we were the first team to call after he got run out of town by his hometown team, and he’s obviously gunning for a 100% national career. And he’s good at announcing, really good at it, so he’s going to get that all-national job, whether it’s next year, or the year after, or the year after that. But it will be sooner than later. And when he does get it, he will bolt with pleasure, and then Detroit will be as much of a blip on his career radar as Detroit is on Howard Stern’s.

Benetti can stay in West Virginia tomorrow, too, for all I care.

Isn’t that what he has now?  I don’t know if all of that is fair. I don’t hold it against a guy who wants to strive for the top in his profession. 

[gehringer_2]

Agree Rob, I don't begrudge the guy anything. He's had a tougher go than I imagine most of us ever had to face and if that drives him to get as far as he can in the business, good for him. We could as easily ding a guy who is local, Mike Tirico, for not deigning to take the job that would have been his for the asking if he had asked. 

Edited September 28 by gehringer_2

[monkeytargets39]

Please leave Sweeney and Paddack off the playoff roster

[1776]

1 hour ago, Arlington said:

We are standing pretty good health-wise with our position players. Only Vierling and Keith out.  

I think this team has missed a healthy Vierling this year more than has been discussed. 

[gehringer_2]

1 minute ago, 1776 said:

I think this team has missed a healthy Vierling this year more than has been discussed. 

yeah - last years Vierling was big add. Unfortunately when he did get in the line-up this season he didn't do much - maybe he was never right.

[chasfh]

2 minutes ago, oblong said:

Isn’t that what he has now?  I don’t know if all of that is fair. I don’t hold it against a guy who wants to strive for the top in his profession. 

No, I don’t hold it against the guy at all. Everyone should strive for their maximum potential. I would never want to pigeonhole him to stay in Detroit forever if that’s what he didn’t want.

But that also doesn’t mean I have to love his bugging out on the team for arguably the most important game of the year. I’d like a guy who’s here and committed to the team 162 games a year, or as close to that as health and dire family situations will allow. Someone like … I don’t know … Ernie Harwell? Or Dan Dickerson.

I don’t mind at all  that Benetti has ambition beyond Detroit. Most people probably would. But to me, bugging out on the Tigers on their clinch day is really no better than Matt Shaw bugging out on the Cubs when he did that, underlying circumstances notwithstanding.

[Sports_Freak]

3 minutes ago, 1776 said:

I think this team has missed a healthy Vierling this year more than has been discussed. 

If we could have had one player all season, I would take Olson.

[Sports_Freak]

1 minute ago, chasfh said:

No, I don’t hold it against the guy at all. Everyone should strive for their maximum potential. I would never want to pigeonhole him to stay in Detroit forever if that’s what he didn’t want.

But that also doesn’t mean I have to love his bugging out on the team for arguably the most important game of the year. I’d like a guy who’s here and committed to the team 162 games a year, or as close to that as health and dire family situations will allow. Someone like … I don’t know … Ernie Harwell? Or Dan Dickerson.

I don’t mind at all  that Benetti has ambition beyond Detroit. Most people probably would. But to me, bugging out on the Tigers on their clinch day is really no better than Matt Shaw bugging out on the Cubs when he did that, underlying circumstances notwithstanding.

Probably contractual obligations? 

[romad1]

Javy Said "****ty baseball"

[guy incognito]

25 minutes ago, chasfh said:

No, I don’t hold it against the guy at all. Everyone should strive for their maximum potential. I would never want to pigeonhole him to stay in Detroit forever if that’s what he didn’t want.

But that also doesn’t mean I have to love his bugging out on the team for arguably the most important game of the year. I’d like a guy who’s here and committed to the team 162 games a year, or as close to that as health and dire family situations will allow. Someone like … I don’t know … Ernie Harwell? Or Dan Dickerson.

I don’t mind at all  that Benetti has ambition beyond Detroit. Most people probably would. But to me, bugging out on the Tigers on their clinch day is really no better than Matt Shaw bugging out on the Cubs when he did that, underlying circumstances notwithstanding.

I mean, Dodgers fans had to deal with this when Vin Scully was working for NBC. Ditto Giants fans when Jon Miller was on ESPN, Cardinals fans back when Jack Buck was the main guy for CBS, etc. Somehow they survived.

Benetti's Fox contract predates his Tigers one, and I imagine he has a limited number of dates where he can just blow off his network duties on short notice. I guess I really can't see that as being enough of a basis on which to judge his loyalty or commitment to the D.

Edited September 28 by guy incognito

[IdahoBert]

15 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Javy Said "****ty baseball"

When and where? I wasn’t watching at that time. I was too busy pouting about how they should’ve celebrated a couple weeks ago instead of tonight. 

[chasfh]

19 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Probably contractual obligations? 

I said in the original post about this that I understood the contract.

[IdahoBert]

If Jason wants to be behind the camera a lot, he can’t rely on weekend football games or something. He needs to be with a baseball team. I’m glad he’s with us. I hope he’s not going anywhere else. I have no problem with him doing other games in other sports.
 

[chasfh]

10 minutes ago, guy incognito said:

I mean, Dodgers fans had to deal with this when Vin Scully was working for NBC. Ditto Giants fans when Jon Miller was on ESPN, Cardinals fans back when Jack Buck was the main guy for CBS, etc. Somehow they survived.

Hey, if people love it, that's fine. I don't. To each their own. But just because I don't like it doesn't mean I'm not sophisticated enough to understand it. I get why he's doing it. I just hope that the next guy is more dedicated to the team and its 162- (or 154-, whatever they end up deciding after expansion) game season. Just a personal preference. I acknowledged upfront that I might be on an island with this one. We all know how forums work—we bring up all kinds of important and unimportant things.