10/8/25 Mariners @ Tigers 3:08 PM ALDS Game 4

[tiger2022]

The Tigers are -140 for game 5.  Big betting favorites 

[IdahoBert]

4 hours ago, papalawrence said:

Baseball always has its ups and downs, but this season has been crazy. Extremes for most every team, even the contenders. Toronto and Milwaukee seem to have avoided the extreme lows, and they also happen to be 2 teams that don't strike out so frequently. I love the Tigers. I hope Friday is another celebration

It is true there have been huge ups and huge towns for all sorts of teams this season. Usually a number of teams are reasonably good or reasonably bad, but really good teams have gone through really bad spells this year.

[Shades of Deivi Cruz]

4 hours ago, papalawrence said:

Baseball always has its ups and downs, but this season has been crazy. Extremes for most every team, even the contenders. Toronto and Milwaukee seem to have avoided the extreme lows, and they also happen to be 2 teams that don't strike out so frequently. I love the Tigers. I hope Friday is another celebration

Toronto did nearly gag away the East to the Yankees by losing six of seven, before rebounding to win their last four games of the regular season.

[Archie]

I think Skubal can't go winless against the Mariners this year so they will pull through on Friday.  The bigger concern is Seattle with go with the best on the mound and Tigers already have trouble with their offense.  It could be a 1-0 game.

[Screwball]

Apologies if this has been posted and I missed it.

Josh Naylor’s sign stealing gets Tigers’ attention in ALDS Game 4

[Hongbit]

MLB with an interesting schedule predicament when the Tigers win this game.

ALCS Game 1 is in Toronto on Sunday at a TBD time on Fox.    I’ve got to assume they want Sunday ALCS on big Fox and they have NFL games at 1:00 and 4:25.     Prime time at  8:00 would be ideal but it puts it up against Lions vs Chiefs which will be a problem In Detroit.  It’s also a marquee game on its own and will be widely watched across the country.      

 

[Hongbit]

5 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Apologies if this has been posted and I missed it.

Josh Naylor’s sign stealing gets Tigers’ attention in ALDS Game 4

They have pitch com now.  Tiger catchers should be putting fake signs down in this situation so it actually confuses the batter more.

[Shinzaki]

5 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

They have pitch com now.  Tiger catchers should be putting fake signs down in this situation so it actually confuses the batter more.

Be more entertaining if they buzzed the tower when Naylor is at the plate

[MichiganCardinal]

15 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

MLB with an interesting schedule predicament when the Tigers win this game.

ALCS Game 1 is in Toronto on Sunday at a TBD time on Fox.    I’ve got to assume they want Sunday ALCS on big Fox and they have NFL games at 1:00 and 4:25.     Prime time at  8:00 would be ideal but it puts it up against Lions vs Chiefs which will be a problem In Detroit.  It’s also a marquee game on its own and will be widely watched across the country.      

 

Normally I would say NFL is king and they won't touch it with a ten-foot pole, but the 4:05 game on FOX is Titans @ Raiders. If they had Bengals/Packers or Bucs/49ers it would be a different story, but both of those are CBS games.

They'll either go 8:08 anyway, air Titans/Raiders normally, and try to squeeze some juice out of Sunday Night Football from NBC, or they'll go 4:08 and play market-ball with FOX and FS1 between Titans/Raiders and Tigers/Jays. I think they probably err on the side of the latter.

Edited October 9 by MichiganCardinal

[oblong]

I don't think the Lions being the NFL game will influence their decision.  They knew they were going against the NFL regardless when they booked the ALCS.  But what do I know?

 

[Tigeraholic1]

11 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

Normally I would say NFL is king and they won't touch it with a ten-foot pole, but the 4:05 game on FOX is Titans @ Raiders. If they had Bengals/Packers or Bucs/49ers it would be a different story, but both of those are CBS games.

They'll either go 8:08 anyway, air Titans/Raiders normally, and try to squeeze some juice out of Sunday Night Football from NBC, or they'll go 4:08 and play market-ball with FOX and FS1 between Titans/Raiders and Tigers/Jays. I think they probably err on the side of the latter.

MLB will be on FS1, NFL would never get flexed.

[MichiganCardinal]

I had a conference in Chicago I was attending all day yesterday. A coworker told me the score was 3-0 and I figured it was all over but the fat lady's encore. Candidly, I had a gut feeling it was over when they gave up the double to Rodriguez in the 8th inning of game two. I didn't see a path when they choked away Skubal's first start.

But like a car accident, I couldn't look away. Kept finding score updates and following inning-by-inning. I hope this ALDS Game #5 turns out better than last year's.

[MichiganCardinal]

2 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

MLB will be on FS1, NFL would never get flexed.

They're faced with the lesser of two NFL evils. Either all their ratings get sucked away by NBC in Lions/Chiefs, or they lose some money on Titans/Raiders by bumping it in some markets.

I think the most money they can make and eyeballs they can get is a 4:08pm start. On FOX in the Midwest and Northeast, FS1 elsewhere. Football fans in the Midwest and Northeast will be watching Bengals/Packers on CBS anyway.

[CMRivdogs]

43 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

They have pitch com now.  Tiger catchers should be putting fake signs down in this situation so it actually confuses the batter more.

The Athletic had a story on what's happening here. Not necessarily the Tigers but other teams and pitchers. It's not the signs, but the pitchers tipping the pitch. Usually something subtle in the pitchers movement, his set uo, glove angle or even the way the catcher sets up.

The increasing numbers of cameras around the ballpark and multitude of things like iPads and computers in the dugout or just outside.

The broadcast during game 2 alluded to Naylor closely studying the Tigers pitchers when he wasn't batting, but watching closely. Maybe their not just watching opposing pitchers, but also opposing batters for subtle signs, above and beyond already noted tendencies. 

edit, here's the article

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6691711/2025/10/06/mlb-pitch-tipping-paranoia-camera-ipads-pitch-clock/

I forget who the Tiger batter was yesterday who grounded out to first base relatively early in the game collided with Naylor during a particularly hard groundout. The batter knocked Naylor's hat off in the process. For a second it looked like there might have been blows. 

 

Edited October 9 by CMRivdogs

[monkeytargets39]

59 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Apologies if this has been posted and I missed it.

Josh Naylor’s sign stealing gets Tigers’ attention in ALDS Game 4

That’s fair game as far as I’m concerned.  That’s on us to tighten up.  Once teams are using tech and stuff to do it is when it crosses the line.  Props to Naylor if he spotted something with the pitcher tipping.

Edited October 9 by monkeytargets39

[Screwball]

Just now, monkeytargets39 said:

That’s fair game as far as I’m concerned.  That’s on us to tighten up.  Once teams are using tech and stuff to do it is when it crosses the line.

Agree. It's been going on since forever and will continue to be. Don't believe in the tech end to do it either, but stealing signs is fine. There is a video of Naylor (I think) making motions from second base to the batter. It was plain as day. I would think if they were relaying the catchers signs they would make it look less obvious? I sure would. If they thought he was relaying pitches, all they have to do is switch signs every batter.

 

[lordstanley]

28 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

They're faced with the lesser of two NFL evils. Either all their ratings get sucked away by NBC in Lions/Chiefs, or they lose some money on Titans/Raiders by bumping it in some markets.

I think the most money they can make and eyeballs they can get is a 4:08pm start. On FOX in the Midwest and Northeast, FS1 elsewhere. Football fans in the Midwest and Northeast will be watching Bengals/Packers on CBS anyway.

Game 7 of the ALCS would be the following Monday, directly opposite Bucs @ Lions on MNF. 

[CMRivdogs]

6 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Agree. It's been going on since forever and will continue to be. Don't believe in the tech end to do it either, but stealing signs is fine. There is a video of Naylor (I think) making motions from second base to the batter. It was plain as day. I would think if they were relaying the catchers signs they would make it look less obvious? I sure would. If they thought he was relaying pitches, all they have to do is switch signs every batter.

 

I'm thinking part of he was trying to get into the Tiger pitchers heads. Causing a distraction and taking away their concentration.

But thinking back to what would happen with regularity during the latter part of the season when a pitcher would cruise along only to suddenly lose it makes you wonder if somebody, catcher or pitcher is tipping and it was getting noticed.

Also some of these terrible runs of giving up hits were accompanied by or shortly after either a fluke play or bonehead error 

[casimir]

1 hour ago, CMRivdogs said:

I forget who the Tiger batter was yesterday who grounded out to first base relatively early in the game collided with Naylor during a particularly hard groundout. The batter knocked Naylor's hat off in the process. For a second it looked like there might have been blows. 

 

Carpenter?  Boy, that would be something if he started a fracas.

[Screwball]

53 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

I'm thinking part of he was trying to get into the Tiger pitchers heads. Causing a distraction and taking away their concentration.

But thinking back to what would happen with regularity during the latter part of the season when a pitcher would cruise along only to suddenly lose it makes you wonder if somebody, catcher or pitcher is tipping and it was getting noticed.

Also some of these terrible runs of giving up hits were accompanied by or shortly after either a fluke play or bonehead error 

To the bold: that is a possibility.

I don't know what they use today, but the pitcher and catcher should be on the same page with every hitter. They should know how they want to pitch them. What pitch, what location, etc., even before a pitch is ever thrown. It should then be easy to come up with a set(s) of signs they can switch to when necessary. The entire holding down 1, 2, 3 fingers could mean nothing, but where he puts his glove while giving the signs could be an indicator. Or adjusting his mask could be another. There are all kinds of ways to do this.

IOW, there should be no way for opposing teams to steal signs if you do things the right way. I don't know how much this happens, and they likely aren't going to tell us either.

[roarintiger1]

I think the Tigers are completely innocent as far as doing this.  It's painfully obvious that nobody had been giving the Tiger hitters any help for at least 2 months.   

Well that is until maybe yesterday...................

[4hzglory]

5 minutes ago, Screwball said:

To the bold: that is a possibility.

I don't know what they use today, but the pitcher and catcher should be on the same page with every hitter. They should know how they want to pitch them. What pitch, what location, etc., even before a pitch is ever thrown. It should then be easy to come up with a set(s) of signs they can switch to when necessary. The entire holding down 1, 2, 3 fingers could mean nothing, but where he puts his glove while giving the signs could be an indicator. Or adjusting his mask could be another. There are all kinds of ways to do this.

IOW, there should be no way for opposing teams to steal signs if you do things the right way. I don't know how much this happens, and they likely aren't going to tell us either.

Naylor may have even been just giving location.  Dingler has been praised in helping the staff by giving location early, but that would be something easy to pick up at 2nd and for Naylor to raise his right arm or left arm or both like he was doing throughout his time on 2b.  They could switch it up and or "miss" the location, but it may make it a challenge for a pitcher to see the catcher holding his glove up and inside and throw the pitch away and low for example.

Edited October 9 by 4hzglory

[KL2]

1 hour ago, MichiganCardinal said:

They're faced with the lesser of two NFL evils. Either all their ratings get sucked away by NBC in Lions/Chiefs, or they lose some money on Titans/Raiders by bumping it in some markets.

I think the most money they can make and eyeballs they can get is a 4:08pm start. On FOX in the Midwest and Northeast, FS1 elsewhere. Football fans in the Midwest and Northeast will be watching Bengals/Packers on CBS anyway.

Even the worst NFL game out preforms basbeall. There is no debate. 

[RedRamage]

2 hours ago, Screwball said:

Apologies if this has been posted and I missed it.

Josh Naylor’s sign stealing gets Tigers’ attention in ALDS Game 4

I have ZERO problem with the Mariners trying to steal signals. It's part of the game, always has been, always will be. 

[Screwball]

9 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

Naylor may have even been just giving location.  Dingler has been praised in helping the staff by giving location early, but that would be something easy to pick up at 2nd and for Naylor to raise his right arm or left arm or both like he was doing throughout his time on 2b.  They could switch it up and or "miss" the location, but it may make it a challenge for a pitcher to see the catcher holding his glove up and inside and throw the pitch away and low for example.

This is the clip some of the articles are referring to. I can't say it shows much to be honest.