2026 Exhibition Spring Games

[IdahoBert]

A full strength Tigers team goes against a Phillies split squad in Lakeland tomorrow February 27 with Flaherty pitching. Now, if I were a bettin’ man which I am not, I would think that the Tigers have a good chance of winning that game. Allegedly there will be a radio broadcast for the Tigers. 

[Tenacious D]

Someday in late Fall, we will have a good laugh about our spring training record.

I say get the losses out of our system right now.

[Motor City Sonics]

People actually bet on spring training games.    See, to me that is an absolute indication that you have a gambling addiction.    Betting on games where the teams don't even care if they win or lose.  

[gehringer_2]

This is the new Tiger 'rope-a-dope' strategy to fix their terrible April starts. Make sure none of the teams they play early in the season take them seriously.

they've got some work to do on their challenges. They lost 2 of 3 today, only Liranzo got one right.

[IdahoBert]

Right now, I’m watching the White Sox play the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch in Glendale - a facility the two teams share - and the place seats 13,000 but there’s lots and lots and lots of empty seats and the berm is sparsely populated.

But in the Dodgers defense, like they need to be defended, they are playing the White Sox. I guess if they were playing another NL West team there might be more people there.

[4hzglory]

33 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

This is the new Tiger 'rope-a-dope' strategy to fix their terrible April starts. Make sure none of the teams they play early in the season take them seriously.

they've got some work to do on their challenges. They lost 2 of 3 today, only Liranzo got one right.

To be fair, Keith’s had a very small fraction of the ball clip the zone.  And the Orioles badly missed their 1 challenge 

[Biff Mayhem]

1 hour ago, Motor City Sonics said:

People actually bet on spring training games.    See, to me that is an absolute indication that you have a gambling addiction.    Betting on games where the teams don't even care if they win or lose.  

I was in line at a drive thru recently and I could clearly see the dash mounted phone of the car in front of me. Dude was playing online slots at 7:30 am. 
 

Degenerate. 

[CMRivdogs]

1 hour ago, IdahoBert said:

Right now, I’m watching the White Sox play the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch in Glendale - a facility the two teams share - and the place seats 13,000 but there’s lots and lots and lots of empty seats and the berm is sparsely populated.

But in the Dodgers defense, like they need to be defended, they are playing the White Sox. I guess if they were playing another NL West team there might be more people there.

With a 90 degree real-feel temp, most folks aren't venturing out in the afternoon, even if they are snowbirds from Berwyn, IL.

We did a Spring Training Trip to AZ several years ago. Went to a game at HOHoCam (??) when the Cubs played there. Metal seats under a partial awning. It was brutal. 

[IdahoBert]

1 hour ago, CMRivdogs said:

With a 90 degree real-feel temp, most folks aren't venturing out in the afternoon, even if they are snowbirds from Berwyn, IL.

We did a Spring Training Trip to AZ several years ago. Went to a game at HOHoCam (??) when the Cubs played there. Metal seats under a partial awning. It was brutal. 

I lived in Tucson for 13 years from 1974 to 1987 but Tucson is characteristically 10° cooler than the Phoenix Metro area and in Tucson at least, February and March were exquisite.  

And when I went to spring training baseball games in Tucson, it was never a hot day. But we in Tucson always lived by the motto “Phoenix sucks!” So this might still be the case and even more so now. 

[1984Echoes]

6 hours ago, 4hzglory said:

My view from the office this afternoon 

Are you down here in Lakeland 4hz?

For how long?

(OR: Do you live down here?)

[1984Echoes]

Or are you in Dunedin?

[casimir]

6 hours ago, 4hzglory said:

My view from the office this afternoon 

Nice area.

[1984Echoes]

6 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I agree they are not an F (the writer probably just looked at stolen bases), but I also think their baserunning achievements were overrated last year.  They led MLB in extra bases taken on hits which is great, but they also led the league in OOB (runner put out making a baserunning play)...

 

Is XBT% extra base success rate?

The Tigers look like they led in this too. At 53%. The next was Colorado at 47%. So they are both more prolific as well as more efficient than any other team in MLB...

But should we look at this like base-stealing? 75% or higher is good... less than that is not so good? And not recommended?

I think I would defer to the highest success rate in MLB but also... I just wish Cora could recognize futile or stupid efforts a little more and hold back the runner (from certain outs) once in a while. 

 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by 1984Echoes

[Tigermojo]

5 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

 

Is XBT% extra base success rate?

The Tigers look like they led in this too. At 53%. The next was Colorado at 47%. So they are both more prolific as well as more efficient than any other team in MLB...

But should we look at this like base-stealing? 75% or higher is good... less than that is not so good? And not recommended?

I think I would defer to the highest success rate in MLB but also... I just wish Cora could recognize futile or stupid efforts a little more and hold back the runner (from certain outs) once in a while. 

 

 

I don't know about the stats but it's certainly been entertaining to watch. 

[4hzglory]

1 hour ago, 1984Echoes said:

Are you down here in Lakeland 4hz?

For how long?

(OR: Do you live down here?)

I live in Sarasota, so it was a chance to take the afternoon off.

[Tiger337]

2 hours ago, 1984Echoes said:

 

Is XBT% extra base success rate?

The Tigers look like they led in this too. At 53%. The next was Colorado at 47%. So they are both more prolific as well as more efficient than any other team in MLB...

But should we look at this like base-stealing? 75% or higher is good... less than that is not so good? And not recommended?

I think I would defer to the highest success rate in MLB but also... I just wish Cora could recognize futile or stupid efforts a little more and hold back the runner (from certain outs) once in a while. 

 

 

XBT% is the percentage of times they took at extra base on a single or two extra bases on a double.  That's the stat that they were raving about all last year.  That's good but they also made a lot of outs on the bases.  Overall, they were successful running the bases, but it wasn't historic.  

[chasfh]

Watching my first Tigers game of the season, at the Orioles, on MLBN. They’re wearing those new blue alternates. They are ugly and cheap-looking. They look like the kind of uniform you get playing for a team in amateur men’s hardball.

[gehringer_2]

6 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Watching my first Tigers game of the season, at the Orioles, on MLBN. They’re wearing those new blue alternates. They are ugly and cheap-looking. They look like the kind of uniform you get playing for a team in amateur men’s hardball.

when they played Atlanta you virtually couldn't tell the teams apart. I assume they won't do anything that dumb in the regular season but who can be sure anymore?

[Tiger337]

You can't expect them to pay all that money for Valdez and Verlander and give us nice uniforms too.  

[chasfh]

So I took a hack at trying to figure out how many net runs the Tigers gain through their taking extra bases.

I gave it the situations from this table:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2025-baserunning-batting.shtml

And run expediencies from this table:

https://tangotiger.net/re24.html

And ask it to determine runs gained and lost depending on whether the runner stopped after one base, made it an extra base, or got thrown out at that extra base.

I asked for a sortable table and got this, at this link:

https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/ae435d12-66cf-4f68-a634-73b59162a9cb

Here's a pasted table. Bottom line: Tigers are second in runs gained but last in runs lost. However, that works out to having them rank fifth in net runs gained, behind Brewers, Dodgers, Jays, and Reds. pretty good company, and substantially above the league average.

That means that despite leading the league in outs lost trying to take the extra base, it was a net positive for us.

 

[kdog]

Quote

 The Detroit Tigers aren't expecting right-hander Troy Melton on the 2026 Opening Day roster.

It's not because of performance.

It's due to injury.

The 25-year-old has been shut down from throwing for one to two weeks with right elbow inflammation, which means he isn't expected to be ready for Opening Day on March 26 against the San Diego Padres.

"It's unlikely that he's going to be ready for the beginning of the season," manager A.J. Hinch said Friday, Feb. 27, before a spring training game against the Philadelphia Phillies, "but we'll know more as we ramp him back up what that exactly means."

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2026/02/27/troy-melton-elbow-injury-update-elbow-detroit-tigers/88898486007/

[Sports_Freak]

The Phiilies announcers were joking yesterday that Hinch was on the hot seat for all the spring training losses. They said he looks nervous as the camera showed him relaxing in a chair to watch the game. They know his job is about as secure as any manager in baseball...😆😆

[Sports_Freak]

55 minutes ago, kdog said:

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2026/02/27/troy-melton-elbow-injury-update-elbow-detroit-tigers/88898486007/

Surgery planned yet? Internet doctors diagnosed Tommy John on the kid?

[chasfh]

6 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

The Phiilies announcers were joking yesterday that Hinch was on the hot seat for all the spring training losses. They said he looks nervous as the camera showed him relaxing in a chair to watch the game. They know his job is about as secure as any manager in baseball...😆😆

Works for me

[Motor City Sonics]

11 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Surgery planned yet? Internet doctors diagnosed Tommy John on the kid?

come on, you know it's coming.   see you in 2028, kid.