05/16/2026 1:10p EDT Toronto Blue Jays at Detroit Tigers

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Holton just isn’t him anymore

the breakers aren't breaking enough and the fast ones aren't fast enough.

[monkeytargets39]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

the breakers aren't breaking enough and the fast ones aren't fast enough.

He used to pound the strike zone too—now his control isn’t there

[gehringer_2]

Just now, monkeytargets39 said:

He used to pound the strike zone too—now his control isn’t there

He's not down too much on average FB but his peak fastball is down 2-3 mph. Sometimes that's why a guy tries to stay away from the plate more.

[gehringer_2]

really irritating when they waste good pitching like this.

Edited Saturday at 07:44 PM by gehringer_2

[monkeytargets39]

Well on the plus side, Casey looked great.  

[casimir]

Phooey.

[gehringer_2]

Just now, monkeytargets39 said:

Well on the plus side, Casey looked great.  

We need to tell him not to try to make any plays on defense. Don't come off the mound for a pop-up, let the other guys manage getting a ball to 1st. Just pitch and then stand still.

[Tiger337]

Extra innng losses don't feel as bad because it's fake baseball.  I did watch it this time...mostly because I wanted to see McGonigle and Dingler bat.    

Edited Saturday at 07:48 PM by Tiger337

[tiger2022]

17 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Well on the plus side, Casey looked great.  

He's looking good for free agency.  If he keeps this up he will get a nice contract from a contender for next season.

[Sports_Freak]

18 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Extra innng losses don't feel as bad because it's fake baseball.  I did watch it this time...mostly because I wanted to see McGonigle and Dingler bat.    

The results matter. So whether your opinion is you like it or don't like it, the results go into the record books as a loss. So in that regard, it's not "fake."

[chasfh]

Well, that's disappointing.

We are now 20-26 with a pythag of 22-24, and not an over-.500 pythag mainly as a result of handing our asses to the Mets.

[monkeytargets39]

55 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

We need to tell him not to try to make any plays on defense. Don't come off the mound for a pop-up, let the other guys manage getting a ball to 1st. Just pitch and then stand still.

Letting Torkelson field pop ups sounds like a bad idea though

[IdahoBert]

All these guys had to do was score 2 runs in the first full 8 innings. They struck out 14 times! And granted, that two of those came in the bottom of the ninth and the bottom of the 10th that wouldn’t have been played if they had scored two runs in the first full eight innings, but it’s still too common an event. 

And the Blue Jays struck out only six times in 10 innings. Making contact makes a difference.

[chasfh]

41 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

All these guys had to do was score 2 runs in the first full 8 innings. They struck out 14 times! And granted, that two of those came in the bottom of the ninth and the bottom of the 10th that wouldn’t have been played if they had scored two runs in the first full eight innings, but it’s still too common an event. 

And the Blue Jays struck out only six times in 10 innings. Making contact makes a difference.

Since I was wondering whether our offense is maddeningly inconsistent, which I think every fan believes about their own team, I plugged the game by game hitting stats of every team through yesterday into an AI assistant and asked it to rank the 30 teams by most consistent to least consistent offense.

Here's what it spit back out.

For what's it's worth, of course.

*****

Here's the full ranking, most to least consistent through May 15 (weeks 1-7, complete games only). The consistency score is the average coefficient of variation of runs per game and OPS — lower means more day-to-day predictability.

---

Most Consistent (1–10)

1. Tampa Bay Rays — The most consistent offense in baseball despite being a middling team (4.54 R/G). Low run variance (std 2.49), low OPS volatility. They don't explode often (22% of games 7+ runs) but they also almost never completely die (12% at 0-1 runs). Quiet, steady, reliable.

2. St. Louis Cardinals — Nearly identical profile to Tampa Bay. 4.68 R/G, low variance, 9.8% goose egg rate — lowest in the majors. They're not flashy but they show up every night.

3. Texas Rangers — Consistently mediocre is still consistent. Third-best CV on runs despite a weak 3.71 R/G average. They don't beat you but they also don't completely embarrass themselves. Low floor, low ceiling.

4–5. Atlanta Braves / Chicago Cubs — Both are good offensive teams (5.55 and 5.28 R/G) that also happen to be consistent. The Cubs have an impressive 42.5% rate of scoring 7+ runs — they're consistent and dangerous.

6. Baltimore Orioles — Interesting case: 7.3% goose egg rate (2nd lowest in baseball) despite only a 4.17 R/G average. They almost never go completely quiet.

---

The Middle (11–20)

Washington, San Diego, New York Yankees, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Houston, Oakland, Cincinnati, Seattle, Kansas City cluster in the 0.506–0.535 range — solidly average consistency. The Yankees stand out here: 5.19 R/G is elite production, but a 35.9% OPS CV means they swing between dominant and dormant. High-variance good team.

Detroit sits at 8th — a consistency score of 0.480, roughly top quarter of the league. Their 4.21 R/G average is pedestrian, but they hold their floor reasonably well (14.3% goose eggs) without many blowout games (16.7% at 7+). They grind.

---

Least Consistent (21–30)

27. Boston Red Sox — 26.8% of games scoring 0-1 runs, worst run CV (0.876) of any team not in the bottom five. Genuinely Jekyll-and-Hyde offense. Their 3.83 R/G masks huge swings.

28. Colorado Rockies — 25% goose egg rate, 0.808 run CV. Playing at altitude masks how unpredictable they are.

29. New York Mets — 25.6% goose eggs, 3.79 R/G, 0.840 run CV. Consistent only in their inconsistency, and consistently bad on top of it.

30. San Francisco Giants — The least consistent offense in baseball. 32.5% goose egg rate — nearly one in three games they score one run or fewer. A 0.403 OPS CV means they also have some big games, but the floor is the lowest in the league. 3.45 R/G is the worst in baseball through this stretch.

 

[Tiger337]

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

The results matter. So whether your opinion is you like it or don't like it, the results go into the record books as a loss. So in that regard, it's not "fake."

It's fake because putting base runners on base for free is not baseball.  I know it counts the same in the standings which sucks, but when I am sitting there watching a game and I see a base runner on base, it is no longer a baseball game for me.  

Edited Saturday at 10:23 PM by Tiger337

[tiger2022]

Its all about getting the games over quicker.  Maybe play an extra inning and call it a tie?

You could have a new pitcher stat, ties if you were the guy in the 10th inning.

[gehringer_2]

57 minutes ago, tiger2022 said:

Its all about getting the games over quicker. 

I think that is the reason given publicly, but I think as big a reason is that teams don't want to risk destroying a bullpen for a week in a 16 inning game. Such a large proportion of relievers in the league now are only one inning guys, and on any given night you may have already used 5 pitchers each of the two nights before, you don't want to risk hurting guys by over extending them when they are not acclimated to it. With 'pitching chaos' the Tigers probably have more guys than most to help you get through a long game, but if there is one thing true in US national sports, they don't make rules for Detroit teams.

Edited Saturday at 11:25 PM by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, tiger2022 said:

Its all about getting the games over quicker.  Maybe play an extra inning and call it a tie?

You could have a new pitcher stat, ties if you were the guy in the 10th inning.

I would be fine with ties.  They could have two extra innings and then call it a tie.  If you can't decide the game playing real baseball, then just call it a tie.  

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

It's fake because putting base runners on base for free is not baseball.  I know it counts the same in the standings which sucks, but when I am sitting there watching a game and I see a base runner on base, it is no longer a baseball game for me.  

I don't like the stupid ghost runner either but it's the same rules for every team. If MLB is so worried about extra innings using too many pitchers or results taking too long, just end games in a tie. But as it is, the results are important to a teams season success. To ignore a game after watching 9 complete innings doesn't make much sense. Put it this way, if Detroit needed to win game 162 to make the playoffs and it went to extra innings, would you turn the game off and ignore the results? 😅

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

Since I was wondering whether our offense is maddeningly inconsistent, which I think every fan believes about their own team, I plugged the game by game hitting stats of every team through yesterday into an AI assistant and asked it to rank the 30 teams by most consistent to least consistent offens

I suppose to a degree fans use 'inconsistent' as sloppy semantics when they really just mean they don't score enough.  They are 23rd of 30 teams in runs/game.  Granted a lot of teams cluster pretty close, but their total run scoring is on the wrong side average especially  playing in a ball park that is generally positive for run scoring.

We knew going in the team needed to pitch and defend better than average, but overall, they are only 0.07 runs allowed better than average while being 0.27 runs scored worse. The latter stands out a lot more because of the former.

Edited Sunday at 12:45 AM by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

7 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I don't like the stupid ghost runner either but it's the same rules for every team. If MLB is so worried about extra innings using too many pitchers or results taking too long, just end games in a tie. 

Exactly!

 

Quote

But as it is, the results are important to a teams season success. To ignore a game after watching 9 complete innings doesn't make much sense. Put it this way, if Detroit needed to win game 162 to make the playoffs and it went to extra innings, would you turn the game off and ignore the results? 😅

I would watch it, but it would be a lot less satisfying than getting into the playoffs without that BS.  

[Sports_Freak]

1 minute ago, Tiger337 said:

Exactly!

 

I would watch it, but it would be a lot less satisfying than getting into the playoffs without that BS.  

I'm not capable of watching a game for 2 1/2 hours and then just walking away if it goes to extra innings. I just have a problem with the use of the word "fake." The results are very real and totally effect the standings.

[gehringer_2]

19 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I don't like the stupid ghost runner either but it's the same rules for every team. If MLB is so worried about extra innings using too many pitchers or results taking too long, just end games in a tie. But as it is, the results are important to a teams season success. To ignore a game after watching 9 complete innings doesn't make much sense. Put it this way, if Detroit needed to win game 162 to make the playoffs and it went to extra innings, would you turn the game off and ignore the results? 😅

I don't have any sympathy. Teams know the rules. If they don't want to invest in the skills to be better at getting a runner around from second base in 3 outs they are going to lose some close games to teams that do. Seems fair to me. 

On aesthetic grounds I don't like the rule either, but unless the game somehow changes to reduce the demands on pitchers, I don't see it going back.

Compared to other sports, it's a better tie breaking system than football OT, way better than a hockey 'shoot-out' (but not the 3 on 3) and not as good as basketball where you can just add 5 min to the clock.

Edited Sunday at 12:59 AM by gehringer_2

[casimir]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

It's fake because putting base runners on base for free is not baseball.  I know it counts the same in the standings which sucks, but when I am sitting there watching a game and I see a base runner on base, it is no longer a baseball game for me.  

We did this in our softball league this week.  We won the game, so it’s real.

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

I don't have any sympathy. Teams know the rules. If they don't want to invest in the skills to be better at getting a runner around from second base in 3 outs they are going to lose some close games to teams that do. Seems fair to me. 

On aesthetic grounds I don't like the rule either, but unless the game somehow changes to reduce the demands on pitchers, I don't see it going back.

I don't think the rule is unfair or bad for the Tigers.  I don't like the rule for baseball.  As far as I am concerned, what's good for the game always comes before what's good for the Tigers.