05/20/2026 6:40p EDT Cleveland Guardians at Detroit Tigers

[chasfh]

“It’s pretty ****ty right now.”

It sure is, A.J.

[Motor City Sonics]

7 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

I’m done trying to analyze this team.  They’re just garbage.  Make a move.  Do something.  We are a 100 loss organization in the last 162 games.

Actually 74-88.    

But trending the wrong way. 

[chasfh]

18 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

If there has been a more inept team in the league in the last 10 years I'd be surprised.

I would argue the 2025 Rockies, 2024 White Sox, 2019 Tigers, and probably at least several dozen other teams are more inept than this team is. This is a bad stretch, not a death knell.

[kdog]

They have a couple more weeks before you have to look at guys who will be here after the lockout. Even with the expectations, sometimes it doesn't work out. You need to be prepared to pivot.

[gehringer_2]

10 minutes ago, Dan Gilmore said:

McKinstry getting picked off with two on, no outs. That was a fail of huge import.

also true. The running game all around has turned to dross. This season so far we are losing too much on the bases.

[chasfh]

14 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Uhhh...I would say we lost that game because our BP couldn't hold a late lead. Riley did take strike 3 but it should never have gotten to the bottom of the 9th. And in extras, Hinch already used his top 3 relievers in a failed bid to hold a lead so he had to bring in an ineffective Holton. Ballgame 

I wrote this during the bottom of the ninth.

[Sports_Freak]

2 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

The Dark Cloud is that this will leave a bitter taste for all of us - and we wont have a season in 2027 to rinse it out

 

The Silver Lining is - now they don't have to fret about keeping or trading Skubal.   The question now is - Can Harris get a better haul than Avila did for J.D. and J.V. ? 

Are you being serious? Think about trades Harris has made. He doesn't make significant trades, never has. Mize and Skubal are both gonna be free agents, maybe Chris will sign them, that money isn't on Harris, it's above his pay grade.

[gehringer_2]

4 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I would argue the 2025 Rockies, 2024 White Sox, 2019 Tigers, and probably at least several dozen other teams are more inept than this team is. This is a bad stretch, not a death knell.

I guess I would qualify what I mean, there are bad teams that just don't have talent and there have been worse teams in the league than this one (at least we hope that will be proven true by the end of the season) but there are teams that have enough talent to do better that can't get out of their own way. When I say this team is inept, the latter is what I mean - can't execute.

Edited 1 hour ago by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

13 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

but what do you do when they guys that are supposed to be your offensive leader have stupid AB. Swing the damn bat and defend the plate when you are down 2 strikes and there is a man on 2nd. That kind of thing isn't a so much even a matter of talent - it's lack of game IQ.

I think Riley was sitting on a yakker from a wild pitcher on a 1-2 count, which is reasonable, but yeah, you could also argue he should have been still ready enough for the heat enough to at least foul it off.

[Sports_Freak]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

I guess I would qualify what I mean, there are bad teams that just don't have talent and there have been worse teams in the league than this one (at least we hope that will be proven true by the end of the season) but there are teams that have enough talent to do better that can't get out of their own way. When say this team is inept, the latter is what I mean.

But it's not really fair to say that about this Tiger team. Take the same amount of players that we have injured off of any team in baseball and they would struggle, maybe even worse. We have an entire pitching staff injured. Starting CF, a possible starting SS, starting 2nd baseman and AAA players filling in. No team has the depth to cover all of those injuries 

[Tiger337]

Why are people talking about a lockout next year like it's a foregone conclusion?  Every time the labor contract ends, there is lots of negativity and acrimony, but there hasn't been a season destroying work stoppage in 32 years.  

[Sports_Freak]

4 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I think Riley was sitting on a yakker from a wild pitcher on a 1-2 count, which is reasonable, but yeah, you could also argue he should have been still ready enough for the heat enough to at least foul it off.

With 2 strikes, agreed, you need to protect the plate. Not looking for a fastball and getting it makes you look very foolish. Getting fooled on a breaking ball is understandable but a fastball? Ugh...poor piece of hitting. But again, there's plenty of blame to go around. As a great man once said...it is what it is. 🥺

[buddha]

A lockout would be better than having to watch this.

the tigers with skubal are a little bit above .500.  the tigers without skubal have a bottom 5 record in the league.  how long do we expect the tigers to have one of the top starters in baseball?  not long...

baseball is a long season and lots of things can turn around in that time, but it sure doesnt look good for the current management crew.

[Sports_Freak]

5 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Why are people talking about a lockout next year like it's a foregone conclusion?  Every time the labor contract ends, there is lots of negativity and acrimony, but there hasn't been a season destroying work stoppage in 32 years.  

Salary cap talk. Players dont want it and billionaire owners wanna protect their billions. Otherwise, they may run outta money. Lol

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, Sports_Freak said:

Salary cap talk. Players dont want it and billionaire owners wanna protect their billions. Otherwise, they may run outta money. Lol

There is always some big issue at stake, they make compomises and both sides always come out just fine!  I am not convinced this time is any different.  Multi-millionaires fighting with billionaires.  Yawn.

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Why are people talking about a lockout next year like it's a foregone conclusion?  Every time the labor contract ends, there is lots of negativity and acrimony, but there hasn't been a season destroying work stoppage in 32 years.  

I think the narrative is that there is at least a subset of owners who are demanding cost control. Think of all those teams that had Fox/Bally/FanDuel collapse out from under them, do you believe they were able to shift over MLB production without taking a cut in revenue? Or a least a cut from what they could previously project future revenue to be? That has probably never happened before.

I tend to think this round is about issues between/among the owners. The question being how the dynamic plays out between small market, middle market and the rich clubs. I'm sure the clubs with big money aren't looking for a stoppage, and if they hold sway there won't be. They have the option of agreeing to more revenue sharing which would probably satisfy the rest of the clubs. But if not, and a big enough subset of small and middle market teams stand their ground together, it's a different calculus. The union won't give anything back so I see it as coming down to how much more the teams with money agree to share.

[kdog]

 

[gehringer_2]

33 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

But it's not really fair to say that about this Tiger team. Take the same amount of players that we have injured off of any team in baseball and they would struggle, maybe even worse. We have an entire pitching staff injured. Starting CF, a possible starting SS, starting 2nd baseman and AAA players filling in. No team has the depth to cover all of those injuries 

no doubt the injuries are the over all killer for total wins and losses, but recently there have been issues of basic execution by Riley, Tork, McK, Perez and on the pitching side Valdez and Flaherty. Those are your regulars - or close to regulars in Perez' case. It's like a contagion.

[Motor City Sonics]

20 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

There is always some big issue at stake, they make compomises and both sides always come out just fine!  I am not convinced this time is any different.  Multi-millionaires fighting with billionaires.  Yawn.

It's different this time.   Baseball is not on very stable ground when it comes to media rights.   Baseball has turned into an Old Guy sport.   Younger people just aren't all that into it anymore.   The complete disconnect with Black kids is a major problem, as you see fewer Black players.  The fact that little league has lost it's innocence and just turned into a cash cow now doesn't help.     I think the people in charge of baseball still think it's America's Past Time.    Now, it's just passed it's time and it's on the downslope now.      This thing hitting the concert industry right now (Blue Dot Fever), is gonna hit baseball too.   Family of four - MLB game.  $400 night, probably.    You don't win fans over with that.    Plus you take the fact that realistically 25 out of the 30 teams have no legitimate shot at a title and the game is in trouble.     

I got news for  ya,  once the new car smell wears off in Las Vegas, that's going to be a complete disaster. 

But some of these baseball guys still think it's bigger than football.     Some of them are dillusional.    That won't help.   The players union chief getting in a stupid scandal just ahead of this probably won't help.    

This is going to be a mess.   Like the NHL season we lost.     Took of year of everyone being idle to realize they need to compromise.   Same thing'll happen here. 

[buddha]

30 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I think the narrative is that there is at least a subset of owners who are demanding cost control. Think of all those teams that had Fox/Bally/FanDuel collapse out from under them, do you believe they were able to shift over MLB production without taking a cut in revenue? Or a least a cut from what they could previously project future revenue to be? That has probably never happened before.

I tend to think this round is about issues between/among the owners. The question being how the dynamic plays out between small market, middle market and the rich clubs. I'm sure the clubs with big money aren't looking for a stoppage, and if they hold sway there won't be. They have the option of agreeing to more revenue sharing which would probably satisfy the rest of the clubs. But if not, and a big enough subset of small and middle market teams stand their ground together, it's a different calculus. The union won't give anything back so I see it as coming down to how much more the teams with money agree to share.

they could easily cut costs by not signing stupid free agent contracts.

[Tiger337]

3 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

It's different this time.   Baseball is not on very stable ground when it comes to media rights.   Baseball has turned into an Old Guy sport.   Younger people just aren't all that into it anymore.   The complete disconnect with Black kids is a major problem, as you see fewer Black players.  The fact that little league has lost it's innocence and just turned into a cash cow now doesn't help.     I think the people in charge of baseball still think it's America's Past Time.    Now, it's just passed it's time and it's on the downslope now.      This thing hitting the concert industry right now (Blue Dot Fever), is gonna hit baseball too.   Family of four - MLB game.  $400 night, probably.    You don't win fans over with that.    Plus you take the fact that realistically 25 out of the 30 teams have no legitimate shot at a title and the game is in trouble.     

I got news for  ya,  once the new car smell wears off in Las Vegas, that's going to be a complete disaster. 

But some of these baseball guys still think it's bigger than football.     Some of them are dillusional.    That won't help.   The players union chief getting in a stupid scandal just ahead of this probably won't help.    

This is going to be a mess.   Like the NHL season we lost.     Took of year of everyone being idle to realize they need to compromise.   Same thing'll happen here. 

Baseball is all about gambling now and it's going to get worse.  Maybe that's even worse than a lockout? That is where they make their money and they'll figure out how to get more of it into the sport and split up the money.  I think there won't be a long work stoppage

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, buddha said:

they could easily cut costs by not signing stupid free agent contracts.

but that's why baseball is so screwed up. The Dodgers or Mets don't care if they spend the money - it's not stupid for them, they can make it back, but Pittsburgh has to try to play on the same playing field. Is there any other sport with that kind of imbalance in the options available between the franchises?

[Tiger337]

10 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

but that's why baseball is so screwed up. The Dodgers or Mets don't care if they spend the money - it's not stupid for them, they can make it back, but Pittsburgh has to try to play on the same playing field. Is there any other sport with that kind of imbalance in the options available between the franchises?

And the Pirates have won more games than the Mets this year.  😀

And Tampa Bay has won more than the Dodgers!

Edited 11 minutes ago by Tiger337