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

[SoCalTiger]

19 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Also not a good sign that Vest's FB was down 2mph or a bit more from yesterday. Vest is not the guy we need him to be if he isn't dialing up 98mph consistently.

Holten and Vest are not who they used to be and the bullpen is now a big problem. The offense provides low scoring and the bullpen can't keep the razor thin margin from evaporating. Home runs do increase margins but we aren't getting any "Earl Weavers" so we are resorting to small ball but none of our players have the skill set to bunt or hit and run and our base running, once a strength, is killing us wether it's rookie mistake like Lee or a veteran like McStinky. Add in the defense and wow. 

The positives are Anderson looks like he might be a decent starter, Mize was sharp in his return, Melton should return on Sunday and Skubal by the end of June is realistic. If we can get some defenders back and shed the team of Workman, Short, Lee and Perez  just maybe we can right this ship and salvage the season. But catching Cleveland looks very hard at this point being 8 down and the Guardians looking pretty solid. They won't help us by beating themselves. They are very well managed and coached. 

 

[tiger2022]

Cleveland has the advantage against Detroit in offense, starting pitching, bullpen , defense, and manager.  For like the 10th straight year.

Edited 7 hours ago by tiger2022

[buddha]

7 hours 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?

international soccer.  college basketball and football.

i'm ok with that discrepancy.  there are many ways to win in baseball.  as i have argued before, baseball's financial system benefits the owners tremendously already, there is no need to change it.  salary caps are stupid.

[romad1]

I miss the upward trajectory 

[NorthWoods]

9 hours 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.  

So it's overdue.   Both sides seem pretty dug in and prepared for a long battle.  We'll see if it's all just bluster soon enough.

[oblong]

I was painting some planters in the garage and listening to Dan and Dan. First time I've listened extensively to them this year.  Right before McKinstry got picked off Dickerson was saying how he's able to get a big lead right now..

[tiger2022]

I think McKinstry is one of the worst base runners I have ever seen.  He routinely gets thrown out at third to make the final out...probably the dumbest thing to do in the game of baseball.  Dude thinks he's in little league where players can't make accurate throws or pick people off first 

[chasfh]

9 hours 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.

Yeah, it seems as though the goose is way too golden to kill. I can see losing a big chunk of spring training and maybe—maybe—first half of April, which would be bad enough since they’d be ceding a lot of the landscape to basketball (and, in some areas, hockey). But to exit the stage entirely for month at a time and forfeit a maybe a couple billion dollars or so each month is business suicide. It took maybe a couple of decades to recover from 1994-95. I can’t see them having the appetite to go through that next year.

Forced to predict, I’d say they settle in late March, have a two week ST, open the season April 10 to 15, and play a 154-game season.

[chasfh]

9 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

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.

That’s why I think it’s fair to question A.J.’s effectiveness at managing the team during this stretch. I’m not talking about ready blame fire, because it might be that no one could effectively stop this kind of stretch dead in its tracks on a moment’s notice, but I would bet A.J. Is learning on the fly about managing this particular group of people. 

[casimir]

9 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

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.

I can handle losses with injuries as a culprit.  Losses with bad baseball basics is another thing.

[chasfh]

9 hours ago, buddha said:

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

Yeah, why can’t they just collude to stop it?? I mean, come on, it’s been 40 years, no one will remember, right? And in all seriousness now, this particular government would probably be sympathetic toward remaking precedent and law to restrain the free exercise of labor agency, especially for a federally-protected monopoly. 

[chasfh]

8 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Also not a good sign that Vest's FB was down 2mph or a bit more from yesterday. Vest is not the guy we need him to be if he isn't dialing up 98mph consistently.

Yeah, a couple ticks down, spin was way down, and his misses were all over the place, specially up. Wouldn’t be surprised to hear he’s hurt again and has to go back on the list.

[chasfh]

19 minutes ago, chasfh said:

That’s why I think it’s fair to question A.J.’s effectiveness at managing the team during this stretch. I’m not talking about ready blame fire, because it might be that no one could effectively stop this kind of stretch dead in its tracks on a moment’s notice, but I would bet A.J. Is learning on the fly about managing this particular group of people. 

Another thing I wonder about is how the introduction of grizzled veterans like Kenley and Framber and even Justin into the clubhouse mix may have affected the bonhomie the team has enjoyed the past couple years. Justin especially has been known to have clubhouse tangles here and there. There’s also looming free agency for key players and the dark cloud of doom that kind of thing might cast as a pall over a clubhouse. Players are people, and off-field drama can definitely affect focus, concentration, and ultimately performance of people’s jobs, and left insufficiently checked, can snowball into a crisis situation. I have seen that kind of thing in my own workplaces during my time running the hamster wheel. This is mere speculation, not a diagnosis.

[tiger2022]

Not everyone enjoys playing for a self righteous, know-it-all manager who gives all the credit for any success to himself and lays the blame at the feet of the players either. Maybe the players are growing sick of it. 

[chasfh]

Sometimes the pitch you think is right isn't actually right because the pitcher masks it effectively enough to make it look like one type of pitch when it's really another, and then it's too late.

Hitting is hard. Hitting at the major league level is major league hard.

[gehringer_2]

11 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Sometimes the pitch you think is right isn't actually right because the pitcher masks it effectively enough to make it look like one type of pitch when it's really another, and then it's too late.

Hitting is hard. Hitting at the major league level is major league hard.

absolutely. But guys develop tendencies and if you are going to be a good hitter you have be aware yourself and fight falling into habits where the problem is your brain as much as your ability to hit the ball. It's probably a good question whether when hitters cycle in and out of performance level how much is luck, how much is mental, how much is physical. With batted ball metrics we can sort of figure out the luck part now, the split between physical fatigue plus sub clinical injury vs just losing your mental edge is probably unknowable.

Edited 1 hour ago by gehringer_2

[Sports_Freak]

11 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

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.

Agreed. But hopefully, Perez will be benched and Flaherty will be replaced in the starting rotation. Melton is on his way back, maybe Sunday?

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, casimir said:

I can handle losses with injuries as a culprit.  Losses with bad baseball basics is another thing.

But if they were scoring multiple runs per game, the mistakes wouldn't be remembered. Limited scoring makes the mistakes more glaring.

[oblong]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Sometimes the pitch you think is right isn't actually right because the pitcher masks it effectively enough to make it look like one type of pitch when it's really another, and then it's too late.

Hitting is hard. Hitting at the major league level is major league hard.

I like to tell people "The other team wants to win too... and they're good players"

 

[chasfh]

16 minutes ago, oblong said:

I like to tell people "The other team wants to win too... and they're good players"

 

But that's not how it works in MLB The Show!

[oblong]

2 minutes ago, chasfh said:

But that's not how it works in MLB The Show!

too many people think athletics and performance is all about you and what you've done or not done. "I just didn't work hard enough man..."  

"You are weak!  You didn't prepare!"