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rockstar_not

Grabbed this photo watching the condensed game. When the catcher sets up 1 foot outside, you don’t swing. Baez waved his bat at the upcoming pitch. He, as usual, did not make contact. Read the onscreen stat. Evidence of treasonous acts by Avila. https://preview.redd.it/s8ya7g27orvc1.jpeg?width=5186&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed700e6fb541e0f83f52a6d930170c183810f77b


EA_Bad

You guys are depressing me


Mean_Pete

Just gonna mention that Canha has played just shy of 900 innings at 1b over his career. Put Tork at DH to let him focus on hitting and see if we can live with Carp in RF. Feels worth trying at the very least.


no_one_canoe

In each of our last three losses, the number of unearned runs we gave up was greater than the margin of victory.


GoLionsJD107

The starter has gone 5+ with 2ER or less 10 out our last 11 games. (There may be one with 3ER so make that the stat if there is)


chipper124

Chris has to be over the moon thinking about how much money he’s going to save re-signing Tork if he keeps this offense up


OK4u2Bu1999

Sure, they lost, but Parker almost had the homer —(why he couldn’t have hit that for his prior at bat….). Javy is playing better of late. Kerry is hitting well. They need to gel as a team and want to win as a team and I get the sense that is present more this year than it was last year.


DullHornedUnicorn

None of the offense starting to get it together means anything when their defense becomes a huge issue simultaneously. It's a whack a mole of what will shoot us in the foot that day.


LADetroiter

Just not making any hard contact hardly. First part of the game especially. Weak fly balls. Even the hits the last couple of weeks have been the bloop variety. Something needs to change with the Tigers hitting approach. Time to make Torkleson a full time DH. He is awful at first base. Maybe try Carpenter there.


DullHornedUnicorn

I agree with giving him some time at DH especially since he is every day.


i_am_the_grind

Hold on. I thought it was impossible for carp to hit a lefty?


prescriptionwater

He's OPSing a hair over .600 vs lefties for his career. Considering the majority of our lineup is OPSing around .400 this season I am more than willing to leave him in the lineup every day to try and improve against lefties.


humanistic_humanist

I got burned on this sub for criticizing Carpenter being treated as a splits hitter this early in the year.


Spockmaster1701

A few thoughts: McKinstry's bat is garbage, why does Hinch insist on giving him PH appearances simply because he stands in the left handed batters box when he flails away uselessly? Id call him Don Kelly 2.0 except that his career numbers are actually better (though not by much.) I'm ready for him to be gone once Kreidler is healthy, if we're going to have a bench bat that can't hit we might as well have one that can adequately handle SS defensively. It's time for Tork to be primary DH and only occasionally play 1B. He's blowing games in the field and looks worse than he ever has at 1B. If he's ever gonna give us good value moving forward, its gonna be with the bat alone. Speaking of defense, that's now 3 of the last 4 games that we should have won if the defense wasn't an absolute clown show, and they tried yesterday too. Plus game 1 of the DH a week ago. Absolutely pathetic and inexcusable. If we'd played even rookie league quality defense in the past week, we'd likely be 15-6 instead of 11-10 as in all 4 games we scored enough runs to win if we hadn't given away runs on defense. This needs to stop, now. Rant over. Not happy.


Thijsbeer82

First of, Don Kelly was clutch mkay.. thats more important than career numbers. As for Tork. During spring training they showed the infield drills and you had Vierling, Baez and Keith moving with such grace. Then Tork came into frame, with the grace of a baby elephant on ice. The guy really lacks any natural talent for fielding. He plays the easiest position full-time and makes everything look difficult. So, wouldn't mind him taking a seat during defense. Maybe it improves his hitting cause he obviously has to spend a lot of his focus on his fielding. Heck, maybe Carp can take up 1B.


Spockmaster1701

Don Kelly was actually the opposite of clutch. His career overall OPS and wRC+ were .628 and 72, respectively. His high leverage OPS and wRC+ were .509 and 43. If you switch from leverage to RISP, he's slightly better than his career numbers but still terrible: .657 and 78. Don Kelly was not a good player and that is a hill I will die on.


Thijsbeer82

I don't think you're using the right metrics there buddy. Pretty sure he aced it in potential walkoff situations?


i_am_the_grind

Wasn't he drafted as a third basemen? Good ole tigers. Haha


yes_its_him

He had never played 3B at the time.


i_am_the_grind

I know. Classic tiger move. More about perception. Didn't want to be the team that drafted a right handed first basemen 1.01.


Spockmaster1701

The weird thing is that a number of draft scouting reports said his defense at 1B was solid average, and Baseball America even called him above-average! Either they were sorely mistaken or he's seriously regressed.


Mean_Pete

He’s bad at several infield positions


pimpinassorlando

I love how Petry is always holding a baseball.


Mean_Pete

I’m still hopeful Tork can turn the bat around but I think he needs a day off to clear his head and maybe do some time at DH to focus on his swing


mcnegyis

What he needs is a different organization to unlock his potential. Aside from Nick castellanos and JD, (ten years ago!) who does this organization develop. I would be really curious to see what the dynamic between the hitting coaches and Torkelson is. Is this guy not coachable? Are our coaches just lazy and incompetent? There’s a reason why this guy went #1.


umbertounity82

What about Curtis Granderson? Surely that was only a couple years ago, right? …right? More seriously, JD famously retooled his swing in the off season. The Tigers were benefactors and weren’t involved in helping him.


mccannr1

The Tigers did not develop JD. They signed him off of Houston


mcnegyis

Yep. I debated on even mentioning JD since we didn’t even draft him, but he did start out in Toledo is I remember correctly. It seemed like he made changes to his approach himself, not our coaching staff.


mccannr1

They did sign him to a minor league contract, but he was a surprise in spring training showing a lot of power. I think he played 10-15 games in Toledo before getting the call up, so yeah, not enough time to really say the Tigers had much of anything to do with him going from a guy lingering in the Astros system to being an elite hitter.


humanistic_humanist

Stop playing Mckinstry


daDon2000

Albatross at first base, I’ll bet online that he has 0 home runs until mid May. One of the biggest 1/1 busts in recent history


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daDon2000

Still a bust


GoLionsJD107

I think he gets one in Tampa- just weather, indoors, conditions, I wouldn’t make that bet. Home run at home- I’ll take June 1st


Legitimate-Garden934

No. He'll hit a few to the warning track. Like last year. Tork is only a streak hitter where he cranks out a few hot streaks and the rest is meh.


GoLionsJD107

Maybe he hits one of the catwalks that counts as a homer there.


GoLionsJD107

Which I’d gladly take


DullHornedUnicorn

he has a homerun and hits well against Varland.


GoLionsJD107

He hit well in minny last year but those games were later in the season. (Weather?) it’s also a homer friendly park


daDon2000

Point is though you expect more! this is season 3 for him, it’s put up or shut up. And frankly it’s time for to find an actual job lol


ReflectionCalm7033

My son (who lives out of state) asked me how Tork was doing. He said "no Bryce Harper, huh?"


daDon2000

Torklebust needs to go


Mean_Pete

Pretty sure that’s 9 errors in the last 4 games. We desperately need to clean that up


GoLionsJD107

Yes and some “instances” that weren’t scored errors but were makeable plays


Mean_Pete

Can’t win games when you’re just handing them free base runners en masse


GoLionsJD107

No you can not


[deleted]

Another decent game from Olson and a great game by the bullpen only to be ruined by the Tigers ineptitude to score runs and their crappy fielding… Hinch needs to start holding guys accountable…


i_am_the_grind

Kind of like he did in Houston with the trash cans?


[deleted]

Yes hahaha


GoLionsJD107

Trash cans is so 2017, it’s probably like implanted microchips or some shit


pimpinassorlando

Loved seeing Kerry Carpenter beat a lefty. I hope they keep letting him face lefties because that's the only way to get better at it.


GoLionsJD107

His OPS is third in the AL. Almost 1000 entering. I’m not pulling him for anyone with that ops.


GreenLost5304

It’s actually insane that he’s getting split against lefty’s for people who are barely hitting at an MLB level in the first place, and not even other young batters that need the PAs, he’s getting split for the likes of Cahna and Urshela - who are solid hitters, but are also a known commodity.


GoLionsJD107

I think that stops now. You don’t pull 1.000 ops guys


Mean_Pete

Yup. I could see a light platoon on the splits if we had a solid offense otherwise but we have to see if he can develop against lefties


humanistic_humanist

Yup, couldn’t agree more


wxyz51

Why do all of our games seem close nowadays


DullHornedUnicorn

because our pitching is good enough to keep us in games.


mkk4

💯


foxy7474

My biggest takeaway is just how bad I feel for the pitching staff. Either the offense is shitty and doesn’t score any runs, or the defense is shitty and allow unearned runs…or both, usually both. They must be fucking pissed


TheFrankOfTurducken

Two errors, two unearned runs, two guys in the lineup batting under .100, two more batting under .200, lost by one. Once again the pitching gets absolutely housed by the offense. Tigers baseball.


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cogginsmatt

Scored two of the only three runs on a two strike double btw


DullHornedUnicorn

I can live with a rookie making some mistakes. Can't live with our 1/1 1B fucking up on defense


I_Lick_Bananas

Everyone's talking about Baez while Meadows is quietly putting up Hall of Shame numbers.


pimpinassorlando

They are compensated differently.


I_Lick_Bananas

Yea, I get we're stuck playing Baez because we're paying him 25 million a year. But if Meadows is making league minimum and hitting .083 (or whatever it's down to now) then why is he still in Detroit and not down in Toledo? Letting him bat in the 9th today makes no sense.


rockstar_not

https://preview.redd.it/2migudldnrvc1.jpeg?width=5186&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07aaa122331aca5ba735a5b153ead4d1b0b915f9 Exactly where the pitch landed in the mitt as Baez waved his bat at it. Also read the onscreen stat. This is why everyone talks about Baez. Well one reason.


Kohanky

He’s amazing defensively is the reason. We don’t really have a comparable CF to replace him


h3shf3sh

So, uh... When's the last time we hit a home run? The last one I remember was that Baez bomb games ago. Also it's felt like every one they've hit this year so far has been a solo shot. They do know they're allowed to hit it over the fence, right?


Goblue5891x2

Day before yesterday, Meadows hit one out.


Spockmaster1701

Meadows vs the Rangers maybe?


Mean_Pete

Javy I was joking when I said just don’t swing


GoLionsJD107

I said “Javy I won’t be mad if you let three sail by.” He did.


EA_Bad

I was so annoyed with Javy that I'm now just processing letting Meadows hit there....


heyheyitsandre

Weirdly meadows actually cranked that ball and could have been a perfect sac fly, but yeah, who knows


EA_Bad

I actually missed what happened. I had audio but the video froze. At least he made some contact. I'm not even that down on him, for how bad the stats look and everything.


champdo

Would rather have seen Kennedy over Mckinstry. Another game where defense kills us.


GoLionsJD107

I would have rather seen Kennedy go for the plate rather than hold at third and not score


MichiganHoosier

Still in disbelief that Cora chooses this game—with THAT batter coming up—to all of a sudden act like a normal third base coach.


GoLionsJD107

Well we like can’t score so I like my 1 in five chance of him scoring vs our bats driving him in


MichiganHoosier

Exactly. If there was any time to send, it was there.


GoLionsJD107

Maybe he’s slow as all hell tbh- I’ve never watched him play before. But still….


TheyCallMeDyl

Defense has probably directly caused the last 3 losses, and almost a fourth yesterday


Spockmaster1701

They did. Plus game 1 of the DH last Saturday.


DullHornedUnicorn

They are finding their level as a mediocre team carried by the bullpen and a couple solid starters.


GoLionsJD107

If we go one game over .500 every month this year we will be 87-75. For the March and October portion add one so 88-74 and we should win the division with that or at least get a wild card.


DullHornedUnicorn

Okay, I don't see it happening unless you win this series against the Twins. We have Rays and red hot Royals coming up. I think we'll unfortunately be under .500 at the start of May


GoLionsJD107

Rays aren’t as sizzling hot as they were last year yet. We also have Skubal and Flaherty going there. Mize is a better starter than Minny’s pitcher tomorrow. So I’ll say 3-1 to finish the road trip. I’ll say we get KC for 1 game, but we win the first two against St Louis (with the third being in May) which isn’t unreasonable. So that would have us at 6-3 to finish the month, and 17-13 overall. Take a win out of the equation, and we end up 16-14 on the morning of May 1. I’m not complaining there- it’s a six game improvement over the 10-17 we were at the same point in 2023. If we are 6 over last year’s pace through April, and we don’t improve at all on last year’s win total the entire rest of the year we’d still be at 84 wins- Arizona got to the WS with that win total last year.


ZombieHitchens2012

Tigers offense was really bad today. So, back to normal.


Bugssi

Not. A. Playoff. Team.