Comerica Park was electric yesterday!!! Amazing day, in the 60s, sun was out, no clouds, great setting for some playoff baseball! Got to take my 6 year old son, that's a memory he'll have for a Lifetime.
Jomboy media on their podcasts keep hinting and now today openly said in one of their podcasts that our chaos style is bad for baseball. Fans of teams that spend 100s of millions of dollars mad a small spending team is doing what it takes to win with good coaching, pitching, and defense
People have been saying that for 6-7 years now ever since the Rays and Brewers started doing it. Almost every former starting pitcher in media has been whining about it since. Smoltz says it every game he broadcasts. And I think they're right from an entertainment standpoint. I think it's more fun to watch Skubal shove for 7 innings than to watch 5 relievers no one has heard of do it for us, or watch the Dodgers win 8-0 with 8 relievers throwing last night. But it's also more fun to watch 5+ relievers be good for 9 innings than be forced to watch Keider Montero get shelled and a game turn into a blowout because you're trying to pretend a #5 starter is as good as an ace in a game. It's not like this was a plan we came into the season with. Sometimes this is just what you're forced into and when it works, good on you.
Thinking some of it is sour grapes, because the ones who openly said it were Chris Rose and Trevor Plouffe. Rose is a Guardians fans. Plouffe hates hinch and played for the Twins, and is an asshole. Their recap of Tigers-Guardians game 3 was literally "this is bad for baseball, oh and by the way remember what Hinch's teams were accused of in Houston". Annoying listen today
Chris Rose said AJ Hinch managed circles around Steven Vogt yesterday and gave the Tigers a bunch of credit. Plouffe also gave Hinch credit. They gave the Tigers in general a ton of credit for not only setting a plan but executing it well. I feel like you are being a little too sensitive if you are getting offended by the pod today. I consume almost all their stuff, Plouffe has been rooting for the Tigers hard for the past month or so, I know he is a Twins fan but he hasn’t been hating at all. They said it’s not good for the sport as far as bringing in casual fans. Just from an entertainment standpoint. Nothing was anti-Tigers. It was only anti-Hinch behavior with the Astros. Plouffe also mentioned that Hinch and everyone says it wouldn’t work over 162 games, but questioned why wouldn’t it? Are we sure it wouldn’t work?
Whose leading the Chaos today? Any word yet? I'm actually thinking it could be Holton. Considering Olson is probably going to be the innings eater today (only guy going 2+), we probably going to throw a LHP to mess with their lineups again and force early subs
Run it back with Montero low key I’m hoping for some Jobe action today tho. Get the kid some confidence for the ALCS
It would be nice to get the bats going. You think if we end up in alcs v Yankees we are going to have to score some more.
Vinny will be heading down to the game tonight, so you won’t have to deal with my shit posting. lets fucking clinch this shit.
Pretty wild that we've played 5 playoff games and bullpenned three of them, but Foley (0.1) and Hanifee (1.2) have combined for 2 innings in one appearance apiece in the last 2 weeks. Have to believe both of them work tonight. Hanifee kind of seems like the most likely opener if they go that route unless they want to keep trying the L/R thing with Holton in that role. I have no clue what they're thinking is with Jobe and whether they actually want to use him or not.
Wonder how long they plan to use Reese for. Obviously running it back with another righty to begin with, curious to see if Vogt does anything differently with how yesterday played out (pinch hitting for Brennan before he ever batted, pinch hitting Manzardo after 1 AB).
That was a perfect sequence to describe my current Tigers mindset. I can't stand first pitch outs, but Sweeney got a run in and Rogers hit the ball hard in the air so I'm not sure what else I should want from those two people because they're not good at hitting.
Zach McKinstry's numbers in September (50 PA): .140/.240/.209, 0 HR Zach McKinstry's playoff numbers (7 PA): .500/.571/1.333, 1 HR