All good things must come to an end, especially unexpected winning streaks.
Another good day for Upton though. And Mahtook. The outfield has actually been looking like a strong point of the team.
Today’s Lineup:
- Ian Kinsler, 2B
- Jim Adduci, RF
- Justin Upton, LF
- Nick Castellanos, 3B
- Mikie Mahtook, CF
- Victor Martinez, DH
- Jim Hicks, C
- Andrew Romine, 1B
- Dixon Machado, SS
A bit of a surprise, Miggy gets the day off.
Here is a great example of How Kinsler has hurt 5he Tigers O, besides his crappy stats. He’s on third, Casty on first. Ball pitched in the dirt as Casty is stealing? Second. Catcher throws to second but no one covers 2nd. Ball bounces 6 feet behind second base….. then camera shows Kinsler who instead of scoring is standing on the bag still at third… Sleeping
+1 I agree, You would think he had a shot. But maybe the coach kept him there.
Meanwhile Sanchez three batters into the game 3-0….see u tomorrow boys… I . can’t type fast enough… 4-0……
Hey, the Dodgers allowed 3 back-to-back-to-back HR’s to the Mets and still won the game. But we’re not the Dodgers so it may not go the same way.
I can’t see how the Tigers are not the Dodgers. If this is true, it changes everything for me.
Difference being this is 4-0, headed for 10-0..haha..Jimenez blanks the Pussycats just like Wiley did.. Don’t throw any strikes…
Good call.
I just wonder if 10 is a bit conservative.
Curly fries? Arby’s should be giving at least sliders tomorrow in Baltimore. I felt like the pen would shut that inning down quickly. The O’s hitters must be tired from all that contact.
VMart so far 3 for 25 on the road trip. He will say to the reporters after the game, “we have to play better”.. Thanks Victor!
Yup, but still has another year left. Victor is a player they should consider paying off his contract at the end of the year. He is one dimensional and he’s not hitting well enough to carry. That would also give Miggy a chance to DH plus add another player to the roster. If we do that the question is will we have a .250 BA DH?
+1
Imagine Castellanos as the .250 DH. I take that in a heartbeat over Victor and his walker (can’t they get him a Segway?).
I can see it now, though. The Tigers are “honor-bound” to ride out the contract, and he has a decent year in 2018 until getting injured, at which point he stays on the DL for the remainder of the season and then mercifully retires. He could make it easier on everyone by getting injured before the season.
Two other players the Tigers can buy out for $5 Mil each at the end of the year are Sanchez and Kinsler. Ian is only $10 mil if we keep him and I would consider him as a mentor for Machado at 2nd base and a decent bench player.
The Sanchez buyout is a done deal, but Kinsler stays. He’s a bargain even if 2018 is a repeat of 2017. $5MM to make him go away is way steep.
Here’s Brad today:
After the 3rd dinger in about 6 pitches…
“Sanci(Brad’s pet name) has been really pitching well, quite frankly.”
After the 4th dinger…
“Sanci seems to be off a bit”, he’ll be OK. ”
After the 5th dinger
“Let’s warm someone up, Sanci is getting near his 100 pitches”!!!
I do wish he would stop calling him Sanchie. That style of nicknaming is by far the worst thing about Ausmus. I could see dismissal as a consequence, wouldn’t bother me at all. Some things cannot be condoned.
Of Brad’s faults, nicknames doesn’t even make my list. If he used it, it is because that is what they call Annibal. Fortunately, PC hasn’t made it as a job requirement.
It only matters if the players snicker behind his back. I doubt that though, I think they respect him.
Maybe they call him Ausmie. Behind his back.
Tony, I don’t know if “Sanchie” (Sanchy?) was already Anibal’s nickname. Could be. Doesn’t matter. It sounds really stupid to me, and I blame Brad. Don’t know what PC has to do with anything. I don’t think there’s anything politically incorrect about Sanchie. I’d be all right if Ausmus went all Copier Guy from SNL with the nicknames. That would be stupid in a good way, not a lazy way.
If I don’t get an amen, I’m going to start calling Coleman Coley. And you, Tony…. hmmm. Tony?
On this blog, you should stick to the handle we use. Besides if Coleman gets mad who’s going to do all the work!
Relax, I’m gonna do the work.
Good thing, I certainly could not handle it.
+1 On a team there are bound to be nicknames the players use for each other Why would I care?
I’m only kidding around, Tony. I don’t care, myself. All I care about is whether the Tigers win or lose, and there is no rational explanation for why I would care about that, either.
OK, Tony, I’ll stick to calling you Tony. But sometimes I might lapse into calling you Tony.
Coleman never gets mad. He’s very level-headed. The angriest I’ve seen him was when when he tore into me – viciously – for attacking Romine. Other than that, he’s very level-headed. I’d like to bring another level of facetiousness in here, but I’m starting to confuse myself. (And I know you were kidding about Coleman getting mad.)
I am mad. But I never get mad. The Dalai Lama told me this is the way to be. And I believed him! Not to drop names or anything.
If this helps.. I have no intention of being level headed.. And have never been accused of it… Just Don’t call me Judy or Judi… Actually I don’t care, I have been called worse names.
If this helps.. I have no intention of being level headed.. And have never been accused of it… Just Don’t call me Judy or Judi… Actually I don’t care, I have been called worse names.
I just enjoy typing with you guys!
Watch the Faces of WAR. Astronomers are predicting a harmonic convergence of Avila-Martinez-Wilson soon. It might coincide with the upcoming solar eclipse, which would be very auspicious, as ancient Chinese scribes were wont to say.
Absolutely possible in October in a D-Backs Cubs matchup.
That would be a real convergence – good call. Didn’t occur to me. I was only thinking of the Baseball Reference WAR leader photos. But… I think I was checking up on something the other day and… the Cubs and Diamondbacks *have* played, and I believe all three ex-Tigers were in the game, not necessarily at the same time…
Yup. August 2-3, two games in a row. No one caught each other or batted against, but JD batted while Avila was catching. And Avila failed to hit the ball out of the infield while JD stood in LF.
Wait! JWillie did intentionally walk JD. But Avila wasn’t catching.
Sorry about China, Coleman. I won’t ask.
I’m rethinking this. The way the Dodgers look, the chances of the D-Backs making it out of their division appear only slightly better than the Tigers wining the AL Central.
D-Backs are looking good for a wild card. If the season ended today, would they have to beat the Rockies and then play the Dodgers? I was thinking that the real danger is the Dodgers knocking the Cubs out, or the Cubs not winning the NL Central at all.
China needs young scribes. The ancients are all fading out, and they have no one lined up to take over. I tried to start a Scribe Scouts program there, but I was banned from doing that because…well, let’s not talk about that.
Speaking of Stats baseball has come up with two of the most worthless stats ever. Line drive rate and hard hit ball rate. What difference does an out make if it’s a “hard hit ball” and it’s an out. Both VMart and Casty rank right up there in the A. L. IN BOTH. That should tell you how worthless those two stats are. VMart is last in HR, last in RBI last in Slugging of AL DH’s, but 4th in “hard hit balls” maybe he will make the Hard Hit Ball All Star team!!!!!
Another completely worthless stat is anyone’s batting avg against any particular team. I mean who cares how well Cabrera has hit against Cleveland, except I guess Cleveland fans who have bad memories from it. But it’s against a bunch of pitchers that aren’t on the team now, so why would it be supposed to predict anything?
That is one stat that our announcers really use a lot. Prior to this year, what team did Miggy or Victor have bad stats against? It’s their way of keeping our hopes high. It is their job I suppose. I wonder how the dialog would change if Hawk Harrelson was on the broadcast team? Jack Morris was also pretty frank in the few Tiger broadcasts he did.
+1 Jud you nailed that one. In the final analysis an infield hit, a bloop single or a walk gives you the same result, a runner at first. Announcers used to kid that in the box score the bloop hit would look like a screaming line drive the next day.
I’ve never been thin skinned about nicknames but there is one thing that still strikes fear in me. If you start by calling me “Mister” it brings back horrible memories. When a Jesuit brother or priest addressed me as “Mister” I knew I was in big trouble.
My mom used to call my my middle name… Usually it was loud and usually it did not turn out good… Haha!
Gone for the weekend so late to the nickname party….
Seems I remember Leyland started the Sanchey thing..
Probably between bits of salad after the game doing
his post game….