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Not sure if there's already a thread on this, I wasn't able to find it.
It seems like this team still needs a thumper or two. The roster doesn't look real promising to me. Hopefully Torkelson starts to hit, and Greene shows some power. I can't tolerate another season of Baez swinging at pitches two feet off the plate, low and outside.
Basically, I just hope the team is watchable this year, is that asking too much?
Honestly I think anything less than 100 losses would be a "good year." I think Scott Harris is the right guy to turn the organization around but it's going to take a bit of time to undo the mess Avila created.
It is with Shepard & Co. still blathering.Quote:
Originally Posted by softailrider
Tigers blanked by Rays in season opener
One down 161 to go!
22 in '22 - 23 in '23? [[times they were shutout)Quote:
Originally Posted by slick
Well they moved the fences in for them but this season looks grim.
Other than Miggy, a shadow of his former glory on a farewell tour, who is this team? I’ve never started a season with more unknown players salvaged from the scrapyards of baseball. And if any of them blossom they’ll be gone by the trade deadline. Unfortunately, unless there are some miracle breakouts, several of them, the goal will be like it was last season—avoid 100 losses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by softailrider
Watched today's game here in Las Vegas via cable. Time for EVERYONE to quit going to the ball park. Period.
Dejavu with the team and the comments.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray1936
Three games, three losses and only three runs total. A home run in the 9th saved them from a second shut out. Phew.
Ray, you know misery loves company. . . ...Tigers are 0-3 & opening day will sellout w/fans buying $12 cups of stale butt-lite.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray1936
This team doesn't look any different or better than last year's team.
Opening Day isn't about baseball, its about getting so drunk in the morning before the game that losing 15-2 doesn't matter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Smirnoff
While I look forward to scooping up some super cheap tickets in the middle of July and enjoying the sunshine, it's getting really tiresome not having much to cheer for in Detroit sports, outside of the Lions. Yikes.
Only two days matter on the Detroit sports calendar - ping pong ball day and draft day.Quote:
Originally Posted by EGrant
With the season only a week and a half old, it's a little too soon to get puked out by the Tigers play so far. However, last season they were out of it by the middle of May. Be nice if this year isn't like last year - really hoping they can get this thing turned around soon.
Oh sigh! Tigers know to how to lose games, than winning games.
Lost all 3 opening home games & sunk quickly to last place. . . ...welcome to a very-long 2023 season.
First time I've heard Hinch sound so frustrated and it's only 9 games. Basically said what everybody sees - can't throw strikes, can't stay in the zone with the bats and miss cookies when they get them. Toledo is much deeper this year but it's still a bunch of AAAA guys until they prove otherwise. Lot of rotation in and out of the line-up likely this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Smirnoff
So far this looks like the 2019 team that lost 114 games. They're just not very interesting to watch, and I say that as a season ticket holder since 1999.
Well, just quit going. When attendance gets down to the 100 mark, then things will change. Oh, forgot about the season ticket holders. Thanks to you yahoos, attendance will always be okay.
This season will be nothing more than "The Miguel Cabrera Farewell Tour"
The city and team sure are playing this up. I guess because they want to draw attention away from the actual team as much as possible but I don't think fans in other cities could care less. Most think he stopped playing 5 years ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cincinnati_Kid
You know the season ticket base is one of the lowest in the league right?The Tigers won't release it but most estimates are around 3,000.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray1936
I think that the sooner the Tigers get rid of the shadow of Miggy the better off the Tigers will be. This is a baseball team playing in a baseball season trying to compete - this isn't the side show of a circus. The guy is now a grossly overweight former power hitter reduced to hitting singles. They're not supposed to be paying him to hit base hits.Quote:
Originally Posted by 401don
Is he the greatest Tiger player of all time? Yes, I suppose he would be considered superior to Al Kaline or Ty Cobb. Did he ever take the team to the promised land? In my opinion, he did not. I think he left it on the table in the 2006 World Series, or maybe he left it in the bottle.
Miggy was playing for the Marlins in 2006.Quote:
Originally Posted by softailrider
Never would guess it's that low, but, look at their record & empty seats. At 3,000 - if my decision, Miggy would have been collecting at home at least the past 2-years to motivate & advance younger "hungry" players without the elephant in the room.Quote:
Originally Posted by 401don
I don't know what made me think Miggy was with the Tigers for both those World Series appearances. Thank you sirrealone for setting the record straight.Quote:
Originally Posted by softailrider
With the new regime addition [[Scott Harris) & another losing season, anyone believe AJ's timeclock is running out as the Mgr? Some basic fundamentals of solid baseball are still lacking. . . ...
This team is showing some promise, nobody is more surprised than I am. They have a tough portion of their schedule coming up. I hope they can play 500 ball for the next month or so, or close to it. Keep this thing interesting.
Nick Maton hit's a bomb on Monday night for a 3 run HR. after he gets into the dugout he starts clowning around with a hockey helmet on. The team is like 8 and 12 or something like that. I wonder how that would have gone over with Sparky Anderson or Jim Leyland. Probably never would have happened.
Sparky and Leyland also knew the importance of having the guys able to keep their chins up and to stay loose. Sometimes a little fun is exactly what a team needs, and I'm pretty sure they would have known when and where to draw the line.
Matt Patricia already showed us what it's like when a team isn't allowed to have any fun. No thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by softailrider
That's normal nowadays. All teams have HR celebrations.
Since this thread went dormant, I have detected a significant turn around with the Tigers. Several young players have turned corners in the past two months.
The Tigers had next-to-zero hitting last year and it started out looking like the same this year. Now they arguably have a "killers row" with Greene hitting over .300, Torkelson with 22 HR's, and Carpenter with 18 HR's. In the last road trip the team hit 18 HR's. It's been fun watching these "kids" suddenly getting it.
Same for Jake Rogers, a great defensive catcher, who is surprising everybody with 15 HR's. Akil Baddoo, who arrived with a bang then fizzled, seems to be joining the 'getting it' gang too.
Starting pitchers Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, and Reese Olson are looking like the real things as is reliever Tyler Hilton.
Lots of positives but sorry to see Downriver local boy Eric Haase released amid the youth movement but it's been fun to watch the farewell tour of Miggy who to everybody's delight has started hitting like of old, minus the HRs.
Ever since they opened that stupid stadium, every GM focused exclusively on drafting pitching, with hitting practically an afterthought. They wasted decades trying to build this rotation that would somehow prosper in the ridiculous expanses of Comerica Park, only to see prospect after prospect either get hurt or fail to develop. Harris has reversed course on this, understanding that hitting prospects have a better chance of succeeding, and I think it's starting to pay off. And let's face it, fans would rather us give up a couple of extra runs if we can see our guys knock the ball around the field.
Except that Tork, Greene, Carpenter, Meadows were all drafted by Avila.Quote:
Originally Posted by sirrealone
And they've move the fences in twice since they built the new ballpark. Fans would rather see a slugfest than a pair of two hitters any day.
If the season started now, I really think this team would be competitive. They’re kind of fun to watch. Amazing how some of these Al Avila boys seem like they’re gelling.
The question I have is why did they build that stadium the way they did? It’s a stadium built for small ball in a home run world.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowell
When it was designed in the late 1990's the Tigers were still in the AL East. It was thought they could better compete with the big market teams, Yankees, Red Sox, etc. by stressing pitching, defense and speed similar to the Royals rather than try to sign power hitting free agents. They never did draft and develop players with those skills however. It's very hard to draft high school players with those skills when you should take the best player available. Then in the early 2000's the game became much more power focused. Just be glad it was designed after Camden Yards. It's a much better park than the horrible Guaranteed Rate Field, which was the last park before the retro ones. White Sox are now talking about a new park already.Quote:
Originally Posted by softailrider