QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, KUDOS AND CONCERNS

/ totallytigersblog

By:  Kurt Snyder & Holly Horning

Today, our writers take another look at the events of the past week and see in what direction the needle has moved.

We have just one choice as we look at the previous week through Sunday. Was the most memorable thing we saw happen worthy of questioning, praise, observation or a warning?

Let’s find out…

KURT

COMMENT

Of all the major sports, baseball has to be the most unpredictable. If you set the stage, the Tigers took a beating in Chicago at the hands of the White Sox for their 9th straight loss and limped into Cleveland to face an Indians team which had defeated them the last 20 meetings.

The chances for the Tigers to lose their 10th straight and 21st straight to the Indians is pretty much a done deal, isn’t? Well, what if I told you they would fall behind Cleveland 5-0, would come back with 10 straight runs to win going away and win again in Game 3 to win the series?

That’s crazy stuff right there, I don’t care who you are.

HOLLY

COMMENT

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” for the Tigers these past 7 days as the good and the ugly vied for attention.

It is painful to watch Miguel Cabrera being over-matched by pitchers who now know he can’t keep up with certain pitches, driving his BA to a record-low .176 and a horrendous OPS of .588. Multiple analysts have confirmed that he’s not using his legs at all to drive the ball which more than likely indicates that either his herniated disks and/or bad knee are keeping him from hitting effectively.

On a much more positive note, the arrival of Mize, Skubal and Paredes continues to impress, especially when seeing how their fire, determination and talent make the case for quality careers. Skubal only became more savvy and determined in his second start while Paredes is showing promising plate discipline (unlike the rest of the team) and clutch hitting when it’s needed most.

Totally Tigers loves your comments!  But please be aware that there are specific rules for posting and that comments may be edited in order to meet our specific requirements.  Responses are only published if they address today’s topic, are respectful and do not exceed the maximum 3-4 sentence response length.  Please become familiar with all of the rules at:  https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/commentsrules/.



13 thoughts on “QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, KUDOS AND CONCERNS”

  1. It is the responsibility of the manager of a Major League Baseball team to put the lineup on the field for each game which gives his team its best chance for winning the game. Ron Gardenhire’s persistent placement of Miguel Cabrera in the third position in the Tigers’ batting order constitutes an abdication by Gardenhire of his professional responsibility. In pandering Cabrera, Gardenhire has negatively impacted the Tigers’ chances to win each game that Cabrera is in the lineup.

    Liked by 7 people

  2. Cabrera desperately needs to retire or get bought out – sadly I don’t think either one will happen. The power was the first thing to go and now he is just a black hole in the lineup. At least Magglio was still somewhat productive up until his last season (also age 37), where you knew it was over. What do you do with him the next three years? Platoon him with Christin Stewart at DH for a lethal LH/RH combo?

    Liked by 2 people

  3. The lower scoring the sport, the less predictable, which is why the better baseball team wins less often than the better basketball team. Imagine a simple game; we both roll two dice, and I have to roll a five to win and you have to roll a seven. If we are playing up to three, I have some chance of rolling three fives before you roll three sevens. But if we are playing up to 100, there is no way I am going to roll 100 fives (chances of rolling a five: one in nine) before you roll 100 sevens (chances of rolling a seven: one in six).

    Like

  4. Miggy, Miggy, Miggy… so much for less weight helpinghim return to form. Disk surgery = out for a year (or two) and likely career ending. The Illich thing to do is give him the victory lap next year and call it a HOF career, then move him to special advisor for the last of the contract. A respectful way moving on and appreciating all he was for the Tigers. It’s over folks.

    Liked by 5 people

  5. Where’s the Pride and Poise Mize was supposed to bring? A play doesn’t get made, there’s an error and Candy travels to Kalamazoo to make a play he should have stayed home on and Mize explodes! He can’t throw strikes and when he does a little leaguer could blast them. Maybe Jack should come down out of the booth and feed him a dose of “bull dog”!

    Liked by 1 person

    • I watched it and I disagreed with Shep. That ball should have been easily handled by the Candy Man. He was right to go for it. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as Shep made it out to be.

      Like

  6. Looking over my baseball almanac I never saw a player (non-pitcher) stay in the lineup (no matter how great his HOF numbers were) with numbers as bad as miggys. All other greats at this point retired. So H@K. How long does this go on?

    Liked by 1 person

    • The national and NY writers were begging Willie Mays to retire when he was 41 and 42. He fell down in the field trying to do what he used to do with ease. Willie had slightly better numbers than Miggy’s year thus far but they were poor by a Superstar’s status – .232 with 14 HRs/60 RBIs with the Mets. Funny thing was he was named to the All Star team both years which was back in the day when each league named a legend no matter how badly they placed to the AS squad.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Mays got those numbers in an era when hitting was depressed, and he did it in one of the worst hitter’s parks baseball has ever known–Shea Stadium. Big park, lots of foul territory, horrible visibility. While his home/road splits were pretty even in 1972, when he actually had a decent season (OPS of .802), his OPS in 1973 was 125 points higher on the road than at home.

        Like

Comments are closed.