Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

[Kepler]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

The race to 109 losses between Detroit and Miami is underway

Don't sell us short!

[Spartanforlife4]

Who eats kale at the old ball game?

The coney pizza is back and that's all I need.

[Hammer]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

You’re going to need copious amounts of alcohol to get through this season as well.

[MissThundercat]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

You’re going to need copious amounts of alcohol to get through this season as well.

I have Fireball.

[Hammer]

I have Fireball.

By June it will be “I had Fireball”.

[MissThundercat]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

By June it will be “I had Fireball”.

I live 10 minutes away from New Holland Brewing. I can get Dragon's Milk.

[Hammer]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

So....two exhibition games left and then we rock and roll for real on Thursday.

My stance hasn't changed. I think we're looking at 52-55 wins. The pitching depth, both in the rotation and the bullpen, simply isn't there to be competitive. I don't have faith in Zimmerman, Boyd, or Norris to give us 160+ innings of halfway decent quality pitching. If more than one of them gets us 10+ wins, that's a real plus. I think the jury is still out on Fulmer's elbow, and while I liked the gamble on Liriano, I think we might be relying too much on him holding down the back end of the rotation. If Fiers ends up healthy, we've got 6 starters to cobble together a rotation, and after that, things get scary in a hurry. I don't want to see the Buck Farmer and Drew VerHagen show starting games. Not one bit.

As for the position players, there's no MLB depth whatsoever. Niko Goodrum and Victor Reyes are on the Opening Day roster. I'm not really sure just who the hell they are either, folks. John Hicks can be a backup catcher, and Jacoby Jones rounds out our bench. That's all we got behind our starting lineup. Mahtook hasn't hit much this spring, and Leonys Martin hit a whopping .172 last year. He makes Don Kelly look like Don Mattingly at the plate. I suspect we'll see Mike Gerber before Memorial Day. And if he can't produce at Toledo before then, well, the outfield is going to be a disaster.

After we traded JD Martinez in mid-July, we played 70 games last season. Our record: a whopping 21-49. Exactly .300 baseball, good for a 48-49 win pace over a full season. For more than half of that time period, we had the services of Verlander and Upton. We have effectively replaced Verlander with Liriano/Fiers, Martinez with Candelario (Castellanos just moved positions, that's all), and Upton with Leonys Martin. In the offseason we sent Kinsler packing and slotted Machado at 2B in his place. I don't see one upgrade in that bunch.

My guess is that the result is very similar to the 1996 Tigers, who went 53-109. I have no expectations of contending this year, or even being competitive on most nights. The reason we watch this year is to watch the development of the young players (Candelario, Machado, Fulmer, Jones, and hopefully the likes of Gerber and Christin Stewart). Oh, and to enjoy watching Miggy pound the ball all over the house, assuming that he's healthy and teams pitch to him. Miggy's at 2,636 hits and 462 homers. If he stays healthy and produces, it's not out of the realm of possibility that we see him get both hit #3,000 and homer #500 at the end of the 2019 season.

[MissThundercat]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

So....two exhibition games left and then we rock and roll for real on Thursday.

My stance hasn't changed. I think we're looking at 52-55 wins. The pitching depth, both in the rotation and the bullpen, simply isn't there to be competitive. I don't have faith in Zimmerman, Boyd, or Norris to give us 160+ innings of halfway decent quality pitching. If more than one of them gets us 10+ wins, that's a real plus. I think the jury is still out on Fulmer's elbow, and while I liked the gamble on Liriano, I think we might be relying too much on him holding down the back end of the rotation. If Fiers ends up healthy, we've got 6 starters to cobble together a rotation, and after that, things get scary in a hurry. I don't want to see the Buck Farmer and Drew VerHagen show starting games. Not one bit.

As for the position players, there's no MLB depth whatsoever. Niko Goodrum and Victor Reyes are on the Opening Day roster. I'm not really sure just who the hell they are either, folks. John Hicks can be a backup catcher, and Jacoby Jones rounds out our bench. That's all we got behind our starting lineup. Mahtook hasn't hit much this spring, and Leonys Martin hit a whopping .172 last year. He makes Don Kelly look like Don Mattingly at the plate. I suspect we'll see Mike Gerber before Memorial Day. And if he can't produce at Toledo before then, well, the outfield is going to be a disaster.

After we traded JD Martinez in mid-July, we played 70 games last season. Our record: a whopping 21-49. Exactly .300 baseball, good for a 48-49 win pace over a full season. For more than half of that time period, we had the services of Verlander and Upton. We have effectively replaced Verlander with Liriano/Fiers, Martinez with Candelario (Castellanos just moved positions, that's all), and Upton with Leonys Martin. In the offseason we sent Kinsler packing and slotted Machado at 2B in his place. I don't see one upgrade in that bunch.

My guess is that the result is very similar to the 1996 Tigers, who went 53-109. I have no expectations of contending this year, or even being competitive on most nights. The reason we watch this year is to watch the development of the young players (Candelario, Machado, Fulmer, Jones, and hopefully the likes of Gerber and Christin Stewart). Oh, and to enjoy watching Miggy pound the ball all over the house, assuming that he's healthy and teams pitch to him. Miggy's at 2,636 hits and 462 homers. If he stays healthy and produces, it's not out of the realm of possibility that we see him get both hit #3,000 and homer #500 at the end of the 2019 season.

So I need Fireball and Dragon's Milk?

[bronconick]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

60-62 if Miggy returns to near Miggy status. 54 otherwise

[Hammer]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

60-62 if Miggy returns to near Miggy status. 54 otherwise

I don't think that's going to be enough. Even if Miggy can Miggy this season, that pitching staff is going to kill us. Fiers is already probably headed to the DL. That leaves us Fulmer, Zimmerman, Boyd, Norris and Liriano. And after that.....Burrowes is going to start in AA, Perez is out until at least mid-June, and there's NOTHING in Toledo. It's the Buck Farmer show if we need another starter. And every time Gardenhire calls down to the bullpen, he might as well be ordering Chinese food or Little Caesar's. Greene may or may not be a viable closer, but even getting him a lead in the 9th inning is going to be an adventure. If we had even a halfway decent staff you could make a case for 70 wins. But we don't.

This is going to hurt.

[bronconick]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

Well, all the previews I've seen have us closer to 65-70, in part because the Royals and White Sox are also tanking so we might blunder into a few more wins. Cleveland might challenge their franchise record if that's the case.

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

Opening Day moved to tomorrow.

[Hammer]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

Bases loaded, 0 out.....no runs. We’ve done this twice in three innings.

Here we go...

[Hammer]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

10-10 in the bottom of the 9th. I’m only listening at the office, but I feel like I’m hearing Stevie Wonder fight Stephen Hawking.

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: Detroit Tigers, Volume 10: The Tommy Bridges edition

10-10 in the bottom of the 9th. I’m only listening at the office, but I feel like I’m hearing Stevie Wonder fight Stephen Hawking.

It ain't pretty, but it's making the bottom three of our lineup look like Altuve. I like the mound visit rule, but it might've cost us 15 minutes by knocking out the umpire because the Pirates were too afraid to go talk about mixed up signs. Given the wild pitch before that though, I think the pitcher was just erratic.