Tigers vs Athletics; June 24-26

The Den
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On deck: Athletics

:arrow_forward: Series: Three games at Comerica Park, Detroit

:arrow_forward: First pitch: Tuesday-Wednesday — 6:40 p.m.; Thursday — 1:10 p.m.

:arrow_forward: TV/radio: All games on FDSN/97.1

:arrow_forward: Probables: Tuesday — RHP Luis Severino (2-7, 4.42) vs. LHP Tarik Skubal (8-2, 2.06); Wednesday — LHP Jacob Lopez (1-4, 4.25) vs. RHP Jack Flaherty (5-8, 4.83); Thursday — LHP Jeffrey Springs (6-5, 4.24) vs. TBD

:arrow_forward: Severino, Athletics: Still a workhorse at age 31, this will be his MLB-most 17th start and he’s coming off two good ones against the Royals and Astros (three runs in 12⅔ innings). He still throws an assortment of pitches (sweeper, cutter, changeup, slider) off 95-96 mph four-seamers and sweepers. But he’s more pitch to contact now, with career-low whiff (16.6%) and strikeout (15.9%) rates.

:arrow_forward: Skubal, Tigers: In the rain at Comerica last Thursday, he walked three batters in less than seven innings. He’d walked three in his previous 36 innings. Crazy. His 3.6 WAR leads all American League pitchers and his 0.854 WHIP is the best in baseball. He’s bringing an MLB-best eight-game win streak into this star

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Skubal Day!!!

Detroit Tigers GIF by MLB

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# Tarik Skubal’s take on future free agency: I’m focused on winning, Tigers should be, too
full article at link.

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Tarik Skubal looked up when the question was asked.

“I’m kind of surprised I haven’t been asked about that,” he said. “Surprised this is the first time.”

It’s been the elephant in the room, really since before the trade deadline last season. Skubal, the reigning unanimous American League Cy Young winner, can be a free agent after next season.

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despite the fact that it’s a general truth about any contract negotiations — it takes two to tango — got chopped up and debated on social media and sports talk radio, to the point where the actual statement was exaggerated and taken way out of context.

But that speaks to Skubal’s point. Stop talking about it. Period.

“I just don’t think it does any good to come out and say anything about what’s going on,” Skubal said. “If something changes, I might comment on it. But it doesn’t do any good so I’m going to keep it to myself, to my agent and to the front office.”

Harris has reiterated the same stance.

“We’re not going to talk about negotiations before we’ve reached the deal,” he said. “It’s not fair to the player, it’s not fair to the organization, and it’s not fair to the entire industry to float out offers or counters or any of that stuff."

Skubal has never gone through this process before, but he’s very savvy about how it works and how public perception can be manipulated. So he wanted to make doubly sure nothing he said was misconstrued.

“It doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here or that I’m against any extension,” he said. “It doesn’t mean any of that. I just don’t want to talk about it. I’m very happy playing here. I like our coaching staff, I like our team.
“But there is a business side of the game that is much different than the playing side.”

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The crazy part is the A’s who never spend money opened the vault for Severino. He makes over 20 mill per season

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Celebrate Detroit Tigers GIF by MLB

I’m already excited

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Seattle with an early 1-0 lead over the Twins

Edit: spoke too soon - 3-0 lead

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Cal Raleigh homer yet? He’s making Seattle games must watch games. 4 homers last 3 games. 31 dongs now on the season. Unreal what he is doing as a catcher.

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Someone just did for Seattle, 6-0 now.
Edit
Rodriguez with a 2r shot
Raley, not Raleigh, with a 3r shot

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a4a0a2b35f2aa79e3e3c8f8f0c1200e7

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Considering his career high is 34… And he might double it… Yea drug test that man. :wink:

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It’s sad that when someone breaks out like this, the first thing we think is roids.

Baseball did that to themselves though.

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Just a few extra vitamins never hurt! I say just let them all sauce… Pitchers already all throwing 98mph… Let the hitters hit the sauce.

Hulk Hogan Wrestling GIF

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We need a good sweep.
We need Jack to get a quality start.
We need a few dingers, whoops, dongs from Carp and Tork.

Man how about Wenceel lately? Its always someone different!

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https://www.mlb.com/news/tigers-improved-offense-in-2025

Good read for those interested.

Baseball is completely a game of stats.

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Also, it’s notable that this article makes literally no mention of Kerry Carpenter, who is supposed to be maybe the best pure hitter on the team.

(If he can get his crap together)

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Freep: Detroit Tigers’ Tyler Holton, top MLB reliever, is suddenly getting hit. What’s going on?
Full article at link

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Detroit Tigers left-handed reliever Tyler Holton posted a 2.15 ERA in the 2023-24 seasons, ranking first among 143 MLB pitchers with at least 170 innings during that stretch. Thanks to those results, he tied for 15th place on the 2024 American League MVP ballot.

The results haven’t been the same in 2025.

“It’s been hard this year,” Holton said Sunday, June 22, at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

The 29-year-old is responsible for too many mistakes with pitches over the middle of the strike zone. Even worse, opponents are crushing those mistakes for damage.

“It’s hard to live in this league in the middle,” manager A.J. Hinch, who prefers using Holton in a variety of bullpen roles, said Friday, June 20. "That’s the most frustrating for him and for us — just that he’s getting punished, it feels like, for every mistake he makes.

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Holton has watched his chase rate plummet from 33.2% in 2024 to 28.6% in 2025 — from the 91st percentile to the 55th percentile among MLB pitchers. Hitters aren’t swinging at as many of his pitches out of the strike zone.

“You could throw a dart on any reason as to why,” Holton said.

Holton feels healthy. His pitches have about the same velocity as last season, including a 91 mph sinker. He likes the movement of his six pitches. He may have lost some deception, but he is content with the mechanics of his delivery.

Everything seems fine, but his location isn’t sharp as it used to be.

“An inch here and an inch there,” Holton said.

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Hinch won’t forget his success in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, posting a 2.11 ERA over 85⅓ innings in 2023 and a 2.19 ERA over 94⅓ innings in 2024.

“He’s been tremendous for us over the course of his time here,” Hinch said of Holton, whom the Tigers claimed off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks in February 2023. “We fully expect him to get his command back. But it’s a good reminder that the execution is the No. 1 priority for any pitcher, specifically Tyler.”

Holton is trying to stay focused on two aspects of his game — preparation and execution.

He hopes better results come soon.

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This is the last paragraph from the Holton article and it’s a good reminder that most players not named Ohtani or Cabrera/Pujols (in their prime) are going to deal with slumps within a season.

“If you play this game long enough, you’re going to get humbled,” Holton said. “The good ones find their way through it and stay around for a long time.”

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That was a great read and some great videos to go along with the stats showing the how and impact.

I think they focused on the four guys who have improved the offense with the “need for a hitter” coming into the season. Carp had a solid year and is having another one, and yes, he needs to get out of this recent funk.

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Does anyone know when Reese Olson is supposed to make his rehab start for Toledo?

If that’s this week, we might try to go to that instead of going back to Detroit on Saturday. That’ll be a lot easier.

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His last start was Thursday so he should be pitching today or tomorrow.