Crazy how hitters are these days…. Drives me crazy
Bunts, slaps, grounding out on purpose to move runners…. those moves barely exist anymore
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The best team at doing those types of things is the Brewers. I do not think its a coincidence that they have such a great record.
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Oh look, another 1 run loss scoring under 5 runs.
F U A J
Clap-clap…Clap-clap-clap
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I’ve seen some impressive stats from McGonigle but that might be the most impressive of them all. You very rarely see a young hitter going to all fields like that. He is something special.
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Reminder for all that River Ryan is starting for Toledo today at 1:08pm and available on MiLB.tv and on Ballys sports
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Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Ryan’s start will be like a limited spring training appearance, meaning Ryan is expected to pitch three innings at most.
“We’re excited to get him active in the organization and build him up accordingly,” Hinch said.
Tigers minor league pitcher River Ryan will start for Triple-A Toledo against the Iowa Cubs on Wednesday, Sept. 9, against the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines, Iowa. The game is scheduled to start at 1:08 p.m. ET and can be watched on MiLB.tv and Bally Sports Live in Toledo.
Ryan, who was acquired along with two other prospects in the deadline deal that sent lefty ace Tarik Skubal to the Los Angeles Dodgers, was supposed to make his organizational debut on Tuesday, Sept. 8. That game was postponed due to rain, however, pushing Ryan’s start to Wednesday.
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Archive site hasn’t worked for me for last 4 or 5 days finally up.
Couple of articles one from earlier, clark and rookies, one from today on KM.
# How Tigers finishing 2026 tells us a lot about expectations for 2027
full article at link.
Detroit Tigers rolled out a starting lineup against the Cleveland Guardians that screamed: The kids have taken over, and the future is here.
Check out this starting infield: rookie Kevin McGonigle at third base, rookie John Peck at shortstop, rookie Hao-Yu Lee at second and aging veteran Colt Keith at first. OK, so that’s a joke – Keith is actually 25.
Then, check out the outfield: rookie Brett Callahan in left field, rookie Max Clark in center and rookie Ben Malgeri in right.
That’s six rookies in the starting lineup. With 24-year-old Jackson Jobe – making his 33rd career MLB start – on the mound.
Welcome to 2027.
The Tigers would never admit their season is over or that they’ve moved into development mode. They would never officially wave a white flag. But, as the saying goes, there will be signs.
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manager A.J. Hinch didn’t even bother to bring any of the vets off the bench in a tight game. Then the Tigers went out and lost another heartbreaker, as the Guardians earned a 3-2 win in the 10th inning at Progressive Field.
Yes, the Tigers lost three walk-offs in three days.
So, what are the youngsters learning from this experience?
Other than the obvious: losing a walk off absolutely sucks?
“Every out matters,” Clark said in the Tigers clubhouse. “Every at-bat, every pitch, every single game. In this day and age, you’re never out of a game. Too many guys can leave the yard. Too many guys can execute pitches. You gotta find a way to win each and every pitch. You can’t take anything for granted. I’m not saying we do, but that’s really what you have to do.”
Experiencing the miniscule margin that separates winning from losing – that’s how a rookie starts to grow up and learn what it takes to win MLB games.
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… also explains the strangest stat about this season: The Tigers’ confusing run differential. The Tigers head into their final 19 games with a 65-78 record. But stunningly, they have a plus-50 run differential.
I mean, what the heck? Normally, when you have that kind of positive differential, you should be enjoying a far better season with a significantly better won-loss record – a 77-66 record, per the generally accepted math.
But not this year for the Tigers. And it’s pretty easy to explain.
They’ve lost a bunch of close games, going 19-46 in games decided by two runs or fewer – the worst record in baseball - but they’ve also benefited from some massive blowouts. The Tigers have won five games this season by at least 10 runs, tied for the most such wins in the American League. And the Tigers are one of 11 teams in all of baseball to only lose two (or fewer) games by double digits.
So, they have lost the close ones over and over. But they have won some big ones to make the overall total deceiving.
Think of it this way: In this four-game series against Cleveland, the Tigers lost three times but outscored the Guardians overall by three runs.
That’s 2026 in a nutshell.
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Coming into this game, Tigers batters 25 or younger have posted a .770 OPS this year, second-best in the American League and the fourth-best mark in the majors (behind only the Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves).
Clearly, that’s encouraging. They aren’t just young, they are producing.
It starts with McGonigle, who has been outstanding and made the All-Star Game as a shortstop. But he has moved to third with Peck on the field.
“I’m not sure where he’s going to play long-term,” Hinch said of McGonigle. “I know he’s on the field, and I know we want him to hit in an important part of our order [Sunday] and through the rest of this season and many years to come.”
Peck has impressed defensively at short.
“I think he’s kind of as advertised,” Hinch said. “I think the way he plays the position, we’re going to see him be very steady, very reliable, boring in a good way and just making the plays with ease. He can do a lot. He’s always in the right position. His baseball timing is good. His transfers are good. He’s going to make a mistake – it’s OK – but I want the ball hit to him. This early in his career, that’s as good a compliment as I can give him at this level.”
Clark is growing while showing flashes of exceptional play, and Malgeri’s defense might be better than some expected.
“I think his at-bats have all been under control,” Hinch said of Malgeri. “He’s been more than able to hold his own.”
So, as the Tigers finish out this season, it’s all about getting the youngsters get as many reps as possible.
Getting ready for the future.
Tigers game is in a rain delay
# Tigers star Kevin McGonigle is still learning – and that’s a good thing
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It may be hard to believe, but Detroit Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle is still developing. He is still a rookie, after all.
McGonigle was at the center of Detroit’s 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, Sept. 8, driving in both runs for the Tigers with a two-run home run in the fifth inning that briefly gave Detroit a 2-1 lead. It was his 16th home run of the season and second hit of the game, giving him 36 multi-hit games this season, second-most on the team behind left fielder Riley Greene (37).
But if you want a more complete understanding of McGonigle’s game, watch what he did in the first inning.
It started out in typical McGonigle fashion. Leading off the bottom of the inning, the lefty hitter worked a 10-pitch at-bat off Twins righty Dean Kramer, fouling off four pitches after two called strikes before pulling a single into right field. ,
But then first baseman Colt Keith roped a line drive to Twins first baseman Royce Lee, who leapt high to snag the ball for the out. Torres was already heading back to his base before the ball was caught, but McGonigle was not, and Lee caught McGonigle away from the bag for the rare 3-6 double play.
“I thought it was a bad read. He looked like he broke late, even,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch after the game. “The mistakes pile up when you’re trying to do a little bit too much. I don’t think it’s over-aggressive, he made an unfortunate read.”
In other words, it was a mistake that a big leaguer shouldn’t be making.
For his part, McGonigle owned up to the mistake, calling it a “learning moment.”
“I thought it was going to get over his head,” he said. “Looking back at it, it doesn’t even matter if it gets over his head, I still score even if I’m not being aggressive.”
A rookie mistake, for sure. But McGonigle isn’t an ordinary rookie, so it didn’t take long for him to make up for it.
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McGonigle has been in somewhat of a slump since the beginning of August, slashing .227/.320/.359 over 147 plate appearances from Aug. 1 through Sept. 6, right before the start of the Minnesota series. But now with home runs in consecutive games, the American League Rookie of the Year favorite might be pulling out of that rut thanks to a little tinkering.
“I made some adjustments yesterday in the cage, good to see them paying off a little bit,” he said. “Just trying to get on base, trying to help this team. [The] more times I’m on base, the more times we score, I feel like.”
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Per BetMGM, McGonigle is the overwhelming favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year award (-500), running away from other AL Central contenders like Cleveland’s Parker Messick and Chicago’s Munetaka Murakami. And with the third-highest Baseball Reference WAR total (5.9) among AL position players, he should show up fairly high in the final MVP vote, despite his late-season struggles.
So even though McGonigle is still working on his swing, still running into learning moments, still working through the grind of a long baseball season as an everyday player, still developing like any rookie would, he has done nothing but impress even in his down stretches.
It’s something that has made an impression on Hinch.
“It’s funny, I will get asked about him away from the microphone about him slowing down or he’s struggling a bit,” he said. "I’m like, ‘man, shouldn’t we all want to struggle like Kevin McGonigle?’
# Tigers have fewer stolen bases than any team since 2022. Can they unlock more speed?
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The Tigers ranked seventh in steals in 2021, pushing the envelope in Hinch’s first season as manager. But since the start of 2022, no team has stolen fewer bases than the Tigers.
“We still are not a team that takes full advantage of the base-stealing part of the base running,” Hinch said earlier this season. “Part of that is speed. Part of that is opportunities. Part of that is the way teams combat us a little bit. Sometimes we like the hole open with our left-handed hitters to have extra space for base hits, things like that.”
Detroit, of course, still ranks as one of the better base-running teams in the league. The Tigers rank 13th in team sprint speed, per Statcast. One metric has the Tigers worth 2.6 runs above average on the bases, which ranks eighth in MLB. They have forged an identity built on aggressive sends — even if that has been toned down since the team parted with third-base coach Joey Cora in July.
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Data suggests you need to be successful about 70 percent of the time to make it worth it.
“When you’re not scoring, should you try more?” Hinch said. “Well, you already don’t have many opportunities because you’re not scoring or you’re not hitting. Do I want to give one of the 27 outs, especially if the timing numbers don’t match up?”
In the case of a player like Clark, there comes another reminder: Speed does not always equate to steals.
“I think there’s a severe difference,” Clark said.
There is a supreme art to getting good reads and jumps, a skill set that allowed players such as José Ramirez (59th percentile sprint speed) to swipe 31 bases or — even more extreme — Josh Naylor, who ranks in the bottom 1st percentile for sprint speed, to steal 26 bags.
“Guys like (Chandler) Simpson, guys like Max, they can rely on their natural ability a little more than guys like me,” Keith said. “I really have to focus on the timing and the pitcher’s patterns and things they’re falling into to get myself in a good situation to run. I’ve definitely gotten better at that, and think that’s a huge part of what we’re trying to do here.”
So far, Clark has stolen only two bases in 34 games. His first came as the trail runner on a double steal. His first true stolen base came this past weekend against the Cleveland Guardians. But in Clark’s minor-league career, he stole 74 bases and was caught only nine times.
“I’ve had a high completion rate my entire career, which probably also means I need to be more aggressive,” Clark said. “But I’ve had to learn a lot when it comes to getting the right jump, understanding slide steps and understanding when to shut it down because of a slide step, and also just understanding the game, what the game calls for in that time.”
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Early in his big-league career, Clark ranks in the league’s 84th percentile for average sprint speed. He is capable of reaching the 30 feet per second mark that signifies elite status. Clark’s bat might determine how high his career ceiling rises. His legs are a big part of what can establish a high floor.
…Catcher Dillon Dingler ranks in the league’s 49th percentile for sprint speed. He has 1,115 career plate appearances without a steal, second to Tampa Bay Rays’ Jonathan Aranda for the most among active players.
Keith, meanwhile, is among the team’s sneaky-fast young players. He ranks in the 67th percentile for sprint speed but has only five steals this year despite the fact that he has not been caught.
“We’re definitely focusing more and more on the starting pitchers’ moves and tendencies than we have ever since I’ve been here,” Keith said. “So I think we’re improving. I have five bags this year. I feel like I could comfortably have 10 if we stole more, but then again, A.J., I think he values the ability for us to hit and not have that extra out on the bases.”
…Slowly, the Tigers are gaining more team speed with players such as Clark rising through the system. Rookie Kevin McGonigle leads the team with 12 steals this year. He has been caught stealing only three times.
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He’s on pace to be an all-time great Detroit Tiger. HOF material.
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