"Major League players all over the field": 2022 Tigers

Major league Mendozas all over the field

Three position players (including Kody Clemens) pitched today.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/an-historically-bad-offense-is-just-one-of-the-tigers-problems/

Sure enough, right with the '68 White Sox--three of the top six teams are from '68.

Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Kody Clemens, Beau Brieske, Alex Faedo, Joey Wentz, Elvin Rodriguez, and Angel De Jesus are all good baseball names. Almost like they were spat out of a baseball name computer.

According to baseball-reference, Riley Greene is first MLB player to reach base safely 4 times in his debut since O's Cedric Mullins on 8/10/2018. First Tiger to do it since Scott Livingstone on 7/19/1991. https://t.co/KDpphwAD1T

— Jason Beck (@beckjason) June 18, 2022

RILEY FOR REAL 😱 pic.twitter.com/rY9B7o4Csb

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) June 26, 2022

single-handedly wrecking cleveland’s season

when you truly love rebuilding

Sources: Tigers willing to trade Tarik Skubal and “just about everyone.”https://t.co/8XmSF6u2GM

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 26, 2022

^ Published days before Skubal hit the IL.

A series that began with Michael Fulmer trying to hold a Tigers lead against the Twins, ended with Michael Fulmer holding a Twins win over the Tigers.https://t.co/Y12LrF0Mq5

— Jason Beck (@beckjason) August 4, 2022

His team down two runs in the fifth, Harold Castro, standing on second base with first base open and none out, observes a routine grounder hit to the shortstop, takes off for third, runs into a tag, not even close.

Avila out.

dombrowski.jpg

kinda feel bad for him because i don't think he did anything exactly *wrong* (except sign javy baez, which i of course championed at the time)

mize and torkelson were not controversial picks. alex faedo is a first-rounder. skubal is a gem from the ninth round. everyone thought they did well to sign e-rod. austin meadows is theoretically good (although you can't trust anyone the rays are jettisoning)

but absolutely none of it has worked : /

i think it makes sense to be critical of a pitcher-centric rebuild, and this season (esp with news of skubal "visiting a specialist" today) was on the fucking nose in showing why

o's fans have criticized elias for avoiding pitchers in the draft but it really does seem like a safer bet to hoard hitters and obtain pitchers once they've proven to be good and somewhat durable for someone else's team. greene and tork were two really good hitting prospects but that's all they had, and this season was basically dependent on both of them landing on their feet right away in addition to the pitchers staying healthy. the rest of the offense is either old or not very good. in retrospect i don't really get why everyone, myself included, thought they were going to be contenders this year. they were pretty good from may on last year but the pieces weren't there to really justify it (why i'm still not 100% confident the o's have taken "the next step" this year)

70 wins in (mathematical) reach and a newly installed prez. *face with sunglasses emoji*