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2022 Season Series #29 | Tigers @ Guardians | July 14-17, 2022 (End of first half)

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sportscoach said:
It's not pure speculation, it's logic... Benson is finally starting to get a swing and whatnot that's legit, but he hasn't been doing it long... put him to MLB, is he going to keep the swing that isn't muscle memory yet? I'd rather side with, let's get him 600 ABs with that swing before he see any MLB time in a sense.

His batting eye and defense have been ready from day one... his numbers this year are leaps and bounds different than past years... I don't want to touch anything and just keep him doing what he is right now. He is far from being polished and I think he will polish way better keeping him at AAA for 22...
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No more logic in what you stated than what I did. Actually, the evidence points in my favor. If his batting eye and defense have been ready from day one then he's ready for an opportunity. After all, being selective and disciplined enough to swing at pitches you can hit from major league pitchers is a large portion of the battle. It's that part of the battle that very well may doom someone like OGon.

Wham with the Right Hand said:
The G-Men go for the sweep today behind Shane Bieber, who is coming off his best outing of the season, a complete game, 95-pitch gem against the White Sox. If Bieber pitches to the same level against the much more offensively challenged Tigers we could see a Maddux.

However, 11 days ago Bieber had his worst start of the season where he allowed the Tigers five runs in 5.1 innings. Hopefully we'll see the Bieber from five days ago and not the one from eleven.

The Tigers announced they will go with a bullpen day. Their starter is lefty Tyler Alexander, who has started four times in 13 appearances. Alexander, 28, has a career mark of 7-14, 4.17. This year he's 2-3, 4.45.

Alexander had an ERA of 8.76 on April 29 when he sprained his elbow and was out for 6-7 weeks. He may have been pitching hurt. Since coming back he has made 9 appearances, pitched 18 innings, and allowed just 3 earned runs (1.50 ERA). His longest outing was 40 pitches and 3.1 innings. He's pitched twice against the Guardians, allowing 1 run in 4.1 innings.

The G's can't hit lefties and Alexander has been very effective the last month, so I won't be surprised if he shuts out the G's for 3-4 innings, or even five. The Tigers have a great bullpen when they're using their top people so I can see this game as being close and low scoring.
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Could be a low scoring affair unless JRam goes off again today. Maybe Reyes can pull his head out and contribute. I would love to see Amed continue to drive his stock up.

Is Tito going to sit Jones or see what the kid can do against a lefty?

Great job again Wham. Thanks!
 
We have to consider line up construction, now and in the future.

Read Wham's game preview. Read the part that says the Guardians can't hit lefties. Check out the stats that indicate that the Guardians are the WORST team in the AL vs lefties...a BA of .220.

Peruse the various threads to see which players are generally considered likely to be traded. You will see Amed and Franmil at the top of the list, both RHers who hit lefties well.

Look at our core going forward...

Jose
Gimenez
Naylor
Straw
Kwan
Probably Bo Naylor.

Outside of Jose, all lefties, except Straw, who has reverse splits.

Look at the names many on here want to see playing in Cleveland soon, if not tomorrow.

Jones
Palacios
Brennan
Benson
Valera
OGonz

All lefties, except OGonz. But some fans are already moving past OGonz in order to see the next prospect du jour.

And a lot of fans want no part of trading away our LH prospects for what this team needs.

But, except for occasional small sample sizes, Jones, Valera, Benson, and Brennan havent hit lefties well. Their career splits are pretty severe. Palacios, not so much.

We should consider all of this when trying to think along with the FO.
 
CDAV45 said:
No more logic in what you stated than what I did. Actually, the evidence points in my favor. If his batting eye and defense have been ready from day one then he's ready for an opportunity. After all, being selective and disciplined enough to swing at pitches you can hit from major league pitchers is a large portion of the battle. It's that part of the battle that very well may doom someone like OGon.


Could be a low scoring affair unless JRam goes off again today. Maybe Reyes can pull his head out and contribute. I would love to see Amed continue to drive his stock up.

Is Tito going to sit Jones or see what the kid can do against a lefty?

Great job again Wham. Thanks!
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Naw, it doesn't help your argument, Benson doesn't have the reps with his current swing. He has been notorious for working hard, but losing his swing with promotions... Its one of those times, you just don't touch anything and let him just keep doing what he is doing. He will not benefit from being in the bigs... Let him get a full season reps with the swing and add him in the off season. Get him through a full spring with the big league club and let him compete for a spot with a swing that's his habit now. That's the best thing for Benson right now. Aka it's very possible to effect his swing since its not something he has done for very long. Put pressure of the bigs on him without the long term good habits of his current swing, legitimately could put him backwards and regress him.

If we were talking Brennan, that's a different story. He's always had a good swing and good contact rate. If anything it be nice to call him up while he is on fire. He was a polished hitter to begin with...
 
CATS44 said:
We have to consider line up construction, now and in the future.

Read Wham's game preview. Read the part that says the Guardians can't hit lefties. Check out the stats that indicate that the Guardians are the WORST team in the AL vs lefties...a BA of .220.

Peruse the various threads to see which players are generally considered likely to be traded. You will see Amed and Franmil at the top of the list, both RHers who hit lefties well.

Look at our core going forward...

Jose
Gimenez
Naylor
Straw
Kwan
Probably Bo Naylor.

Outside of Jose, all lefties, except Straw, who has reverse splits.

Look at the names many on here want to see playing in Cleveland soon, if not tomorrow.

Jones
Palacios
Brennan
Benson
Valera
OGonz

All lefties, except OGonz. But some fans are already moving past OGonz in order to see the next prospect du jour.

And a lot of fans want no part of trading away our LH prospects for what this team needs.

But, except for occasional small sample sizes, Jones, Valera, Benson, and Brennan havent hit lefties well. Their career splits are pretty severe. Palacios, not so much.

We should consider all of this when trying to think along with the FO.
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I am targeting a RH bat with pop in a deal... I think we can acquire one... We cannot keep all those lefties...
 
BimboColesHair said:
0.1% chance.

Need a high volume of Power of PositivityTM posts to blow this storm front away for there to be a chance this scheduled Guardians win gets played.
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We are experts at biting hands that feed us and do not care for Positive things, but love negativity and pessimistic thoughts! All the positive peeps like Reno have been banned haha
 
I don't see why we can't get this one in if the rain doesn't start until 3.
 
CATS44 said:
We have to consider line up construction, now and in the future.

Read Wham's game preview. Read the part that says the Guardians can't hit lefties. Check out the stats that indicate that the Guardians are the WORST team in the AL vs lefties...a BA of .220.

Peruse the various threads to see which players are generally considered likely to be traded. You will see Amed and Franmil at the top of the list, both RHers who hit lefties well.

Look at our core going forward...

Jose
Gimenez
Naylor
Straw
Kwan
Probably Bo Naylor.

Outside of Jose, all lefties, except Straw, who has reverse splits.

Look at the names many on here want to see playing in Cleveland soon, if not tomorrow.

Jones
Palacios
Brennan
Benson
Valera
OGonz

All lefties, except OGonz. But some fans are already moving past OGonz in order to see the next prospect du jour.

And a lot of fans want no part of trading away our LH prospects for what this team needs.

But, except for occasional small sample sizes, Jones, Valera, Benson, and Brennan havent hit lefties well. Their career splits are pretty severe. Palacios, not so much.

We should consider all of this when trying to think along with the FO.
Click to expand...
Kwan is hitting .298 against lefties versus .274 against righties. Gimenez is hitting .291 against lefties.

The problem is that our right-handed hitters are not hitting lefties; Reyes .175/.480, Straw .213, Miller .200, Clement .200, Jose .241, Mercado .200, Hedges .143, Maile .150.

Oscar Gonzales is hitting .268/.708 against lefties, so there is some hope there.

The main reasons this team has been so bad against lefties are Reyes, Jose, Miller, and Straw. Miller's inability to hit lefties hurts because he plays first base against lefties in place of Josh Naylor, who is hitting only .207 against them.

I'm optimistic that in the second half Franmil, Jose, Miller, and Straw will improve their production against lefties. They can't get any worse. Last year Franmil and Jose had OPS's of .876 and .882 against lefties.

With Jones, Benson, Brennan, Bo Naylor, and Valera either here already or banging on the door (except Valera) I agree there is a lot of left-handed hitting on the way in addition to Jose, Josh Naylor, Gimenez, and Kwan.

This makes a strong argument for keeping Franmil and Gonzalez on the team, but we need to give Oscar as many at-bats as possible the rest of the season to see if he is a viable major league hitter.

Franmil is a mystery because at age 27 he should be having his best season, or close to it. Instead, he's been a disaster.

Last year the G's scored a run every 7.7 at-bats against left-handed pitching. This year it's a run every 10.1 at-bats. That's a decrease of 31%. And there is no logical explanation because we usually start 7 right-handed hitters against lefties. But Jose, Franmil, Straw, Miller, and both catchers have been bad to horrible against lefties. Franmil hitting .175 against lefties is a disgrace.
 
CATS44 said:
We have to consider line up construction, now and in the future.

Read Wham's game preview. Read the part that says the Guardians can't hit lefties. Check out the stats that indicate that the Guardians are the WORST team in the AL vs lefties...a BA of .220.

Peruse the various threads to see which players are generally considered likely to be traded. You will see Amed and Franmil at the top of the list, both RHers who hit lefties well.

Look at our core going forward...

Jose
Gimenez
Naylor
Straw
Kwan
Probably Bo Naylor.

Outside of Jose, all lefties, except Straw, who has reverse splits.

Look at the names many on here want to see playing in Cleveland soon, if not tomorrow.

Jones
Palacios
Brennan
Benson
Valera
OGonz

All lefties, except OGonz. But some fans are already moving past OGonz in order to see the next prospect du jour.

And a lot of fans want no part of trading away our LH prospects for what this team needs.

But, except for occasional small sample sizes, Jones, Valera, Benson, and Brennan havent hit lefties well. Their career splits are pretty severe. Palacios, not so much.

We should consider all of this when trying to think along with the FO.
Click to expand...
Brennan has hit LHP quite well, but he hasn't hit them with as much authority as RHP except for 2019 when he obliterated LHP. Brennan, Jones and Valera have all fared well against LHP the last couple of seasons. Benson struggles mightily against them though. Gimenez doesn't hit LHP very well either. Straw as you mentioned has reverse splits. I'll only speak for myself, but I have no problem trading away any hitter with split issues. The problem right now is that they don't know who they should deal.

If anyone is actually ready to move past OGon then that would be silly. Tito and Co. need to know what he can ultimately do at the highest level over a good sample size. We've been pining for a RH corner OF bat for years.

This lineup is trending toward being LHH heavy and that should be addressed, but it shouldn't be relegated to prospects only. Any player with platoon splits should be looked at sternly.
 
As this thread's official insider, I have a strong source--Aztec rain god--who has informed me that today's game will be postponed.
 
They'll for sure be playing in Toronto, St. Pete, Houston, Miami and Arlington today. Should have moved the team to Milwaukee this year
 
sportscoach said:
It's not pure speculation, it's logic... Benson is finally starting to get a swing and whatnot that's legit, but he hasn't been doing it long... put him to MLB, is he going to keep the swing that isn't muscle memory yet? I'd rather side with, let's get him 600 ABs with that swing before he see any MLB time in a sense.

His batting eye and defense have been ready from day one... his numbers this year are leaps and bounds different than past years... I don't want to touch anything and just keep him doing what he is right now. He is far from being polished and I think he will polish way better keeping him at AAA for 22...
Click to expand...
while benson's results so far this season have been eye opening/positive.. what isn't being discussed is the areas he continues to fail in.. Those are the areas that MiLB'ers typically cannot exploit.. That won't be the case at the ML level.. The best of the best pitchers in the world butter their bread by making good hitters look foolish.. They salivate at that chance every time someone has the temerity to stand in a batters box and try to hit their stuff...
 
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