Jose Abreu

I ask again, why is there such a vocal segment of posters who think Collins is so bad at catching that he can't even get a game here and there? Aside from his form on that wild pitch in the first inning, he looked fine back there, called a clean game, and even stole a few key strikes. Not sure why he can't be penciled in as our backup catcher next year

Activated half an hour ago

That's fair. If that's the case, would you say that it might have been foolish/short-sighted to keep him in for the 9th in a blowout instead of putting in Cuthbert?

If Moncada was able to stay in the game last night, I would have to believe he's able to play tonight

Makes sense, I just couldn't tell if you were trying to imply that Eloy will remain like this forever. I'm still quite optimistic that he has a 6-7 year run of .300/.350/.580 kind of years. Hope your week gets better

I wasn't around for the other thread with this debate but Avi Garcia has never had a slugging percentage even close to .550 (highest was .506). I get that you're going for a low-OBP high-SLG archetype, but Avi is a bad example of that, and Eloy will probably be a .350+ OBP guy in his prime IMO

Collins is not a plus defensive catcher but I don't get where everyone got the idea that you can't even put him back there. I've watched every inning of him behind the plate in MLB (plus a bunch of AAA games) and I don't see how he's unplayable. Not sure about his game calling but his framing and overall skills back there aren't much of a drop-off from McCann

The idea is that Eloy/Abreu are hitting the ball hard, but it doesn't yield as many results because lower launch angles mean more ground balls. Objectively, ground ball hitters have less success than line drive/fly ball hitters, for the most part. I'm not worried about it with Eloy, however, as even despite the low launch angle, all of his underlying stats are very encouraging. Even with his impressive numbers, he has been unlucky this year

Eloy Jimenez

Yoan Moncada

Tim Anderson

One of the rare times where I'm glad my college doesn't start until October (quarter system). Not that I'll be going to campus anyway, but many are

Interesting fact I read on a Tigers board: Cease has made 4 starts against Detroit in his career and is 4-0 against them. I knew he has faced them a lot, but didn't realize they represented 26% of his starts (after tonight)

While Robert will likely be much better, I think his progression at the plate will mirror Anderson's. Anderson's second at-bat against Boyd last night in the second inning was a fantastic display of his growth as a hitter since 2016. I think we'll be seeing Robert have similar ABs in coming years, once he starts laying off sliders and forcing pitchers to come into the zone like Anderson does now

Jimenez

Not to mention, league average OPS in the Southern League was .683. You obviously want a real prospect to be well above that, but given that he profiles as a defense-first guy with some on-base skills, he's at least worth a look

Also, Leury was placed on the IL before the 15th. The 15th is just when he was transferred to the 45-day version

Right. I wonder if Ricky has been more hesitant to use Engel as a defensive replacement since the Garcia injury

To be fair, Eloy is an above-average runner and Abreu is around average, contrary to popular belief. But I agree that Mendick's speed is not good for a MI

Where do people get the idea that Madrigal is a fast runner? I'm not saying he's slow, but he's certainly not close to Robert, Engel, and Anderson

Hoping it's this. It has always been weird that the only bench player capable of playing OF is Engel. If you use him as a pinch-runner or you start him, you lose a lot of flexibility. Renteria said the other day that Goins is the next outfielder if needed, but I really hope it doesn't come to that. If it wasn't for him, Lopez's CG one-hitter in Cleveland last year is a no-hitter.

He sounds like a terrible politician (in general, not referring to anyone in particular). “If we had a 10 game winning streak, I bet there would be a lot of smiles”? I mean yeah, of course, but we don’t have a winning streak. I bet there would be even more smiles if we win the World Series, but none of these analogies matter, you just got swept by a team that hadn’t played in weeks

Yeah, certain reporters misquoted him and then ran with it out of context. Ricky’s quotes from tonight, on the other hand, are embarrassing