The Detroit Tigers Recap
A.J. Reilly: We wanna move right into the recap. Where are the Detroit Tigers?
One another series and have not lost a series since Scott Harris was hired as president of baseball operations. That’s significant. I’ve said it before. I will continue to say it again. It’s the Scott Harris effect guys that are actually playing for their jobs. They know that he’s evaluating and they’re playing quite well.
Now look, 10 of the last 12 they’ve won. That’s pretty significant. They swept the White Sox, swept the Royals, lost one to Baltimore, and lost one to the Twins. They’ve won 10 outta 12 games. It would’ve been nice to do this kind of thing earlier in the season and actually become what the Baltimore Orioles were.
The Baltimore Orioles were projected to have the same wind total that the Detroit Tigers had, but they won 20 more games in their projection. The Detroit Tigers. Have not won 20 more games in their projection. Let’s just put it that way. That’s the kind way of saying it. But they’ve been playing well. Baseball hasn’t been perfect.
Baseball, as AJ said, after his, after the game yesterday, hasn’t been perfect baseball, but it’s been good. Baseball game one they lost. Joe Ryan dude was electric. It’s not like he blows you away with the fastball, but his fast ball’s deceptive enough to get on you quicker than you would think it would.
He had eight K’s through six Inn. The Twins won seven and nothing, not much to discuss in that game. They won seven. Nothing and you thought, man, maybe the good feelings have rubbed off, but no tires came back on Saturday. They’re in a tight game. The twins make air, which gave them the go-ahead and runs, and I think it was the Seventh Inn.
Then the top of the eighth inning, the Tigers let the twins load the bases. They bring in Gregory Soto with one out. He walks the bases loaded, okay, But then gets a ground ball, double play that helps secure the win for the Tigers. And they win three to two. You notice that they’ve won a lot more. One run game recently too.
And then we go into Sunday Eric Hosmer for the second time of the series. Victor Reyes is Homer again. Excuse. Victor Reyes has hit a bomb to right-center field off of former friend Michael Fuller, I might add, but the Tigers won five to two, won the series. That’s now four series in a row that they’ve won playing good baseball.
Now, let’s talk about Victor Reyes for a second, right? We’ve got a big guy here that loves to pound the ball into the ground because of the swing that he takes. He’s gotta find a way to translate. Build into a power-hitting type of guy. He’s got such a long swing that the ball is through or the bat is through the zone so long and his hands are so away from his body when he’s swinging.
Even the home run that he hit was such a long swing. We gotta find a way. They’ve gotta find a way this off-season to get him to transition to become more of a line drive, you know, high exit velocity, high launch, like pure launch angle, not high launch angle, cuz a high launch angle’s a, a popup, but a pure like power-hitting launch angle type of swing because, If he can translate into that, he could be a decent piece, not a superstar, but a piece.
And another piece that I want to talk about too is the guy that’s on the screen, Eric Hosmer. He’d been really good this season and a bright spot to a certain extent. Now look, I get it. When he had a long run last season, there were a lot of holes that were exposed in this swing that many believed he couldn’t be a, you know, everyday catcher.
But this season, Over 300 at-bats. 114 weighted runs. Created 14% above major league average. He’s a one-and-a-half war player. He’s got 14 home runs, 257 average, and a 326 weighted on-base average. He’s a great and cheap option as a catcher. Next year he’s got a 27% K rate, which we know Scott Harris wants you to command the strike.
So he needs to clean that up. But I mean, he’s been better offensively than Barnhart’s been. He had two home runs in the series against the Twins. He has a nearly 30% hard-hit rate and a very little soft contact rate at only 18%. I definitely think moving forward in 2023, Eric, the cause has to be part of the plan.
Maybe the sometime type of split or platoon maybe brings Barnhart back on a cheaper contract. I don’t. Necessary because Barnhart’s a really good defensive catcher. They also need to find a way to shorten up his swing, especially in Comerica Park if they don’t mess with the dimensions. But Barnhart and, and Hosmer would not be a bad catching situation next year if they were to make a run at Barnhart for a, you know, one to two-year investment, minimal dollars that they can assign.
That would be great. And we’re gonna get into an off-season like breakdown blueprint, gotta do some research and some studying. It’s gonna take a little bit longer, to put that together. But I will do an off-season blueprint of what the Tigers, what moves the Detroit Tigers should make, and that’ll be on a live show where you, the fans can interact with me and we can discuss all about the Detroit Tigers at those times.
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About The Show:
The Corner with A.J Reilly – The official Detroit Tigers Podcast for DSN! Hosted by AJ Reilly. New episodes are LIVE Monday and Thursday every week at 6 pm.
