The Tigers enjoyed a nice day off on Thursday, coming off their Wednesday afternoon win against the Mets. They’re hoping to transition that win into a winning series against the White Sox this weekend. A series against the Yankees is looming on the horizon, and the Tigers could really use a winning series to bolster themselves before then.
They’ve got a lot going for them, as one of our links today points out, with the Tigers having one of the best baserunning teams in baseball right now. Hopefully,
that will translate into some wins.
We also get a little sprinkling of other baseball news to get your weekend started.
Detroit Tigers News
- Cody Stavenhagen looks at the unexpected way the Detroit Tigers have started running the bases so well. ($) While he does a deep dive into why, the high-level notes boil down to this:
Aggression on the basepaths has become part and parcel with the team’s “Gritty Tigs” identity. But it’s possible there is more behind all this than an old-school coach wanting to see more hustle out of his ballclub. The run expectancy matrix is a tool that measures how likely teams are to score runs in any given situation. One of the biggest jumps on the board? The difference between runners on first and second with nobody out and runners on first and third with nobody out.
- Stephen Colbert and John Oliver talk about the power of stupidity when it comes to Minor League Baseball. (Oliver recently gave the Erie SeaWolves a Moon Mammoths makeover, which was a triumphant success.)
AL Central News
- Love moments like this.
MLB News
- What does it look like to watch Shohei Ohtani hit a home run at 120 mph?
- Just how high can Aaron Judge climb in the Yankees’ list of home run legends?
- Aaron Boone had some choice (and NSFW) words for an umpire after a blown call ended the Yankees’ game. He was, of course, ejected.
- Love to see it:
