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<\/p>\nDETROIT \u2014 It is very early in the season, and the Tigers are not off to their best start. Welcome to the world of high expectations, where the tendency to overreact and draw ire only rises from its baseline.<\/p>\n
The Tigers remain a playoff team with what should be the most talented roster in the American League Central. With those designations, though, come criticism when you lose games to the Minnesota Twins and questions when the team doesn\u2019t play its best baseball from the jump.<\/p>\n
Thursday and Friday, we\u2019ll turn to the mailbag to see what fans have on their minds.<\/p>\n
Questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity<\/p>\n
What are your thoughts on pinch-hitting Jahmai Jones for Colt Keith against left-handed pitchers fairly early in games (when it\u2019s likely he\u2019d get another at-bat)? Will they let Keith get some ABs against LHP this year? \u2014 Jeremy S.<\/p>\n
The Tigers last season used pinch-hitters 41 times more than any other team. Those pinch-hitters had a 106 wRC+, which means they posted better than league-average results. I\u2019m surprised by how strongly people seem to be pushing back against manager A.J. Hinch\u2019s use of pinch hitters so far this season. It is odd that the Tigers entered Wednesday night\u2019s game 0-for-9 with a sacrifice fly in pinch-hit at-bats. But it\u2019s an incredibly small sample.<\/p>\n
The reason Hinch has gone to Jahmai Jones in big spots \u2014 even if it means Jones might get a later at-bat against a righty \u2014 is pretty simple. Hinch is taking his shots with runners on base, at the highest-leverage moments of the game.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a lefty on the mound and runners on base, who gives you the best chance to cash in? Is it Jones, who had a .970 OPS against lefties last season? Or is it Keith, who had a .403 OPS against left-handers in 46 plate appearances last season? The answer should be pretty clear!<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s entirely possible Jones doesn\u2019t replicate last year\u2019s success. It\u2019s entirely possible that Keith improves somewhat against left-handers. But I don\u2019t at all fault Hinch for trying to capitalize on the opportunities right in front of him and worrying about later at-bats when the game gets there.<\/p>\n
I was a little surprised he didn\u2019t hit Zach McKinstry for either Jones or Matt Vierling late in the series finale against the Cardinals, but it\u2019s worth noting McKinstry actually only has a career .680 OPS against right-handers.<\/p>\n
Albeit in only 25 at-bats last season, Jones hit a surprising .280 against righties, though all seven of his home runs came against lefties.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think the Tigers are going to change their ways. And in this case, I don\u2019t think they should.<\/p>\n
Who makes the Tiger lineups? Is it Hinch or Harris or a combined effort or just do what the analytics say? So many odd lineups that don\u2019t make sense. I know Hinch liked Carpenter being in the 19th spot in the lineup, but I don\u2019t see it.\u2014 Philip C.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m under the impression Hinch makes his own lineups and always has, presumably with varying degrees of collaboration with the front office and analytics department. Hinch, at least in my mind, tends to get creative in predicting how games will unfold and capturing things predictive models might lack the context to account for.<\/p>\n
Carpenter hitting leadoff is a prime example. For anyone who doesn\u2019t understand why Hinch often prioritizes the 19th at-bat of the game, I would recommend revisiting last year\u2019s ALDS, when Mariners manager Dan Wilson was tied in knots debating mid-game pitching decisions, and a few key Carpenter at-bats nearly propelled the Tigers to the ALCS.<\/p>\n
But I also see your point. Even against right-handers only, Carpenter has a good-but-not-great career .329 on-base percentage. Part of all the mixing and matching and outside-the-box lineup construction has been about trying to maximize the Tigers\u2019 strengths and perhaps help the team be greater than the sum of its parts. But do the Tigers sometimes get a little too cute? I know there are people in the league who think that.<\/p>\n
Another point: In 2019, Hinch led off George Springer in all 119 games Springer played. Jose Altuve hit second 106 times.<\/p>\n
One harsh truth is that while the Tigers have developed some very good players, they don\u2019t have hitters of quite that caliber, and that\u2019s at least part of why the lineup varies so often.<\/p>\n
If anything, I think the biggest challenge Hinch faces right now is dividing playing time for the likes of Matt Vierling, Javier B\u00e1ez and McKinstry now that Kevin McGonigle is on the roster.<\/p>\n
You can ONLY pick one position player. Who will be represented in the All-Star Game this year? \u2014 Matt H.<\/p>\n
This is a fun question. First of all, I\u2019d say don\u2019t be surprised if the Tigers again send several players to the All-Star Game. Despite his slow start, Riley Greene has been an All-Star each of the past two seasons. Gleyber Torres remains a quality hitter at a second-base position that doesn\u2019t boast many true stars in the American League. Kevin McGonigle will likely hit a rough patch as all players do, but man, it would be fun to see him make it if he keeps this up.<\/p>\n
For this question, though, I\u2019m going to pick Dillon Dingler. Dingler won a Gold Glove last season. He didn\u2019t make the All-Star Game in 2025 but finished third to Cal Raleigh and Alejandro Kirk among all MLB catchers with 4.1 fWAR. Dingler already has two home runs, and I wouldn\u2019t be shocked if he easily exceeds the 13 homers he hit last season.<\/p>\n
So long as his defense remains elite, he\u2019s going to be on a short list of catchers worthy of making the Midsummer Classic.<\/p>\n
What, if anything, do they do with Wenceel P\u00e9rez? \u2014 Lazarus J.<\/p>\n
Everyone is always clamoring for the next guy up. It\u2019s a weird cycle. P\u00e9rez is down in Triple A, where he entered Wednesday hitting .263 with two home runs. When there\u2019s an injury or if someone is struggling badly in two or three more weeks, I expect P\u00e9rez to be the next guy promoted. And then people will go on demanding a call-up for Max Clark or someone else in place of whoever the next slumping player is!<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez is still a big part of the team, and I think we\u2019ll see plenty of him this summer, one way or another.<\/p>\n
The Twins\u2019 Taj Bradley baffled Tiger hitters by throwing fastballs at the lower rail and then using his splitter to strike them out. If this strategy worked so well, why are Tiger pitchers throwing fastballs at the top rail when their secondary pitch is a splitter? \u2014 Stan W.<\/p>\n
This actually gets into a pretty detailed pitching discussion. The simplest answer? Tigers\u2019 pitchers sometimes do indeed do this! Casey Mize, in particular, has talked of watching Kevin Gausman freeze hitters with bottom-rail fastballs and wanting to implement more of that in his own game. But if you\u2019re only throwing stuff at the bottom rail, eventually hitters will simply eliminate anything up and start hunting low fastballs. That could quickly turn \u2026 problematic.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Taj Bradley\u2019s four-seam fastballs against the Tigers. (Baseball Savant)<\/p>\n
For pitchers like Mize, elevated fastballs can come with the best chance to get swing-and-miss. They can ensure hitters have to cover everything from the top rail to splitters in the dirt. They can change eye levels and potentially help make the splitter more effective. It helps if you can occasionally deceive a hitter with a perfectly executed four-seam at the bottom of the zone.<\/p>\n
Even Bradley threw plenty of fastballs belt-high or above on Tuesday. He obviously had a good night and got plenty of called strikes. But the Tigers might have also had some approach issues. They did not swing and miss against his fastball. They watched the pitch far too much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 It is very early in the season, and the Tigers are not off to their best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,53,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-671576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit-tigers","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116374502207699194","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}