Game 1 Lineup

[Peter Welch]

1. Game 1 lineup vs. righty Brandon Young (4.25 ERA in 6 starts):
2. Zach McKinstry (L) 2B
3. Kevin McGonigle (L) 3B
4. Dillon Dingler (R) DH
5. Riley Greene (L) LF
6. Matt Vierling (R) CF
7. Colt Keith (L) 1B
8. Wenceel Pérez (S) RF
9. Jake Rogers (R) C
10. Zack Short (R) SS

5/9 of this lineup (especially the bottom 3) is as weak as I've seen in a Tigers' lineup since I started following them 50 years ago.

Even the horrible 2003, 2002 and 1989 Tigers had better hitters.

So Tork sits in favor of Keith at 1B.  Looks like Keith/Tork is becoming a platoon at 1B, although, ironically, Tork is hitting righties better than lefties this year.

The lefty Workman sits against the righty starter probably because Hinch is trying to "maximize" his infield defense behind the groundballer Valdez.  Workman has been unreliable defensively.

Peter

[Roger King]

Tigers were one strike away from finally breaking the losing streak, and Jansen blows it in the bottom of the ninth, giving up a three-run homer to give the Orioles a 5-3 win.  Unbelievable.  

He walked two runners in the inning which set the whole thing up. Inexcusable. Note that with two outs, the Orioles executed a double steal. This is something the Tigers would never attempt. Hinch is such a conservative manager yet for some reason has this weird “thinking outside the box” reputation.

Roger King
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[Paul Meloche]

Jansen’s clearly cooked. 

Disagree about the double steal. Hinch could call for it, it wouldn’t work, and then we’d be blaming him for 12-D chess and/or if we had a better lineup we wouldn’t need to take risky base running chances. 

Paul M.

On May 24, 2026, at 12:25 PM, Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com> wrote:



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[Jeffrey Withey]

The homer was on an 0-2 meatball right down the middle. This team is hard to watch because the level of flat out stupidity is so high. 

Jeff

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From: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Paul Meloche <meloc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2026 3:27:53 PM
To: Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com>
Cc: Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com>; detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Game 1 Lineup

 

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[Roger King]

It doesn’t literally have to be a double steal but I’m talking about something gutsy to shake the Tigers out of this horrendous slump. 

The Tigers actually have some good base runners though. Vierling, McKinstry, McGonigle I think… all could get themselves into scoring position more often by attempting to steal.

Anyway, this team has put fans through two unbelievable stretches of futility just in the last three months of regular season baseball. Of course the epic collapse last September where they blew the division lead and just barely made the playoffs. And now this horrendous month/current 8-game losing streak (only 4 wins in all of May).

Harris I think may actually be worse at signing free agents than Avila. Though of course he doesn’t have a Zimmerman or Baez horrendous contract on his record…he really has consistently poor judgement on his off-season acquisitions, particularly on the pitching side. 

[Peter Welch]

Jansen is the latest in the fine tradition of the Tigers signing closers past their sell-by date.

It's utterly depressing to be a Tigers' fan right now but somehow we're still not far off the last wild card spot.

I think we can be competitive again after we get Torres, Carpenter and Baez back and, of course, after Skubal comes back.  The problem is we can't slip much farther back before those guys come back, and I don't know how the current roster can win more than 10% of their games.

Peter

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From: Paul Meloche <meloc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2026 3:28 PM

To: Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com>
Cc: Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com>; detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Game 1 Lineup

[Peter Welch]

I know Hinch hates “small ball” so he doesn’t use things like bunts and hit-and-runs, plus the Tigers don’t steal many bases, but it might be time to re-think that.  The Tigers try to play for the 3-run homer but they don’t have the hitters to do it.  

I don't particularly like small ball but at this point they should  try it.

Peter 

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From: Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2026 3:39:34 PM
To: Paul Meloche <meloc...@gmail.com>

Cc: Peter Welch <pw...@hotmail.com>; detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Game 1 Lineup

[David Panian]

The Tigers are aggressive in taking extra bases on hits, or at least trying to. They do that instead of stealing. My impression is they haven't been as successful at that this year as last year, but they haven't had many baserunners so far this year, especially compared to the first half of last season.

Jansen giving up a game-winning homer feels like a typical result for him this year, but he had just pitched six innings with no runs, no hits and two walks in his last six outings. He had a save, win and a hold in that stretch. He's not getting knocked around game after game.

After Hinch used Vest for 14 pitches, Finnegan for 21 pitches and Jansen for 24 pitches, I wonder who's available for late-inning pitching in Game 2? Did Hinch forget that he has a second game today? I guess Vest will be available, but I kind of doubt we'll see Finnegan or Jansen. We'll probably see a couple of innings by Holton. He hasn't pitched in a few days.

David

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[Roger King]

I tend to hate many of the aspects of what people call small ball, particularly bunting obviously. But base stealing is in another category for me. I think Hinch’s teams are sometimes overly aggressive in taking the extra base (when the opportunity really isn’t there) or trying to score from second on hits that aren’t deep… But they’re not aggressive enough on simply trying to steal a base outright.

I’m thinking the Orioles recognized Jansen is very deliberate and sometimes slow to the plate and took advantage. I’d like to see the Tigers do that more often off of similar pitchers.

Roger King
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[Roger King]

I don’t fault Hinch for using Vest-Finnegan-Jansen for the 7th, 8th & 9th respectively. That’s the job of those particular relievers: to hold onto a (slim) lead in the late innings. Both Finnegan (gave up a run) and Jansen failed to do their jobs. Can’t blame Hinch on that one.

Roger King
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[Jeffrey Withey]

The Tigers are 26^th in runs per game and half a run below average. They are 22^nd in OPS, close to league average in OBP but 24^th in SLG. The bullpen has been crap (collectively they have only completed 9 saves and blown 16) but the real story is the very predictable lack of offense that has been present for almost an entire season now. The architects of this team all deserve to be fired. 

Jeff

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From: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2026 5:02:51 PM
To: David Panian <dpa...@gmail.com>
Cc: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: Game 1 Lineup

 

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[Peter Welch]

Bad baseball team since the All-Star break last year.

The second half of 2024 and first half of 2025 looks like fluke.  They were playing way above their heads.

Regression is a b---h.

Peter

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[Peter Welch]

Nope, you can't complain, that's the way the Tigers drew it up before the season.  They thought that Vest-Finnegan-Jansen would be their effective trio of high-leverage relievers, along with Holton sometimes as well.  

Sadly, it hasn't worked out as all those guys have been shaky.

Peter 

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[Peter Welch]

Management gambled that they'd see improvement (or at least close to the the same level) from Greene, Tork, Keith, Carpenter, Torres, Meadows and Dingler plus the addition of talented rookie McGonigle, and they thought the bench/platoon guys would be like last year. Instead we've seen massive regression (and/or injuries) from most of them, apart from Greene and Dingler.  McGonigle had a hot start but he's been scuffling a bit for a while, which isn't too surprising. He's a 21-year-old rookie hitter in the majors making the jump from AA. He was expected to struggle sometimes.

Should Harris be blamed for counting on these guys to be a productive offense? Or is it just bad luck that they haven't produced?

Peter 

Peter

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Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2026 5:13 PM
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