The Detroit Tigers have been baseball’s hottest team, rattling off 31 wins in 43 games to go from eight games under .500 to 11 games over and into the postseason for the first time in a decade. That they’ve done so is nothing short of remarkable. Not only were most outside expectations relatively low coming into the campaign, the A.J. Hinch-led team has dominated September with a starting staff largely comprising of Tarik Skubal, unheralded rookie Keider Montero, and an array of openers. On the season, Detroit Tigers starters have thrown 748-and-a-third innings, the fewest in the majors (notably with a 3.66 ERA, fourth best in the majors).
There is obviously more to why the Tigers have emerged as a surprise team — not to mention a legitimate postseason contender — than the presence of an ace left-hander and Hinch’s expertise in mixing and matching starters and relievers. That is a deeper dive than fits here in Sunday Notes, but I did ask the “Why are the Tigers good?” question to three people who saw them sweep a series just this past week. I asked a second question as well: “What was the atmosphere like at Comerica Park?”
“From an atmosphere standpoint it was one of the best we’ve seen this year,” said Tampa Bay Rays broadcaster Andy Freed. “What impressed me most is that our first game there was supposed to be a night game, and because of rain coming in it was moved to the day. We thought, ‘What are they going to get, 5,000 people?’ It was a Tuesday and school was in session, but they got a great crowd. People decided they were still going to come to the baseball game. It reminded me how great of a sports town Detroit is. And they were into every pitch. It was the closest I’ve felt to a postseason atmosphere all year, except for maybe Philadelphia.
“People should know what’s going on with the Detroit Tigers right now,” continued Freed. “I think that’s a fascinating team. What they’ve done with one starter and bull-penning the rest is revolutionary. We’ve done some of that, but the Tigers are doing it more than the Rays ever have. Imagine facing them in a three-game series. Skubal starts game one and they’re unpredictable for the next two days. How in the world do you plan for that?”
“Great atmosphere,” said Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash. “They showed up at one o’clock for a game was supposed to be at six. It got loud there. It probably helped that Skubal was on the mound. We had some exciting games and their fans really got engaged when they got some stuff going. That won’t be an inviting place for teams to go [in the playoffs]. Why are they so good? Skubal and the way their pitching is able to match up. They’ve got some very talented right-handed relievers and left-handed relievers. A.J. understands what makes those guys good. He’s going to do everything he can to maximize that.”
“When I was there, the only time we had an atmosphere like that was when Miggy was doing something cool,” said left-hander Tyler Alexander, who is in his first year with the Rays after pitching for the Tigers from 2019-2023. “When he was one homer away from 500, I think we had a sellout. When he was one hit away from 3,000 [hits], same thing. Those were fun home crowds.
“I don’t really know why they’re winning. They’re young. They’re situationally hitting. They’re just finding ways to win. They’ve always thrown the ball well. The Detroit fans have wanted that team to be good for a long time, so I’m glad they’re finally showing them a good baseball team. It was loud. And Detroit fans are smart, so they know when to be loud. I’m happy for them.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Wes Parker went 6 for 17 against Turk Farrell.
Jim Lefebvre went 6 for 9 against Bo Belinsky.
Maury Wills went 14 for 27 against Roy Face.
Jim Gilliam went 12 for 31 against Roger Craig.
John Roseboro went 14 for 97 against Juan Marichal.
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The Twins were eight games over .500 and still firmly in the hunt when they beat Boston in 12 innings on September 20 at Fenway Park. With Cleveland postseason bound, and Minnesota, Detroit, and Kansas City then competing for the final two Wild Card berths, I asked Rocco Baldelli for this thoughts on the American League Central.
“It’s been a wild year,” said Minnesota’s manager. “It’s been incredibly competitive from the start. You go to play these teams and you really have to be ready to go. You have an MVP candidate on one team in Bobby Witt Jr. You have exceptional pitching around the division. There is some real talent, and the way they’re executing has shown up. And it’s shown up pretty quickly. Some groups, including our own… I mean, there has been a lot of change over the last year or two. It’s challenging to go out there and win a game, win a series, right now in the division. I think it’s good for everyone.”
The stretch run was anything but good for Baldelli’s squad. The Twins will miss the postseason after qualifying last season while posting the division’s only winning record. Four AL Central clubs will finish over .500 this year, and while that includes the defending champs, disappointment nonetheless abounds in the Twin Cities.
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A quiz:
John Franco and Jesse Orosco are two of the three left-handed pitchers to have recorded 100 or more saves with the New York Mets. Who is the third? (A hint: He is better known for his success with another team.)
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be the new manager of the Cape Cod League’s Falmouth Commodores beginning next season.
John Baumgartner, a third baseman who played in seven games for the Detroit Tigers in 1953, died earlier this week at age 93. The University of Alabama product went 5-for-27 in his brief big-league career.
The sixth annual SABR/IWBC Women in Baseball Conference was held virtually on September 20-22, You can watch highlights here.
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The answer to the quiz is Billy Wagner, who had 101 of his 422 career saves while wearing a Mets uniform. If you guessed Tug McGraw, he had 86 of his 180 career saves as a Met.
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Freddy Fermin batted in the leadoff position when Royals played the Tigers in Detroit on August 8, prompting a Kansas City beat writer to ask why in a pregame media session. Fermin, a DH on that particular day, is a backup catcher, albeit one who’d gone 8-for-12 over the past three games.
“What is typical?” Quatraro replied rhetorically. “There was a certain era where there was a certain type of hitter. Now it’s a little different. My message to Freddy is just, ‘Do your thing.’ I mean, if goes up there and swings at the first pitch and hits it hard, that’s a good at-bat. If he takes a couple of pitches… just have a good at-bat like he’s been doing all along. You only lead off once, right? The rest of the game is dictated by how these guys do, so I don’t want to put too much into it.”
Being part of that day’s scrum, I proceeded to ask the Manager-of-the-Year candidate if, philosophically speaking, a leadoff hitter would ideally be a high-OBP guy? Maximizing the number of plate appearances he
gets would be one of the reasons why.
“I would agree with that,” said Quatraro. “But not every team… back in the ‘80s, early ‘90s, everybody that hit at the top of the order was a speed guy. They were trying to just put the ball on the ground for the most part. But typical now is that not every team is doing the same thing. People change it up day to day. There are more matchup-based leadoff guys. Not every team has a high on-base-percentage guy they can put in that spot. There is also more of a premium on [batting] your best hitter second, whereas you used to be hitting him third all the time. Things evolve.”
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A random obscure player snapshot:
Twins right-hander Scott Blewett isn’t the only player in MLB history with that surname. Back in 1902, Bob Blewett (no known relation) made five appearances for the New York Giants.The left-hander from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin rode a rollercoaster in his brief big-league stint. Blewett was bashed for 17 hits and 13 runs over eight innings in his June 17 debut, then tossed four scoreless frames six days later. His subsequent outings saw him allow four runs in two innings, three runs in six innings, and six runs in eight innings.
All told, he went 0-2 with a 4.82 ERA. His minor league days were spent with the Montreal Royals, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tacoma Tigers, Olympia Senators, and Seattle Siwashes. Blewett went on to become president of the Northwest League and the Pacific Coast International League.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, 76-58 on the season, clinched the NPB Central League pennant yesterday. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, who are 87-49, had earlier clinched the Pacific League.
Yomiuri’s Kazuma Okamoto recorded his 1,000 career hit this week, making him the 321st player in NPB history to reach that mark (per @NPB_Reddit). The 28-year-old corner infielder has 27 home runs on the year, and 232 over seven seasons.
Sticking with Yomiuri, the Giants have signed 25-year-old outfielder Marek Chlup, who spent this past season with the independent American Association’s Lake Country DockHounds, who play out of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Chlup is a native of the Czech Republic.
NPB won’t be implementing a pitch clock next season. The decision not do so was announced on Friday.
KBO sensation Do Yeong Kim is nearing a 40/40 season. The soon-to-turn 21-year-old Kia Tigers second baseman has 40 steals and 38 home runs to go with a .348/.420/.650 slash line.
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I wasn’t able to sit down with Paul Skenes to talk pitching when I visited PNC Park earlier this week — he has apparently been next to impossible to pin down for one-on-one interviews in recent months — but I was able to procure a few quotes from a group session the rookie right-hander did with members of the local media. One came in response to a question from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Kevin Gorman, who wanted to hear about the diversity in his power arsenal. Per Baseball Savant, Skenes throws a four-seamer, a sinker, a curveball, a sweeper, a slider, and a changeup.
“It’s not like we’re just punching X and O and triangle, or whatever it is in The Show,” said Skenes, citing the popular video game. “It’s like, ‘Well, I have it, so I might as well throw it. We’ve gotten to that point a little bit. I can get guys out with two pitches, three pitches, but being able to get guys out with all five has been really fun. With the awareness of my stuff and how it plays, and the right time to throw all those pitches… it’s been really fun to learn that as the season has gone on.”
The discrepancy in the number of offerings in his arsenal — five versus six — is a matter of pitch classification. Skenes previously told reporters that he doesn’t throw both a slider and a sweeper, but rather it’s the same pitch.
Skenes was equally quotable when addressing a question about his offseason plans.
“I learned more about the offseason during this season that I did last offseason,” said Skenes. “I think about the offseason in terms of highs and lows. There is your time to work and your time to relax. I’m going to have higher highs and lower lows. When I relax, I’m going to relax more. When I’m working, I’m going to work harder.”
Hopefully I’ll get a chance to talk pitching with Skenes down the road. Along with being one of the best young pitchers in the game, he has both a way with words and a strong understanding of his craft.
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Sticking with the Pirates, Bryan Reynolds met with reporters earlier this week after being named the team’s 2024 MVP. He was asked if he could have imagined the level of success he’s gone on to have since coming to the organization via trade in January 2018.
“No, I couldn’t have imagined that,” Reynolds admitted. “I could have hoped for it. I just remember being fired up about being traded. I got out of San Francisco, got into a good organization that would give me a chance. I couldn’t ask for anything more. It worked out great, now we’ve just got to get over the hump and get in the playoffs.”
The Pirates acquired Reynolds, along with Kyle Crick and international bonus slot money, from the Giants in exchange for Andrew McCutchen. The 29-year-old, switch-hitting outfielder has slashed .277/.352/.471 with 122 home runs, a 121 wRC+, and 17.3 WAR since making his MLB debut in 2019.
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FARM NOTES
Franklin Arias slashed .309/.409/.487 with nine home runs and a 150 wRC+ in 372 plate appearances between the Florida Complex League and Low-A Salem. The 18-year-old shortstop in the Boston Red Sox organization led the FCL in batting average (.365), wOBA (.495) and wRC+ (165) prior to his late-July promotion.
Pablo Guerrero slashed .276/.324/.442 with eight home runs and a 101 wRC+ in 317 plate appearances between the Arizona Complex League and Low-A Down East. The first baseman/outfielder had a 119 wRC+ prior to his end-of-July promotion, which came one day before his 18th birthday.
Anderson Brito had a 38.9% strikeout rate to go with a 1.51 ERA and a 3.18 FIP over 15 appearances comprising 53-and-two-thirds innings across the Dominican Summer League, Florida Complex League, and Low-A Fayetteville. The 20-year-old right-hander was signed by the Houston Astros out of Venezuela last winter.
Zander Mueth had a 23.8% strikeout rate to go with a 2.31 ERA and a 4.59 FIP in 74 innings between the Florida Complex League and Low-A Bradenton. The 19-year-old right-hander was selected in the second round of last year’s draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Illinois’s Belleville High School East.
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Six weeks into the 2022 season, I wrote about Luis Arraez, likening the then-Minnesota Twin to “a poor man’s Rod Carew” and opining that he was in line to win a batting title. The article elicited skepticism in the comments sections, with readers not unreasonably pointing out that Arraez didn’t even rank in the top 10 at that time. Not that everyone was a disbeliever. While the comments included “I can’t say I think he’ll do it going forward,” another wrote ’With his approach and batting IQ, I think he can get there.”
He is now on tap to have gotten there in three consecutive seasons. After winning back-to-back batting titles in 2022 and 2023, Arraez heads into today with a .314 average, four points in front of Shohei Ohtani and eight in front of Marcell Ozuna. Regardless of your opinion on batting average, what Arraez is doing is pretty impressive.
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At the top of the month, I updated the progress of Kirby Yates’s quest to become just the third reliever in MLB history with multiple seasons of 40 or more appearances and an ERA of 1.25 or lower. My colleague Michael Baumann had written about the possibility in mid-August, and in the weeks to follow the Texas Rangers right-hander had seen his ERA yoyo between 1.02 and 1.40, landing at 1.38 on Labor Day weekend.
He hasn’t been charged with an earned run since that time. With 10 scoreless appearances comprising nine-and-a-third innings, Yates heads into the final day of the season with a 1.17 ERA. Craig Kimbrel and Wade Davis are about to have company.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
At KQED.org, Dan Brekke told of how hardly anyone came to say goodbye when the A’s left Philadelphia.
At the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s website, Craig Muder chronicled the career of “Bullet Bob” Turley, who in 1958 became the first New York Yankees pitcher to win a Cy Young Award.
Writing for Thrillist, Laura Studarus shared how she went from an introvert who eschewed sports to embracing the atmosphere of baseball in Japan.
Jordan Balazovic and Jared Young are the second pair of Canadians to play on the same KBO team. Jeeho Yoo wrote about the Doosan Bears duo for the Yonhap News Agency.
The Bob Nutting-owned Pittsburgh Pirates DFA’d Rowdy Tellez on Tuesday with the slugging first baseman needing four more plate appearances to trigger a $200,000 bonus.
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