How Tigers Took Over Top Of AL Central
PLUS: GRIFFIN CANNING RIDES TO THE RESCUE AFTER QUIET METS SIGNING
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Reader Reacts: How Did Ryan Improve With Age?
“How do we know Nolan Ryan did things with talent alone? Or anyone else from that era, including many Hall of Famers?
Ryan, in his prime from ages 25-31 (1972-78), averaged an amazing 10.08 strikeouts per nine innings. Then, from ages 32-38, he dropped to 8.57 – still excellent, but entirely consistent with the aging pattern of a well-conditioned athlete. It was during this period that his walk totals declined dramatically, and the Astros put him on a pitch-count limit, helping to offset some of the effects of age. Also during this period, Steve Carlton overtook him for the all-time strikeout leadership for a while.
Then a surprising thing happened in 1986: Ryan’s SO rate jumped to 9.81, his best in eight years. This was followed by an incredible thing in 1987: his SO rate soared to 11.48, the best in baseball history to that point – and by a 40-year-old pitcher! And he nearly broke the record at age 42 (11.32), and was still well over ten at age 44! From ages 39-44, his SO rate was 10.48, better even than in his historic heyday. It was unprecedented. Ryan was a once-in-a-lifetime athlete, we were told.
Meanwhile, his mound-mate Mike Scott was making history of his own. By age 30, Scott was only 29-44 lifetime with a CAREER total of 307 strikeouts. Then he had a good year in 1985, and in ’86 was almost unhittable: 306 K’s, an ERA title, a Cy Young Award, and a dominant post-season performance. Nobody in the 20th century had ever had 300 strikeouts at age 31+, let alone doing it after never having even 150 before. Scott had three more very strong years before arm problems ended his career. It was all Roger Craig’s splitter, we were told, or maybe Scott was doctoring the ball.
Now, looking back with 20-20 hindsight, here we have two aging pitchers enjoying unprecedented turnarounds on the same team, at the same time, which happens to be what we now realize was the dawn of the PED-era in baseball. And we’re still supposed to believe it was just two freaks of nature?”
— Bill Deane, Cooperstown, NY
On Another Subject: Bonds vs. Aaron
You might need to run some kind of correction re: where Bonds stands re: Aaron. As much as I wish otherwise, Bonds is the all-time career and single-season leader (unless I misinterpreted what you wrote).
— Andrew Sharp, Las Vegas
I know what the numbers say but my point was that many historians and baseball purists accept Aaron as the TRUE home run king in spite of that. Many other people I know in the industry agree. In fact, the title of the biography I wrote last year was Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron.
— Dan Schlossberg, HtP weekend editor, Fair Lawn, NJ
Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Because his mom was a fan of Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, the full name of the Boston center-fielder is Ceddanne Chipper Nicasio Marte Rafaela . . .
Kirby Yates has become the 14th pitcher on the Dodgers IL (15 including Shohei Ohtani’s continued recovery from UCL surgery). Yates joins Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen as injured members of the L.A. bullpen . . .
Still waiting for oft-injured Justin Verlander to win a game for the Giants, who gave him a one-year contract for $15 million — the richest ever given to a player that old (42) . . .
Pitching poses big problems in Houston, where Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia, and J.P. France are on the 60-day IL, Spencer Arrighetti is on the 15-day IL, and Hayden Wesneski needs Tommy John elbow surgery — leaving a rotation of Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez, Ronel Blanco, and Lance McCullers, Jr. . .
No surprise that Kansas City is off to a sluggish start with starting pitchers Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans sidelined by injury and Sal Perez, Jonathan India, and Vinnie Pasquantino struggling at the plate . . .
Spencer Strider’s much-heralded return to Atlanta’s rotation was a bust at Nationals Park earlier this week, when the strikeout pitcher’s velocity was down significantly . . .
The Phillies have been fine since Jose Alvarado’s 80-game PEDs suspension but their schedule (Rockies, etc.) hasn’t been too tough either.
Leading Off
Detroit Tigers: 5 Thoughts on a Tremendous Start
By Joe Underhill
At 33-17 entering play Thursday, the Detroit Tigers are off to their best 50-game start since 2006. Outside of the Tigers’ clubhouse, you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone who would have predicted the they would have the most wins at the 50-game mark.
Here are five reasons why the Tigers are one of the best teams in baseball.
Greater than the sum of their parts.
The Tigers exemplify this statement more than any team in baseball. They rode “pitching chaos” to a playoff appearance in 2024 even with their top three center-fielders on the IL before the season started. They have used 18 position players and 19 pitchers already this season and all of them have contributed to wins. With Casey Mize and Reese Olson currently on the IL, the Tigers are again reaching into their bag of chaos and finding ways to continue winning series.
How do you like me now?
If you polled Detroit fans at the start of spring training and asked them to rank the value the Tigers were going to receive for Javier Baez, Spencer Torkelson and Casey Mize, the answer would have been little to no value.
A number of writers (I’m guilty here) thought Torkelson needed a change of scenery. Mize looked the part of a back-of-the-rotation starter and Baez (optimistically) looked like he would be a defensive replacement until the contract required him to be DFA’d. Baez, more than any player on the team, faced the wrath of fans because of the six-year, $140 million deal he signed.
All Baez has done is lead the team in WAR* (1.7) while playing elite defense…in center field, a position he hadn’t played since high school. The Cubs had him play 4.2 innings of corner outfield during his time there, but no one would have predicted Baez would make that smooth of a transition.
He’s also hitting .284 with an OPS+ of 123.
Torkelson revamped his swing, made a slight adjustment to his stance and is looking like the player the Tigers thought they were getting when they drafted him first overall. On the year, Torkelson is hitting .249 with a team-leading 12 home runs and 39 RBIs. Yet what is often missed is he is playing above-average defense at first. Before having to go to the IL with a hamstring strain, Mize had posted a 6-1 record with a 2.53 ERA. He has looked fully recovered from the injuries that had derailed his last couple of seasons.
Still getting better.
Zach McKinstry is 30, Gleyber Torres is 28 and Riley Greene is 24. No one is surprised to hear that Greene is continuing to build on his all-star 2024, but what about Torres and McKinstry?
Torres struck out to much and was a terrible defender, so the Yankees decided they didn’t want him anymore. Torres has a strikeout rate under 10%, more walks than strikeouts, and is hitting the ball has hard as he has in his career.
He isn’t going to win a Gold Glove, but he is far from the worst defender at the position.
McKinstry is one of manager AJ Hinch’s Swiss Army Knife players. He has played average or better defense at five positions, allowing Hinch to maximize offensive match-ups.
McKinstry is also hitting .284 with 14 extra-base hits, making him a key cog in the lineup. The growth of McKinstry, who many viewed as a DFA candidate going into last off-season, along with the resurgence of Torres and the continued development of Greene, is a big reason why they Tigers have one of the most potent lineups in baseball.
Still Learning.
The Tigers have a number of young players who are learning at the Major League level, but the three that are most central to the Tigers continued success are Colt Keith, Trey Sweeney, and Jackson Jobe.
Keith came to spring training getting ready to be the first baseman every day, then with Torkelson’s hot start and a Torres injury he shifted to second. Now he’s splitting time at first, second and DH.
It was a cold start at the plate for Keith, whose bat has started to warm with the weather. The Tigers need his bat. If he can master the two positions, it will continue to give Hinch flexibility with his lineups.
Part of the catalyst that pushed the Tigers into the playoffs last season. Sweeney and is off to a solid start in 2025. His defense has not been as strong in 2025 as it was down the stretch last year and there are still too many unproductive at-bats.
Yet at least once a series, he reminds you why he was a first-round pick. If he can put it together, the Tigers will have an answer at one of the most important positions on the diamond.
Finally, Jackson Jobe entered the year as the top right-handed pitcher on most prospect lists. He’s had a solid start to the year, the Tigers have won all of his starts, and he is beginning to refine the skill set that made him an elite prospect. He still needs to cut his walk rate, which wasn’t an issue in the minor leagues. The mix of elite pitches along with command have a promising future in front of him.
Best coaching staff in the game.
AJ Hinch does not receive enough credit for the job he has done in turning the Tigers into one of the best teams in baseball. He is a master at laying out match-ups and in creating a belief in his players that they can excel in the situations he puts them into.
The fact there is no complaining when a player is pinch-hit for and that every player on the bench knows when they might be used and is ready and willing to accept the role is a testament to the culture that Hinch has created.
He doesn’t work alone. The Tigers are one of the best offensive teams in baseball, a testament to the work of Keith Beauregard (hitting coach), Michael Brdar (hitting coach) and Lance Zawadzki (assistant hitting coach), plus the aggressive tone set by third base coach Joey Cora.
The pitching staff is elite and Chris Fetter (pitching coach) may be the best in the game, along with Robin Lund (assistant pitching coach), a master at helping pitchers master their mechanics, and Juan Nieves (assistant pitching coach/bullpen) who helps pitchers prepare for the match-ups they are likely to face.
Each coach on the bench has a role they fill with aplomb, a major reason why the players are prepared and never overwhelmed by an in-game situation.
Joe Underhill is a high school administrator and diehard baseball fan and fan of the city of Detroit. Joe currently writes for the HTP Newsletter. You can contact Joe at joe.underhill@auburn.org or follow him Joe on Twitter@TransplantedDet and @transplanteddet.bsky.social.
Cleaning Up
Griffin Canning Comes Out Of Nowhere To Boost Mets
By Dan Schlossberg
Before the start of the 2025 season, not too many people had ever heard of Griffin Canning.
Those who did weren’t even sure if his name was Griffin Canning or Canning Griffin.
But the Atlanta Braves must have known something last winter when they traded slugger Jorge Soler to the Angels and settled for Canning in exchange.
Unfortunately for the Braves, they subsequently released their newly-acquired right-hander, sending him into free agency. Fans and media members yawned when he signed with the New York Mets.
Given a chance to pitch this spring, however, those yawns changed to wide-eyed gapes. The 28-year-old pitcher was not only good but the best arm in a much-belittled New York rotation.
“Sometimes you come into a new environment and somebody might say something a different way or little things like that,” Canning told Mike Puma of The New York Post.
“You can kind of feed off the energy of the guys.”
After six years with the Angels, where he posted an unimpressive 5.19 ERA in 32 outings last year, Canning convinced the Mets to give him a one-year, $4.25 million contract. It might be the steal of the year.
Entering play Thursday, he had a 5-1 record and 2.47 earned run average over his first nine starts.
Even before spring training, the newest Met studied something called a KinaTrax, which shows a three-dimensional image of a pitcher’s delivery. He said exposure to the technology was a major factor in his decision to sign with the Mets.
He was also aware that pitching coach Jeremy Hefner was instrumental in the success of retread projects Luis Severino and Sean Manaea last season.
“I think it would be stupid not to use the technology to get yourself better,” he told The Post. “But it also matters if the guys that are running it and dissecting it boil it down in a sample way so that you can understand it.”
Those guys this year include Desi Druschel, the new assistant pitching coach, and director of pitching development Eric Jagers.
Thanks to an early-season schedule heavy in home games and mediocre opponents, the Mets jumped off to a strong start in the National League East. But the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies knocked them out of first place earlier this week.
The fans have responded, averaging some 36,705 per game according to The Post. That ranks seventh in the major leagues after the team finished 17th in attendance last year.
The signing of superstar slugger Juan Soto helped but so did the strong performance of Canning, Tylor Megill, and other Mets starters.
Whether they can maintain their high performance level for the whole season remains to be seen.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is a national baseball writer for forbes.com and author of 43 baseball books, including The New Baseball Bible and Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Extra Innings: Teammates Vie For Top Rookie
“The kid is hitting. He’s going to play more. That’s just the way it goes, and he’s doing a great job. I want to keep him active, as well as [Sean] Murphy. When you can do that, you may get a lot out of that one position.”
— Braves manager Brian Snitker on red-hot rookie catcher Drake Baldwin
After being denigrated for having a weak farm system, Atlanta has the two top NL Rookie of the Year favorites in starting pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver and Baldwin . . .
Baldwin could become DH for the Braves if incumbent Marcell Ozuna opts for free agency this fall . . .
Former Rookie of the Year Craig Kimbrel, now 37, has been pitching well for Triple-A Gwinnett albeit with diminished velocity . . .
Two-time MVP Dale Murphy returns to Atlanta as a coach for the Futures Game, scheduled for Saturday, July 12 at Truist Park.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.