There was an article (I'l try and find it after posting this) but the article claimed that JD changed his entire swing this off-season by watching countless hours of guys like Miggy and Braun.
Rod Allen mentioned it on the broadcast tonight but he went from bringing the bat through the hitting zone for only 3 frames of film, to 6 frames of film. Now I know this all sounds ridiculous but it's sure seemed to work for him thus far. He is flat out raking this week.
He actually grades out poorly defensivley, and i'm of the opinion that he just average on the basepaths. Now that's not a huge criticism because it's an upgrade at the moment of what Torii's done the past 2 months.
He may or may not be just a 4th OF but I think I'm ready to see him in the lineup daily and see if he runs himself into the ground or if he continues to be an everyday corner outfielder.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/rule-5-dark-horse-j-d-martinez/
Its very detailed and breaks down changes in his swing plane.
it's something I hadn't seen yet regarding J.D. Martinez, but it goes a long way in explaining/illustrating what I've heard from various sources about how Martinez retooled his swing and improved his hitting.
It is hard to watch them up here in Michigan though.
And I'm sure a bunch of Cubbies fans, so you are not alone in your sports pain.
Does anyone else miss Jim Leyland?
I still don't.
Way to keep your eye on the prize.
I wasn't bashing Leyland. He did a helluva a job with the Tigers. I just thought it was time for him to go. I like Ausmus, I think he'll be a good big league manager.
Now, go outside and enjoy a beautiful windy city sunrise.
Detroit has been money against Cleveland in recent years -- not so much this year, though. Hopefully, last night's result was the beginning of the usual trend.
And yeah...what can you say about JD? He's been absolutely on fire lately. My question, though, is where would the this team be right now without V-Mart? He's been on fire all season long.
Tigers just won 5-4 in 10 innings. And KC lost earlier as they got 3-hit by the Mariners, so Detroit now leads the Royals by 1 1/2.
Detroit was very fortunate to escape, but at least got a decent start out of JV this time. The bullpen was hot-and-cold in relief, but the biggest surprise was that...hold on tightly to something so that you don't fall over in shock...Phil Coke got the save by striking out 3 in the 9th (though he did give up a 2-out single because, well, that's just what Coke does.
Didn't listen to the stats, but the undeserving Joe Nathan had to have been credited for the win, despite blowing the save by dishing up 3 consecutive 2- out singles to Cleveland in the 9th, allowing them to tie it up.
Miggy drove in the winning Tiger run in the top of the 10th, because, well, that's what Miggy does. And does so well.
another good game by jd.
same cant be said for the 3rd base coach. in the last week he got victor thrown out at home by about 15 feet.
tonight cabrerra ran threw a stop sign when they didnt even challenege with a throw.
now, he just made the second out at home when we might have put up a big number in the inning.
to the baseball glitterati, am i nitpicking, is 3rd base coach tougher than it looks, or is this guy just bad?
September 12th, 2014 at 8:35 PM ^
Update: JD is still a good player. The concern of him being Brennan Boesch 2.0 looked valid for a bit, but he's overcome a rough stretch and is playing as well as ever right now.
For those wondering whether its safe to watch the Tigers again, I am not giving my personal "all clear", but we are ceartinly not in the downard spiral we were in very recently.
Also, credit to Ausmus, when things go bad finger pointing is rampant, but I think he did an admirable job weathering the storm. I also give him credit for nursing JD through his bad stretch. Rather than running him out there every night and killing his confidence he basically lifted him from the lineup for what seemed like 2 weeks.