Justin Verlander matchup 8/28/22

[Pat Kelly]

My hope was to rest key players given the day off Monday you help a Rutschman etc.  Mountcastle clearly  needs a mental break and why put him in against Verlander.  Game is lost with four fresh players sitting on the bench.   Can’t keep grinding away everyday with the same group - need to plug-in other players. Stowers ties the game Thursday and has two hits Friday and sits,  Vavra has not played much between paternity leave and recent scuffles.   Sometimes you steal a win by taking a different approach. 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Pat Kelly

[Pat Kelly]

Good to see Stowers in there and he gets a hit.  Hyde’s love and expectation on Odor continues to confound me.   

[Yardball85]

On 8/28/2022 at 12:07 PM, turtlebowl said:

You can tell Mountcastle is being more cognizant of sliders and curves so it appears he is trying to wait longer for a  swing decision. In some respects it has paid off because he has taken some closer pitches and not just flailing away at pitches a foot outside. Issue now is he is getting beat by hard stuff.  Last season he destroyed any fastball inner 1/2 regardless of speed.
 

Maybe this is the classic sophomore slump. That to me is caused by overthinking after kind of winging it your first year. If this isn’t the case then unfortunately Mountcastle probably won’t end up being the player we had hoped.  

Good post re: sliders and curves.  I agree.