Rod just made the point that:

"JV has now learned to let the Tiger defense that is behind him, help him"

This was based on JV's K decline to seven in last night's game.

Tiger defense is an oxymoron. I'm sure JV has learned many things over the years.

I sincerely hope that that was not one of them.

He can do just fine "pitching to contact." As long as he gives up nothing but fly balls to center field.

Good point. That is about the only "safe" spot.

I get a kick out of watching JV employ his ever changing "strategy". He starts with medium speed pitches now and hopes that with proper placement he can get by early on. I assume this is to keep his pitch count down.

When he gets toward the bottom of the order, or elsewhere to a weak hitter with no runners on, he is less careful with location. This has resulted in four solo HRs in his last two games - I believe all by pretty much non home run hitters.

Amazingly, so far, his HR to inning ratio is still a little better than last year.

My take (despite the fact that posters wish to give him advice every time the other team gets a hit) is that he is one of the smartest/"learningest" pitchers that I have seen. I would say the same thing about Victor , last year, with respect to hitting. Miggy picked up on it.

Maybe Rick,Max and Fister can do the same with JV's "approach".

Justin Verlander is not only baseball smart ..I've heard he is one of the hardest workers in the game. I have confidence he will have an excellent second half ..especially down the stretch. Might still win 20, but depends upon defense behind him. Tiger 5-9 offense hopefully will do better in 2nd half than 1st half, especially 5-6. That offense sure cannot get worse, can it?

Rod has insight?

To what?

Certainly not baseball.

"To what?"

Eating.

Chasing scrawny Japanese Pitchers.

He didn't do that well either. Chased the guy all over the field and still couldn't catch him.

It looked like he had a corncob up his a**.

He probably did.

Maybe the corncob was Country Strong

Well if you remember the game last night, when they put up the list of interesting facts related to the 4th of july, the one that caught Rod's eye was the World's longest hot dog (196 feet).

I wanted so badly to make a joke out of that.

Well he is a wienerhead

Rod's wrong.

And he has clearly forgotten what a quality defensive infield is. We are serviceable, at best. Dunces, at worst.

Did Rod just CRITICIZE Cabrera, saying he has grounded into a lot of double plays and then had the balls to say,

"Sorry, gotta give ya both sides of the story."

Oh, shut the PUCK up, Rod! You are about as fair and balanced as Fox News!

I heard that too Hugo, hilarious. Just like your comment.