Trea Turner hit safely in 8 straight trips to the plate starting with his double in the 8th inning Friday evening. He went 5 for 5 Saturday, and 2 for 2 in his first two plate appearances Sunday. Even counting his strikeout to end the top of the fourth, Trea is now batting .358 with a 1.034 OPS for the season. For the last 7 days before today, he’s batting .553 with a 1.553 OPS.
This didn’t come out of nowhere. Trea has been steadily heating up all month.
For the last few days I have laid out several broad hints that someone should come filch Trea Turner from me during the Great Wolverine Sell-Off. You have all ignored this outstanding advice. But now it may be too late. I have been waiting for the 1.000+ OPS version of Trea Turner for years. I just might not be willing to trade him now that it has arrived.
Trea is not the only good thing happening to the Woeverines these days. Here are a few more:
- Just a few days ago, Old Detroit was so low in 11th place the 10th place team had a winning percentage twice as good. This morning, however, the W’s have improved their winning percentage by over .120 points. Today only the Drive have a winning percentage twice as good. And the W’s are only 0.006 percentage points of erasing even the Drive from the list of twice-as-good.
- The Nats are in the midst of a series with the Red Sox. Trea apparently failed to keep social distance from his Wolverine teammate Rafael Devers, who also has spent the first half of the season mostly spinning his wheels. Devers went 1 for 8, as usual, during the first two games of the series, but the incubation period is over. Today Rafael is 2 for 2 with a walk and a homer. So far.
- I hardly dare to mention this, but…Lewis Brinson, through the first half of the 2020 season, compiled an OPS of .362. In the second half? 1.125! For the entire season, his OPS is now better than Shogo Akiyama’s. Wolverine management is considering shelving Shogo and bringing Brinson for September.
- Austin Hedges, like Turner, is about to enter the last month of his Wolverine rookie status. He has always been delightful on defense and awful on offense. His OPS in the first half of the season was a lowly .556 — towering over Brinson, but well below replacement level. But in the second half? .929.
- Michael Pineda’s suspension is almost over. A couple of postponed games have postponed his eligibility to return from today to Tuesday. He could give me 5 starts in September. If Walker Buehler can return to form, Andrew Heaney keep putting together solid starts, Robbie Ray can have his Randy Johnson epiphany on how to control his pitches, and Mitch Keller can get off the IL… we could have a pitching staff!
Do you see where this is leading? I can’t stand to tank. I’ll make trades for the overall good of the team, taking the long view, but I’ll never stack a team to lose. I want to go for it! I am talking myself into going for it! You better stop me soon if you want any of my remaining good players!
It may already be too late. I hear the remaining Wolverines held a meeting last night. They decided to see how things go today, and then vote on whether to try to win the whole thing in September.
I know, I know — we’re 10 games out with 10 teams to pass. We can’t win the season.
But what is this season? It’s basically two months of baseball. We can still win one of those two months.
We could win September. It’s only a month, but this year that’s practically half a season. The league may decline to let us put our September championship on the league’s trophy, but if we decide to go for it, and if we win it, you can bet we’ll have our own memorial to the month we went for it against all reason.
Note: While I was writing this, Trea hit another single. He’s now 8 for his last 9, his average is up to .363, and his OPS is at 1.041. It’s already too late! You’ll never pry Trea Turner away now. I don’t care how my players vote: I am going to enjoy watching Trea Turner the Wolverine in September.
Hang on — Devers is up…let’s see how he does.
He singled! Trea and Rafael are 6 for 7 today with a homer! I can’t break them up now. I just can’t stand to do it.
I just polled the players. The vote is in. The Wolverines have closed their bazaar. We are going to win September.
Goodbye, Luis Robert. It would have been nice.