While it is too early to push the panic button, or even be too concerned about the 2012 Detroit Tigers, I just wanted to go through some of my frustrations with the young season. The Tigers are struggling to manufacture runs, which usually results in an overall struggle to score a lot of runs. The bullpen is in the top 5 of innings pitched already this season, and the predicted poor defense is starting to catch up with the team.
The Tigers have been put together to score runs, and score a lot. They did not get in the Darvish sweepstakes, they let Washington take Gio Gonzalez, CJ Wilson was passed up, and the list could go on. Instead, Mike Illitch decided to spend his money on Prince Fielder. I think there were other moves that could have made this team a better post season team, but picking up one of the most feared left handed hitters is exciting. I love that we have the 5'11" bowling ball on the roster to protect Miggy. So far this year the Tigers have not been living up to their claim to fame. After the opening weekend against Boston, Detroit has the worst OBP in the AL. There has been a lot of times already that the lead off hitter will get on base and then they cannot get them home. It seems every game the Tigers will get a runner to 3rd with less than 2 outs and nobody can get the RBI. It is becoming really frustrating because you don't even need a hit in this situation, hit the ball to the outfield or a ground ball anywhere right of the 3rd baseman. It seems like the only way Detroit has been able to score is from the homerun ball, this is concerning in general (even when the team is bombing homeruns left and right) but it is a little scary when nobody is actually hitting the ball out of the park. For the first 2 series of the season it seemed like every hitter was getting good at bats, but lately we have been lucky to see 1 good AB per inning. A good at bat in my mind is not one that has to result in a hit. Take and waste some pitches to extend innings and pitch counts (last night Austin has 2 pop outs after 2 pitches, and he is in the lead off role). A sacrifice is a productive at bat, a walk, even 3 ball counts are acceptable. Right now it seems like a few select hitters are immediately in 0-2 counts as soon as they step in the batters box. The runs will begin to roll in as soon as the number of quality at bats increase.
The bullpen has had to pitch a lot of innings already. This is partially because of a Fister injury early in the game, starting two rookies who struggle to get past 5 innings, and 2 horrendous starts that knocked out starters in the 2nd and 3rd innings respectively. It will be important to get a stretch of quality starts as the season progresses just so the bullpen will be fresh when the playoffs come. Fister returning to the rotation should be a huge boost to this. At some point this season it would be really nice to see Scherzer be a consistent starter. He is already getting into his standard routine of a horrible start then followed up by a few good to great starts, then back to horrible. It will also be interesting to see how Porcello turns around with his start against the lowly Mariners tomorrow.
Finally, after a near spotless 2 week start to the season in the field, the Tigers have come back down to earth with multiple poor defensive plays in each of the last 5 games. Some of these plays haven't resulted in errors, but if they were made the game could have had a completely different outcome. It is turning out that Brandon Inge is a well below average defensive 2nd baseman, and while Miguel has made some very good plays at 3rd, his lack of range and errors have limited his effectiveness at times. The error bug has hit even the most sure-handed Tigers. Ramon and Alex have each had errors at critical times that either would have preserved a lead or stopped an inning from blowing up. The 2012 Tigers will never be confused for the mid-2000s Twins, but the defense needs to improve a lot if the bats continue to struggle.
I still think the Tigers are by far the best in the AL Central, and they should easily win the division and make the playoffs. But after 17 games, there has been some disappointing struggles for our own Tigers. Hopefully they can turn things around in the last 2 games against Seattle and carry the momentum into the little league park of the Yankees.
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