For the second installment of Verlander (MVP) and Schlereth (opposite of MVP) on the season leaves little choose from for one and about 25 people left for the other. If you watched the last series you know what I am talking about. I managed to find a couple to single out and discuss.
Verlander: Miguel Cabrera. Since his little 0-22 streak he had a couple weeks ago, he is 13 for his last 37 which includes 3 homeruns and 7 RBI. This is pretty impressive since lately it seems that neither Boesch or Jackson can get on base before him. He is not as locked in as he was during August/September of last season, but it is still April and batting .300+ with 6 HR’s is still impressive. Seattle was able to keep him off balance a little bit, and overall I would say they did a pretty good job pitching to him. The problem is that he is (in my opinion) the best hitter in MLB and even with 1 or 2 bad at bats in a game, he is still up 2 or 3 more times. He has been hitting the ball pretty hard, mostly to left field lately. I will be excited to see how his Yankee series goes. Some of those long fly balls he has hit, in the last week, to left or right center would have been gone in 90% of the parks in baseball currently. Even with the team not playing well, we are extremely lucky as fans. Miguel Cabrera’s at bats are nearly must see TV (when my wife looks up from the book she is reading just to see what the big fella does, you know he is special). The second tier of the Verlander award has to go to whoever (Leyland) made the decision to send Adam Wilk back to AAA and to send Brandon Inge packing. Hopefully Below can continue his success in the starting role, but man does this team need Doug Fister back (but that doesn’t seem likely for at least a couple more weeks).
Schlereth of the series: So many to choose here, this might be one of the toughest awards to give out all season. I think I was the most disappointed and frustrated with Max Scherzer’s start on Tuesday night. Looking at the starting matchups before the series started, in order to get 2 games we needed Max and Rick to pitch well. Max started off the series by hurling a stinker. He has looked absolutely terrible in his 2 starts in Comerica this season, hopefully he can pull it together this weekend in New York. As Detroit fans I think we have all seen this show enough already (7 IP 10K’s 2 ER’s then followed by 4 IP 10H 4BB’s and 6 ERs). It is time for him to make another step as a pitcher and become more consistent. If this team is going to win the World Series, he is going to have to pitch well. If he cannot make this step, it seems like Jacob Turner will have a position in the starting rotation come next season. The most frustrating part of this last start was it happened against Seattle, the worst offense in baseball. Come on Max you have to do better than that. The second tier Schlereth’s of the series: the entire infield defense, Brennan Boesch, Adam Wilk.
I look forward to the series where it will become tough to pick the MVP because everyone played so well (I suppose that happened against Boston the first weekend of the year, but it was before I was writing this new segment).
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