Hello again folks I am back again. Sorry for the long absence, not that anyone really noticed, but I have been on vacation and needed a break from blogging about my frustrations with the Tigers. Everyone says that the baseball season is a marathon, and I am beginning to realize how correct that statement is while trying to blog about every game and/or series. It is easy to project a single game’s failures over the course of a season and get frustrated with this high payroll team “under achieving.” Seriously, why can’t they just win every game (or at least every series). Well people, it is tough to win baseball games in the MLB, even with a high payroll. Let’s take a look back at the first half and see if we can find any encouragement for the second half.
A few short months ago the Tigers were a favorite to make (and likely win) the World Series, so what has changed? Well every role player seems to be having an average or slightly below average season. Verlander, Cabrera and Prince are doing what they can to put the entire load on their shoulders, but they need help. Delmon Young has been forced into the 5 hole and he just isn’t a 5th hitter, he doesn’t get on base enough. Delmon is putting little to no pressure on the pitcher if Prince gets on base. Young has become everyone’s least favorite Tiger, and while some of that has to do with his stupidity off the field, the rest is a little unfair to him. A big lipped square peg cannot fit into the round 5 hole. Did you know that Delmon is having an average season for him? His split is .271/ .298/ .418. The average is just below his career average and the slugging is right at average. Yes, his OBP is 20 points lower than average, and that has been the main issue. But his is on pace to have close to 20 home runs, he averages less than 14. knew Delmon cannot field a position, so with VMart being sidelined it has given him a spot in the lineup. The encouraging thing here is that we don’t have to see Young in the outfield. There is no way that Delmon Young is not squarely on the trading block this month as part of a package deal to get another bat in the lineup. The Tigers have made their DH decision for the next 3 years with VMart, so might as well try to get something for the soon-to-be free agent.
The Tigers are getting no production out of the 2nd basemen by committee. Yes, Raburn is hitting over .300 since coming back from Toledo, but his batting average is still under .200 for the season. This position is the weakest on paper, but every team has holes. We knew the 2nd base position was our weak link going into the season. Most people want the Tigers to trade for a franchise 2nd bagger, but that just isn’t a realistic possibility at this point (more on the trade possibilities in the next post).
Avila, Peralta, and Boesch are struggling offensively. The home runs are down for all 3, and the averages for Avila and Boesch are much lower than anyone expected. On top of this, 2 of the 3 (Peralta and Boesch) have been terrible in the field. I will give Alex a little pass here, he has been injured for most of the first half and continues to get abused behind the plate, but in the last few series before the All-Star break he seemed to be driving the ball again.
Defensively this team is beyond awful. Some of the games looks worse than the LLWS. Coming into the season we expected the defense to be a weakness, but the offense would score enough to cover up the lack of consistency in the field. On top of that, everyone was most worried about Miggy moving back across the diamond to play 3rd. Do you realize he has been the best starting infielder for the first half. My hat is off to Cabrera for how hard he worked in the off season. Austin, Avila, and Miguel have been good defensively (with Austin being the best CF in baseball in my mind). The rest of the 5 starting position players are below average fielders with Fielder and Boesch having career worst years. On top of that, the middle infielders really struggle with turning double plays consistently. As fans, we cannot expect the defense to get any better over the 2nd half of the season, so we could very well be looking at close to 100 unearned runs in 162 games… I am starting to feel sick.
There have been some very encouraging things about the first 86 games though. Austin, Cabrera and Prince are knocking the cover off the ball. Miguel was just the 7th player in Detroit Tigers history to have more than 15 home runs, 60 rbis and 100 hits before the ASG and he is easily clear of that mark: 18/71/108. He is having one of the best offensive seasons of any Tiger ever, and should be in the middle of the MVP discussion at this point in the season. I mean, how many players that finish with 35 HRs, 138 RBIs and 210 hits with a .320 average do not win the MVP? I would guess not many. Currently Austin is second in the AL in OBP and BA, and if he continues to get on base Miguel will continue to drive him home. Most people were frustrated with Prince’s lack of power in the first half, but he has started to pick things up over the last week. I would be surprised if he does not finish with 30+ hrs and 110+ RBIs. I am not sure if you can ask more from just 3 guys.
The starting pitching and bullpen have been very good overall. Yes, Doug Fister is not 12-2 with a 1.75 ERA like most people expected and JV doesn’t have 20 wins yet, but quietly Max and Rick have put together a solid month of June. Verlander is still in the top 3 of most pitching categories, and if he can get some consistent run support he will have a big second half. Drew Smyly has been better than anyone expected (and if you expected more you are a moron). Fister still looks a little bothered by his oblique injury, but hopefully the All-Star break was a good rest period. There is no reason to believe he will be as bad as he has been in the first half. The Tigers are on pace to crush the AL strikeout record for an entire team. Verlander, Max, and Smyly have been striking out a lot of batters, but the bullpen has been off the charts so far. Besides Below, the rest of the bullpen comes in and strikes people out. The dynamic thing about them though is they get people to swing and miss in different ways. Villareal uses pin point location with a 98 mph heater to set up a nasty drop off the table slider. Benoit uses his best changeup in baseball. Coke uses effective wildness and knee-locking breaking balls. Valverde… well lets move on.
There is still a lot of things to be excited about this year’s Detroit Tigers team (that statement is as much for me as anyone). They have made it through some injuries and a stretch of playing some of the worst baseball anyone will ever see from an MLB team, and somehow they are 44-42 (one game behind last year’s dream season). Go Tigers.
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