OT Detroit Tiger Fans - Who's hitting better than JD Martinez right now!? En Fuego!
So the Tigers will probably be in the race this year mainly because there seems to be a lot of parity this year and despite closer woes.
But you have to admit, it's nice having JD Martinez back. Since missing the first part of the season with a foot injury, Martinez has been back for 8 games (including tonight). Check out these numbers so far:
BA .500 (11/22), 6 HR, 12 RBI, 9 RS, 11 BB, .667 OBP, 1.318 SLG, 1.985 OPS.
Yes, it's a long season, but gotta be impressed. Tonight he was the third HR in a back to back to back jacks in the first inning following Avila and Miggy. Fun stuff.
GO TIGERS!
Enjoy it while you can because he's probably not in Detroit by late July.
P.S.- I fully hope to be wrong and that we're actually a contender.
People who follow metrics believe he is the worst defensive RF in the league. Add in that he doesn't steal bases or go from first to third, his value isn't as high as it should be.
I don't think it's a coincidence that these guys hit like this in a contract year. My fear is they fall off a cliff at the exact second the ink is dry on that long term deal.
All the bad contracts they signed are coming home to roost.
dude's hitting almost .400 and so far tonight is 3 for 3. i realize he's a lifetime .200 hitter but who knows, maybe he's had an epiphany.
Al's best signing will be him getting his son.
Could just be that he's healthy for the first time in a few years, and we're not over-using him.
BA .500 (11/22), 6 HR, 12 RBI, 9 RS, 11 BB, .667 OBP, 1.318 SLG, 1.985 OPS.
is that good
zero chance of tigers making playoffs.
just like the Lions - a few early season streaks then the late season collapse.
On a POSITIVE note, football is 3 months away.
The Tigers are better than their record & this division is up for grabs. No need to write them off just yet.
Blown saves were a pretty large part of the story last season in the Tigers' failure to get into the postseason. The bullpen has been the Achilles heel for a while.
& there can be no in-between.
was idiotic, but you did not say that I was idiotic. Subtleties...
retract this statement.
I'm becoming an Ausmus fan. Weird.
I didn't think he deserved to come back, but I did see some improvement from him last year. Love his big decisive decisions so far. Leyland (I liked him) would ride a dead horse like none other. Rondon didn't even get 3 strikes. Franky was giving the exact right amount of rope. He didn't give up on Victor when fans I think were ready.
I'm not particularly bullish on the team. Even if bullpen stays settled its apparent this rotation is mediocre. We needed all star JZ. He has 0.0% chance on being an allstar, and Norris and Boyd are at best really inconsistent.
But I like Ausmus now. They should be worth watching till at least August.
And yes, JD is making it fun.
that Victor Martinez's contract expires after next year, not after this year.
If Victor, whose clubhouse presence and general hitting ability are to be praised, were gone after this year, the DH spot would open up, and you could alternate guys like Miggy, JD, Upton and Castellanos in that role, preserving their legs and presumably their health for later in the season (not to mention later in their careers). And, with that sort of DH rotation, odds are the defense would improve in their spots on a daily basis. Looking for a combination corner OF and corner IF guy, with an emphasis on defense, would be a great replacement for Victor.....who is the poster child for one-way players.
Also, if Victor were gone after this year, you may already have seen the Tigers invest the equivalent of expired contracts on V-Mart ($18 mils), Sanchez ($16 mils), K-Rod ($6 mils), guys already gone like Pelfrey and Lowe ($10 mils, I think) and reinvesting those dollars by signing JD to a long-term contract.
Hopefully, Chris Ilitch will look at it as a one-year investment of having both V-Mart and JD on the roster in 2018 and sign JD anyway. He'll be expensive, but I believe we'd get more value out of a 6-year deal for JD versus, say, Upton. Go Tigers!
even if we had to pay $5 mils of his contract next year. We'd miss him in the clubhouse, but that's a risk we should take.