Tigers at the 1/4 point: worth watching
I posted one of these at the 20 game mark. Then, they were just below 500 but "those in the know" said they were fools gold due to an easy schedule.Unsaid was how snake bit they were, and that they could have easily had 5-6 more wins over that stretch.
40 games in, tonight was one of the best wins in a while. I'll take it over anything from the Ausmus era. This team is decimated by injuries but still finds ways to win. I think they have to be considered the surprise team in baseball with a chance to take 1st place in the central tomrrow.
I don't watch every game like during the Leyland years, but when I do watch I really enjoy this club.
Stats seem to bear this out. Last year, Detroit was dead last in defensive efficiency (% of balls in play that turn into outs) at about 68%. Best in the league was 72%, so it's fairly tight spread. So far this season, they're sitting at 71%, good for 11th in MLB.
The AL Central is not really a fun division, and the state of things in the AL Central says more about that division than the actual competitiveness of any of the teams in it, but this team is unexpectedly fun to watch - that comeback last night was no exception. Where there were no expectations, or at least very few, the Tigers have displayed that scrappy play that the Gardenhire-era Twins did.
What about giving Cabrera the Verlander treatment and trading him at some point to a World Series contender?
As much as I would like to see him (and Verlander) a Tiger for life, I was pretty happy for JV last season in winning it all with Houston.
Depends on the return. I would hope that they could get a bigger return than what they got for Verlander AKA not very much.
Not a single team in MLB would take on that albatross of a contract. Thing is he can still hit but that contract makes him impossible to trade let alone get anything for him. Miggy will be a Tigers for life unless they find some way to package him with a major asset like Fulmer and even then the return won't be much.
If he wanted to throw around crazy amounts of money, he's had (and will have) better targets than the 2018 Miggy.
Tigers return on JV trade you note as "not very much". Time will tell, but they got their number 1 propect out of it in Perez and a fairly solid prospect in Daz Cameron (Rogers looks like a career minor leaguer to me). Both are very young and likely to grow both physically and in smarts. You may end up being right about it, but I think that in 5 years we'll see it as an important part of the rebuild.
Probably the best starting rotation in the American league is getting wasted by insanely poor bullpen pitching right now. Last year Cleveland's bullpen had a team ERA of 2.23 and this year it's a whopping 5.89 and as you all saw yesterday - cabable of letting ANY lead disapear quickly.
They let Shaw go in FA to Colorado where he's getting shelled but he was an innings eater who provided a bridge to Miller & Allen. Now it's a confederacy of dunces and even Miller (again as you saw last night) is getting hit hard.
Under Tito the Indians have been slow starters but this start is their worst in several years. The window for Cleveland is closing (lots of pitching conracts coming up for renewal next year) and I dont see the Dolan's ponying up the money to keep everybody.
Oh well at least we've got the Cavs……Browns……Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?
Kluber, Carrasco, Bauer & Clevinger are slightly better IMO than Verlander, Keuchel, McCullers & Cole.
But Tomlin has been such a disaster this year (especially compared to Morton) that on the whole you're probably right.
Same issue that plagued the Tigers in the recent "glory" years. Great hitting, Starting pitching. Crappy Bullpen. You can't win without good relievers
Being in Cleveland.
That horrible decision was the equivalent of locating the Hockey Hall of Fame in Cairo, Egypt.
Agreed. We have vs LAA and @ BOS within the next 3 weeks so ill wait until then to use as a gauge.
July looks like it could be a bit of a bloodbath for us: @ Cubbies, @ Astros, vs Bos
Gardy has the kids wanting to play add that along with a bullpen that can actually get guys out and good things happen.
Though I don't expect this to hold up through September, it atleast offers something daily to watch on TV sports wise right now. Hell, might have to hit up Comerica for a game or 2 with the weather growing nicer and them playing like this.
I think they will regress once Boston, Houston and LA show up on the schedule.
Some people forgot was that we traded for Fulmer, Boyd and Norris for good reason. Norris will hopefully figure things out in Toledo, because he has the potential. Boyd is realizing his potential and Fulmer, despite a few rough outings, has been as advertised. In fact, if Fulmer's last two starts were just average for him, the Tigers might have a couple more wins. Throw Liriano in there and you have a decent starting rotation.
My fear is that we hang around the division lead at the trade deadline and become buyers instead of sellers. We still need to build up our farm system full of position players.
winning teams.
Their SOS at ESPN computerized RPI rating is the lowest that I've ever seen for any team this late in the season. Actually surprised they haven't won a few more games considering they were on pace for a 90 loss season at the 1/4 mark (73-89 to be precise). Wonder what the tone would be if they had faced Texas Rangers schedule of 29 games against winning teams right now?
Need to re-visit this question in another month or so get a better idea exactly where they are at IMO.
winning teams.
Their SOS at ESPN computerized RPI rating is the lowest that I've ever seen for any team this late in the season. Actually surprised they haven't won a few more games considering they were on pace for a 90 loss season at the 1/4 mark (73-89 to be precise). Wonder what the tone would be if they had faced Texas Rangers schedule of 29 games against winning teams right now?
Need to re-visit this question in another month or so get a better idea exactly where they are at IMO.
I don't think you can really be a "surprise team" if the "surprise" is that you are some how in first place with a record below .500 simply because your division is absolute trash and has no shot against the real competition out there, but that's just me.
Had a lot of fun. Took three kids and had some good seats. Just getting settled in and the grand slam launched. Thought, well this is going to be painful. Game moves on and Cleavland keeps answering any Detroit offense. It was getting colder and bargained with kids to leave after the 7th. The kids who had been antsy to leave were now begging to stay till the end.
Most enjoyable baseball game I have been to in a very long time. I make no claim the Tigers are a contender or elite team. Just a fun ball of chaos.
kind of scary. Go Tiger's!! Go Blue!!
Gardy was still the Manager of the Twins when Jim retired. If Leyland would have packed it in a year earlier the Tigers could have gotten Tito Francona. Since he was fired by the Red Sox after the 2012 season. Leyland stuck around until after the 2013 season and Gardy was managing the Twins through 2014. But, JL stayed one year to long, and the Indians scooped up Francona and the Tigers screwed the pooch by hiring BA.
I want to say I am surprised, but Gardie is just a damn good coach and gets the max out of his guys. I recall many Twins teams that had no business being as good as they were. I wish we would have gotten him a few years ago.
the Tiger's are fun to watch. I haven't seen a Tiger team grind out the at bats like this current team in a while. This year's ballclub much more aggressive than the lethargic Ausmus and Leyland clubs. Gardenhire is an upgrade over those two in my opinion. I like the more athletic direction the Tiger's seem to be heading. Like to see the Tiger's unload Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez but that is Will be near impossible. The pitching has been solid so far. Long way to go.
Its a shame that they wasted so much talent on Ausmus. Too bad Gardenhire was not hired right after Leyland left...coulda won it all.
The Tigers are making it interesting for sure.
On a family note, Bark in the Park was a huge success on Monday (5/14). The weather was terrific (80 degree high, no rain.) The humane society organized a bring-your-dog event and populated close to four sections in the upper deck. Attendence was really low so the Tiger franchise didn't lose any revenue to give up hundreds of seats for dogs.
AND the Tigers broke their losing streak to the Indians.
They are better than expected, and I'm pleasantly happy with Gardenhire thus far. He's going to destroy some bullpen arms at this rate, but that's a problem for more coaches it seems.
How they generate offense still astounds me, but hell, keep it going.
It helps that they are in the worst divison in baseball by a wide margin
I'll be at all of the games this weekend at Safeco. Fun watching a young team battle. With a little health-luck they could continue to fight toward 80ish wins.
I'd love to see Ronimal stick around through the rebuilding and see how far he can take a team in the postseason with a loaded roster.