Happy Father’s Day Friends! I’m going to spend my day relaxing outside, reading, and cursing the Tigers.
This Tigers tailspin has been going on for nearly a month now. Miraculously, the Tigers have remained in first place during this 8-17 run, but the Royals are hot on our trail, only 1 1/2 games out after their sixth consecutive win yesterday. In fact, the entire division is in the hunt. The Tigers had a larger lead on the division a month ago (7 games) than they do on last place right now (4.5 games).
Like any fanatic, I work hard to make sure that I’m correctly placing my blame, as it somehow makes me feel a little better to be mad at the right people. So, using the incredible tools available at Baseball-Reference.com, I pulled some very basic team and player stats. You can click on the hyperlinked words below for more info.
Games 1-39: 27 wins, 12 losses.
Batting: .278 BA, .757 OPS, 4.8 runs per game
Pitching: Team ERA 3.13
Games 40-64: 8 wins, 17 losses.
Batting: .266 BA, .764 OPS, 4.0 runs per game
Pitching: Team ERA 5.39.
Hitting has been pretty consistent. We’re scoring a little less, which is probably due to some mixture of luck and situational hitting. The Tigers have slipped to middle of the pack with runners in scoring position. But I expect that number to come back up, and the runs per game to climb back towards 5.
Fielding is much harder to split-out like this, but I’ve heard Dan Dickerson say over and over what we’ve gone from top of the AL to bottom four over the past month, so that’s a part of the problem. I think we all see that on a daily basis.
But the pitching has been horrendous, and really, nearly the entire pitching staff is to blame. Take a look at this.
Of the regular guys on the staff, 8 of them have been awful over the past month. Maybe we can exclude Smyly from that label, but everyone else save Sanchez, Chamberlain, and Alburquerque should have to come and mow our lawns for what they’ve put us through. The Tigers pitching staff has been handing out hits and walks like they’re flyers on the Vegas Strip. Not surprisingly, the team ERA for June is worst in the AL, and the team WHIP is second worst.
I expect Scherzer and Verlander to be much better. We’ve already seen it from Scherzer. But Nathan, Reed, Krol, and Coke are legitimate issues, and I fear that no lead will be safe until a couple of moves are made. Hanrahan still isn’t pitching live BP, and Toledo isn’t much help. Dombrowski – work your magic.
Tigers have a shot at a rare series victory today, which is sorely needed for a dozen or so reasons.
1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Martinez, LF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Avila, C
9. Suarez, SS
Good write up Kevin! “Handing out hits and walks like they’re flyers on the Vegas Strip”…I love that analogy!
Kinsler looks like he may be coming out of his funk. Cabrera has not been hitting the ball hard at all; 2 of his hits and 3 of his RBI have been on balls he bounced over the pitcher’s head. I wonder if he is hurting? Standard issue Kinsler and Cabrera and the offense is back where it was, with Suarez as frosting on top.
Davis seems to be in the doghouse.
As for fielding, the Tigers had 11 outfield errors in 2013. They have 10 already this season.
Davis v. RHP in the last month: .224/.250/.347/.597
Return to normal may have something to do with it.
On second thought I take that back. I am probably just projecting here; getting the distinct impression that Smokey Jr. doesn’t consider stuff like that.
Cabrera again. He’s just not himself right now.
Like others he may not be seeing the ball well?
Escobar is the Suarez of the Twins.
Nice start by Ricky. I wish we weren’t leaving so many on base though…that makes us Blowpen Bait.
Maybe i spoke too soon about Porcello.
90 pitches.
94 to start the 7th
Gee, great job Alex.
Avila intentionally walked? Thank you very much!
That was actually a smart move, Avila’s standard grounder to 2nd would have scored a run there.
Su and Ajaks should switch places in the lineup.
6 runners LOB by Ajax today.
AJ since May 1 (154 PA): .224/.274/.301/.575.
It gets worse: v RHP since May 1:.198/.237/.283/.520
8 RBI during that span – about 1 every 19 PA.
Torii with a good catch!
Fasten your seat belts
Nathan’s current ERA is 6.66.
The devil you say!
Hard to complain about Victor, but he should be on 2nd, he stood there admiring his “walk off.”
Good win! And that was one of the worst throws home ever.
That’s saying a lot considering what we see.
Good to get a win? Yes. Good win? No. 2-14 RISP 11 LOB. Yesterday was an anomaly and the offense is still in a funk (disagree with Kevin here, 4.0 runs a game is not very good). BP almost imploded again – Joba and Uncle Joe two runners each.
To be fair to Joba, one of his runners was on a strike out that Avila should have been able to block.
Jackson was a big .116 with RISP BEFORE today’s game. He is the official Rally Killer.
Obviously he can’t take the pressure of batting 6th.
4 won’t get it done, I agree; but my point was that the hitting wasn’t that far off during this stretch from where it was during the first 39 games).
Twelve points off BA and down .8 runs a game seems like a big drop off to me. OPS is up, but I would expect an increase in RS from that. Most of the blame definitely has to go to the pitching staff for the poor showing the last month, but the Motor City offense isn’t hitting all cylinders either.
Joe Nathan dazzles the Twins giving up 5 line drives and three were caught to pick up the win. Smarty mentioned after the game..” its great to have Joe back”….hmmm!
good job JD..with all the criticism the farm system takes it has sent us Three guys this year that have helped the team JD and Su a lot and Knebel will be just fine!
Wholeheartedly agree with you on Nathan. Two of the three men he retired hit rockets off of him, with Cabrera and Kinsler saving his bacon by making fine defensive plays. The only ball not hit hard off of Nathan was also in need of a fine defensive play by Kinsler. Nathan is still looking very vulnerable and I guess Ausmus can’t admit that to the media. The only hope this team has for a closer in 2014 is Hanrahan recapturing the magic of his Pirate closing days. We’re not going to find a closer worth a damn at the trade deadline, especially in a year where the vast majority of teams still feel like they are in race.
Check out Lee Panas’ new Tiger Tales article on the Tigers’ bullpen woes.
I tried to post the link 3 times, but this site wouldn’t let me.
I’ll look into this.
http://www.detroittigertales.com/2014/06/measuring-tigers-bullpen-woes.html