52-37, 1st place, 6.5 games up.
Jayson Stark posted his first half award winners today over on ESPN (you need Insider) and I thought there were several interesting items from a Tigers perspective.
1) VMart and Ian Kinsler were both mentioned in the AL MVP after-Trout-thoughts. Kinsler having a good year, but the more I thought about it, he’s having a great year. He’s projecting to a .792 OPS, 104 runs, 41 2B and 19 SB on top of solid defense. He legitimately is a top 10 MVP candidate.
2) Chris Davis is a candidate for AL Least Valuable Player. Success is a cruel mistress.
3) The pitching in the AL has been dynamite this year. Scherzer isn’t even a top 5 consideration, behind the likes of Tanaka, Sale, Price, Kazmir…Scott Kazmir? Mistresses can reappear, I guess.
4) Sergio Romo is a candidate for Cy Yuk. Just the thought of him during the ’12 WS makes me want to crawl into the fetal position.
5) The AL is loaded with “rookies” this year as Abreu will likely run away with the ROY award, despite stiff competition from Masashiro Tanaka and George Springer. But get one level past them and I think that Suarez and Castellanos would both merit consideration. After Iglesias went down and we raided the basement of other teams for SS, I feared a revolving door at the position all season. But Suarez become a dependable everyday player. What more could we ask for.
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Tonight’s game won’t be easy as Porcello takes on James Shields. Game preview here.
1. Jackson, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Casetellanos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF
If there is such a thing before the All Star break, this game is a must win for KC….they have to stop the “home” bleeding……..
AJax is 8 for his last 15, all in the leadoff spot.
Ricky that was some seriously good escape pitching that inning…excellent!
Tigers are playing some great baseball these days.
AA in the 9th, no drama 1-2-3 on just 9 pitches… but where’s the fun in that? 😉
hope DET doesn’t just phone it in tomorrow, and takes a streak into the AS break…plus puts some more space between them and KC
Another nail in the KC coffin…Tigs are getting great pitching, solid D…timely hitting…..great combination for winning…
A win tomorrow would be a dagger to KC…….well why not!…..Tigers don’t usually have that killer instinct but with next week off….why not. We need JV to be tough from the first pitch on!!!!!
a double digit lead in the loss column would bury the rest of the Central…….something we thought would happen when they were 27-12
Remember last year when we had the Indians buried?
Yes. One thing we did do though, was take care of business in our division, especially against Cleveland (47-29 in Central, 15-4 vs Cleveland), just like we are this year (22-15 vs Central, 9-3 vs Royals). It’s like a repeat of last season. And yes, it was very close. But those early season sweeps of Cleveland made the difference.
How important is it for the AL to win the ASG? Are we that much better at home?
We’re better on the road. Which means that somehow we should have finagled Verlander and Nathan onto the All-Star team.
28-15, best road record in baseball.
BUT, it all changes in the World Series, since home field also means more games with a DH. Small sample size, but in Interleague road games the Tigers are just 2-3. I guess I may root for the AL after all.