Life In The Cell

Mid-Season Report: Detroit Tigers

A report by Kurt Mensching of Mack Avenue Tigers

It’s no secret to baseball fans the Tigers were expected to be a force this season. The Tigers won 95 games in 2006 and 88 in 2007, despite falling victim to an absurd number of injuries. And of course, they added the fearsome batter Miguel Cabrera, a solid-hitting shortstop in Edgar Renteria and a former 22-game winner Dontrelle Willis.

Obviously, things have not turned out according to expectations, and the Tigers find themselves at .500 with two games remaining before the All-Star Break. The Tigers stumbled out the gate, played flat for a month and a half, had a phenomenal three weeks or so, and have since cooled back off. Their playoff hopes may be alive in the clubhouse, but I think any neutral observer would have to point out those hopes are not translating well to the playing field.

So what went wrong? More or less, everything. Again, you have to point to injuries. I know of no site that lists the total disabled list days absorbed by a team, but I have to think the Tigers are near the top of that list. Who’s been injured? Who hasn’t! it started off with Curtis Granderson joined by Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney. That trio were at differing points joined by Dontrelle Willis, Gary Sheffield, Magglio Ordonez, Jeremy Bonderman, Brandon Inge and several relief pitchers. And that’s to say nothing of a nagging quad injury (or hip flexor) that has bothered Cabrera since the Venezuelan League play in the offseason. This would make you think, “HA! The Tigers’ lack of depth is showing.” And maybe you’d be partially right.

And yet, if you point to the stats, you’ll see the true story is not so much the Tigers’ backups not performing as the Tigers’ starters not performing — on the field or at the plate. Ace Justin Verlander started off the season terribly. But really so did all five starters — including Willis, who was then injured against the White Sox his second start. In the field, Cabrera and Carlos Guillen performed so miserably at their positions (third and first, respectively) that Jim Leyland decided to swap them. Was this really necessary? Maybe, maybe not. But it took them awhile to get warmed up to their new defensive homes.

Meanwhile, pretty much nobody hit the ball — at least nobody you’ve heard of. At various times of the season, you’d have sworn the Tigers’ stars were Clete Thomas, Matt Joyce, Ryan Raburn and Marcus Thames. What of Granderson? Took awhile to recovery from a broken finger. Magglio Ordonez was hitting the ball fine, and Carlos Guillen did more or less OK as well. But that was about it. Sheffield, battling two sore shoulders pumped with cortisone, was a black hole (and still is, I’ll not right now.) Just a quick glance shows Kenny Rogers and Verlander have had the Tigers score two or fewer runs in fully half their combined starts. That’s no way to win at baseball. So the pitchers had to be perfect. They weren’t. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The only one who found success was rookie Armando Gallaraga, who despite putting too many runners on base, seems to consistently pitch out of his mess, plus he gets run support.

A quick thumbnail analysis? The team was not dynamic enough to win in multiple ways. The lineup was best fit for softball: it could slug. But if they weren’t hitting home runs, they weren’t scoring runs. They did not have the correct pieces to create runs or force the situation to stress the pitcher. Too many desginated hitters. Not enough slick fielders or base stealers.

Things have improved a bit since then — well until the Tigers lost 5 straight to the Twins (through Saturday). Cabrera is finally starting to hit. Granderson is definitely back to feeling good. Pudge is stealing some bases and, hey, getting on base again this year.

But is it enough? No. It’s not enough. The Tigers were not as bad as the team start started 24-36. But as they still haven’t proven an ability to consistently win against the top two teams in the division, it’s hard to see them as anything better than a third-place team. I believe they’ll finish between 81-85 wins I’m sure but never seriously threaten in the division. I hope they don’t try to be buyers at the trade deadline. I don’t necessarily want to see them sell unless they can get some role-filling player in return. (Though I shoudl warn you, I am no good at this predicting thing. The Tigers went exactly opposite what I thought they’d do at the break in 2006 and 2007, which should give Tigers fans reading this some reason for positivity, anyway).

Maybe they’ll get a chance to play spoiler in September. That would be a nice change for what has been a rather disappointing season in Tigertown.