More negatives than positives in a first place team?
By Kyle Bauer
What to be concerned about down the stretch.
As I’m typing this, the Tigers are currently tied 8 to 8 in the top of the 10th against the Kansas City Royals. Joakim Soria just fanned both Magglio and Monroe with 2 men on and as Monroe sliced under that wicked Soria curve for inning ending strike, the Tigers once again displayed one of my biggest fears regarding this team, they just don’t seem to have that late inning magic. So you're probably thinking, well that’s neither here or there, the Tigers have the best record in baseball, what does it matter that they have 3-7 record in extra innings? I think it matters plenty.
Going down the stretch you’re going to be in many close games with tough opponents with tons on the line. If the Tigers are going to win the division and win in the playoffs they’re going to need clutch hitting and that hasn’t come this year. Seemed like last year we were spoiled with "gum time," Craig Monroe hitting timely bombs, Maggs magically blasting a couple, maybe we would get lucky error here on there or sometimes a past ball. The Tigers were able to find a way to come from behind and pull out games when they needed too. It could be something I’m spoiled with from last year but there is validity to my concern.
In most cases come from behind victories are a matter of being clutch more so than a lucky error or weird play, that’s why A-Rod is despised and Jeter is revered. So why I see that the Tigers are...excuse me Brandon Inge just hit his second walk off homerun of the year...but I digress back into my point...ironic....The Tigers have struggled in clutch hitting situations which is tabulated as production when down by 3 runs or less with 1 out or more, or beyond the 6th inning. They’re 27th in average (.229), 26th in obp. (.305), 24th in slugging (.361), and 25th in ops. (.665). This is on top of having a bullpen that has blown 15 games and struggled all year with inflated era.'s.This is something that down the line could hurt this team and frustrate fans. Clutch hitting also factors into a teams confidence and can change the complection of a series. If the Tigers are going to get deep, they’re going to have to channel some of that magic from last season and come up big such as they have the past couple games and its going to have to come from someone else besides Inge.
In mine and most peoples opinions Verlander is the undeniable ace of this ball club and has unlimited potential, I think he has hall of fame potential. At this point I’m going a slightly concerned about his last 4 outings. You could chalk it up to him simply being in a slump but his control has been alarming of late. Though he has won 2 out of his last 4 starts, he did just enough to win and was having problems with his curve which he's been using to set up his change up and fastball. Nothing has been breaking for him, the change up is hanging, the curve isn’t always breaking on the corners and his fastball is getting away from him. He's still been good, getting more strikeouts but he seems like he’s being more aggressive, pushing a bit and showing some vulnerability that he wasn’t consistently showing in the first half. I’m worried that he maybe hitting a wall, similar to last season where he had to rest a couple starts down the stretch because of a tired arm. It wouldn’t make much sense to me seeing that this is his second full season but it is a possibility. Hopefully this is just a small slump, if you could even call it that, he has won 2 of his last 3 decisions, still there is cause for some concern.
The Tigers haven’t been good in the first game back from a long road trip going 2-4. These losses have come to some weak teams as well with losses coming from the Mets, Rangers, Twins and Royals. In all 4 losses there’s a common trend, low run production. In these games the Tigers haven’t scored more than 3 runs and have looked lethargic. I remember specifically a game against Texas fallowing a long interleague road trip from Atlanta. That night they faced Cameron Loe, a sub par pitcher who the Tigers lit up a few starts earlier. Tigers came to the plate and swung at many first pitches, put together many impatient at bats that lasted only 2 or 3 pitches before weakly grounding out or popping up. In the other 3 games it was a similar case except arguably against the Mets where Jorge Sosa pitched more of a gem than the Tigers having lazy bats.
Down the stretch the Tigers have 4 more long road trips and fallow up games against the White Sox (Aug. 3rd), Cleveland (Aug. 21st) which will be a huge game, the White Sox again (Sept 4th) and the Royals (Sept. 21st) which at that point the Tigers will likely be locked into a division race with the Indians and Twins or a Wildcard race with Seattle, Anaheim or even…the damn Yankees.
Hopefully this trend will not continue and the Tigers will return from these road trips alert, working counts, taking good swings at good pitches and not playing sloppy baseball. These games will likely be critical and the Tigers cannot take them off because they’re plane got in late.
Because I feel as though I’m being a bit too critical I’ll move onto the positives but not before mentioning one last worry of mine. WATCH OUT FOR THE SEATTLE MARINERS.
Positive trends that hope to be continued.
For all the worries I have about this teams inability to deliver in the clutch, well at least until this week, the Tigers always respond well the fallowing game. The Tigers are a respectable 8-7 after a blown game by the bullpen. Most teams tend to struggle after what would usually be something crippling but the Tigers in most cases have been able to respond the next day. Resiliency is a great sign of a teams character and a good counter to my earlier concern. I would rather the Tigers not blow games to begin with but more times than not this team seems to not let it get to them and you got to see that as a positive trait when this team is playing in a big series. I always look back to the infamous game in Cleveland when Jones gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th in walk off Indians win. When that happened I believed it would be turning point for the Indians but the Tigers came right back and won the next 2 games of the series. That’s impressive and that’s why this team could be hard to beat in a 5 or 7 game series.
The Tigers still need bullpen help but Chad Durbin has filled one of many holes in the Tigers pen. Jason Grilli has been a gas can, Ledezma was struggling against lefties, with his control and wasn’t showing much consistency, McBride has been solid but wasn’t much of a solution outside of his numbers against lefties. This ball club needed a long reliever as much as they need a set up man and Durbin has settle back into the role he was originally set to fill. Since coming into the bullpen Durbins era has dropped 37 points and he has a 1.98 era as a reliever. He’s also down to a 1.36 whip.With 1 win, a save and 2 holds he’s made the biggest impact on this team in my opinion over the past month. He’s comfortable, his breaking balls have been nasty and he’s almost unhittable right now. Look and hope for this to continue for Durbin through out the remainder of the year.
The Tigers have the best offense in the mlb but that doesn’t mean they still cannot be susceptible to dominant pitching. They haven’t been intimidated though as the Tigers have a 10-8 record against all-star/ace starting pitchers this season which includes 3 huge wins against Santana other wins came against Sabathia, Colon, Beckett, Dice-K, Mesche, Smoltz. A team like the Tigers have shown that aside from say Haladay that no pitcher in major league baseball can fully shut them down, no matter the caliber, style or credentials. With how strong their offense is the Tigers might be a rare team that will be able to slug their way to a deep into the playoffs because it doesn’t seem as though one pitcher can stop them.The Tigers line up has smoked lefties as well hitting .299 with a .358 obp and impressive .506 slugging percentage. Many teams struggle more against lefties and the Tigers eat them for breakfast. Numbers like these make it very hard to manage a rotation and a bullpen against us because you don’t have too many your sleeve against a team that shows little vulnerability to any kind of pitching.
Overall the Tigers are in great shape and look to be a force. Though I’ve mentioned more bad in these past two blogs there’s certainly been more good. I have my worries but I cannot be too concerned about a team that is 21 games over .500, in first place, that’s has not shown too many signs of weakness or slowing down. I’m just looking at the whole picture and what COULD turn into problems down the line.
August is in some respect the most critical and telling month in baseball. Yes, playoff spots are determined in September and championships are won in October but playoff and championships caliber teams show what they’re made of in August. The contenders are weeded out from the pretenders in the dog days of August. We’ll learn a lot about this years Tigers and the teams around them in the next month and I’ll be here to fallow up on it.
You can hear more of my opinions every Tuesday 2 to 3 pm with Corey and Brad. Also occasionally on Wednesdays 5 to 6 pm with Corey , Brad and Kyle Horner
What to be concerned about down the stretch.
As I’m typing this, the Tigers are currently tied 8 to 8 in the top of the 10th against the Kansas City Royals. Joakim Soria just fanned both Magglio and Monroe with 2 men on and as Monroe sliced under that wicked Soria curve for inning ending strike, the Tigers once again displayed one of my biggest fears regarding this team, they just don’t seem to have that late inning magic. So you're probably thinking, well that’s neither here or there, the Tigers have the best record in baseball, what does it matter that they have 3-7 record in extra innings? I think it matters plenty.
Going down the stretch you’re going to be in many close games with tough opponents with tons on the line. If the Tigers are going to win the division and win in the playoffs they’re going to need clutch hitting and that hasn’t come this year. Seemed like last year we were spoiled with "gum time," Craig Monroe hitting timely bombs, Maggs magically blasting a couple, maybe we would get lucky error here on there or sometimes a past ball. The Tigers were able to find a way to come from behind and pull out games when they needed too. It could be something I’m spoiled with from last year but there is validity to my concern.
In most cases come from behind victories are a matter of being clutch more so than a lucky error or weird play, that’s why A-Rod is despised and Jeter is revered. So why I see that the Tigers are...excuse me Brandon Inge just hit his second walk off homerun of the year...but I digress back into my point...ironic....The Tigers have struggled in clutch hitting situations which is tabulated as production when down by 3 runs or less with 1 out or more, or beyond the 6th inning. They’re 27th in average (.229), 26th in obp. (.305), 24th in slugging (.361), and 25th in ops. (.665). This is on top of having a bullpen that has blown 15 games and struggled all year with inflated era.'s.This is something that down the line could hurt this team and frustrate fans. Clutch hitting also factors into a teams confidence and can change the complection of a series. If the Tigers are going to get deep, they’re going to have to channel some of that magic from last season and come up big such as they have the past couple games and its going to have to come from someone else besides Inge.
In mine and most peoples opinions Verlander is the undeniable ace of this ball club and has unlimited potential, I think he has hall of fame potential. At this point I’m going a slightly concerned about his last 4 outings. You could chalk it up to him simply being in a slump but his control has been alarming of late. Though he has won 2 out of his last 4 starts, he did just enough to win and was having problems with his curve which he's been using to set up his change up and fastball. Nothing has been breaking for him, the change up is hanging, the curve isn’t always breaking on the corners and his fastball is getting away from him. He's still been good, getting more strikeouts but he seems like he’s being more aggressive, pushing a bit and showing some vulnerability that he wasn’t consistently showing in the first half. I’m worried that he maybe hitting a wall, similar to last season where he had to rest a couple starts down the stretch because of a tired arm. It wouldn’t make much sense to me seeing that this is his second full season but it is a possibility. Hopefully this is just a small slump, if you could even call it that, he has won 2 of his last 3 decisions, still there is cause for some concern.
The Tigers haven’t been good in the first game back from a long road trip going 2-4. These losses have come to some weak teams as well with losses coming from the Mets, Rangers, Twins and Royals. In all 4 losses there’s a common trend, low run production. In these games the Tigers haven’t scored more than 3 runs and have looked lethargic. I remember specifically a game against Texas fallowing a long interleague road trip from Atlanta. That night they faced Cameron Loe, a sub par pitcher who the Tigers lit up a few starts earlier. Tigers came to the plate and swung at many first pitches, put together many impatient at bats that lasted only 2 or 3 pitches before weakly grounding out or popping up. In the other 3 games it was a similar case except arguably against the Mets where Jorge Sosa pitched more of a gem than the Tigers having lazy bats.
Down the stretch the Tigers have 4 more long road trips and fallow up games against the White Sox (Aug. 3rd), Cleveland (Aug. 21st) which will be a huge game, the White Sox again (Sept 4th) and the Royals (Sept. 21st) which at that point the Tigers will likely be locked into a division race with the Indians and Twins or a Wildcard race with Seattle, Anaheim or even…the damn Yankees.
Hopefully this trend will not continue and the Tigers will return from these road trips alert, working counts, taking good swings at good pitches and not playing sloppy baseball. These games will likely be critical and the Tigers cannot take them off because they’re plane got in late.
Because I feel as though I’m being a bit too critical I’ll move onto the positives but not before mentioning one last worry of mine. WATCH OUT FOR THE SEATTLE MARINERS.
Positive trends that hope to be continued.
For all the worries I have about this teams inability to deliver in the clutch, well at least until this week, the Tigers always respond well the fallowing game. The Tigers are a respectable 8-7 after a blown game by the bullpen. Most teams tend to struggle after what would usually be something crippling but the Tigers in most cases have been able to respond the next day. Resiliency is a great sign of a teams character and a good counter to my earlier concern. I would rather the Tigers not blow games to begin with but more times than not this team seems to not let it get to them and you got to see that as a positive trait when this team is playing in a big series. I always look back to the infamous game in Cleveland when Jones gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th in walk off Indians win. When that happened I believed it would be turning point for the Indians but the Tigers came right back and won the next 2 games of the series. That’s impressive and that’s why this team could be hard to beat in a 5 or 7 game series.
The Tigers still need bullpen help but Chad Durbin has filled one of many holes in the Tigers pen. Jason Grilli has been a gas can, Ledezma was struggling against lefties, with his control and wasn’t showing much consistency, McBride has been solid but wasn’t much of a solution outside of his numbers against lefties. This ball club needed a long reliever as much as they need a set up man and Durbin has settle back into the role he was originally set to fill. Since coming into the bullpen Durbins era has dropped 37 points and he has a 1.98 era as a reliever. He’s also down to a 1.36 whip.With 1 win, a save and 2 holds he’s made the biggest impact on this team in my opinion over the past month. He’s comfortable, his breaking balls have been nasty and he’s almost unhittable right now. Look and hope for this to continue for Durbin through out the remainder of the year.
The Tigers have the best offense in the mlb but that doesn’t mean they still cannot be susceptible to dominant pitching. They haven’t been intimidated though as the Tigers have a 10-8 record against all-star/ace starting pitchers this season which includes 3 huge wins against Santana other wins came against Sabathia, Colon, Beckett, Dice-K, Mesche, Smoltz. A team like the Tigers have shown that aside from say Haladay that no pitcher in major league baseball can fully shut them down, no matter the caliber, style or credentials. With how strong their offense is the Tigers might be a rare team that will be able to slug their way to a deep into the playoffs because it doesn’t seem as though one pitcher can stop them.The Tigers line up has smoked lefties as well hitting .299 with a .358 obp and impressive .506 slugging percentage. Many teams struggle more against lefties and the Tigers eat them for breakfast. Numbers like these make it very hard to manage a rotation and a bullpen against us because you don’t have too many your sleeve against a team that shows little vulnerability to any kind of pitching.
Overall the Tigers are in great shape and look to be a force. Though I’ve mentioned more bad in these past two blogs there’s certainly been more good. I have my worries but I cannot be too concerned about a team that is 21 games over .500, in first place, that’s has not shown too many signs of weakness or slowing down. I’m just looking at the whole picture and what COULD turn into problems down the line.
August is in some respect the most critical and telling month in baseball. Yes, playoff spots are determined in September and championships are won in October but playoff and championships caliber teams show what they’re made of in August. The contenders are weeded out from the pretenders in the dog days of August. We’ll learn a lot about this years Tigers and the teams around them in the next month and I’ll be here to fallow up on it.
You can hear more of my opinions every Tuesday 2 to 3 pm with Corey and Brad. Also occasionally on Wednesdays 5 to 6 pm with Corey , Brad and Kyle Horner
posted by Kyle Bauer at 2:13 AM
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