What Am I Watching?

 Am I dreaming? Who are these Tigers? We had dug ourselves into such a deep hole at the beginning of the season that it seemed like we'd never escape and now there is a glimmer of hope. We haven't had more than a 4-game win streak all year but we've had several 5-game losing streaks and one awful 7-game losing streak. There are surprises in every area of this team and they are exceeding all expectations and hopes.

 

The Veterans and the Rookies

Robbie Grossman is the best free-agent signing the Tigers have had in many years. From the beginning of the season he has been an infusion. He walks like there is no tomorrow and he is one of our home run leaders! His defense is nothing to sneeze at either. He's not overrated or flashy but he's so solid and dependable and I am just thrilled with what he's brought to this team.

Jonathan Schoop has also been a nice surprise. Despite never playing first base until joining us, he's been really good there and his bat, especially lately, has been huge in the middle of the lineup. Having these veterans, along with Cabrera (obviously), has been a major blessing for a team that is so young and inexperienced. 

When it comes to rookies, no one is more green than Akil Baddoo. Our Rule 5 pick has barely played above Low-A ball before this year but you'd never be able to tell based on how he's done this year. Yes, he's cooled off from the torrid start, but what he's doing is, frankly, insane. He's even knocked Grossman out of the lead-off spot!

Our starting rotation is now our top three rookie prospects, a guy who is starting for the first time in many years, and a bullpen guy who being stretched out to start. And yet, we are pitching amazingly well. Losing Turnbull and Boyd (for the season and a long stretch, respectively) could have dealt us a death blow but somehow they have soldiered on and you almost forget that you're missing two of your best pitchers.

Everything Is Clicking

Pitching, both starters and relievers, is humming. Defense is flashing. The bats are spraying all over the field. Our running game is a level that I don't think I've seen in 10+ years of following Tigers baseball. I was just thinking the other day about how we have been thrown out at the plate a lot more this year. You'd think you would be losing runs and I don't have hard data but I think we probably are scoring more than in the past because we are forcing the issue. We are taking the extra base more and that will mean getting thrown out more. We also have a lot of young players who are still learning the finer points of running the bases but it's been impressive to watch. 

There have been so many times over the years when it seems like our pitching is on point but the bats can't hit anything. Then our bats heat up and the pitching slumps. We never could get multiple things going at the same time but that's not been the case much this year, especially right now.

This Is Fun

Maybe this is just a fluke but maybe it isn't. May and June showed a team that had promise. We never put a huge win streak together but the signs were there that things were different. The end of the first half was a deflating loss of momentum but the break seemed to bring out the best in everyone. Whatever happens in the rest of the season, this is a really fun moment and I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Pitching

I am blown away.

This is not what I expected. It's not even what I hoped for.

Our pitching is... dominating.

Let's be honest for a moment. There wasn't a lot certain about our pitching going into this year. You know what you'll get from Fulmer, but he has to stay healthy. Boyd you had a pretty solid idea of, and in the bullpen, your only certainties were Alex Wilson and Shane Greene. The rest? Huge question marks. 

Would Zimmermann be the pitcher of the first month of his career with the Tigers? What would new acquisitions Mike Fiers and Francisco Liriano do? Who would get the fifth starter job? And the bullpen was even more unknown.

I almost wonder if all the low expectations and rejection of sorts of the Tigers are making the guys want to prove something. There are zero expectations for this team. That hasn't been the case in years. Maybe that makes a difference. 

Our starting pitching is strong. Yes, we're losing, but it's early and unusually cold for this time of year, so I'm not worried about our bats. But our pitching is keeping us in every game. During the spring, based on what I was reading and hearing from Jim and Dan, I was not happy about Fiers and Liriano. They sounded like they were going to be hindrances. Not as such so far. They have turned out two solid starts each. 

The bullpen has been quiet incredible. There has been a hiccup here and there, but overall, guys are shutting down the opposing batters. We really didn't know what a lot of these guys were capable of, or they had been so up and down, you never knew what you'd get. 

It's early. Pitching is going to go into slumps. But look at how these guys are doing when it's cold and they can't feel their hands or grip the ball. I think there performance in these conditions are very promising for us going forward. 

No one is expecting anything great from us this year. I just wonder if these guys have set out to prove the baseball world wrong.  

Let's Talk Opening Day 2018

I love Opening Day. Even this year, with all the new faces and the realities hanging over us, it's still a brand new season and a fresh start. I'm going to discuss my thoughts about the game, the season, and a few other things too. 

OVERVIEW
We'll start with the season at large. I'm an optimist, but I'm also a realist. I don't see us making the post season. They could surprise me, but I don't see that as a realistic expectation. However, I don't think we're going to be as bad as everyone thinks. I see no reason why we can't have a winning season. One thing that I think sportwriters and others view as a downside is our young, fairly inexperienced players (though that's what they've been wanting for years). People say that they are too much of an unknown. 

Exactly.

They might blow up or they might blow us away. It's 50/50 and I'm going to lean on the side of them surprising us.

THE GAME
We won Opening Day. It won't say that in the record books, but it's like Galarraga's perfect game. Everyone knows it happened. We'll talk about the win/loss in a minute. But first, there was a lot of encouraging things in that emotional rollercoaster of a baseball game. 

Jordan Zimmermann - I'm not a Zimmermann fan. He's here and it is what it is, and I get that he's been hurt. I was pleased that he did so well yesterday. Hopefully, he'll be a decent pitcher for us (finally) this year. It was a positive performance that he can build upon. 

Baserunning - The Tigers new baserunning strategy started already. I'm sure we'll make mistakes, as this is something we haven't done a lot of before, but each time an extra base is taken successfully, confidence grows that, hey, maybe we can do this. 

Defense - We made some errors, but we also made some terrific plays! Ian Kinsler will be deeply missed, but I think Iglesias and Machado will be able to hold down the fort. McCann threw out his first two basestealers of the season. 

A disappointing outcome, but we battled. We missed some opportunities and made some mistakes, but we fought and scrapped and that's encouraging to me.

INSTANT REPLAY
I'm reeeaaalllyyy hoping replay improves this year, but this was not a good start. I was excited for it when they introduced the system, but it's gone downhill each year since the first one. I'm not sure about this, but is there a way to let New York know what you want them to review? Like, to say, "we want you to look at whether Cervelli tagged Castellanos, rather than seeing where the runner's foot was?" If you can't do that, it needs remedied NOW. And, I'm sorry, but when both teams know the runner was safe, when the radio and TV guys, who know their stuff; all these people said Nick was safe. They can't all be wrong. Instant replay needs fixed or it's doing more harm than good.


MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
In case you missed the post, I have a petition to the Commissioner about his pace of play initiatives. Please read it and if you agree, sign and pass it along to others who you know would care about this. 

https://www.change.org/p/the-office-of-the-commissioner-of-baseball-tell-mlb-commissioner-no-pace-of-play-rules

Why Is No One Talking About Trades?

 

The question that plagues Tigers fans: what to do with Sanchez, Pelfrey, & Lowe. 

All three performed badly last year, and for Sanchez, that poor performance goes back a couple of years. Going into spring, all eyes were on them to see how they would perform and what the Tigers would do with them and all the money owed.

Then the monkey wrench got thrown into the gears. Sanchez has actually been doing well in the latter part of the spring. The Tigers worked with him to change his mechanics a bit and it seems to have succeeded in making him a better pitcher. So now what?

Boyd seems like he should be the fifth starter. Are you going to put Sanchez and his paycheck in the bullpen as a long-reliever who (hopefully) won't get much work? What about Pelfrey and Lowe who have shown some resurgence this spring as well?

What I don't understand is why NO ONE is talking about trades. Not the sports writers, not the radio announcers, not the management (at least not publicly). We have been in this situation before with a player that we didn't have room for but was performing well. Bryan Holiday was that player last year. He played really well in the spring, we didn't have a spot for him, so he got traded. You don't get top prospects in a trade like that, but you get something.

It seems to me that, assuming Sanchez continues for the rest of spring to pitch well, some team might be willing to take a chance on him. Again, you're not going to get a top prospect in return, but some team gets a pitcher who just might be good again, and the Tigers don't have to figure out what to do with six starters. Plus, they lose his salary. 

If a team is interested, I don't see a better option, yet there must be something I'm missing if all the people who know baseball better aren't talking about this. Spring Training is almost over, so we'll get answers soon. 

Notes From The Dugout

These are quotes from the book "Tales from the Tigers Dugout". The third edition is out now, meaning you get more recent tales! I read the second edition which went through the 2012 season. Really great book for Tigers fans. 


"Alan Tramell didn't really have a chance his last year. I've said it all along, if Guillen and Pudge and Ordonez are out of our lineup on a consistent basis, we wouldn't be worth anything, either. That's the way it is. But people don't want to hear that." ~ Jim Leyland

If tomorrow you could not play, how hard would you play today?

What's really scary with Cabrera is that he is getting better with plate discipline each year, making it harder for pitchers to let him retire himself, as Verlander suggested. (2012)

Who else would crouch down and manicure the mound each inning? Who else would talk to the ball or himself or anyone who would listen? And who else would throw balls back to the umpire with bizarre requests? "That ball has a hit in it," Fidrych said. "I want it to get back in the ball bag and goof around with the other balls in there. Maybe it'll learn some sense and come out as a pop-up next time."

A basic baseball truth: Players decide games. Managers dissect them. ~ Sparky Anderson

Spring starts....

JV Gets His Ninth Opening Day Nod

He deserves it. Every year, Opening Day should feature Justin Verlander on the mound. The year David Price got it... I was not very happy. One newspaper article said that only Felix Hernandez had more OD starts with nine currently. I'm assuming that stat is only among current players. JV's 9 OD starts are second only to Jack Morris in franchise history. Morris had 11 starts.

27 DAYS TILL OPENING DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why The Tigers Won't Trade Verlander... Or Why They'd Be Crazy If They Did

There's a lot of trade talk - rumors is all - flying around the baseball world right now. Everything is pure speculation at this point, but there seems to be a strong feeling among Detroit sports writers that Justin Verlander and/or Miguel Cabrera will be traded. I would make the case that Verlander isn't going anywhere, if Avila is smart.

Pitching, pitching, pitching. It starts and ends with pitching. We've seen what a great staff can do and we've witnessed what happens when you don't have good pitching. This is same reason it was the better decision to keep K-Rod over Maybin. Right now, we have three rookies and two veterans. Losing Verlander creates an open spot. Who would you replace him with? Greene? That could work, but he has been injured frequently. Sanchez or Pelfrey? Nope. 

There isn't anyone to take his place. Above and beyond that, Verlander is a veteran who is young. He has tremendous knowledge and wisdom to share with the rookies who comprise the majority of our starting rotation. That influence alone is tremendous. 

I want to keep Verlander and Cabrera. It would be heart-wrenching to loose either of them. But if it really came down to it, and the choice had to be made, I think Verlander would have to be the choice. Now, if Cabrera and J.D. and Kinsler all left, and with Maybin already gone, we'd be sunk. Our batting order may survive without Cabrera but not without all of those guys. Still, that's a different scenario. In the Verlander vs. Cabrera scenario, I really think - in the long run - the best option is keeping Verlander. 

As hard as such a decision may be. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

The Sanchez/Pelfrey Dilemma

What do you do with a starter who can't start and you can't trade? Seems like a major problem. Maybe not.

The answer seems pretty easy: you put them in the bullpen. Sanchez was put in the 'pen for a time this past season and did very well in that time. It might be the best he's done since his ERA title year. I wrote a post during the season on my main blog that talks a little bit about this solution:  http://smylinggirl.blogspot.com/2016/09/sanchez-pelfrey-to-pen-keep-rookies-in.html

I don't want to rehash all the same points, but what seemed like a great solution then seems to be the best way forward. I'm not the only one who thinks this. One of the Detroit News sports writers wrote this great article that is worth reading: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2016/11/21/mccosky-how-tigers-might-get-most-value-out-sanchez-pelfrey/94223878/


We'll see where the Tigers go. Since it seems so obvious and it worked for us, briefly, in the past, and has worked for other teams, it makes sense to believe that's what the Tigers will do. That's not to say we won't see Sanchez or Pelfrey in the rotation over the course of the season. But at least to start, I hope we see them in the bullpen.

Cameron Maybin vs. Francisco Rodriguez

For the first time in several years, we had a dependable closer. Notice I didn't say a perfect closer. Detroit fans seem to have a short memory. A lot of them seem to have forgotten the angst caused by our slew of closers over the last few years. Rodriguez brought stability to a slot that really hasn't been good since Jose Valverde's 49-49 season. (Soria was pretty good too).

Cameron Maybin injected a spark to this lineup. This was especially important when we were without J.D. Martinez and Nick Castellanos for long periods of time. Maybin was a catalyst and things happened around him. 

Both players were instrumental in the success of the 2016 Tigers. But when the offseason roles around, it's decision time. Who stays and who goes?

In a perfect world, we keep both. But in reality, keeping both guys means losing someone else; someone we potentially need more. So how do you choose?

What you're really comparing is pitching vs. hitting. (We are not going to discuss Maybin's defense for now). If 2015 taught us anything, it's how important pitching is. The 2016 season would have turned out much differently if it weren't for the young pitchers who really stepped up. Pitching is extremely important. But even if you have great starting pitching, you have a problem if you can't hold a lead. It's crazy to expect a lineup to have to constantly tack on more and more runs. Enter the bullpen. 

A dependable closer is so, so valuable. We'll probably never know, but maybe the reason the Tigers never won the World Series in their four-year reign in the Central was due to the lack of a dependable closer (for the most part). 

All this to say, I will miss Cameron Maybin and the energy he brought to the lineup, but I think the Tigers made the right decision. I am extremely grateful for everything Mabyin brought to the team and the way he played all out every day. I'd love to see him come back again one day (it's not that crazy a thought!). 

K-Rod probably won't be around long. Bruce Rondon or even Joe Jimenez will most likely be taking over the closer roll in the near future. But bringing him back gives the Tigers a little more time to mold and shape Rondon. He seemed to benefit greatly from Rodriguez's wisdom and leadership this past year. Another year under the wing of K-Rod will only be good for Rondon. In keeping Rodriguez over Maybin, Al Avila is also planning for the future - even if that is only a pleasant consequence of the actual reasons. 

Is it hard to lose Cameron Maybin? Yes. But in the end, trading him seems to be what is best for the team in the long run.