One series after three great pitching outings with some timely hitting gets the Tigers a sweep, they perform a 180 degree turn and have trouble pitching against the Mariners. The hitting couldn't handle Seattle's ace nor their young prospect who is matching wins with Seattle's star. In between they could not manufacture any runs for Justin Verlander. Without hitting, a good pitching outing by the ace was left to be ruined.
Detroit's up-again down-again season continues. If all holds true they may be "up" again for the next series with Cleveland. Perfect timing, if so, since even while losing 3 to the Mariners the Tigers are still in 2nd place behind Cleveland, and can close the ground if the hitting and pitching come together at the same time once again.
The numbers bear out the up-and-down nature of Detroit's April so far. So lets look at both the up-side and the down-side. On the up-side, Boesch continues to hit regardless of the situation or the pitcher he faces, and now (at .350) holds the highest batting average on the team. (See: Season Numbers) Although most of the Tiger hitters are trending down at the moment (See: Hitter Trends), there is some hope. Alex Avila is still performing above expectations, and somewhat unnoticed is the fact that Will Rhymes, even with spotty playing time, has progressively improved his numbers. If Will gets more time before Carlos Guillen gets back to reclaim the 2nd base job, you could see him catch fire in the batters box.
There is also an "up"-side to the pitching. Regardless of the generally poor pitching the team has had during the down-swing (See: Pitcher Trends), there have been some progressive signs. Brad Penny continues to improve and the young guys Brayan Villarreal and Al Albuquerque really have put in some nice shut-em-down innings lately. Bodes well for getting past the 7th inning issues the Tigers had earlier this month. Alburquerque turned around a pretty bad slide he was on which was mostly due to control issues. If he stays the course he could become a key pitcher in the 7th and 8th innings.
Now to the down-side. The pitching hasn't been where it needs to be. After looking pretty good through mid-April, Phil Coke's last two outings have been awful, not making it through the 4th inning in one game and barely getting into the 5th inning in the other. Almost everyone on the staff with the exceptions mentioned above went in the wrong direction during the sweep by Seattle. Rick Porcello was spared only because he didn't pitch. Rick has been improving of late which is a good sign. Perhaps the biggest disappointment so far is the return of Ryan Perry who, after an initial good outing, has gotten hit pretty good his last two times out, giving up 2 hits each inning.
The hitting must be better than it has been. Every one of the Tiger hitters except those mentioned above has suffered. Ryan Raburn seems to be inconsistent having one good then one bad game, and picked up some errors playing the infield which cost some runs. Austin Jackson has unfortunately returned to his April-long hitting slump after showing signs of climbing out of it against the White Sox.
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| Jim Leyland - What will he do? |
For instance.. What would you do right now to turn the Tigers around?
Pitching? I for one, would only give lefty-long-reliever Brad Thomas one more chance to show he can keep men off base. If not, send him down to work on his stuff in Toldeo and bring up lefties Andy Oliver or Charlie Furbush. You could also go the same way with Phil Coke. Give Phil at the MOST two more outings to see if the Seattle thing was a fluke. If not.. let him loose in the bullpen again where he can be agressive for 1-2 innings when you need him. Oliver or Furbush couldn't be any worse in the rotation. Above all.. Brad Thomas must improve before he blows another chance for the Tigers to get back in a game.
What will Leyland do? Probably something similar, but I don't see him making any pitching changes at all, unless it gets MUCH worse. I would love to see him make a move with Brad Thomas, but he is heavily invested in him as a ground-ball out pitcher, so it' probably won't happen. Similarly, Coke stays in the rotation.. unless he loses 4-5 more games without a win. Leyland is no Sparky Anderson, and he won't give guys "the hook" without first a 2nd and 3rd chance to prove themselves. What would you do?
What would you do for the Hitting? I would have to admit at this point that Austin Jackson is going to need more hitting work. If he doesn't hit in the next series you just can't keep going with your lead-off guy sitting right back down every time he gets up to bat. If it were me, he'd get another shot, and if he doesn't hit, down to AAA to find his swing. Andy Dirks had a pretty good Spring and could fill in when needed in the Outfield until Austin gets going. The other thing to look for is Victor Martinez getting back in the lineup. As soon as he does, the hitting will get going again. Particularly if Boesch hits behind him.
What will Leyland do? He'll keep Austin in the lineup every day. I don't think he'll ever want to send him to Toledo, no matter how badly he hits. He'll keep working with him. Leyland will also stop playing Boesch as much when Martinez comes back, or else he'll start sitting Magglio Ordonez (former MLB batting champ) to keep Boesch in the lineup.
What else would I do? No more rotating lineups.. Magglio hits 3rd, Cabrerra 4th, Martinez 5th and Boesch 6th. Rhymes 2nd until Guillen gets back, and then Guillen hits 2nd. No more Raburn in the #2 spot. You can swap in Raburn for Boesch as needed against a left-handed pitcher, and have them both in the 5th, 6th spots until Martinez is back. Boesch stays in the lineup until he stops hitting, if ever. 7th, 8th, and 9th are Peralta, Inge and Avila.. permanently. Unless resting Avila, Inge, or Peralta in which case Santiago and the other bench players can take those spots. One intriguing thought would be to move Avila into the #2 spot while he has the hot bat. What would you do?
What will Leyland do? Probably more of the same. Constant changing of the lineups to try and get a hot bat going. This probably won't work any better than it did during the second half of last year when the Tigers were dismal.
That's it for this week. Feel free to look at the numbers (Season Stats, Hitting Trends, Pitching Trends) and come up with your own conclusions. April will be over this weekend and May has a lot of tough teams heading the Tiger's way. By the end of May we should know whether the Tigers are a 1st place team or not. I'm going to go out on a limb. If everyone stays healthy, and Guillen's bat is back in the lineup, then by June 2nd the Tigers will end the home series against Minnesota in 1st place!
GO TIGERS! ---Rob
Photo Credits:
Jim Leyland Photo by Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE
This is why the Tigers finished a Jeckyll and Hyde-ish .500 82/82 last year. As the Talking Heads put it: "Same as it ever was...... same as it ever was."
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