The 2012 Detroit Tigers: the week that was

It is tough to follow a team with a season as long as the Detroit Tigers. We get caught up in the happenings of that day, a particular game, or what is going on in the present. Every so often we need to take a step back and look at the other teams in the American League Central, look at how the season is coming together, and where the Tigers stand in it. We pull away from the current, and look at the season as a whole. Sometimes those numbers get skewed, and things don’t happen the way we think they should, but is a good idea to check up on it every once in awhile.

The Tigers are 32-34 on the year. Over the last 10 games they are 7-3, and have won three series in a row for the first time all year. That is how this team begins to dig itself out of the funk that has been around since the beginning of May. They are 15-17 at home, and 17-17 on the road. That is an encouraging stat, but we have seen this team play better on the road. That may come into play in 1n a few days or so as the Tigers will be heading on a 10 game road trip staring next Friday. The upcoming week sees three games against the St. Louis Cardinals and a weekend set at the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Tigers are three full games behind the Chicago White Sox for teh division lead, and 1.5 games behind the Cleveland Indians who are in second. The team’s biggest flaw is not living up to expectations, not finding a better solution to the second base issue, and failing to add pieces that may have given them added roster flexibility. In the grand scheme of things this team is a lot better than we give them credit for, but one that still has issues.

The biggest one we at DJC see is the amount of runners left on base. It is a continuing story line each and very game, and one we must pay attention to even when they are on a hot streak. This team scores just 14% of the runners it gets on base. With a lineup containing Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder that is way to low. This team also hits into a ton of double plays, which tells us they can get guys on base but have issues getting them home. They have hit into 64 double plays this season, which is almost one a game. 13% of the times with an opportunity to blow a game open with a big hit the Tigers hits into a double play. DJC would like to see a reverse in those two trends.

There are a lot of positives, Max Scherzer has struck out 10 batters or more three times, Doug Fister returned and looked healed and sharp. QuintinBerryis continuing to hit, get on base and help charge up the offense. Cabrera and Fielder are hitting fairly well, and there is always JV. The numbers say this team should be a lot better off and a staff that strikes out this many hitters should propel them to the post season and more. We shall see Tigers fans, we shall see.