The 2012 Detroit Tigers…The week that was
So The Detroit Tigers had a good week and this last week that was not so good. They frustratingly cannot get themselves to the .500 mark which is the first step of any turn around. Yes, the Tigers did win a mid week series against the St. Louis Cardinals, but they only scored nine runs in that series, and my heart cannot bear to look up the number of runners left on base any more. It seems pretty clear that the problems here are on the offense. Today Justin Verlander made one bad pitch that almost led to a sweep by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He cannot do it alone, and the offense needs a massive influx of something, and that something may indeed be simply new faces. The supporting cast isn’t very good, and they are easy to repalce.
For the record the 2012 Tigers sit on June 25th with a 35-37 record. They are a full three games behind the Cleveland Indians for first place, and 1.5 games behind the Chicago White Sox (who pulled a big move today by trading for Kevin Youkilis). The Tigers are three games ahead of the fourth place Kansas City Royals. Over the last 10 games they have a 6-4 record but for the week they were just 2-3. Their home record is 17-18, and on the road they are 18-19.
This team has a lot of potential, but when Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder go cold the offense just doesn’t work. Today they went 1-7 with one walk combined. Prince has 11 home runs, but ten of them are solo. Some of that gets explained away by the Cabrera’s 56 RBI this season, but far too often these two either don’t get into situations where they can do damage, or fail to do damage. The middle of the lineup duo have made 416 outs, and are 1-2 on the team in that dubious category.
There is little doubt that changes are coming. This team cannot seriously compete for a division crown with Delmon Young at their LF/DH, and with Ryan Raburn playing wherever Manger Jim Leyland works him into the daily lineup. The list of what this team needs is definitely starting to get clearer. An everyday second baseman with a decent bat tops that list, along with a veteran starter for the rotation, and maybe another arm in the pen. Of course getting Victor Martinez back sooner rather than later would be a big plus, but we cannot count on that happening in this season.
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