The Detroit Tigers…40 Games In
The Motor City Kitties, the Detroit Tigers, have now played 1/4th of their regular season schedule. They've now played 40 games after Sunday's 9-3 loss to the Houston Astros.
At the 40 game mark, the Tigers are at .500. They're 20-20. But they have lost seven of their last nine games to fall back to the break-even point.
The weaknesses are evident. But the positives are also evident, too. And some surprises, too. Let's start with the weaknesses:
TOO MANY GUYS NOT HITTING
Parker Meadows was so bad at the plate (.096) that he was sent down to Toledo. Rookie 2nd baseman Colt Keith is only hitting .177. Javier Baez and Carson Kelly are both under .200 at this point. Jake Rogers is at .210 and Spencer Torkelson finally hit his first home run of the season on Sunday. Their team batting average is at .228. That's not good enough if they want to make the playoffs this season.
MISMANAGING OF THE PITCHING STAFF
Manager A.J. Hinch doesn't know how to run a major league pitching staff, IMO. He has lost games because he takes his starting pitchers out too early. It's happened multiple times this season. I'll stop there because I'll get too mad. Hinch is awful and should've never been hired. A major mistake by this franchise.
Now, the positives...
TARIK SKUBAL IS A DUDE!
Skubal (pictured above) has become the ace of this pitching staff. He is 5-0 in 8 starts this season with 60 strikeouts and only 8 walks. His ERA is a sparkling 2.02. And his WHIP (Walks & Hits per Innings Pitched) is 0.86. That is Cy Young level stuff. Barring injury (which has been an issue with him), he'll be in the All-Star Game and be a threat to win the American League Cy Young Award. He's been that good.
ANDY IBANEZ, WENCEEL PEREZ, & GIO URSHELA
All three of these guys have been positives at the plate. Ibanez is .340 in 17 games (he missed time due to an injury). After being called up, Perez has raked at the plate. He's hitting .282 in 23 games. And Urshela was hitting .298 before he got hurt in Minnesota. He is expected back soon. The Tigers need his offense.
RILEY GREENE & KERRY CARPENTER
Greene is turning into a really good major league player. Moving him to left field (and DH'ing him at times) was a good move. He's hitting .248, which isn't great. But he has nine home runs. And most importantly, he's stayed healthy so far. He's the only Tiger to play in all 40 games.
As for Carpenter, he's hitting a solid .274 with five homers and 18 RBI. He's a major league hitter.
Now for the surprise...which is a problem for the Tigers...
THE AL CENTRAL IS BETTER THAN WE THOUGHT
I'm mainly talking about the Kansas City Royals. Nobody thought they'd be 25-17 at this point of the year. But Cleveland is a surprise leader of the division at 25-16. And after a slow start, the defending champion Minnesota Twins are back in it at 24-16.
It's going to be a fight for the Tigers to get ahead of all of these teams.
Now, 20-20 isn't awful. But expectations were up after finishing second in the division last year. More hitting and better managing of the pitching staff are needed if the Tigers want to reach the postseason. I just don't know if they'll get it.
What do you think??? Let us know in the comments...