OT - Tiger Baseball Predictions This Season
Mates,
It is almost time for the real baseball season and I note that the tigers have lost something like 6 straight games in spring training (today's 0-0 tie excepted) and the last time Verlander pitched this week he got beaten like a rented mule. As far as I can tell the tigers did 'okay' in free agency but losing scherzer, despite the money involved, still didn't help our pitching. So what are the tigers going to do this year, make the playoffs or tank? Baseball officiandos or even those that have uninformed opinions (like mine) are invited to comment.
And before anyone else posts, happy friday, second day of the NCAA tourrnament, and pre-posbang jitter bugs getting ready to fire it up in T-minus 68 minutes.....
Sanchez is the key for the rotation. We really need him to be a stud this year.
JV is an above average pitcher now? Did i read that right? Are you looking at his work from 2 years ago?
appreciate having Miggy this season, if this goes South within the next couple years I'd look for the Tigers to trade him and capitalize on his value. Check that, I don't really want to think about that.
I think the Tigers will be pretty good, it really comes down to making it through the year without any key injuries to Verlander, Price or Sanchez and Miggy being healthy. If that happens they're as good as anyone, if not they'll be in a real battle to nab a playoff spot. I'll say those guys stay healty, Price makes at run at Cy Young, Verlander returns to good form and Miggy amazes us all. 94-68, 5 clear of the White Sox.
Basically, I hope everyone stays healthy. If Iglesias's shins hold up that will be a huge help to the infield defense.
The batting line up has potential to be very good especially if J.D. Martinez has another good year.
Bullpen, bullpen, bullpen. Hoping Rondon is solid.
March 20th, 2015 at 10:14 AM ^
March 20th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^
March 20th, 2015 at 10:37 AM ^
I didn't even mention all of the other player departures, but the issues mentioned are enough to make it a rough season IMO.
March 20th, 2015 at 10:54 AM ^
March 20th, 2015 at 11:17 AM ^
March 20th, 2015 at 10:37 AM ^
March 20th, 2015 at 11:03 AM ^
I don't know. My expectations are not as high as they've been the past few years. I think that's mainly due to the downgraded rotation, and I don't know that the bullpen will be much better than last year's group. Who knows though, relievers tend to be weird and hard to predict.
For the rotation, I have more optimism that Verlander will be better than he has been the past two years. At the moment, I'm willing to chalk up his struggles to dealing with injuries. He's now coming off a good offseason and should be healthy. We need Sanchez to stay healthy, he's a very good pitcher. David Price will be stellar. I am growing more and more optimistic about Greene. He throws strikes and pitched well for NY last year, and his career has shown steady improvement as he's moved up through each level of competition. Bright future for him. I don't have high expectations for Simon. I think his first half last year was an abberation and his performance this year will likely be more in line with his second half (which is an average pitcher). As long as he maintains that, he'll be someone who can eat least eat innings at the back end of the rotation.
The offense, as has been the case for a while now, hinges entirely on Cabrera and Martinez. I heard the other night that both are on track to be ready for Opening Day. That means it will likely take them time to ramp up, but it's a dangerous lineup with them, Kinsler, Cespedes, JD Martinez (can he sustain it?), and Castellanos (if he continues to improve). James McCann is swinging a hot bat this spring and making a case for the backup (if not primary, depending on Avila's health/batting performance) catcher spot.
Defensively, I think they are much improved. Just having Iglesias back will be a good thing. As others have said, he and Kinsler will be solid up the middle, and Iglesias may be able to mitigate some of Castellanos' limited range. The outfield has some good arms, and hey, they can't be any worse than the days when we were throwing Delmon Young and Ryan Raburn out there.
Who knows what the bullpen will do? I think Soria needs to be the closer, and Nathan needs to be limited. Unless Nathan majorly turns things around, I would not be surprised if he gets cut at some point during the season. Rondon has the potential, he just needs to stay healthy and throw strikes. Other than that, the strategy seems to be "bring in as many relievers as possible, because hey, not all of them can be terrible, right? Right guys?...Guys?" The bullpen has to get better if this team is going to seriously compete for the WS though.
Overall, there's a part of me that feels like last year was the beginning of the end for this era of the Tigers team. We've been spoiled with all of the top notch players that DD has brought in, but they've struggled to get serviceable-enough role players to fill in the gaps. Maybe this team puts it all together and makes a run, but I don't think it's there. I think Cleveland will win the division, with Detroit, KC, and Chicago duking it out for second place. Minnesota is still a few years away. If it weren't for the second wild card, I would say the Tigers miss the playoffs, but that second spot gives them a chance.
March 20th, 2015 at 11:32 AM ^
Better defense with Iglesias back - he's a fucking wizard out there. I've never seen anyone get a throw off as fast as he does. Cespedes is a slight upgrade over who's been in LF. The new young catcher is an upgrade too if he makes it north.
Offense is hopefully better with Cespedes and Gose can be a sparkplug, if he can at least not strikeout like Jackson did he'll be an upgrade, too. Hopefully Kinsler can be better. I think the rotation is weaker but we've been spoiled. The defense can keep it close and offset some slightly weaker pitching. I think the bullpen is improved - it can't be worse - with Rondon and some of the new guys. I've always liked Soria, until we got him, but I think that was an aberration.
Overall I think Dave D has done well to rearrange things and keep us in contention. But with the tougher division, it may be tough to get in the playoffs. I think it can happen if they stay healthy since the depth isn't there.
I guess I'm an optimist. Win the division by two or three games. Cespedes kiils in batting behind Miggy and in front of VMart. Defense is much improved and we look a lot more like the Royals.
Still worried about the bullpen, which probably leads to another early exit in the playoffs.
but little was said by anyone other than Moleskyn about the catcher position.
The key to the Tigers chances, IMO, is how strong/healthy they are at catcher. If our catchers can give us a combined .250 BA and 12-15 HRs and limited strikeouts , I'll be satisfied with it offensively. Anything over and above that is gravy. Much bigger, though, is how our catchers fare handling the pitchers and defensively. I trust Avila to handle the pitchers; that has seldom been the problem over the last several years with him. But he has to stay healthy AND the Tigers need to get very solid backup backstop support out of McCann in order to win consistantly.
As the old adage goes, "You're only as strong as you are up the middle", this is the key to the season. Gose is a bonafide CF defensively (a big upgrade over Rajai Davis at that position) and can run like the wind but has to prove not to be a liability with the bat. Kinsler is very solid at 2nd and can be a force offensively as long as he uses the entire field. Nobody---NOBODY--- in baseball can field the SS position as well as a healthy Igliasis. Iggy has wheels, is one helluva bunter, and will scratch out as many infield hits as the entire remainder of the team---I just hope his shin problems are behind him.
We're down to less than 2 weeks until they play for real. Let's revisit this thread on the eve of the season as we find out how the bullpen and catcher situation line up.