Tigers at the 1/4 point: worth watching
I posted one of these at the 20 game mark. Then, they were just below 500 but "those in the know" said they were fools gold due to an easy schedule.Unsaid was how snake bit they were, and that they could have easily had 5-6 more wins over that stretch.
40 games in, tonight was one of the best wins in a while. I'll take it over anything from the Ausmus era. This team is decimated by injuries but still finds ways to win. I think they have to be considered the surprise team in baseball with a chance to take 1st place in the central tomrrow.
I don't watch every game like during the Leyland years, but when I do watch I really enjoy this club.
I've seen James McCann and John Hicks batting cleanup recently, with career minor league castoffs batting around them. That they are near 500 is stunning with that lineup.
The key to me is that in 19 of the games, they managed to score more runs than their opponent. I hope they can continue to do that.
Holy crap... I just double checked & you seem to be right. Maybe there's something to this "score more runs than opponent" thing in regard to wins. More investigation needed.
Not sure about "fundamentals". Some of the defense has been comically bad. Nico Goodrum is an absolute disaster any time the ball is hit to him.
It does seem like there is some chemistry. I watch almost all games, went to the game tongiht, was really surprised they came back. But they have done it a few times recently so it's a good watch.
based on expectatoins, but I wouldn't say they are a surprise team. I'm surprised how poorly Cleveland is playing for a team that is loaded.
The Braves - with the best winning percentage in the NL at the 40 game mark - is a surprise given all the young players they have.
This team is a ton of fun to watch. Gardy was the right hire
Agreed. I am a proponent of this hire. He's dealt with similar rosters with the Twins and has experience managing this type of team.
I liked Brad Ausmus, but at this point I really can't tell you why. After seeing what Gardy has done with this band of misfits, I wish they had dumped Brad earlier.
I was hoping for the Gardy hire after Leyland was gone. He always seemed to lift Minnesota to another level than what they had.
He wasn't available at that time. He was still managing the Twins for another season.
Yep. And the Indians snapped up Francona the year before Leyland left. When those facts depress me I remember that the dumbass 49ers decided they could do better than Harbaugh at the exact time we were firing Hoke. That was some miraculous timing.
My thoughts exactly on Ausmus. I always thought he got a bit of a bad rap and got criticized for decisions that there was nothing wrong with, but, uh, this is what good managing actually looks like. Gardy knows what he's doing.
so he was available then, but the front office wanted to try to catch some sort of trend going on with hiring young up-and-coming managers that was based soley on John Farrell beating Mike Matheney in the '13 Series. And they end up hiring him anyway, when we could have had him for the last 4 years.
They are without their top 4 hitters and are still finding ways to win, they won't sniff the playoffs but this is fun baseball to watch.
Candelario and Martín are two of their best hitters? Who are these people?
Candalario was traded from the Cubs last season in the Justin Wilson/Alex Avila trade. Decent prospect for the Cubbies but was blocked at 3B by Bryant. I'm a Cubs fan so I'm happy to see him doing well for the Tigers. Martin is a journeyman outfielder with some speed.
The central division is so dreadful, a team playing .500 ball may take this division.
two guys camping and a bear has come up to them and they need to get away. the one guy is putting his running shoes on and the other says, 'what are you doing, you can't outrun a bear', to which his companion responds, 'i don't have to outrun the bear, i just have to outrun you!'
the tigers aren't going to have any chance to get in the playoffs except for winning their own pathetic division. wonderful win by a no-talent team last night, and hey, 1 game out of first is still 1 game out of first. what's not to like?
M Spath's producer/sidekick uses this line but its fitting. KC, Cleveland and Detroit used to be at a minimum respectable.
The Tigers are not the surprise team of the season so far. We're not even a .500 team right now.
The real surprise teams are:
Atlanta Braves
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
Milwaukee Brewers
On the bad side of suprises are:
LA Dodgers
Chicago Cubs
Cleveland Indians
This is good to know since I will be going to a game at Co America Park in about 2 weeks.
At least so far, he seems to be the exact right manager for the Tigers at this early stage of their remake.
At the start of the year I just wanted a competitive team to watch. I wanted a reason to turn the game on. They've given me just that. I've had more fun watching this team for 40 games than at any point over the past two seasons.
Love watching the overachieving 2018 Tigers who may not be that talented - but never give up, as opposed to that underachieving bunch of slow superstars in the Ausmus era. A hell of a lot more fun.
Reminds me of our overachieving hoops team this year, who didn't even sniff the Top 25 at the beginning of the year, as opposed to the underachiving Spartys who were loaded with lottery picks and overrated recruits. We certainly had much more fun watching our team than Sparty, who had to be miserable...
Imagine how well Gardenhire would be doing if he had JV, J Up, Miggy two or three years younger, Kinsler, and JD still on the roster?
He’s making lemonade out of lemons right now.
I admit to being surprised by how well they are playing relative to my expectations.
I will take it. This is basically a AAA team right now with all the injuries. Gardenhire is working magic with a bunch of misfit toys. I know it probably will not last, but they have been entertaining nonetheless.
I'll play "what if" here. What if the Tigers are sniffing 1st place in mid-July in a dreadful division? How does that affect potential trade scenarios regarding the few semi-marketable players on the roster? I assume Liriano, Greene, possibly Castellanos and Fulmer will still be shopped if the right package of prospects is offered.
My biggest hope was for a Zimmerman bounce back year that made him semi-marketable (yes, salary would be have to swallowed regardless), but those hopes seem to be dashed again.
Otherwise, this team has been fun to follow. JaCoby Jones is such a spark plug. I hope he can sustain a BA above .250-.260, because his speed and defense are top notch.
JD Martinez, Ian Kinsler, Justin Upton and Justin Verlander for Leonys Martin, Jacoby Jones Dixon Machado and Francisco Liriano.
Rest of team is more or less the same nucleus (Iglesias, Miggy, Victory, Castellanos and McCann to go along with same 3 same SP and Greene in pen).
Those current guys all play the same way more or less with Iggy all defense no stick, Miggy productive but injured, Victor washed up, Castellanos maturing as a hitter in his prime but crap defender and McCann just being blah. The nuclues hasn't really changed much.
They just basically took 4 All-Star level players and replaced them with 3 guys who are in MLB because of their defense and not their bats.
Think most would agree that they would take the first group over the other group every day of the week. If Tigers had any of those former guys on this team they'd likely be couple games better and winning this division right now.
You are looking at the entirety of how a team lines up is how it appears in the batting order.
Lets take a look how they line up on the field:
2017 = 2018 Catcher, 1b, SS
2017 more or less the same defensively as 2018, albeit with different players - 2b, RF
Huge defensive upgrades 2018 >>> 2017, LF, 3B, CF.
I would note that 3b and CF are two prime spots where is necessary for good/great defensive players to be positioned.
I can't blame a Tiger fan for not understanding this, as it's been a policy of the Tigers to not give a shit about defense for a couple decades now.