OT Tigers Fulmer has no hitter broken up after 20 outs
A couple weeks ago I said the Tigers season was on the brink of collapse, I've only upgraded the prospects to meandering 500 club. But there are a couple reasons to check this team out.
1) Michael Fulmer is blowing up. He went 6 2/3 no hit innings before being pulled after 7 2/3 shutout innings. Its the 3rd straight A+++ start for him. He was the prize piece of the Cespedes trade and the AA pitcher of the year. At 23 years old, he's easillly the best Tiger pitching prospect we've had since Verlander. His slider is nasty and he went up to 98 on his fastball tonight. I would say his stuff is less electric than young Verlander but hes the far more complete pitcher at this stage. Then again, 3 starts might be clowding my judgement.
2) Speaking of Verlander, outside a couple of bad innings he's carried over his play from the second half of last year. You can see him getting more and more comfortable every start and he's even been hitting 97 lately.
3) Cabrerra looks to be healthy and quietly having a very strong year. Hes a hot streak away from getting the tripple crown talk going.
4) Guys like Victor, Castellonos, Kinsler, Zimmerman are having really good years. Tigers just demoted Sanchez to the bullpen, and that seems like a much needed move. Its sort of mystifying how this team isnt doing better.
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he was given mark lowe for the 8th and so has to use him.
imo, he is not good at working his bullpen. i get the fact that they have underperformed the past two years. but my biggest gripe is that he constantly throws unproven guys into high-leverage situations. guys like verhagen and saupold should have never pitched in a winnable game until they have proven they can pitch at the mlb level.
it cost them several games last year as well as this year.
the tigers likely have one of the most experienced bullpens in the majors. both wilsons, lowe, hardy and krod all have some history of success. verhagen, saupold and ryan should pitch mop up duty only until they prove they can get people out.
One of the lone bright spots thus far. Honestly though the Tigers should just let the kids loose at this point, Fulmer, Norris, Boyd all in the rotation and Shane Greene as your setup man.
I heard about the move of Sanchez to the bullpen on the way home and thought about that on my walk after work - short of Toledo, it seems like this is the only way he stays on team at this point, at least in the short term. You can't roll him out there start after start as he is, and arguably this should have been done a while ago. I imagine they'd use him in middle to late relief and see if he can deal with limited action, and that seems a reasonable course for now, all things considered.
Shields is getting shelled in San Diego, and he was topping out at a whopping 88 MPH the other night. I wouldn't touch him.
The two best starting pitchers in the free agent market this coming winter: Andrew Cashner and Clay Buchholz. Yeah. There's no help on the way on that front.
As for Sanchez, I suspect that he's either injured (a possiblity, given the last two seasons), or his arm is shot. James Shields could be looking at the same thing.
i just think he has lost his control. he is wild in the strike zone. he doesn't throw 95+ anymore. and he constantly gets destroyed by grooving pitches up in the zone. he is actually effective when he keeps the ball down. he's got good breaking pitches. but he constantly has too many bad pitches up in the zone that get hammered.
finally gets the save with a game-ending K!
(edit: it was a 33-pitch, 4-out save, as KRod got the final out of the 8th on 2 pitches, but was a little less than sharp in the 9th, walking one and getting behind in the count on seemingly each batter. )
The Pelfrey deal was asinine. I could see a 1 yr/$5 mil flyer on him, but to give him 2 years at $16 mil was absolutely absurd. I suspect that Upton will warm up, but we're looking at a below average season out of him at any rate this year.
The one thing that no one is talking about yet, and we probably should, is the impending cool-down of one Cameron Maybin. He's not going to hit .430 all year. He's probably not going to touch .330 on the year. He's a .316 OBP career guy, and his OPS is 300 points higher than his career average. I wonder just how bad the correction is going to be once teams adjust to him. Problem is, we've got nothing to mitigate that in CF.
i still would like to see a gose/maybin platoon in center. gose is a .250 career hitter against righties but barely .200 against lefties, and is worth it for his defense. maybin isn't anywhere close to gose level on D. gose probably makes both plays the other nite in the 6th inning that the tigers ended up blowing against the A's. kinsler didn't help either with his error.
i think you have to roll with upton and hope he comes around a bit. no choice there really.
hopefully, norris can string together a few good outings in toledo and right his ship. then he can replace pelfrey in the rotation. the tigers need at least two of the young guns to be solid contributors going forward (fulmer, norris, boyd, greene). i think it will happen.
was gonig to be anything but a batting practice pitcher was a fool. He's NEVER been any good. The last time his WHIP was under 1.4 was in 2010 and that was in the NL. His WHIP was around 1.5 last year, which is also his career average. Starting pitchers with WHIPs of 1.5 are inning eaters at best.
Fulmer looks like the real deal.
The problem with the Tigers, other than the passive manager....
is that several key players are having completely shit seasons: Upton, Sanchez, Iggy, JD, both catchers, Pelfrey etc.
That core group of underperforming players is killing the team.
If some of those guys can get going, the division is there for the taking. I agree with you on JD and Iggy being most likely to get it turned around.
The move of Sanchez to the Pen may be a good one, if he can accept the mental aspect of it. They need long relief and he has good control and may be able to put in some innings here and there.
is on pace for 35 HRs and 100 rbi with OPS of .800 not bad. his BA is a bit low but that will come up a bit, as castellano's goes down.
i expect upton's numbers to increase with the temperature. maybe he is a warm weather guy; playing in AZ, SD and Atl his whole career.
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2 starting pitchers away from being able to contend. Verlander, Zimmerman and Fulmer have it going on. Sanchez and Pelfrey are throwing BP. They've gotta figure out some way to plug people into those other 2 starting spots that can give them decent starts, or they are never going to pull this off.
2 starting pitchers, any semblance of a relief pitcher (preferably more than 1 average arm would suffice), any sort of depth in the batting order, and competence from the manager/coaches/gm, and THEN we'll be contenders.
This team is a joke and will always be a joke until every player with a contract over $5 mill/year is gone.
The only players that might prove to be worth their contracts are Kinsler and Zimmermann.
Players that need to take their contracts elsewhere:
Cabrera, JV, Upton, Sanchez, Victor, JD, Pelfrey, K-Rod, Lowe, and Maybin. Might as well throw Shane Greene away too; he's not worth a roster spot even if he was playing for free.
I'm willing to endure 10-15 years of living in the cellar of the AL Central if it means we can get rid of all these idiotic contracts.
So you want to get rid of:
a 2-time MVP and the guy with the 2nd highest active career OPS in all of MLB who is currently slashing .301/.376/.541 (Cabrera)
A guy currently slashing .344/.387/.541 (V-Mart)
A guy who was an All-Star last year who already has 11 homers this year and is signed for under $10 million a year (J.D. Martinez)
A guy signed for $5 million a year who is slasing .415/.466/.491 (Maybin)
A guy who is 15/16 in Save opportunities (K-Rod)
A guy who has given up 8 earned runs in his last 5 starts (Verlander)
Oh yeah, you'd make a GREAT GM.
About the only one of those that makes any sense is Verlander, just because he is so ridiculously oversigned and has struggled so much.