Detroit Tigers 2013 week in review: Week 19

The Tigers won 12 games in a row till Friday when the lost to the New York Yankees in New York. They then spent the weekend dropping another and losing the series to the Yankees, and winding up the 2013 season 3-3 against those damn Yankees. We saw the highs went the Tigers won game #12 in a row and everyone was ready to elect Dave Dombrowski the king of baseball, and then we saw the lows as the bullpen he constructed went out and sort of dropped the ball in the Empire State. The thing to remember about baseball is to not over react to any one game or series, but Tigers fans have a very hard time accepting that truth of this sport.

The simple truth is the Tigers destroyed a division rival last week, are in first place by seven full games and as long as the offense does not fall completely asleep the Tigers will be just fine. And let us be clear this is an offense problem not a bullpen problem. In fact since the All Star Game the bullpen has performed quite well.

When we look at the box score from yesterdays game we see that the Tigers had 13 hits but scored only 4 runs. The good news is the Tigers offense has been scoring runs late in games in fact three of the four runs yesterday came past the 7th inning, but they are not scoring in the middle innings putting games out of reach. When they do score runs in the middle innings there W-L record is quite good, when they do not the late innings W-L numbers are a bit more uneven.

The news of the week is Alex Avila has been placed on the 7 day concussion DL, and the team is quite concerned about this development. Alex handles the pitching staff very well and so far in the second half of the season has had a hotter bat. Bryan Holaday was added to the active roster to take his spot for the week, this likely means we will see Brayan Pena a lot this coming week.

As always a quick look at the splits. The team is 69-47. At home they are 37-19 and on the road they are 32-28 when they play they way they are capable of plying they look unbeatable however the offense still has the annoying habit of going to sleep at key moments. Over the last ten they are 8-2 and if they keep that up the division race will be over before we get to September.

The Good:

• Speaking of Pena who is very solid behind the plate but over 146 at bats this season is hitting .299. He might not have a lot of power with just four home runs but 46 hits and 18 RBI are strong numbers for a bottom of the order guy. 
• Drew Smyly- He has pitched the most innings of any Tigers reliever so far this year and still has a Whip under 1.00, and a very good ERA of 1.98. Drew is the real deal, and let's hope he is not a one year wonder. 
• Max Scherzer- he is an unreal 17-1 with a 2.84 ERA and leads the team with 175 strike outs. Legit Cy Young numbers. 

The Bad:

• Phil Coke- it looks like Jim Leyland has figured this one out and will pick the spots were Coke pitches very carefully. It looks like he is once again the left handed specialist only and he will likely only see left handed batters for now. His 5.19 ERA is the reason why
• Hernan Perez- He is getting lots of playing time with Omar Infante still out. He has just over 30 at bats but is hitting just .214 The Tigers offense needs Infante's bat back. 

Related Links:

• Detroit Tigers news and notes

2013 Detroit Tigers week in review: Week 17

So the Detroit Tigers go out and play the Chicago White Sox and the Philadelphia Phillis, win 6 of 7 and leve us without much to complain about. What on earth will all us Tigers fans do this week? Oh ya complain about the jackass umpire who think he is the show by running Miguel Cabrera for well basically for nothing. Dude, if you show me one person who bought a ticket to see you call balls and strikes I will conceded this point but until then you are a total jackass. In fact you are the Joshua Lobdell jack off of the week...congratulations. This game is not about you...do your job and do it well and the best thing about ti is we won't even know or care who you are. That is the life of an umpire my man.

So after spending the weekend blowing smoke and saying how the bullpen is fine that way it is it took General Manager Dave Dombrowski about five seconds to pull the trigger on a trade. They have added Jose Verras from the Houston Astros for prospect Danny Vazquez and a player to be named. That is a good move and it seems the team still needs to make another move. We shall see.

So of course we look at the splits. The Tigers are 59-45 and in first place by three games. That is still the second worst win total of the six teams in first place and that becomes more important as we progress to the fall and the playoffs. The Tigers are 7-3 over the last 10 (and a chunk of those games were played without Cabrera), and they beat up on the teams they should have this past week. that is important and for July they were 16-8 hopefully that means they will start to heat up and quit making the race for the division a race. It should not be. We will have to see what the addition of Verras does for the pen, but it has to be an improvement.

The Good:

• Victor Martinez- Is Victor back? He all of a sudden is hitting .270 with 9 home runs and 59 RBI. If he keeps it up 1-6 this is the best lineup in baseball. The offense needs to stay hot and keep the pressure off the pitching staff. Victor and Prince Fielder are the keys to that. 
• Matt Tuiasosopo- finally we have a big enough sample size to say this kid is legit and maybe should be playing everyday in left. With just over 100 at bats Tui is hitting .301 with some power. But 31 K's means he needs to have a little more patience at the plate
• Joaquin Benoit/Drew Smyly- the two reasons Dombrowski could get in front of the media and make a credible argument that the bullpen isn't as bad as the fans and media makes it out to be. These two guys are locking it down out there. 

The Bad:

• Prince Fielder- It is hard to say bad when the guy is hitting .261 with 17 jacks and 75 RBI. However considering who he hits behind and in front of it seems like he should be doing more damage. he came top the plate how many times yesterday with the bases full? That is kind of the point here. 
• Phil Coke- Do I really need to continue?
• Alex Avila- He just cannot hit MLB pitching and his far off his career numbers. We have now seen what this guy is and a championship team needs a guy who can produce out of the catcher's spot. 

Related Links:

• Detroit Tigers news and notes
• Detroit Football Examiner