Just like Michael Curtiz in filmdom…just blame Brandon Inge.
The numbers are numbing.
It has been 13 straight games that opposing starters have pitched at least five innings against the Tigers, not exactly a ringing endorsement for a high-octane offense created to put relentless pressure on starting pitching, forcing managers to use their bullpens much earlier than they’d prefer.
How can a team boasting one of the most potent lineups in baseball rank in the top five in the American League in only one productive offensive statistic?
Entering Monday, the Tigers were tied for second in triples. That’s it.
They ranked 12th in the American League in OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage), surpassing only offensively challenged Seattle and Oakland. They ranked 10th in the league in batting average, as well as RBIs. They rank last in doubles, a telling statistic considering Comerica Park long has been considered a doubles ballpark.
...Alex Avila wrote it off as one of those cyclical occurrences over the course of a long season. And he’s right. Pounding the ball comes and goes, placing a higher priority on consistent quality pitching and defense. But when you’ve tied your overall success to your slugging as the Tigers have this season, they must endure higher scrutiny when they’re not hitting.
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1. Walt Davis Posted: April 24, 2012 at 06:46 AM (#4114527)I don't know what they boast about but they don't field one of the most potent lineups in baseball. Fielder and Cabrera oh yeah (and both are doing fine if not spectacularly) and Avila is still hitting ... and Austin Jackson has been going nuts. But Cabrera at 3B so you could find more DH time for Raburn, Dirks, etc. is silly on its face. Santiago, Inge, Kelly, Worth, Laird (hitting so far), Thomas aren't expected to hit.
It's two studs, two hopefully nice complementary bats (Avila and Peralta) and below-average to crap hitters. And that's pretty much exactly what they're hitting like although you'd hope for more out of Peralta. The Tigers -- and it seems as much management as fans -- like to think that Young and Boesch are good hitters but they simply aren't.
Boesch shows flashes and is at least a good athlete, if not always a smooth fielder. Delmon is a born DH who struggles to keep his OBP north of .300. Sometimes it is fun to see how many different directions he can turn on a routine fly before relying on an awkward, last-moment stab to catch it - or not.
Walt, a lot of the guys you named aren't starters. A couple of them aren't even on the roster. One of them is now a Minnesota Twin.
A usual Tigers lineup has two elite hitters, two good hitters, and generally 3-4 average hitters, not "below average to crap". I agree it's not the '61 Yankees (or the '12 Rangers) but the offence should be expected to be top 5-10 in baseball, and they are underperforming. It's very early though.
And when will teams stop using that stupid shift on Fielder? I haven't seen every Tigers game this year, but I already feel like I've watched Fielder get 80 hits by simply going the other way with the ball.
I used the Tigers 2012 stats at b-r. Like most teams, the Tigers don't have a lot of starters.
The other batters are not average, sorry. Young isn't, Boesch isn't, the guys they trot out at 2B (Raburn, Santiago, etc.) aren't, the guys they trot out at DH (Raburn, Dirks, etc.) aren't, the bench sucks. That does not add up to a potent lineup. Every game they are putting out at least 5 below-average hitters. Show it otherwise.
The 2011 Tigers were only 4th in scoring. They swapped out Martinez (133 OPS+) for Fielder which is at best a small improvement (not that VMart was expected to hit that again). Peralta, Boesch and Avila all hit well-above expectations with Young, Betemit and Wells all doing nicely in their short stints. I see no reason to think the 2012 Tigers offense should be better than 2011 and a number of reasons to expect it to be a bit worse due to regression.
Should it be a top 10 offense in baseball? Sure, somewhere near the bottom of that maybe (or #4-6 in the AL).
Indeed it does. Also, Boesch is 27 and is coming off a 116 OPS+ year (an improvement from his 98 OPS+ rookie year). Before reaching the majors, he improved his OBP and SLG for three straight years in the minors. He may never be a superstar, but he shows plenty of signs of being reliably average.
Delmon Young, as a former #1 overall draft pick, is certainly a disappointment, but I don't think it's so much of a stretch to call him an "average" hitter. His career OPS+ is exactly 100 (99 this year so far), he was quite a bit better than average in 2010, and he's still only 26. Expecting him to put up a 100 OPS+ this year, or even whatever the average turns out to be for a LF/DH, is not a completely ridiculous notion.
I see no reason to think the 2012 Tigers offense should be better than 2011 and a number of reasons to expect it to be a bit worse due to regression.
Austin Jackson could "regress" in a good way. Young, Boesch, Avila and even Cabrera are all still youngish and could possibly see age-based improvement. They could have better team health (V-Mart and the right fielders missed quite a bit of time last year). So there are at least some reasons to think they'll be better in 2012 than 2011.
Likely true but that's not the popular conception here in Michigan. Before the season the big debate on the afternoon call-in shows was over whether they would win 110 games or only 100. I think the consensus was that 100 wins was being overly pessimistic.
How many other teams have a lineup which, hitting-wise, has no glaring holes and two of the biggest bats in the game?
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