mtutiger

I hate playing the "what-if" game, but at least on eye test, the offense is the biggest offender so far. My guess is that they would have at least a couple more wins if they were performing at league average. Even the game Tuesday that they threw away defensively in Minnesota, they had opportunities to score earlier on that they didn't cash in. They havent hit many homers or even had extra base hits with any sort of consistency. Their last extra base hit was a double by Robbie Grossman on Wednesday night (in garbage time). It's just not a recipe for success... and no amount of good pitching or even good defense can win you a lot of games with the kind of offense they are playing right now. Even the Dodgers pitching staff would struggle with it.

My guess is Option C...

Probably to an extent. Things like not giving up a bunch of walks probably helps too.

Interesting. Probably more of a topic for the Media Meltdowns thread over in the political forum, but even outside of politics and in sports, journalists really have to walk a fine line between reporting the facts and letting advocacy or bias seep into their work. I don't want to say anything mean or speak out of turn though, I don't subscribe to BA and subsequently don't follow her work much. I just saw the tweet and shared it here.

Tigers have also not been blessed schedule wise so far.... Not making excuses for them, particularly with hitting and defense people should expect better, but to an extent all of this stuff (weather, schedule, injuries, etc.) may at least provide an explanation for some of the struggles.

I dont know if this is the case with all Detroit sports teams (admittedly I'm sort of baseball first at this point), but in the case of the Tigers, what frustrates me is that when things aren't going well, and particularly when it is not driven by all phases of their game, it tends to overpower any aspects of their game that maybe aren't going poorly or actually going well. On the whole, the pitching staff has held up well in spite of injuries. Losing Mize and Manning was a setback, but this franchise isn't the only one dealing with pitching injuries in this league. And there's more depth in that department than there has been in past years. The bullpen, meanwhile, has actually been one of the better units in the American League, and there's reason to believe it's not a complete fluke. The reason that all matters is that it demonstrates that this isn't Cincinnati or Baltimore; there is reason to believe that when the hitting comes around (and it will), they will win a decent amount of ballgames. The situation sucks, everyone wishes that there wasn't yet another massive slump to start the season. But they will have opportunities to get going. The Tigers org isn't perfect and there is plenty to complain about. Particularly with position player depth. But the picture isn't totally negative. It ain't perfect, they likely aren't contending for a playoff spot this year, but there is reason to believe that this team is better than last and can push for .500.

I would just add that, overall, the pitching has held up well despite setbacks of their own. Particularly the bullpen, and unlike last year, they may be real because a lot of the standouts (Lange, Fulmer, Vest, etc.) don't have Funkhouser-esque peripherals. If they can start hitting, they'll easily be in contention for .500.

And replace him with who? Lloyd McClendon? Considering the improved walk rate, I'm not even sure Coolbaugh is doing a bad job, let alone whether he should be worried

This is right, Alexander isn't unlike an Anderson or Pineda in that they are all kinda both 2x thru order max pitchers who don't throw hard and whose success relies on being able to locate their pitches consistently. When any of these guys can't locate, in or out of the zone, problems will arise. And Alexander has struggled here... particularly in the last two starts where he's struggling in the zone and putting way too many balls out over the plate. In the long run it may be correctable, but if he keeps it up, whenever Mize or Manning come back and/or when the Tigers want a look at Faedo or Wentz, he may be the one losing starts.

There are a lot of reasons to be upset with the way this team has started. Signing ERod and Mike Pineda instead of Tyler Anderson isn't one of them

If we weren't missing Paredes, we'd be missing Austin Meadows. Although the broader point is well taken

They also brought in Pineda, who is basically a righty T. Anderson

This is true... Related, but the Tigers have some hard decisions to make on the bullpen after this series, with rosters reducing back to 26 man. There really isn't anyone there who deserves to be shipped out, but at least one, possibly two, guys are gonna be on the short end of the stick. Given how he pitched tonight, its gonna suck to see them ship Vest out just because he has options and Drew Hutchison doesn't lol

This is kinda drastic, but Alexander does have options left (unlike Candy/Schoop)... but I doubt they would do something that drastic in his case, given that he was a rock solid 26 man guy coming into the season. At some point, it might be worth bringing in Faedo or Wentz for a start or two in that spot, but I doubt the org is ready or willing to do that... they may come up for Brieske depending on how things go with him, but not Alexander.

Kirk Gibson Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium... EDIT: Also being inducted into the "Legends of Dodger Baseball", joining Steve Garvey, Maury Wills, Fernando Valenzuela, and Don Newcombe. Good for him. https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/kirk-gibson-named-to-legends-of-dodger-baseball-50c2e71c14bb

On the bright side, the team that the media coronated in the preseason as the AL Central winners really is playing about as bad as the Tigers are at the moment. But of course they'll break out of it and do fine. That doesn't guarantee much for the Tigers

Looking forward to Dan Hasty's tweet shaming fans for overreacting to a loss that makes up .0062% of the season... Its like, ya know, when you string enough of those together, the percentage goes up!

Wow, what an outing from Will Vest... (unfortunately the team can't hit, so....)

Only took five innings, but finally a clean inning lol

Just terrible luck...

Yeah, not sure how to handle that...

I really like Ty, but he seems really out of sorts right now...

Peralta now up, which seems like should have happened earlier

Alexander just not sharp enough for this Dodger lineup