Having lost four straight, seven out of ten, placing pitchers Anibal Sanchez and Joakim Soria on the 15-day disabled list, and also seeing former Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander suffer shoulder inflammation which could force him to miss at least one start, all the while being passed by the Kansas City Royals in the American League Central division, the Detroit Tigers have definitely seen better days. However, even when taking all of that into consideration, ESPN's David Schoenfield misses the mark with his recent article, "The implosion of the Detroit Tigers."
Schoenfield starts his article with this:
"Let's' get this out of the way: The Kansas City Royals are in first place, the Detroit Tigers are in second place. It's the middle of August and we have baseball fever in the AL Central."
Let's get this out of the way. The Tigers are half a game behind the Royals and tied with the Seattle Mariners for the second wild card spot. They also have 45 games left in their regular season, or 27.8% of it.
Schoenfield then writes the following:
"Who would you rather have? David Price ... or Doug Fister, Austin Jackson, Drew Smyly, Jhonny Peralta and Joaquin Benoit?
I know that's a little unfair to Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski since those players weren't all involved in the same transactions, but it's related to this point: For the past four seasons, the Tigers have been the ultimate stars and scrubs team top heavy in big-name performers who have delivered some monster seasons but a team that has lacked depth and won three consecutive division titles despite some obvious holes."
Schoenfield was right about one thing - "I know that it's a little unfair to Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski since those players weren't all involved in the same transactions, but..."
But nothing... How about this? Who would you rather have? David Price, Ian Kinsler, Rajai Davis, and Joe Nathan or Doug Fister, Jhonny Peralta, Austin Jackson, and Joaquin Benoit? No, not all of these players were involved in the same transactions, but it's a much fairer and less biased (cherry-picked) comparison than Schoenfield's. Based on those four comparisons, I'd take Kinsler over Peralta, Davis over Jackson, and Benoit over Nathan. The toss-up for me would be between Price and Fister, but due to Fister's injury history, I may give Price the ever so slight advantage.
Schoenfield continued:
"Trading for Price sort of doubled down on this philosophy. He provided an upgrade over Smyly -- although smaller than most people acknowledged when the trade was made -- but it also came at the expense of losing your starting center fielder in Jackson, a solid, league-average player both at the plate and int he field. In trading away Jackson, Dombrowski and the Tigers were also doubling down on the emergence of J.D. Martinez, and on Rajai Davis continuing to play well as an everyday player."
Drew Smyly is a nice #5 guy to have in the rotation, but he is no David Price. Calling former Cy Young award winner David Price a slight upgrade on Drew Smyly would be like calling Chris Paul a slight upgrade on Jeremy Lin. Sure, Lin can provide a spark and do things to help a team win, but he's no Chris Paul. Smyly is 7-10 this season, with an ERA of 3.73, a WHIP of 1.33, with 104 strikeouts in 118.1 innings (the most innings he's ever pitched in a season). For his career, he's a combined 17-13. David Price this year is 11-8, with a 3.21 ERA, a WHIP of 1.05, with 205 strikeouts in 185.1 innings. For his career, he's 82-47, with an ERA of 3.19, a WHIP of 1.14, and 1,081 strikeouts in 1,158.1 innings. Smyly is still young and unproven. Price is a Cy Young award-winning pitcher. The guy is proven. Also, while Austin Jackson had a very solid season in 2012, he's been extremely mediocre in his past three seasons, where he's hit .272, .270, and .273. He's hit a combined 20 home runs in these past three seasons (compared to 16 in 2012), driven in 120 runs (compared to 66 in 2012), and stolen 27 bases (he had 12 in 2012). Not only that, but batting lead-off a good percentage of the time, Jackson's on-base percentage hasn't reached above .337 these past three seasons (.377 in 2012). He's also struck out 363 times and only walked 126 times. Austin Jackson is not a bad baseball player, but he's definitely been a disappointment since his high point in 2012, and this is especially the case since he's often times bat lead-off. Rajai Davis, meanwhile, is hitting .291 this year and has stolen a team high 27 bases. He's stolen 118 bases the past three seasons. Also, while never being known for his power numbers, Davis has as many home runs as Jackson these past three years (20) and only 15 fewer RBI's (105). I will agree that J.D. Martinez still needs to prove himself more before the Tigers can be confident of him as a long-term success. However, overall, the guy has been quite a pleasant surprise this year, as he's hit .299, with 15 home runs, and 51 RBIs in 79 games.
Later in the article, Schoenfield wrote this:
"Is it time to panic in Detroit? Absolutely. As I wrote on Sunday, the Royals have a better bullpen, better team defense and better team speed. And the rotations? The Royals have a 3.75 ERA, the Tigers 3.73 (obviously, that only includes two Price starts)."
Panic? Weren't the Royals ahead of the Tigers just before the all-star break before the Tigers soon found themselves up four games? Isn't "panic" a bit too strong of a word? Also, I love how the writer included that note about Price in parentheses. Yes, obviously, so why did he feel the need to include those numbers at all?
After appearing to have fun bashing the Tigers all article long, Schoenfield then added this:
"I'm not kicking the Tigers to the curb, but suddenly two-fifths of the team's biggest strength may be missing and you're looking at a Tigers team that doesn't have the depth of last year's squad, easily the best of its three division-winning teams..."
It certainly sounds like he's kicked them to the curb, almost like he kicked them to the curb a long time ago. Verlander will be out for one plus start. Sanchez will likely be back in a couple of weeks. Considering all the injuries the team is battling, to find themselves right in the thick of the playoff race seems to be anything but an "implosion," but I digress... Please, Mr. Schoenfield, continue...
"...The Tigers are relying on Miguel Cabrera to hit like Miguel Cabrera. Not that he's having a bad year, but his .308/.366/.509 line is about the same as Melky Cabrera's (.318/.374/.480). The Tigers aren't paying Miggy to hit like Melky."
Miguel Cabrera to this point has 137 hits to his credit, including 36 doubles, 1 triple, and 17 home runs. He's stolen one base, has 72 runs scored, has driven in 85 runs, and has struck out 82 times while walking 47. Melky Cabrera is having a fine season, but has also driven in 22 fewer runs than Miguel. It's been noted that Miguel has been playing hurt for a good portion of the season, but even then, the guy is one of the league leaders in runs driven in. While he may not be putting up the video game-like numbers from the past couple of years, he's still a much bigger plate presence than Melky, and his 85 RBIs showcase that.
Schoenfield finally closes with this:
"...Two weeks ago after they acquired Price we were all discussing the impending playoff death match rotation between the Tigers and A's.
Now they're in a battle just to get into the playoffs.
Now ... or never."
Now or never, eh? It appears as if Schoenfield is obsessed with this notion that the Tigers are a stars and scrubs team. They have a couple of superstar-caliber players (whom get paid like it) in Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, but if these stars don't rise to the occasion, the team will falter. In this, I think he's completely off the mark. Justin Verlander is having one of the worst seasons of his professional career and Miguel Cabrera, while still very solid at the plate, hasn't put up the numbers he did the previous two seasons, yet the team is still only a half game out of first place and are tied for the second wild card spot. Schoenfield may also believe David Price, Max Scherzer, and even Victor Martinez are big-name players. Yet he forgets to mention other quality players like: Rajai Davis, Ian Kinsler, the ageless wonder Torii Hunter, Anibal Sanchez, and Rick Porcello, among others. Sanchez may be one of the most underrated pitchers in the game. He won the AL ERA crown last year and might have been on his way again this year if not for some arm problems. Rick Porcello is having a breakthrough season. Offensively, the team ranks 5th in runs scored, 2nd in batting average, 3rd in on-base percentage, and 2nd in slugging percentage (quite the "implosion" indeed). When healthy, their starting rotation is one of the best, if not the best in the game. Their biggest problem has been in the bullpen. When your closer has allowed 45 hits and walked 22 others in 43 innings of work, has a 5.23 ERA, a 1.56 WHIP, and an 0-4 record to show for his efforts, that's a much bigger problem than Cabrera not having 30 home runs at this point, Verlander underachieving, or having some "scrub"-like players in the line-up. The constant to the Tigers struggles at times this season isn't with regard to their offense or their starting pitching; it's with regard to their bullpen - Joe Nathan in particular.
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/50498/the-implosion-of-the-detroit-tigers?ex_cid=espnapi_public
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smylydr01.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/priceda01.shtml?redir
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksau01.shtml?redir
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/davisra01.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martijd02.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cabremi01.shtml?redir
http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/_/name/det/detroit-tigers
Schoenfield starts his article with this:
"Let's' get this out of the way: The Kansas City Royals are in first place, the Detroit Tigers are in second place. It's the middle of August and we have baseball fever in the AL Central."
Let's get this out of the way. The Tigers are half a game behind the Royals and tied with the Seattle Mariners for the second wild card spot. They also have 45 games left in their regular season, or 27.8% of it.
Schoenfield then writes the following:
"Who would you rather have? David Price ... or Doug Fister, Austin Jackson, Drew Smyly, Jhonny Peralta and Joaquin Benoit?
I know that's a little unfair to Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski since those players weren't all involved in the same transactions, but it's related to this point: For the past four seasons, the Tigers have been the ultimate stars and scrubs team top heavy in big-name performers who have delivered some monster seasons but a team that has lacked depth and won three consecutive division titles despite some obvious holes."
Schoenfield was right about one thing - "I know that it's a little unfair to Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski since those players weren't all involved in the same transactions, but..."
But nothing... How about this? Who would you rather have? David Price, Ian Kinsler, Rajai Davis, and Joe Nathan or Doug Fister, Jhonny Peralta, Austin Jackson, and Joaquin Benoit? No, not all of these players were involved in the same transactions, but it's a much fairer and less biased (cherry-picked) comparison than Schoenfield's. Based on those four comparisons, I'd take Kinsler over Peralta, Davis over Jackson, and Benoit over Nathan. The toss-up for me would be between Price and Fister, but due to Fister's injury history, I may give Price the ever so slight advantage.
Schoenfield continued:
"Trading for Price sort of doubled down on this philosophy. He provided an upgrade over Smyly -- although smaller than most people acknowledged when the trade was made -- but it also came at the expense of losing your starting center fielder in Jackson, a solid, league-average player both at the plate and int he field. In trading away Jackson, Dombrowski and the Tigers were also doubling down on the emergence of J.D. Martinez, and on Rajai Davis continuing to play well as an everyday player."
Drew Smyly is a nice #5 guy to have in the rotation, but he is no David Price. Calling former Cy Young award winner David Price a slight upgrade on Drew Smyly would be like calling Chris Paul a slight upgrade on Jeremy Lin. Sure, Lin can provide a spark and do things to help a team win, but he's no Chris Paul. Smyly is 7-10 this season, with an ERA of 3.73, a WHIP of 1.33, with 104 strikeouts in 118.1 innings (the most innings he's ever pitched in a season). For his career, he's a combined 17-13. David Price this year is 11-8, with a 3.21 ERA, a WHIP of 1.05, with 205 strikeouts in 185.1 innings. For his career, he's 82-47, with an ERA of 3.19, a WHIP of 1.14, and 1,081 strikeouts in 1,158.1 innings. Smyly is still young and unproven. Price is a Cy Young award-winning pitcher. The guy is proven. Also, while Austin Jackson had a very solid season in 2012, he's been extremely mediocre in his past three seasons, where he's hit .272, .270, and .273. He's hit a combined 20 home runs in these past three seasons (compared to 16 in 2012), driven in 120 runs (compared to 66 in 2012), and stolen 27 bases (he had 12 in 2012). Not only that, but batting lead-off a good percentage of the time, Jackson's on-base percentage hasn't reached above .337 these past three seasons (.377 in 2012). He's also struck out 363 times and only walked 126 times. Austin Jackson is not a bad baseball player, but he's definitely been a disappointment since his high point in 2012, and this is especially the case since he's often times bat lead-off. Rajai Davis, meanwhile, is hitting .291 this year and has stolen a team high 27 bases. He's stolen 118 bases the past three seasons. Also, while never being known for his power numbers, Davis has as many home runs as Jackson these past three years (20) and only 15 fewer RBI's (105). I will agree that J.D. Martinez still needs to prove himself more before the Tigers can be confident of him as a long-term success. However, overall, the guy has been quite a pleasant surprise this year, as he's hit .299, with 15 home runs, and 51 RBIs in 79 games.
Later in the article, Schoenfield wrote this:
"Is it time to panic in Detroit? Absolutely. As I wrote on Sunday, the Royals have a better bullpen, better team defense and better team speed. And the rotations? The Royals have a 3.75 ERA, the Tigers 3.73 (obviously, that only includes two Price starts)."
Panic? Weren't the Royals ahead of the Tigers just before the all-star break before the Tigers soon found themselves up four games? Isn't "panic" a bit too strong of a word? Also, I love how the writer included that note about Price in parentheses. Yes, obviously, so why did he feel the need to include those numbers at all?
After appearing to have fun bashing the Tigers all article long, Schoenfield then added this:
"I'm not kicking the Tigers to the curb, but suddenly two-fifths of the team's biggest strength may be missing and you're looking at a Tigers team that doesn't have the depth of last year's squad, easily the best of its three division-winning teams..."
It certainly sounds like he's kicked them to the curb, almost like he kicked them to the curb a long time ago. Verlander will be out for one plus start. Sanchez will likely be back in a couple of weeks. Considering all the injuries the team is battling, to find themselves right in the thick of the playoff race seems to be anything but an "implosion," but I digress... Please, Mr. Schoenfield, continue...
"...The Tigers are relying on Miguel Cabrera to hit like Miguel Cabrera. Not that he's having a bad year, but his .308/.366/.509 line is about the same as Melky Cabrera's (.318/.374/.480). The Tigers aren't paying Miggy to hit like Melky."
Miguel Cabrera to this point has 137 hits to his credit, including 36 doubles, 1 triple, and 17 home runs. He's stolen one base, has 72 runs scored, has driven in 85 runs, and has struck out 82 times while walking 47. Melky Cabrera is having a fine season, but has also driven in 22 fewer runs than Miguel. It's been noted that Miguel has been playing hurt for a good portion of the season, but even then, the guy is one of the league leaders in runs driven in. While he may not be putting up the video game-like numbers from the past couple of years, he's still a much bigger plate presence than Melky, and his 85 RBIs showcase that.
Schoenfield finally closes with this:
"...Two weeks ago after they acquired Price we were all discussing the impending playoff death match rotation between the Tigers and A's.
Now they're in a battle just to get into the playoffs.
Now ... or never."
Now or never, eh? It appears as if Schoenfield is obsessed with this notion that the Tigers are a stars and scrubs team. They have a couple of superstar-caliber players (whom get paid like it) in Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, but if these stars don't rise to the occasion, the team will falter. In this, I think he's completely off the mark. Justin Verlander is having one of the worst seasons of his professional career and Miguel Cabrera, while still very solid at the plate, hasn't put up the numbers he did the previous two seasons, yet the team is still only a half game out of first place and are tied for the second wild card spot. Schoenfield may also believe David Price, Max Scherzer, and even Victor Martinez are big-name players. Yet he forgets to mention other quality players like: Rajai Davis, Ian Kinsler, the ageless wonder Torii Hunter, Anibal Sanchez, and Rick Porcello, among others. Sanchez may be one of the most underrated pitchers in the game. He won the AL ERA crown last year and might have been on his way again this year if not for some arm problems. Rick Porcello is having a breakthrough season. Offensively, the team ranks 5th in runs scored, 2nd in batting average, 3rd in on-base percentage, and 2nd in slugging percentage (quite the "implosion" indeed). When healthy, their starting rotation is one of the best, if not the best in the game. Their biggest problem has been in the bullpen. When your closer has allowed 45 hits and walked 22 others in 43 innings of work, has a 5.23 ERA, a 1.56 WHIP, and an 0-4 record to show for his efforts, that's a much bigger problem than Cabrera not having 30 home runs at this point, Verlander underachieving, or having some "scrub"-like players in the line-up. The constant to the Tigers struggles at times this season isn't with regard to their offense or their starting pitching; it's with regard to their bullpen - Joe Nathan in particular.
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/50498/the-implosion-of-the-detroit-tigers?ex_cid=espnapi_public
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smylydr01.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/priceda01.shtml?redir
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksau01.shtml?redir
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/davisra01.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martijd02.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cabremi01.shtml?redir
http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/_/name/det/detroit-tigers
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