Tigers struggles a shock but not cause for panic
During the 2006 season the Tigers rose to a level of success that might only be rivaled by the Pistons when they came out of nowhere to win the NBA title in 2004. The difference is the Pistons weren’t Detroit Lions bad before they finally won that championship. The Tigers were prior to 2006. This is a franchise that was actually the worst professional sports franchise in Detroit when the Lions were completely incompetent but still technically mediocre. Ah, those were the glory days for the Leos.
This season the big issue is going to be the bullpen. But we knew that back when Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis were brought over in a trade. So we should expect the bullpen to blow saves about as often as Pierre McGuire fluffs Sid Crosby. That’s what this bullpen will do all season long.
What the Tigers need to do until help arrives in the pen is score runs in bunches and have their starting pitching perform closer to the level they pitched in 2006. The team was tops in MLB in ERA in 2006 before dropping to 19th last season. This ballooning ERA was due largely to Kenny Rogers being injured for most of the 2007 season. Dave Dombrowski has given Jim Leyland plenty of starting pitching this season. A rotation of Justin Verlander, Kenny Rogers, Dontrelle Willis, Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson should be fine. I preferred having Jair Jurrjens in the rotation but even without him the Tigers have a very good five man rotation.
So the starting pitching is going to have to improve [24th in ERA just ain’t gonna cut it] and the hitters are going to have to start generating some offense [28th in runs batted in is not acceptable for the best lineup in the history baseball or whatever silly name was used to describe the batting order].
I’m not thrilled but I’m also not shocked that this team is starting out slowly. Miguel Cabrera and Willis are coming over from the NL and I think both will get their games straightened out fairly quickly. Magglio Ordonez has always been a slow starter. Curtis Granderson, probably the heart and soul of the team, started the season on the DL. He should be back soon and with his return I expect the Tigers to start playing they way they should.
The starting pitching and hitting are the things that are going to have to carry Detroit. That shouldn’t be a problem during the regular season. They aren’t doing their jobs right now. Both of those areas are things Jim Leyland must be held accountable for since Dave Dombrowski has provided him with plenty of talent. As far as the bullpen goes it’s up to Dave Dombrowski to get the bullpen straightened out as it would be foolhardy to rely on Jason Grilli and the eventual return of Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya as both players will have spent large portions of the past two seasons on the DL.
But look on the bright side: Todd Jones hasn’t blown any saves and has been sterling in his two appearances thus far.
Curtis Granderson Dave Dombrowski Dontrelle Willis Jeremy Bonderman jim leyland Justin Verlander Kenny Rogers Miguel Cabrera Nate Robertson Tigers Todd JonesNo Comments
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