Winding down the year in sports means a litany of lists – plays of the year, best games, best athletes, best tweet, best inadvertent cuss words on a hot mic, best whatever. Lists are overused, but if you want to put a bow on another year in athletics, you better chop it up in to ten YouTube clips. Anything less digestible is bound to be overlooked by a hoard of thumbnail-clicking mongrels. Buzz feed journalism is transforming our memories into one of those toy view finder that toddlers play with. But who cares? Just show me the butt fumble again.
…lists are not evil, just dangerously superficial.
Sports, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, imitates life. So if your preference is to boil everything down into a pithy little top ten list with shitty music in the background, so be it. Highlight reels and internet lists are not evil, just dangerously superficial. Be conscious of all that we’re missing when we let lists, tweets, headlines, and click-bait inform our opinions on sports, or anything else.
Our Tigs are off and running in 2015. The boys are thumping teams and making a mess of everybody’s ERA. You’ve got most everything working right now – the new starters looking sharp, all the bats are hot, and a bullpen that hasn’t pitched in a stressful situation all year. Just keep pushing 8 runs across before the 7th and we won’t even need that shitty bullpen. Just fill it with more seats!
We’ve yet to see if this version of the Tigers has the same skeletons in the closet that we’re used to. But DAMN. These guys look like the ’27 Yankees on April 12 with their .364 team average. They are bludgeoning opposing pitchers so badly that we have a slight mental edge the next time we face the Twins and Indians. But this is April, against inferior talent. Come September, if this team cannot make outs after the 7th inning, they will look like the ’14 Tigers again: an also-ran with a bloated payroll.
Far too early to tell if this is a viable core of relief pitchers, but make no mistake: we will only go as far as Soria, Alburquerque, and Nathan can take us. Save for a big trade, we have some potential in Bruce Rondon and even Buck Farmer. But with all the roster shuffling over the past 3 years here, it is hard to imagine why we haven’t focused more on improving our single most identifiable downfall: this bleeping bullpen. It is still a glaring weakness. We can yuck it up when we’re steamrolling the Twins, but winning close games absolutely hinges on relief pitchers. The set-up man doesn’t get the ink that the starter gets, but who has the game on his shoulders in a one-run game after the starter gets pulled?
We can learn a lot about this team when we’re in close games after the starter gets knocked out. If we are able to manage a positive runs scored over runs allowed after the 6th inning, this team will likely go to the World Series. The offense is scary and the starters, even with a banged-up Verlander, are all poised to have excellent years. I think Sanchez could win the Cy Young this year if he stays healthy. Price is Price. Greene is a star, albeit unproven. Simon is nasty-good at times, but let’s keep an eye on his second half. He is known to drop off significantly after the All Star break. Verlander, get well soon. Even post-Scherzer, this rotation can allow JV to ease his way back into form, as our $180M man does not need to carry this team. So in a long, long season, don’t expect us to keep scoring 4 times more than our opponents. Do take some time to check out those relievers. They will key our run if this team decides to take a step forward in the postseason, when games are shortened and our starters are matched by other great starters. Hope Springs Eternal. Tigers baseball is back.
Been down since I began to crawl If it wasn’t for bad luck You know, I wouldn’t have no luck at all
-Born Under a Bad Sign by Albert King, made famous by Cream
Pistons may want to think about this as a fight song.
During the 3rd quarter of an already lovely game against his old team on Saturday night, Brandon Jennings had one of those moments you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. A non-contact, cringe-worthy collapse and what we would learn is a fully ruptured Achilles tendon.
Jennings has been a major part of this monster turnaround the Pistons were mounting, so this one feels like the air going out of a balloon that just took off. The 25 year old whose development has fast-tracked lately was playing some good ball. His improved shot selection and court vision had him looking like a top tier PG, as evidenced by that nice 3.02 Assist/Turnover ratio. Make no mistake, this injury will likely keep the Pistons out of the playoffs even in the Division II Eastern Conference. Without a spark-plug at the point, the bulky offense will grind to a cringing, earsplitting halt. Think Smart Bus at a yellow light. So yeah, optimism for this season has collapsed in a heap. Further down the road though, that’s up for debate. However sick and twisted, some say this horrible injury was just what the team needs. Huh?
Many have already pointed to Jennings’ injury as a reason to tank – to give away games like monster truck tickets. Would you go so far to say that a catastrophic injury will be blessing in disguise? A little inhumane right, but in the Machiavellian world of pro sports, is it plausible that this gets the Pistons closer a title? Check back on Tuesday for a blistering critique on tanking and what the NBA needs to do about it.
Be honest. How long since you watched a Pistons game? Made the trip to the Palace? Knew where SVG’s team stands in the East? If you’re like me, you have almost completely lost interest in the same team that brought Detroit a World Championship in 2004. When you see 5-23 on Christmas day, you pretty much wouldn’t care if they moved to Toledo. In the next 29 days, the ‘Stons had a mini-renaissance after cutting Josh Smith. Let’s give them their due. On a blistering 12-3 stretch, Craig Monroe and Andre Drummond are trampling guys on the boards. Jennings and these other dudes (for now) don’t look like the Auburn Hills dumpster fire we’ve grown used to.
Sure, it’s been a while since this team has been a contender, but that title came 11 years ago. The much-celebrated Tigers won their last World Series way back in ’84, 3 banners ago for the Pistons (’89, ’90, and ’04). Why has Detroit left the Pistons for dead? Easy answer: they have been horrifying. They’ve won 36% of their games in the past 6 seasons, including this year. The Tigers did have that nightmarish ’02-’03 stretch of .300 baseball. Not a batting average, a win percentage. Sure the Tigs have squeeked out pennants in the last few years, but have not really come close to winning a World Series Championship. The Pistons very easily could have gone back-to-back in 2005, but dropped a Game 7 to the Spurs in the finals. So Pistons – 3, almost 4 titles since ’84, Tigers – 1.
Granted, the Pistons have not exactly been a model franchise the past 6 years. Countless head coaches underscored by an ownership change has led to an all-out nosedive at times. But let’s be fair as fans, the less-than-fair weather might soon subside. Stan Van Gundy’s brave move in paying a bad player to walk away has this team going in the right direction. It’s time to take a look at the Pistons.
The boldest, most interesting team in sports right now is undoubtedly your Detroit Tigers. With a do-or-die World Series mandate and deep pockets, the organization once again has the baseball world on notice with a stunning trade.
Detroit raised America’s collective eyebrows by plucking lefty ace David Price from the penny-pinching Rays. The move would be more jaw-dropping had we not already come to expect the unexpected from the Tigers. Pawning off a top five worst contract in MLB history in return for an All-Star. Snapping up the best hitter this side of 1990 for a group of ditch diggers in 2008. When your team is run by a guy who should be running major league baseball, you hardly bat an eye. Dave Dombrowski, as Jim Leyland, put it, ain’t scared. The Western Michigan grad is a proven assassin, scooping up talent for nothing and pillaging rosters coast to coast (Florida, Seattle, etc.). Maybe old Dave already runs baseball…
DD’s antics have fueled a solid team and invigorated the fan base right up the point of delirium. But just shy of the sublime climax of World Series glory, the Motor City Kitties have dug their own graves two years in a row. What gets them over the hump? Dombrowski and Illitch have moved heaven and earth taking shots at answering that question for a punch-drunk city just yearning for a championship.
After a feverish off-season and a roller coaster of a start, the Tigers, along with the Athletics, are the teams to beat in the AL. Not many would argue that these two clubs are managed by the best GM’s in the game. Billy Beane and Dave Dombrowski tower over their peers, but lack hardware with their current clubs to show for it. In a push for that elusive title, the two GM’s are locked in a battle. This week’s deadline standoff played out like a movie – with each side trading for highly coveted pitchers with the other side in mind. The story reads like a screen-play, but old fashioned baseball factors will determine this Detroit team’s fate. Behind the star-studded rotation and the monstrous Miguel Cabrera, glaring weaknesses exist on this club.
Shit List: Detroit Tigers
Outfield Defense With Austin Jackson out, the outfield defense may well be the worst in all of baseball. Don’t let Rajai Davis’ speed fool you. He’s lousy in the field, and now he’s manning Comerica Park’s colossal center field. Detroit loves the trade for Price, but will sorely miss AJ’s brilliant defense.
Team Speed Another adverse effect of the Jackson departure. The lineup, despite an injection of speed in the offseason, has become more dependent on extra base hits and less equipped to steal runs on base hits and sacrifices. Good for entertainment value, bad for playoff style games.
Relief Pitching The bullpen is miserable – ranking 28th in ERA currently. DD brought in some help with his trade for Joakim Soria last week, but aside from Joba Chamberlain the group is utterly unreliable. Bullpen quality is a longstanding issue for Detroit. With a stronger bullpen, the Tigers likely would have won the ALCS last year. To be clear, the Tigers have an awful, no good, gut-wrenching, friendship-ruining bullpen. Improvement is a must or this team is dead on arrival in October.
Despite the same problems that doomed Detroit the last two years, most everyone expects this team to get to the series. Expectations are dangerous though, causing teams to unravel in the worst way (i.e. LA Angels 2013 season). The Tigers can shoulder those forces with a strong locker room full of veterans like Torii Hunter and Victor Martinez. After purging Avisail Garcia last year, the group’s cohesion is apparently back. These guys are hungry, healthy, and can’t possibly be pissed off about their paychecks. It’s winning time.
So 30 years after their last World Series Title, the Detroit Tigers are poised for a run. DD works the phones like Cabrera works a hanging curveball. But the jury is out on whether this unit can blast through the wall and emerge in October with a ring for old Illitch. Watch out for that bullpen, and check out the poll question today.
Motor City Sports Hub 
