Tigers must feast on N.L. to keep pace with Twins
Written by Greg Piatt, Saturday June 12 2010
The Detroit Tigers are at a critical point in the team’s season. Over the next couple of weeks Detroit plays three National League teams with a combined winning percentage of .316.
The Tigers need to feast on these teams—the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals and Arizona Diamondbacks—because Detroit is 7-12 since mid-May.
These next two weeks and then the series at the end of the month with Minnesota, which holds first place in the American League Central, will dictate whether the Tigers are buyers or sellers in July.
Detroit entering Saturday’s game trails the Twins by four and half games in second place.
If the Tigers are going to make a run for the A.L. Central division, these Interleague games offer the best chance to get back into the race.
Over the next couple of weeks, Minnesota will face the Braves, Rockies and Phillies—three teams with winning records.
Detroit has had some problems in this slide, primarily the lack of timely hitting and unsteady starting pitching. The team has the eighth-highest batting average in baseball, but they rank 20th in runs.
Earlier this week, the Chicago White Sox took a series 3 games to 1, where the Tigers were outscored by a 20-10 margin for the series.
“We’ve got the hitters I want,” Tiger manager Jim Leyland told MLB.com on Thursday. “We’ve got the hitters we’ve got. We’re better than that.”
“But one thing I don't buy is everybody doesn’t pitch their best game of the year against you.” A frustrated Leyland added.
“(Gavin) Floyd stuck it (to us), (Freddy) Garcia stuck it, and (John) Danks stuck it. That’s three starting pitchers. I mean, you’ve got to hit somebody.”
Brennan Boesch, Miguel Cabrera along with Magglio Ordonez have been carrying the Tigers for the last six weeks. Rookie Austin Jackson has tailed off since his torrid start. And second slot hitter Johnny Damon needs to do better than hit 14-for-57 since May 25.
But the big hole in the Tigers’ lineup comes at the bottom third of the order, which haven’t produced the timely hits. Those seven, eight and nine spots are filled by with third baseman Brandon Inge, catchers Gerald Laird or Alex Avila and shortstops Ramon Santiago and rookie Danny Worth.
“We’ve just got to find this click,” Laird told MLB.com “We’ve been here for two, two-and-a-half months where we’re almost over the hump. We’ve just got to get that one click going, because we could be a really good ballclub.”
Those last three spots in the order seemed to click came on Friday as Inge, Avila and Santiago knocked in 5 of Detroit’s runs as the Tigers beat the Pirates 6-2.
But if Detroit comes up with a losing record in Interleague play, the Tigers can’t allow Ordonez to vest his 2011 $15MM option by getting 135 starts or 540 plate appearances this season.
Ordonez was scratched from his fourth game on Friday because of soreness in his left oblique.
The team must get Ordonez’s salary off the books by trading him, if he’s healthy, and allow the team’s young outfield prospects—Ryan Strieby, Casper Wells or Wilkin Ramirez—a chance to win an outfield spot.
Then, in the off season with nearly $70 million off the books because of contracts expiring from current or former players, Detroit can pursue a starting pitcher, shortstop, third baseman and possibly an outfielder if any of these prospects fail.
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Here is my only problem with replacing Maggilo, is Wilkin Ramierz, Ryan Striebly, or Casper Wells going to bat .300 hit 20 homers and 100 RBI's...Maggilo and Miggy are our 1-2 punch...you see how bad our offense is with Maggs right now..how would you like it if we inserted Ryan Rayburn (.189) permintly in the 3 hole?? scary thought...only thing I do agree with is 15 Million is too much money but its too much much by 5 million maybe...Ordonez is proving he can still hit be a productive hitter...20 homers is decent 100 RBI's is something we cannot risk losing..