As they've always said, before every baseball season starts, hope springs eternal. All major league teams and their fans/local media can hardly wait for the action to begin.
One hundred and sixty two games is a lot, and a whole bunch of things can happen over that time, and usually do.
Young upstarts come along getting hot. Veteran players with high expectations fail to live up to them. Injuries definitely occur. Last year's contenders can quickly become this year's bums -- and vice versa. And on any given day, or night, the last place team can beat the first place team. It happens all the time. A very strange game, major league baseball.
Which brings me to the Detroit Tigers. Their expectations were generally modest going into this season. No one seriously thought they were as good as their division rival Cleveland Indians but maybe, just maybe they could grab a wild-card spot into the post season if things fell right.
To be honest, yours truly thought they would be about a .500 team, maybe a few games over. Wild-card? Possible, but not probable. Too many other projected better teams in the American League. But who knew?
Indeed, the Tigers got off to a pretty good start. Way back on April 12 they sported a 6-2 record.
Sadly to say, it would be their high water mark of the entire season.
They gradually went into a funk, falling many games under .500.
But wait, then came reason for hope. By June 4, they had clawed their way back to .500 at 28-28.
Fast forward to the present and the Tigers appear to be in free fall. They've lost eleven out of their last thirteen, have fallen fourteen games behind the Indians, and are a whopping 15 games under .500. Hopelessly out of any play-off possibilities. Only the woeful Chicago White Sox are worse in the entire American League.
If there was any doubt before, manager Brad Ausmus is definitely a goner after this season. His contract will be up, and though he's highly respected by his players and most others around Detroit, there's no way he gets re-upped.
Thing is, it's not his fault the Tigers have become pitiful. Ausmus can only play the cards (players) he's dealt by the front office (GM), and they've been running mighty cold lately. And the team is in such disarray it likely doesn't matter who the Tigers bring in next to make out the line-up cards and keep changing pitchers. But somebody has to be the fall guy, and that will surely be Ausmus.
You know it's a bad sign when your team's two "best" pitchers, old pro Justin Verlander, and Rookie of the Year in 2016 Michael Fulmer only have .500 records themselves. JV was a few games under, but made it back to 8-8. Now in his mid 30s and clearly on the back side of his bell curve, does this sound like a guy a team should be committed to paying a ridiculous $28,000,000 a year for the next few?
Fulmer hasn't won a game in over 2 months.
And this is the best of the bunch?
Elsewhere, they've got other aging veterans that are locked into long-term mega-buck deals, and their production has been quickly slip-sliding away as well.
No other team is going to touch these guys. The Tigers are stuck with them.
True, they have a promising young player here and there, like Mikie Mahtouk. But for every one of those they have duds elsewhere. This guy is an injury waiting to happen. That guy has Roberto Duran-ish "hands of stone" defensively. A designated hitter pushing forty that runs with the speed of molasses in the Yukon, and is only hitting .240? Who else in the league could he possibly play for?
The Tigers went for the gusto a few years back, looting their farm system for mercenaries that might bring them a championship. And they got close, but never quite over the hump.
Now those hot-shot free agents have gone elsewhere, and the Tigers' brass finally decided it might be a good idea to try and restock their minor league system with a few prospects. That may work out someday, but likely not any year soon.
This team is bad and will get worse, probably much worse, before they get better. Every single facet of their being points in that direction. Let's not forget that currently the Tigers have one of the highest player payrolls in the entire Major Leagues, but also one of the worst records. That does not equate to success, or even being semi-sensible about such things. How could they possibly have gotten themselves into such a colossal mess on so many fronts?
But it is what it is, and all the spin in the world ain't gonna make it pretty.
Here's wishing them well and god bless.
But methinks they're in for some mighty rough times in the next few years.
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