Trying to keep pace.

06/24/2012

The Tigers dropped two of three in Pittsburgh over the weekend.

Pittsburgh, PA- After dropping two games to start the 10-game road trip, the Tigers salvaged one on Sunday thanks to another strong effort from staff ace Justin Verlander. JV’s 8th win of the season did not come easily though. It took an eighth inning, two-out, RBI single from Delmon Young to give the Tigers a 3-2 win over the Pirates.

Verlander did the rest, retiring the final six Pirates in a row, striking out three. Yet, maybe the most encouraging thing about the afternoon was Young’s clutch hit for the game winner. Getting consistent production from the bottom of the Tigers lineup has been a constant struggle in 2012.

Brennan Boesch, Delmon Young, Alex Avila, Jhonny Peralta and Ryan Raburn have all spun their wheels in an effort to match last year’s numbers. While there is still a ton of baseball to be played, July is staring us in the face.

Based on current numbers, here are the projections for the players listed above compared to last year’s totals. As you can see, a couple of the guys will need a strong second half.

Boesch                 2012 (on pace) .239-16-59                                  2011 .283-16-54

Young                   2012 (on pace) .264-11-56                                2011 .268-12-64

Avila                      2012 (on pace) .234-11-45                                 2011 .295-19-82

Peralta                  2012 (on pace) .258-9-41                                   2011 .299-21-86

Raburn                  2012 (on pace) .168-2-18                                    2011 ..256-14-49

The trading deadline can change the look of a team instantly. Today, the White Sox improved their squad with the addition of Kevin Youkilis. The Tigers may make moves of their own, but the pieces in place got it done last year. They just need to step it up.

Comments

Joe

06/25/2012 08:36

Your last sentence is correct, but the pitchers aren't any better, outside of Verlander. The next two best WHIPs are 1.46 and 1.58, from Scherzer and Porcello, respectively. Those two pitchers' ERAs are 4.95 and 5.12. Scherzer has six wins, but he won't be a 15 game winner without improving A LOT. I feel as if our pitching rotation has gotten a complete pass. Everyone is blaming Fister's injury for our pitchers' woes, but in fact, the real woe is the lack of consistency from Scherzer and Porcello. In particular, Porcello fools no one. I do not appreciate his style because the hitters always know what's coming, thus if Porcello doesn't hit his spot right down to the millimeter, he gets peppered with bloop hits and gap shots the opposite way, because making contact on Porcello isn't hard at all. He's still making his money off the high school fireballs he threw; well, he's in for a major disappointment at contract time.

Joe

06/25/2012 08:53

In fact, to add to my comment about Porcello, the typical approach of the MLB hitter these days is such that I don't think any junk pitcher we have besides Smyly has a snowball's chance, because only Smyly is hitting his spots consistently. Some might say, "Verlander is throwing 60% offspeed these days and he's succeeding" but it's his fastball that backs up everything else, along with his ability to make his slider and change up look like fastballs out of his hand. The moment his off speed stuff fails, guess what....? Yep.

Porcello, Oliver, Turner, etc can't even locate well without getting chipped to death with weak base hits, because there just isn't enough deception there. Even Porcello's sinker often starts at the eyes and ends up at the belt. We're not playing beer league softball, Rick.

Joe

07/01/2012 02:12

Maybe I should rip on Porcello more often...it seems to make him pitch better.

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03/06/2013 23:58

I love this game and the image you posted looks so good and the crowd is amazing and you are right the line you wrote ; I am totally agree.

Author

Mario Impemba is the play-by-play voice of the Detroit Tigers on Fox Sports Detroit. The 2013 season will be his 12th with the Tigers after seven years as the radio voice of the Los Angeles Angels.

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