A Mid-Season Tigers Post

Offense
Looking just at numbers, you would think everything is fine here, but the Tigers are a strange hot-and-cold team that often disappears in the late innings, and too often they have lost games they should have won because they couldn't score runs late.

The Big 3 of Jackson, Cabrera, and Fielder continue to perform well (Cabrera at his usual MVP level), Jhonny Peralta has been a nice surprise so far, and Victor Martinez seems to be finding himself after missing last season and getting off to a slow start this year.  Alex Avila needs to start hitting, period.  Sub-.200 just doesn't cut it on a team built to go deep in the playoffs, no matter how good you are defensively - just ask Brandon Inge about that.

Defense 
Thankfully, Delmon Young and his brutal defense is gone this year.  Andy Dirks has played a solid left field in his place.  Torii Hunter has solidified right field, while Austin Jackson continues to be one of the best center fielders in baseball.  A lot of the hits and errors from last year have been turned into outs this year because of this crew, with Matt Tuiasosopo filling in ably in left against left-handed pitching.  Glad to see him coming off the DL today.  I agree with Jim Leyland - Avisail Garcia needs a lot more at-bats in Toledo rather than riding the pine in Detroit.

Pitching
At the beginning of spring training, who would have thought that:

1. Rick Porcello would not only be in the rotation, but be one of the most consistent pitchers on the staff.  Except for a couple of bad outings, he has been steady and solid - just what you want from your fifth starter.
2. Justin Verlander would be scuffling and trying to find himself.  And he's still 9-5, and if he hits his stride, could win 20 again.
3. Max Schertzer would be lights out and undefeated on the season.  Last year after the All-Star break he seemed to finally get himself consistently at a high level, and that has carried over to this season.  Better than Verlander at this point, and should start the All-Star game this year.
4. Doug Fister would struggle as much as he has.  Thought he would be much better than this, but the lack of run support has seemed to bite him as much as anyone on the staff. 
5. Jose Valverde would have ever been seen in Detroit again.

We all saw the bullpen issues coming, and it will be a continuing source of nervousness for the rest of the season unless some of those prospects we have on the farm go for a good closer before the trade deadline.  There isn't a lot of help out there though, so what we have may be all we get.  Thankfully, the Jose Valverde experiment seems to be over, although he did accept assignment to Toledo, so he could still get back.  I hope not - he just doesn't seem to have it any more.

Manager
A lot of people think Jim Leyland is the biggest problem with this team, but honestly I don't see it.  I remember people were critical of Sparky Anderson when he managed here, too. Sparky was one of the best of all time and got flamed a whole lot in Detroit.  I'm not saying Leyland is in Sparky's league, but he sure is getting the same treatment.  But people were wrong about Sparky and they are just as wrong about Leyland.