What’s Wrong with the Detroit Tigers?

The 2006 World Series championship Detroit Tigers just can’t seem to get their bums in gear this year.  The Tigers have just lost a three-game series to the Kansas City Royals for the second time this season.  At .390, the Tigers are now in last place in the American League Central Division, six games behind the first-place Cleveland Indians.  They have the fourth-worst record in baseball, behind the .357 San Diego Padres, the .366 Colorado Rockies and the .381 Seattle Mariners.

Pitching is one of the problems.  In 2006, the Tigers had the best team ERA at 3.84.  But they have overcome their past glory and, at 5.10, now have the highest ERA in the American League. 

Although the Tigers scored only 11 runs in the six losses to Kansas City, their over-all batting and scoring statistics compare pretty favorably with the rest of their division.  With a .262 team batting average, the Tigers are second only to the Minnesota Twins with a .264 team BA.  The Royals tie the Tigers at .262 and the first-place Cleveland Indians (.236) and the second-place Chicago White Sox (.242) lag behind.  At 179 team RBI’s, the Tigers are second in the division to the White Sox (180) and have scored ahead of the Indians (170), the Twins (166) and the Royals (141).

It’s still relatively early in the season, and a team can still turn things around.  But it gets harder as the summer sets in and the gap between first and last grows.

Tags: Detroit Tigers