Good News For Detroit Tigers Fans

The season so far has been a disappointment for Detroit Tigers fans.  The 2006 World Series champs are playing .415 ball, eight games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the American League Central Division.  Although their batting stats were competitive with the other teams in their division, their pitching was unreliable and, in general, the Tigers just weren’t putting skills together to win games.

But the pitching seems to be starting to even out.  Five and five in their last 10 outings, the Tigers are heading into a series with the Seattle Mariners.  What’s bad news for Seattle is good news for Tigers fans — the Mariners, at .370, are tied with the Colorado Rockies for the worst record in baseball.

And, by one measure at least, Tigers fans have remained loyal.  Anyone who uses the internet knows that you can enter a search term into a search engine and find out how many items contain the search term.  But internet marketers also know that there are tools that do the opposite.  If you enter a search term, these tools will tell you how many people are entering the term.  And search terms like “Detroit Tigers jersey” and “Detroit Tigers hat” get lots of searches.  Compared to other MLB teams, the Tigers rank in the top three or four in fan loyalty, at least by this measure.

So I am happy to let you know that, as I slowly build out Baseball Fan Site Online, I now have a new and improved Detroit Tigers page.  You will find Detroit Tigers news, jerseys for men, women and kids, hats, tickets and posters.  Stop in for a visit and let me know what you think.

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.

Detroit Tigers Struggling

The Detroit Tigers continued to struggle Wednesday night, losing to the Kansas City Royals 2-0.  The sixth shutout of the season brought their string of scoreless innings to 16.  The Tigers have lost nine of their last 11 games.  In Wednesday’s days, they failed to score despite getting six hits and leaving eight on base. 

The loss went to Justin Verlander who, at 1-7 for the season, has lost more games than he did all of last year when he went 18-6.

At 16-24, the Tigers are in last place in the American League Central Division, five games behind first place Cleveland and 2.5 games behind the 18-21 Royals.

Beckett Gets 1000th Strike-Out; Red Sox Take Series

Josh Beckett took the win in the Boston Red Sox‘ 5-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.  The Red Sox have won six of their last seven games, while the Tigers have lost six of their last seven.  Boston is in first place in the American League East Division, 3.5 games ahead of the second-place Tampa Bay Rays, with a 23-14 record.  In contrast, the Tigers are in last place in the American League Central Divsion, with a 15-21 record, 3.5 games behind the first place Minnesota Twins.

Kevin Youkilis homered in Thursday’s game, bringing his HR total for the series to four and for the season to seven.   The Red Sox took three games in the series.

Losing pitcher Justin Verlander is now 1-6.  Last year, he didn’t lose his last game until September 18.

Beckett’s record is now 4-2.  The winner of the 2007 All-Star game, he also took the win in the first game of the 2007 World Series, which the Red Sox swept from the Colorado Rockies.  Before being traded to Boston, Beckett had played in the 2003 World Series, too, with the Florida Marlins, and was elected the World Series MVP that year.  Beckett can also swing a bat, being the only Red Sox pitcher in the last 35 years to hit a home run.