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The American League Central is like this year’s race for the White House. The contenders aren’t all that thrilling, but at the end of the day, somebody still has to emerge victorious. It says so in the rules.
So here stand the Detroit Tigers, bland as an egg-white omelet, but still right in the thick of things in this heavily flawed division.
The defending champion Royals (30-23) lead the bunch, and they’ve been smoking of late. But they have also been hit with a slew of critical injuries, and it’s likely only a matter of time before the anonymous gentlemen currently filling in start hitting the mid-summer wall. The star of late has been an infielder named Whit Merrifield, who sounds more like your CPA than he does an American League All-Star.
The Indians (28-24) are a fairly solid bunch, and their pitching is better than most. However, their nightly lineup doesn’t strike fear in the opposing team’s dugout, and one of their main outfielders (Marlon Byrd) was just rapped with a healthy 162-game suspension for “unknowingly” taking a banned substance.
The White Sox (29-25) are tied with the Indians for second place, and again, while the middle of the order is formidable with Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier, this is still a lineup that regularly trots out both Alex Avila and Austin Jackson. And yes, it is 2016, not 2010.
The Tigers come next (25-28), and then a million games back are the hapless Twins (16-37).
NL Mirror Not as Fortunate
Michael Fulmer
So while there is a universal understanding that this particular Tigers club has been especially blah of late and that the roster is dotted with imperfections, it could still be a relatively exciting summer if they can just keep their head above water. Nobody’s running away with this thing.
When you take a look around the rest of the league, you realize just how fortunate the Tigers are. Their mirror in the National League, the Brewers, sits with virtually the same record (25-29). And yet, the Brew Crew are more or less eliminated from NL Central contention, a full 13 games back of the juggernaut Cubbies beginning play today. The Tigers, just five back, are a short winning streak away from catching their competition.
Michael Fulmer is a potential American League Rookie of the Year candidate. His triumph over the Angels in a game the Tigers desperately needed to finish a disastrous road trip was nothing short of masterful. It’s not a stretch to say that he is already the Tigers’ third best starting pitcher behind Justin Verlander and Jordan Zimmermann, high praise for a guy just seven starts into his big league career.
The club’s hitting should come around a bit, too.
That late-game outburst in Anaheim when the Tigers started clubbing homers and coming back from a 9-2 deficit? While it’s not realistic to see such heroics on a nightly basis, a more regular dose of power from this group of sluggers is to be expected. Getting shut down by the worst pitcher in the American League last night (Michael Pineda) is not acceptable for a veteran outfit.
They Are Who We Thought They Were
The makeup of this team has been laid out pretty clearly through the season’s first two months. The starting pitching is strong at the top and grim death at the bottom. The bullpen is solid at the very end of the game and super-shaky everywhere else. The offense gets hot for 4-5 games at a time, then goes into a shell against a row of nondescript hurlers. The manager means well, but too often bungles seemingly obvious decisions in the late innings.
They’ve lost 5 of 6, they’re three under the break-even mark, and the enthusiasm in this town seems to mostly be for that amateur soccer team in Hamtramck.
But the opportunity is still there. It should be there for the next four months.
There is no top dog in this group of puppies, and one breaking free from the pack is about as likely as a semi-racist multi-billionaire making the transition from TV game show host to President of the United States.
On second thought, maybe the Tigers really are out of this thing.
