How Was The Month? Detroit Tigers September Report
Just a tune up.
13-13 (93-69 overall)
The Tigers entered September with very little left to prove. They were the best pitching staff and offense entering the month and had the division locked up for all intents and purposes. September was about closing the deal and getting lined up for the playoffs.
The Tigers didn’t hit terribly well in the month (92 wRC+), but some of that is biased due to the fact that they totally phoned in the last few days of the season. It wasn’t a great month, but it also wasn’t terrible considering how well they had hit for the first five months. Avila, Fielder, and Martinez killed the ball during September while Infante and Cabrera were above average.
To no one’s surprise, though, they were the best pitching staff in the league during the month of September turning in 6.0 WAR and a 10.27 K/9, nearly a full win ahead of the second place Indians! The entire rotation was great – led by Verlander’s 1.7 WAR as he looked more and more like himself as the month went on. Sanchez and Scherzer both put up more than 1.0 WAR and Fister and Porcello turned in 0.7 and 0.6 respectively. Only one of them, Porcello, had an ERA during the month higher than 3.00 and that was all the way up at 3.72.
The Tigers bats slowed down during the month, but their pitching staff did its thing as the team coasted to the division title and the postseason. They’ll be back in action on Friday against the A’s and New English D will have a lot more season wrap up coverage whenever the season actually ends.
The Moment: The Tigers score 6th in the 9th inning to tie it against the White Sox – and eventually win in extras.
How Was The Month? Detroit Tigers August Report
A heck of a ride.
19-9 (80-56 overall)
In July the Tigers went 18-8 and put themselves in the AL Central driver’s seat. In August they won 19 of 28 and put the rest of the competition out of its misery. They entered August on a winning streak and continued to roll for seven more games and ended it 8.5 games up in the division.
The Tigers led the league in offense in a big way, leading the second place A’s in wRC+ 124 to 116 (what’s wRC+?) and in Wins Above Replacement (what’s WAR?) 7.0 to 6.8 over the Red Sox. Cabrera posted an insane 212 wRC+ followed by Victor Martinez at 158. Pena, Infante, Jackson, Fielder, and Dirks all provided 125 wRC+ or higher. Hunter, Santiago, and Iglesias all added 99 wRC+ or better themselves. It was a domination across the board at the plate and no one with more than 60 PA had less than a 99 wRC+.
The Tigers pitching staff turned in the third best month by WAR (4.7) and continued to pace the league overall. Sanchez (1.3 WAR), Scherzer (1.2), and Fister (1.0) dominated and Porcello (0.6) and Verlander (0.5) did nice work at the back end considering. The bullpen did decent work, surprisingly in the face of a subpar stretch from Drew Smyly.
On the whole, it was a fantastic month for the team as they put the division to bed. They’ll need to use September to fine tune some things and get everyone to full strength, but it’s hard to imagine having a much better month than one in which they played at a 110 win pace. They’ll face the Red Sox for three, but other than that their best opponent is the mediocre Royals. After five months, the Tigers sit ready for October.
The Moment: Pretty difficult to choose, but we’ll go with Hunter’s walk off. Or Iglesias’ play. Or Cabrera homering off Salazar. Or off Rivera. Or off Rivera again. Or Avila’s homerun. Holy cow.
How Was The Month? Detroit Tigers June Report
Not too bad.
14-13 (43-37 Overall)
The month of June caused some consternation among Tigers fans, but the overall numbers look pretty good. They easily could have won a few extra games, but in general it’s hard to be too upset with the second best offense in baseball during the month (118 wRC+) and the 4th best pitching staff (3.9 WAR), placing their season ranks at 2nd (112 wRC+) and 1st (16.6 WAR). The Tigers might not have a record that perfectly lines up with the overall performance, but those things will catch up as the season wears on.
Miguel Cabrera led the way and pulls his full season totals to .373/.461/.680, 207 wRC+, 5.6 WAR after a fantastic month. Austin Jackson came back and played 15 phenomenal games while the team also had big contributions from Peralta and Infante. Additionally, the Tigers were lifted by 29 excellent PA from Don Kelly who hit .347/.379/.500 during the month
Despite struggles over the last two weeks, the pitching staff still stacks up across the full season as the Tigers feature 4 starters with 2.8 WAR or better, not to mention Porcello’s (1.5), Smyly’s (1.3), and Benoit’s (1.0) strong performances. Verlander wasn’t his usual self during June and Sanchez only threw 10 innings due to injury, but Scherzer, Fister, and Porcello all offered sub 3.30 FIPs and Smyly and Benoit were lights out. If you can block out Valverde’s 9.45 ERA and 9.81 FIP during the month, you’d probably have a much nicer record.
A lot of fans have taken the last few days to jump off the bandwagon, but there are really no signs that is warranted. The Tigers remain one of the best hitting teams in the league and have the best staff in the game and didn’t perform much off that pace in June. Fans tend to only watch their own team very closely and tend to make a big deal out of what they perceive as flaws, when in reality those “deficiencies” are typical features of baseball.
Relax, everyone. Baseball is fun and this is an excellent team.
The Moment: Victor Martinez makes a potential play of the year against the Sox at first base on June 23rd.
New English D 