DetNews: ‘Not a mirage’: Tigers reach one-third marker a ‘better version’ than 2024 playoff team

The Den
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In years past Memorial day was the first date to get a real gage on where your team was, good bad or irrelevent. You could spot trends identify strengths weaknesses potential needs Morosi, Granderson, Tim Kurkjian and more chime in on the Tigers.

Full article at Link.

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Sunday’s 5-0 victory left the Tigers with a 34-20 record, the best the Tigers have had through 54 games — exactly one third of the way through the 162-game schedule — since they went 36-18 in 2006 and has observers wondering where this team can go.

“I am a little (surprised),” said Jon Paul Morosi, MLB Network analyst. "I thought they were going to be good (but) I didn’t realize they were going to be this good. If you had asked me in spring training, ‘Do you believe the Tigers are going to have the best record in baseball, or the American League, when you get to Memorial Day?’ I would probably have said no.

“But here we are.”

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Why is there reason to believe the Tigers are capable of an extended playoff run? Here are the main ones:

:arrow_forward: American League looks wide open:
The Tigers, however, look like the most complete team.

“A deeper rotation, now they have Kahnle in the bullpen, they have a productive (Javier) Baez and Torkelson, so they have pieces they didn’t have a year ago,” Morosi said. "You look around the American League and there’s a lot of teams that have flaws.

“Which team are you looking at the American League and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope I don’t play that team.’ Honestly, people are saying that about the Tigers right now. They’re a better version of the team that was a swing or two away from playing the Yankees (in the ALCS).”

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:arrow_forward: This year’s Tigers roster is more complete: The team that made last year’s playoffs had a Cy Young winner in Skubal, a deep and productive bullpen, and opportunistic offense.

This year, there’s more starting pitching depth, possibly an even deeper bullpen, and most importantly, the lineup has more power and can score.

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Javy frickn Baez

:arrow_forward: Manager AJ Hinch: Hinch continues to be a major advantage for the Tigers. His ability to communicate with players, clearly state expectations, and his in-game maneuvering, put him among the top tier of managers.

“They’re so difficult to match up against with their everyday lineup, and AJ. Hinch is the master at mixing and matching,” said Tim Kurkjian, ESPN analyst, on a recent Baseball Tonight broadcast. “Same thing with their bullpen. You have no (sense of) who is coming in at what time.”

Said Granderson: “You look at the track record, and he’s been able to get people to play together. He’s done a great job of communication and that sounds real simple. But you’d be surprised how many teams and organizations kind of lack that.”

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There are more than 100 games to be played, and as the series against Cleveland showed, there will be potholes.

Morosi wonders whether one more explosive bat in the lineup might become necessary at the trade deadline, but that will become clearer later in the summer.

But Morosi says Scott Harris, president of baseball operations, has the organizational depth to make moves, if necessary, to give the Tigers their best chance for postseason success.

“When you have a healthy farm system, you can have the ability to make moves and augment your core,” Morosi said. “That’s what they can do at the deadline. They’re a good team, a real good team, and there’s not an obvious flaw that you would say they’d need to address right now. If you’re Scott Harris, you let things play out and then go from there.”

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The forever look for a complete third baseman
Inge, great glove mediocre bat
Fryman, yep then traded
E Suarez, if only…just a prospect that DD traded

article looks at prior Tiger third basemen and potentials down below.

# DetNews; Tigers have forever searched for a franchise third baseman
Full article at Link

Hao-Yu Lee, another of those transplanted second basemen the Tigers hope can sink roots at third, is working also at Toledo and has made seven errors (four throwing, three fielding) in 46 chances at third. Not a ratio there that will cut it in Detroit.

Gage Workman is a different matter, perhaps, now that he has been freed from his Rule 5 big-league cameos with the Cubs and White Sox and has returned as Tigers property to Toledo.

Workman can play third base. He plays with steadiness at shortstop, where, for now he is more often deployed. And now, for his next act, he is helping part-time in center field.

He also swings a left-handed bat, with true power, and in six games since joining the Mud Hens is batting .316/.409/.632/1.041, with a couple of home runs. It should also be noted that Workman, in his previous four farm seasons with the Tigers, has had strikeout rates ranging from 27% to 40%. So, planning on Workman as any kind of forthcoming regular at third is risky.

Ah, but what about those guys at Single A Lakeland: Franyerber Montilla, and Carson Rucker?

Montilla, 20, is still a shortstop/second baseman, so any move to third base on his part, which is possible given Bryce Rainer’s status, is for now a future discussion.

Rucker, also 20, is a fourth-round draft pick in 2023 who was hitting wonderfully a year ago in his first full season of pro ball until wrecking a shoulder. He is back, healthy, and playing third for the low-A Flying Tigers, all while carrying the body (6-foot-2, 200 pounds) and right-handed bat that could find a permanent home at third.

That is, if he hits, and until he got three knocks in Friday’s game, Rucker wasn’t having much of a spring. Wait this dude out, however, because the pedigree is there.

It should be noted that it’s not as if the Tigers haven’t drafted third basemen, including Izaac Pacheco, 22, a second-round grab in 2022, who has had a rebound season in this, his second consecutive season at high-A West Michigan, and who yet must show he’s organizational timber.

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Some of the players are starting to come back down to earth. Not horribly but now just average to above average. Instead of borderline allstar to above average. It will come in waves as baseball does.

To make them true World Series Contenders and not just AL. i need to see them get and stay healthy and be buyers at the deadline