No Excuses. The Tigers Stink Right Now.

By: Eric Thomas

There are plenty of apologists abound for the Tigers right now. They keep saying the same stuff. "It's early" or "They actually had the same record last year" or any laced together series of excuses. They seem to ignore the criticism by simply burying their faith in the ground and expecting to unearth it later. These apologists wave a finger at those who question. Like Jennifer Granholm before them they bet the farm on what is going to blow you away next.

The Tigers have had plenty of time to hang the excuses around the necks of the unworthy. Daniel Schlereth was chained to a rail and rode out to Toledo when his initial relief appearances produced embarrassing results. They played Merry – Go Second base. They even did the formerly unthinkable, they released Brandon Inge. Even Inge could not escape the blame wheel and was led to Oakland with his hands bound in the Flute of Shame.

Well, they are out of players to send to the pillory. The Royals just beat Justin Verlander in a 3-2 game. Suspending again Delmon Young won't even wash the dirt off that stink bomb.

Let's just face it. The Tigers are a disappointment right now. . Prince Fielder has hit a grand total of 3 home runs. That means he is tied with Austin Jackson. Think that's bad? Those 3 home runs put him in a 4 way tie for 2nd place in total home runs on the team. For a team that waved away the concept of team speed in the offseason like a cloud of gnats, you need more knocks than that.

The Tigers took a fistful of yen and slapped it on the barrel head. They bought bats. They made the conscious decision to hit the ball out of the yard and that has not materialized. Media in this town spent one glorious weekend dreamily blinking and making up names for Cabrera and Fielder. Since then, the Tigers have been disappointing.

This is, of course, how this happens. There are those who characterize these sentiments as foolhardy. They claim that it's too early to sound the fog horn. The loss to the Royals was a really bad sign. They had JV on the bump and they could only get 2 runs off the Kansas City Royals. 2 runs off the Kansas City Royals when you have a 119 million dollar payroll is embarrassing. But it's also part of a trend.

This is my qualifying paragraph. Yes, it's a long season. Things can change. You can obviously say that the team may have more blue skies ahead. It's possible that the Tigers bats will awaken like a Hydra after they get that pesky All Star Game out of the way. Maybe this is their 1st half slump that will only give way to a 2nd half triumph. Maybe this is the sound of a fair-weather fan that is simply waving in the breeze like a wind sock.

But when the same thing keeps happening, you have to start wondering. When you saw the Tigers during the Red Sox series, the lineup looked scary. But now it seems like a series of 1-2-3 innings. They load the bases and strand them. The numbers (outside the HR numbers) don't look terrible. But when you watch this team, they just … lack.

We are still rooting for them, but this lull has lasted a couple of weeks now. Time to pull out of it before we start asking questions.