Tigers Fans Are Whiny And Why Baseball Stats Are Stupid

By: Eric Thomas

It's April in the D. You can tell by the birds chirping, the sun shining, road construction, and the criticism raining down on Jim Leyland. Can the guy get even one game?

It's amazing. The Tigers open up the season with a gutty win against a talented team and already people are questioning the skipper's judgment. I can understand if Leyland actually did something nutty, and of course he has countless time. Turning the game over to your All Star closer in the 9th inning does not qualify as nutty.

I kind of understand where Tigers fans are coming from, but only kind of. JV pitched a gem yesterday, and that fact has been measured in countless publications and websites all over the world since yesterday. There was a lot of talk before the season of whether Verlander could continue to be as dominant as he was last year. That talk has ceased for the moment because he actually looked better than last year at times yesterday. He absolutely mowed down one of baseball's better lineups. He looked every bit the MVP.

So I get it when Tigers fans whine. It's fun to watch the guy pitch. The Tigers have assembled one of the scariest lineups in baseball but I do household chores when they are at the plate. I sit down and marvel when JV is on the mound. That curveball looked filthy. Batters waved at thin air with a look of absolute disgust on their face. Prince Fielder sympathized with Red Sox batters after the game, much preferring to watch Verlander from his perch at 1st base.

Tigers fans have horrifically short memories. While the tabernacle choir of criticism soars and claps along they forget one fact of last year. The Tigers leaned on Verlander too much. He pitched late into games that they had already won. His pitch count got high and by the end of the season he began to falter. The same fans that were freaking out about using Verlander too much at the end of the season last year now want him to throw 120 pitches in the very first of 162 games.

Wanting to see last year's MVP go 9 is completely understandable considering how fun he is to watch. But that same desire is shortsighted and reckless. Verlander has a long season ahead of him. He is one of (if not the) leaders in the clubhouse and he needs to stay healthy. He also needs to have enough gas in the tank to go later into the season. The Prince acquisition only makes sense if the guy can pitch well deep into the playoffs. He did not last year.

So for the sake of all of our sanity, can we at least all agree that going to the closer in the 9th inning is not a crazy idea? Thank you.

One more thing: How stupid is it that Valverde got the win yesterday and not Verlander? This is one of the problems with baseball and the rules that govern its statistics. There should absolutely be some kind of system that fixes that. It's not like baseball only features iron clad rules that govern statistics. Judgment calls are made all the time. There are people that make those calls. They take "hits" off the board and judge them to be "errors"! Why can't someone look at the game film and correct that record? Makes no sense at all.