You Can't Compare These Tigers To Last Year's Team

By: Eric Thomas

I keep hearing from scores of Tigers fans. "The team had the same record at this time last year so everything is fine." While I still maintain that it's STILL early and not exactly panic time (seems like I have written this line in every blog since April ... early is running out), that explanation relies on a false equivalence. You cannot compare last year's May Tigers with this team.

I totally understand why people want to do this. We want to feel differently. We are concerned that this might just be a snake bit year. Players were playing much better like Austin Jackson are on the DL. The rest of the bats have ranged from anemic to pathetic. Peralta looked good in the very beginning of the season but he has been putrid as of late. There have been great pitching performances that have been wasted. I totally understand why Tiger fans want to hope this is a mirage. I hope it is too. I really hope magic faerie dust gets sneezed somewhere around the All Star break.

I don't believe in magic so I am going to just watch games. They haven't been leaving villages on base, it's more like civilizations. This has been the majority of the last month. There have been flashes where things look like they are going to improve only to watch those hopes cyclone into a drain 24 hours later.

I also am not impressed with the stat that they "can't win two in a row". That is true, but it's more a symptom of the fact they have stunk lately. The fact that they "can't win two in a row" is not bad in addition to ineptitude. They have lost two or three in a row plenty of times. They have proven an ability to be consistently bad.

The comparison to last year's team does not work because the Tigers got better from beginning of the season to the end. The Tigers dominated the last month of the season, and that is the team they should be or at the very least resemble it. When people say the Tigers "had the same record at this time last year" that is saying the Tigers have to get a number 2 starter that is perfect down the stretch and a rental player playing the best baseball of his life.

This is not by any stretch of the imagination the same team that struggled in the spring last year. This team now features Fister and Young who were key parts of the team when they were the hottest team in baseball last September. That's who they are, and the fact that they are playing this bad is concerning at best and depressing at worst. JV has been amazing just as he was last year, but he can't score runs. The fact that the Tigers lost today with Verlander on the mound and they only scored ONE RUN is embarrassing.

There is a reason why there were high expectations. They went out and got better not only during the season last year, but they got better during the off-season. They added Dotel and obviously Prince Fielder. Alex Avila now has the occasional day off because they got Laird, so he should be better. You don't make that many changes in the last 365 days and say that this is the equivalent team.

I am not saying that they should get rid of Jim Leyland. I think he is doing the best he can. The fans that are calling for the Tigers to employ a bunting strategy and employ the suicide squeeze are watching a different team than I am. This is not a speedy team. Suggesting that Prince Fielder bunt is lunacy. This team is built for the long ball and not singles. The big hitters are getting on base but they are not hitting for power. The "blame" such as it is can be squarely placed on the players.

They get a lot of money to do this. Leyland and Lloyd McClendon cannot take possession of their arms and swing the bat for them. If they could, I am sure they would. They were not a bunting team last year, either and they didn't get smaller ball in the off-season with Fielder.

Tigers fans can only watch and hope. There of course is the possibility that a magic free agent or trade can show up in the clubhouse and the team can go on a run. That's what happened last year. The Tigers were starting to show that they could win the Central, and when Fister and Young showed up the team went into hyper drive. It would be nice if the team as it is currently constructed would actually start playing well. It would be nice if we actually saw those bats warm up, like we have been waiting to see.