I am. I am worried. I went out on Twitter yesterday and discussed this with some of the fans. And it’s good to know that I’m not alone.
Opening day is upon us! A day that quite honestly should be a national holiday. Nothing quite like it in Detroit. It’s amazing. There are quite a few differences of opinion about a lot of things in this area. If there’s one thing that Detroiters and Metro Detroiters come together on, it’s Opening Day for the Tigers and Lions. And it’s a sight to behold.
But I digress. I’m worried about these guys and this is why. I’m worried about the starting pitching in general, but JV in particular. Justin Verlander is sore. Very sore. He may potentially miss his assigned first start. And that doesn’t sit well with me. His play has been declining the past two seasons. He’s had some surgeries in the past few off seasons. Yes, I do understand that you can’t go on the clip that he’s gone in the past few seasons. Since 2009, he’s pitched at least 235 innings in 3 seasons. Last in 2012, when he pitched 238. And wouldn’t you know, in 2013 his numbers started to dip. In his last two seasons he’s gone 28-24 with an ERA of 4. And his strikeouts dropped dramatically from 2013 when he had 217 to 159 in 2014. So, when I’m hearing that he’s sore, and that he could potentially miss his first start, I get nervous. Will he be JV of old and hold the Tigers pitching staff down? I don’t think so. That makes me queasy. And let’s not go there with the bull pen. Just sayin.
The Tigers offense should be improved this year as well. But then again, that is something that is said pretty much every year. There’s Miguel Cabrera, JD Martinez, Victor Martinez, Nick Castellanos, Ian Kinsler, etc. On paper, it seems awesome! MVP Cabrera, and some pretty good hitters in that line up. Buuttt, the game isn’t played on paper, and there are times that this line up goes pretty dang cold. There were stretches last year where the bottom third of the line up was out producing the rest of the line up. And that’s just weird. But, it’s the Tigers, and that’s what they do. They are a streaky team, and that bothers me. 162 games is a lot of games. Of course, they’re not going 130-32 or anything like that. But the AL Central is improving. And while the Tigers have barely held on to win the division in the past few years, I think this year they are going to have a hard time keeping up. I really hope I’m wrong, but I just have this nagging feeling that this season may not be all that we Tiger’s fans were expecting.
Unless of course the starters routinely go 8 innings per start, and the offense scores 9-10 runs per game.
What?? It could happen!!
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Sonja Greenfield
I write sports, cause I love sports. And a couple of other things too. But mainly sports. And please don't ask me to cook anything.
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