By Jeff Moss
August 27, 2012
DetroitSportsRag@gmail.com
“If Delmon Young’s not good enough we might not be good enough.” — Jim Leyland, August 26, 2012
On January 26th of this year, the Detroit Tigers organization let it be known to anyone listening that they were going “all-in” to win a World Series championship this year.
On that Thursday afternoon at a press conference inside the bowels of Comerica Park, aging owner Mike Ilitch slowly and deliberately walked up to the podium and reintroduced Prince Fielder to the Detroit community.
It was a borderline reckless signing by the 82-year old Pizza magnate and a knee-jerk reaction to the loss of Victor Martinez, but no one could question how this $214 million megadeal would impact the Tigers for the first couple of seasons of the contract.
Ilitch let it be known to anyone listening on that winter afternoon that winning a championship while we was still on this side of the grass was his utmost priority and if spending some of Chris, Denise, Mike, Jr., Atanas, Dan, Lisa and Carol’s inheritance money was necessary to accomplish this feat, well then, so be it.
So, if you want to know why a lot of diehard Tigers fans have been miserable during this torturous season (and I am probably the poster boy for this movement), you need look no further than the expectations set by the organization itself during that presser.
Couple Ilitch’s “Gus Hansen” proclamation with the Tigers inclusion in the worst division in all of baseball and you had sky-high expectations that only were compounded when EVERY SINGLE baseball prognosticator in the world predicted a Tigers division title.
But here is the rub. The Tigers haven’t pushed all of their chips into the middle of the felt table. Dave Dombrowski hasn’t shown the slightest bit of urgency all season long and with Labor Day creeping ever so close, his team still trails the Chicago White Sox by three games in the loss column.
Which gets me to the quote that started this column. “If Delmon Young’s not good enough we might not be good enough.”
Jim Leyland opened his mouth full of nicotine-stained chicklets yesterday and actually uttered that quote to the neutered and cuckolded Detroit sports media.
Think about that statement for a second. The 2012 Detroit Tigers have a total payroll inching towards 140 million dollars. In a total panic move, they went out and replaced Victor Martinez for ONE SEASON (this season mind you) with a NINE-YEAR CONTRACT for a position where they already employed the best first baseman in the game.
And yet, their stinky relic of a manager believes the team might not be good enough if Delmon Young doesn’t start coming through.
The same Delmon Young who will NOT be on this team next season because he will have no role once V-Mart returns.
The same Delmon Young who the Twins gave up on last August in return for Cole Nelson and Lester Oliveros.
To say that Nelson and Oliveros were organizational depth guys would be a total insult to organizational depth guys.
Nelson has been toiling in Class-A this season with an ERA of 6.51 and a WHIP of 2.03. Seriously, I am not kidding. After 76 innings pitched, he is averaging over two base runners per. Rick Porcello laughs at Cole Nelson.
You might remember Oliveros from his brief stint in Detroit last season. If he didn’t have a Spanish name, he wouldn’t standout any more than Thad Weber, Luke Putkonen or any of the other total puke garbage relievers that have come up from Toledo in the recent past.
That is the incredible haul the Twins received last year in return for a guy that the Tigers imbecilic manager believes is the key to the 2012 season.
A player his previous team gave up on because he was never going to live up to his #1 overall draft status and who the Tigers have ZERO intention of retaining in 2013. That’s the X-Factor for a franchise whose credo on January 26th was World Series or bust?
You can breakdown the 2012 Tigers in any fashion you desire, but if this team has an “O-Ring”, it is the fifth spot in the batting order.
You can bitch about Jhonny Peralta all you want, but guess what? His OPS this season is .728 which is only slightly down from his career OPS of .755.
Alex Avila isn’t having the type of year he did in 2011, but look around the AL at the catching position. Between his .746 OPS and his ability to successfully throw out runners, he is more than adequate.
Would you rather have Russell “Mendoza Line” Martin?
For most of this season, Young has batted behind four players who have on-base percentages between .380 and .400. No other team in baseball can boast a lineup with a “Top Four” that prolific at getting on base.
And what has Young accomplished with this good fortune? Well, the Tigers have the second worst production in the American League from the #5 spot in their order. Only Lynn Henning’s Kansas City Royals are worse.
Delmon Young has been given the equivalent of the Glengarry leads and has yet to make a sale.
(And please spare me the limited sample size of this human abomination’s last two games. He did the same thing the last time a trade deadline was approaching and fooled Dombrowski into deprioritizing the need for Prince Fielder protection.)
But for some reason Dombrowski and Leyland still think this guy is capable of turning his entire career around in the next 35 games before they say goodbye to him FOREVER.
Just this past weekend, Leyland was also quoted as saying that Young had a “track record.”
I have no fucking clue what track record he is referring to.
Young’s CAREER OPS is .744. That is putrid for a player who offers nothing in the field. Other than his 2010 season which is looking more and more like an anomaly and a couple of productive weeks in last year’s playoffs, what track record does this man have?
The season that Delmon Young is currently having is WHO HE IS. It is why the Rays and Twins disposed of him like an unwanted fetus and why Dombrowski will be doing the same in the very near future.
The worst part about this entire debacle (which is now five months in the making) is there are two reasonable solutions to the Tigers #5 spot black hole problem.
You know how Leyland constantly mutters that he loves guys who can drive a base runner in from first base?
Well, there is an outfielder on the Chicago Cubs named Alfonso Soriano who can do just that. He has 50 extra base hits this season and a Slugging Percentage of .485.
Supposedly, Theo Epstein is willing to eat all but $9 million of the right fielder’s remaining salary in return for some prospects.
If the Tigers are truly attempting to win a World Series before their ailing owner drops dead, why hasn’t this acquisition been made?
It isn’t like Soriano wouldn’t be valuable next season either unless you have blind faith that the Caucasian version of Delmon Young, Brennan Boesch, is ever going to amount to anything.
Dombrowski still has three days to acquire Soriano, but I am not holding my breath since the manager just declared that his team will go as far as Delmon Young can carry them.
At the VERY LEAST, Dombrowski should force the Old Man to modify his lineup versus right-handed pitching.
THIS SHOULD BE THE TEAM’S BATTING ORDER AGAINST RHP’s EVERY SINGLE GAME:
1) Austin Jackson (CF)
2) Quintin Berry (LF)
3) Miguel Cabrera (3B)
4) Prince Fielder (1B
5) Andy Dirks (RF)
6) Omar Infante (2B)
7) Brennan Boesch (DH)
8) Jhonny Peralta (SS)
9) Alex Avila (C)
Not only is that the best defense you can plausibly put on the field, it also would be the most productive offensively.
Well, that is if you believe in mathematics.
Against RHP this season, Delmon Young has an OBP of .296 and a Slugging Percentage of .375.
Quintin Berry’s splits versus RHP are .383 and .376. The dude has a higher SLUGGING PERCENTAGE against RHP than Young and do I even need to mention his 18 stolen bases??!!?!?!!?
By placing Dirks behind Prince you would also be resolving the horrific lack of production in that slot. After over 200 plate appearances, Dirks enjoys an OPS of .905.
Want a list of all the corner outfielders that have a higher OPS in both the AL and NL?
Ryan Braun, Josh Hamilton, Carlos Gonzalez, Matt Holliday and Melky Cabrera. And the last guy had to cheat just to edge out Dirks by ONE point. The other players I just mentioned? They’re pretty, pretty, pretty ….. pretty good.
Of course, these “geeky” stats mean nothing to Cancer Stick since he actually sat out Dirks on Friday night against the Angels even though a righty was on the fucking mound!!!!
Oh and coincidentally, that was the one game against the Angels that the team LOST.
This season has been excruciating to watch on so many levels that it is amazing that it can still be salvaged. Of course, Young’s last two games have probably convinced our single-cell amoeba of a manager that Delmon is still capable of coming through in the clutch.
Which will only make September even more miserable than April through August.
I mean, what is enjoyable about this ENTIRE franchise? Their SHILL radio and TV announcers are an absolute embarrassment to common sense and integrity.
The postgame show on Fox Sports Detroit is co-hosted by an [Insert a Cheerleader Here] and an incoherent Craig Monroe.
Between the incessant “Call Sam” ads and Rod Allen’s acting abilities even the commercials are horrific.
The beat writers are all in the tank for the organization and refuse to ask any challenging questions of team management.
Instead, we have to endure their inside jokes on Twitter. Usually the big story is Bob Wojnowski’s ice cream habits. Yesterday, they were all guffawing about Mike Stone getting booed because he wasn’t allowed to throw a ball to the fans from the Press Box.
These idiots are real Woodward and Bernsteins, let me tell ya.
The new scoreboard is a $10 million boondoggle as management refuses to show replays and even though it is the fourth largest in all of baseball, it still doesn’t display enough relevant information.
And you can’t even use your cell phone when you are in the damn park because Ilitch isn’t willing to spend the money to offer free wireless throughout the facility.
And even when we win a game it seems there is always constant pressure and agita because they can never do ANYTHING easily.
It all culminates in what has been to date the worst Detroit sports season of my lifetime.
The 0-16 Lions didn’t bother me because we finally got rid of Matt Millen and William Clay Ford, Sr. had to endure the first season of its kind in NFL history.
There were no expectations for the 119-loss Tigers team in 2003 and that atrocity was the impetus for Ilitch actually spending money on this franchise.
Nope. This is the worst based on the expectations, results and total mismanagement from the top down.
And at this point only a World Series can pacify all of the nonsense we have had to endure on a nightly basis with the 2012 Tigers.
And if Leyland is correct and the Tigers are only as good as Delmon Young, well, there is a better chance of DY being presented with a Simon Wiesenthal Award than this season ending with a parade down Woodward.