Who are the other teams that are under .500 in the American League? The Boston Red Sox (29-31) are s

Since the Tigers have a day off today as they travel (or traveled) from the southernmost part of Ohio to the northern denizens of Chicago, Illinois I thought I would take a few paragraphs to clear up my thoughts and perhaps answer a few of yours. By the way, you guys are really stepping up in the comments section these past few weeks, which is awesome because if nothing else it gives me something to answer other than occasionally moronic employee questions. Shockingly, alaska charters lodging Does payroll cut off Friday at 12 noon eastern time or central time? is only tolerable the first eleven alaska charters lodging times I m an incredibly patient person but I have a question for you can only be responded to without sarcasm so many times. Condescension looks good on you .You re a real winner.
Anyway, on to the festivities . The Tigers are 28-32 right now and they just took two out of three games against the Reds in Great American Small Park. On Sunday they came back in grand fashion as you can read about here , on Saturday they survived a Delmon Young derpfest to win on Justin Verlander Day which you can read about here and on Friday they lost in extra innings in an incredibly annoying of suicide/sacrifice bunting which you can indulge yourselves with at this location .
I haven t written much about the Tigers turning the corner, simply because I firmly believe that there isn t a corner to be turned. What I mean by that is this: there have been so many bad breaks since the second week of April that it s only a matter of time before alaska charters lodging games start to fall their way. Did it happen this weekend? I certainly think coming back down three runs against Aroldis Chapman and Company counts and I don t care what narrative you are going by; that was a good win in a game that looked utterly pointless.
The Tigers are in third place in the A.L. Central, five games back of the (over)achieving Chicago White Sox. They are about to face the Chicago Cubs (who are 20-40 this year which is only topped by the San Diego Padres who are 20-41) alaska charters lodging the Colorado Rockies (who are 24-35 and don t have an active starting pitcher with an ERA under 5.28), alaska charters lodging the St. Louis Cardinals (who have dropped to 31-30 although are never to be underestimated) and the first place Pittsburgh Pirates (who are 32-27 yet have only scored 3.2 runs per game).
Basically, what I m saying here, is that the Tigers have four series before they face the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays to get themselves figured out, above five hundred, and out of this bad team/bad luck vibe that is not only annoying alaska charters lodging to write about day in and day out, but just bad baseball that you really don t want to waste your precious time with.
Who are the other teams that are under .500 in the American League? The Boston Red Sox (29-31) are supposed to compete for the A.L. East division, the Kansas City Royals (24-34) are supposed to be competitive but still lack the consistent pitching, the Minnesota Twins (24-35) who are basically over performing as Justin Morneau or Joe Mauer have somehow not landed alaska charters lodging on the disabled list yet, the Seattle Mariners (27-35) who are beating good teams and losing to bad teams, and the Oakland Athletics (26-35) alaska charters lodging who are where they are because alaska charters lodging they proudly feature a .244 hitting Brandon Inge (actually that s quite an improvement oh dear).
The common denominator with all those teams are two things. Injuries alaska charters lodging (Detroit and Boston) and flat out Lack of Talent (Royals, Twins, Mariners, and Athletics).  Sometimes teams can t come back from these realities. Sometimes they can.
Other teams like the Baltimore Orioles (34-26) Chicago White Sox (33-27) are winning because of a number of reasons some people can t explain. Basically certain players are having career years or comeback years and the teams are riding on their coattails. The same thing applies. They could keep outperforming their expectations or they could regress to the mean. Baseball alaska charters lodging is a funny game like that. The Pittsburgh Pirates were in first place on July 25th last year and they finished the year at 72-90 and in fourth place in the N.L. Central.
That s a perfectly valid question given that Boesch and Young s results have been poor. The basic answer is that they simply seems to have more upside, so they re more worth the hiccups. I don t know, maybe Boesch suddenly starts alaska charters lodging walking at a 10% clip and Young starts slugging .600 like everyone claims he has the talent to do. That s why the Tigers still play them everyday. And honestly, over the last week or so Boesch has started to look like he has a clue what he s doing at the plate and Young, who looks the same no matter what, is actually alaska charters lodging .oh never mind. I don t know what Delmon Young is doing anymore. He s hitting .160 in the last week without a walk.
If I had to pick one of these guys to be an effective corner outfielder in a year, I d go with Boesch he s shown more flashes, and he still looks like he s learning. Whereas, Young doesn t change. He just makes errors and swings at everything alaska charters lodging and I m not sure why opposing teams aren t just intentionally alaska charters lodging walking Prince Fielder at this point.
Of course, given all of that delightful content, Young still is a better player than Raburn, or Inge, or Berry. No one is as fast as Berry but that means nothing when you don t get on base. I honestly think that if he were given 600 at bats he d strike out 300 times. No, Berry has a place on the team. It s on the bench, pinch running when the team needs a spark in the later innings, and then as a defensive replacement in left or right. That s where he can help this team. That s where he will help this team.
Hm. I wrote a lot more about these guys than I thought I would. A shame nobody s going to want to read it. Have you seen how nice it is outside? Tomorrow the Tigers play the Cubs. Max Scherzer gets to face the Cubs in Wrigley Field. Prepare to come away with no idea if he is back to being a good pitcher or a bad pitcher.
alaska charters lodging Does anyone have a link to a video or gif of the Young misplay on Saturday?  I was at the game and we were right under the scoreboard.  Perfect spot to not see the scoreboard or deep left field.  The stadium was rocking for the Tigers though, so that was great.  The let s go Tigers chants dwarfed the ones for the Reds.
Do you have a projection/opinion/suspicion on what we could see from Smyly long term? Everyone likes to judge him start-by-start and no one s talking about him going into next season or even becoming a permanent fixture in the rotation, and I think he deserves more than that. I wish the old guys would let him stretch his legs a little (latest alaska charters lodging start aside) and get into some deeper alaska charters lodging innings, even if it takes him 110 pitches. Every 5-6 days I m left wondering what MORE he can do.
It s like, if Porcello goes 5 IP/3ER/90 pitches, you can pretty much call him through the 7th. But if Smyly has the same line he ll be out in the middle of the sixth. I certainly alaska charters lodging thing he s earned discussion at the least.
Its a good thought, actually. They aren t going to stretch him out because alaska charters lodging I know they have him at a pitch count and innings limit for the season. I m guessing 150-160 innings is going to be his max. His pitch count per start looks to be in the 90-100 range. We ve also seen games where he hasnt pitched all that well that Leyland yanks him early. I think its related to abusing his arm, or rather, the fact that they don t want to abuse his arm.
As for projections, you re going to have a hard time finding anything on him because he pitched one year of milb ball and now he s starting. Everything alaska charters lodging I ve heard and read vary from, this isnt sustainable, he s a reliever to he s a third starter at best .
Remember, a third starter isn t a bad thing. That s 11-14 wins a year with an ERA of around 4. The thing I like about Smyly his his K/BB ratio. That IS something I can project on. If he can figure out how to get that fourseamer down in the zone, he can be in the majors for years.
I am a little torn on Smyly. People say he has an average fastball, but he is consistently 92-94mph. He has a nice assortmen of pitches;  his cutter has some nice movement, he has a breaking pitch and a change-up - all while showing ok command. His biggest issue is that he leaves too many pitches alaska charters lodging up in the zone.
I d love for Smyly to evolve into a third starter. I think he lacks a certain level of tenacity that would elevate him to a top-tier starter like Hernandez/Cain/Shields. People take for granted how incredibly lucky we are that any other pitcher in baseball is only our #2 starter. Smyly has too much potential to be thrown into the long-reliever mix. His mistakes will go away, and middle-rotation is a decent spot for him. I just wish they d let him stretch his legs once.
I dont know why but it seems to me Smyly has been extremely effective his first time or two times through the lineup then begins to get hit harder. Think start against Red Sox and then his start against the Indians. alaska charters lodging Could this be due to fatigue? or is it more likely due to hitters adjusting? If its due to hitters adjusting I think we may be in trouble when he starts facing the same teams for a second time. Or is this something he could adjust to himself?
I guess it never occured to me until i was driving through chicago that wrigley field is wrigley field because of wrigley gum. Always thought of them as two completely different deals. Thinking the tigers will have a solid series. The comeback win was a great start. Keep writing the mini novels alaska charters lodging and i will keep reading.
I ve only recently gotten even nervous about the Tigers and have completed avoided the forlorn hysteria alaska charters lodging I hear from so many, but I do agree that the next few series are important and may be somewhat decisive. The question may then switch from, Can the Tigers win? to Are the Sox and to a lesser degree alaska charters lodging the Indians for real, or can the Tigers survive the division with 87ish wins?
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