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Most major league clubs are at right about the 20-game mark -- not so long to where you start panicking, but enough time to take a closer look and evaluate where everybody’s at. Having said that, let’s do our annual jaunt around the league to check in on some former Tigers and see if they are mashing, crashing, or something in between.
David Price
David Price
On the surface, Price is 3-0, which looks pretty good through five starts. But a 5.76 ERA is not one that gets you entrance into Cooperstown. The imposing lefty has been stellar on the road (14 IP, 4 ER, 24 K, 4 BB), but very shaky at Fenway Park, surrendering 15 runs in just 15+ innings. The career path of Mr. Price is starting to look like that of a baseball nomad. After a handful of seasons in Tampa, he popped over for parts of a couple years in Detroit, then did a few months with the Blue Jays, and is now in the first of a massive seven-year contract with Dave Dombrowski’s Red Sox. How are the Beantown reviews so far?? Ehhh.
Could the Tigers have used Price this season, and in the years to come? Of course. But they instead snapped up Jordan Zimmermann for about $100 million less, and that decision is looking just fine. For now, at least.
Max Scherzer
How’s that other former Tigers’ ace doing in a (relatively) new place? After a very good debut season in our nation’s capital, he’s just been sort of blah so far in ’16. Five starts, a 2-1 mark, 4.35 ERA, and a surprising home loss to the lowly Phillies the other night.
After the game, Mad Max claimed he’s in a bit of a “funk.” Thankfully he pitches for one of the best teams in the National League, so despite some of his early hiccups, the Nationals are still rolling along with a division-leading 14-6 record.
Max Scherzer
It’ll be interesting to see come October which version of Scherzer shows up in the playoffs (assuming Washington qualifies). While he was always a pretty dominant regular season performer for the Tigers, he was never really that John Smoltz type of guy that you felt supremely confident with in the playoffs. He took the mound 12 times for the Tigers in the playoffs, 10 as a starter. Over that period, he picked up four wins to three losses and compiled a not-so-inspiring 3.73 ERA; not to mention the Game 6 destruction in Arlington back in 2011 when Max took the mound to start the 3rd inning and proceeded to spend the next several hours trying to record three outs. Nine runs later, the Rangers were off and running to the World Series.
Prince Fielder
Prince Fielder
Say what you will about the last couple years of the Dombrowski era in Detroit, but the man sure did get the Tigers out from a sticky situation when he shrewdly dealt Fielder to the Texas Rangers for Ian Kinsler. The Tigers had a glut of big, strong guys that were most comfortable playing first base. Also, the team had failed to ever really replace Placido Polanco at second.
So out went the Son of Cecil and in came the pesky Kinsler. After a few weeks of this season, the exchange is still looking mighty good.
Fielder has been experiencing a power outage in April. He is hitting a woeful .190 and doing so with very little extra-base power (4 XBH, 79 AB). Obviously the average will rise, but the 50-homer power that Prince once possessed in Milwaukee is unlikely to come back. He’s now 31, and unless he really catches fire the rest of the summer, this will be the fifth consecutive season Fielder has failed to eclipse 30 bombs.
Rick Porcello
Rick Porcello
Some fans felt the Tigers let Porcello slip away when he was just about to enter his prime. Those people had egg on their face in 2015 when Ricky P went to Boston and put together the worst season of his career: 15 losses, a near-5.00 ERA, and enough balls rocketed off the Green Monster that Red Sox brass honestly wondered if Porcello was mistakenly trying to throw batting practice during live games.
Well, the calendar flipped to 2016 and Porcello looks to be on the verge of a career year at age 27.
He’s made four starts and won all of them. The five HRs allowed is a bit troubling, especially for a supposed ground ball pitcher, but other than that, he’s racked up the Ks and kept BBs to a minimum, always a good formula for success as a starting pitcher.
We'll see if Porcello can keep it up and put a scare into joining the 20-win club, a major leap for a guy who never finished a season with more than 15.
Avisail Garcia
The mini-Miggy, at least in terms of stature and batting stance, has not exactly produced results at the plate like his hall of fame mentor. This will be Garcia’s fourth season on Chicago’s south side, and the White Sox are still waiting for Kid Cabrera to bust out.
Avisail Garcia
After a marginal season in 2015 (13 HR, .257 BA), he’s started off slowly again this year. He’s right there with Fielder in the sub-.200 club, checking in at .190. Garcia could stand to take a few more pitches and try to get on base that way (just 36 BB in 601 plate appearances in ’15). Remember, the Tigers got Jose Iglesias in the trade involving Garcia, and while the flashy shortstop has had his share of injury issues while in Detroit, it still looks like a trade that should eventually tip in Detroit’s favor.
Yoenis Cespedes
Last year the Tigers had the mighty Yoenis patrolling left field. Now that role belongs to Justin Upton. Umm, can we get a redo?
Early returns have been unfavorable on this switch. Cespedes went to New York last July and lifted the Mets all the way to the Fall Classic. After a sluggish start to his follow-up act in New York, Cespedes has caught fire of late. He’s bashed five home runs in his last eight games, which coincides with the Mets also playing their best baseball of the season.
Yoenis Cespedes
Meanwhile, our guy (Upton) has one tater, is hitting under .200, and just got dropped down in the batting order. Oh, and he is pacing all of the majors in strikeouts. Yikes.
Obviously it wasn’t a 1-for-1 swap involving Cespedes and Upton, but this little LF-switcheroo is looking quite unpleasant a few weeks into the season.
Doug Fister
There were rumblings last winter that the Tigers might bring the lanky right-hander back to Motown. It never materialized, and the Tigers inked Mike Pelfrey instead.
Doug Fister
And while that signing has been anything but successful, the Fister addition by the Astros might be even worse. Fister’s 5.56 ERA is among the league’s highest, and he is striking out fewer batters than ever before. He has just 11 punchouts in four starts, and a paltry five in his last three outings. You’re asking for trouble when the opposition is putting that many balls in play. Somehow big Doug also walked an eye-popping seven guys in his last start; that used to basically be his total for the season.
Rajai Davis
The club tried to shore up the outfield this off-season, bringing aboard old friend Cameron Maybin and hoping youngster Tyler Collins would find his footing in the bigs. Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.
Rajai Davis
Davis took the short trip down to Cleveland and the early returns have been quite good. He’s hitting a steady .286, has already parked a couple of homers, and is tied for 3rd in the AL with an impressive six stolen bases. His defense remains one of his weaker points and he made some blooper reels a couple weeks back when he lost a pair of balls in the sun during the same inning. But the Indians are off to a nice start (10-9), due in no small part to the spark Davis has provided to the club’s offensive attack.
Eugenio Suarez
Eugenio Suarez
Wasn’t this guy supposed to be some slap-hitting utility guy? Guess not. Through 21 games, the former Tigers part-timer and now Cincinnati Red has five HRs and 15 RBIs. Not too shabby for a guy that was dealt straight-up for a man named Big Pasta.
The Tigers obviously felt they had their SS of the future in Iglesias and their 3B of the future in Nick Castellanos, thus leaving no room for Eugenio. Both of those things might very well be true, but the quiet rise of Suarez in Cincinnati makes you wish maybe they made some room for him, too.
