Should we be getting nervous?
Lynn Henning of the Detroit News writes that Miguel Cabrera, the Tigers superstar, is doing quite fine by major league standards. He has a .309 batting average, 16 homers and 81 RBIs.
But by the super standards we hold Cabrera to, he hasn't been looking so super as of late.
Tigers manager Brad Ausmus thinks his play could have something to do with his off-season surgery for what's considered a sports hernia.
“I think he’s been a little frustrated all year," Ausmus tells Henning. "Everything’s not in sync. I think surgery is the root cause of it. It can take time. I think there are side effects from all of that.”
Henning writes:
Cabrera was at half-gear for the final months of the 2013 season due to abdominal issues that after last year’s playoffs were diagnosed as a sports hernia. He had surgery in Philadelphia and was officially listed as healed and at full-throttle when the Tigers convened for spring camp in Lakeland, Florida.
But this has not been vintage Cabrera the Tigers have been serving in 2014. Compare his statistics to 2013, when, even after the hernia slowed him so noticeably in the season’s final two months, Cabrera still won the American League Most Valuable Player trophy and his third consecutive batting championship.
-- Allan Lengel
