Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record for the first 7 innings in 2008:

 

        Starters:     Bullpen:

    W-L   RS –RA     HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG    W-L-IP-   ERA     W-L-S-ERA

1:  6-12  74 -112    15-10-262/345/404    3-9- 96.2-5.96    3-3-3-5.28

2:  9-9   98 -87     21- 6-261/350/426    5-8-105.2-5.11    4-1-2-3.61

3:  8-10  89 -75     19- 2-275/326/442    8-5-109.2-4.19    0-5-4-3.83

4:  11-7  85 -74     19- 8-268/350/416    8-4-113.0-3.27    3-3-5-5.17

5:  12-6  86 -78     25- 6-297/347/476    6-4-106.1-4.23    6-2-6-3.43

6:  9-9   118-96     25- 8-299/368/483    8-6-105.0-5.49    1-3-2-4.03

7:  7-11  93- 103    26- 8-265/353/455    7-7-104.0-4.67    0-4-4-4.92

 

In the 7th inning found the Tigers start the inning with a 5-game losing streak that seemed to drain the life and energy out of the team and their fans. The season thus far can be broken into 3 distinct segments: The abysmal 24-36 start that dug a huge hole, the 28-13 run that started June 7th with a Thames’ lead comeback win against Cleveland that got the team to 52-49, and the most recent 10-15 run that was started July 25th with Dye’s 2-run 9th inning homerun off of Todd Jones.

 

The starting pitching improved as a unit from Horrible to Mediocre, the exception being Galarraga who was great. Displaying from best to worst:

 

Name

GS

IP

W

L

K

ERA

WHIP

A Galarraga

4

26 2/3

3

0

19

2.36

1.16

J Verlander

3

18   

1

2

16

5.50

1.39

N Robertson

3

18   

1

1

12

4.50

1.72

Z Miner

4

18 2/3

1

1

12

4.82

1.82

K Rogers

4

22 2/3

1

3

22

6.75

1.81

 

In the Bullpen, the emergence of Fernando Rodney as a closer was a bright spot. Bobby Seay continued to do well and Gary Glover provided 2.2 innings of perfect work. Other than those 3, it was pretty much like throwing gasoline on a fire. Displaying from best to worst:

 

Name

G

IP

W

L

S

K

ERA

WHIP

F  Rodney

7

9 2/3

0

1

4

14

1.86

0.83

B Seay

9

8   

0

0

0

9

3.38

1.13

G Glover

2

2 1/3

0

0

0

2

0.00

0.00

F Dolsi

4

5 1/3

0

0

0

3

1.69

2.06

A Lopez

5

9 2/3

0

0

0

6

5.59

1.66

F Beltran

4

5 2/3

0

0

0

3

6.35

1.59

C Fossum

6

7 2/3

0

1

0

6

8.22

1.57

K Farnsworth

7

7 1/3

0

0

0

7

7.36

1.91

J Zumaya

5

4   

0

2

0

4

9.00

2.75

T Jones

1

 2/3

0

0

0

0

0.00

9.00

 

The offense did OK. The 93 runs do not match a 1,000 runs/season pace, but scoring over 5 runs per game should be sufficient. Overall, I would give the individual hitters in the 7th inning a passing grade except our Catching tandem (Inge and Sardinha), and the extremely cold Marcus Thames. Displaying from best to worst:

 

Name

G

AB

HR

RBI

SB

BA

OBP

SLG

M Cabrera

18

71

6

17

0

.282

.362

.606

P Polanco

17

69

3

9

2

.319

.390

.565

C Granderson

18

74

4

11

2

.270

.372

.554

E Renteria

17

59

2

6

1

.322

.385

.508

C Guillen

12

48

1

3

1

.292

.393

.438

G Sheffield

17

63

5

13

1

.254

.347

.508

M Joyce

16

42

2

6

0

.262

.311

.476

M Ordonez

17

68

1

10

0

.279

.380

.368

R Santiago

7

15

0

0

0

.267

.389

.267

R Raburn

12

32

0

2

1

.281

.324

.312

B Inge

18

60

1

8

0

.200

.314

.333

M Thames

8

27

1

2

0

.111

.111

.222

D Sardinha

6

14

0

0

0

.071

.133

.071

 

 

Even if the Tigers were to go 28-8 over the remaining 36 games to get to 90 wins, both Chicago and Minnesota would have to play at or below .500 to win the division. The Wild card is even more daunting as the Tigers are 11 games back and would have to pass four teams. The last two innings should tell a lot about 2009 and what kind of direction the team will take in the off season. That is the only reason to keep watching this train wreck at this point.