DETROIT -- At the end of this season, will fans look back on this weekend as the moment when it became clear that the Detroit Tigers were in for yet another long, dismal year?
Or was Sunday’s ugly loss a rock-bottom moment after which things surely couldn’t get any worse?
“You study for the test beforehand and then you go take the test, and the tests haven’t been going very well,” said Tigers first-year manager A.J. Hinch.
The Tigers (7-15) are off to their worst start since 2003, when they had the most losses in American League history. But more worrisome than the losses is the way in which the Tigers are losing.
In three losses to the Kansas City Royals this weekend, the Tigers struck out 38 times and drew just four walks in 96 plate appearances. Those numbers sound alarming, but the 40 percent strikeout rate isn’t dramatically out of step with their offensive trajectory this season.
They’ve struck out nearly 30 percent of the time on the season as whole (221 Ks in 760 plate appearances).
Individual players like Grayson Greiner, Niko Goodrum and JaCoby Jones are at or near a 40-percent K rate. Akil Baddoo has struck out nearly 60 percent of the time over the last two weeks. Virtually everyone else on the team is clustered at between a 25-30 percent K rate.
In other words, this weekend’s atrociousness is part of a trend more so than anything that emerged out of the blue. (Speaking of trends, the Tigers also led the league in strikeout rate in 2019 and 2020).
Strikeouts are surging around baseball, which is one reason the league is racing to find solutions to get more balls in play. They’re even considering moving the pitching rubber back one foot.
Until then, what can the Tigers do? Plate discipline is one of the baseball skills that is tough to learn and teach. With a few exceptions, you either have it, or you don’t.
But Hinch said the Tigers must continue working to cut down on their “chase” percentage -- the amount of time they swing at pitches outside of the zone -- which is considered a hallmark of good (or bad) plate discipline.
“These guys are prepared and competing,” he said. “Their intent is good. Their give-a-(expletive) is good. They’re up there trying to make an adjustment. Nobody wants to go up there and swing and miss all the time. You see the frustration after a swing and miss. That’s a reflection of the effort they’ve put in and the expectation that they have.
“The frustrating part is that we’ve been better than this. And we’re going to be better than this. But riding this out is very difficult when you’re getting punched in the face every day and taking a loss and not scoring runs. And everybody’s answering questions that comes with these (media interviews) about the lack of offense. They read it, they hear it, they know it, but it’s not a competitive issue. It’s not a care issue. They’re not content just putting up zeros.”
High-strikeout teams can still score runs. And in fact most teams are happy to tolerate a certain amount of strikeouts in exchange for power and production. Over the long term, for example, the Tigers would probably like Baddoo to walk more and strikeout less. But if he maintains a .943 OPS, they probably won’t be picky about how he gets there.
The problem is the Tigers aren’t getting that production. They score fewer runs -- 3.05 per game -- than anyone else in the league. Their batting average (.205) and on-base percentage (.264) are dead last. Even their slugging percentage (.357) is third from the bottom.
In advanced metrics, the Tigers fare no better. Their weighted on-base average and weighted runs created are also dead last.
“We’re in the trenches together,” Hinch said. “We’ve all gone through it if you’ve been in this game, and it’s aggravating, it’s maddening, it’s frustrating, everything you can think of. We’re not going to accept it. I mean, it’s not something that the guys are just blowing off and coming back to the ballpark the next day. We’re trying to find solutions.
“The harder you try and the more you do and not get the results, it continues to weigh on guys....Right now I see a team that’s pressing quite a bit to do anything they can, and the harder we try the less effective we’ve been.”
The good news, if you want to call it that? This is baseball, which means there’s another opportunity today.
The Tigers finish their four-game series against the Royals on Monday at 1:10 p.m. Afterwards, they’ll embark on a challenging three-city road trip to play the White Sox, Yankees and Red Sox.
Things won’t get any easier.
“The hard part is not carrying all this into into the next day,” Hinch said. “Not putting up anything offensively is frustrating everybody. Ultimately we’ve got to get back to the ballpark and go out on a positive note and end this series with a win.”
In the meantime, don’t expect to see Hinch call anyone out or make any dramatic public gestures. The way out of this, he said, is more work.
“You guys aren’t going to ever see me embarrass anybody or do that,” he said. “It’s not a problem with the makeup of this club or how we care and what we’re doing. It’s the execution part of it. We’re addressing things and the players are putting in the effort and now we need the production to take over in the game. It’s not fun for anybody. It’s not fun for the fans. Most importantly, it’s not fun for the players. They’re scuffling right now and it’s a grind for sure.”
"difficult" - Google News
April 26, 2021 at 05:46PM
https://ift.tt/32Rx5VU
Tigers’ atrocious offense keeps getting worse: ‘It’s difficult getting punched in the face every day’ - MLive.com
"difficult" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2VWzYBO
https://ift.tt/3d5eskc
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Tigers’ atrocious offense keeps getting worse: ‘It’s difficult getting punched in the face every day’ - MLive.com"
Post a Comment