DETROIT -- I sent out a tweet on Saturday night that noted that the Detroit Tigers were not only in position to make the playoffs, they would actually host a home game in the first round if the season ended at that point.
It received more than 1,000 likes. And counting.
Well, it’s now Monday morning and the Tigers (8-5) would still qualify for the playoffs if the season ended today, and they’d still host a first-round game.
People are starting to get excited, and understandably so. The Detroit sports landscape has been barren for months. Attention hasn’t yet switched over to football, and there might not even be a college football season in 2020.
So there’s no reason to throw cold water on early enthusiasm. But it’s worth noting that the 2019 Tigers had the same record (8-5) through 13 games of the season and ended up being one of the worst teams in modern baseball history (47-114).
The Tigers have played seven games against some fairly bad teams (the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates) and six games against a good team (Cincinnati Reds) that hasn’t yet been able to get on track.
This week’s home series against Chicago White Sox will be a good test against a divisional opponent that the Tigers will face 10 times in the shortened season.
“We’re fixing to run into a really good baseball team. You start judging where you’re at when you face a team like the (White Sox),” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said.
For the moment, however, the Tigers are in a good place. Fourth place in the American League, to be exact. And they got there by doing what playoff teams should do: Feasting on lesser opponents.
Here are four takeaways from their weekend sweep in Pittsburgh.
1. Barreling the baseball.
The Tigers make contact less often than any other team in baseball, with a strikeout rate of 29.9 percent.
But when they do make contact, they’ve been getting their money’s worth.
The Tigers have a hard-hit rate of 46 percent, by far the best in baseball. The next-closest team, the New York Yankees, are at 40.8 percent.
That’s an incredible feat for a club that was almost totally bereft of power in 2019.
The metrics are pretty consistent: When only contact is considered, the Tigers are among the highest-rated teams in baseball. When the Tigers’ lack of walks and extreme strikeout rate is factored into the equation, the offense falls back into the middle of the pack.
In any case, for a club that struck out too much and lacked power in 2019, the early data represent a step in the right direction.
2. ...And now Miguel
Miguel Cabrera drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning on Sunday. It wasn’t a home run, but it was a good piece of hitting.
With a runner on second base (aided by a wild pitch that went about 25 feet behind Cabrera’s head), Cabrera worked the count to 3-2 and blasted a single past the shortstop on the left side of the infield.
“Every game is huge, every hit is huge,” said Tigers catcher Austin Romine. “You go back to that inning with Miggy having a professional at-bat. He comes through with a knock. If we’re going places, it’s on his back.”
Cabrera, too, is striking out more than usual (26 percent of plate appearances) but he’s also hitting with power.
In 2016, the last time he showed consistent Miggy-like power at the plate, he finished with 38 home runs -- or about one dinger every 18 PAs. This year, he has four homers -- one every 13.5 PAs.
Yes, some of the long balls might be considered first-row cheapies rather than monster blasts, but check out Cabrera’s Statcast data: He’s among the top four percent of all MLB hitters in exit velocity and hard-hit percentage.
It’s too soon to declare that Miggy’s glory days are here again. Three years of decline don’t normally abruptly reverse in the blink of an eye. But it’s encouraging and, like many of the positive signs this year, worth following.
“He means everything to us,” said Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire. “When Miggy’s in those big situations, I’d rather have him up there over anybody on our team, because most of the time he’s going to stay inside the ball or shoot it up the middle. Or if they hang something, he’s going to pull the crap out of it. I love it when he’s up there in that situation. He did exactly what I was hoping he would do (Sunday) and what I thought he would do.”
3. Mr. Professional.
Austin Romine hasn’t received the same attention as the Tigers’ other two free-agent acquisitions -- C.J. Cron and Jonathan Schoop -- but he’s been just as valuable.
In addition to being a steady presence behind the plate, he’s also hitting.
Remember, the Tigers expectations were exceedingly low in this regard. After Tigers’ catchers combined to hit .176 with a .525 OPS and a whopping 203 strikeouts in 2019, they needed an upgrade.
Romine, coming off the best offensive season of his career with the Yankees in 2019, has continued his progress, going 10-for-32 through the early part of the season. And yes, if you consult his Statcast data you’ll see a familiar story: A ton of strikeouts and almost no walks. But when he makes contact, it’s hard contact.
Romine sums up his philosophy like this: “I’m trying to hit what I can hit and not trying to hit what I can’t.”
4. A much-needed bounce-back for Joe.
Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer was watching the game from the stands on Friday night in Pittsburgh and had been enjoying a running conversation with the MLB replay official seated nearby.
The official started to pack up his stuff with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning after Tigers closer Joe Jimenez had struck out the first two batters.
“Don’t do that,” Fulmer warned.
It was evidently too late to avoid the jinx, as Jimenez proceeded to give up two singles and a home run, sending the game to extra innings. (The Tigers eventually won in 11).
After that, Fulmer said, “I made sure he stayed in his seat.”
Jimenez needed a bounce-back appearance after Friday night, and he got it on Sunday in a one-run ballgame. He pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out the last two batters he faced.
“The ball was coming out of his hand good. He located, threw some nasty sliders to the righties. That was the pitch that he didn’t really find the other day, but it was filthy (Sunday),” Gardenhire said. “He’ll be OK. It’s early and he’s trying to get grounded here.”
Gardenhire doesn’t like making rash changes, but the emergence of Gregory Soto gives him another option should Jimenez falter.
But Soto might actually be more useful -- and end up pitching in more high-leverage situations -- by bouncing around the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. The Tigers effectively matched him up against the heart of the Pirates’ order on Saturday and they could do the same against teams that have a series of tough lefties.
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Don’t look now, but Miggy is hitting like it’s 2016: Takeaways from Tigers’ weekend sweep - MLive.com
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