Tigers Series Review: vs. Royals (7/27-7/30)

Because 2020 wasn't weird enough, JaCoby Jones is one of the best players in all of baseball through one week of play [AP]

Well, baseball is still being played (for now). There are a bunch of teams dealing with themselves or opponents testing positive for COVID, but that's only led to a bunch of game postponements in a season where they're already trying to play as many baseball games as they can in a very short amount of time. It seems as though even though HALF OF AN ENTIRE TEAM is affected, this is still happening.

The Tigers have still played all of their games so far (we'll see if they play against the Cardinals next week). This week, they split a series 2-2 with the Royals. The Royals seemed to really have the Tigers number in several games. Kansas City's two wins especially, they were hitting seemingly every gap they could find (they had 13 hits in both of those games).

The Tigers did manage to steal a couple games on their continuing home run hot streak. I'm not sure how long that can last, but it's a very welcome sight for now.

MV-JaCoby: The biggest surprise of the year is easily JaCoby Jones' hitting prowess. He's the ninth batter in the order, but he's easily been the best hitter through seven games. Jones has been a career .216 hitter which is very, very bad. Yet somehow he's here with a .409 batting average, .458 on-base percentage and three home runs. Against the Royals, he went 6-for-12 with 2 home runs and a walk. He's continued to be a plus on defense, and if he keeps up this hot streak on offense, he's a huge threat.

C.J. Cron Crashes: Over the weekend I sang the praises of Tigers first baseman C.J. Cron, who at the time looked like he might be Detroit's bat. He's going to want to forget about this Royals series after going 0-for-12 with 8 strikeouts. Cron is currently tied for second in the league in striking out the most times. His batting average has sunk to .174 on the year, but thanks to some walks he's still got one of the better OBP's on the team. Hopefully his offense can warm up a little more against the Reds again this weekend.

A Triple Schoop Of Homers: Jonathan Schoop only had three hits against Kansas City, but all three of them were home runs. He had one each for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday's games, batting in 6 runs. Obviously I'd like to see something a little less all-or-nothing from him, but it's hard to complain much about a guy who came up big like that in back-to-back-to-back games.

Speaking of Only Hitting Home Runs: I'm convinced that Miguel Cabrera will have 30 hits in the entire season, and 25 of those will be home runs. His only hit against Cincinnati was a homer, and two of Miggy's three in this series were homers (both on Thursday night, his first two-home run game since 2016). After a really rough Reds series, Miggy's making more contact in general. He only struck out twice this go-around.

Missing Bats: Cameron Maybin took the Royals series as a chance to get his batting average to a respectable .278 after a shaky start, but a lot more players are still struggling to do much offense.

Jeimer Candelario needs to get it together quickly. He has yet to get a single hit, and his OBP is a dreadful .105. Grayson Greiner plays a lot less as the backup catcher, but he also hasn't reached base on a hit. Regular leadoff man Niko Goodrum is batting a paltry .217. Christin Stewart finally got his first hits of the season against Kansas City including the go-ahead home run on Tuesday's game, but he's still largely struggling.

Of the Tigers that have appeared regularly in the lineup, only Jones, Cron and Victor Reyes have an OBP above .300. This offense is hitting home runs at clutch times, but there's no real consistency. The Tigers lead the league in home runs, but they're second in the league in striking out, are 26th in batting average and 25th in OBP. I mentioned Schoop's offense being all-or-nothing, but really that's the entire team right now aside from JaCoby Jones.

Starters Struggling: The Tigers starting pitchers still have yet to record a quality start. Ivan Nova came close on Thursday, but got pulled after 5.2 innings because he put a few guys on base. While he only had two runs earned against him, the Royals bats were still feasting on a lot of his pitchers, getting 8 hits off of him. He certainly looked better here than he did against the Reds, but a lot of those hits were for extra bases. Nova's a pitch-to-contact hitter. It comes with the territory. But you obviously want to see that contact ending in a lot more gloves than grass. 

I'm starting to worry about Matthew Boyd. The first pitcher in Detroit's rotation had another rough outing on Wednesday. He had a bit more control this time around, striking out 6 batters, but he began his appearance looking very shaky and wild. He had 4 runs earned against him off 9 hits. He didn't walk anybody or give up any home runs, and it was nice to see him rein it in a bit in the later innings, but he still doesn't look quite like himself yet.

Michael Fulmer made his first appearance since Tommy John surgery on Monday's game, and he got beat up early. He only made it through 2.2 innings, giving up 5 hits, 4 runs (3 of them home runs), and a walk with 3 strikeouts thrown in there. Since he's returning from surgery and had to deal with a shortened training campaign, I'm not necessarily surprised. He's got a lot of rust he needs to take care of. I can't see him returning to 2016-17 form, and if he wants to even just be a reliable starter in the back of the rotation it will probably take a bit of work.

Tuesday's game was a bullpen game. Rony Garcia pitched fine enough in his debut: 3 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), 3 strikeouts, no walks in three innings. Those three runs were the only ones the Royals would get, and the rest of the bullpen was able to take care of things pretty easily. Garcia didn't look like a world-beater, but he didn't need to be. It was a solid MLB debut.

Bullpen Review: I'll keep things short and sweet. Jose Cisnero, Buck Farmer, Gregory Soto and Joe Jimenez are all looking good-to-stellar. Cisnero has given up two runs in his four innings pitched, but I've thought his stuff looked mostly good. Soto and Farmer both have yet to give up a run. Jimenez leads the league in saves. John Schreiber is another reliever that hasn't given up a run, but I need to see a bit more of him.

After that, things are looking iffier. The Tigers are relying on a lot of young relievers that are facing major league hitters for the first time. Kyle Funkhouser, Beau Burrows and Anthony Castro are all going to need a bit of seasoning. The three of them made their MLB debuts on Monday, and the Royals were relentless against them. Detroit just picked up Carson Fulmer off of waivers. He made his first appearance as a Tiger on Monday and was scoreless, but struggled in his outing on Thursday, allowing Kansas City's last two runs that would be enough to seal the game for the Royals.

A lot of these guys have obviously only pitched 2-4 innings apiece over the course of 7 games. We're obviously going to have to see a bit more from each of them before we can make any real judgments. Since the Tigers starting pitchers haven't been going very deep into games, we'll probably get those opportunities soon.

Overall, the Tigers are just about as frustrating to watch as I expected, but they're stealing enough games to make things interesting. With the exception of the Opening Day game against the Reds and the home opener against the Royals, things have at least been relatively close. The team has plenty of offensive struggles, but they're making it up with a lot of home runs that makes the team fun to watch when they are making contact with balls. From this small sample size, I don't think the Tigers will be much of a threat even in an expanded playoff this season. However, the team definitely feels like it will be able to steal some games they probably shouldn't win, and with younger players hopefully being called up soon, I'm definitely interested in seeing where things go.

Tigers Series Review: At Cincinnati Reds (7/24-26)

Through three games, C.J. Cron has been... on. [Reinhold Matay/USA Today]

Going into the baseball season, I was briefly thinking about doing a blog about every single game out of 60 that I caught live. I still might do individual game recaps if games are eventful enough or the Tigers stay competitive (big asks), but I thought that after Detroit got killed in the first game of the year that series summaries might be a better bet. So here we are!

And now it might be the only series review I do all season, since a third of the Miami Marlins roster has tested positive for COVID-19. That puts the entire season for all teams at risk. If the season is actually called, the Tigers end the year with a winning record in a first-place tie for the American League. Truly a season to remember.

Let's get down to it.

MV-C.J.: The big story for the Tigers so far is the impact of first baseman C.J. Cron. Cron was signed to a one-year, $6.1 million deal last offseason. Early returns on that investment are looking mighty positive. Cron's home run in the first game of the season was just about the only positive thing about that game. He followed that up nicely in the next two games, going 3-for-8 with 3 RBIs and another home run. Cron has easily been the most consistent Tigers bat for the first few games. He's backed that up with good fielding, making quite a few heads-up plays and snagging several line-drives at first. He especially seemed to have Joey Votto's number this series. Let's hope he keeps it up.

The Schoop Of All This Rebuilding: The Tigers' other one-year, $6.1 million signing, second baseman Jonathan Schoop, has also paid off nicely. While his Sunday effort wasn't as good (0-for-4 with 3 strikeouts), Schoop looked solid the other two nights. He went 3-for-5 on Saturday night and was one of the only three players to get a hit in the season opener. 

Strikeouts, Strikeouts, Strikeouts: Detroit struck out 46 times over the course of three games. I don't think I need to say much more other than "that's very, very not good." They found a way to win two of three games (the one loss was the game they struck out the least), but even considering Cincinnati's top-tier pitching, you'd hope the lineup looked less silly out there. Speaking of looking silly...

More Like Miguel Cab-where-a, as in, where the heck is this guy's bat, am I right?: Expecting too much out of a 37-year-old pure-DH with an injury history like Miguel Cabrera is probably foolish, but reports going into the season focused on how slim and healthy Miggy was looking. The future Hall of Famer was largely a non-issue in this opening series. Cabrera did hit a clutch home run in Saturday's game, but that didn't prevent him from earning the Golden Sombrero for striking out in his other four at bats. That homer does prove that Miggy can still be a threat, but I was really hoping to see him on base a couple more times in this series.

Jonesing for JaCoby: If C.J. Cron didn't look so stellar in these first few games, JaCoby Jones would be the team's MVP so far. He hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the ninth inning on Saturday, and he's made some really nifty catches in center field. 

Pitching: Ask Again Later: Matthew Boyd had a wild start to his season. He hit two of the first four batters he faced, and walked another. Batters earned four runs against him including a home run, and he only recorded two strikeouts. He seemed to lack control on a lot of his pitches. I hope it was just jitters for his first Opening Day start, because he did not look like the guy he was last season.

Ivan Nova made his Tigers debut and also had a shaky start through five innings. He's a pitch-to-contact guy so his two-strikeouts aren't as alarming as Boyd's, but two of the three batters who got hits off of Nova hit home runs. Nova also walked four batters. Absolutely not what you want to see.

Spencer Turnbull, after posting a 3-17 record (pitcher wins are a terrible stat, but still) and 4.61 ERA last season, easily had the best outing of any Tigers starter. He only allowed three hits and one run while doling out 8 strikeouts. He still walked batters four times, but Turnbull looked like he had a lot more confidence out there than the other two starters. After such a shaky 2019, could Spencer... Turnbull it around this year? We'd love to see it, folks.

In the bullpen, setup man Buck Farmer has looked nice in his two innings of work. Closer Joe Jiminez has two saves, but he came close to a disastrous outing on Sunday after giving up two hits, a run and beaning a batter in the ninth. Gregory Soto has looked like the team's best reliever in 2.2 innings, only putting one batter on base (via hit by pitch) while striking out five. He's one of many Tigers that would like to put last year behind him, and he's off to a very nice start. 

Ask Again Later: Like most Tigers batters, I'd like to see more out of leadoff man Niko Goodrum. He's gotten on base more than some of the guys in the lineup but hasn't really flashed much. Goodrum has looked really solid at shortstop so far, though.

Christin Stewart has been completely invisible. He's been walked twice, but otherwise has gone 0-for-7 with 6 strikeouts in three starts. Cameron Maybin in his two starts has gone 0-for-6 with 3 strikeouts. Jeimer Candelario went 0-for-7 with 3 strikeouts in his two starts.

Getting any sort of read after only three games is a fool's errand, and it seems especially so with this Tigers squad. Detroit has had mediocre-at-best pitching from its starters, and a good chunk of the lineup has flat-out stunk.

And yet, despite playing a Reds team with lethal pitching that looked really good going into the season, the Tigers leave the weekend with two wins by some divine providence. That's probably more proof that anything can happen in baseball than the team actually being any good, but wins are still wins.

To keep those wins going, the Tigers are probably going to have to score runs with better at bats. Detroit's two wins are largely the result of clutch home runs than anything else. Only the White Sox and Twins hit more dingers over the weekend. Meanwhile, the Tigers have struck out more than anyone else and are posting the third-worst OBP in the league through three games. Unfortunately, their rate of striking out is probably more sustainable for them than home runs. I could always be wrong about that, of course. Even in a shortened season, three games is extremely difficult to gauge anything about a team. If anything, I'm interested in seeing how Detroit responds to having its first winning record in quite some time, if it even has an opportunity to respond.

Lions Roster Prediction: 7/21/20 Edition

this is not a good example of social distancing [Daniel Mears/Detroit News]

Well, howdy there. It's been a couple months. A whole lot of stuff has happened since I last posted here, in the halcyon days of The Bachelor Presents: Listen To Your Heart. I've had some personal stuff happening, and so I've been focusing on getting those things in order, largely.

But I've got the bug to write again, and sports are coming back. Golf and NASCAR have been back for months. The Tigers play an exhibition game tonight, and then baseball as a whole starts up later this week. Basketball comes back next week in bubble form, and I believe the NHL starts the week after that. So let's talk about some sports!

I did a roster review of the Lions right after the draft where I tried to predict who was going to make the team. Not much about the roster has changed, but the approach of the NFL going into the season sure has. It's looking like there might not even be preseason games played. There were talks about potentially only having 80-man rosters for camp instead of the normal 90.

Those potential actions work in the context of limiting the spread of COVID, which is still very much a threat to the season, but they probably suck for a lot of players. This was already a difficult offseason for journeyman-type players, late-round draft picks and UDFAs, as they largely haven't been able to work out for teams. They're already at a disadvantage trying to compete against established players, and this whole situation hasn't helped anything.

So, I think with that in mind, teams will be even more likely to go with bubble players who already have experience in the system. Let's look at the roster. Just like last time, locks are bolded, bubble players are italicized, and longshots are in normal text.

Quarterback

1. Matthew Stafford

2. Chase Daniel

3. David Blough

This hasn't changed since last time. Stafford is your franchise quarterback. Chase Daniel is a backup that got signed for too much money to be cut. The thing that changes is that I could see Blough's roster chances improving as a guy who's been in Darrell Bevell's system for a year already. Daniel's still the backup and shouldn't have much issue learning the offense considering he's been around the block a few times. But another quarterback in the film room and putting in reps on the second/third teams to help the newcomers transition into the offense is a valuable asset.

Running Back

1. D'Andre Swift

2. Kerryon Johnson

3. Jason Huntley

4. Bo Scarbrough

5. Ty Johnson

6. Nick Bawden

7. Luke Sellers

8. Wes Hills

I think Scarbrough and Johnson have a bit more of an edge to make the team with their experience, as Huntley wasn't able to get acquainted with the offense in rookie camp or OTAs. I still think he's a relative lock and the team wouldn't have drafted him if they didn't really like what he brings to the table. I do think Sellers is going to have a lot more ground to cover if he wants to become a bubble player now. Bawden's been hurt two seasons in a row, but he's got experience and proven special teams value.

Wide Receiver

1. Kenny Golladay

2. Marvin Jones

3. Danny Amendola

4. Quintez Cephus

5. Marvin Hall

6. Chris Lacy

7. Jamal Agnew

8. Geronimo Allison

9. Travis Fulgham

10. Tom Kennedy

11. Geremy Davis

12. Victor Boldin

I no longer have Cephus as a lock, though I still think he'll probably be WR4 going into the season. They might want to go with somebody like Hall or Allison who have more experience and stash Cephus on the practice squad while he builds rapport with the QBs and learns behind the vets. Agnew throws a bit of a wrench in things. He's got an upward climb proving himself in the receivers room after transitioning from cornerback this offseason, but he's a former Pro Bowl returner. That special teams value might be all he needs to keep his spot on the team.

Tight End

1. T.J. Hockenson

2. Jesse James

3. Isaac Nauta

4. Hunter Bryant

5. Matt Sokol

Nothing has changed here. This group falls off a cliff after Hock, but they pay way too much money to James to cut him. Nauta and Bryant will fight for TE3/HB roles. Sokol is a longshot.

Offensive Line

1. Frank Ragnow

2. Taylor Decker

3. Halapoulivati Vaitai

4. Joe Dahl

5. Kenny Wiggins

6. Jonah Jackson

7. Logan Stenberg

8. Tyrell Crosby

9. Oday Aboushi

10. Beau Benzschawel

11. Dan Skipper

12. Josh Garnett

13. Matt Nelson

14. Caleb Benenoch

15. Russell Bodine

The locks and bubble players haven't really changed here, but the potential depth chart has. In a normal offseason, I'd probably pencil Jonah Jackson in at one of the starting guard spots. I don't think that's necessarily the case anymore. You shouldn't count him out, but for the time being I think Patricia and Bevell might want to go with some continuity from last year while the rookies adapt to pro ball. The offensive line reserve positions are basically an open tryout if you ask me, but I think Aboushi's experience is really valuable for his chances.

Defensive Line

1. Trey Flowers

2. Danny Shelton

3. Julian Okwara

4. Nick Williams

5. Da'Shawn Hand

6. Romeo Okwara

7. Austin Bryant

8. John Atkins

9. John Penisini

10. Jashon Cornell

11. Kevin Strong

12. Jonathan Wynn

13. Frank Herron

14. Olive Sagapolu

Rookies not being able to do rookie training camp and OTAs probably affects John Penisini's chances at starting the year on the roster more than any other player. It was already going to be a tight race between him and John Atkins for the backup nose tackle spot. Atkins struggled last season, but the coaches really seem to like him and he has experience. I think Penisini still finds himself on the main roster by the end of the season, but he starts on the practice squad now. I moved Bryant to the bubble from a lock. I still think he ends up on the team because the Lions don't want to give up on him yet, but he's probably less safe than other guys.

I thought the Lions might make more moves here, but they didn't. Not a lot of people have been making a ton of moves in the NFL anyway. So. *shrug*

Linebacker

1. Jamie Collins

2. Jahlani Tavai

3. Christian Jones

4. Jarrad Davis

5. Reggie Ragland

6. Jalen Reeves-Maybin

7. Miles Killebrew

8. Elijah Lee

9. Anthony Pittman

10. Jason Cabinda

11. Christian Sam

Last time around, I struggled to call Jarrad Davis a lock and thought he may even be a surprise cut. Even though Detroit didn't pick up his fifth-year option, I think he's probably in better standing now. With so much of this offseason being off-the-field, that's probably allowed Davis to endear himself even more to the coaching staff in any online meetings, since his attitude, knowledge and work ethic have always been praised. Not being on the field also hurts Lee and Ragland's chances. Reeves-Maybin and Killebrew (moved here from defensive backs even though for some reason he's still listed by the Lions as a safety after several years) have proven special teams value which may make it even more of an uphill climb for the free agent signings.

Defensive Backs

1. Tracy Walker

2. Jeff Okudah

3. Desmond Trufant

4. Duron Harmon

5. Will Harris

6. Amani Oruwariye

7. Justin Coleman

8. Jayron Kearse

9. C.J. Moore

10. Tony McRae

11. Mike Ford

12. Dee Virgin

13. Darryl Roberts

14. Mike Jackson

15. Jeremiah Dinson

16. Jalen Elliott

17. Bobby Price

Locks haven't changed. Okudah is the one exception as far as not penciling rookies into starting roles yet, because he's absolutely without a doubt needed there. Agnew's move to wide receiver makes things a lot more interesting for the depth spots in this position group. Most of these guys are still competing with Agnew in the sense that special teams value is going to decide these roster spots, but they also will have more opportunities to impress the coaches in position drills and in scrimmages with one less person at their position.

Special Teams

1. Matt Prater

2. Don Muhlbach

3. Arryn Siposs

4. Jack Fox

5. Steven Wirtel

Nothing's changed except that the shorter offseason has probably secured Don Muhlbach's reign as longsnapper even more. Punter battle is still open.

My Day 1 53-Man Roster Prediction

QB (3): Stafford, Daniel Blough

RB/FB (5): Swift, K. Johnson, Huntley, Scarbrough, Bawden (PS: T. Johnson)

WR (5): Golladay, Jones, Amendola, Cephus, Hall (PS: Fulgham)

TE (3): Hockenson, James, Nauta (PS: Bryant)

OL (9): Ragnow, Decker, Vaitai, Dahl, Wiggins, Jackson, Stenberg, Crosby, Aboushi (PS: Benzschawel, Nelson)

DL (8): Flowers, Shelton, J. Okwara, Hand, Williams, R. Okwara, Bryant, Atkins (PS: Penisini, Cornell)

LB (6): Collins, Tavai, Jones, Davis, Reeves-Maybin, Killebrew (PS: Pittman)

DB (11): Walker, Okudah, Trufant, Harmon, Oruwariye, Harris, Coleman, Kearse, Moore, McRae, Ford (PS: Jackson, Dinson, Elliott)

ST (3): Prater, Siposs, Muhlbach (PS: Fox)

Overall, not a whole lot has changed on my thoughts. Last time I already had Agnew as a surprise cut, and his positional move didn't help his argument here. I put Bawden on the roster assuming he stays healthy throughout camp, and I now have Nauta on the team instead of Bryant. The main shake-up was in the linebacker room, where I have Killebrew and Reeves-Maybin instead of Ragland and Lee.

Practice squad predictions stayed the same outside of flipping Nauta/Bryant and keeping an extra defensive back instead of a fullback.

Hopefully we'll get some good info now that the teams should be going to camp soon. Naturally, if the NFL and the Players Association can't come up with an agreement before camp, that makes it even more of a struggle for some of these players to impress coaches.