Comments on: Tigers hopeful Max Scherzer will start Wednesday’s season finale http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/29/tigers-hopeful-max-scherzer-will-start-wednesdays-season-finale/ Baseball. Baseball. And then a bit more baseball. Sat, 25 May 2013 20:03:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: craggt http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/29/tigers-hopeful-max-scherzer-will-start-wednesdays-season-finale/comment-page-1/#comment-372563 Sun, 30 Sep 2012 04:03:47 +0000 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=227854#comment-372563 Detroit defense has actually been better than people think. Cabrera has been much better at third than people expected and Infante has been a huge upgrade over Ryan Raburn. The worst part of the defense this season has actually been the corner outfield positions with Brennen Boesch and Delmon Young (although he’s mostly been the DH for a reason). Now than Andy Dirks is back Boesch is playing less than ever, which is a good thing. As of September 18th the Tigers infield UZR was -2.2 while their outfield UZR even with an outstanding Austin Jackson is a horrible -27. Source here: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/a-somewhat-surprising-thing-about-the-somewhat-unsurprising-tigers/

The bullpen also got a big boost recently with the return of Al Alburquerque who’s picked up right where he left off last season with his crazy strikeout rate. Dotel and Benoit are solid veteran relievers, although Valverde is significantly worse than he has been in the past. The best thing that the Tigers bullpen has going for it is the starting staff. The starting staff eats a ton of innings which means that the bullpen is normally pretty well rested, if this can continue in the playoffs (assuming the Tigers hold on) the bullpen shouldn’t be a big issues, especially with days off between games limiting the use of inferior relievers.

]]> By: preseasonchamps08 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/29/tigers-hopeful-max-scherzer-will-start-wednesdays-season-finale/comment-page-1/#comment-372559 Sun, 30 Sep 2012 03:31:58 +0000 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=227854#comment-372559 A healthy Scherzer definitely makes the Tig’s rotation a force in the playoffs. Add in Cabrera and Fielder and the offense should be decent.
They need average defense and bullpen work to make a run. Unfortunately, both of those are longshots.

]]> By: craggt http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/29/tigers-hopeful-max-scherzer-will-start-wednesdays-season-finale/comment-page-1/#comment-372516 Sat, 29 Sep 2012 23:08:08 +0000 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=227854#comment-372516 Verlander is being Verlander. Sanchez threw a 3 hit shutout in his last start. Fister had 9 consecutive Ks in his last start and had his first career shutout the start before that. If Scherzer can come back healthy the Tigers rotation could be scary in October.

]]>