Detroit Tigers Newsletter: Applying Sparky Anderson's 40-game test in 2022
Ryan FordThe Detroit Tigers’ 4-2 victory Sunday over the … Guardians … (sorry, still getting used to typing that out) was notable for a few reasons.
First of all, no Tigers were harmed in the making of it — a claim that has been all too rare this season. Just last week, Will Vest tested positive for COVID-19, Andrew Chafin was bitten by a possum and Austin Meadows went on the IL with vertigo. (OK, one of those is fictional. But can you guess which one?)
Second, the Tigers scored four runs — also a rare claim, as it was just the 10th time they’ve gotten past three this season. That, by the way, is an epic low total. Only one big-league team over the past 50 seasons — dating to the start of the 1973 season and the adoption of the DH in the American League — had fewer games with at least four runs in its first 40: The 2013 Miami Marlins, with nine. (That Marlins squad went 62-100, so perhaps the less said about them, the better.)
And, yes, as noted, Sunday was the 40th game of the season, as close as we’re getting to the quarter-mark in a 162-game season. By the sacred laws of Detroit sportswriting, that lets us remind you of that oft-quoted saying — shoot, the Freep’s Jeff Seidel broke it out 10 days ago — from Tigers manager Sparky Anderson, “You can't tell anything about a baseball team until 40 games have been played."
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Of course, that bit of sageness from the Sparkster played a lot better when his 1984 team was starting out 35-5, rather than, say, the 16-24 start five years later, forecasting a plummet to 59-103 and the start of nearly 20 years of cellar-dwelling dismalness. Now, Sparky knew something about not hitting — he posted a .218/.282/.249 slash line for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959, his lone year in the majors. And he wasn’t wrong about the 40-game mark being a good spot to compare where a team stands to where it expected to stand going into the season.
In so, so, so many ways, this Tigers squad at 40 games hasn’t lived up to its Opening Day potential. Then again, some things we were hoping for then are indeed coming true this week, such as …
E. Rodriguez will be on the field Monday at the same time as the AL Central leaders: OK, OK, the E.Rodriguez in question is Elvin Rodriguez, not Eduardo Rodriguez (who, yes, is finally on the injured list), but it’s hardly the baseball gods’ fault that we weren’t more specific in April, now is it? Likewise, he’ll be facing the Central leaders (the Minnesota Twins, 10½ games up on the Tigers at 25-16), rather than playing with them, but, honestly, we’re just kinda glad the White Sox aren’t involved.
A fast-rising 2019 draft pick will be making his sixth start for the Tigers: Yeah, we were hoping it’d be outfielder Riley Greene making a speedy recovery from a fractured foot. But right-hander Beau Brieske, selected 797 picks after Greene in June 2019, isn’t a bad consolation prize. He was beat up a bit in his most recent start but allowed three runs or fewer in his first four. And, as we noted earlier, the difference between three and four runs for these Tigers appears to be the difference between a win and a loss. He’ll be testing that again Tuesday in Minneapolis.
A 2018 draft pick is looking like a Cy Young candidate: Our money in April was on it being No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize, but while he’s rehabbing in Lakeland, Ol’ No. 255 Overall, Tarik Skubal, has been cranking it up. Even a 100 mph comebacker off his shin on Friday couldn’t snap his scoreless innings streak, now at 19. As the Freep’s Evan Petzold (SPJ Detroit’s Young Journalist of the Year, so congrats!) points out here, Skubal ranks second among all MLB pitchers in WAR (by Fangraphs’ calculations) this season. Come to think of it, Sparky had a quote that sure sounds like Skubal: "If I ever find a pitcher who has heat, a good curve, and a slider, I might seriously consider marrying him, or at least proposing."
And as for the next 40 games? Well, Sparky didn’t have any sayings about 80 games —at least, we don’t think he did — but he did have this: “The great thing about baseball is when you're done, you'll only tell your grandchildren the good things. If they ask me about 1989, I'll tell them I had amnesia.”
We’ll know if A.J. Hinch is making the same plans by early July.
Kings of swing
And then there's the complete opposite of this year's squad: The 1991-93 Tigers, managed by Anderson, led the majors in homers, strikeouts, walks and, most importantly, runs. (Remember those?) The Freep's Rainer Sabin caught up with some key members of that squad this week; find out here why the crew led by Cecil Fielder would have been a perfect fit in the modern era of baseball.
M*A*S*H* unit
But seriously, the injuries – to pitchers and position players alike – are getting a little out of hand. It was enough to remind Our Man Seidel of a Stephen King novel (but not the one featuring Tom Gordon). And that was before Tarik Skubal took the shot off his shin. But don’t worry, Seidel has a solution for keeping at least one Tiger healthy. Check it out here.
By George!
Even Hinch missed a game, sitting out Friday’s game in Cleveland with a non-COVID illness. That left bench coach George Lombard — who interviewed for the big chair back in 2020 — running the game. Our Man Petzold has the story on how he kept the team focused on winning (they didn’t, but that’s hardly new) after a hard week.
A Cat-astrophic start
Even the Tigers who’ve stayed healthy (well, mostly healthy) have been struggling, such as Javier Báez, whose homer in the eighth inning Sunday was his first since April 26, as well as his first RBI since April 30. But Báez isn’t worried, or at least he wasn’t last week when he chatted with Our Man Petzold. Find out why here.
Tork’s tuneup
One negative from Sunday’s win: Spencer Torkelson’s three-game hit streak was snapped by an 0-for-4 against the … Guardians. Even with the oh-fer, Tork is 4-for-12 since sitting out Monday’s game in Tampa Bay, with two doubles and a homer. Check out why he says the improvement is “literally the closest fix, like an easy fix.”
3 to watch
It’s not all doom and gloom and Sparky quotes this week …
HAROLD CASTRO: “Hittin’ Harold” broke out the power last week – and a rare homer celebration.
ALEX FAEDO:The rookie received high praise from Hinch for Sunday’s start – “He’s always under control.”
MATT MANNING:He won’t be back for the series against the Twins. But maybe against the … Guardians?
Happy birthday, 'Howdy Doody!'
Slugger Darrell Evans turns 75 on Thursday. The native Californian spent five seasons (1984-88) of his 21-year career as a Tiger, but hit 141 homers wearing the Old English D, 21st on the franchise’s all-time list. (One more than Brandon Inge, and one less than Chet Lemon.) Despite his short stay in Detroit, Evans still considers himself a Tiger.
Other Tigers birthdays this week: Jordan Zimmermann (36 on Monday), Brad Penny (44 on Tuesday), Jhonny Peralta (40 on Saturday), Kirk Gibson (65 on Saturday), Zack Short (27 on Sunday).
Mark your calendar
Sunday’s victory in Cleveland kicked off a run of 16 games in 15 days for the Tigers, including a seven-game slate this week: Three games against the Minnesota Twins from Monday-Wednesday in Minneapolis, followed by four games against the hey-didn’t-we-just-play-these-guys? Guardians on Thursday-Sunday back home in Detroit. (That’s followed by a five-game series against the Twins crammed into four days, for even more déjà vu-viewing.) But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; first up, it’s the Twins and right-hander Chris Archer tonight. See which Tigers could be in for big nights against the former Tampa Bay Rays standout.
TL;DR
Even the 2003 Tigers
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.