Keep Schoop Alive

 

How the hell does a team fumble the bag like this? 

You get one of the top free agents in the market playing shortstop for you, an underrated starter on a deal, you've got great players and former all-stars and lots of depth, and so many young pitchers ready to help you compete. Then, you start the season and all those young pitchers get hurt, the star shortstop can't hit over .220, the all-stars either fail to show up or get hurt, the depth players become your starters, and the free-agent pitcher leaves and doesn't tell you why or when he'll be back.

Tigers baseball, folks. Never a dull moment.

And look, I can see why people are a little betrayed. Jonathan Schoop, Robbie Grossman and Jeimer Candelario were all great last year. Now none of them are hitting, Grossman's defense is beginning to deteriorate, and the whole team is being led by backup catcher Eric Haase in his second consecutive hot July. Meanwhile, Tarik Skubal's slowed down, Beau Briske and Michael Pineda are only doing so much, and we're at the point where enough trusted people aren't around and the only option is to start people like Elvin Rodriguez and Drew Hutchison. Anyone who's gotten hot around this time is essentially asking for a trade this month. This means that Andrew Chafin, Michael Fulmer and Michael Pineda might not even be here in a few weeks, which, while it doesn't mean much for the long term of this team, will hinder the bullpen and what remains of the rotation.

In terms of the lineup, the players that are still there just need to be content with the one-dimensional stuff they're laying out. There's a lot of people there with averages around .200, even some people once thought to lead the team like Candelario and Torkelson. And the thing is, there's other teams out there with lots of one-dimensional hitters, like the Marlins and Rangers, but at least they're getting actual numbers out of their power hitters. Jonathan Schoop used to be a 25-homer guy, now he only has 6. Miguel Cabrera hit his 500th homer last year, he only has 3 so far. Javier Baez is leading this team in homers with 9, and he was never really relied upon as the main power source in Chicago. I'd appreciate a little more production from this lineup, so that not everything is left to Miguel Cabrera, who I'm convinced spat in Bill James's canteen, cause how else is he only registering like a 0.1 WAR while hitting .290 with 34 RBIs.

The Tigers clearly aren't going to be much for the rest of the season, but I'd at least prefer some brainless offensive production, and some people to step up and rage against the underwhelming baseball.

Coming Tomorrow- A guy who came up after only a year or so in the minors, and has finally blossomed into the player he'd be had he progressed naturally.