Clutch Hitting and One Competent Starter

The Tigers, as usual, are...an unusual sort of middling team. Aside from Miguel Cabrera, there's not a TON of star power, and the team is only at .500, but there are some intriguing developments going  on here, especially considering that the team has lapped the White Sox, once further up than they are now.

It helps that a healthy, hitting-for-average JaCoby Jones is the standout of this team. Prior to this, either he's been injured for a bit of the season or he's hit closer to .200, so it's nice to have him hitting .300 and with 13 RBIs and 5 home runs, some of the best numbers on the team. This team also has Austin Romine FINALLY getting a starting catching job and nailing it, something he could never muster in New York.

The rest of the lineup...exists. CJ Cron just landed on the DL, and the rest of the lineup is varying  degrees of okayness, be it veterans who are hitting but can't hit for average [Miguel  Cabrera], young players who aren't holding their  own yet [Grayson Greiner and Harold Castro], and everyday  players who are just sort of doing alright right now [Niko Goodrum, Jeimer Candelario, Cameron Maybin, Jonathan Schoop and Victor Reyes]. This isn't a BAD lineup, but it's very okay right now.

As is the pitching. The rotation really only  has Spencer Turnbull doing well right now, as Boyd,  Norris and Fulmer are kind of haphazard right now. The bullpen at least has John Schreiber, Gregory Soto, Bryan  Garcia, Tyler Alexander and his strikeouts, and Joe Jimenez doing alright in the  ninth. Yet...really, a lot of this team is just nothing special, and is getting by on momentum and good days on account of a few of these guys.

It'd be nice if a few more guys catch fire, but I foresee this  team continuing to be okay for a bit.

UPDATE: Within a day of me posting this, Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Isaac Paredes get promoted to the bigs. Let's see how  this works.

Coming Tomorrow- Starter for an AL West  team that...continues to not know how to stay above .500

Tigers Update: What Do I Have Left to Say Edition

Funny story. I met a guy named Jacoby Jones once.

Not this one. He didn't do the capital C halfway through the name. He didn't play for the Tigers. I think the guy I met was Super Bowl MVP or something, I dunno.

Despite that fact, this particular JaCoby Jones is surprisingly a hot commodity for the Tigers this year, which happens when nobody else on your team is doing well. Jones is great at simply hitting for power when a team desperately needs it, but...not really at any other time.

This Tigers team is great in fleeting moments, but so many great people from this team have left that it doesn't really leave anything good? Like, who's the standout in this lineup? Nick Castellanos? Jose Iglesias? Cabrera's injured, V-Mart's over the hill, and the pitching is so aggressively okay that it's hard for anyone to stand out.

I can't really say much more about this team, because it's just not great. Even worse, it's not aggressively bad enough to make more comments about. So this is where we're stuck, I guess.

Coming Tonight: An insanely impressive defensive shortstop, for a team I can say more good things about than the Tigers...and this team's in last.

Defying the Inevitable in the AL Central

Two AL Central teams have made it to the World Series in the last three years. Neither of them are currently leading the division. That would be the Detroit Tigers, who were in last place in the division two years ago.

Baseball...is a weird sport, man.

Even more, they're in first, and it's not even the people you'd think that are ahead of the charge. Not Cabrera or Upton or Victor Martinez! Younger Players! JaCoby Jones is having a great rookie season. Jose Iglesias is getting a ton of hits! Michael Fulmer is back to his old tricks. Even Ian Kinsler, who isn't THE youngest, is still doing real well...mostly because he's Ian Kinsler.

At the same time, the established stars are striking out, the pitching staff is a bit inexperienced, and there are pitchers in the bullpen with ERAs of 40.50 and 108.00. So while the team is leading and doing well, they're still very far from where they should be, and the rest of the team needs to step up if they want to be completely good this year.

Still, this is a nice start. Hope it goes somewhere for them.

Coming Tonight: Saw him pitch over the weekend. Throws lots of walks...and still manages to stymie hitters.