Can I Be Frustrated Yet?

I live with a football coache's mindset. I get amped up. I overreact. I get fired up when things don't go as planned and more so, when people underperform. I have learned, and I believe it to be true, that this is a great attitude to have for sports such as football. Football has such a short season and every game has undeniable importance. Therefore, a fiery attitude may be the difference in winning one of the sixteen games during the season or not.

In contrast, this type of attitude for a baseball fan leads to chronic disappointment and even some anger. Therefore, at the advice of a best friend, I have been trying to adjust my mindset when the Tiger's season starts. I have even encouraged other to look past the Tiger's 16-17 start, their multiple blown save chances, their lack of timely hitting, and ultimately their bad baseball play. I tell them that this is a long season...every team loses games...and they play in the worst division in baseball and they will be fine when it comes to the post-season. I really believe this is true, but when is it okay to get frustrated?

This team was supposed to be solid. This team was hailed as a Fall Classic contender. The performance thus far raises serious questions about the team even making the playoffs (at this pace)!

This is a pep-talk, more-or-less to myself, but maybe other Tiger's fans will appreciate it as well.

3 goods:

1. Starting pitching....is good. This area of the team is pretty much as expected except for a few sporadic starts by Porcello and Scherzer. Verlander has battled in a few games, but still looks like himself. Fister is now back on the bump and looks great when he gets dialed in. Smyly (the 5th starter as predicted by this blod before the season) has been astounding - no more than 2 ER in any start this season! Porcello can be great and Scherzer is Scherzer...this staff, when given some (even minimal run support) will win games!

2. Austin Jackson...is hitting (8th in AL AVG!), getting on base (11th in AL OBP), and scoring (5th in AL Runs). This is getting done with unexpected, below expected hitting stats from the Tiger's 2-3-4 hitters! If he keeps this up and the Tiger's middle-of-the-order bats wake-up, AJAX will have a great season and it will translate to the Tigers winning games, and hopefully a lot of them.

3. The Tigers play in the AL Central. I don't need to expound upon this...this gives them room to play poorly early on and be in a fine spot to overtake the lead in the division...of this we can all be confident. 

3 bads:

1. No need to repeat; but I would just forward you to the previous post on this blog...we have to win the games we are leading after the 7th inning. Whatever changes the bullpen needs to make to be more lock-down and the offense beginning to learn how to add some runs during the late innings for comfort could not come soon enough. 

2. "The Prince and the Popper" / "Miggy and Biggy" / "The Bats of the Cats" - yadayadayada! You get the point. Miguel and Prince are not Miguel and Prince. Both have had some very long hitless games streaks. Both have been striking out a lot. And both are not producing like we all thought! The nice thing is that it is early, and it is much better they are cold now than in October...let's just hope they warm up  even a little bit.

3. 2B!!!! Glad that Brandon Inge is gone...but seriously - our 3 options at second base are abysmal at best...the Tiger's need a second-baseman who can consistently, simply get on base!! Let's hope "D-squared" can put together a nice little trade for a good defense and solid offensive 2B, because it is very futile for the Tiger's to continue to hope that either Santiago, Raburn, or Worth will suddenly turn into good players at the dish. They did that with B-Inge for the better part of ten seasons and it never worked - it won't with these guys either!

Let's end this by saying....it is still only May 13th. They play in the AL Central...and they have the majority of the pieces that they need to be a productive winning team and they probably will. This little rant just allows those of us with a football mindset to vent a little so we can still maintain an even-keel!

Go Tigers!!!