Second Base In Detroit

Our Twitter account has been filling up with all sorts of different conversations happening within the world of Detroit Tiger baseball. Within the diversity of thoughts and ideas, there seems to be one thing that we can all agree upon, and that is that we need an everyday second baseman. 

The Ryan Raburn project fell through this year and Ramon Santiago seems destined to stay as an utility player. All this in mind, here is an idea that we hope Dave D. is working through.

Trade any number of players for Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve. 

His numbers are solid, and his upside is even better as he is only 22 years old.

To top it off... He is from the same city in Venezuela as Miguel Cabrera. The city is called Maracay.

We may lose Brennan Boesch, Delmon Young, Nick Castellanos, Jacob Turner, or any combination of these players, plus more. However, we feel that this trade may be worth it as 2B has been an black hole of outs and errors every since templeton (Polanco) left in 2010.

Storyline Opens Twitter Account

Hold on to your pants Jim Leyland, The Detroit Tigers Storyline has officially opened a twitter account. We hope that you will follow us as we speak of the ridiculous and the mundane throughout the highs and lows of Tiger baseball. Some highlights of the Twitter account will include, but not be limited to the following.

1.) Live tweeting of Tiger's games.

2.) Insider perspectives on alalysis of numbers.

3.) Gerald Laird fat jokes.

4.) Links to new and original content that appears on this website.

Click on the toolbar to the right to follow us!

Opportunity Road Trip

Many have noted that the Tigers have now won 4 series in a row. This is good news for all of us and a transitional step out of our frustratingly slow start. Now... After climbing our way back up to only one game from .500 and 2.5 games out of first place, we head into an extensive and challenging road trip.

Some may look at this road trip as a bummer. Just as things are getting going, we have a giant mountain to face and will inevitably lose this positive momentum. Even Rod Allen was talking about the unlikeliness of even winning six of the ten games in the upcoming road trip during the broadcast yesterday.

I know that it has been a tough season and that cynicism is high, but there is another way to look at this. 

Sure this ten game stretch will be difficult, but let's also be mindful that this could also be an opportunity that we point back to at the end of the year and remember that this stretch was the moment that validated our team once again as a legitimate playoff contender.

We entered this year as the favorite and lost this role twenty games in. Forty games in we lost the role of even a contender. With a successful road trip against the Pirates, Rangers and Rays we could get this back.

How do we define successful? Playing competitive baseball and winning six of ten. Period. If we compete, winning six of ten should be inevitable with our team. If we make errors, run the bases poorly, pitch without focus, and have undisciplined at bats, then we will not win six out of ten. We will win 5 or less. Probably less.

Let's be honest though and also remember that regaining the "role" of contender is less important than actually being a contender and winning the appropriate amount of games to make it into October baseball. Hopefully this ten day stretch is a small piece in the puzzle of winning eighty five games, the minimum it will take to solidify a 2012 Tiger's AL Central championship.

We come home to an equally easy stretch of seven games against the bottom dwellers of the AL Central. If we can indeed go six and four on this road trip and then take five of seven against the Twins and the Royals, which are both tangible possibilities, then we will head into the break at 45-41. This ratio of winning would get us to 85 wins and going into playoff baseball as the most feared 85 game winning team in history.

Leyland in Question

Jim Leyland recently said that several players are underachieving and need to step up. Maybe Jim should also place himself in this category.

There is are two important statistics and how they interact that lead us to questioning Jimmy.

Stat number 1. 

DETROIT TEAM BATTING AVERAGE

.263

6th in MLB

Stat number 2. 

DETROIT RUNS SCORED

241

15th in MLB

Sure, timely hitting by the batters has much to do with this. But let's not leave Leyland off the hook here. Runs produced vs. Batting Average is a key indicator to how a manager is doing. (Timing of hit and runs, and overall base running strategy is set by the manager.)

On the flip side, look at how the Indians are doing here.

Stat number 1. 

INDIANS TEAM BATTING AVERAGE

.250

17th in MLB

Stat number 2. 

INDIANS RUNS SCORED

246

11th in MLB

The Indians and Tigers have each scored approximately the same amount of runs and given up the same amount of runs.

The only difference... 5 wins. Props to Manny Acta.

Do these embarrassing stats fall on Leyland? Again... Not completely. But these realities should also not be ignored.