SeattleMike

Recent history suggest trouble ahead.

In May the offense 15th in wRC+. SP 5th in xFIP. RP 28th in ERA and 20th in xFIP. Tough month for the bullpen.

Yeah. Not sure there are too many, or any, teams that regularly play 4 guys 24 years old or younger.

And Meadows would have caught that ball.

It does seem as though when Greene isn't hitting the entire operation grinds to a halt. I was hoping Greene was past slumps that last 50-75 PAs. Not that the 5-14 May record is all on him, but this recent slump of his is more depressing than previous ones.

The Royals overachieving has a bunch of folks losing perspective. Wouldn’t surprise me if the Tigers and Royals ultimately finish within a game or two of each other.

You may be right about the reason, I don't know. But the pen needs to figure it out. Over the last month, a period in which the Tigers were 4 games under .500, the starting pitching was the best in MLB by xFIP. It was 10th in ERA. The Tigers offense was 14th in wRC+ and 10th in runs scored per game. The bullpen during this time had an ERA of 5.16, good for 28th in MLB. It's xFIP was better, at 14th. So they are probably a little unlucky, but that is what happens to bullpens that don't have high K rates. Royals pen has the same problem. That will catch up to them. So will the fact that they are currently second in MLB in hitting with RISP. Considering they are 19th in MLB in wRC+ I suspect a serious run scoring regression is on the horizon for them.

What is wrong with RF? He's currently the best hitter on the team, if you don't count the current CF. You can't blame either of those positions for the Tigers woes.

First series all year where the Tigers were never really in any of the games. It happens. If this starts happening more regularly I'll start to worry. Still feel a winning season is likely. Biggest concern for me is the bullpen. It's been knocked around for about a month now.

Out of what? Despite this week, they are still only 2 games out of the final playoff spot. Contending for the division looks unlikely, but there are still more than 100 games to play.

I doubt Perez will continue to post a 163 OPS+ the rest of the season. I also doubt they win 90 games. But they are now 13 games over .500 and have positioned themselves well to make a run at a playoff spot.

Tigers haven’t had many of these this year, although 3 in the last week is disconcerting.

I don’t think Harris was promising much this offseason. In fact he tended to downplay things. Finish with 83-85 wins, which is still possible, and I’ll be happy. Then get dealing during the offseason. As for the Royals, low K/9 rates for their pitching and ridiculously high success with RISP for the offense screams regression. But they have banked these 32 wins and have a decent shot at making the playoffs.

The Tigers are 17th in runs scored per game. That is the definition of slightly below average. I suspect, however, that this average is skewed by the handful of games the Tigers scored in double digits. An equal culprit in the Tigers spinning their wheels the last 2-3 weeks has been the bullpen, which has blown (jusing FG's blown lead metric) the most leads in MLB. This rarely gets mentioned for some reason.

Going today I hope.

That game was a bunch of singles. At least this one includes a good bit of gap power.

Nelson was hitting 96-97 pretty consistently

Miami just shutout the Mets. 28 scoreless innings for the worst run prevention outfit in MLB. Baseball.

Third youngest team and playing .500 ball is actually quite encouraging.

They are 18th in runs scored per game.

One big difference is the run differential. Last year after 40 they had a significant negative RD. This year they are +3

Greene had a quiet series. It's always something

So Briceno and McGonigle are even more intriguing than one would think, based on their results to date?

True. But the bullpen has now blown its last 4 late leads.

Foley was giving up some pretty hard contact as well. For years fans complained that managers managed their bullpens too rigidly. Along comes a manager who shows flexibility and the fans are still unhappy. You play a lot of low-scoring games and your bullpen will blow a few. How about the Tigers stop playing so many low-scoring games.