Tigers offense looks worse than expected through 11 games. Two weeks ago was my personal version of Christmas Eve.
It was the day before Opening Day – the real Opening Day, when the vast majority of MLB teams would play for the first time in the regular season.
If you would have told me back then that the Tigers would win seven of their first 11 games, I would have been thrilled.
But now, considering how they got here, I’m not quite as optimistic.
For those of you who followed along throughout spring training, you know I was optimistic about the Detroit Tigers’ chances to be better than advertised. It was a cautious optimism, but it was optimism all the same.
The primary reason for my preseason optimism has actually held true: This bullpen is excellent. In 43 innings of work, Tigers relievers have allowed just seven earned runs while striking out 44 batters and pitching to a 1.05 WHIP, .172 opponent average, and 1.47 ERA.
All eight relievers have an ERA south of 3.00. Six have a WHIP below 1.15. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Tarik Skubal is also as good as advertised. Sure, he ran into a rocky couple of innings against the Oakland Athletics, but if you’ve actually watched his starts, you can see this is one of the best pitchers on the planet.
