Miguel Cabrera and the Tigers sport the best record in baseball
The Tigers have looked ferocious, while the world got their first look at Kris Bryant. A-Rod has shown the Yankees why they need him, and Josh Donaldson proved the existence of the “clutch gene.”
This is The Week That Was.
You’re Gonna Hear Me Roar
The Detroit Tigers have managed to maintain their success despite significant roster turnover seemingly every season. Entering Saturday, the Tigers led the Majors with a 9-1 record and once again look poised to take the A.L. Central for the fifth-straight year. Mind you, Miguel Cabrera is the only remaining Tigers’ player out of the 16 guys who played for Detroit in the final game of the 2012 World Series. When you consider that, it is quite remarkable what the Tigers have a completely different team, but still manage to keep winning.
According the Baseball America, the Tigers entered the season as the organization with the least talented players, but called up seven of their 10 best prospects to add youth to the Major League roster. The acquisitions of starters David Price, Alfredo Simon and Shane Greene have paid dividends for them as well. Joakim Soria was added in the offseason also, and has excelled as a closer while Joe Nathan recovers from injury.
Rick Porcello was given to the Red Sox for Yoenis Cespedes, and their second-best prospect in 2014, second baseman Devon Travis, was jettisoned to the Blue Jays for Anthony Gose. With Gose playing center field, he, Ian Kinsler and Jose Iglesias form a speedy, defensive trio right in the middle of the field. The fast Rajai Davis shares time with Gose at center field to help ensure the Tigers will always have ample athleticism up the middle. This speed resulted in Detroit leading the Majors in stolen bases after Saturday with 13.
The transaction that sparked the Tigers’ re-invention was the trade that sent Prince Fielder and $30 million to Texas for 2014 All-Star, Ian Kinsler. This prompted the Tigers to shift Miguel Cabrera to first base in order to give 23-year-old Nick Castellanos a shot at the hot corner. Speaking of Miggy, he looks re-invigorated after his ankle and foot surgery, sporting a .442 batting average after his first 11 games.
The Tigers couldn’t retain Max Scherzer in free agency, but the acquisition of David Price has given the team a reliable ace in the post-Scherzer era. Shane Greene, who has been just as dominant as Price, is now 2-0 with no earned runs in 16 innings of work.
-This GIF can be found on Gfycat.com
Now, we know Detroit wants to retain David Price when he becomes a free agent after this season, but a monkey wrench would be thrown in if Justin Verlander, who is currently out with a triceps strain, returns and loses his ace status.
So, as awesome as the Tigers have been to start the season, their fantastic play wasn’t the only thing the baseball world spoke about regarding them last week. On Friday, David Price and White Sox pitcher Jeff Samardzija were engaged in a riveting pitchers’ duel, which was overshadowed by a bit of controversy in the ninth.
With the game was tied 1-1, Nick Castellanos started the bottom of the ninth with a base hit to left field. As Castellanos darted past first and towards second, White Sox outfielder Avisail Garcia got the ball and beamed it to shortstop Alexei Ramirez. Once Ramirez caught the throw, he apparently tagged Castellanos, but the second base ump ruled Castellanos safe.
Inelegant video of tag. https://t.co/WcAMKvS5Yl
— South Side Sox (@SouthSideSox) April 17, 2015
The tag was obviously made, but the umps didn’t review it. White Sox manager Robin Ventura didn’t challenge it when he came out of the dugout at first, but he made a second trip out of the dugout to challenge the play. Ventura was then informed that he couldn’t challenge because the play was dead, since a pinch-runner had been announced for Detroit.
Alex Avila then bunted pinch-runner Andrew Romine to third base, with Jose Iglesias giving Detroit the walk-off single to end the game. This contest will only serve to fuel the already-bitter rivalry between the White Sox and Tigers.
Will Kris Bryant be Baseball’s Version of Kobe or Dez?
If you judged solely on his debut performance, the answer would be “no”…but come on people! Let’s exercise some reason and not vilify the poor kid after one bad start. There’s no cause for concern with the guy, but I’m not gonna lie, his first start was awful from a hitting standpoint. His very first at-bat sums it up.
-This GIF can be found on I.Kinja-Img.com
Yes, folks, three straight pitches, three straight strikes.
Cubs fans' reaction to Kris Bryant's first at-bat: pic.twitter.com/GWTDRXY2QT
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 17, 2015
Bear in mind that even the Cubs’ pitcher, Jason Hammel, started off the game better than Bryant by hitting a double in his first at-bat.
Bryant’s second at-bat featured a miniature battle between he and Padres ace James Shields. Bryant worked the count full, in an at-bat that included a couple hard foul balls down the left-field line, before striking out again.
His defense was on point, with his highlight being a vigorous diving catch to end the top of the fifth.
Kris Bryant's diving catch in MLB debut https://t.co/Z2MFwLIycP
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) April 19, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Matt Clapp
The third at-bat for Bryant started off with the crowd roaring after they witnessed a couple runs and four-straight hits from the Cubs. When Bryant reached the plate, there were two runners in scoring position, giving the slugger his first big-league RBI chance. The buzz was killed when Shields carved up Bryant with sinkers and cutters, then finished him off with a slider for the rookie’s third strikeout. The fan reaction at this point was fairly mixed on the interwebz.
https://twitter.com/DTDenson80/status/589156211381121024
https://twitter.com/swirsk054/status/589156146855940096
However, fans at the game were harsher.
VINE – #Cubs fans already yelling "you suck" at Kris Bryant https://t.co/ccLlX3TvGx
— FanSided GIF (@FanSidedGIF) April 17, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinecent McVines
His final at-bat came in the seventh with the Cubs down by one run, with two outs and runners on first and second. Bryant managed to put some contact on the ball…in the form of a grounder to third base, ending the inning.
Cubs fans are already Cubs faning at Kris Bryant on his MLB debut. https://t.co/NwrOXwe2EF
— Alex Alvarado (@ARAlvarado13) April 17, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Alex Alvarado
Once again as this Vine suggests, fans can be unfairly mean. It’s fans like this who don’t deserve an athlete with the potential to be a generational, transcendent, superstar talent. Friday’s final statline for the phenom was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the Cubs’ 5-4 loss. Hope came in the form of Bryant’s Saturday performance, though. He had two singles and a RBI in six at-bats. The power wasn’t present in his first two games, but the kid will be alright. Just give him some time.
Kris Bryant's first MLB hit and RBI ties the game https://t.co/fZmDMmx2ea
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) April 19, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Matt Clapp
This Just In: A-Rod is Awesome!
A-Rod https://t.co/8rncu0kHZr
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) April 19, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Matt Clapp
Alex Rodriguez was supposed to be the washed up superstar who would contribute next to nothing to the Yankees’ offense after returning from a season-long suspension. That’s what we all expected, but we were proven wrong Friday night at Tropicana Field. He turns 40 in July, and he led the Yankees to a 5-4 victory over the Rays after driving home four runs on a couple homers and a single. Those home runs were the 657th and 658th of his MLB career, putting him a mere two dingers behind Willie Mays on the all-time homer list. A-Rod’s first home run of the night was a monstrous 477-feet long, making it the longest home run of the season.
This is a 477-foot A-Rod homer https://t.co/jk0YtVMqWF
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) April 19, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Matt Clapp
A-Rod drove in as many runs as the Rays that night, and his performance bumped his average to .344, while his OPS went up to 1.214. Those numbers signify that Rodriguez is once again the catalyst of this offense, which as a group only hit .222 with an OPS of .712. What he’s done at nearly 40 years of age this season has been remarkable, but when you consider his age and the fact that he hasn’t been consistently productive for a whole season since 2007, you have to feel like this won’t last. He strikes out 30 percent of the time, and the .438 BABIP is quite high, indicating regression is coming.
As fluky as this many be, he deserves every bit of the credit he’s received for Friday night’s impressive performance. Entering Friday’s game, he had a career-high 25 percent line-drive rate, with a 50 percent fly-ball rate and a 0 percent infield fly ball rate. Those numbers indicate someone who is a true power hitter, but his power typically comes out when he’s punishing pitcher errors. A-Rod’s first homer on Friday was a high fastball that was supposed to go low, and his go-ahead RBI single in the eighth that night was sad slider.
A-Rod has also crushed fastballs this season at a .353 clip before Friday, yet 60.4 percent of all the pitches he received going into Friday’s action were fastballs, which beat the league average of 58.5 percent. That average percentage is even a little higher than what he received between 2011 and 2013. The percentage of fastballs he’s receiving suggests that pitchers believe that his aging bat would struggle to hit heaters.
Pitchers have also given Rodriguez 8.4 percent more inside pitches than the average batter going into Friday’s game. This indicates that pitchers around the league don’t think that he would be able to hit or react to anything close to him at this point in his career. Rodriguez proved the haters wrong once again with his second homer Friday, which was a two-seam fastball located the inner-third of the strike zone. In fact, Rodriguez was 4-for-7 on pitches he swung at that were on the inner-third of the strike zone coming into Friday’s game.
There is hope for opposing pitchers, since he’s only hitting .100 against breaking balls and .250 against off-speed pitches. Entering Friday, he totaled just one extra-base hit against both of these pitches. So the message to Major League pitchers is clear. Respect A-Rod. Don’t treat him like an old, washed-up has-been by throwing predictable stuff that an old man who’s lost his mojo couldn’t hit. Even in his age-40 season, he’s still a competent MLB hitter, so treat him like one.
A Real Canadian Hero
Josh Donaldson drove the Blue Jays to a 6-5 victory over the Braves on Saturday. With the scored tied 5-5 in the 10th, Braves reliever Ray Marimon got his pitch popped over the left-field wall by Donaldson.
The Braves were in control throughout thanks to pitcher Alex Wood, but he fell apart in the seventh inning when he allowed three runs to Danny Valencia, Russell Martin and Steve Tolleson. That preceded back-and-forth insanity as Jose Bautista and Kelly Johnson traded home runs in the eighth and ninth innings to send this into extra innings. That my friends, was a prelude to this:
Josh Donaldson's walk-off as a Jay! #Baseball #MLB #topmlbplays #Jay #ifthisgetsmorethanthirtylikesiwillstay https://t.co/okXyKi26NH
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) April 19, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Top MLB Plays
The Blue Jays certainly didn’t get much help from R.A. Dickey, who struggled with his command as he allowed four walks. Freddie Freeman jacked a homer against him too, but Freeman is notoriously good against Dickey, batting 11-for-23 (.478) against the knuckleballer. Fortunately, Donaldson was there to bail out his team when they needed him the most, in the form of his fourth career walk-off home run.
Jonathan Ebanks is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Jonathan, check out his archive and follow him @hogz4lyfe.
