For some college students, going back to school means running into people you haven’t seen in four months.  When you live 2,000 miles from your home state and are known as the sports guy of your group you are inevitably badgered with praise or chides for your baseball teams’ summer accomplishments.

This past weekend I was greeted with several “How ’bout those Tigers,” “The Tigers are doing well,”  and “Yeah there are no jobs in Detroit, but you still have the Tigers.”  My response to all was a deep sigh, slow head shake and a 10 minute filibuster on why they are actually the worst division leader in memory.

I realize I am supposed to be happy that my team is in position to make the postseason.  I’m supposed to reply positively to well-wishers and bask in a 2.5 game lead over the Chicago White Sox.  But the only real positive I can come up with is, “Good thing everyone in the AL Central sucks even worse.”

The Tigers would be in 4th place, five games back for the AL Wild Card.  They would be 4th in the AL East, 3rd in the AL West, 3rd in the NL East, 4th in the NL West and 2nd in the NL Central (but 4.5 games behind St. Louis).  One normally good indicator of successful teams is run differential.  The Tigers is +10, which is so bad for a division leader there isn’t a metaphor gross enough to compare.  Other division leaders:  NY Yankees +107, LA Angels +78, Philadelphia +103, St. Louis +64, LA Dodgers +125.  The Tigers don’t even have the best run differential in their own division (White Sox +14) and even Toronto, which is 8 games under .500 has a +24.

There are better offensive teams than the Tigers playing in the Little League World Series.  Their offensive statistics go from average to pathetic.  As a team, the only hitting categories they are in the top half of the league are home runs and triples (9th and 12th).  They are dead last in doubles, 25th in hits, 23rd in batting average, 20th in OBP, 19th in OPS, 17th in runs and 16th in slugging percentage.

Aside from Miguel Cabrera no Tiger is having even a decent offensive season.  Cabrera’s .338 batting average puts him 5th in the league; the next Tiger is Magglio Ordonez at 97–and he was worse than pathetic for the first part of the season.  Only Cabrera is in the top 50 in hits, and there are no Tigers in the top 50 in doubles.  Home runs are a semi-bright spot with Cabrera, Brandon Inge and Curtis Granderson in the top 25, but the falloff is huge because only Marcus Thames (13) and Ryan Raburn (10) join the double-digit club.  Prior to Sunday’s game against Oakland Aubrey Huff technically led the Tigers in RBIs with 73–even though only 1 was with the team.  Cabrera now leads with 75 (31st in the league) but he and Huff are the only Tigres in the top 50–Inge is at 57 with 67 RBIs.

The Tigers putrid offense has been almost nonexistent outside of Comerica Park.  The team is an atrocious 25-38 on the road (40-20 at home) and has won just eight of their past 23 road games.

The Tigers’ saving grace is their pitching.  They boast four of the top 7 ERAs for starting pitchers (Edwin Jackson, 4; Jarrod Washburn, 6; Justin Verlander, 7) and all of five of their starters are in the top 35 (Rick Porcello, 28; Armando Galarraga, 33).  The team is in the top third of the league in most pitching categories–8th ERA, 5th shutouts, 7th in earned runs against, 10th in batting average against–and middle of the pack in the others.

Jackson has been phenomenal and were it not for that anemic offense would have more than 10 wins.  Verlander leads the league in strikeouts–204–and is tied for 6th in wins with 13.  The bullpen, while it can be a roller-coaster ride at times,  has functioned adequately.  Left-hander Bobby Seay has been solid in his roll and is 4th in the league with 22 holds.  And while Fernando Rodney likes to tempt fate on a regular basis by letting the tying run get on base, he normally gets the save–26 out of 27 chances.

It’s not all rosy for the pitching staff, as they can go in funks, and when Verlander isn’t pitching well they can easily fall into losing streaks.  The bullpen has also had its moments where it looked like a noodle strainer.

The good thing for the Tigers is that in the playoffs pitching plays a bigger role.  They are set up nicely with three top of the line starters.  The problem is if their offense doesn’t start to put it together, especially on the road, they won’t make the post season.  With end of the year road trips to Minnesota and Chicago the Tigers can’t afford to keep relying on home victories and terrible play by division rivals to keep them atop the division.

So while it’s great that my team has floated at the top of the pool of shit division for most of the season, there isn’t any reason to be giddy about this team until they clinch the a playoff birth.

I especially can’t get excited knowing I’ll have to watch Magglio hit into 37 more double plays before the season ends.

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* Every Monday Kevin Patra will write about one team or another from his home state of Michigan.   Everything from Tigers, Red Wings, Wolverines, Lions, Spartans, to feather-bowling championships will be covered–but he said he wouldn’t write about the Shock because “It’s like watching high school basketball on TV, only less fun and with less attractive players.”

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