Avila Helpless As Opponents Run Wild on Tigers

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier 

Last season the Detroit Tigers catcher Alex Avila threw out 32 percent of runners attempting to steal on his pitcher and himself, this season it's a different story, Avila's caught stealing percentage is at 27 percent. Over the last several series his caught stealing numbers are below 14 percent, but it's not Avila's fault, and here's why.

When a runner takes off from first base in an attempt to steal second, he is not stealing on the catcher, he is stealing the base off of the pitcher. Runners typically do not take off on the first delivery to the plate by the pitcher, why? They are watching his motion and timing his delivery to the plate, once they have figured out how the pitcher works, they run for it.

Throwing out a runner at second base is a tough task for a catcher. There are many factors that go into catching the would be base-stealer like; pitch selection and location, is the batter swinging or bunting, how fast is the runner, and who is covering the bag.

First things first, it takes the entire team to hold the runner at first base, not just the pitcher and not just the catcher. The pitcher needs to vary his delivery to the plate to throw off the base-runner, he needs to step off the rubber or throw over to first just to keep the runner close to the bag and honest. Catchers and infielders have the job of watching the runner and alerting the pitcher to when he is leaning too far off the base.

If it gets beyond picking the runner off first base it comes down to what and where the pitch lands. A catchers dream pitch to catch a runner is a mid-90's fastball down the middle where they can get it out of their glove, pop up and fire across the diamond. More often than not it's not a fastball, it's a slider on the inside corner with the batter swinging. Not only does the catcher have to follow the ball across the plate, he has to avoid the bat and try to bring the glove up so he can get the ball out and throw it to second.

Over the last several games, especially in the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins series, opponents have been running on Tigers pitching like crazy. It helps that both teams have speedy players on the roster, but there has been no help given to either the pitcher or Avila during those series. Prince Fielder, Ryan Raburn and Jhonny Peralta have not been watching the runner so they could help out their pitcher, which allows the runner to get a huge jump off the bag, making it much easier to steal second.

Manager Jim Leyland has said that he hasn't been calling for pitchers to throw over to first base much lately, saying that when Justin Verlander is on the mound he allows the Tigers ace to do his own thing with the runners. This lack of any kind of threat while taking a lead is allowing opponents to move multiple runners into scoring position a game, something that almost cost Detroit the game with the Twins on Sunday.

Listening to the Tigers radio broadcast one can hear Dan Dickerson and Jim Price lament each time another opponent steals a base and explain how Avila has done everything right but is not getting a chance to throw runners out. He gets the ball late and the runner is allowed to get a massive jump on him making his throw, no matter how on target, too late to catch the runner.

Detroit is slowly starting to score runs and pitch better than they have been, but they will struggle to continue to win games if they don't stop runners from stealing bases on a regular basis. A runner stealing second may not seem like a big play, but it is huge. A steal of second gets the runner into scoring position and with the amount of steals the Tigers are allowing those become runs. When a team can't stop an opponent from stealing, they lose.

Someone in the infield needs to step up and help out the pitching staff and Avila, and fast, before these stolen bags start to become stolen games.

These Tigers Lack Leadership

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier

With expectations high and coming off a torrid start to the 2012 season the Detroit Tigers have fallen on hard times, winning just one game in their last home stand against the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners. In past years when the Tigers hit a slump they turned to their leaders in the clubhouse, notably Ivan Rodriguez, and until this past season, Carlos Guillen.

These leaders in the clubhouse were able to rally the team around them and break down the issues effecting the team. When the team would struggle offensively Rodriguez and Guillen would assemble the team and give them a kind of pep talk that only a teammate could give. A kind of players only meeting that would kick start the bats and propel the team out of the slump they were in.

The Tigers are in another slump, but this time, there is no leader to turn to. There is no player that can command the respect of the clubhouse and give this team the kick in the pants that they so desperately need. Manager Jim Leyland has tried everything under the sun to get his team to produce and nothing is working; what is needed is for a player to step up and take command of this team.

Typically the short stop becomes the captain of the infield and thus commands the respect of much of the team, but Jhonny Peralta does not seem to have the swagger and bravado needed to become the leader in the clubhouse that this team needs. He is the captain of the infield, but his leadership doesn't go much beyond that.

On many teams the star player is the clubhouse coach, Detroit has that in spades but their top player is Miguel Cabrera and he doesn't seem to have much interest in any leadership roles. After his DUI incident in Florida, Cabrera took an even more hands-off approach than usual. He is a quiet leader is the clubhouse, choose to lead by example than with his words. This team needs a vocal leader to get in their face and snap them out of their funk.

Outfielders are vary rarely the leader of the team, they are generally too far away from the action, in-game, to effect much change and as such their words don't usually carry the same weight as those coming from an infielder.

Prince Fielder is a big asset to Detroit, he provides a big source of power and a quality first base, but, like Cabrera he tends to be on the quiet side and shies away from the leadership position. Fielder would much rather lead others by going out and hitting one over the right field wall than to give a fiery speech in the dugout.

Justin Verlander is the face of this Tigers team, but he plays just once every five days and even then is not directly in the game, he initiates the play and then the rest of the team finishes the play behind him. Verlander could give some pep talks to the club, but they would not be all that effective given his position.

There is only one player that could become the leader of this team, Alex Avila. That is a lot of responsibility to place on the third year catcher as he already has to run the pitching staff and catch the majority of games. But he has proven that he has the grit that other players respect, playing much of the 2011 post season on one leg due to injuries.

Avila must step up and shoulder this next responsibility in order to improve this team. He has shown in the past that he is willing to do whatever it takes as long as it benefits the team as a whole, and Detroit needs this.

Gerald Laird Injures Knee, Will Miss Time

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier

This is not what Jim Leyland or Alex Avila wanted to hear - Gerald Laird collided with Don Kelly attempting to run down a fly foul ball and injured his knee. Laird went down, grabbing his knee in pain and needed trainer Kevin Rand to help him get off the field.

It looked bad, and for Laird it probably felt bad, but things aren't as bad as they look. The Tigers announced that it was only a knee sprain and that Laird would be listed as day-to-day and would be reevaluated on Saturday.

Laird seemed upbeat about the injury saying that he was glad he didn't blow it out.

Avila is probably happy he didn't blow it out as well, seeing as he caught darn near every game down the stretch last season when Victor Martinez was injured. The stress of catching every day may have helped to inflame Avila's knees and add to his tendinitis last season.

Fresh out of knee surgery to clean out the tendinitis caused by his last back-up catcher's injury, an injury to Laird was not what Avila hoping for.

While the doctors don't believe Laird's injury is serious, if on Saturday during the reevaluation they deem things to be more serious the Tigers could turn to a number of prospects in the minors. Rob Brantly has been tearing things up in the minors and could be the best choice but Bryan Holaday or James McCann could also get a call.

Perhaps they go with Omir Santos, Avila's back-up last year after the injury to Marinez. They signed him to a contract as an insurance policy but he was less then stellar at the plate. One of the prospects may get the call over him.

Only Saturday and the doctors will be able to answer the questions now.

Off Season Moves the Tigers Need to Make

First off, it's been a while since the last post, I hope many of you return and start reading this again on a regular basis because I plan on updating it regularly once again. Thanks to everyone for reading.

Detroit nearly hobbled its way into the World Series in 2011 and despite coming up short of the ultimate goal, the team still finished as one of the last four playing and came within one game of representing the American League for the second time in five seasons.

2011 was a year that provided many insights into this team; Alex Avila became cemented as the No. 1 catcher for the foreseeable future, Doug Fister will push Justin Verlander to be even better than he currently is, and Delmon Young, while expendable, is a power outfielder who comes up huge in the clutch.

Last season also showed the many weaknesses the Tigers have, and other teams exploited those weaknesses to get by them in the playoffs. Once Victor Martinez came up lame in a game he was never able to back up Avila, which led to Avila catching all but two games down the stretch. That over use wore down the young backstop to the point where he resembled Kirk Gibson limping around the bases. The Tigers needed to find a back up catcher for Avila, and they found that in ex-Tiger Gerald Laird.

While not a fan favorite, Laird has proven that he is one of the most efficient defensive catchers in the game. His bat may be the equal to that of Brandon Inge but as long as he stays healthy enough to catch every fifth game and can help to mentor Avila, that's all the Tigers are looking for. This pick up was a good one by the Tigers.

The two remaining glaring holes for Detroit are at third and second base. While Inge is under contract for another season, it won't take long for the Tigers to grow tired of his inability to hit anything resembling a baseball. And after his tirade against the fans last season, his popularity in Detroit is wavering and won't withstand another season from hell like 2011. 

The 2012 free agent class for third basemen isn't exactly chock-full of star athletes; while Wilson Betemit served the Tigers well down the stretch he is not an everyday player and the Tigers brass seems to see things that way as well. Betemit has not been offered a contract for next season, which is the best thing for the team.

Notable free agents that would fit well with the Tigers would be either Jorge Cantu or Kevin Kouzmanoff. Through eight seasons Cantu has a career batting average of .271 and an on-base percentage of .316. Cantu is a good fit with Detroit because he is a utility player who specializes at third base, but has the ability to play either second or first as well. He has struggled to remain healthy and his numbers have slipped recently, but because of that his asking price could be driven down quite a bit from his hay-day in Miami.

Kevin Kouzmanoff is available for arbitration for the next two seasons so if the Rockies see what others see in him then the Tigers won't be able to snag him until he's a free agent until 2014. Kouzmanoff has a career batting average of .255 and a .300 on-base percentage. And he boasted a .713 OPS while playing over 100 games in the expanses of Coors Field.

The Tigers should pursue either of these third basemen diligently as either would bring a solid defensive front to the hot-corner as well as a powerful bat to the line-up.

Second base has become a glaring hole for Detroit, with the position being a platoon for the entire 2011 season, with six players taking the position in the field. Ramon Santiago, Ryan Raburn, Will Rhymes, Scott Sizemore, Danny Worth and Carlos Guillen all played second last year.

With a revolving door at second, Detroit has no true prospects or options at second base. Once again, the free agent class of second base is quite barren. After the Diamondbacks snapped up Aaron Hill to a new contract the only appealing player on the market is Kelly Johnson, but a contract with him would require the Tigers to send a first-round draft pick to Toronto in return.

Recent rumors have the Tigers trading Delmon Young to Atlanta in return for Martin Prado. This deal would incredibly bolster Detroit and add a powerful, consistent lead-off hitter to the line-up. Prado is a career .293 hitter in his six seasons in the majors with a .341 OBP. He has had experience and success being a lead-off hitter for the Braves and would be able to relieve some pressure from Austin Jackson in that role.

Should the Tigers complete this trade they would need to fill the vacancy left in left field by Young, and the solution is sitting in the free agent pool waiting to be snatched up. Coco Crisp, traditionally a center fielder, is available and would thrive in the vast left field of Comerica Park.

Detroit has long needed to build a team to fit Comerica Park and the addition of Crisp would do just that. Having two center fielders would save the Tigers multiple runs that they would have lost if Young would have continued to play. Crisp has a .271 career batting average and a .330 OBP, not to mention he can bring speed to the basepaths in Detroit. In 2011 he swiped 49 bases for the Athletics and with that speed and clear skill he can teach Jackson how to improve on the paths. 

The off-season is still young and there are still plenty of moves to be made, but the Tigers must address the weaknesses that showed through at the end of the 2011 season. If they do that successfully, they will be back in the playoffs and will be representing the American League in the World Series in 2012.