Nicholas Castellanos of the Detroit Tigers sounded off on “expectations” and he may be on to something here. Brad Galli of WXYZ Detroit ABC TV caught up with Nicholas about expectations for the Detroit Tigers during Spring Training and here’s what he had to say:
Nick Castellanos with an early front-runner for The Quote of spring training:
"We had expectations to win a World Series last year. We lost 99 games. So much for expectations." pic.twitter.com/4wn3WrDM2g
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) February 19, 2018
Mr. Castellanos may sound a bit “standoffish” but why not? This upcoming season is already seen as a loss by many people who follow the Tigers. There are no good expectations for this team according to fans thoughts and most analysis about the 2018 Tigers. The way Castellanos answered this question, is the way the players should feel about going out onto the field and playing. Expectations don’t matter. None of this talk about how good or bad someone will be in February matters.
It doesn’t matter because if they fail, they’re expected to fail. They are projected to win 68.5 games, according to Vegas, so why not play with some kind of chip on the shoulder? Or with attitude or your game faces on? Or whatever analogy you may want to use. According to everyone, The Detroit Tigers are on the bottom of the mountain, and hopefully, they begin to climb it this coming season. They can’t get any lower.
Expectations in Detroit started to run rampant after the 2006 season when the Tigers came up short in the World Series. We as fans have been dying to see a title here in Motown, but it hasn’t happened since before some of us were in diapers. Having high hopes, and high expectations, have made it hard for a lot of Tigers fans the last decade or so, especially when those expectations went unmet.
Having such high expectations every year shields the fact that it takes a lot of things to go right to win it all. Central Division titles are nice, the couple American League Championships are nice too, but all that matters in professional sports is winning it all. The Tigers need a new approach when it comes to building a team, and they are heading in the right direction, even as 1984 keeps on slipping further away from us all.
The way the Tigers are trying to build up their roster with young talent is what they need to do. What fans should expect from the Detroit Tigers this season is that they play hard, smart, and get better every week of the season. Tigers fans all over this planet have had such high expectations for this franchise for over a decade now but as Nicholas Castellanos stated…so much for expectations. What happens on the field is all that matters.
