Detroit Tigers 2022 Season: Major Disappointment
A.J. Reilly: 2022 is in the rear view mirror. Mercifully, thankfully, however you wanna say it, but it did go fast. And I’m gonna miss watching Detroit Tigers baseball until I saw today. You know, pitchers and catchers report in 130 days.
So we can start to countdown, right? It is time for a little bit of a yearly review. What are our initial reactions to the Detroit Tigers season?Â
It was a disappointment. That’s the number one word that we’re gonna use for the Detroit Tigers in 2022. Huge disappointment. Big time. Big time disappointment. There are some good things that actually had happened.
Miguel Cabrera got his 3000 hit. We saw that Lou Whitaker finally had his tire number retired rightly by the team Avila was fired.
The season isn’t a total waste if, Al Avila’s fired and there were 14 people that made their major league debuts, which never gets old.
Greene, Torkelson, Carpenter, Kreidler, Garrett Hill, Elvin Rodriguez, Josh Lester, Brandon Davis, Alex Faedo, Joey Wentz. Beau Brieske, Luis Castillo, Kody Clemens, Angel De Jesus.Â
Like all these guys were able to call themselves major league players after the season. Now should, Is that necessarily a great thing? No, that’s not necessarily a great thing. These guys deserve credit for making it to the major leagues.
So there were some good things. And remember we’ve talked about on the corner as well, we break the season down into three sections of 54 games based on what Tommy Lasorda, the great manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers say it said, You’re gonna win 54.
You’re gonna lose 54. What you do with that middle 54 is what matters. And so let’s look at the Detroit Tigers. In the Detroit Tigers first, 54, 21, and 33.
In Detroit Tigers second, 54, 21, and 33, which made them 42 and 66 through those first 108 games. But in the last 54, 24 and 30, they improved by three games. Is that a huge improvement?
No, it’s not a huge improvement, but it’s improvement. Right. So that’s a good sign, not a bad thing. September, they played 500 baseball. October, the six games in October, they played 500 baseball, like not necessarily a bad, bad end to the season, but they only averaged three and a half runs per game.
They only hit 110 home runs on the season. Harold Castro led the team in hitting at 2 71. Riley Greene led the team in on base percentage at 3 21. Carrie Carpenter with a minimum of a hundred at bats led the team in weighted runs, created at 126.
Which is a good sign for the future. Tarik Skubal, who hasn’t pitched since what August, July, led the team in innings pitch at 117 and two thirds innings.
He also led them in FIT and in WAR at 2.9. Jimenez led all relievers in K per nine at 12.2 K per nine. He also led them in FIT. Overall stats. Let’s talk about this. The Detroit Tigers, had the seventh best bullpen in the regular season in all the major league baseball.
But they had the 28th best starters, they were 15th in fielding 12th and defensive run saved in seventh in outs above average, but they were dead last and hitting.
29th in the walk rate, fourth highest K rate, and 23rd in base running. And they were also as a team dead last in team war at 2.6 war total for the season. That’s not great. Let’s compare that to the playoff team. The top 12 teams that finished in war according to fan graft, so F four playoff teams, the 12th.
Was San Diego, who’s in the playoffs. Everybody above them in the playoffs, San Diego had a team WAR of 21.3 of Los Angeles Dodgers who have the top war, 38.7. I’m telling you, the improvement seemed to be pretty obvious. The defense was really good this season. The pitching was acceptable.
The starters gotta get better and go deeper into games. When your top pitcher is getting 117, two thirds innings pitched on a season, that’s not good. Yes, injuries were a major concern.
Yes, this season was a huge disappointment, but they know where they need to improve, and that’s on the offense. Next week on the corner, when we go live on Thursday night, I will have my entire off season plan.
What do I think the Detroit Tigers need to do in the off season? And you can also check out articles that I’m gonna be writing on Detroit Sports Nation as well about.
What’s the off season blueprint for the Detroit Tigers? What do they need to do and where do they need to go? And, and we’ll make some tough decisions.
We’ll try to get into the minus Scott Harris and look at, okay, what is going to happen next and are there any free agents that could be signed? So we’ll see.
We’ll look at what we can do in the off season, and I will be doing that live, getting your reactions and talking to fans as well on Thursday night.
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About The Show:
The Corner with A.J Reilly – The official Detroit Tigers Podcast for DSN! Hosted by AJ Reilly. New episodes are LIVE Monday and Thursday every week at 6 pm.
