Detroit Tigers: Staying upbeat, Avoiding a sale, Blaming Ausmus

Thursday marks a big day for the Detroit Tigers. It could be the last time the home crowd sees David Price, Yoenis Cespedes, Joakim Soria and Alex Avila in a Tigers uniform.

Detroit heads out on a 10-game road trip starting on Friday. The trade deadline will pass by the time the Tigers return home, so the team will have either bought or sold by that time.

But despite the grim outlook of Thursday potentially being those players final Tigers home game, the clubhouse has remained optimistic.

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That’s probably because their is still hope the team doesn’t sell and instead buys next week. By no means as the Tigers management made up their minds on what to do at the deadline, so if the team can reel off several wins in a row, that might be all they need to convince general manager Dave Dombrowski to go for it once again.

One of the biggest reasons the Tigers are in this predicament is manager Brad Ausmus. He hasn’t managed the bullpen very well or his bench, but still, it is unfair to completely blame the .500 record on him.

Tigers stay upbeat as trade deadline looms – Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press

"So now, every game feels like a playoff game, as the players try to salvage this season. Has president Dave Dombrowski already decided to sell? Maybe, maybe not. The players don’t know, and that uncertain hangs over everything.“There is always a chance,” Soria said, of being traded. “You never know. They will decide what is best for the team, keep me here or trade me. As of right now, I haven’t heard anything. So I will go out there and battle.”This disappointing season has been like watching somebody lost at sea. The Tigers keep treading water, gasping for air, working like crazy but not getting anywhere, and just when you think they might get to safety, a big wave washes over them. Tigers fans are angry and frustrated, sensing this season is over. And it’s hard to argue that point of view. But the mood in the Tigers’ clubhouse remains upbeat. Shoot, even the clubhouse graffiti is positive. On Wednesday, somebody drew a picture of a bus on the team’s message board and wrote: “Hop on the energy bus.”"

Detroit Tigers can still convince front office, ownership to avoid selling at deadline – James Schmehl, MLive.com

"While it may be in the organization’s best interest to become sellers later this month, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus and his players remain firm believers that this team, as it stands today, can still make the playoffs if it plays to its potential.Now they just have just to make believers out of the front office and ownership. And it appears they have less than a week to do it.“Things haven’t gone our way this year, but we’re going to piece it together,” Tigers reliever Alex Wilson said after Detroit’s 9-4 win Wednesday night."

Ausmus an easy target, but the wrong one – Chris McCosky, The Detroit News

"I want to believe, I need to believe, that it’s just a small but aggravatingly loud group of Tigers fans that blame this entire mess on Brad Ausmus.Relief pitcher gives up five runs in the eighth inning and it’s because Ausmus mismanaged the bullpen. Miguel Cabrera strains his calf muscle on a routine baseball play – running on a 3-2 pitch – and Ausmus is an idiot for sending him. He bats left-handed hitting Marc Krauss fifth to avoid a run of right-handed hitters against a right-handed pitcher, and clearly Ausmus is trying to throw the game – even though his other option was Alex Avila, who, like Krauss, is hitting under .200."

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