Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera Slump Hinders Quest for Batting Crown

Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera is in danger of sliding out of the lead for the American League batting title in 2015. Miggy has found himself in an ongoing, deep and awful slump in the month of September.

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Cabrera is a three-time AL batting champion (winning three years in a row 2011-2013) and the first player to win the Triple Crown in 2012 since 1967. He is a .322 career average hitter accumulating 2,316 hits, 407 home runs and 1,436 RBI.   But he’s not been the same Miggy recently.

Miguel was on fire when he came back from his injury in late August. He was on a terror in August hitting .393/.479/.639 with two home runs and 12 RBI. Then like magic, it’s been like crickets.

It’s impressive that he missed a month and a half and returned quickly to his .350 batting average form and was able to procure enough at-bats to be eligible for the batting title. It looked like he was going to easily dance to his fourth AL batting crown.

But as Lee Corso says, “Not so fast!”. What? Why? Miguel has gone cold as a dead fish. In September he is hitting .208/.309/.250 and the last seven games he is hitting .174/.321/.217. Is this Alex Avila or Miguel Cabrera?

Superman is not immune to slumps. How could the greatest hitter on the planet be immune? He started the 2014 season in a deep slump hitting .206 which was awful for him. But he finished the season at .313 and it was his first year in four years where he didn’t win the battle title. But in all fairness, he battled significant injuries all year during 2014 and .313 is still pretty impressive.

What’s causing Miggy’s slump? J.D. Martinez is hitting just fine in September and the past seven games at .265 and .360, respectively. Is it because Ian Kinsler has drastically slowed down and there’s no one on base in front of Miggy? Kinsler’s slump and numbers look awfully familiar at .250 in September and .167 in the last seven games. Is it that simple?  Or is Miggy not feeling healthy? Has Miggy checked out?

He was hitting .350 before his stint on the disabled list. He has now slid to .339 and sliding. Xander Bogaerts is not far behind him with an incredible season at .320.

How probable is it that Miggy can slide under .320? There are 20 games left and let’s say he gets on average three at-bats each game for 60 total at-bats. If he continues to hit around .183 and goes 11-for-60, he will be at .318 for the year.

I hate to say it Detroit Tigers fans, the season can get even worse for us – Cabrera could fade at the finish and lose the batting crown. That could be more deflating than footballs in New England.

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