Detroit Tigers: April Winners and Losers

Detroit Tigers baseball wraps up the first month of the season in Minnesota against the Twins. While the Tigers’ opponent has struggled, Detroit has largely had a successful April.

Detroit Tigers players shot out of the gate with six wins in the team’s first eight games. The Tigers notched wins over Wei-Yin Chen, Jose Fernandez, Luis Severino and Gerrit Cole during the eight-game stretch.

Those eight games also included four road wins in National League cities against both the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Following that stretch, the Tigers lost seven of nine. Those nine games included three-game sets in Houston and in Kansas City. All six games were close, but Detroit only came away with a pair of wins.

The Tigers returned home only to be swept by Cleveland. During the three-game series, the offense faltered. Detroit managed just five runs against the Indians.

Despite the losing stretch, Miguel Cabrera and company responded by taking three of four games against the Oakland Athletics. This was partly due to a reshuffling of the lineup by Brad Ausmus that saw J.D. Martinez moved to the second spot. Justin Upton dropped down in the order, taking his fellow outfielder’s place behind Victor Martinez.

The switch seems to be working. Detroit crushed Oakland pitching to the tune of 16 runs in 18 innings over the final two games against the A’s.

Ausmus has seen a number of players perform well, and a few players struggle. Here are the Detroit Tigers winners and losers from the month of April.

Loser: Anibal Sanchez

If Jordan Zimmermann had the best month of any Detroit Tigers starting pitcher, Anibal Sanchez may have had the worst month.

Sure, Shane Greene and Mike Pelfrey also had off months, but both turned in encouraging displays at one point or another. Greene looked sharp against the Pirates, while Pelfrey showed a bizarre ability to consistently work out of some major (self-induced) jams with little to no damage.

Sanchez looked solid out of the gate, he went 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in his first two starts. However, he wasn’t able to reach the sixth inning in either outing, and he had just seven strikeouts compared to six walks.

He was tagged for eight hits, five runs and a pair of walks in his third start, which lasted only five innings. Following that, Sanchez only retired seven batters against Cleveland before being lifted from the game. All told in that start he surrendered nine hits, seven runs and a walk. He only struck out two batters.

In starts three and four, the former Marlin’s ERA ballooned to 12.27.

The starter’s last start of the month came in a win versus Oakland. Sanchez pitched 5.2 innings, allowing only three hits and two runs. That was extremely encouraging, as were his nine strikeouts. However, he gave away seven free passes. That kind of a number isn’t going to fly in the future.

On the season, Anibal Sanchez’ ERA sits at an uninspiring 6.08. His FIP is slightly better at 5.81, but it still leaves much to be desired. The 32-year-old also has the unfortunate distinction of leading the league in walks with sixteen. He’s also been taken deep five times in his last four starts.

Winner: Victor Martinez

Victor Martinez has had a stellar career, with perhaps his best season coming in 2014. The designated hitter led the American League in on-base percentage, OPS and intentional walks, while also hitting .335. Martinez also drove in 103 runs, crushed a career-high 32 home runs and would have won the MVP award had it not been for some guy named Mike Trout.

Then 2015 happened, and the slugger struggled through an injury-riddled campaign in which he hit just .245 with 11 home runs and 64 RBI over the course of 120 games.

Now, with the 2016 season kicking into full swing, Martinez seems to have put 2015 well behind him.

In 22 games, the 37-year-old is hitting a robust .319 with 17 RBI. He’s also continued his habit of posting a low strikeout rate with just seven fans in 22 games. It also seems as if the man known as “V-Mart” has found his power stroke again.

Also in those 22 games, Martinez already has five home runs—just six fewer than his total output from a year ago.

With the offense thriving again, look for Victor Martinez to produce on a similar level to what he did in 2014 as opposed to 2015.

Loser: James McCann

James McCann has done absolutely nothing wrong. Yes, he is sporting a rather unsightly .133 batting average, and yes he is currently missing time due to an injury, but he hasn’t done anything wrong.

In fact, the catcher got off to a solid start. He notched a pair of RBI in the first four games of the season, and lived up to his billing as the “McCannon” on defense.

However, he qualifies as a loser because of the way Jarrod Saltalamacchia has played in his absence. The backstop referred to as “Salty” has been so impressive at the plate for the Tigers that he could potentially force McCann into a platoon situation when he returns from injury.

Saltalamacchia’s tear has included 10 extra-base hits and 15 RBI in just 16 contests. Those 10 extra-base hits also include a team-leading six home runs. What’s more, the catcher’s home runs always seem to come at the right time. Five of his home runs have come with the Tigers behind in games. One stretch saw the veteran homer in three consecutive games that he played in.

Next: Why Michael Fulmer to Revitalize the Pitching Staff

McCann is only a loser in the sense that he could lose some at-bats to Saltalamacchia moving forward.