Detroit Tigers: First half offense- The good, the bad, and the ugly

With the first half of the season officially in the books and All-Star week finally upon us, Detroit Tigers fans can sit back and reflect on the first half of the season.

The first half wasn’t exactly one that Detroit Tigers fans will want to remember, and a large part of that is the team’s 28-57 record. At the midway point of the season, let’s look at the good, the bad and the ugly of the Tigers’ first-half offensively and how they might be able to improve.

The Good

I know talking about the upside of a first half that netted only 28 wins might seem like a stretch, but this Detroit Tigers team does have a few reasons that fans can be optimistic moving forward.

After a rough two year stretch, one of which saw him bat .249 and the other only saw him play in 38 games, Miguel Cabrera has managed to bounce back in 2019. Cabrera is the person in the Tigers’ starting lineup that hit .300 or better. While the power numbers are not nearly as impressive as they used to be, Cabrera still has a slash line of .304/.368/.399. It’s clear that peak Miggy is long gone, but good to know that his bat is not.

Nick Castellanos has turned in an above-average season at the plate thus far with a line of .282/.342/.468. Add 9 HRs and 33 RBI to go with that and it all adds up to a quality season for one of the teams most reliable bats.

Jacoby Jones has had a roller coaster of a year, but the good thing is the roller coaster has mostly been going up. After an abysmal April that saw Jones hit .137, he turned it around and manage to improve in both May and June. Jones slashed .271/.344/.494 in May and .291/.351/.547 his progress has been well noted. If he can continue swinging a hot bat then he can likely cement himself in the team’s future plans.

The Bad

The Detroit Tigers have 77 HRs as a team, good for 29th in the MLB. For reference, the Minnesota Twins have hit 166. The power numbers across the board for the team are troubling as they rank 29th in RBI, 29th in SLG and 29th in ISO. ISO is an advanced statistic used to measure power and a way to show the frequency a team or player produces extra-base hits.

This team as a whole does not drive in runs in any significant way and it shows as they have scored the fewest runs in the league (311). The Tigers are 28th in the league with a team average of .233 and get on base less than any other team (.293). These statistics are troubling, for a fan base to see but they can only go up from here, right?

The Ugly

Jeimer Candelario has been underperforming since we saw him have a good second half in 2017 after acquiring him in a trade. Candelario is hitting .214 this season and has racked up more K’s than hits.

The team continues to struggle to find a reliable bat at the catcher position as John Hicks and Grayson Greiner are hitting .198 and .162, respectively. This one stings a little extra this year because James McCann is an All-Star, as a member of the Chicago White Sox.

The season has been rough so far, and that’s to be expected. Most of this team’s talent has been acquired in the past 3 years or are on their way to Detroit via the minor leagues. These teams are built to wade water and just survive until the prospects are ready to make a big-league impact. For the second half of the season, look for young guys to get called up and potentially get a glimpse of the future because the future is bright in the D.