Detroit Tigers: Chappy We Don’t Stink Right Now

“Chappy we don’t stink right now”

Gus Sinski walked to the mound and uttered these words to Billy Chappell as he spun a no-hitter for the last-place Detroit Tigers in the movie “For the Love of the Game”.

What a difference 3 weeks makes. The Detroit Tigers are currently 9-7 with a positive run differential in the month of May..damn..who knew all that sucking was essentially nothing more than fertilizer for Al Avila “May” flowers.

Behind the excellent work of AJ Hinch and his no-nonsense approach to playing time with a huge assist from pitching coach Chris Fetter, suddenly the Tigers have begun to play actual winning caliber major league baseball.

Let’s take a dive into the numbers.

Detroit Tigers Starting Pitching numbers are currently trending way UP

3.86 season #12 in MLB

3.47 May #9 in MLB

The better run prevention also coincides with a small spike in the K/9 rate which has improved to 8.40 which is still below the MLB average for SP of 9.00.

DET still ranks last in Bullpen ERA at 5.90 and but the BP ERA for May has improved to 4.79 with a 9.75 K/9 rate.  Michael Fulmer doing the heavy lifting and more defined roles for Soto Cisneros and Norris and the BP ERA has plummeted to 3.95 the past 14 days,12th in MLB.

The Detroit Tigers offense firepower

The offense in April which was the most futile I have ever witnessed also has perked up considerably.

Their current season slash line is ranked #26/30

224/292/357

wRC+ 82

8.0 BB%

28.2 SO%

.288 wOBA

In a cover your eyes April they ranked #30/30

199/247/345

75 runs (27 games)

wRC+ 74 #30

6.9 BB% #30

30.6 SO% #30

.265 wOBA

In May out of nowhere, the numbers have skyrocketed

262/345/375 #6/30

79 runs (16 games)

wRC+ 105

9.7 BB%

26.2 SO%

16 SB #130

So more runs, more walks, more SB and a .98 jump in OBP which is astronomical.

3 players have really stepped up in May

Grossman .286/.403/.524 wRC+ 157 13R 11 RBI

H. Castro .425/.425/.450 wRC+ 149 7 RBI (ZERO BB)

J. Candelario .340/.435/.547 wRC+ 176 3HR 11R 8 RBI

With subtle contributions from Eric Hasse 4XBH 23 AB and Niko Goodrum 10R 10BB 6 SB wRC+ 146.

Is this resurgence sustainable, we shall see, I doubt it, but the month of May has been an enjoyable time to be a Tigers fan, for the first time in a long time.