Tigers pitching rebirth is strongest evidence for AJ Hinch's Manager of the Year case

Since the trade deadline, Tarik Skubal starts have been appointment TV — not just for Tigers fans, either. Baseball fans who want to get a glimpse at what this year's Cy Young winner looks like are enjoying them too. Skubal has faithfully made 10 starts for the Tigers since July 25, and the Tigers are 7-3 when he's on the mound. He's thrilling to watch, but the uninformed might be missing out on how Detroit is filling the other five days when he's not pitching.

Keider Montero has also made 10 starts since that date, and he's been up-and-down but did throw a three-hit, complete game shutout on Sept. 10. Casey Mize returned Aug. 30 and has made four starts. Reese Olson returned on Sept. 16. Other than that, the Tigers have no other official starters.

Which leads us to the bullpen. The Tigers have produced a seven-headed dragon of relievers tasked with opening to make up for the missing starters — Beau Brieske has made 10 starts; Alex Faedo and Tyler Holton five each; Brenan Hanifee two; Mason Englert, Ty Madden, and Brant Hurter one.

Somehow, AJ Hinch has made a starter (*Brad Pitt in Moneyball voice*) in the aggregate, and that starter has done just as much to tie the Tigers and Twins for the last Wild Card spot as Skubal.

Tigers' pitching strategy states case for AJ Hinch being Manager of the Year

Mike Petriello at MLB.com broke down the Tigers' pitching since July 25. The Tigers have put up the fewest rotation innings of any staff in MLB since that date (186 1/3), and they've also allowed the fewest runs in baseball (168). And that's while putting 11 different pitchers on the mound for starts for almost two months.

Those pitchers have been outstanding, but Petriello also included a few outside factors that spell out how the Tigers' defense have come up behind their pitchers. The Tigers' defense had a collective -2 OAA in April, which jumped to +2 in May before going down to a net neutral in June. Something happened in July, though — Detroit's position players put up a +9 OAA, which has leveled out at +5 in August and September.

Hinch has also seemingly gamed the system to avoid opposing hitters seeing Tigers relievers too many times in a single game. The Tigers not only have gotten better when they see batters multiple times, but they've also avoided those situations when necessary by mixing up the bullpen usage.

When the Tigers traded Flaherty and Hinch said they had a plan of attack through the second half to make do with two starters, it felt like a lie, but somehow it's actually been working. Tigers all across the board are stepping up, but it's also taken some good luck and some pretty masterful strategy on Hinch's part to see this through. The Tigers just need to get through these last few games with more wins than the Twins; if they do, Hinch's name should be called during the awards ceremony in November.