April in the D...

Best pitcher for April:
ERA Starter = Willis 3.13/ WHIP = Bonderman 1.35/ xFIP = Verlander 4.23 (26 K’s)
ERA Reliever = Valverde 0.75/ WHIP = Valverde 0.75/ xFIP= Zumaya 2.39 (0 walks!)

Best hitter for April
BA = Jackson .364/ OBP = Damon .431/ OPS = Cabrera 1.042/ BABIP = Jackson .530

Record for the month = 14 and 10
Series wins vs: KC, CLE, MIN,
Series losses vs: KC, SEA
Series split vs: LAA
Record vs East 0-0
Record vs Central 8-4
Record vs West 6-6

After the month of April the Tigers are sitting in 2nd place in the AC. They have a 14 and 10 record and accomplished this in spite of starting the season on the road and having an 11 game road trip out west to play Seattle and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim before going to Texas. They managed to split the road with a 7-7 record. So far at home they have continued to show the dominance they have displayed in the past with a 7-3 record.
The beginning of the season showed a number of come from behind wins. Since then they have continued to win close games. The Tigers score an average of 4.9 runs per game and allow 4.5. In fact they are currently outperforming the Pythagorean Expectation by one game. I would give much of this credit to the Bullpen.
The Relievers have carried the Starters for the first month. Zumaya, Coke and Valverde have been able to shut down opposing lineups extremely effectively. Ni and Perry have also been huge so far this season. The only one who has not been steller has been Thomas, but he gets props for making an emergency start when Willis was sick and giving a surprising 3 innings allowing the bats to carry it through for a win.
The Starters have all struggled in some way. Verlander has not been dominating so far (just like last April). Porcello may be having a “sophomore slump” as his ERA is over 8.00 and his WHIP is 1.91. Yet his xFIP (a measure of how a pitcher is doing on the things he can control) is only 4.25. It does seem that everything batters make contact on from him becomes a hit- I doubt that continues. The biggest surprises have been Bonderman and Willis. Both have pitched well, Willis has allowed only 8 runs in 23 innings (3.13 ERA). That is the best ERA in the Starting Rotation!
On the offensive side there have been some great starts so far this year.
Austin Jackson has started his Tigers’ career in a Rookie of the Year pace with a .364 BA and a .917 OPS. Half of what he makes contact with falls for a hit (.530 BABIP). He is fast! He had 6 doubles, 2 triples and 5 stolen bases.
Johnny Damon, batting #2, started slowly but is more than making up for it to close out the month. He is batting .329 with a .890 OPS along with a walk rate of 14.7% (15).
Maggs is picking up where he left off last September with an average of .303 and a OPS of .906 (6 doubles + 4 home runs)! All of that extra base power has allowed him to drive in 18 RBI this month!
And if Maggs can’t get them home than Cabrera will. Cabrera seems to be a man on a mission so far this year. He has 25 RBI and has scored 16 runs himself. His BA is .344 and his OBS is 1.04! He has already drawn 3 intentional walks, expect that to rise as the year goes on.
Carlos Guillen was off to a hot start until he was injured. He was batting .311 with a OPS of .834 with 8 RBI in the first 16 games. He was replaced by a new guy, Brennan Boesch from Toledo. Brennan has stepped right in and provided hit .261 with an OPS of .813 (7 RBI) in the 6 games he played.
The bottom ½ of the order (Inge, Sizemore, Laird and Everett) have not hit nearly as well as the top ½ so far. Inge and Sizemore have kept their BA over .250 but Laird and Everett haven’t managed that yet.
Looking forward I continue to see that this team will be very competitive in the AL Central. The starting pitching will improve. I don’t know if the bullpen can continue to perform at this level (Zumaya is an injury waiting to happen). I believe that the batters can continue to perform at this level. Except for Jackson the top of the order is proven over many years to be solid.
The rest of May sees the Twins and the Indians on the road. Then the Yankees and Red Sox come to Detroit, along with a 2 game series with the White Sox. Then it’s another West Coast road trip to Oakland, LAD and Seattle before finishing the month at home against the Oakland A’s.



*all individual batting data from Fangraphs