The 2013 Detroit Tigers season ended with and 5-2 loss in game 6 of the ALCS. The World Series drought will last at least 30 years.
Besides the starting pitching, this team just wasn’t very good. The Tigers rode the starting staff as long and hard as they could but in the end the pitchers needed help, but couldn’t get it.
The Tigers need to be retooled for 2014 and nobody is untouchable including Miguel Cabrera.
The bull pen was marginal.
The defense was marginal.
The offense was embarrassing.
I don’t want to see Prince Fielder back in a Tigers uniform next year. It seemed that he found a way to hurt the team, in some form or fashion, in critical moments during this entire series. Besides doing nothing at the plate, his fielding cost the Tigers in the bottom of the 9th in game 2, and his base running killed a rally again last night.
I feel bad for the the starters. They did more than any single team component should be asked to do. They were good enough to win a World Series.
Iggy made a crucial error yesterday.
The Tigers need to do what the Red Sox did last year, dump over priced, over paid, prima donnas, and replace them with members of a team.
This is still stinging.
“God I love baseball.” Roy Hobbs | The Natural
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Flashin' Leather 
This season can be summed up this way. With the slow-footed bear-league softball team that Ilitch has put together no rally is safe from being killed. If only Mr. I would let a baseball fan run his team for a season, how things would be so different. There is no shame in making the post-season 5 times in 8 years (if you count game 163 in 2009), but they’ve lost the last game of each of those season, and that won’t get you a championship. Chris, you are so right in saying they need to be retooled. Here is what I propose to Ilitch for this upcoming off-season:
1. Do NOT rehire this manager and his coaching staff. No they are not entirely to blame for all the ills of this team, but they sure had a large hand in it.
2. Encourage MLB to hire Dombrowski as the next commissioner of baseball, and let him go immediately so he is available to them. He would be good for baseball.
3. Hire me as your next President/GM…….. I’ll do it for 1/2 his salary.
4. Once you instill me as GM I will hire the next manager.
5. I will proceed to get creative and trade Prince Fielder while there may still be modest interest in him. Yes, it will most likely cost a lot of money to do so, but sometimes you have to cut your losses before they really begin to hurt you. A bag of balls would be a favorable return for a player of his caliber.
6. Once that albatross is removed I will begin to construct a team that is more representative of the vast proportions of the ballpark you built in 2000. I could never understand the logic of some of the players brought here in the first place, but let’s begin a new slate and get with the times.
7. Speaking of the times, the game has changed quickly since the end of the steroid era. The game is now about power pitching and speed. We have the first, but we lack the second – badly I might add.
8. Though Miggy is slow-footed he is still a great fit for this ballpark – a gap hitter with good enough power to hit one out of anywhere. He will be the permanent first-baseman. I expect he will return to his normal form after successful hernia surgery this off-season. Yes, that is likely the injury he has been playing with for 3 months.
9. AJ has proven to us he can be a useful player when not batting lead-off. He covers a lot of ground in CF, even though his arm is average at best. A keeper for now until someone better comes along.
10. Iggy will be our SS for several years, but needs some real coaching on hitting.
11. All other position players are up for debate. This team needs to get faster and more athletic in a hurry.
12. Drew Smyly is not a relief pitcher. We need to find a way to get him into the rotation. Our 5 starters for the past year should be commended on an outstanding performance, especially when you consider they only missed 3 starts (Sanchez), and faced some heavy LH batting all season and in the playoffs. This likely won’t be easily repeatable.
13. It is highly likely one of the five starters will have to be traded – the most obvious candidates are Scherzer or Sanchez. I would prefer to trade Sanchez as I believe Scherzer to be the more consistent of the two.
14. The bullpen needs to be completely reconstructed. If Rondon doesn’t require elbow or forearm surgery then he might be a good candidate. Otherwise all other spots are open.
15. Players that will not be offered new contracts include Peralta, Benoit, Infante, Dirks, Santiago, Coke, just to name a few.
16. Catcher is a position of immediate concern. Avila isn’t the answer because for some reason he takes a major pounding with all the foul tips. I don’t think he will have a long career as a catcher, but I do believe with some real hitting instruction he could be a very good gap hitter.
17. I will wake back up to the reality that none of these 16 points will happen, but it sure was a nice dream.
The Tigers are currently a team of great individual players that will win individual awards for a third straight season – Max for Cy Young, Miggy another MVP? Even Iggy for ROY? But that shit doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things. This is a fundamentally flawed team, compared to other championship caliber teams. Like St Louis. I believe the Tigers were better than Boston for the majority of this series, but did every little thing imaginable to lose 4 games. That isn’t just dumb luck, because it happens so often.
Losing this series probably saved us the real embarrassment of getting clobbered by the Cards. The DH rules favor them, plus they have the same power pitching as the Tigers, but without the fundamental flaws. Boston will truly have to beat them, because StL won’t hand it to them. Cards in 5……..
Just like taking a black light into a cheap hotel room…..our flaws were there for everyone to see…..and they exploited them. JL will not be back next year. I have on good authority that he gave his papers last month. The wife and daughters want him home. Go enjoy life Jimmy. They have a choice between Miggy and Max can’t afford both. Max is the BIG chip to fix some of the problems. Smyly is the fifth starter and we have as good a starting staff as there is. I would re sing Infante and try and extend Miggy now! Other than that Sark I am with you no sacred cows. This is what should happen….however in an alternate universe our owner is not getting any younger and he has enough of these guys under contract for one more year if he wants to take one more shot with this gun well it’s his money. Sark I am with you Cards have a pretty complete team. We have all winter to seek professional help. Wings home Monday
Told ya! Now the next question is WHO ? Manager and players…this will be quite a winter!
Leyland actually did the Tigers a favor by retiring. This group needs a new voice and new approach. Not that he was a bad manager, just not the right fit for this team. Unfortunately most of the good young managers are under contract, but I’m sure DD won’t have trouble finding one.