Don't Worry--The Season Ain't Over Yet

It's all gonna be okay.

We honestly know what you're thinking: "Oh. My. Gawd! We're 1-3! We're last in the central!  There have been errors! Bad outings! Dropped balls!! We're going to lose and all of Detroit will die!!!!"

We know because sometimes it's hard not to feel that way.  We know because, like many of you, we have waited for Spring to come just so we could watch our lovelies take the field and then take some names.  We were ready for dominance. We were ready for grand slams and no-hitters. We were ready for perfection! The hope of a bright shiny new season is what keeps us at April in the D alive through our cold Michigan/Ohio/Georgia winters. And even better, this season started off against the Yankees. "Finally!" we thought, "Here's our chance to show the world what we're made of!"

We know you're disappointed. It's hard not to be. When you remember that baseball teams don't go 162-0, when you realize that your team is made of men who make mistakes, when you see that teams lose from time to time, you feel like you've been let down. You feel betrayed. You feel like that perfect season has already been destoyed.  Part of you (might) want to scream, "It's over! It's done! Here we go again to another third place finish in the central!" You might even want to give up on the Tigers.

Don't.

Four games is not enough to ask for the Skip's head.  One start is not enough to give up on Brad Penny.  Four games is nothing. Four games is warmup. Obviously, if we'd started 4-0 we'd be singing a different tune; predicting the tigers with a pennant, a Cy Young, an MVP, and a Golden Glove, but we'd be wrong. Before you sell your Tigers short, we'd like to draw attention to a few things:

1.) Things are most definitely settled out yet.
For crying out loud, the Royals are on top of the central, and we think that all of us know the likelihood of that lasting.  The Twins are second to last in the central as well, and no one would ever expect them to finish in that position.  Things will definitely change, so you most definitely don't need to worry about us finishing where we started.

2.) It's too early for any statistics.
For those already throwing batting averages around as an indicator of the year to come, chill. It's too early to tell.  We are particularly concerned about Alex Avila, and rightly so, because he has never been too much of a threat offensively.  But, although Avi is hitting .100 right now (eek!), Albert-freaking-Pujols is only hitting .167. The perennial MVP candidate is definitely not going to hit less than .200, and I won't condemn Avila to hitting below that mark either. Pujols and Avila probably won't end the year with the same batting average, but they won't finish with as low of batting averages as they have right now either.  Brad Penny is pitching with an ERA of 16.62. We guarantee you, right now, that his  ERA will go down. We have no control over him, we know, but we promise you right now that it will. Many of the things that are ridiculously bad will get better. They will.

3.) There are good signs!
Even though it is too early to tell, there are things that should give you hope.  First-half Boesch seems to have showed up to play, and he's making solid contact with the ball and blasting it over the (admittedly small) outfield wall at Yankee Stadium.  Brayan Villareal is quickly growing on me and earning his stripes by pitching against intimidating folks like Vladimir Guerrero and doing really well. Of course, they might not continue to play like this, but it's exciting to see that Baby B might make a full recovery, and that we might actually have some fresh new talent in the bull pen.

4.) Miguel Cabrera is still a beast.
AVG: .333, OBP: .389, SLG: .800.
OPS: 1.189
We just said not to throw around stats, and we understand that this is hypocritical, but, honestly, Cabby is always going to be good. He's a once-in-a-lifetime talent that we're going to have for a while. Not only that, but he doesn't give up. He's going to keep playing until the last pitch, and with him on our team, things will always be at least okay. Forget the drunk driving incident for just a minute. Think about who he is, and what he's done. I mean, for crying out loud, 1.189??  Obviously it won't hold, but still...be comforted.

5.) We have 158 games left.
We haven't even played at home yet! There's a lot of time and opportunities in those games. It's no where near October.

We understand your frustration and fear. We do. We sympathize because those of us that really love the tigers only want them to do well. We care, and that can make us emotional and anxious.  But really, get it together. There's a whole season to get things figured out. We're doing just fine.

If things are the same in two weeks, then we'll talk.