So...Do the Tigers even deserve to make the playoffs?

If playing Chicago was the only test absolutely. If winning games you should win was the test they absolutely don't deserve to be there.

Only reason they are in the running still is because we have the worst division leader in baseball. Chicago hasn't taken advantage of us losing to every scrub team we face. Losing to Chicago yesterday was basically a snapshot of our season though.

Our defense was never going to be called good this year, but it has ended up costing us far more games than I expected. When the bats that are supposed to make up for it don't produce like they haven't been it is greatly magnified.

Al Alburquerque was called upon to shut the White Sox down with men on 2nd and 3rd with a one run lead and no outs after only pitching 3 IP this year. He went on to wlak his first batter to load them up. Then got a fly out that was deep enough for most guys to tag up, but Dunn didn't test it. Then he gets the double play ball and we might just get out of this inning...no. Alex Rios made a great slide to make Infante have a tougher throw, but he had a chance, and Fielder whiffed on it completely as the ball ended up bouncing between his legs even. The ball went into the dugout and the Sox scored the two runs needed to take the lead. That put the Tigers 3 games back instead of one with just 15 games to go.

OF course they face the league leading pitching staff next in Oakland so you expect the no hitting team to continue right? Not at all! The Tigers do the opposite of what you'd expect once again on the back of 2 Miggy "MVP" Cabrera HRs (one a grand slam) and 6 RBIs to put up 12 runs on the best pitching staff in baseball. Chicago beat KC 3-2 so we gained nothing.

Been saying this forever, but it actually happened last night. Put Quentin Berry in the lineup to give this team another jolt. He has played very little since Dirks got back. Boesch is out there blowing games for us every night while we are playing with no heart. Berry was in last night and I'm telling you that he gives this team energy regardless of him not being the best hitter around. I'd certainly rather see him in there than Boesch who ended 4 innings against Chicago Monday and had 3 KOs. Twice I believe the bases were loaded. That experiment should be over.

Speaking of other experiments we should end and send these guys to more deserving jobs like carpet cleaning raleigh nc, I do not want to see any of these guys ever again:

1. Raburn. Is this just the Tigers trolling us?
2. Don Kelly. Who cares if he can play mediocre defense at more than one spot.
3. Santiago. I know some people like this guy, but he has served his time here. Time to get new blood for this "role" he plays of mediocre defense and terrible hitting.
4. Delmon. This one I am 50/50 on. He's clearly an idiot. He hasn't had that great a year, but going into the season I was very high on him hitting 5th. He hasn't done well, BUT like last year has been pretty clutch when we needed RBIs. HE can't play LF and when VMart gets back he can't play DH so no reason to keep him here.
5. Peralta. What a disaster season for him. Very low end SS. Supposed to make it up with hitting, but he's having one of his years where he looked like a has been before we picked him up. This was actually what I expected when we traded for him so I'm not really surprised, but he has been awful.

I'm not going to get into the pitching. I have a feeling we'll try to get Sanchez back, but I'm undecided there. Our rotation has been good to great a lot of the time and they have pulled their weight the last couple months. The offense has blown this division. An offense that should be top 5 in the league.