In Atlanta or Cleveland or the Bronx, a .500 record in August isn't
exactly reason to throw a party. But Detroit isn't Atlanta, Cleveland or the
Bronx. You might have noticed that.
In Detroit these last seven years, the peak of Mount .500 has looked
taller than the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro -- a peak the Detroit Tigers could
always see off in the distance but never got to visit.
Until last week, they'd spent every single day of every single
August since 1993 with a record that resided somewhere south of Mount .500.
Usually way, way south.
|  | | Closer Todd Jones has allowed just four home runs in 51.2 innings this season for the Tigers. |
So when they finally evened their record at 63-63 a few days ago, it
might not have been a time for champagne and tickertape. But it was at least
a time to recognize that finally, the Detroit Tigers look at life in the
American League Central and see actual hope.
And at this point, to this team, hope tastes almost as good as
champagne.
Back when they were 10 games under .500 on July 1, or eight games
under at the All-Star break, the Tigers easily could have pulled the plug
and traded away the Todd Joneses, Doug Brocails and Juan Gonzalezes. But
they didn't. And there were very important reasons they didn't, even if
their current charge doesn't lead them to any baseball in October.
"We had to change the mind set of this team," says GM Randy Smith, a
man who has taken as much heat for the Tigers' recent failures as anyone.
"We had to communicate to these guys that winning matters. And we felt like
we were making progress. So if we'd abandoned that in the middle of the
season, we were going to lose our players.
"Plus, we felt we had to show potential free agents that this is a place
they should look at seriously. I think we understood that even though we
have a very nice ballpark now and a lot of things going for us, Detroit was
not the first place players look to when they're deciding where they want to
play. So it was important to try to win to change that perception."
Through Tuesday, the Tigers sit at 65-65 and are five games out in the wild-card race, with five teams to climb over. So don't line up for those Comerica Park playoff tickets quite yet.
But who even would have imagined they would be this close back on
May 10, when they were 9-23, had the worst record in baseball, had been shut
out six times and were spending more time complaining about their new
ballpark than playing in it?
Since then, though, the Tigers have the second-best record in the
American League (55-42). Since the break, only the Yankees have more wins (28)
than Detroit's 27.
"Our main goal," Smith says, "was to play meaningful games in
September. And now, if we just keep it going, we will."
Who would have thought that would be possible in a year in which
Gonzalez and Tony Clark have 88 RBI combined , in which Hideo Nomo has gone
5-10, in which Dave Mlicki has won four of 16 starts?
"If you'd told me that in March," says closer Todd Jones, "I'd have thought we'd be 40 games under .500."
But they're not. And Todd Jones is as huge a reason they're not as
anyone inside the boundaries of the state of Michigan.
He just blew his third save of the season Sunday in Minnesota. But
before that, he'd gone 36 for 38 and been scored on exactly six times all
year, in 52 appearances. And his late-inning dependability has helped change
the entire psyche of his team.
"Early in the year, when we were 9-23, people were asking, 'Are you
going to trade Todd Jones?' " Smith says. "And my response was: 'Why? That's
the one part of the game we don't have to worry about.' When we've got the
lead, we're going to win."
|
Closing it out
|
|
A breakdown of the numbers of some of the top closers in both the AL and NL:
|
|
Name
|
Team
|
Saves
|
BlSV*
|
ERA
|
|
Alfonseca
|
Fla.
|
37
|
4
|
4.34
|
|
Jones
|
Det.
|
36
|
3
|
3.14
|
|
Benitez
|
NYM
|
35
|
4
|
2.35
|
|
Hoffman
|
S.D.
|
35
|
7
|
3.68
|
|
Koch
|
Tor.
|
32
|
4
|
2.65
|
|
Nen
|
S.F.
|
31
|
5
|
1.61
|
|
Lowe
|
Bos.
|
31
|
5
|
2.77
|
|
Sasaki
|
Sea.
|
30
|
3
|
3.75
|
|
Rivera
|
NYY
|
29
|
5
|
2.85
|
|
* Blown saves
|
And that, obviously, is a statement that many, many teams in this
sport can't make these days.
Let's just examine the difference Jones makes to his team by placing
him and his numbers on some of the clubs whose seasons have been done in by
their late-inning disasters.
Make him an Astro, for instance. In Houston, the two
primary closers -- Billy Wagner and Octavio Dotel -- have blown 11 saves. Had
they blown only three, as Jones has, Houston would be only seven games under
.500 now -- instead of 23.
Or make him a Royal. On a team that has blown 24 of
49 save opportunities altogether, the two primary closers -- Ricky Bottalico
and Jerry Spradlin -- also have blown 11 saves. Give them Todd Jones, and
they'd be six games over .500 now instead of 10 under.
Or make him an Oriole. Baltimore's bullpen by
committee has blown 22 of 49, including 18 just by the three primary closers
in the first half -- Mike Timlin, Mike Trombley and Buddy Groom. Give them
the Tigers' complete bullpen, which has blown only 12 of 49 opportunities,
and they'd be eight games over .500 now instead of 12 under.
It's that simple. But it's more than mere arithmetic. It's
also psychology 101.
"Those losses late in the game," Jones says, "can crush a club
quicker than anything."
But except for Sunday, when Jones blew a save on an RBI ground ball
with his team poised to go over .500 for the first time, the Tigers haven't
absorbed those late-inning crush-a-thons.
Doug Brocail has been one of the most reliable and underappreciated set-up
men in baseball. Danny Patterson, C.J. Nitkowski, Matt Anderson and Nelson
Cruz have been great as middle/situation men. Add up all their
contributions, and the Tigers have the third-lowest bullpen ERA in baseball
(3.95), trailing only the Red Sox and Dodgers.
But the man in the middle of it all is Jones, who has turned into
one of the best in the business at age 32.
"My ability to find my slider last year at the All-Star break
changed my entire career," says Jones, who is 54 for 59 in save
opportunities since then. "Jeff Brantley taught it to me once in 15 minutes
back in '95. But I never really used it. I'd play with it in the 'pen, but I
never did anything with it.
"Then, after we changed pitching coaches last year and brought in
Dan Warthen, I approached Danny like I'd always had the slider the whole
time. I've thrown it ever since. And what it's done is mean that in a
fastball count, there's only a 50-50- chance the hitters's going to get a
fastball. And that's made all the difference in the world.
"It's been so effective for me, I don't know why I didn't break it
out four years ago. But I guess it's just part of the maturation process,
having the confidence to stick with it if you give it up that night. It's
easy to hide behind your fastball. It takes guts to throw your second or
third pitch. Hey, if you knew you wouldn't get beat on your first pitch, you
wouldn't throw anything but your fastball. But it's not that simple."
And the Tigers' reincarnation hasn't been as simple as Todd Jones,
either, of course.
They couldn't have done this without Bobby Higginson's rebirth. They
couldn't have done it if Juan Encarnacion and Deivi Cruz hadn't figured it
out offensively. They couldn't have done it without the consistent presence
of Dean Palmer. They couldn't have done it without the unforeseen
contributions of people like Steve Sparks, Willie Blair, Wendell Magee Jr. or Billy McMillon.
They especially couldn't have done it without their
power-of-positive-thinking manager, Phil Garner, who has been on a mission
since Day One to convince these guys they were better than their dismal
record of the last few years.
"He never had a blow-up meeting," Jones says. "There was never
anything like that. But there are so many intangibles involved in winning,
and Phil knows how to bring them out."
And finally, the Tigers couldn't have done it, either, without Juan Gonzalez -- his disappointing 19-homer, 57-RBI stat line notwithstanding.
"This obviously hasn't been a good year by Gonzo standards," Smith
says. "But he's probably going to lead our team in average and slugging. And
he makes a difference in how teams attack us, how they pitch us. You need
that type of hitter in your lineup, even if he's not having his best year."
When Garner talked Tigers owner Mike Ilitch out of trading Gonzalez to Seattle at the
trade deadline, it signaled a couple of things: 1) They still hope to
re-sign him. And 2) it told their players that what went on in the second
half was more than just another prelude to the next rebuilding effort.
"It said they weren't ready to give up," Jones says. "And we were never
ready to give up."
Gonzalez's complaints about the acreage of Comerica Park have inspired Ilitch to say he'd think about moving the fences in, and have caused the club to actually keep track of how many balls are hit to the
warning track every night in an attempt to measure the effect that moving in
the fences could potentially have.
But in some ways, Smith thinks, Comerica has helped this team.
Offensively, the Tigers may have hit 33 more home runs on the road (90) than
at home (57). But they have a higher batting average (.279-.270), on-base
percentage (.350-.335), more walks (236-218) and over 100 fewer strikeouts
(441-330) at home. Which suggests they've been having better, more patient
at-bats at home.
And while their team ERA at home (4.35) is much better than their ERA
on the road (5.10), Smith thinks Comerica has "helped our pitching immensely
-- home and road."
Tigers pitchers have issued more than 50 fewer walks at home than on the
road. And that says something about the way they approach the entire
philosophy of pitching.
"Our guys challenge hitters here," Smith says. "They trust their stuff more.
They attack guys. Their approach is better. And now that's carried over to
the road."
Oh, the Tigers still have a ways to go. They're not exactly the
Yankees yet. But they're about to get Clark and Mlicki back. And their
schedule will turn September into a month of opportunity.
"Except for Cleveland," Jones says, "we play everyone in front of us.
We play the White Sox six times, the Red Sox, the Angels, the Blue Jays.
We'll have a lot to say in how we wind up. And even if we don't come all the
way back this year, for next year, this means a lot."
It's up to them -- and the front office this winter -- to determine
exactly how much it means. But after seven years of losing, even a trek up
Mount .500 looks like a major step in convincing the core group of this club
that it really does have a future.
"We always felt we had talent here," Smith says. "These guys just
didn't know how much until they'd done it."
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com. | |
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