This just feels bad. The problem is that our baseball team has tons of collapse potential. We have gotten a ton of breaks, and now things are starting to go wrong.

Rogers has started to pitch terribly. Rodney and Zumaya are getting behind everyone, walking too many batters.

Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, just watch what happens to Monroe and Young. They’ll stop hitting. Why? Because they are not good hitters. Sean Casey is a good hitter for average, but he doesn’t draw walks and he has no power.

All it would take is an injury or two to provide the tipping point for a big slide. This is not a .670 ball club. We’re a .500 ball club from here on out, and one of these teams, the White Sox or the Twins, are going to go on an absolute tear, Astros style, and jump right by us. I can feel it.

I just prayed to a god I don’t even believe, promising that, if the Tigers hold on, I’ll stop using curse words.

If they don’t, look out.

I’m not totally sold on Casey, but Shelton has become a big black hole in the lineup. Casey brings better OBP and plate discipline to the team. Shelton since April has provided essentially nothing, and we’ve got to have our first basemen hitting better than a slap hitting utility player. I think it’s a solid move, a subtle improvement.

Gee, way to be optimistic! What are the Tigers 12 – 4 since the break, or something close to it. Sounds like a real slide to me. The last time I looked it was the final score that counted. I hope the Tigers don’t react to a 6 run inning the way some fans do because if they do, you’re right there season must be over. I’m personally sick of hearing this crap from the media about how the Tigers couldn’t beat the “good” teams. Now we’ve gotta hear it from Tiger fans too. I’m sorry wasn’t it the Tigers that swept the Cardinals prior to the all-star break? Last I looked that’s a pretty good team. Unbelievable!

Okay, Jeff, so you don’t think the team has collapse potential? If we disagree on that, then go ahead and tell me where I might be misguided. Otherwise, don’t get on my case because you don’t like what I’m saying.

I never said they weren’t a good team. What I said is that they are not a .670 baseball team, certainly not right now. Minnesota has two starting pitchers who win almost every time they take the hill, and Radke is picking it up. The team is running on all cylinders, and they scare me. I’m sorry that’s no optimistic enough for you. Go look up Robertson and Rogers’ 2nd half numbers the last couple of years and tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about. If you want unbridled optimism go to happydetroittigersfunland.com. When you have something to add to the discussion then come back.

KS, Chris Selton is every bit as good a hitter as Sean Casey, and he has a much higher ceiling. Casey has a somewhat higher OBP by virtue of his batting average, which is fairly empty due to the high number of singles he hits. He has no power, he grounds into tons of double plays, and he just turned 32. Do you really think he’s an upgrade over Shelton? He isn’t. He’ll have to hit .320 to be a useful player. If his batting average is below that, he’s a downgrade from Shelton.

One more thing. Can someone tell me what the f*** Dmitri Young is doing in the lineup today?

Oh, I see. Because we sent our 1B down.

As you can see, Dmitri Young sucks.

Hey Jeff, even though he’s already given up 5 runs (into the 6th inning), I think Rogers looks great! The fact that his 2nd half ERA this year is 10.97, last year it was 4.72 and the year before it was 5.46 doesn’t scare me at all. After all, we swept the Cardinals two weeks ago!

I am very disapointed in the fact that we pretty much stayed pat at the deadline. I have a sinking feeling. it seemed like teams got quality players without giving anything up. Your telling me we couldnt come up with anything better than what the phillies got from the yankees for abreu and lidle? I understand that Abreu has a no trade clause but come on! there were some great players out there that we could have run at. we could have gotten tom gordon as a shut down guy. we could have gotten Delucci who is a much better hitter than Casey. Casey is not much of an upgrade, if any, over shelton. Game today sucked.

Apparently Dan lives in a world where he thinks everyone should agree with him. How boring would your world be! I’m well aware of the 2nd half numbers of particular Tigers. It’s been well publicized by all the media. All the media that agrees with you that the Tigers are in deep danger of collapsing. Every team has collapse potential! That’s the nature of sports. It’s intriguing to me that all three Tiger runs came from the two players you sited would stop hitting now: Young and Monroe. One bad inning yesterday and now we lose today. Let’s all throw in the towel! Suddenly I have a sinking feeling too. It’s so bad I’ve gotta go to bed!! Maybe I’ll sleep it off. (good discussion by the way! I like it!)

Jeff, it hasing nothing to do with wanting everyone to agree with me. It has to do with wanting those who disagree with me to actually have a reason for it instead of becoming assholes about it because they don’t personally like the point-of-view that is being expressed.

You are dead wrong about every team having collapse potential. Actually, you are technically right, but there are some teams who have almost zero collapse potential, and my argument is that the Tigers have FAR TOO MUCH collapse potential.

The Twins don’t have much collapse potential, Jeff. They are a better team than the Tigers right now, not because of the natural ebbs and flows of the baseball season, but because they fixed a bunch of the problems they had earlier in the season. The problems are mostly fized, and now they are build like a brick shithouse. Punto isn’t going to keep hitting the way he is, but guys like Morneau and Mauer are legit. Santana and Liriano are going to keep winning games. Radke has started to pitch brilliantly, and now Silva looks like he might be in on the act. Contrast that with the Tigers, who with Robertson and Rogers have two pitchers who are unlikely to pitch well for the rest of the year. Go look at the splits for these guys. Go look at the fact that we’re running bums out there to DH for our baseball team. We are ripe for a big fall because nothing was done to shore up this team. Nothing.

So go ahead and disagree with me, that’s fine. It happens all of the time, and sometimes I’m wrong. I’m not going to admit that I”m wrong however, if you don’t actually have an argument beyond, “WELL, I GUESS DAN THINKS HE KNOWS EVERYTHING AND CAN’T BE DISAGREED WITH! I GUESS DAN DOESN’T THINK THE TIGERS ARE A VERY GOOD TEAM!”

I never said that, but you don’t give a shit, do you? You don’t LIKE what I’m saying, so you’re doing what lazy people do when they don’t like something.

When you’re done checking Rogers’ and Robertson’s 2nd half numbers, go look at Rodney’s BABIP. Go look at Todd Jones’ ENTIRE CAREER. Go look at the trends in Zumaya’s walk rate. Think about the fact that the rest of the rotation is 23-year olds who have the risk of wearing down. Go look at Carlos Guillen’s games played numbers for his career. Go look at Sean Casey’s lack of power and his GIDP numbers. Go look at how many homers Ordonez has in his last 111 at bats (here is a clue-it’s more than zero but fewer than 2).

Go look at the stuff, and if you still disagree that the Tigers have a lot of collapse potential (not SOME, Jeff, A LOT), then come back and give me your reasons. Until then I’m going to be one of the people around here who are actually paying attention to reality rather than the way I WISH things were.

Dan, stop with bad mojo. Root for the Cubs if you are so invested in losing that you can’t feel good about the Tigers dominating the league at a near record pace.

Will they revert to the mean to a degree? Probably, that’s just statistics at work, but being a fan who strangely hopes they collapse is just not healthy.