After the Tigers let a sweep slip through their fingers against the Mariners on Wednesday, Valenti "wants to act as an Italian piñata for our audience. I would like to know if I'm overreacting."
He would like to give the callers "free license -- an invite -- to tell me I’m overreacting. All I ask is, can I present the case?" To Valenti, the Tigers have a potentially fatal flaw in the field. Several of them, actually.
The Tigers lost 3-2 to the Mariners after Colt Keith failed to record an out on a routine grounder to second and Ryan Kreidler, a natural shortstop, failed to chase down a fly ball in the next at-bat, allowing two runs to score for Seattle.
Injuries across the roster, especially to center fielder Parker Meadows, are looming large for Detroit out of the gate, and threatening to undo their season before it really gets going, says Valenti:
"The Detroit Tigers are a bad defensive team. And their defense cost them a baseball game. Outright. Tarik Skubal should have given up no runs. Kreidler, who’s only here for his defense, butcher. And Colt Keith, Little League mistake. Dude, there’s two outs. Throw the ball, inning over."
And when the Tigers mounted a rally and loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, "you know there’s no one I’d rather have hitting back to back in the order than — Javy Baez and Zach McKinstry?" says Valenti. "I’d argue two guys who shouldn’t be on the roster. I digress."
While it's only one game out of 162 and the Tigers have the same 2-4 record as every other team in the AL Central ahead of Friday's home opener against the White Sox, "you’re inviting one of these losses every 10 to 14 games, that your defense will let you down," says Valenti. "You cost Skubal what should have been a 2-1 win.
"Why would I be overreacting to that? I think about the end of the year. I have doubts about whether this team will go over 83.5 wins. If there are four or five games like this, that is, in all likelihood, the separator between September radio and playoffs and 'Whoa, they took a step back."