The Tigers kicked off the season with a dud in Tampa, getting outscored 21-3 by the Rays in a three-game sweep. Looks like we're in for a long summer of baseball in Detroit. But longer than we expected?
Depends how you viewed this team from the start. As Karsch said Monday on the Karsch and Anderson Show, "We're three games into the Tigers season, and it was not encouraging. At all."
"It was a brutal start," he went on. "But I don't feel let down, I don't feel disappointed, because it's about what I expected. What I would like to see is Tork going 5-10 on the weekend or Riley Greene going 5-10 on the weekend. But quite frankly, I don't want to kill any hope, but did we really expect much more?"
Gator says he "expected more offensively than what we saw based on what the team had done in spring training. This is a team that hit the ball out of the park with regularity in the spring, and I know it's only spring, but having 46 home runs in 32 games, that's a lot. And what did we see? The one home run from Jake Rogers yesterday late in the game. Normally I'm someone who's going to pull some silver linings out of the clouds, but I can't do it other than I'll just say this: it's three games, I expect better."
For Karsch, "the only thing that disappointed me, like really disappointed me, was Spencer Turnbull." Making his first start since 2021 after a long recovery from Tommy John, Turnbull lasted just 2 1/3 innings and was charged with seven earned runs in Saturday's 12-2 loss.
"I've always been a Spencer Turnbull fan," said Karsch. "I just feel like he's got the stuff to be something really good, but obviously health has been an issue and now, to debut the way he did, that was one thing that really failed to live up to expectations. Maybe I should be more disappointed in Tork, but the reality is, the Avila era really lowered my expectations for what he brought in.
"I guess I'd be really mad today, as irate as radio Doug can be, if Al Avila were still in charge. But because he's not, OK, leftovers of a disappointing era are still here, they haven't had time to to replenish. Scott Harris did not come in hot, which is fine. He's come in quiet, observing. That doesn't mean he's off the hook a year from now, but there's no transfer portal in the MLB. You can't get healthy quick if your organization is really bad."
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