Baseball fans in the Great Lakes State have been forced between a rock and a hard place, with the Detroit Tigers mired in a decade-long stretch of mediocrity and looking to avoid an 10th consecutive season out of the postseason.
Last year, manager A.J. Hinch and the Tigers finished 78-84, which was the club’s best year-end record since going 86-75 in 2016. Butit wasn’t good enough to get Detroit into the playoffs for the first time since 2014. A leap over .500 will get Tigers faithful excited and keep Michigan sportsbooks hopping.
This season, oddsmakers at ESPN BET Michigan give the Tigers +165 odds to make the playoffs (to -215 that they don’t) with a preseason win total over/under of 80.5.
With MLB season just weeks away, BetMichigan.com used Baseball-Reference.com to pull the Detroit Tigers’ records from the past three years. Based on the data, the team plays best in September.
It might be more revealing that Detroit’s worst month is April (25-48, .342). No wonder folks with Michigan sportsbook apps are hesitant about the Tigers.
Detroit Tigers Best Month
Breaking Down the Monthly Data
The Tigers’ best month since 2021 has been September, when Detroit’s gone 44-35 (.557), serving as one of two months (along with May) in which the franchise has a winning record.
May was the next closest (42-41, .506). July (.475 win percentage), August (.420), June (.418) and April (.342) finished behind.
This year, Detroit will look to gain greater production from franchise leaders like Javier Baez (2.6 WAR in 2023), Eric Haase (2.1 WAR) and starting pitcher Tarik Skubal, who led all of Detroit’s arms in WAR at 1.3 in 2023.
Those three - plus young stars in the making like Riley Greene (1.4 WAR in 2023) and Spencer Torkelson (-1.0 WAR in 2023) - are expected to chip in at solving Detroit’s postseason drought, giving Tigers fans reason to cheer after a lost decade in the Motor City.
Last month we looked at the Tigers’ homegrown talent and how it stacks up against the MLB competition.
